Thursday, March 10, 2011

The Kabal of the Crimson Woe, Part 10 - Assembly line painting complete!

After a couple weeks worth of slogging through the Assembly Line painting, not one, not two, but FIVE Dark Eldar units are finally completed! I suppose I could have staggered out the pictures over several days worth of blog posts, but I figured 'hey, I painted them all at once, I ought to post them all at once'!


To lead off with, the first of the two requisite troops choices for the army - a unit of Warriors. Nothing much to say about them, other than they're the unit that defined the colors for the army as a whole - red armor with brass/gold trim and blue tabards and eyes. The Sybarite's Agonizer got the green treatment to really make his weapon stand out.


The Wyches were a bit of a stumbling block initially. There are two other colors that go into their paint scheme - the pallid flesh tone (as all the Warriors are fully enclosed in their army and had no skin showing), and the leather bodysuits they wear. I didn't want to go with black leather, and had experimented with (but was ultimately dissatisfied by) brown leather on the Medusae, so I decided to try a dirty white color instead. The pictures don't show it off particularly well, but the purple-ish skin tone is distinguishable from the white leathers where the two meet. I carried the blue spot color through into their hair and the green into the specialist weapons and the Agonizer. From a modeling perspective I used bits from two boxes to ensure that all of the Wyches were female.


While I was halfway through the painting process I remembered that there were a few other infantry models that I'd built but hadn't included in the batch painting line-up. I quickly brought them up to speed and inserted them into the assembly line, in this instance the two Wyches with Shardnets (should I wish to swap them out for the Hydra Gauntlets), and Lileath Hesperax which I plan on just using as a Succubus in most games.


Next up is the five-man Trueborn unit, armed with Blasters. They'll cruise around in a Venom, while the Wyches and Warriors each have their own Raider. I really like how these models turned out, the mirrored helmets really give them a sense of menace and distinguish them from the Warriors. As they are the nobles of the Kabal, their armor received more gold plates to indicate their status.


 Another unit I decided to add to the assembly line were the Incubi. I'd initially considered going with the 'standard' black armor and white helmets, but settled on carrying through the army colors instead. As they are significantly higher on the totem pole in the Kabal, I decided to carry the 'more gold than red' theme to its natural conclusion. The blue tabards and green specialist weapons tie them to the army paint scheme as well.  Overall I'm pleased with how they turned out.


The final three models that were added to the queue were a trio of Privateer Press 'Cephalyx Overlord' models that I'm using for Haemonculi. They each hover over their bases on a small piece of steel wire and were almost ideal right out of the box, with the surgical apparatus sprouting from their shoulders. I added a Husk Blade from the Archon model to one of them to indicate it is the Haemonculus Ancient. They give off the twisted surgeon vibe quite nicely in my opinion. While I really love the new Urien Rackarth model and am quite looking forward to seeing what GW does for a new 'standard' Haemonculi, I really don't care for the current old-style models, and feel these suit the army quite well.


So, 36 models done in one fell swoop! Well, a two-week swoop. ...More of a casual float really. On the up side getting them finished dramatically updated the painting chart, which is always heartening. I've managed to stick to my guns about not building any more Dark Eldar until what I have assembled is completed, which means that at the moment all that remains assembled and awaiting paint are four Raiders, a Venom and five Reavers. Should be a snap after painting all that infantry! Once they're done I can crack open the Ravagers and the Hellions, which I'm really looking forward to building!

7 comments:

  1. While I dislike dark eldar, your painting is always nice!

    Jay

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  2. Nice Stuff. I love the bases, they are slick. The muted red/gray scheme is pretty cool.

    On a side note, the banner for the blog is awesome. That was one favorite pieces of artwork from back in the day.

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  3. Thanks! They're the "Lost Empires" bases from Dragon Forge. I've been really pleased with the cost and service, and would heartily recommend them if you're in the market for resin bases.

    The banner is hands down my favorite art from the old days, and is where my blog name and handle originated. Good old Commander Evin Eldro, Commissar Fidel Arden and Ogryn Sergeant Thargadd have had pride of place in my guard armies ever since the RT era!

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  4. Man those Privateer Press figs are perfect for Haemonculi.

    Overall, great paintjob. I really love the effect of the green glowing agonizers and hydra gauntlets.

    Great job!

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  5. Thanks! I knew as soon as I saw them that the Cephalyx Overlords would be used as stand-in Haemonculi. They're definitely creepy looking!

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  6. Whoah!!, those haemonculi are very very nice!!

    Great army BTW.

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