Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

I started out with Dark Eldar when they were just a White Dwarf article. Eventually, life took a bit of a turn and just as models started to come out, I had to take a break from the hobby. Timing is such that my friends, family and I have rekindled interest in 40K right as the new Dark Eldar Codex came out. It has become time to re-assemble my Kabal and enjoy the carnage and gore that is an afternoon of shooty/slicey goodness.

Naturally, my specific army choice has me fielding miniatures not yet available off the shelf. Fortunately for me, my history with this illustrious hobby has me accustomed to custom-building my vehicles, and I enjoy the mods. So, in this particular thread, I'll put out the particular models of the Kabal for comment and critique as I work on them.

I am a builder much more than I'm a painter. The joy for me is creating something new and I'm learning greenstuff techniques and some minor sculpting as I go forward. As for my painting skills, they're still very elementary and basic. This forum has been a great inspiration and I plan to work on various techniques and styles throughout the assemblage of this cohort. Feel free to comment and critique.. the one thing I ask is to give suggestions for those things you find could use work. I plan to use this little project to enjoy the process of learning.

Well, and show off a little. C'mon. We all do. That's the point of the game anyway isn't it.. to build cool toys and then show 'em off while we play with them? I'll also keep the photos in my gallery. Regarding the photos, yes, I know I need a better background and exposure. I'm working on that too.

My primary color choices are purple, black and white, accented with gold and silver. I like that the combination can be made both dark and brooding as well as electrifyingly bright. "Bright" ..but not "happy bright," more of a cold, "harsh moonlight in winter" kind of bright.

To begin with, my HQ choice is Baron Sathonyx. Naturally, there is no specific mini for him, and so I took a hellion, played around with the posing, and built up the skyboard. Bigger. More blade-y. I also used the faceless helmet from my Reavers. I love that look. If I could get my hands on enough of the bits, I'd do the entire Kabal that way. A good friend of mine took the model away from me when I got done building it, and painted it for me. That pretty much set the feel for the paint and armor scheme for the rest of the Realspace Raiding force.








Next up, Venoms. Pretty much my entire raid is built up around all kinds of Venoms. My philosophy is that if we're going to Raid, we're going to take what we find and put it to use. These two are built from various Eldar scrap. The first is an augmented Reaver jetbyke, and the second is essentially an oversized skyboard.

The Reaver:





And the Skyboard:



Again, feel free to give suggestions or comments... more to come.

Awesome Venoms! I love these gives me loads of ideas, i want more i say, MOAR!........ Would love to see what you could come up with for Razorwing flocks.

Thanks Perkustin.

Moving on. I got a bit more time and knocked out a couple more venoms, playing around with the lightning paint technique some more. This first one is mostly made up of a scavenged Falcon gravtank. I don't have riders ready for it but the model is mostly done. The purple-tinged lighting looks best on this one than the others, so far, I think. More practice.







The next one is made up from a re-worked old-school raider. Slid in the pilot chair from a scavenged Eldar War Walker. On this one, I changed up the coloration for the lighting, using blue tint. It stands out against the background more, and am not sure if I like it better or not. Still need to do more practice on the technique.







Now, moving on a bit. I have some of the old, ugly metal wyches and I wanted to play around with some better looking ones. I really enjoy the plastic models, always have. I like being able to work on converting the positions and stances, and can really make some dynamic poses. The new models are even better... Lots of fun.

Staring off, the hekatrix with her Agonizer. No, I don't like it. Ok, I like the pose and the look but the painting is crap so far and I don't like where it's going. I'm working on trying out some OSL techniques. No, not even close to done, and am still working on it, but don't think it's working out well. Anyone w/ suggestions, I'd love to hear it.





Next up are 3 wyches for the squad. 2 with Razorflails and one with some nastly blades.



3 more wyches. One w/ an Agonizer, one w/ a Venomblade, and one w/ an Impaler. I doubt I'll ever use the impaler much, but I like the dynamic of the stance.. I may swap out the impaler from the hand to another blade.



A couple of converted warriors, one DarkLance and one w/ a pistol and venomblade.



Again, feel free to offer up suggestions. More venoms and some converted Trueborns next up...

I like the sense of movement you got out of the warriors and wyches, well done!

Thanks for the encouragement.

Got a bit more work done, two more venoms done up and ready for the table. I played around with the lightning techniques some more, this time with reddish colors. I'm thinking I still like the look of the blue more than anything so far. I'll throw Green on the next couple just to see. I still have 3 more venoms waiting for the final detailing...

So here are the next two:








And, "mostly" ready is my first squad of trueborns. I converted these guys with a mix of Dark Elf Corsairs and Kabalite Warriors. I tend to run squads of trueborns on venoms with 4 of them each with Blasters, so I used some extra bitz and pieces to convert the weapons to blasters. I do need to finish the detailing and then base the things. That's one thing I haven't learned to do yet.... Basing, that is.









Well, there we go for now. More venoms and another squad of Trueborns incoming..

Just saw you blog, loving the venoms, really gives a sense of a makeshift raiding force versus an organised army. The poses and character of your foot units are great too!

Subscribed, looking forward to what comes next!

Loving the vehicles, they're very unique and clever. Perfect for DE. I'm subscribed, keep it coming!