Archon Pinchfist #1

As a freelance writer and a stay-at-home dad, I am blessed with more than enough time to put together a realspace raid when the urge strikes me (and when family permits). Unfortunately, the same single-income situation that allows me to spend so much time hanging with my son and working on my house doesn't leave me with a whole lot of extra money with which to build a powerbase in Commorragh. While I'm sure my wife wouldn't complain if I spent more, in the interests of being a responsible adult, my monthly hobby budget right now comes in at about $40.

Still, since November '13, when I first bought into the Dark Eldar, I've managed to amass over 10k points of the True Kin. Since picking up my first Dark Eldar Battleforce, I've learned quite a few ways to cut corners, cut costs, and cut throats. In the interests of helping the broader community, I've decided to start a new article series. Some of these techniques may be modeling or painting related, while others might just be pointing out third party substitutes (or even cheaper alternatives within GW's own product line!) or cheap places to pick up out of print models.

In our first installment, I'll be talking about blasters. If you run a venomspam list, you likely field 3-10 blasters in your warrior units alone. If you dabble in Trueborn, you're looking at 4 bits per unit. A conservative estimate of a competitive list with two units of Blasterborn and four Venoms with Warriors gives us 12 bits. Considering you only need to buy three boxes of warriors to have all the bodies you need, that leaves you with nine empty-handed raiders.

Instead of purchasing these bits, consider Archon Pinchfist's cheaper alternative: the Blunderblaster^TM.

How does it work? Quite simple. Take a Dark Lance (since they're quite useless on an infantry platform, most of us have several lying around). Where the barrel meets the fatter, bell shaped housing, slice the barrel off.

If you do this carefully, you can even drill out the center and magnetize the bit. That way, on the off chance that Dark Lance Trueborn become excellent some day in the future, you've kept your options open. (Archon Pinchfist magnetizes everything, children.)

Ta-da! The Blunderblaster^TM provides all the same stopping power as a normal blaster, but at around half the real-world cost per bit at online retailers. Although the distinctive barrel is noticeably larger, it is still quite clearly a blaster (see side by side comparison, below). With five of these mixed in with my normal blasters, I've never had an opponent complain. In truth, no one has ever noticed.

So there you go, children. If there's any unit you'd like to see Archon Pinchfist discuss in an upcoming missive, please let me know!

Blunderblaster:

Spoiler:

With optional range-enhancing Dark Lance barrel attachment:

Spoiler:

What about the shredder Blaster? Cut off the shredders end (sorry shredder) and put the blast pistol end on it.

Your option doesn't look bad, the only thing bugging me is the stabilization thingy.

Good idea for an article series!

I did the same for some of my Trueborn, except I left the stabiliser off. Now that I look at it I wonder if the stabiliser doodad might help make a haywire blaster barrel. Hmmm.

I also used some Reaver blaster ends that I had lying around (not a fan of blasters on Reavers) and found that attaching that to the back half of the Raider mount makes an effective looking blaster. Since it is easier to magnetise raider weapons with barrel swaps than whole gun swaps it's a good use for the orphan mount.

Glad to see people like the idea!

@CptMetal- To stabilize or not to stabilize is a philosophical question best left to the individual.

@Creeping Darkness- Using the stabilizer to make a Heat Lance or Haywir Blaster (very similar bits) is an idea I may have to explore further...

I've got a pair of these in my army myself - also have a few old school blunderblasters made from the old metal lance models.