Captain Gerek in Taros Assault Vehicle

I'd like you to meet Captain Gerek! This is the special charicter that i was talking about for Blog Wars. Yes, i am taking the Elysians, it was pretty obvious!

Captain Gerek was in command of Dagger Force during the raid on Kastorell-Novem, and acted as a screening force to prevent Ork reinforcements from reaching the main drop zones. He only has one special rule: Command and Control. This enables him to re-roll one failed reserve roll per turn. Basically hes an over-priced, and much poorer version of an Astropath!

As for the painting side of things; it was pretty stright forward. The camo scheme was done to match the Vulture Gunships, as its an army favorite. As a Captian, his ride had to be a bit more interesting than plain tan!

The troopers themselves are painted like the rest, except the armour highlights are a bit more subtle. On this model all you'd see is the hightlights, as everything else is so dirty and muted. Add in LOTS of MIG weathering powder to the wheels and tread plates and its done! The only drawback with this mini, is that it was a PAIN to put together. The instructions were really poor, and the pieces were really fiddily, even for Forgeworld!

So thats me ready for Blog Wars......oh, appart from the Valkyrie that i knocked off the top of the display cabinet this moring - it needs a lot of TLC!

On the table at the moment is a Dark Eldar Raider! Yes, im finally getting back into the DE! I'll be spending the rest of the afternoon assembling another squad of Trueborn, so it'll get painted over the weekend with any luck! Thats if my hands ever stop bleeding! Dam, those Raider kits have got more pointy bits than a Tyranid Trygon!! Its a great kit though.

Hopefully this marks the begining of the new Cabal proper. Im aiming to get this army knocked out pretty sharpish, a month or two prahaps. Providing theres no more hobby distractions, namely Forgeworld Releases!

The GunGrave

Rise of the Kabal: Archon Conversion

A few posts back i outlined a simple conversion of an awesome model i picked up from Studio McVey miniatures; that conversion was realised today!

If you missed the last post the miniature in question is this one, Y'Sidyra, a great looking mini all on its own (though i probably wont be keeping the name!)

Little work would be needed to make it fit into my Dark Eldar army, although i would need to make some minor conversions to arm it with the correct wargear. These are Splinter Pistol, Venom Blade, and a Phantasm Grenade Launcher.

The right hand punch dagger was carefully removed and replaced with the Splinter Pistol, making sure to show a little of the pistol grip on the underside of the hand. The left had punch dagger was left in place to represent the Venom Blade. The Phantasm Grenade Launcher was simply filed down a little in order to fit snugly on the Archons back.

Now having such a dynamic looking mini as your Archon demands some careful positioning on a suitable base! The Micro Art Studio 40mm Snow Bases that i ordered a few weeks back fit the bill nicely. The Archon is currently stuck onto the base with some blu-tack until its fully painted. This is because in going to use a bit of clear plastic from the tip of a flying base to elevate the leading leg to give the Archon some 'air', accentuating the models dynamism (wow, some big words there!!)

So there you have it! As soon as i get some more paints in I'll get this bad boy painted, probably in a bluey scheme to match the rest of the army.

Laters

Rise of the Kabal: First Kabalite Unit Complete!

I've been painting these guys on and off for the past week or two which is why it took so long to get them done! I added the finishing touches to the final five members today.

The new additions, including a Splinter Cannon

The full ten man squad

Unfortunately, due to an unusual bout of sensible-ness, I'll not be buying any more (or MANY more) models before Christmas. My dam car insurance is up in January, so on top of the Xmas bill, its gonna be an expensive month! This means the Dark Eldar will be on hold for a while, but i do have a few Krieg Armoured Regiment bits on the back burner at the mo' which I'll probably be getting on with, so watch this space!

Laters

Last Vendetta Complete; A Few More Kabalites

Well, i don't think I'm ever going to buy, paint, or even look at another Valkyrie kit again! This is the 6th and final one for my Elysian list, and I'm very glad that they're all done. Same colour scheme, weathering, etc as the other 5!

Thanks for the scenic base suggestion from Col. Corbane! I really liked the idea of the cracked wadi, and this is what i went with! I used some modeling styrene to make the 'frame' of the wadi, and this was then covered in MilliPut for texture and detail. The little streams were then easy to sculpt into the wall of the wadi. The floor of the wadi will be covered in Water Effects and will hopefully resemble a shallow stream! I'll paint the base accordingly before i apply the water effects. I would really like to add some vegetation to this base as well, but i haven't got any in my bits box at the moment. I think I'll come back to that at a later date.

The back of the Wadi was covered up with plasticard, pinned and glued in place. This will be painted black.

And finally some more on the Kabalite Warriors. In my last post I'd said that I'd have these guys all done by the end of today! But i didn't realise how soul destroying double highlighting all those angles on the armour plating would be! So i limited today's work on them to 5 warriors to preserve my sanity! I'm liking the snow bases even more in the group shot, and i really think it makes the models a little more interesting!

Dark Eldar Test Model

I completed my test model for the Dark Eldar today! As i described in my last post, i went with the icy blue scheme to tie in with the winter snow base. The blue trim isn't quite as icy as I'd pictured, but I'm happy with it. I'm also quite happy with the base, but i may do a little more work on the granite bits - they seem a little basic!

And here's the rest of the squad well on their way to completion! They should be done by the end of tomorrow! Please, let me know what you think!

Rise of the Kabal

Well, im glad to be home after a FREEZING week at Centre Parcs in Longleat! I recomend that no-one goes there this time of year!!!

I have admittedly been firmly bitten by the Dark Eldar bug, and I'm finally making preparations to start building a new Dark Eldar army! I have been waiting for about a week and a half for some snow bases to come from the guys at Micro Art Studios (who are based in Poland!) and they arrived on Friday! So this evening saw some frantic Kabalite building!

Here are the bases i received, five 25mm Winter Shale Bases as well as two 40mm ones. They're nothing that special, but it'll make the models a little more interesting. I'll see how they paint up and decide if i want to buy some more.

So far I'm happy with the bases as the models seem to fit nicely. The squad below is one of two identical squads: 1 Splinter Cannon and 9 Kabalite Warriors with Splinter Rifles.

I'm going to go with a black and blue colour scheme; black armour with a striking blue edge to it. This is why i decided to go with snow bases, to keep a cold feel to the army! Plus, I've never done an army on snow bases, so it'll make a nice change!

As well as the bases arriving, i also received the guy who will stand in as my Archon. As much as i liked the new GW Archon, i wanted to have a look around the other miniature studios to see if there was anything that stood out a bit. This is the guy i found and he was purchased from Studio McVey, based in the UK. The pics looked amazing and the quality of the model is superb! The dynamic pose, the malicious looking blades and most importantly, the pointy ears, all made this guy a great candidate for an Archon! I will have to do a bit of work on him to make him a true Dark Eldar, but it wont be much. I will have to ditch one of the punch-daggers and replace it with a Splinter Pistol as per my army list, along with a Phantasm Grenade Launcher on the back. I'm going to lavish lots of attention on this guy, its the least the model deserves! I highly recommend checking out Studio McVeys website as they're are some great mini's on there!

This is the picture from the Studio McVey website which gives you a clearer picture of what he'll look like. I'll probably mount him on one of the 40mm bases, but I'm not sure it I'll include the stalactite bits.



And finally, my 1750pts Dark Eldar Army List. As usual I've gone for as much balance as possible. I like to take to the field being able to cope with as many threats as possible! Let me know what you think!

Dark Eldar 1750pt Army List

HQ
Archon – 110pts

• Archon with Splinter Pistol-60pts

• Venom Blade-5pts

• Combat Drugs-10pts

• Ghostplate Armour-10pts

• Phantasm Grenade Launcher-25pts

Leleth Hesperax – 175pts
 Elites
Incubi – 150pts

• 5 Incubi–110pts

• Klaivex Upgrade-15pts

• Bloodstone – 15pts

• Murderous Assault-10pts

Raider Transport – 70pts

• Disintegrator Cannon–free

• Flickerfield-10pts


Kabalite Trueborn – 190pts

• 10 Trueborn-120pts

• 6 Shardcarbines-30pts

• 2 Blasters-30pts

• 2 Shredders – 10pts

Raider Transport – 70pts

• Dark Lance–free

• Flickerfield-10pts


Troops
Kabalite Warriors – 100pts

• Splinter Cannon-10pts


Kabalite Warriors – 100pts

• Splinter Cannon-10pts


Wyches – 135pts

• 10 Wyches-100pts

• Hekatrix with Venom Blade-15pts

• 2 Hydra Guntlets-20pts

Raider Transport – 60pts

• Disintegrator Cannon-free

• Shock Prow – 5pts


Wyches – 125pts

• 9 Wyches-90pts

• Hekatrix with Venom Blade-15pts

• 2 Hydra Guntlets-20pts

Raider Transport – 60pts

• Dark Lance –free

• Shock Prow – 5pts

Fast Attack
Reavers – 162pts

• 4 Reavers with Splinter Rifles-132pts

• 2 Reavers with Blasters-30pts

Heavy Support
Ravenger – 115pts

• 3 Dark Lances

• Night Shield-10pts

Ravenger – 115pts

• 3 Disintegrator Cannons

• Night Shield-10pts

1747pts

So tomorrow will see a lot of Kabalite painting and work on the final Vendetta gunship for the Elysians (that kindda got pushed to the back of the painting que!)

Laters