Dark Eldar Grotesque Conversions - Work in Progress

I got the original idea from Eye of Terror at this post Grotesques. 
These are a lot of fun to make.  I tried to think about what I would least like to get attacked with, and came up with these weapons.  I got the idea for the first guy from the latest Sherlock Holmes movie.  Great movie.  Hooks = Ouch.

This guy is my least favorite, and will probably get a change. 

Here is the aberation with a scissor-hand.  It is magnetized in case I want to switch out his weapon.  

 I like the way this guy turned out.  He will have a wych braid of hair out the back.

 For the liquifier grotesque, I wanted it to look like he had a great vat of disgusting stuff on his back that he was spraying out of the liquifier.  I may put enemy parts out the top of it, as though he is blending them up and spraying them on his foe.

 

 And a family shot with the half-painted wrack cousins for scale.

 They still need some work.  All of their heads are held on with plasti-tac, and I am debating on making a meat backpack for them.  I kinda like them the way they are, but like what Lucky 5 did over at eye of terror.  Thanks again to lucky for sharing the idea.  He is the mastermind behind these guys.

Talos WIP part 2

 

Here is my magnetized, assembled Talos.  The lighting isn't the best. I magnetized both arms with large magnets at the shoulders, and smaller magnets in the elbow.  The tail is magnetized, and so is the gun on the forearm.  I made the custom chain flails with the hook close combat weapon, 2 chains from a venom, and two chains from the raider sprue.  I think the hook weapon looks good with all the chains and hooks.  The gun mount came to me after I tried to mount it on the top of the carapace, on a tail tentacle, and a couple of other failure locations.  The arm looks pretty cool.  Just need to green stuff the hole on the top of the guns.

 You can see I mounted the talos top bony, injector thing on the underside of his legs.  Looks a lot like a spur on a fighting rooster.  May name him Foghorn Leghorn.

 Here are some changes I made to Brutus.  I gave him an extra tentacle arm, mounted the gun up high, and magnetized his arms a bit more. 

 I added a wrack close combat weapon on his left too.  Now to try a web way portal list.  2 Talos, reavers, scourges, big wyche squads, wracks, and probably some beasts.

1750 list and Dark Eldar Tactica thoughts

Our local group had a great tournament on Saturday.  I wasn't able to play the whole day, but came down as a fill in for one of the rounds my list was:

Asbrudel Vect

Haemonculus: Agonizer, liquifier gun
Haemonculus: 2 venom blades, liquifier gun
Haemonculus: 2 venom blades, liquifier gun

6 Wyches, Haywire Grenades, Hekatrix, Raider w/ Flickerfield
6 Wyches, Haywire Grenades, Hekatrix, Raider w/ Flickerfield
6 Wyches, Haywire Grenades, Hekatrix, Raider w/ Flickerfield
5 Wracks Liquifier, Acothyst w/ Hexrifle Venom 2 Splinter Cannons
5 Wracks Liquifier, Acothyst w/ Hexrifle Venom 2 Splinter Cannons
5 Warriors Blaster, Venom 2 Splinter Cannons

Ravager 3 dark lances, w/ Flickerfield
Ravager 3 dark lances, w/ Flickerfield
Ravager 3 dark lances, w/ Flickerfield

One thing I like to do to make life simple, give EVERYONE flickerfields.  No need to try to remember who has 'em and who doesn't. 

The Tournament was set up well and was a lot of fun.  This was the list I made when I thought I could possibly make it.  Two out of three missions were objective bases, so I brought a lot of troops.  I ended up ruining a Tyranid player's day.  He had a good list, and was a good player, but I ended up winning 3 objectives held by me, and one contested. 

A few things I have learned about my list and Dark Eldar in general.  I have found that, in true Dark Eldar style,  you can play some mind games with the dark kin.

1.  WYCHES ROCK.   Fleet, combat drugs, 4+ invulnerable in CC, Feel no Pain (with the Haemy attached), plasma grenades, haywires and hekatrix,  these ladies are great.  They can take out armor with their grenades, and are great against everybody in CC.  I have found the only wyche weapon I really like is the shardnet and impaler.  I usually don't take them though, because I would rather have another wyche than the special weapon, and I like to shoot their splinter pistols on the way in, if needed.  I find I get more out of the pistol and an extra wyche, than the special weapons. The 4+ dodge save is Demoralizing for the opponent.  It says, "I don't care you have lightning claws, bone swords, etc., sorry you only killed 1 wyche."  Very Demoralizing.  The haywire grenades ruin a tank commander's day too.  Love the ladies. 

2.  Asbrudel Vect is pure mean with a side order of mean.  Also very demoralizing.  He has a very reliable way to get wounds back, his base stats are amazing, and wargear keeps him alive.  In this battle he took out a tervigon-prime combo, 5 genestealers and a hive guard.  He is a beast.

3.  Venom Raider combo.  I really like having Venoms full of less effective troops, and raiders with the more effective troops.  Usually opponents will focus on taking out the venoms because they put out so many shots.  Then your raiders are safe to do what you want with the real threat once the ravagers, venoms, and raiders have softened everyone up.  Then you can swoop in on turn 2-4 and take the objectives leaving the opponent with no one left to stop you.

4.  TROOPS, TROOPS, TROOPS.  Whenever I build a list, I try to fit in some Incubi, scourges, reavers, trueborn, etc, but always ask, "why take them, when I can take some awesome troops with the abilities to kill stuff AND claim objectives."  Its great to do a lot of flying around shooting stuff for turn 1 and 2, and then jump on the objectives with your intact skimmers full of troops.  Many times I have picked up a warrior, wrack or Wyche squad with a venom or raider, and turbo boosted over to an objective. ( I know you can't move flat out the turn you pick someone up, but 12" is still a pretty far move AFTER the troops move in to embark)

5.  Hexrifles are fun and demoralizing.  I know that they aren't reliable, but they are scary for your opponent.
They are also great that the Acothyst can carry it WITH his standard 2, 4+ poison weapons.  He doesn't have to replace anything, just carries it on a holster when not in use.  Its nice to be able to reach out and hurt someone from 36" inches away if your venom ride has gone down, or only moves 6".
Saturday I was very lucky, and my acothyst hit, rolled a rending 6 to wound, and his Trygon Prime was nice enough to roll a 6 for his wound test, turning into an awesome, crystal, Trygon statue.  My whole Dark Eldar army got a picture with it after the battle.  They are trying to tow it back to commoragh in one piece.  The Acothyst, of course, got the crystal head to stand on during battle.  Great shot Bro!

6. Skimmers rock.  Its also pretty intimidating to see 9 skimmers sitting across from you.  Many people came up to us as the game was starting and commented on all the skimmers.  Psychology does start to play a role, and people get into react mode, and forget their gameplan, leaving them open to your nefarious plans.

Dark Eldar are a lot of fun.  I love the new models, the new rules, and how they released everything so quickly.  GW did a great job on this army.  Now, LETS SEE THE VOIDRAVEN!

Talos WIP part 1

 

Here is my latest creation.  I felt like if any 40k model would be unique, it would be the talos.  I liked the floating original, but wanted a Talos with legs.  I thought that the Haemonculi designers would like the talos on stilts.  I could see them laughing when the monstrosity fell over, and struggled to get back up on its pointy feet.  He looks kinda like an attack chicken.  I will definitely magnetize the tail and arms. 

 

 You can see he has borrowed some painted parts from his finished brother.

 And he is half held together with plasti-tac.  Great stuff.

 I may move the tail gun up to a shoulder mount on a smaller tentacle, and add the chronos tentacles out the back.  I like that look a little better than having the large talos tail with the gun on it. 

And next to the original.  He is a bit taller which is bad for gaming, but I like the look of him.  I have switched around the magnetization and build of the original a little. He's almost done painting.

Magnetized Ork Nobz / Flash Gitz / Lootas

 Royce gave me some magnets for my birthday, and now I don't know what I ever did before magnets. I bought bits for 10 nobz minus the heads because I'm using ork pirate heads from MaxMini. My plan is to use the nobz for Flash gitz, regular nobs, or Lootas. I'm not a big fan of the regular lootas, but their weapons are cool. Now I just need finish off the last five and paint these suckers.

 Here is my magnetized Terminator.

Female Haemonculus Conversion Painted

I really like the way this model came out.  I finally decided that she needs a light base to contrast the dark of her paint job.  The arms are all magnetized so she can have all kinds of different weapons.  I like how the double venom blades work in games.  The liquifier gun came out pretty cool too.  I really like the different shades of brown, with metal trim, and just a little red. 

The cloak/cape I really wanted to look like worn and dirty leather.  I originally painted it black, then drybrushed, washed and wet-blended every brown paint and ink I have onto it.

The liquifier came out pretty nice.  I painted it mechrite red, followed by blood red.  the highlight on the 'half-full' look is Iyanden Dark sun for the top yellow, then 50/50 Iyanden with mechrite red, and then pure mechrite red.  If you place the yellow first, then the mix as close as possible to the yellow edge, and the the mechrite, you can get some great blending and very thin lines. 

Quick battle report Dark Eldar vs Blood Angels

Saturday I played a great game against some blood angels.  Mission was the custom mission for the campaign from last post.  My Dark Eldar did an amazing job.  Sorry no pics.  It was a quick battle between basketball game and birthday party for my son.

My list was:

Haemonculus  +1 initiative Agonizer, liquifier gun (+1 toughness on the Haemy,  The upgrades were from past battles XP we have been running for the campaign and the special weapon from last battle.)

Heamonculus 2 venom blades, liquifier gun

7 Wyches Haywire grenades, razorflails, Hekatrix with agonizer
7 Wyches Haywire grenades, razorflails, Hekatrix with agonizer
7 Wracks 1 liquifier gun

5 scourges, 2 haywire blasters

Talos pain engine, chain flails, extra CC weapon, twin linked haywire blaster.

748 points (if I remember correctly)

no transports for the army as in the mission they are in 4 armor 12 barracks.  The marines get first turn and can come in from any table edge.  Dark Eldar are a fish in the barrel to start.  Barracks are #1 in NW corner, #2 NE corner, #3 SE corner, and #4 in the SW corner.

His list:

Reclusiarch 
5 death company, fist and power weapon
las cannon razorback

5 assault marines
las cannon razorback

Typhoon land speeder
Death company dreadnought.
750 points or so.

Turn 1

So I started a Haemonculi and wyches each in barracks 1 and 2, barracks 2 having my target HQ (target for the marines) wracks in barracks #3 and scourges in #4.  The talos went in to barracks 2 with the hq.

He brought a lascannon razorback on the north and south board edge, with the 5 man marine squad on foot walking up to each barrak #1 and #4.   The Death company dread came on the eastern edge, and the typhoon on the west edge.  Each vehicle fired at a separate barracks, but only #3 with the scourges exploded, killing two scourges in the explosion.  Nothing else to do for the marines.

So that wasn't so bad.  Marines lined up just where I want them.  Cue the Chorus of cackling Dark Eldar.

The wyches from Barrack #1 (NW) jump out of the barracks ready to attack the death company and reclusiarch, the wracks from #3 lined up for some liquifier fun on the assault marines.  The Talos came out to play and faced off between the buildings lining up against the death company dreadnought and the typhoon in the distance.

Shooting saw the scourges hit twice with their haywire blasters, get one glance and one pen and explode the dreadnought.  The Talos shot his haywire blaster at the typhoon and stunned it.  Then the wracks sprayed some ap1 special wrack juice on the assault squad, killing 3.  The assault squad then failed morale and headed for the hills.  The wyches fired at the death company, but all the wounds were saved.

In close combat, the hekatrix took two wounds off the reclusiarch, and killed another death company, while the other wyches dropped another death company marine.  The Death company killed 2 wyches, and passed their 2 fearless saves.

Lots of rolls went my way that round.  Dropping the death company dreadnought, ap1 liquifier and some good hekatrix rolling really paid off.  

Turn 2

The assault marines regrouped and moved toward the wracks.  The razorbacks lined up shots on the talos, the death company was locked in combat, and the typhoon was stunned.  Two lascannon hits rocked the talos, but then failed to wound.  The assault squad shot the wracks and assaulted.  I think 2 death company died, and 2 wyches died, then 1 wrack died in assault.

Dark eldar

The wyches with the Target Haemy came out of building #2 in the NE corner and ran towards the typhoon.  The Scourges shook a razorback.  Close combat saw another wrack fall, and the death company and wyches trade a death each.  The wyches exploded the typhoon with their haywire grenades.

It looks like things are really going my way now.  The talos can open up on either razorback, the wyches should handle the death company, and the wracks should finish the assault squad.

At this point, my opponent's dice really started to betray him, (they had already been horrible) and mine continued to work for me.  The next few turns saw the wracks finish the last assault marine, the wyches finish the death company, but the reclusiarch finishing off the last of the wyches.  He ran and hid from the second squad of wyches.  The scourges and Talos tag-teamed a razorback with haywire blasters, and then the game ended.

KP Dark Eldar- Death company dread, typhoon, razorback, assault squad, death company. 5 
KP Blood Angels- 1 squad of wyches and 1 Haemy 2

Everything seemed to go well for me this battle.  I really like wyches in CC, and agonizers work great for me against marines.  Haywire blasters are fun and effective.  I really needed an agonizer on a wrack acothyst.  I am loving dark eldar.