More progress

I present a Venom that I painted yesterday. I've put together the beasts today, and will probably finish the Baron tonight and start the beasts tomorrow

Countdown to Fields

First of all, I am alive. Which is good.

What is not good is that I only have a week left to get the Dark Eldar ready for Fields next weekend. Over the next week I need to paint a Venom, Beast Pack and the Baron, as well as base the entire army.

As a result, I present some quick (very nasty) photos of the warriors I did over the last few days, before I run off to paint that Venom.

Patience is a Virtue

Before the GW embargo Jack ordered two boxes of Wracks from Maelstrom Games. That was 29 May 2011.

Well 336 days later they hit the Dunn mailbox. Yes, that's right.....just over 11 months.

Jack doesn't believe me so here is a picture of the long overdue Wracks.....

And in front of today's newspaper as "proof of life"!!!!!

As they say on the advert "Good things take time".

5 Days of Dark Eldar - Day 4 & 5 Fail!

A long overdue admission of fail here.  As you might have guessed, I didn't end up getting up to much in the last two days of my hobby marathon.  However, I am currently back to painting furiously ahead of Equinox next weekend.  I'm trying out quite a different list to what I used at the masters, and still need to get two Raiders finished.

The tourney is 1850pts, and I basically chose all of the stuff that I have painted, and then filled in any gaps with borrowed models.  Hopefully it should be less of a rock-paper-scissors type experience than my masters list, and I'm sure I'll learn a lot and have a laugh regardless of how it goes.

Here's what I've submitted:

Haemonculus, Venom Blade, Shattershard
Haemonculus, Liquifier Gun
Haemonculus, Liquifier Gun

3 Trueborn, 3 Blasters
   in Venom, Extra SC
3 Trueborn, 3 Blasters
   in Venom, Extra SC
3 Trueborn, 3 Blasters
   in Venom, Extra SC

5 Warriors, Blaster
   in Venom, Extra SC
5 Warriors, Blaster
   in Venom, Extra SC
9 Wyches, Haywires, Hekatrix, Agoniser
   in Raider
9 Wyches, Haywires, Hekatrix, Agoniser
   in Raider
9 Wyches, Haywires, Hekatrix, Agoniser
   in Raider
Ravager, Flickerfield
Ravager, Flickerfield
Razorwing

5 Days of Dark Eldar - Day 3

Sadly, not much to report here.  "Real Life TM" got in the way a bit, as it tends to do!

I stuck together two more raiders and sprayed them.  Aiming to airbrush the Dheneb Stone basecoat on them tonight.  I've also glued together all of the crew for the raiders and venoms, and will work on them at some point in the near future.

Airbrushing on the bases is coming along.  I'm mainly using the airbrushing as something to break up the modelling work, so I'm slowly building up the shading on the bases.

I was all ready to try out some transfers as well, but it was not to be.  I did have templates of the sail shapes all ready to go, but seem to have lost that file somewhere along the way, so will need to redo those at some point. Looks like it will be a while for those transfers then.

Finally I continued to sort through the Battlefoam case and made the final cutouts I needed.  I'm also working my way through my DE bitzbox, turning bits into models where I can.

A Modern Day Conundrum

What takes longer the conception, gestation and birth of a human or getting two boxes of Wracks?

Nine months ago just before the Games Workshop embargo on the rest of the world, I ordered two boxes of Dark Eldar Wracks and a Haemoculous for Jack from Maelstrom Games.


And we waited. And waited. And waited.

Despite assurances whenever we contacted Maelstrom they cited supply problems and indicated that they would soon be with us.

Just before Xmas they sent out the Finecast Haemoculous (suitably pitted and bent in keeping with Finecast QA). Hooray! Six and one half months.

Since then we have been waiting for the Wracks and nine months has just passed since we ordered. Maelstrom have indicated GW have limited weekly supply to them but I struggle to believe that they had so many orders for Wracks that after 39 weeks we haven’t reached the top of the list.

Certainly I could ask for a refund but I’m pretty stubborn and I’m interested in how long it can go without us getting to the stage where the order is honoured.

5 Days of Dark Eldar - Day 2

Lots of bits and pieces done yesterday.

I started re-airbrushing the bases in a darker colour, and will continue that today.  Painted some of the extra pieces for the Raider and Ravager from yesterday's update and built the crew for those as well.


I also started fiddling around with the designs for the sail transfers.  I'm a complete noob to this sort of thing, but making patterns with shapes isn't really too difficult.  I'm not sure at all what I'm going for with the design, only that it is purple.  Here are my favourites attempts from yesterday, I'd be keen to hear any thoughts.  Basically, I'm going for some sort of high-tech material look.

5 Days of Dark Eldar - Day 1

Off to a slow start yesterday really.  I stuck together my Raider and Ravager and worked on finishing up some of the parts to go on those.  Still need to do the crew.

I played around a bit with the airbrush and my bases.  Not happy with the colour, so I'll have another try tonight.

And lastly I started filling out my Battlefoam.  I've made a foam insert for each of the vehicles so that it sits in the case raised on that, rather than on the bottom.  This stops them rocking, and also stops the fragile spikes and chains on the bottom from breaking.

5 Days of Dark Eldar - Intro

After my not-so-successful foray into Tomb Kings over the weekend at Homecon II (which I will probably write about next week), I am turning my attention this week back to the Dark Eldar.  I have the week off before uni starts again next week, and so I'm going to go on a hobby binge with these guys.  Each morning I'll post an update on the previous day's efforts, which should help to keep me enthused.

Some of the things I am planning to do over the week:

• Put together and finish a raider and ravager that are painted, but in pieces at the moment.
• Airbrush the remaining vehicle hulls that I have unpainted.
• Paint/airbrush the resin bases I have for the army.
• Try my hand at designing and printing my own transfers to go on the raider sails.
• Tidy up my shiny new Battlefoam case and get everything in there fitting nice and snug.
• Get started on two more raiders

Stay tuned for the first update tomorrow!

Latest Dark Eldar Progress

So Dad called me up yesterday to whine about my lack of regular blog posting, and told me to get a move on with it.  In the last week he had also sent me some nice photos of my latest painting efforts, despite needing many attempts to get photos I was happy with ("What's wrong with me taking them on the iPhone? There's not much difference in quality...").

Without any further rambling, here's what I've painted since the Masters.  There's also a Ravager, but it somehow managed to escape the camera.

A lovely Razorwing

Some Venoms

And a nice group shot

In terms of vehicles, I've now got 5 Venoms, a Ravager, and a Razorwing painted up, and am currently in the process of making/painting 4 more Raiders/Ravagers (about halfway there).  Once that's done, I'll have basically all of the vehicles out of the way, and can get to some troops.

I'm probably going to be playing with these guys at Equinox and Natcon in preparation for Fields mid-year so that I can get some more experience with the army (I've reached double digits now - 10 games!).  I'm also looking at going to the Auckland 40k Open in April (the weekend after Natcon), but I suspect I may still be in Wellington that weekend.  The event is being run by Robert Power (Powerguy - a regular commenter here), and is the first NZ tournament to use the NOVA system, which should prove a refreshing change and something a bit different to usual.

My First Finecast Experience

Over the Masters weekend, Dad brought me up the Finecast Haemonculus that I ordered it 6 months ago, and which had only just shown up (thanks Maelstrom...).  Looking over the clampack, I was very impressed.  The model itself is fantastic, and there appeared to be a very high level of detail in the cast with no visible faults.

I cracked it open the day after the weekend, and found I was sorely mistaken.  There were air bubbles all over the model, some of them quite large.  Luckily, none of the front of the model (what I had been seeing through the clear plastic) was damaged.  Having already used some of Dad's about a month ago, I quickly rushed to the FLGS and picked up some Liquid Green Stuff to help me fix up the model.

Here's some pictures of the faults.  It's mostly just air bubbles, which required multiple layers of Liquid Green Stuff to fill up, but using this was much easier than regular Green Stuff.  Big thumbs up to GW for an amazing product!

A couple of big bubbles here

Plenty of bubbles on this bit too

By far the worst bit was how the model sat on its base.  It had been cast badly, and was on a massive lean.  I had to cut and re-pin the bottom part back on, and sculpt to fill the resulting gap.  The model stands straight up now though!

The gap after reattaching

A bad photo of the resculpting needed

And here's a blurry pic of some of the filling I had to do on the back half of the model.

Luckily, the finished model had little to no flaws on the front half

One labour of love later: the assembled Haemonculus

Here's the sad bit.  As good as the Liquid Green Stuff was at filling the bubbles and other faults, it still took me three nights to clean and assemble this one figure.  I'm not looking forward to repeating this when my Wracks eventually arrive (7 months and counting, thanks again Maelstrom!).  Despite this, I'm very happy with the how the model has turned out, and can't wait to paint him.  I'm just disappointed it was so much extra effort over a plastic or metal model, and costs a lot more too.

Of course, maybe if I'd used the Flash Brush and Mouldline Scraping Tool from the Citadel Clean-up Kit I wouldn't have had so much trouble... ;)

Venom-Spam at the Masters - Day 2

Game 4: Hagen Kerr.  Seize Ground (5), Pitched Battle.

I was not at all confident going into this game, seeing as Hagen had one of the two armies at the event that was the rock to my scissors.  I should mention that at this point the TO’s decided everyone should in fact be playing the same mission (although they were still being decided randomly), and fortunately they didn’t roll up Kill Points, which would have left me to sink without a trace.

Also luckily for me is that Hagen’s list was far from an optimal carpark guard list, with a lack of Hydras and Vendettas when compared to the normal stuff that you only see overseas (and in Charlie’s house too I might add!).

Hagen had:

Company Command, Lascannon, Kitchen Sink in Chimera

Company Command, 3x Meltaguns

10x Psykers in Chimera

Platoon Command, 4x Flamer in Chimera

Infantry Squad, Flamer, Autocannon in Chimera

Infantry Squad, Flamer, Autocannon in Chimera

Infantry Squad, Flamer, Autocannon, Commissar

Heavy Weapons Squad, Autocannons

Penal Legion Squad

Veteran Squad, 3x Meltaguns, Demolitions

Valkyrie, Rocket Pods

Vendetta, Heavy Bolter sponsons

Hydra

Hydra

Manticore

With the mission being objectives, I decided right from the get go that my only goal would be to kill his scoring units, since if I could get all of them, my worst result would be a draw.  Again, I won the roll for first turn, and set up for a very focussed round of shooting, getting a lot of the units out of Venoms for some blaster action.  I needed to get rid of the psykers, as they could deal with the beasts, but could only immobilise their ride.  I was also able to shake both flyers and the Venoms wiped out the HWS. 

Venom-Spam at the Masters - Day 1

Game 1: Charlie St Clair.  Capture and Control, Quarters

In what I’m sure was an un-tampered and in no way altered draw by Phil, I wound up playing against Charlie in the first round.  Nothing like the guy going for the Masters hat trick for a challenging start!  Luckily, both of the games I’d played in the past year had been this exact match-up, my Dark Eldar against his Wolves.  Not so good was that both of them had been losses.

Charlie’s list was:

Nigel Stormcaller (not nyal!)

5 Scouts, Melta, Wolf Guard, Combi-Melta

2 x 9 Grey Hunters, Wolf Standard, Melta, Wolf Guard, Combi-Melta in Rhino

2 x 8 Grey Hunters, Wolf Standard, Melta, Wolf Guard, Combi-Melta in Rhino

5 Grey Hunters, Flamer in Las/Plas Razorback

2 x 5 Long Fangs, 4 Missiles

5 Long Fangs, 4 Missiles, HB Razorback

Obviously, I’m a much better player than Charlie, so naturally I put my superior ability to use and outplayed him to win the roll for first turn :D 

I was able to force him into a quarter with a building roughly in the middle.  This meant that he could either put the Long Fangs into the building, losing most or all in the first turn, or as he did, keep them safe behind the building, but limit their line of sight and give cover to most of their shooting, both situations I was happy with.

In my first turn I was able to take out three of his tanks, and take the weapon off of a razorback, meaning the only shooting coming back at me would be the Long Fangs and a Living Lightning.  I also cleaned up the squad of Grey Hunters that had their rhino destroyed.  Charlie returned the favour by promptly rolling a perils with Nigel, and didn’t achieve much with the Long Fangs.

A nice picture just before the fun started

In the second turn, I finished off the rest of the tanks, and most of the grey hunters in this turn and the next.  Nigel rolled a 1 for the first save he was given, and died in turn 2, after adding nothing to the game.  From here it was clean-up, and getting to Charlie’s objective to kill the 5 Grey Hunters holding it.  There was a dicey moment at the end of turn 5 where the scouts were left with one model after a torrent of shooting, and he was contesting the objective which would have made it a draw if the game ended.  Luckily it didn’t, and I was able to kill all bar one Long Fang by the end of the game.

Win 20-1

Some Bits and Bobs

Just a few random bits of news to share.

First off, the Fantasy ETC lists went up overnight. I haven't yet looked through all off them, but I did look at both the English and Australian lists, and it's hard to believe the two teams are playing the same game, as the lists are quite different. It's also a lot nicer to be able to look through the open lists this year, because you can actually see the subtle differences between the lists rather than most of them looking the same.

The 40k lists have been up for the last week or two, and both can be found on TWF (40k and Fantasy)

There's also a batch of Ogre Kingdom Rumours that have come out in the last couple of days, found here. Again, I haven't read them yet, but thought some may be interested.

Finally, I've just finished painting the bone on 4 of my Dark Eldar vehicles. Now I can start on the other details and stop using Dheneb Stone and Bleached Bone for a while!

2 Raiders, Ravager and Venom

I airbrushed the basecoat on, and this sped up the whole process immeasurably. I didn't need to spend hours and hours putting on thin coats of Dheneb Stone and then just hope it didn't turn out streaky.

There's also 4 more Venoms and a Ravager on my desk in the process of being cleaned up and assembled. I blame the internet!

A Seventh Venom? Yes or No?

As Dad's indicated, for the next two weeks, the blog will be filled with fantastic insights and quality discussions of some of life's true problems. As a new Dark Eldar player, an issue dear to my heart is the eternal question regarding Venoms: "How many is too many?"

The Venom-Spam list has gained notoriety around the internet for the sheer number of poisoned shots it can put out, and how it tables opponents left, right and centre in a matter of turns. Perfect, I thought, that's exactly what I'm after. I do love clubbing those baby seals.

Magnetising the Razorwing

Those of you that know me and have seen my previous 40k armies probably also know that I tend to go a bit magnet crazy at times. My Eldar have 5 Grav Tank hulls that can be changed freely between Wave Serpents and Falcons, as well as all the weapons being switchable. My World Eaters weren’t as extreme, but there was a Predator that could take any combination of weapons or drop back to being a Rhino.

This leads me to my current project, the Dark Eldar. Now, there’s not much to do to the Raiders and Venoms apart from magnetising the flying stands, so I looked instead at the Razorwing. It’s got four missiles, each of which can be one of three types. They are also one-use-only, so it makes sense to have them come off as you fire them. It’s also not quite as clear as with the Raiders, Ravagers or Venoms which weapon configuration is the best, so I decided to make them swappable too.

Here’s a step by step guide of what I did, along with photos of each stage that I took during the process. The magnets I used were just ones we had sitting around at home (3mm diameter and 1mm deep). I hope the guide is interesting and helpful to some.

Hellions Finished

So I finished my first five Hellions this morning, and then fought with my camera in an attempt to get a half-decent photo. The end result was this shocking photo being the best of the 10 or so I took, so I'll post this here for now, and will definitely get a better one when I'm back home for the holidays.

Reaver Jetbikes

In lighter news, I've just finished off a group of 3 Reaver Jetbikes (including a heat lance) for my slowly growing Dark Eldar army.

I'm sorry for the terrible photos (that's what happens when you use a cheap camera and have bad lighting) but hopefully they're enough to give you an idea of how the bikes came up.

Next up is some Hellions.

What I've been working on

I thought I'd finally get some pictures up of the Dark Eldar I've been painting this year. At the moment, I'm just painting all the models I have, not really worrying about whether they're good or not (as shown by the Harlequins!). I haven't played any games or even made a list yet, so I'm not sure how the army will develop, but it's been a lot of fun so far painting it.

Here are the pics (click to make bigger):

Warriors

Close-up of Warriors

Wyches

Close-up of Wyches

Troupe Master

Shadowseer

Death Jester

Harlequins (1)

Harlequins (2)

Harlequins (3)

All the Harlequins together

There's also 3 Jetbikes painted that just need their riders finished. Up next is probably going to be a Raider, or perhaps some Hellions. I'm eagerly awaiting the new wave of models coming in June, and can't wait to see the pics of the new models, which should be coming out in the next few weeks!