The Kabal of the Crimson Woe, Part 1

As promised, some initial build shots of the inevitable Dark Eldar army. I've long been a fan of the Dark Eldar as a concept, but the previous renditions of the models just didn't inspire me. I'd built a handful of the old warriors and a Haemonculous for use with my Rogue Trader campaign, but that was the extent of it. Suffice it to say I've been rather looking forward to the new release based on the pictures that have been floating around the net, and now that I've had a chance to actually put some of them together I have to say they do not disappoint!

A few weeks back I'd placed an order to Dragon Forge for a fair number of their 'Ancient Ruins' bases, as the ruined Eldar theme seemed appropriate. Once those were washed and cleaned up, I started the army build with the box of Reavers, hands down my favorite of the new kits. The bits that make up the bike were pretty fiddly in places and I had to be extra careful trimming them from the sprues but I managed without any major casualties. The handlebars were the worst part, a couple of them came very near to breaking - eek. I used the power weapon from the Warriors kit to help distinguish the arena champion from the others. I've decided that I'm going to use the mirror-helmeted heads on all of the Reavers with the exception of the Champion - I'm rather pleased at how many variant heads and other bits they give you on the DE sprues!

After the Reavers were put together I took a crack at the Warriors kit. I'd sat down ant figured out how I was going to arm the various Warrior and Trueborn squads beforehand, so it was a simple matter to clip and build. They are about as fiddly as Eldar Guardians to put together, but overall they all went together smooth and easy. Again there were a couple bits that were attached to the sprue in what I thought were bad positions as far as being able to cut them free without marring the detail, but nothing too egregious.

The Raider went together surprisingly smoothly, on this kit I was expecting trouble but I have to doff my cap to the designers. My intention is to have a half dozen raiders in the army, in various levels of decoration and extravagance to show the increasing importance and wealth of the transported models. The Warrior's Raiders are more or less bereft of decoration other than a few spikes and spines. The Wych's Raider will have chains and skulls, the Trueborn's Raider will be much more baroque with spiky bits and chains and skulls, and the Incubi and Archon's Raiders will be dripping with decorations. I've left the central sail section, the gunner and pilot loose for painting purposes, at the moment they're just slotted in place for the picture. Once I get a couple more boxes of Warrior and Wyches I'll start assembling the hangers-on as well. There's a fair bit of customization available in the kit, but I really want each of them to be unique.

Finally I started working on the Court of the Crimson King in the form of the 5 Ur-Ghuls that will be part of the retinue. Pretty straightforward - Ghoul models, a bit of greenstuff over the eyes and forehead, poke a series of holes for scent-pits, and they're pretty much good to go.

Now that I've got this first batch put together I'm really itching to get my hands on the other kits!