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I'm glad that I decided to did these models out of the closet and try painting them up in the Drowned Gardens colors. Sure the sculpts aren't as sharp as the new models but I've really grown to like these guys. I think it might be because the weathering helps add just that extra bit of visual "texture" that the models needed.



@IceAngel: Post some pics if you give it a go! I've found the documentary to be tremendously entertaining and educational. Send me a PM if you want to discuss further.

Heyyyy... not bad! The thing that bugs me about them is that the heads are gihugic. But that's nothing you can control. Excellent paint job Jon.

dayum

Nice retro work, adds a nice little bit of variety =)

They look really good Jon! like 'really' good! especially for the age of them and lack of obvious details! I really like the helmets, the style of them looks menacing even when they're a nice blue lol! :-) seems you can do no wrong in the Kabal of the awesome Jon's!

Nice!

These look great - the only thing is, the bases look really good but they'll find it harder to hide behind cover!

Brilliance, I think you're right about the added texture the weathering brings. Adds a much needed dimension. What's next Jon?

I agree. Personally, I love a bit of weathering on a model. Can't understand why it isn't more popular with 40K players.

I don't have any weathering on my DE vehicles, my reasoning is that they are unlikely to survive to accumulate battle damage!

Lol!

That's a very good point.

Phew, I haven't posted anything in almost a month!

Which is a natural result of the fact that my Steam account shows I've played 121 hours of Civilization IV in the last month. About 4 hours a day . I blame it all on me lacking resistance to deep PC-based strategy games, probably a result of growing up in a predominantly console based environment . I almost broke away at about the 40 hour mark because while remaining very compelling, a lot of the game mechanics still felt a bit too un-intuitive and I wasn't really understanding how to manage cities effectively. But at some point soon afterwards I had one of those moments where everything just clicks together (with the help of a lot of guide reading) and I was sucked right back in.

No promises on when exactly I'll be back so here's a shot of the completed Claw Grot that I forgot to post. Comparing this photo to the last shot of the un-based model illustrates the dramatic difference that a finished base makes to the overall appearance of the model. I also needed a elevated base to keep the claw from dragging on the table because it really is a bit big !



Finally, a last minute realization: I've realized (again) while writing this post how much fun sharing stuff on Dakka is. So please send me some suggestions on what you'd like to see next, a really outlandishly creative suggestion may be my only hope of being shocked out of Civ .

Does the suggestion have to involve Dark Eldar?

That turned out amazingly well. The streaks on the claws and plates are really something. Makes it stand out while still being true to your original color scheme.

As for what to do next... what are our options?

Haemonculi experiments using the harlequin rules.

Some how he's captured some mandrakes and managed to combine their DNA with warpbeast creating a hybrid class that shifts through space and time as easily as you or I walk through an open door.

On the battle field this renders them almost impossible to hit at range as they shift through the visible light spectrum as well as local warp space, this also makes their close combat attacks extremely unpredictable rendering most armour almost completely useless.


Just an idea I came up with off the top of my head that I think you could pull off really well.
Think wracks with mandrake fire weapons, and hormogaunt /talos claws rising from their shoulders. Using the wyches as a base would let you get some really cool leaping and dynamic poses.

You could model 'darklight' portals on them, cutting off their legs so they were leaping into CCRRRREEEEEEEDDDD!

I love those bases. may have to give that a try myself. how are you attaching the models to the rocks? just superglue?

That last post, and my first visit to my FLGS in a month (hadn't gone because I had a lot of friends back for the holidays...okay and because of Civ) actually helped me get back into wanting to do hobby stuff. In the short term I'm going to actually do some more mundane stuff and paint some crew for my skimmers, mainly because I'd like to be able to think of them as complete! I don't think it's my OCD kicking in since I have no intention of painting and gluing on all the hull spikes!

@IceAngel: Mostly looking for DE ideas but I'm definitely open to any kind of inspiration. But really if I take a break from DE I'll probably go back to my general painting improvement thread:
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/452097.page
I backed the Reaper Bones Kickstarter so there will be no shortage of things to paint! The thing is I've really enjoyed getting so comfortable with a color scheme that I can consistently produce a result I'm happy with, in a reasonable amount of time, no matter what model I pick.

@Gitsplitta: It was a happy accident that the claws turned out to be such a good match for my turquoise armor while still being visually distinct as a different material. All ideas are welcome but like I said above I do have some short term plans now.

@Sheep & Urien_Rakarth: Definitely a creative idea that I'll keep in mind! The idea reminds me of the awesome mid-camouflage switching Stealthsuit models and the mid-teleport marine models I've seen.

@varl: For the infantry models, just superglue. Although every time a model breaks off I tell myself I'm going to pin them someday (right after I finish painting all the models I own) ! The Grotesque however is firmly attached to it's base. The Rat Ogre models already have plastic pegs in their feet which I drilled holes in the base for.

Youre welcome, I hope you use it

Exciting news! The manager at my FLGS said they are teaming up with another game store to put together a miniature wargaming display at a mall here in Hong Kong to promote the hobby and they wanted to borrow my army for the display. I initially had some concerns about security but the display cases they've got look reassuringly sturdy . I'll put up more details on where and when once the details get confirmed.

I was down at the FLGS for a game yesterday and got absolutely destroyed by Necrons . But on the plus side here's a picture of the Kabal in it's current form on display at the shop, the six Gotesques being the most notable update from the last army pic:

That's brilliant news mate! And well deserved!

Congratulations Jon! Army's looking great as ever!

Well, we should rather be congratulating the FLGS, guys! Having that absolutely stunning army in your display cabinet has got to be an asset for every business

The army is simply fantastic, Jon! There's not a single thing that detracts from the stellar impression. In fact, my only gripe doesn't have anything to do with the army itself: That flimsy grassmat's really not worthy of your army on top of it

Come to think of it, how about building a kick-ass display board for the army?

I wholeheartedly agree with the statements above.

Mechanicum Jon I just wanted to say I joined Dakkadakka to follow your thread, your a true inspiration. I can't explain how much I love your dark eldar army. I'd really love to see or hear what you have in mind for pain tokens and objective markers.

Quick bit of painting, now all my Venoms have gunners (hopefully they'll hit more often) !



@Casey's Law and Gitsplitta:

@KrautScientist: I've thought about a display board, but the thing is I can't ever see myself using one. Eventually when the army comes home from the FLGS I'm planning on putting the minis in one of those IKEA glass cabinets with glass on all sides which isn't big enough for a display board.

@Meeghan: Thanks for the kind works and welcome to Dakka!

Mechanicum Jon wrote:
Eventually when the army comes home from the FLGS I'm planning on putting the minis in one of those IKEA glass cabinets with glass on all sides which isn't big enough for a display board.

This thread may be invaluable to you then, Jon.

 SlaveToDorkness wrote:
This thread may be invaluable to you then, Jon.

This, so much this! I remember seeing that horror thread about the user whose Ikea cabinet came crashing down, wrecking most of his miniature collection in the process. The pictures were physically painful to watch -- better safe than sorry!

@ Jon: Fair enough, fair enough. Come to think of it, what I'd like to see even more than a display board for your army would indeed be some custom pain tokens and objectives, now that Meeghan mentioned it.

In any case, keep up the fantastic work!

@Meeghan & KrautScientist on objective markers: I'll have a think about markers. I've got a ton of DE bits now so it should be fun to try and dig through them to put something together.

@SlaveToDorkness: That thread is actually exactly what gave me the idea to use IKEA display cases! Thanks for the link though.

@KrautScientist: Giving how prone I am to knocking stuff over I'd better put the case in a corner and bolt it into the wall then ! The biggest scare I've had was the one time I put my minis on a modular terrain board up on my FLGS's terrain rack pre-deployment. I knelt down to get some terrain off the bottom shelf and as I stood up I knocked the board over sending the mini's clattering down through the rack (this included six jetbikes) . Amazingly the damage was limited to a bunch of miniatures coming off their bases!

I was just planning on taking some photos of the Grotesques but then decided to go for a more interesting arrangement with terrain and other models and ended up spending about an hour taking photos! Here's the one I'm most pleased with, almost looks like it could go on the back of White Dwarf doesn't it ? It was only just now when I was selecting and processing photos that I realized that I could make a legal 500pt Haemonculi Coven skirmish army from the models in the picture. That fact suddenly made the photo seem even cooler !