Possums plog

Hi denizens of Commorragh,

So at the back end of last year I was casting about thinking of starting a new 40K force to contrast with my Night lords and Ravenwing armies. Then the new DE codex came out and I fell in love with the new succubus sculpt, the stars had aligned I was going to become a Dark elder player...
Then Warhammer end times kicked in and I got sort of distracted...

So having bought a bunch of stuff and then consigned it to my pile of shame (I think all gamers have one its that heap of things you just had to buy but then did nothing with.) it seemed that I needed a push to get anything done with them. That push turns out to be my birthday, a couple of times a year my friends and I meet up for a game my birthday is always one of those weekends. So long story short its my birthday in just about 5 weeks and I want to have 1500pts of DE done for the game. This is a tall order but I'm gonna try anyway!

So I've started out with my HQ, the succubus that is responsible for me starting this whole thing.



Now she isn't much good all alone so I've given her some wyches to order about


I really like the Wyches models but I cant help thinking that the Blood angels they are going to face will make mincemeat out of them so I've got a cople of Kabelite squads to do so far I've done half of one squad.


I'm very taken with the fluff for the cult of red grief so thought that some flying speed freaks would fit in well


So that's week ones progress just another 15 kabalites 5 Wyches 5 scourges 4 incubi 3 raiders 1 venom 1 razorwing and 3 more jetbikes to go! should be easy right

Tasty! Looking forward to seeing them on the tabletop at MAD (I'm forum admin there).

Damn that succubus looks scary! I love your colour scheme, it reminds me of one I saw in warhammer visions ages ago, was actually aiming for something like this for my army before I changed my mind. I wish you the best of luck geting them all painted in time, but hey if you don't you can always ally in some night lords...

Really liked the colour contrasts with beige and red. Really awesome skills. Wish I had similar skills!

Thank you all for checking in sorry its taken me so long to get back to you.

@ the burning eye, thank you and I look forward to getting over to MAD as I'm only in Sileby it will be nice to get some regular games in. wont be for a couple of weeks though due to work commitments

@ zizza 1400 Cheers Scary was what I was going for, not in a flayed torsos spiked on Rhinos kinda way like my N L's more a blur of ultra violent type of scary.

@ DEfan the colour scheme is a bit of a happy accident my friend is working (very slowly) on Ulthwe CWE's so I wanted to compliment the bone and black scheme but after doing 30 ravenwing bikedrs could not stand the thought of doing more black! I was also very taken with the Kabal of the flayed skull that's in the codex.  

So its pretty much the end of week two now and were am I in my challenge?
Well truth to tell a bit behind. but on the bright side the last 5 Kabalites are now done:


So altogether they look like this:


I also have an Ebay rescue Raider (this picture also allows a rare sight of the possums lair and the many half done projects scattered about what he laughingly calls his work space):


This has taken quite a bit of remedial work, the previous owner felt the need to glue all the flags/pole things on, so I had to trim off 4 poles! All the crew were also glued on, y'know just to make painting really hard work. The dark lance was so crusted in glue I ripped it off altogether and replaced it with a new distortion cannon and some of the blade things on the underside were missing totally. This on top of cleaning up blobs of glue, glue finger prints and a little reassembly.
On the other hand it was cheap and I've learnt a lot about raider construction and I'm learning a lot about what sort of sub assemblies I need to paint the other two in when I get to making them.

So plan for next week is finish Raider, paint Scourges or Incubi and paint as many of the final 5 Wyches as possible.
So I'm open to suggestions on the scourge or incubi conundrum and am offering 1 whole internet shiny penny to anyone who can list all the half done things in the photo above!  

Right that's it for this week
Edit fixed two glaring spelling errors and tidied op some grammer.

punk possum wrote:

Edit fixed two glaring spelling errors and tidied op some grammer.

oh the irony!

i have to say you're a better man than i - i would have just cannibalised that raider to make destroyed vehicle markers!

The_Burning_Eye wrote:

punk possum wrote:

Edit fixed two glaring spelling errors and tidied op some grammer.

oh the irony!
!

Oh the embarrassment

Still on to progress,
The rescue raider is done, now in truth there are a lot of short cuts on this one but as I plan to replace it at some point when time and budget allow its at "it'll do for now" stage.



I would like to add some glyphs to it but that's only going to happen if by some miracle  I manage to finish ahead of schedule!

And due to a resounding lack of interest in which I did first out of the Incubi and the Scourges I decided to start on the scourges. Mostly because if I'd done the Incubi I would have felt compelled to do their Venom and I've have enough of transports for a few days after the headache with the rescue raider.
 

So that's 1 Scourge done 4 to go and then hopefully 5 more Wyches before the end of the week.

I would love to hear and comments or criticism's, but failing that wish me luck I'm gonna need it.

I bought 3 raiders amd 2 ravagers from Ebay for cheap and they all need significant remedial work too. I am slightly regretting the purchase as I went through a similar process to yours. Darn those flagpoles! I definitely feel your pain and tbh it has put me off a little from finishing my next raider (which is in a pile of bits half painted).

I really like how yours has come out, especially the dark red. It is really quite striking against the bone colour. The black body on the scourge is a nice touch. It singles him out as a specialist in your army while the reds of the wings tie him in with the overall theme. I like

SC

They look really good, I think I may have some raider outlines lying around somewhere if you want to plan the glyphs before committing paint to brush?

My only suggestions would be that the green on the scourge looks dark-ish, and brightening it up a bit would really make those elements stand out.

Wow spellcheck thank you so much, given that I am in awe of your work Your comments mean a lot.

TBE: Thanks, Raider out lines would be very cool. Mind you I've no idea at this point how I'm going to fit in getting every thing done let alone pimping my rides

Is it the eye lenses or the vials you mean?
Looking at it again I think the lenses do look too flat/dark I'll have to do something about that...
The vials are dark angel green, Warpstone glow and then striking Scorpion green so a delightful mix of old and new paints. I'll try warpstone, SS green and then white for the next one and we'll see how that works.
Thanks for checking in.

punk possum wrote:

Wow spellcheck thank you so much, given that I am in awe of your work Your comments mean a lot.

TBE: Thanks, Raider out lines would be very cool. Mind you I've no idea at this point how I'm going to fit in getting every thing done let alone pimping my rides

Is it the eye lenses or the vials you mean?
Looking at it again I think the lenses do look too flat/dark I'll have to do something about that...
The vials are dark angel green, Warpstone glow and then striking Scorpion green so a delightful mix of old and new paints. I'll try warpstone, SS green and then white for the next one and we'll see how that works.
Thanks for checking in.  

It may just be the photo then, scorpion green is pretty bright. One thing you could try is gloss varnishing the vials, I did it with my scourges and I'm pretty pleased with the results. Just remember to paint a grey/white line along them first (like the ones in the forum graphic above) as this helps them look more 'glass-like'.

So Work has been kinda manic the last few days and it seems that when your at work for 13hours of the day progress is a bit slower on hobby type things. But I have managed to get a second Scourge done.


Following up on TBE's comments I've done the vials a bit differently on this lassie is it better? I'm still not sure I've got it all the way right...
As ever C&C very welcome

looks good to me. The photo is a bit dark i think, but the green does seem to stand out more to my eye.

punk possum wrote:

The_Burning_Eye wrote:

punk possum wrote:

Edit fixed two glaring spelling errors and tidied op some grammer.

oh the irony!
!

Oh the embarrassment

I think it's an unwritten law that any forum post that comments on someone's grammar or spelling will itself contain a grammatical or spelling error.

Loving the Kabalites by the way. Gorgeous red you've done there!

Greetings all,

The_Burning_Eye wrote:

looks good to me. The photo is a bit dark i think, but the green does seem to stand out more to my eye.

Yep my skill set is a bit lacking when it comes to photography, but the vials I was a bit unsure about I think they are better. Mind you given the number of tanks, tubes, vials and such like on the DE range I'll have plenty of opportunity to fine tune the technique

Count Adhemar Thanks for checking in the red is ridiculously easy. Khorne red, agrax earthshade, wazdakka red then squig orange.

Also I made some progress today as I finished work a bit early for once and got to spend a few hours painting, better still my youngest son has been inspired by my frantic efforts to do a bit more to his Space wolves so he now has three thunder wolves done. No doubt they will be gleefully eating one of my armies soon!
So todays progress.
     

and another scourge that's about 95% done there are a few little bits and bobs to finish up.


So one more Scourge to go and then I'm only a few Wyches behind schedule!
C&C always welcome, and thanks for bearing with me this far.

Very, very nice. The vials look fantastic, amd your whole scheme works very well

(Oh and dark eldar crunch thunderwolves for breakfast, just sayin )

spellcheck2001 wrote:

(Oh and dark eldar crunch thunderwolves for breakfast, just sayin )

Thanks for the reassurance, I'm gonna have to let them chew up something, maybe my Dark Angels the boy is only 11 and very impressed with the idea of 7ft tall post humans riding giant wolves

So today I got a day off Hooray! I did the only decent thing and spent it productively ignoring that the lawn needs mowing, the washing up needed doing and about 101 other things I could have wasted my day doing. Instead what I did was paint toy soldiers all day, my wife was so impressed at my selfless dedication she offered to cook dinner (or something like that).
All this time means the Scourges are done:

and I got 3 out of 4 Incubi done:

The one in White is the Klaivex, given the sameness of the sculpts I wanted some way of indicating that he was different.
The incubi were another ebay rescue job and sadly not so finecast. They were undercoated when they arrived and it wasn't till I started to paint that I realised how badly cast, prepped, and put together they were. I'll get some more later in the hopes of getting a better final result but time is really starting to be an issue now I still have a whole heap of stuff to do and only 17 days to do it in

They look really really good!

A deadline is a great motivator I've found, provided it's far enough away!

Lovely paint job, everytime I think I make progress as a painter you always see someone else's stuff and then weep sadly because they're so nice!

What colours did you use on the blades? I may well try and replicate that effect if yo don't mind

punk possum wrote:

So today I got a day off Hooray! I did the only decent thing and spent it productively ignoring that the lawn needs mowing, the washing up needed doing and about 101 other things I could have wasted my day doing. Instead what I did was paint toy soldiers all day, my wife was so impressed at my selfless dedication she offered to cook dinner (or something like that).  

Chuckle, you sir are a man after my own heart . Can't beat a good days geeking. A balm for the soul I think.

Scourges look great. Not a fan of the incubi models tbh but your paint job looks good on them, especially the swords which give them a nice focal point.

Whats next for painting?

SC

Cool looking army, I especially like your work on the vile of the scourages, the only part look off are your incubi, I understand that you want them to be a temple order and not in exact same color scheme as your regular army, but they look more like eldar rather than dark eldar.

Hi
So Thanks for all the comments.
TBE: Thanks for the kind words and yep a deadline is a great motivator but also quite daunting at the moment I started this with a six week window of opportunity at the busiest time of year for me professionally I always knew it was going to be tough but now S**t's got real as they say.

Spellcheck: Thanks I'm also not super sold on the incubi. Others have done good things with the Dark elf executioners but as a dark elf player I just think Khainite nut jobs! I'm having musings about bashing up kabalite legs, elf corsair bodies and cloaks, wood elf guardian axes and incubi heads to make the replacement's for these guys but that's a bit over the horizon right now.

macknight: Thanks for checking in I like the dark and brooding tone of your guys. My plan for my corner of Commorragh was to do the whole force with three predominate colours red, bone and black. I get what you mean about how my guys look but I mucked about with a few variants of the three colours and this was the one I liked best. I always wanted to give them pink klaives so maybe they are the fabulous shrine

Dragontree: Dude I looked up some of your posts I really like your Templars and the speed you can crank them out is impressive you have nothing to weep about. Now as you asked so nicely and I had an incubi to finish off tonight I've done a bit of a photo log on how I did my pink power  

1st I put a couple of thin layers of emperors children and then washed it with leviathan purple ( this is the old version of naggaroth night I think). Also if I were you I'd try not to let it pool at the tip of the blade like I did
       

Then a reasonably chunky edge highlight of emperors children and then with quite thinned paint a high light along the length of the sharp bit of the blade where it meets the main body of the blade (I'm not sure that totally makes sense but I hope you get what I mean)


Next a much finer edge highlight with Fulgrim pink. Also a few very light line at an angle on the blade in the pink just to make it look a bit like it might actually be sharp.

For the power surge look I used a super lazy 2 stage lightning normally I use a three or four stage version but I developed this cheaty easy version for my many many lightning covered nightlords.
1st stage paint a darker colour as a background I used dechala lilac but the old hormagaunt puple might have been better on reflection.

Then with white scar I picked out the runes and did the last bit of the lightning, try to stay inside your shadow layer and your pretty much golden.

then wave your magic wand clik your heels three times and the rest of the model paints its self to leave you with the fourth incubi done.


So in answer to Spell checks question next up is venomarama 1 for the Wyches and one for the Incubi/Succubus deathstar.
Stay tuned and thanks for bearing with, as ever C&C very welcome.

Ta very much punk I do really like the look! And thanks for the compliments, its hard to keep your head above water with people like spellcheck and evil space elves around though

I have been meaning to ask when we will see some of your night lord stuff? If youre interested check out my night lords link in my sig, I'd be very interested to see yours as the hint we get in your avatar certainly promises lots of good things!

It was a pleasure Dragontree.
I know what you mean I'm blown away by evil space elves work, insanely fast and insanely good I'm definitely jealous. Spellcheck's work is by far my favourite thing I have seen in years. and it makes me so glad that there are people out there doing such fantastic and creative stuff. I have long since realised painting is only a competition with others if you want it to be I settle for trying my best for my own sake and quietly nicking as many good tips and ideas from the many many people who are better than me.
I'll see about posting some of my 8th legion stuff up when this current frenzy of dark elder activity has eased off a bit. Truth to tell those happy sociopaths are my first love and Lt Aeneas is one of my favourite's (he is the avatar pic) but it has been a while since I did much to them
I do like yours keep on rocking the world in midnight clad! It's also nice to know I'm not the last bastion of bat wingy hat love left in the world

So I have progress to report not as much as I need if I'm to finish on time but...

1st up my Wyches now have a ride


Now clearly its not actually finished what with having no gunner and no glyphs but its done enough for the sake of the game that all this is in aid of

Also the Incubi can now catch a riiide!


Now this to be honest is my biggest disappointment so far, things went a bit wrong early on with the paint. My first instinct was to chuck it in a dettol bath, strip it back and start again. Then I remembered I only had 13 days to finish this, 2 raiders, some more wyches, another squad of warriors, 3 reavers and a razorwing jet, so foolishly I persevered hoping to pull it round, I didn't so after the game its going to get that bath and I'll try again.  
Still onwards and upwards as they say. Next up is a raider and its passenger's then either the razorwing or the jetbikes.
10 days to go its gonna be emotional!