Custom DE Beastmasters Done

I had a productive night of painting last night and finished up the last 5 Beastmasters.  I'm happy with the way they turned out, but I did a bit of a rush job on the flesh tones of the cold ones, way too sloppy for my likes.  I'm half tempted to go back and redo it but at this point I just want to move forward with the army!  Here are some shots of the finished work.

I also started painting up our pain token holders for the small dice.  One box of zombies and two part apoxy later we got these tokens.  I'm going to do a basic blood red washed purple dry brushed up with some heavy gloss and we should be good to go.

Tonight will finish off the raider crew and painted up templates.  Trying to stay focused on getting things done!

DE: First Beastmaster Done (cold one style)

I just finished up my first beastmaster and it was a lot of fun to paint. It took a little longer then I wanted since there were so many elements to the model, but I'm happy with the overall look. It was a good excuse to finally paint the cold one model. It's one of my favorite models in the Warhammer range. The model is the cold one rider, with dark eldar warrior arms, head and the slung rifle from the raider kit.

I'll have 6 very individualistic looking beastmasters when it's all said and done.  We have our 1,850 tournament this Sunday, and I'm working hard to get as much done by then as possible.  Unfortunately there is no way I can get all of the miniatures fully painted by then.  I still need to get rocking on my dwarf pirates... so much to do, so little time.

Dark Eldar Beast Progress (1)

As I work on assembly of the beast pack, I knocked out my counts-as Khymerea.  I absolutely love the chaos warhounds (as seen by my fenrisian wolf articles) and this gave me a chance to paint them unadulterated.  I initially thought they needed pinchers or some sort of extra tentacles, but I think they fit the role nicely without any extra bits.

I'm going to try to assemble some of the flying ripper swarms as counts-as razorwing flocks.  Hopefully they won't look too tyranidish but I think they do the best representation of how I see that model.

Here's where I'm at with the 1k list for Adepticon Team Tournament.  I also had the chance to assemble my succubus and hekatrix.. 

My teammates have been hard at work on the display board.  We're doing two 4 man dark eldar teams and have a pretty aggressive table to work on.  Check out the progress here.

I think I have a working idea on what I'm going to start with for an 1850 list.  I'm sure it'll change between now and Adepticon once I get some  practice games in but here's where it stands:

HQ: Haemonculus
Elite: 3 Trueborn with 2 dark lances in Venom with 2 Splinter Cannons
Elite: 3 Trueborn with 2 dark lances in Venom with 2 Splinter Cannons
Troop: 8 Wytches with hekatrix with venom blade, hydra gauntlets, all with haywire grenades in Raider with flickerfield
Troop: 5 warriors with blaster in Venom with 2 Splinter Cannons
Troop: 5 warriors with blaster in Venom with 2 Splinter Cannons
Troop: 5 warriors with blaster in Venom with 2 Splinter Cannons
Troop: 5 warriors with blaster in Venom with 2 Splinter Cannons
Fast: 4 Beastmasters, 5 Khymerea, 6 Razorwing Flocks
Fast: 4 Beastmasters, 5 Khymerea, 6 Razorwing Flocks
Heavy: Ravager with flickerfield
Heavy: Ravager with flickerfield
Heavy: Razorwing Jet with splinter cannon upgrade and flickerfield

I'm debating if I go with two wytch squads and one beast pack or vice versa.

Lots to paint!

Test Painting: Cold One Skin for my Beastmasters

I'd like to get your thought on the cold one skin in progress.  Since my army has a lot of red and purples as accents, I don't want to add another color into the mix.  The goal is not to do a rainbow pattern beast squad.  What are your thoughts on this scheme?  Pretty basic, most animals always have lighter skin underneath.  I blend from the red into brown into dneb stone with a little white accent.  Finishing it off with a purple wash.

It may be hard to see what it will look like completed, but I would hate to finish the entire squad and then want to go back and change the flesh tones.

Proxy DE Beasts & Lots 'O Assembly

I had a productive weekend of hobbying, and did a ton of assembly.  Between Friday and last night, I assembled:

- Three Ravagers
- Raider
- 10 hellions
- Razorwing Jetfighter
- 4 "Beasts"

I also finished painting the venom pictured in the previous post.  While painting the three ravagers I struggled with how I'd like to go about doing the beast packs.  Problems I have with the current DE beasts are they cost a ton, I can't stand the razor flocks, and being metal they're a pain in the ass.  I thought of a great substitute in the mean time for beasts.  For the Clawed Fiend, why not a not-so-freaky Spawn, and for the Khymera, I'll use the undead fantasy dire wolves.  They looked like they are fresh from someone's nightmare and plastic! 

As for the razorwing flocks, I really struggled.  The bats are pretty lame in the GW line, so I scoured the Chicago Battle Bunker for ideas.  I settled on the flying ripper swarms from forgeworld.  You get 9 of those nasties for $28.  It's not cheap, but by putting about 3 to a base, it's still cheaper then the metal one pose birds, plus they look way cooler.  I just need to figure out how to modify them a little bit to look less tyranid.

I also started up on the three ravagers.  I'm going to go with the hull and sail first, then do all the gunners and crew at once.  Sunday I was able to get the exhausts and chain done, and the first coat of the base metal color for the plating.  I'm not sure if doing three at once is such a smart idea, I might go insane with how tedious it'll get.  It's funny how the hobby turns into a job at times.

Finally I got to the Razorwing Jet.  What a cool model.  It ended up being a little smaller then I expected, but went together smooth (for the most part).  The only trouble I had was that the two hull pieces had to be held for awhile to keep flush and not pop a part.  I think the engine exhausts put a little pressure on the plates.  It was pretty cool how they gave the option for all three missile types.  I decided to just go with the mono missiles since I like the look.  You could probably magnatize them but I don't think many people will really care.  More then likely they'll all get fired at the same time so I don't think I'll need to keep track of them like I do with the hunter killer missiles on my loyalst armies.

This will be a realtively light travel week for me, just Atlanta Monday/Tuesday.  Should be another good week of hobby.  I'd love to get the hulls and sails done on the ravagers.