Duke Sliscus And The Sky Serpents

When I heard the Dark Eldar were finally being rereleased I was pretty happy. Now, anyone who tells you they’ve been waiting 12 years for the new Codex to be rereleased is lying, you don’t start waiting as soon as your ‘Dex is out (unless you’re a Nids player it seems) but I was there 12 years ago. I started 40k with 3rd edition and the Dark Kin were my first army and you never forget your first love (photos of my old models to follow at some point), why I chose them I can’t tell and to be honest I haven’t used them in the last 8 but I have a shoebox full of awful models to show I was there. Since being back in the hobby fulltime I’ve been looking for an army to become my ‘main force’ and after the new models came online in grainy shots I knew I’d be happy evermore.

Duke Sliscus The Serpent. As soon as I saw that name appear in a Warseer rumour thread I knew I’d found the leader and theme for my army, even if his rules and model were awful, I’d use him.

I like heraldric figures. I like renegades and rebels. I like space pirates. I like characters with force and charisma. I like pirates who’s personal colours are the flayed skin of an Imperial Admiral. I like debauchery. I like concubines. I like Ziggy Stardust. Turns out the Duke was everything I ever wanted. Oh and his rules are pretty good too.

See I like themed armies. I find it impossible to build an army without some form of back story or idea driving the army on; you’ll probably find my Exodites and Eshin Skaven a testament to this. With the Duke at the helm I have a reason, a purpose. Instead of a simple Kabal I will be fielding the Sky Serpents, an array of renegades and outcasts, drawn to the banner and charisma of The Serpent. Realspace will never be the same again.

I guess I should give you a slight warning: I don’t paint that fast. I like to take my upmost time on each model. Each squad took four hours to glue together, time spent separating the pieces out to avoid duplicates and long periods drawn out deciding on poses. You will see conversions. You will see (hopefully) good painting. You won’t see a finished army by Easter. In fact I won’t start painting until I have my Hellions and Ravagers finished so that every spare piece of plastic is used for something.

Anyway, I rambled on more than Jervis Johnson on Speed. Let’s see some end product. On the next post you will see an army list and more indulgent ramblings and then hopefully some models. I’ll also be revisiting these first few posts to ‘Jazz’ them up a bit.

See you in the Webway.


With the candles flickering and minstels playing delicate notes of synth-flute, Duke Sliscus carved another stanza into the girl's naked breast. He pitied the poor monkeigh of the Adeptus Soritas as she lay across his table. Her resolve and faith carried her and though she shed blood, no tears or sounds were delivered. The Duke's smile changed into a snarl as he grew bored with his latest play thing, they had been such a joy to fight, such a joy to kill but this one, the Canoness they had called her, this one was different.
"Time for the poisons" said Sliscus, taking a sip of millennia old wine as he drenched his needle-sharp pen in the turquoise ooze of a dusty vial. This is better, thought Sliscus as her skin melted away with every stroke of his pen as the Sister finally let loose a sombre howl. "But how to record such a vivacious poem if her hide is to become obsolete" Sliscus asked one of the concubines fawning behind him. "The ship you stole from the Poisoned Tongue yesterday eve still needs a name, oh lord of deadly silence and lost hope."
'Excellent idea', thought the Duke, 'the next line I write shall prove a fitting name' as he picked the girl up by the hair, cutting more dark words into her back.


REALSPACE RAIDS
Army/Race W D L

Black Templars 0 0 0
Blood Angels 1 0 3
Chaos Daemons 1 0 0
Chaos Space Marines 1 0 0
Dark Angels 0 0 0
Dark Eldar 0 0 0
Eldar 1 1 0
Grey Knights 1 0 1
Imperial Guard 0 0 1
Necrons 3 0 2
Orks 4 1 4
Sisters Of Battle 0 0 0
Space Marines 3 0 0
Space Wolves 2 0 1
Tau Empire 0 0 0
Tyranids 0 0 1

Overall 16 2 13

One thing about airbrush - You definetely want use primer. Most likely one from can. Probably white since it's easier to preshade from it And totally beeing able to disassemble whole thing.

Anyway I thing "elephant" may be good. It does looks funny, but at least it's not plastic crap GW sells :>

And I'm totally gonna "promote" this board on Da Waaagh (sadly common users can't have piccies in signature, tho I may add *just* link)

Best of luck!

Excited to see where this goes.

Nice Sliscus! I was thinking about doing something similar, but less eldarish.

Excellent Sliscus. Yriel is a great starting point for DE proportionately and obviously helps to fit the whole pirate/corsair theme which they share.

Off to a great start.

Looking forward to some paint.

I like the objective with the slaves, I think I will do something similar.

I've spent the day redoing my Hekatrix's for my Wych Cults. Before I was using purely the stock model but now I am going for more dynanism. They're not quite finished yet but the gf will be round on Wednesday with her fancy camera so expect pictures then. I've also been adding bits and pieces to all of my vehicles. I went the old school route of assembling a bits box of interesting items that would suit the Dark Eldar and Duke and used the 'rule of cool' to decide where and if they should go.



Trueborn!



They will accompany the Duke. I've used the tried and tested idea of Corsair cloaks and many parts from across the Dark Eldar range. I'm trying to emphasise a real notion of individual character in these models and make each Trueborn their own. I've used Scourge and Wych legs on two of them to gain a sense of movement, as though they've jumped from their Venom. They're by no means finished, expect a lot more work on them before they are finished.



Group shot! I feel the flags work well together to establish a pronounced continuity and theme that should tie the unit together on the tabletop.

Anyway, that's that. I'm planning on putting some more pictures up later around my Wych and Solar Cults. I have a large unit of Hellions done too but you won't get much out of them as they have nothing special going on just yet.

Let me know what you think and I'll drop some more pics later.

I like the back banners! They are going to look SWEET when they are all done up.

Oh man. Was going to comment over on warseer earlier and forgot. I love the Yriel conversion. The Trueborn and Hekatrixes look sweet. Very very cool.

Ton of character with the Duke and his Trueborn! The one with scourge legs and splinter cannon is my favourite, definitely feels like he has just lept out guns blazing!

Nice! I can't wait to see more of your models. A lot of blogs I've seen keep very static poses. I'm loving your dynamic feel.

Love your Duke modeling. Wonder when they will release a fine cast version of yriel

Liberame wrote:

Love your Duke modeling. Wonder when they will release a fine cast version of yriel

That would be nice!

I was thinking the exact same thing!

Awesome stuff! I really should start working on my army in earnest. Although the poses on your models certainly put my bog-standard Kabalites to shame.

Inspiring stuff!

Raucir

P.S. Loving the individual banners on the Trueborn, despite the fact that the banners we have are so ridiculously static-looking.

Well the Hekatrix are finished, just need to add some green stuff touches, pictures to follow soon. Reading the 6th edition rumours regarding objective markers means I will be slightly reworking the ones I have started and the ideas in my head. For those who have missed the rumours, there will be 5 per game on 60mm bases. One must be flat while the others are open to modelling but cannot spill over the edges, I'm looking to get this army done for a tournament in November so maybe I should focus on the main stuff just for now.

So anyway, I wanted to talk more about the direction I am taking with the Sky Serpents. I'm really looking to empthasise the different cults flocking to Duke's banner so here are my ideas so far.



Cult of the (Gladiator/Headhunter Stereotype). I have two units of Wyches in the army and each will have their own character and look. For these guys I'm looking for a feral headhunter look while still retaining some sense of embattled gladiator. To get this across the Raider is adorned with countless trophies while each Wych will have green stuffed fur and each sports an Incubi back vane. Why? I don't know, I just think it looks cool. War paint will be the case for these boys and girls and I felt Shardnets were the most fitting weapon for them.



Cult of the (Druggie/Skin Stealers). The second and last unit of Wyches. This cult is formed of entirely female members, meaning I can use Bloodbrides where I like and giving a different direction compared to the previous, mixed cult. Each model will be covered in flayed skins, though I will be looking to stay away from the Necron Flayed One look. I see them wearing them more as grotesque fashion accessories. It also plays up Duke's penchant for flayed skin and you will see poetry on them too. I'm also going down the drug abuse road with these girls. Splintermind whores, I will be going for a very pallid look with dark, sunken eyes and the obligatorynose tube. I can't imagine a better weapon for shredding skin than a Razorflail so those weapons will empthasise the look.



Cult of the (Solar Cult) I have been obsessed with solar cults since the John Blanche image of an imperial (renegade?) solar priest from back in the Inquisitor era. I love the idea of how even in the distant future people/xenos still worship and follow the sun. Or in the case of the Dark Eldar, steal them. I had to have a Solar Cult in the army and decided the Scourge heads would be a good fit. They won't be too different to normal warriors otherwise.

So, I know there's no paint but I'm throwing up some ideas that would defo get better with some criticism and development from you guys. Also looking to get the Hekatrix pictures up later.

Oh and if people would like to help with the Cult names I'd be very happy.

Ah, Scourge heads on regular warriors, very nice. I have been planning to do some of that myself as soon as my bitz show up. They could also pass as Harlies, methinks.

I like what you have done here, lots of little touches that really add up to something different overall. The flayed skin add-ons are great, wish I could do that without buggering up the model too much. And the extra skulls look good, can't have too many of those!

I'm not putting any pikes or banners on my vehicles, way too fragile even for me.

Nicely done, Serpent. I can't wait for more.

Hey Paul, good to see you've started posting some stuff. This Sliscus looks alot nicer than your original one, the pose is quite dynamic and the model has a nice flow to it. The trueborn with backbanners are cool, i've got my anti infantry trueborn kitted out with the Kabalite banners.

Here are the Hekatrii I promised.



The acrobatic lady on the left is the leader of the flayed/drugged Wyches. She uses Venom Wych legs, Archon back banner and Succubus Agoniser; the rest are generic Wych parts. I'm happy with the pose but she is by no means done, she is due a lot of green stuff work with lots of skin tethering off to exaggerate the pose and motion. As a small note I wouldn't be able to pose the Agoniser with the new Finecast model. I still haven't made my mind up on the new range yet but I couldn't buy a Haemonculus from a GW store the other day purely because allll of them had massive defects.

On the right is the gladiatorial Hekatrix. I went for a generic standing still pose but feel she pulls off the look. She uses the Succubus body, the old Lelith's head and Wych parts. My only worry is I think she may look too elite, too Succubus but only time will tell.

Thank you everyone for all the Airbrush advice, finally ordered mine today as well as some Vallejo paints. Always good to try something new.

Let me know what you think. Ciao.

Any chance of a closer shot of the green stuff work you've done on the Wyches?

Time for an update I guess. Pictures are really really bad, you don't see much depth or highlighting but you should get the general gist of what's going on....

Let's first go to the Wyches. These are my entry for The Archon's Challenge which I hope to get them finished alongside.


Group shot of the boys and girls. They're in a very WIP stage, only the skin and flayed skin are near about finished.


Close up on one of the Wyches...


And the units Hekatrix.

Hope you like them, as always comments and feedback are welcome...

I'm really digging the old-school Lelith mask feel of the Hekatrix. Looking good!

Finally paint has been applied! Good start though!