Cabal of the Shattered World

Heyo, probably my first post but I've been lurking on and off for a while now. Former Chaos Space Marine and Imperial Space Marine player back in the days of 3rd Edition (from about the time the Dark Eldar Codex got its PDF update), but never messed around much with Dark Eldar due to availability issues. ANYway, after a few recent dalliances, I figured I'd give the Dark Eldar a try and see how things went. From reading the tactica articles, they sure play different.



This is all I've got done thus far. Four Wyches (left to right, Hekatrix, two with Hydra Gauntlets and one regular Wych), and bases for the remaining six using the sculpey "eldar terrain" technique. I'd have more pics, but I was having autofocus issues; next time I'm going to shine a flashlight on them and use the camera in Wonky Mode instead of Nightmare Mode.

I'd been considering using my molded rock technique from the end of my Chaos Space Marine days, but the dental stone I use for casting makes me cough and goes straight for my sinuses, even when I use a dust mask. So the Sculpey method seemed the logical choice. I haven't finished building my Wyches because I ran low on super glue to pin their feet into position, so more will be forthcoming as I get a new container of glue.

Edit: If I'd known about the auto-reducer, I'd have made that pic a hella lot bigger. I'm used to trimming them down for boards that don't have such things.

More Wyches assembled, more pics of them:







Rank-and-file Wyches, nothing too special about them. I did figure out that because the Wych's foot isn't parallel to the ground, you have to drill the hole in the battle base at an angle. Some of the later figures I built have this part down; the earlier ones not so much.



The two with Hydra Gauntlets (didn't those things used to be knives instead of gauntlets in the old codex?) from last night, now much closer up. Looks like the plastic glue went ropy on me, so I'll need to clean that up.



Hekatrix, with Splinter Pistol and Agnoizer. Also from last night.

your witches have cobwebs ....teeheeeheee....

ive been considering the exagerated forward pose on the runners myself, can i has a side shot of one of (or two of) PLEASE? MATEY?

Ok, big pic warning. Hopefully the auto-shrinker will shrink it small enough and Photobucket didn't shrink it at all.



What happened to the two on the left was that I didn't realize the pin changed the angle of the foot when I drilled it into the base. Thus the Wyches developed a forward cant. There's not much I can do about it now, but I suppose it does make them look a hair more dynamic.

Sick. Thanks man. I thought you did it on purpose, like im going to! I Like the gauntlet dude... some back pole banner thing might balance out ms whippy. i dig the sort of crash tackle/pole dive look from the front. like they're right on top of you, split second before impact.

I've thought about adding the pole, but I used the wrong back and I don't want to drill her any more now that she's all pieced together.

Ironically, I was more concerned with the whole figure tipping over but the base plus sculpey seems to be enough to hold them level pretty well, better than some of the more active Chaos Space Marines- there's a set of legs on the Possessed sprue that won't stand upright even with glue. I tend to refer to that set as the "Oops what did I step in?" legs.

Ok, minor update. I'm a little on the fence about buying anything until my LGS can get its shipment of the new paints in, and a few mixing pots because some of the colors I want just don't exist.

I'm also a little on the fence about what to paint the exposed parts of my bases. Flock is right out; I'm just tired of messing with the stuff. I've figured out I'm going to highlight the sculpey parts with grey before doing the glow effect for the runes, but its the under-parts that've got me too concerned.

I was thinking about building up to a nice bloody red and then glazing it over with gloss varnish, to simulate fighting on a daemon world with unnatural seas of glowing blood. The problem is, it would overpower the darker Dark Eldar in a way I'm not sure I want. So I'm thinking about going with a dark blue, putting tiny white pinpricks down, and then varnishing it. That would hopefully make it look like they're fighting in a damaged section of the Webway, with bits of realspace shining through.

In case anyone's wondering about my Dark Eldar, I'm planning on using a very dark purple base (50/50 Naggaroth Night and Chaos Black?), highlighting with the regular purple base, and then having gold trim and weapons. I'll work up some kind of wet blend effect for the agnoziers (white to green?) and that'll be that.

I have no idea what colors my vehicles' aethyrsails will be. Maybe some kind of fiery yellow-orange?

i got a nice purple mix with hormagaunt purple and necron abyss. dont remember the ratio. i just mix it as i go. i got a Vallejo Game Color called 'Royal Purple' today, it soooooo very close to what i mixed myself, but changes slighty on the three test matches i did. plus all the rants at the local about these new Vallejo paints in store, more-cheaper-better-with eye dropper. so they say. looks like nice paint so far.

i think the bloody red might work well on the bases. the dark blue might be too close to the dark purple.

mot666 wrote:

i got a nice purple mix with hormagaunt purple and necron abyss. dont remember the ratio. i just mix it as i go. i got a Vallejo Game Color called 'Royal Purple' today, it soooooo very close to what i mixed myself, but changes slighty on the three test matches i did. plus all the rants at the local about these new Vallejo paints in store, more-cheaper-better-with eye dropper. so they say. looks like nice paint so far.

I hadn't thought about Vallejo- I don't like the dropper design, and prefer to paint straight out of the bottle- but it could work so I've got seven colors (two purples, a blue, a flesh, a bronze, white and black) on the shopping list. Those are the colors I don't have in GW or PP bottles.

Quote :

i think the bloody red might work well on the bases. the dark blue might be too close to the dark purple.

Dunno. While I like bright colors, I need to see how the final minis will turn out. I might do some kind of wet-blend effects also, to simulate the swirling colors of the realm of chaos. Really not sure yet.

you can take the dropper bit off.

Ok, minor update. The paint's been ordered, along with a box of Kabalite Warriors.

Edit: I'm also considering converting either Isablella Von Carstein or the Lhamaean for my Archon. The only reason Isabella is in the running is because the Lhamaean is too obviously a Lhamaean, even if I did give her a weapon swap.

Wyches are partially done, and I have a problem. I accidentally bought zombie skin tone instead of a pale regular skin tone. Oops!

I might just revise my fluff, though. I had an idea for a necromancer Haemonculus...

Nice start brother. I like the idea of blood (Lonewolf style) on the lower parts of the bases and I say go with the zombie skin tone, different skin tones can really set your army apart. By the way did you pin the feet to the sculpy or did you just glue it?

SmallVictory wrote:

Nice start brother. I like the idea of blood (Lonewolf style) on the lower parts of the bases and I say go with the zombie skin tone, different skin tones can really set your army apart. By the way did you pin the feet to the sculpy or did you just glue it?

Pinned them. I didn't feel too confident that they'd stay attached that well if I didn't. The pin goes all the way thru the base, and sticks out a little in the hollow beneath it.

Ok, got a good update this time. The first Wyches are finished.



I'll be honest, I'm not too happy with them. I've always had trouble painting skin, but at least the current Wyches don't have as much as the old ones did. The other problem is that the dark purple highlight is way too dark for me to see under normal lighting in that room- a single 100 watt equivalent CFL in an antique Tiffany fixture. At least it looks like a Tiffany fixture.

I like how the bases turned out, though. The runes look like they've got light glowing up from below, and the glossy midnight blue surface beneath looks just like a less-than-stable energy field. Now all I have to do is hope I don't get dinged for having not used flock or textured paint.

Orange hair FTW! I agree that the highlight on the purple could be brighter. And the bases are cool =)

warlock purples good for what ails ya. kinda translucent so easy to blend on the edge highlights. it would brighten them up goodly.

mot666 wrote:

warlock purples good for what ails ya. kinda translucent so easy to blend on the edge highlights. it would brighten them up goodly.

I'm trying Vallejo Hexed Lichen for the Warriors, so we'll see how that works. It is noticeably brighter.

S'jet wrote:

Orange hair FTW! I agree that the highlight on the purple could be brighter. And the bases are cool =)

Thanks. I've got a bottle and a half of vintage GW yellow ink, so we can all see just how long this technique lasts. I love that technique. It originally came out of an 'Eavy Metal Masterclass by Graham Davies of all people, and I liked it so much that I've tried to add it to every one of my armies.

And then GW discontinued Yellow Ink, so I had to scramble to gather up what I could.

Took forever, but I finally got the effect I was looking for. These warriors were very nice to lend their armor for my experiementation. The color balance is way off- I accidentally set it for tungsten instead of fluorescent, and I was shooting under a CFL pigtail. It should still get the point across, though. Which point? Probably the one that I really suck at painting faces.



I wouldn't have given them the Shredder, but I didn't realize there's an extra splinter rifle in the Sybarite area of the sprue. Whoops!

Either way, these guys are intended to be loaded into a Raider (which I don't have yet /sweatdrop) and used to do drive- by shootings on dismounted infantry. They're a cheap troops choice, although I might go with more Wyches and save my warriors for Blasterborn squads. I still don't have a list yet.