Goreseers - The Prophets of the Flesh

Hail one and all,

I am a long time lurker in the shadows of the Dark city, i move forwards into the light of the gladiatorial arenas even though i may be eviscerated as a result, thankfully this is unlikely.

Anyway, I'm working on some sweet Haemonculus Covens dudes, i'd love to know what everyone thinks,  

Thanks for looking.





The Paindaddy himself, Urien Rakarth.-
Noted patron of the Prophets of the Flesh.  Wanted him to look super Vampiric, love the way he came out.



Haemonculus Kastenac, The Dark Architect.-
This guy has been retrofitted with a Liquifier instead of a stinger pistol since this picture, as he now pulls full time duty as a dark artisan, deep striking with his favourite dudes.



Wracks, I've painted a million of these dudes, i don't care what anyone says about them.  I love the idea of an army of silent alien torture gimps.



My Grotesque conversions from Crypt Horrors, main addition was the green stuff here, i'm not very good at green stuff at all, so i'm sure anyone could do this, just bulked up the shoulders to make them more beefy and gave them wrist bands made out of little green stuff rolls.  Want to make at least 9 of these.







I'm actually planning to use this model as a Succubus with the Armour of Misery, i think of it as more a badass lone Incubi Mercenary though.

This dude will lead an allied detachment so i can bring a Ravager into the army and convert it to have all Wrack crew

The "epic first post" count on this forum is unreal, and you just joined the club. I love the grots, especially the buzzsaw and chain hands!

I got halfway through typing that the incubus master might be a little too heavily armoured for a succubus, but I think since he's going with the Armour of Mizmogs it's great. It'd be like Bruce Lee wearing a parka. He'd still mess you right up.

Although tbh if he was wearing terminator armour I'd still let you off just for that paint job.

</fanboy>

Awesome stuff. The Grot conversions are great but I love your counts-as Succubus. Totally feeling you on mercenary/Incubi vibe... great use of an older model. I actually love the idea of Dark Eldar mercenaries could be fun to model them up John Blanche style with lots of mohawks and trenchcoats. Anyway great stuff and welcome to the project logs!

Wow, I really like your dude! Using the old incubi model and cutting the helmet halfway down really like cool. Will done. And the paintings on all your models a very clean, really really nice! Looking forward to more ;-)

Wonderful display of a clean-style approach to the Haemonculi Covens! I am a big fan of the vibrant colours, as my painting style is much the same, except you seem to have really mastered the practice of dot highlighs - they are everywhere, yet they make the model pop that much more. The oldschool Incubus steals the show, though - the conversion and the paintjob just ooze character, and I have not seen all that much of old Vect's bodyguard models around at all.

I also have to agree with the others - that's one hell of a first post

Thankyou all so much for the incredibly kind words

And everyone says Dark Eldar are cruel!

I've kind of hamstrung myself now i've shown you all the Incubi Mercenary, as he's clearly cooler than the actual army he's meant to be in haha.

But regardless, maybe that's an avenue to travel further down in the near future,

I started painting these guys in i think, October? I've been kicking out about 1-2 units a week, trying to keep the frequency up so i can reach 1,850 points soon (I've got about 1,100 done so far.)

Anyway, here are more fruits of my labours;



I'm gonna start off with this Haemonculus, because back in the days of the first Dark Eldar Codex release, i loved this model, i thought the whole super-skinny thing was awesome and that he looked totally creepy and was just a great sculpt. I found one whilst rooting around my bits box so i thought i'd paint him up to see how well he fits in with the modern day sculpts, and i have to say, i think the answer is not at all. He looks more like the Coven equivelant of a janitor. I think he'll be relegated to sideline duty.





The Talos is a weird one, i've painted them before, and they always come up looking a bit less than stellar, i can't really figure out what i'd do differently to make it better, maybe some red runes will do the magic like they did for the mercenary?





Cronos are just weird, i actually added an additional two tendrils at the front of the pelvis to give it a more rounded look, and i quite like how it came out. Again, think i'm gonna add some red runes to the armour plates, hence why they aren't varnished yet!





I just wanted to take a "yearbook" photo of all the Wracks i've painted so far, still got more to come!





The ubiquitous Venom, oh how i adore thee.

I've got two of these painted so far and a third on my painting desk, The blue blasts coming out of the exhausts (Armorcast FX) really complete the model for me, and make it look awesome on the battlefield.







And the Raider, i really, really love this model, with Wrack crew it looks amazing. Feels more like a diorama, definitely going to do more of these, i'm skewing quite heavily towards adding a bunch more Grotesques than originally intended at this point, and they're riding in these just for style points if anything.

I hope you like!

Wow, everything looks great so far! Your succubus is simply one of the coolest models I've seen in a while. Realy takes me down memory lane .

How did you do the dirt/weathering on your vehicles? Looks great aswell!

Cheers
Caspaar

I think one way to make the Taloi a bit more interesting would be trying out some freehand designs on their black shells. As it is, they're just large, monotone surfaces that might be robbing the impact you wish them to have. Another alternative is battle damage - I find some chips and dents here and there really add character to models, and are quite fun to do as well. When I was working on my Wraithknight, I added chips, tears, scratches and so forth pretty much on every smooth surface, as I wanted to convey the fact that it has seen quite a few battles and came out stronger than before. Some dirt might also work, nice, staining weathering sometimes is what a model was looking for all along! If you decide to try all of what I have mentioned, be careful not to go overboard! It is something that is all too easy to overdo, and your Talos might soon resemble something with the mark of Nurgle.

I dig the tattoos you give your Wracks and Taloi, it's a nice touch of individuality to forces that might otherwise have to conform to the Haemonculus' tastes. The coven vehicles are lovely as well - those orange runes really pop.


Dark Eldar may be cruel, but we're also artists - it is always pleasing to have a constructive conversation about the finest points of fleshcrafting!

Again, i can only thank everyone for the kind words, very inspiring!

@Caspaar The weathering is done with the Flames of War Quartermaster's Pigment Set, It's been a staple in my hobby toolbox since i got it, the particular colour i used on these models is called "Europe Dust", though i'm sure any weathering pigment you could get your hands on would do a similar job, the thing i love about Europe dust is that it's the Weathering powder equivalent of Graveyard Earth/Steel Legion Drab, so creates a lovely transition on the model from the brown of base into the black of the model, as stand alone pieces, the vehicles looked really boring before i added the weathering powder, it really makes them pop.  Also basing the flying stands is well worth doing as it takes the model to the "next level" in terms of aesthetic.

I got my first game in with the Coven at 1,000 points a couple of days ago, well, what actually happened is i was going to play a game against a guy who only had 900 points, so i dropped a Cronos out of my list, and then he quit after turn 2 and i played another guy with Tempestus Stormtroopers at 1,000 points and forgot to put the Cronos back in, so i was playing at a 10% handicap due to my own silliness which i didn't realise until after the game, but ho-hum.

I took a Covenite Coterie detachment consisting of-

• Urien Rakarth
  
• Haemonculus Kastenac - Liquifier gun
  
• 3 Grotesques - Aberration, Scissorhand, Raider Dedicated transport
  
• 5 Wracks - Acothyst, Hexrifle, Ossefactor, Venom Dedicated transport, Splinter Cannon
  
• 5 Wracks - Acothyst, Hexrifle, Ossefactor, Venom Dedicated transport, Splinter Cannon
  
• Talos - Haywire Blaster, Liquifier gun
  
• Cronos - Spirit Probe, ability to stay in figure case for whole battle, completely forgotten
  

I didn't know my opponent, he openly tailored his list to face me, purposefully editing his units to coincide with my army selection, which wasn't very cricket but neighmind.

He took 4 units of stormtroopers in Taurox Primes loaded with Plasma guns and melta guns, a lord commissar, and two deep striking units of troopers.



An interesting matchup, mostly reliant on cracking open the Taurox (which are SUPER irritating, you guys.)

I wont post a blow-by-blow, but it was a cool, enjoyable game, only slightly hampered and slowed by my opponent having literally no clue what my forces did and asking the same questions over and over again.
We used the maelstrom of war cards, which are bat-s**t weird, but i quite like.



I crept forward for the first turn, unable to crack the Taurox.  I've decided Haywire blasters suck and that i'd rather have a Heat lance on the Talos at all times and just run it when it's not in range, seems to make more sense to me than slowing it down to ping off a single hull point if you're really lucky.

He was absolutely terrified of the Talos until the Grotesques jumped out of their raider and just started wrecking face.  What followed was a hilarious couple of turns where they would repeatedly walk up to Taurox, pull it apart, and just eat whatever was inside.  So much horror.
The scissorhand on the Aberration is absolutely essential, and i don't think three is enough in a unit, i'm going to aim to always run them in at least 4's, with Urien Rakarth (or another Haemonculus.) you can do some nice sneaky "look out sirring" onto unwounded grotesques every turn for them to grow back with it will not die.



Thanks to some really jammy card drawing my opponent managed to pip me by one victory point, even though i basically had all my forces left bar one unit of wracks that got obliterated whilst holding an objective, it's kind of unfortunate for them to have fearless as they would benefit from being able to go to ground on objectives, on that grounds, if i ally in a regular Dark Eldar detachment, i may take a unit of wracks from that detachment instead, just so they can hunker down in cover.

The game was very cinematic in places and though the extra victory points my opponent gained from the maelstrom cards meant he earned a narrow victory despite being obliterated (bravo to him playing the objectives so well with what little he had left.), this was mostly due to my inability to command larger areas of the board with weaker firepower and pop the transports earlier on so the Venoms could contribute with their splinter cannons.

But despite this all, I took the army to be cinematic and characterful and have really fun games with, not to wreck face (I already have a shelf full of 40k trophies, i'm happy to let other people win games now .

I really like the new 40k, and the cards, though a bit whacky, do keep you engaged throughout the game and add another interesting element of risk and reward that was lacking previously (and they don't suit deathstars too well, which i really like.)

Collecting an army is about the ongoing evolution of your forces and army selections as you go for me.  Having a game like the one i just did means i'm eager to get more units painted so i can reward myself with that Ravager i'm looking forward to!


Also, next time I'll try and remember to play with an equal number of points to my opponent

pretty impressive Coven, realy like the paintjob you gave these. Truly enjoy watching these pictures.


PS: you used te wrong decals on these :p, Propeths of Flesh symbol is the hand thingy, maybe you already knew and ignored this. I certainly hope you do have the Coven supplement.

@Khain mor I know, i put the decals for the Altered on them by mistake and i haven't got the heart to switch them over yet, i was so bummed when i realised haha.

I also kind of have to do it as the tattoos on the models are a direct nod to the Prophet's background.

Silly me

Nice you enjoyed the game . My coven always struggles against tanks and vehicles .

concerning the weathering powder: How do you apply it? Water and brush it on?

Cheers
Caspaar

@Caspaar yeah, it's kind of a pain, flyers will see me comically shrugging, but oh well. I was impressed by the potential of the Scissorhanding Aberrations In that regard.

As for the weathering powder, I have a special wedge shaped make up brush I use only for them (handily left behind by an ex girlfriend, profit!) the softer bristles seem to be excellent for the application, weirdly it also helps if you breathe heavily over the model before you coat it, as the thin layer of moisture from youd breath allows more to adhere as you apply it without affecting the finish. Apparently you can use hairspray to seal it, but I just re apply if too much comes off, I haven't had to do this too often, even transferring into and out of cases for games

Your incubi mercenary conversion is so simple but soooo very badass!

Another *awesome* army
I feel like I find a new one every time I visit the project logs page!

I particularly like your vehicles - great detail with the edge highlight, paint scuffs, runes and engine exhausts. Nice work!