Benmannens Dark Eldar

Retro Mandrakes

So I've been playing with a lot of the least attractive choices in the Dark Eldar codex, and I figured I would give Mandrakes a try again.

And to my surprise they have been awesome. They do need to start with a Haemonculus for the shooting attack to be activated from the beginning. But it's awesome to Outflank them. With all that S4 AP4 shooting and 5+ inv & FnP they are a serious threat, especially with a Heami with a Liquifier Gun.

They have been my MVPs in every game they have been in!

Here they are, my first unit of ten:

Retro Scourges

I've been posting a lot on a Swedish Forum with the progress of my Retro Dark Eldar, but I'm back at it here as well. Just a quick update. I just painted up some Scourges, gonna try a unit of 7 with two Haywire Blasters. I'm a bit tempted to try them as Anti-Infantry with just Splinter Carbines.

I just got another 10 on Ebay :)

Webway Portal pimped with LED lighting effects

I'm going to a tournament next weekend and finished up everything with my army several weeks in advance. So I figured something completely unnecessary would be nice to add to it. I've never used a soldering iron before. And never messed with small LED lights... A quick trip to a hardware store and a quick tutorial by a staff member supplied me with the know how and the stuff needed... Kinda...

I had a spare Vortex Grenade template to repaint and use as the portal. The guy in the store said a 9v square battery would power 4 small less, turned out it barely powered three, and I ended up using only two...

It's even got an on/off switch! I connected it wrong and the battery must have been shortcutting. It got HOT quick. Trial and error. I superglued the battery to the base and green stuffed everything else, so this is pretty much a one-use-only portal... I hope the battery lasts for 6 games :) Probably not...

Check out the images below. No paint job at all. I just made some streaks with gloss varnish and it's suspended 3-4 mm over the table so the light leaks out nicely from below.

Retro Harlequins

I signed up for Swedens best 40k tournament: GothCon. Taking place at the end of march in Gothenburg.

I've been torn of what to play. I was tempted to try an allies list with Eldar as the main force, and Dark Eldar as the allies. Although Eldar is a very popular allie and they use subjective comp scoring at this tournament, so I figured I would show off my collection of good old Retro Dark Eldar :)

And I'd like to throw in some Harlequins. As you might have read preciously on this blog, I do have a bunch painted. Over 40 of the newer kind :) So I figured I would get some of the old style. A unit of 7 with a Death Jester and a Shadowseer.

I found 6 at a local store and a pretty cool Death Jester on Ebay. My other Harlequins are quite monochromatic so these will be FLASHY! Yellow jumpsuits, pink tights and lots of hearts and patterns! I will paint them one at a time.

Here's the first dancer finished:

Retro twin Sybarites

The old metal Sybarites are a little bit too "HQ" looking but I guess even Sybarites would be quite stylish... And they look like they are equipped with some kind of poisonous weapon which is perfect for representing my Venom Blade equipped Sybarites.

What's on Benmannens desk right now: Retro Hellions conversion

Hellions seem a lot better in 6th ed. And the Baron is a great deal so I decided to collect a bunch of old ugly Green Goblin Hellions. It was trickier and more expensive than I thought. They were so bad in the old codex that few played them, and it didn't help that they were considered butt-ugly. If someone used them they ususally had a small unit of five or so. Which means noone actually had a lot of them, they must have been one of the worst selling models in the Dark Eldar range.

They can be found on ebay but go for a lot more than they should... I got my hands on about 16 of them, and started to glue them together. And painted up a test model. It was REALLY uninspiring. They look very similar and the hair is just too much. Ever for a circus army like mine.

So I went back to the old fluff and tried with Wyches glued on instead. It actually looks good! They cannot use Hellglaives though. They are too oversized for them. It looks strange, so I'll just keep them as is and hope nooone objects.

And the Baron is in the works. I've got an old Sybarite that might do the job.

The Soul Reaver

Don't know if you have heard about of this one, but it's a new adventure module for the 40k role playing game.

I don't play it and have no idea how the system works, but figured it would be a fun read. Or at least have some nice illustrations for inspiration.

WIP Retro Venom

I haven't posted in ages. Life came in between again but I am slowly getting back to production mode again.

I've given up the list restriction I had for the Retro list. It would be fun to add the new stuff but still try to build it all with only old pieces.

The first one is a Venom. I had an old Raven Strike Fighter with too many layers of paint on it. It's front got sacrificed, same with a built Vyper. Did a head swap on the pilot and magnetsed 3 Warriors on it.

2 will have Splinter Cannons to represent the Venoms Splinter Cannons and the third one is to represent a Warrior unit embarked.

Retro Reavers

A quick post of 3 Reavers for my Retro Army. The list is changing a little bit, but I think I'll always keep a small unit of Reavers in it.

They got pimped with racing stripes, I don't seem to be able to paint a single model without it these days :)

Raven Strike Fighter for the Retro kabal

Here's another add-on to the Retro list. I repainted one of my four Raven Strike figher to fit into the daaaark color scheme of the Retro army. I've got to swap out the flyer base.

Scourges got fired even before their first appearance on the battlefield. I dropped them and a warrior to be able to fit the Raven in. It seems very overprice, but maybe 6th ed will fix that. Guess we will know soon :)

Retro Beastmasters and Warp Beasts (Khymerae)

Here's a couple of pictures of my first completely finished unit for the Retro Kabal. I've actually started to like the old stuff more and more. The range got a lot of charm. Even the pig looking Warp Beasts...

I only had one spare Skyboard, but it was actually better to put one on foot, now they don't look identical... I wish there were more Beastmaster models. I'll have todo as everyone else and use a Wyche.

It's begun!

So I have started the retro project I mentioned in the previous post.

I was hesitant at fist, and had to try a test model first. It came out great. Dark and not at all as I remembered the warriors... It's nice and skinny, the helmet is big but not comically big (but close). I added a simple lightning effect to the eyes that sold it to me. This could actually become a cool army. Or at least in my eyes :)

Basing would be crucial. I had to come up with a cool basing concept. I have armies with rocky bases, green grass, dead grass, brown grass, snow and mud. So I had to stay away from those... I had a bunch of yellow grass, and thought that some of the new Vampire Counts skeleton plastics could be used for basing. Just stick some skeleton parts on the base and flock it with yellow grass. That turned out after a few attempts to be a great contrast color to the dark paint job of the mini.

My local gaming group had a flea market recently and I got some great deals at it. The old Dark Eldar is not even worth anything as scrap metal :) So for very little money I got between 2000 and 3000ps of minis! I even purchased 5 Hellions, and those are a bit rare. They were so crappy and expensive to buy that few had more than 5 or 6 of them. I got 3 more off an Ebay auction the other day so I'm up to 8 at least, so they are fieldable...

I've painted up 10 Warriors and 3 Wracks, and I have to say that I have really started to like them. I appreciate they inbred, decadent, dark and horrific feel of the sculpting. The do, much more than the current range, feel like a race thats is dying, stuck in old ways, with old technology, dying because they are killing themselves.

So I'll keep working on it. The list is not very competitive but could be fun to field. It's a quite standard list with a little bit of everything. Probably not enough vehicles and anti-tank but it's got some.

A new (old) possible project

I saw a really old army being played at a tournament last year. Some guy who just didn't care to upgrade to the latest collection of minis, and I don't think it was because he liked the old stuff better, the whole army was badly painted and quite banged up. He was a gamer, not a painter...

But it was very inspiring to see the old stuff being fielded. As a buddy said when I told him about my project, great, why not paint up the ugliest range GW has ever produced... Something along those lines.

You have probably guessed what I'm about to do. I've dug through all my bitz boxes and have found a lot of old stuff. I probably have about half an army, 8-900ps or so. All I need are a couple quick purchases and I'm ready to go.

So how can I make i different from my current army? And why would you do it?

Well a challenge would be to create an army list ONLY using troops that existed in the old codex. So no Trueborn, no Bloodbrides, no cronos and so on. If I use beasts, I can on field Khymerae, they are the closest unit type in the new codex. Wracks are Grotesques.

Before I commit to this I'm going to build a few Warriors and paint them. Basing will be very important, since one of the rules will be that I cannot convert them at all! They all have to be stock and in the exact poses GW cast them.

I was thinking of making skeleton bases. Skeleton parts in mud, and some simple flock. Jungle theme was one idea, and that might contrast well to the b&w color scheme I will go with. Maybe I'll try them both.

So here we go. Time to bring out the stuff GW made in the previous millennia :)

Finecast Wracks

I finished painting my new Wracks. I went with a bit of a striped muscly look... Came out so nice that I have to tailor a new list to be able to field them all. And I got me another box of them... Bringing the total up to 15. I might make 1 or 2 champs with Venom Blades...

So if anyone wants to buy my Krootesques let me know, I have 15 of them, 3 with Liquifier Guns.

Cronos Parasite Engine x 2

The twins are ready for some testgaming. I suspect they are as most things, a lot better in multiples. I've tried to field a single Cronos and it did not do as well as a Talos. So I'll give them a serious try. I might throw in a third one or add a Talos to soak up some damage with and keep the heat off the twins...

What's on Benmannens desk right now: Finecast Wracks

I broke down and bought two boxes of Wracks, I felt like my old Wracks/Krootesques was part of an older generation of my army so to say and I sadly had to retire them.

So I got me 10 of them, I didn't like them at all when they first came out, but I have changed my mind. They are quite small, the Finecast as usual is not the best. Lots of miscast detailing but acceptable. I stripped all the regular Wracks of their big spine backpacks and just left them on the Liquifier Gun operators...

So halfway painted as you can see below. I also altered my Angry Hornet list to fit them in. I basically swapped out the Blaster Warrior units for two units of Wracks, and added a 10 man Warrior unit for some more scoring.

1750p Angry Hornet v1.1

HQ

Baron Sathonyx

Haemonculus Ancient
Webway Portal, Casket of Flensing, Venom Blade

TROOPS

15 Hellions
Helliarch

20 Warriors
Sybarite w Venom Blade
1 Blaster, 2 Splinter Cannons

10 Warriors
Sybarite
1 Splinter Cannon, 1 Blaster

5 Wracks 60
Liquifier Gun 10
Total 60

5 Wracks 60
Liquifier Gun 10
Total 60

FAST ATTACK

9 Reavers
Arena Champion w Venom Blade
3 Heatlances

6 Scourges
Solarite
2 Haywire Blasters

6 Scourges
Solarite
2 Haywire Blasters

HEAVY SUPPORT

Cronos Parasite Engine
Spirit Vortex

Cronos Parasite Engine
Spirit Vortex

Army total: 1748

Angry Hornet list v1.0

I painted up a bunch of Scourges and Hellions a while back and tried them a little but not enough. I liked them both but didn't really had a list built to take advantage of them properly.

The Baron has always performed well, he is quite cheap and adds a fun element to the army. I haven't tried a Haemonculus Ancient yet. 30p more for some increased stats and also make the Casket of Flensing a nice choice for him. BS5 will make it a lot more reliable, as random as it already is.

So a list all on foot is the plan. A web way portal is always nice to mess with your opponents mind and plans, the Baron will let me decide who goes first about 70% of the times and I really have to give the Cronos Pain Engine one more serious go. It performed quite bad the last times I have tried it. So to really know I have to use 2 of them. 2 regular Talos is probably better and I can find points to upgrade them to that later, but distributing Pain Token to this army will be a great thing. But as often is, what looks good on paper sucks on the battlefield :)

The list has a decent scoring that includes a large unit of Warriors that will take the centerfield and soak up lots of antiinfantry shooting... Hopefully.

I will start playtesting it soon and post the results. I only need to build one more Cronos, the rest is all done already :)

This is the force:

1750p Angry Hornet v1.0

HQ

Baron Sathonyx

Haemonculus Ancient
Webway Portal, Casket of Flensing, Venom Blade

TROOPS

16 Hellions
Helliarch

6 Hellions
Helliarch

20 Warriors
Sybarite w Venom Blade
1 Blaster, 2 Splinter Cannons

6 Warriors
1 Blaster

6 Warriors
1 Blaster

FAST ATTACK

9 Reavers
Arena Champion w Venom Blade
3 Heatlances

6 Scourges
Solarite
2 Haywire Blasters

6 Scourges
Solarite
2 Haywire Blasters

HEAVY SUPPORT

Cronos Parasite Engine
Spirit Vortex

Cronos Parasite Engine
Spirit Vortex

Army total: 1748

Asdruabel Vect's Dais of Destruction

It's finally finished. A dark simple paint job as usual. The crew is bald, and Vect has as mentioned below a wig on... I'm a bit tempted right now to paint up a retro army.

Only old ugly Hellions, warriors and a bunch of Raiders. The old Grotesques were quite hideous too so they might qualify.

Anyway, here it is. The Dark Lances and Vect are magnetized. And you might ask, where are the slave girls... I decided not to add them, I just couldn't paint them in a fitting manner, I might try again with a monochrome paint job...

Who has the biggest wig in the universe?

Here's Asdrubael Vect finished. And does he have an impressive wig. That's gotta be the biggest hairdo in the 40k universe!

The Dais of Destruction is next. If I don't finish my new Voidraven Bomber :)

Vect on tour!

Asdrubael Vect is coming to your town soon, at least if you live in Stockholm, Sweden... Look for the posters!

I've run out of stuff to paint. I finished my Eldar army I posted about and some other small almost done projects... And then I found this below. Asdrubael Vects Dais of Destruction! I think I posted about it a while back and then I stuck in a foam layer and forgot about it.

Out of sight out of mind.

But I'm back at it. The only problem is creating Vect on foot. I had an extra sitting Vect but the scult is slumped in a weird way so I couldn't figure out how to make stand taller without destroying the mini.

Out comes the good old "Dark Eldar Lord". The one with the huuuuge helmet and funny face mask. The sculpt actually looks a bit like the Vect mini if he has dressed up bit more.

I cut off two parts of his helmet at stuck them on the Lord. Done. Almost done. His right arm is gone. Guess that's an opportunity to create the Sceptre or the Orbs he is carrying around in his right hand.

Vect is out for blood during the next few weeks! Beware club members!

Two pics of him magnetized to the Dais and halfway done on foot: