Eye of Error

MWC Conversion Contest Deadline 3 weeks away! New Prizes added!

2012-02-27T06:40:00.000-08:00

The MWC 40K Vehicle Conversion Contest deadline is 3 weeks away! March 16th.

So what's the deal?

We have full info in THIS POST

What will you win?

Well have collected a ton of great prizes form various hobby companies! Hitech Miniatures, Kabuki Models, VoodooWorx, Secret Weapon Miniatures and Wargames Factory.

There will be Miniatures, Gift Certificates and much, much more cool swag all wrapped up into 4 Tight Prize Packages for 1st, 2nd, 3rd place voted by the public and an Honorable Mention voted on by the staff.

There will also be a category for Staff Entries, but we won't be winning anything.

1st Place

$100 Gift Certificate to Kabuki Models!!!!!!!

1 Model voucher to Hitech Miniatures (Can be redeemed for any model)

PLUS a $25 Gift Certificate to Secret Weapon Miniatures

2nd Place

$25 Gift Certificate to a FLGS

1 Model voucher to Hitech Miniatures (Can be redeemed for any model)

PLUS a $25 Gift Certificate to Secret Weapon Miniatures

3rd Place

$15 Gift Certificate to VoodooWorx

1 Model voucher to Hitech Miniatures (Can be redeemed for any model)

Honorable Mention / Staff Pick

This is a new category we've added. A judges choice.

Winner will receive a $25 Gift Certificate to Wargames Factory

I made it into GW's blog!

2012-02-17T08:22:00.000-08:00

Just a little personal horn tooting.... I made it into GW's blog today with my DE Scourges.

What's New Today

I promise I'll be back real soon with new content!

Miniature Wargames Conversions - Conversion Contest this Month!

2012-02-04T19:01:00.000-08:00

I'm spreading the word for a contest my fellow writers and I are hosting over at MWC.

Go check it out!!!

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Are these Doldrum Winter Months getting you down?

Do you have the Post Holiday Blues in the worst way?

Feel like you are loosing your Hobby Mojo

and need a kick in the arse to get it back?

Well look no further cause we have an

Awesome Hobby Contest for you!

The Brand New

Miniature Wargame Conversion Contest!

So what's the deal?

Here it is: This is a Warhammer 40k Vehicle Conversion Contest. If it's in any Codex or Forge World publication, has an Armour Facing Value and is designed for use in a 2000pt army, it's eligible.

Show us your Coolest Pimped Out Tanks, your most Unusual Walkers, your most Venerable Dreadnoughts, your Wickedest Flyers or anything else you can think of just as long as it is a vehicle. No Infantry, Monsters, Daemons or nurglings allowed. Also, no superheavies (Sorry Guardsmen)

What are we looking for?

Conversion Skillz! We want to see your greenstuff sculpting, use of plasticard, splicing of pieces, kitbashing and out-of-the-box thinking. Only UNPAINTED entries will be accepted. If it's painted we won't enter it...Period.

Who will be voting?

You will! The vote will be public like out past contests open to EVERYONE. But seriously if you cheat..we will find you, we have in the past and we will again.

What will you win?

Well we are in the process of collecting a ton of great prizes form various hobby companies! Hitech Miniatures, Kabuki Models, VoodooWorx and Secret Weapon Miniatures are onboard with virtual vouchers and other goodies as well as a FLGS with a gift certificate. There will be Miniatures, Gift Certificates and much, much more cool swag all wrapped up into 3 Tight Prize Packages for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place and even a sweet 4th place runner up prize voted on by the staff. There will also be a category for Staff Entries, but we won't be winning anything. There will be an updated post with more prize information as we gather it in the near future.

Currently what we have for Prize support is:

(We are currently figuring out where SWM would best fit but most likely into first place. The prizes listed below are confirmed. It is very likely more will be added before the contest actual begins.)

1st Place

$100 Gift Certificate to Kabuki Models!!!!!!!

1 Model voucher to Hitech Miniatures (Can be redeemed for any model)

2nd Place

$25 Gift Certificate to a FLGS

1 Model voucher to Hitech Miniatures (Can be redeemed for any model)

3rd Place

$15 Gift Certificate to VoodooWorx

1 Model voucher to Hitech Miniatures (Can be redeemed for any model)

What do you need to send us?

No more than 4 pictures of your masterpiece along with the banner at the top of this article printed out an photographed in one image (for security purposes).We are also willing to accept your conversion in front of your computer screen with the contest page in the background.

Send Image files (high resolution preferably) only along with a short description of your conversion to HERE We will contact you via your submission email after voting has been tallied.

What are you waiting for?

Put on your thinking caps and break out your hobby knives! You have until March 16th to get us pictures of your conversions! Voting will begin a few day afterward.

A More detailed explanation of the rules can be found in THIS POST

Now go spread the word! The more entries we have the more likely this will become a regular thing.

Airbrushing Deux Razorwings - A Tutorial

2012-01-26T10:33:00.000-08:00

My first article for MWC will be a step-by-step of how I painted my pair of Razorwings featured below.

More final pics can be found HERE

Preparation

First whenever you are working on large projects like these preplanning is everything. It saves time, makes the project flow more smoothly and for me personally stops my head from spinning.

I break each project down into sub-assemblies. In this case there was the core vehicles, the bases, the pilots, the missiles and the jet exhausts. You'll notice certain pieces I mount on popsicle sticks so it makes it easier for me to batch paint the pieces at one time rather than separately. I lay out all the sub-assemblies with all the colors needed for each section in advance so I can visualize how I will paint each section in color succession.

Note: All my airbrush colors are Vallejo Air, they simply are the best pre-mixed airbrush paints out there…period. I don't use a name brand airbrush, just a simple top feed dual action. Top feed for easy paint mixing and less waste and dual action because that allows you to control not only the pressure of the airbrush but the diameter of the spray pattern. This allows you to go from a strong 2" wide spray down to something pencil thin and light width. Great for various model detailing.

Subassembly 1 - Bases

I laid down the base color of Vallejo Air Pale Blue Grey, followed by a splotchy coat of Random Tan and then a highlight color of US Grey Light sprayed at a 45 angle. This breaks up the color instantly adds shading and highlighting.

I follow this with a dry brush of Dheneb Stone then a light wash of Graveyard Earth followed another lighter Dheneb stone dry brush.

After these few simple steps I already have very dynamically textured statue ruins. From here it's just a matter of detailing a few skulls and adding grass and leaves.

Subassembly 2 - Pilots / Cockpits

To achieve an OSL effect in the cockpits is simple if you know the tricks. It's not nearly as complicated as it looks and has tremendous effect visually.

I start by taking the pilots already primed black and giving them a blast of Vallejo Bright Camo Green on the front. This is designed to simulate the glow of the console on them. I then add a drop of yellow to the green already in the airbrush and give them a second lighter blast to create a light center.

After they dried I washed them with diluted Thraka Green to emphasis the shadows. I also hand painted some shadows where I felt the airbrush over sprayed. I then hand painted some fine details onto the consoles & gems with a green/yellow mix.

Subassembly 3 - The Main Hull

The hull is a gradient of red tones sprayed in such a way as to emphasis the contours of the craft. The formula is this start with Vallejo Model AIr Camouflage Medium Brown -> Hull Red -> Fire Red -> Italian Red -> Light Red (and you thought the ship was just 1 shade of red huh?)

Each subsequent color is sprayed on the more protruding areas of the ship leaving the dark colors in the shadows. Any areas that got over sprayed with a lighter red by accident I went back in an re-shadowed with a darker color on a narrow brush setting at low pressure. After drying I lightly airbrushed black onto the side exhaust vents for a gritty effect.

Subassembly 4 - Jet Exhaust

These are extremely easy, quick and effective not only to paint but to add instant atmosphere to the models. I used Armorcast Large Lazer Muzzle effects, sprayed with Vallejo AIr French Blue, then Light Sea Blue around the "Bulb" of the muzzle effect. I then blasted it with white from the rear to simulate the "hot spot" of the blast. The final touch is a light dry brush of white around the bulb to emphasis the ridges.

While I was spraying the blue on the bulb I also sprayed the same blue on the rear of the engines and the tips of back wings closest to the exhaust.

The Final Touches

There were several final touches added. I used some blood red for a thin armour highlight then painted some subtle armor chips with a Dark Brown mix and blood red highlight to simulate paint chipping.

I hand painted the tribal areas on the wings and nose, which are way easier than they might seem. I pencil in the sections right on top of the model then paint. In the case of the white tribal on the hull, stippled a red mix lightly overtop to simulate weathering. The missiles were mostly hand painted with the exception of the blue icy gradient on the Shatterfield missiles which was painted the same way the exhausts were.

Grass and Leaves on the bases were added, Gemstones were painted The canopy was detailed and glued in place with PVA and final details were added on the weapons. Once everything was detailed I glued all the subassemblies together and sat back to relish the final painted models (at least I sat back for about a day before I started my next project!)

DONE!

Hope everyone enjoyed this article! Stay tuned, I have many more in the works!

242 for 242!

2012-01-22T16:42:00.000-08:00

I hit 242 followers! Well that's pretty awesome and to celebrate here's an awesome Front 242 video! "We believe in...We believe in...the future of the Human Race..."

Dark Eldar Batwing Scourges

2012-01-21T09:59:00.000-08:00

Here is one of my newest units for the dark kin, a squad of all bat winged scourges.

I chose to paint them in the same scheme as my Asdrubael Vect & Court minis and then expand upon them with a new technique for painting batwings.

I tried to achieve a semi-translucent membrane effect with the wings. Not sure if it worked 100%, but I was still happy with the final outcome. I plan to try the method again in larger scale on my Dark Eldar Black Dragon. I'm hoping to improve upon it then and eventually post a tutorial.

I also tried to airbrush an OSL effect on all the back vials. This is something I will try to repeat and improve on when I paint my Grotesques in the near future as well.

Deux Razorwings!

2012-01-15T19:38:00.001-08:00

Here's a Pair of Razorwings that I finished this weekend. I decided to go with a new scheme for the Cult of Red Death. I will be using this scheme again on 30+ Wyches I'm working on as well as a flock of reavers.

A detailed step by step tutorial will be available on MWC in a few days. For now, enjoy the pics :)

Dark Eldar Mandrake Proxies

2012-01-04T08:13:00.000-08:00

Considering that I'm burning through the DE Codex making almost every unit in there I decided it was time to branch out a bit and make some more custom units.

I was reading the section on Mandrake history and came across the passage about how they might have been Eldar that experimented a bit too heavily with the Dark Arts. This got me thinking about making a sorcery type of unit. Spellcasters that have been disfigured by a misfortunate magical accident and are now stuck in some sort of limbo serving as assassins from the shadows.

Their heads and baleblasts would glow like a green version of Ghost Rider
whilst they emerge from the shadows like Shijima from Ninja Scroll.

Rules wise, in order to make these guys playable I would treat them as Mandrakes …but I'm more of a converter/painter than I am a gamer so I decided to not get too hung up on the aspect that they could be something more than just Mandrakes.

Dark Eldar Grotesque Conversions

2011-12-27T08:02:00.000-08:00

So if you are a DE enthusiast out, then you are probably tired of the Break Dancing Bigfoot that GW shamelessly dropped the ball on hard.

I spent hours debating on how I could make a theme appropriate unit of Grotesques. I was thinking the Rat Ogre route, then the Chaos Spawn route..but none of them seemed like a 100% great fit. All of them lacked the goth, man-corset,bondage, S&M stylishness of the Wrack figures.

Then I saw these guys, Hordes Everblight Warspears. Instantly I thought they were a perfect match due to how similar their armor is to GW's Wracks (which are awesome models despite the fact they are Finecast). The Warspears turned out to be the perfect size for an ogre type of unit so the rest was cake really.

What I did was use a ton of Talos bits and green stuff to make the conversions. On two of them it turned out to be an incredibly happy accident that the Warspear arms and Talos arms are identical in width around the bicep. This made converting so much easier. For each figure I sculpted the head and back first from green stuff, then added the appropriate plastic bits afterward to render each grotesque unique.

Once they are all painted, I'm sure the Wracks and Grotesques will look unified together on the field.

SideNote: I've joined the ranks of the MWC crew thanks to a gracious invite from Matt over there. My intro article should be up soon and in the next coming weeks I'll be having tutorial based articles going up. Exciting!

Asdrubael Vect and his Court Painted!

2011-12-21T09:38:00.001-08:00

This has been a long time coming. I finally finished my custom Vect figure and his adjacent court. These are the first figures I've painted in over 4 months, ever since my son was born.
I figured it was time to get back in the saddle.

WIP shots of Vect can be found HERE

WIP shots of the court can be found HERE

All these figures have my own take on the Black Heart scheme mixed in with my preexisting proclivities towards certain colors when pertaining to the Dark Kin (AKA Warlock Purple to subtly tie in the Slaanesh aspect). I airbrushed the weapons blue glow as well as the Medusae eye glow and Lhamheans poison canisters on their backs. Anywhere where skin was showing I tinted it with purple to keep in theme with my previous DE.

Asdrubael Vect

Sslyth

Ur-Ghuls

Medusae

Lhamheans

The Court all together

Necron Week Post 3, Fun with Warriors & Scrap Crons!

2011-11-27T19:15:00.000-08:00

Here's 2 units of warriors for my Necron Army. First the regular warriors can be simply modified to match the new plastics by using leftover Gauss tubes from Immortal Gauss Cannons. While I was at it I decided to swap the axe like blades with the bayonet like blades from the Gauss Cannons.

Scrap Crons!

So here's where I had some fun, I decided to reach into my bits box and pull out what I could to make some slap dash scrap yard Crons. The premise behind these warriors is that they were somehow resurrected or constructed from scraps on the field as emergency battlefield reinforcements.

This concludes Necron Week. Now off to painting....

Necron Week Post 2, Custom HQ Conversions & Figure Posing

2011-11-27T13:47:00.000-08:00

In this post I'm going to discuss simple and effective HQ conversions as well ways to pose the new plastic kits for maximum effect.

Anrakyr The Traveller

For my Necron Army I wanted to try out Anrakyr The Traveller so I figured it was a great time to try and convert the Overlord figure that comes with the Catacomb Command Barge. I wasn't happy with the simplicity of the plastic Warscythe blade so I swapped the blade with a more ornate one from a hyperphase swords. A simple swap, but highly effective. Anrakyr also has a Tachyon Arrow which is pictured in the Codex but nonexistent on any of the current sculpts, so there was only one thing to do. I used a Voidblade and a tail-spine from the Praetorians. Sliced and spliced makes a fairly decent proxy for a Tachyon Arrow. I also modified his head by splicing a praetorian head onto the plastic overlord head.

The Command Barge Anrakyr is on is pretty standard, I just felt like photographing it a bit cause it's a bad-ass model. I used part of skull island from DreadFleet to make a ruined skull statue base.

Cryptek Harbinger of Destruction Conversion.

I wanted to make a plastic cryptic cause quite frankly I'm not in love with the figure. It's okay, but limited and the staff is ugly as hell. For my Cryptek I used the plastic lord from the command barge as a base. Part of a pretorian back piece was sliced and fitted into the back piece to match the detail I saw in the fine cast figure. I used a death mark head and leftover hyper phase and rod of covenant pieces to make a custom staff head.

The real fun part of his conversion was making the Harp of Dissonance. The Codex description literally describes it as a mechanical harp…so I was like "What the hell would a Necron harp look like?" I made it using hexagonal rod chopped and glued into a coffin shape, floral wire for strings and a tube from a gauss cannon.

Posing Figures for Maximum effect

Whenever I pose a unit of figures I always try to make each figure it's own heroic mini. The new Necron models do allow that and with some simple modifications they can look a whole lot more menacing. With these Lychguard putting a glob of greenstuff under each torso allowed me to bend them back into a more straight tall standing pose. This couples with tilting their heads downward really added to the menace.

With the Immortals by simply turning the waist sideways and keeping the legs and heads looking forward you create this sense of hulking menace on the move rather than simply standing in a cool pose.

Next up Necron Week Post 3 on Friday, Fun with Warriors & Scrap Crons!

Necron Week Post 1, Scarab Swarm Bases

2011-11-27T13:21:00.000-08:00

This week is officially Necron Week at Eye of Error! I will have 3 posts up all with new and cool Necron content! Let's start off with something I learned online and tried for myself.

Recently I read Ron Saikowski's post over at FTW about how to make Forgeworld inspired Scarab Swarm Bases and I figured I'd give it a go. Check out his tutorial over HERE

I followed his tutorial but embellished upon it by adding lots of wonderful armor rubble for the scarabs to snack on. I tried to used bits that were clearly tank related in order to convey visually the entropic strike rule. I'm very pleased with the results and can't wait to finish painting them.

On Wednesday, Custom HQ conversions and posing figures for maximum effect.

Chaos Leviathan Mortis Progress

2011-10-18T05:55:00.000-07:00

Part 5 - Designing the base

I started gathering materials to make the scenic base for this bad boy.

I wanted to represent a ruined imperial building and create a "Slice of life" effect. as if a giant Borg cutting laser came out of the sky and sliced a cube section of the ground away. With some advice from a friend on where I could buy a thick chunk of wood for the base, I was directed to ebay to look for "Wood Turning Blanks". These are blocks of wood that get put on lathes to make wooden salad bowls and the like. I quickly found a great hunk of Ambrosia Maple wood for $20 that once stained will have the perfect texture to simulate strata.

The sidewalk tiles are unfired porcelin blocks that I have used before in some of my Terrain Projects to simulate cracked sidewalks. The Building pieces are Shrine of the Aquila walls that I plan to super detail and I added some imperial dumpsters I made a few years ago for another project and never finished.

Just for fun I felt like adding a Sniper hiding behind a wall to give the scene a little more backstory.

EDIT: A few people asked about the dumpsters. I made them from sheet styrene and Imperial Guard Aquilas. Here's some WIP's of them.

Here's a pic of other materials I will be using to complete the base. Apoxie Sculpt resin putty, Gale Force 9 Rubble chunks, Vallejo Pumice Paste & Still Water and Secret Weapon Crushed Glass Snow (Yes it will be a winter scene)

Part 6 - Assembling the Lighting

At this point in the game I'm about 75% done with the internal wiring and lighting. I've been drilling holes, running wiring, installing LEDs and running some fiber optic for the gun sights.

I used Madman Lighting's Republic Cruiser Lighting Kit as a base. Detailed Instructions can be found HERE. The Kit is super easy to use and if you've never worked with lighting before I highly recommend it. All you need is the kit and a few simple tools you can buy at Radio Shack or the like.

Stay Tuned, by the time the next update comes I should have the entire model assembled and wired and hopefully the building of the base will be underway.

It's Necron Monday!

2011-10-17T08:21:00.001-07:00

I Just figured in light of all the new Necron rumors that I'd throw a little gas on the fire by posting up some WIP's of some Necron unit's I was working on a few years ago.

Of course I plan to update all these WIPs once I see all the new bits and I what to do something more dynamic with the basis.

Necron Lord
The Lord is comprised of a Metal destroyer Lord Torso & warrior legs that have had extra hydraulic pistons added to them. The Staff is a custom made from metal and styrene shapes. The cape is made from sculpted Brown Stuff. The base is my favorite part. I love the dead marine overrun by a scarab swarm.

Immortals
The Torsos are Destroyer Torsos w/ regular Warrior heads. I added a piece of plastic to the forehead to signify them as Immortals. The legs are warrior legs with brown stuff used to bulk up the thighs and the calves. I made the pelvic bone higher with thin strips of styrene glued down.

The Gauss were made by chopping & gluing 2 Guass cannons together like shown on multiple other tutorials. The hands were sculpted with brown stuff and the wires were from dragon forge.

Destroyer Lord
I wanted to re-imagine the Destroyer Lord. I wanted him to be bolder, more "epic", so I figured why not have him in a cool throne hardwired in for eternity.The Throne is made from cut styrene sheets and shapes, some brown stuff, and some Baneblade exhaust pipes.

The staff is a custom job made from styrene sheet & tube with a Guass flyer tip added. The rest of the lords details are assorted Necron bits and WFB Empire Wizard bits.

Chaos Titan Diorama / Leviathan Mortis

2011-10-02T14:51:00.000-07:00

Here's my first posting on what will surely be a long, complicated and freakin awesome project!

Let me start off by saying I've been drooling over Mark Mondragons' (AKA Mark Coolestnameever) Leviathan Models since they were just 3D renderings. Recently with some improved personal funds I decided to splurge and buy what ended up being his VERY LAST MORTIS MODEL IN STOCK. -Whew, talk about great timing.

It's a truly amazing resin kit with such unparralled style, grace and pure malice built into it, perfect for my Chaos Legions. I knew that I would want to do something special with it so I figured I'd pull out all the stops here.

THE PLAN

-Build up the Mortis in a dynamic action packed pose.

-Illuminate the Mortis with an LED lighting kit run off of a 9v battery. Completely self contained

-Build a scenic base that looks like a war torn ruined city section for the Mortis to stand in and look menacing.

-Airbrush the hell out of it including some chaos star stencils.

-Use new weathering techniques I've learned recently and have not had a chance to apply to anything.

PART 1, Unpacking

As you can see, many, many bags of resin pieces :) The instructions were downloaded PDF's of the Dreamforge Site

PART 2 Chest / Arm / Leg sub-assemblies

I was able to over the past 2 weeks assemble the 3 arms, 1 leg and the chest. The claw and gatling gun will be interchangable where as the scythe will always be there cause it's just that damn cool.

PART 3 Electronic pieces / Initial planning

Here's a few pics of the LED's being used, the circuit chip and the 9V battery. Thankfully the chest area of the model has a perfect open space that will accommodate the battery and LED driver chip no problem.

This chart will show you what I'm illuminating.

Stay Tuned, The next update on this project will focus on the scenic base.

Plotting and Scheming

2011-09-30T13:22:00.000-07:00

First off
Let this illustration be a clue to a new army I'm scheming up right now.
All I have to say is it's going to be Chaotic... ;)

Second
I'm planning on starting to paint the Dark Eldar Dragon Rider this weekend and in preparation I've color coded a picture of bat wings to give me a visual reference when I'm airbrushing the dragons wings. My initial thought was going with my standard warlock purple / fuschia but then I thought about bright reptilian green.

So I ask everyone out there for an opinion, Pink or Green wings? I'm 50/50 right now.

Third
Voting is still going on for a few more days on MWC. If you haven't voted yet, please go over there and take a min to do so. I love this conversion contest and I want to see it continue and get the support it deserves. CLICK HERE

Fourth
The next time I update it will be the first stages of my Chaos Titan Project. In the mean time here's a teaser.

Backstory on the Dark Eldar Dragon Rider plus voting!

2011-09-26T09:50:00.000-07:00

I came up with an interesting back story for the Dragon Rider I entered into the MWC contest here: http://miniaturewargameconversions.blogspot.com/2011/09/voting-has-begun-on-all-20-entries-into.html
BTW GO VOTE FOR ME I have 2 entries! #5 & #6

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I envision him as kind of Dark Eldar Large Game Catcher. Someone that on raids to exotic worlds captures strange beasts for sale or trade when he gets back to the Dark City. He sells these beasts to the wealthy elite for their private eclectic zoo's and personal hunting grounds. In doing so he aligns himself with the most wealthy and powerful Kabals and always gets a favor in return somewhere down the road. It might be an odd job, but eh, it's a living

During raids he only uses the biggest most bad ass of all the beasts he's ever captured ad his personal steed. With the help of a Coven that he did an unusual and exceptional job for a few centuries ago, was able to augment the beast with cybernetics and a neural transmitter that allows him complete control and a telepathic mind link. Only the best of the best for this guy.

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This is my second Entry in the contest, Entry #5

This is an older conversion of mine that I recently blew the dust off in light of the new Necron Army coming out soon.

Basically he's a seated Destroyer Lord, but I wanted him to be hardwired into a throne rather than just a Torso mounted in a skimmer and I wanted to add a more Egyptian feel to him, aka Tomb Kings in space!

He is a combination of destroyer and warrior pieces cut into new poses. I custom built the throne and staff from sheet styrene and used a WFB empire wizard hat for this Egyptian style helm. I also used a WFB wizard staff topper as a chronometron. If you look closely you'll see a Necron symbol as the back for the chair.

Is that a Dragon with freakin Disintegrator Cannons on it?...

2011-09-18T19:55:00.000-07:00

…YES IT IS!

This is one of my entries to the MWC September Conversion Contest. I made this conversion with the intention of bringing a little bit of the fantasy back into 40K. The Dark Elf Black Dragon model was just too cool to pass up, so I tried to find a way to make it a 40K vehicle and this is what I came up with.

Essentially on the table this would count as a Dark Eldar Ravager with 2 Disintegrator Cannons and one Dark Lance. I added subtle cybernetics all over it and modified the rider to have more Dark Eldar looking armor vs. Dark Elf. A left over Finecast Archon helmet was just the bit of dandy fopism I needed for the rider and voila!

I magnetized the 60mm base to the resin Plinth I picked up from Secret weapon Miniatures to allow me to use it both as a gaming model and a display model. When I wnat to game with is I simply "pop" the plinth off.

This wounded Marine is certainly saying to himself "Holy Throne! What the hell is that thing!"

Devious Plans For The Future...

2011-09-15T14:38:00.000-07:00

I'm just saying.... this is happening in the near future.
He is in my possession and plans are being laid as I write this....

HELLIONS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2011-08-19T06:33:00.000-07:00

After months of promising I finally deliver 10x Hellions ready to swoop in and raid some poor bastards!

The skyboards I kept in The Kabal of Endless Twilight Scheme, but the riders I made in a unique Wyche outfit scheme with more Warlock purple in it. I experimented more heavily with tattooing in red on these guys. I think it worked well.

Again I used resin statue heads from Scibor and Lazer Muzzle flashes from armorcast as exhausts.

Dark Eldar Truborn & Venom Finished

2011-08-12T09:02:00.000-07:00

Another unit finished for my Kabal of Endless Twilight.
WIP pics can be found HERE

I have to say, I LOVE LOVE LOVE Venoms, such a fun tight little model to build and paint.

Asdrubael Vect Wins First Place in the July MWC Conversion Contest

2011-08-09T06:21:00.000-07:00

I entered Asdrubael Vect in the July Miniature Wargames Conversions Contest and won first Place! The guys over at MWC are really awesome and totally the real deal with this new monthly contest. I suggest everyone enter the contest monthly, there were some really great entries last month and we all want to see even more this month!

I chose a Dark Elf Dreadlord on Black Dragon as my prize and it arrived in like 3 days! Lightning fast. Now since I don't play fantasy, does anyone want to take a guess at what I'll be using this Dragon for?

"I'm Asdrubael Vect and I approve of this Dragon"

Will DESIGN 4 MODELS!!!! <--Say what?

2011-08-02T10:58:00.000-07:00

Have you asked yourself "Where did he get that awesome header for his Wargaming blog?"

Do you have an army that needs some custom decal design to "Take it to the next level"

Do you need some Graphic/ Web Design work done for hobby site but don't know who to ask?

WELL LOOK NO FURTHER!

I will turn out Awesome Custom Graphic Design for your wargame / hobby related blog, website or army for trade! Yes I accept payment in models! Crazy, I know right?

Here's the deal, I love wargame model making and I also love wargame blogs/sites but I love Graphic Design as well. However, with recent positive changes to my family life (My firstborn son is due any day now) I've had to shift my financial obligations away from little plastic dudemen and towards my growing family.

This means less money for models :(
The solution, do awesome Design work for trade :)

So HIT ME UP on my profile in the sidebar if you want Design work.
My turn around times are fast and my work is quality, just check out some samples below:

CLICK HERE FOR LARGER SAMPLES

Asdrubael Vect - High Lord of Commorragh

2011-07-19T19:14:00.000-07:00

The core body was a Dark Eldar Archon Finecast figure with some details shaved off or modified. The shoulder pads, fur pelt, knee pads and hair were sculpted from greenstuff as well as the Obsidian Orb which replaced the flaming pyramid in the right hand of the Finecast figure. The head is a High Elf Dragon Prince Helmet with the front detail shaved and sculpted to match a Dark Eldar Aesthetic and the back banner is from a Dark Elf Corsair banner. Several small gemstones were shaved off assorted High Elf bits and added all over Vect, including on the gloves, front helmet and shoulder pads.

The staff arm started off as a Dark Eldar pike arm rom the Raider crew, but the glove was sculpted to match the Archon glove on the right hand. The staff itself is comprised bits of several High Elf Mage staff pieces as well as some Dark Eldar vehicle blades.

The base is mostly sculpted from greenstuff with the exception of the face itself which is from a Scibor basing kit and the side of the helmet fin which was a rudder from a Dark Eldar Raider.

Dark Eldar Trueborn with a Venom

2011-07-19T06:10:00.000-07:00

Here's a new unit in progress; 4 Trueborn with a matching Venom.

The Trueborn are a combo of Warrior & Wyche parts with converted shredders into blasters. The lead Trueborn uses one of those trusty Dark Elf Corsair heads for that added pirate effect.

The only main change to the Venom is the use of a Raider Warrior gunner rather than a Wyche gunner.

When finished the unit will be painted much like this unit HERE

Deux Dark Eldar Raiders

2011-06-25T17:29:00.000-07:00

And now for something completely different...

Here's two finished Dark Eldar Raiders in my Kabal of Endless Twilight Scheme.

What do you guys think Eh?

The Dark City, a dedicated Dark Eldar Forum

2011-06-02T12:11:00.000-07:00

Hello all, for everyone that follows my forum and really really likes Dark Eldar, I suggest that you head on over to The Dark City. It's a new Dark Eldar dedicated forum run by fine drow; Sky Serpent. The site is in flux now, getting better and better every day. Come over and join the fun!

I've been doing some design/illustration work for them, here's a sample:

Dark Eldar Incubi Raider

2011-05-31T14:03:00.001-07:00

Here's some pics of my finished Dark Eldar Incubi Raider.

This Transport is painted in my Incubi Scheme and not my standard Kabal of Endless Twilight scheme.

Also, I'd like to thank David Stilberg of Tentakel Games for nominating me for another Stylish Blogger Award. His site is really awesome and if you haven't checked it out yet, well…you should :)

Urien Rakarth and Haemonculi Coven Finished

2011-05-17T18:40:00.000-07:00

This update has been a long time coming.

With all the forthcoming Coven troop options I decided it was time to finally paint my Haemonculi Coven along with Urien Rakarth. I tested out several new painting techniques on these figures as well as new photography lighting provide a more atmospheric shot. I have to say, I'm rather pleased with how the pics turned out

WIPS of all the models can be found Here, Here and Here

Dark Eldar Archon & Trueborn, plus Blogger Award

2011-05-05T10:18:00.001-07:00

Archon
A WIP of the Archon can be seen HERE. I broke out my airbrush to try and make a pink crystal type of effect for the Power Sword. It's not 100% what I was going for, but it's close.

Trueborn
The Trueborn I wanted to look like More embellished Kabalite warriors. I wanted them to have a bit more uniformity than the warriors, hence the same helmets and I wanted everyone to have a backvane. I used Wyche backvanes, but played around with adding / removing elements on each vane so they looked unique. I added some skulls here, cut some out skulls/ trinkets there, etc.

As far as weaponry, I was going for an anti-infantry with Splinter Cannons and Shredders. I plan to put these guys in a Venom when the kit comes out.

------------------------------

I was contacted by Mr. Feral the other day (via comment) that he had nominated me for a "Stylish Blogger Award". What is the Stylish Blogger Award? Well it's a kind of virtual pat on the back from another fellow Blogger to say "well done, spiffing job and whatnot" and to spread the love and good feelings between us hobby bloggers. As with the standards of the award, I must do the following four things;

• Thank and link back to the person giving you the award
• Share seven things about yourself
• Select 10-15 blogs who you think deserve this award
• Contact these bloggers and let them know about the award

So thank you Mr. Feral for the nomination, and to everyone else go visit his blog (link above) straight after you've finished this post. Now since I usually don't do chain letter type things, and 5 is my Lucky Number, I'll just shorten this into something more quick and simple.

5 quick facts about me:
• I'm Married and soon to be Father of a baby boy due in August.
• I'm a Graphic Designer by trade.
• Einsturzende Neubauten is my favorite band.
• I have over 5000pts. of Chaos Marines with about 2500pts finished and painted.
• I'm currently half way through finishing 3000pts of Dark Eldar

5 Blogs I think are awesome in no particular order:

Dreamforge Games
Mark Mondragon's Leviathan designs are just sick awesome and I can't wait until I have some loose cash to buy a Leviathan Mortis!

Mordian 7th
Just go looks at Moridian 7ths Ad Mech army! It's sickness!

Dark Future Games
The Team over there always pumps out very creative conversions and some very useful articles. It's a daily read for me.

Awesome Paintjob
Les Bursley's online tutorials have taught me so much in the past 6 or so months that I've been reading them. I highly recommend checking this blog out.

Le Blog De Kouzes
A French blog by Morbäck and Urlök. All I can say is HOLY SHIT there is so much awesome stuff on there. Amazing conversions, amazing paint jobs, very unique army designs and concepts. Just all around amazing. I've been reading through the whole backlog of the blog with Goggle translate. It's just so great on so many levels.

Something Old... Something New... Something Pink... Something Cruel... Part 1

2011-04-29T09:54:00.000-07:00

A Few Years ago I converted a GI Joe Cobra Stellar Stiletto into a Slaanesh Flyer. It was damaged during a move and has been sitting broken in pieces in the bottom of my display case since then. I've decided to pull it out, repair it and add the glowing engine effects I did on my Dark Eldar Reavers. Here I will describe how I made the conversion. Part 2 will be after I fix it, add new details and rephotograph it.

Converting a Cobra Command Stellar Stiletto into a Chaos Marine Flyer

One of my favorite GI-Joe toys of all time was the Cobra Command Stellar Stiletto. I remember buying this beast with saved up allowance money when I was a tyke.

So now I want to find a way to revive it in my 40K Chaos army by modifying it to match a Hell Talon, same rules, same points, same armament.

Body Details:
Over all I needed to add rivets in the right areas to accentuate the design as well as add that 40k feel. Extra piping and bitz details were added to the engine side greeble areas on the top and bottom. I sealed off the big open hole in the back of the tail fin with sheet styrene, added a few random pipes I found and tubing from a chaos defiler.

Cockpit:
I started by digging up enough bits to make the 2 pilots. The front pilot is flying the vehicle, while the rear pilot is kinda fused in there, more like a servitor. The front controls are comprised of bits from a AMT/Ertl Batman Batboat kit, so is the seat. The side walls are made from sheet styrene with assorted details and controls. I added some tubing and some green stuff to the rear pilot to show how he is fused into the vehicle. I decided to use part of the original canopy as "trim" for the new cockpit. I simply sawed off what I didn't want, sanded smooth, then added rivets.

I built up the canopy with styrene shapes and some bits. I embedded magnets in the rear of the canopy so it could open, and a magnet in the front bottom area so it stays locked down.

Auto-cannon and Twin Linked Las:
I made this from the barrel of a predator auto-cannon and 1 half of a twin linked bolter; housing built from sheet styrene. I cut a section out of the top right of the stiletto, then simply placed the housing in there and trimmed to fit.

I'm not exactly sure where I got this las from, but it ended up in my bits box. I trimmed the outer housing from the bolter turret housing on the top of a land raider and used brown stuff to fill the gaps.

Landing Gear, Bombs and Front Nose:
I used 2 Tau landing gear. Clipped the pistons and glued the bottom pads to the underside of the hull. As if the gear was retracted.

\Technically this vehicle has 8 bombs. I decided to make 2 bombs and use the lower fuel tank shape of the stiletto as a housing for the bomb deployment device. I cut two rectangular holes in the backs of the tanks, created 2 compartments out of sheet styrene and misc bits. Cleaned up the outer housing with styrene and made what looks like retracted doors.

The bombs themselves are Baneblade shells with tail fins from old Imperial Guard Smart Missiles. I created the bomb holding claws by thinly slicing Styrene rod and trimming where needed to make the right looking half-circle claw shapes.

I replaced the rubber nose cone with left over plastic nose cone from some long forgotten jet model I had laying around in my bits box. I detailed the engines with joint plates from an Imperial Sentinel, random tubes, some plastic rod, and added a few rivets in the right areas.

Wings:
I made the wings from sheet styrene using the same technic I did to make my chaos Patrol boat. I measured the existing wings, made a template in adobe Illustrator, created a chaos trim overlay to compliment it. I them printed the pieces out, spray mounted them to sheet plastic, cut, then peeled the paper off, glued with styrene weld, sanded smooth, drilled holes and added rivets, then attached them to the model.

Rear engine:
In my bits box I found a turbo exhaust from an AMT/Ertl Batman Batboat kit. Too bad I only had 1 of them, but not to worry, I'll make a quick RTV Rubber mold and cast it in resin. I then added some spoilers with sheet styrene.

...to be continued...

Dark Eldar Reaver Jet Bikes

2011-04-27T08:05:00.001-07:00

Here's some pics of my Dark Eldar Reaver Jet Bikes for my Kabal of The Endless Twilight. I used the same color palate as my Ravager and Voidraven. The only new things I did with the Reavers was to Airbrush the BladeVanes and use Armorcast Laser Muzzle effects for the engine bursts. I plan to do something similar with my Hellions as well.

A word of warning to everyone out there. NEVER SPRAY CLEARCOAT IN HUMID WEATHER. After hours of work I sprayed and my revers looked like they were covered in dry milk. It was frightening and nerve wracking. But I was able to repair 90% of the damage by taking them inside to my basement in central air conditioning and spraying fine mists of the same clearcoat over top of the milky stuff. The fresh wet clearcoat ate away at the milky stuff and made it all clear again cause it was allowed to dry in cool low humidity environment.

Dark Eldar Ravager Painted

2011-04-19T07:53:00.000-07:00

My Dark Eldar Ravager is finished. I was using a similar painting technique to my Voidraven Bomber. The only new technique is that I made a set of decals for the aethersails. I wanted them to look like they were made form some kind of advanced mesh, so a decal seemed the best option. I designed them in illustrator, then printed the decal on a laser printer and applied.

I was having a really difficult time photographing it, I need a better lighting set up, so please forgive any photos that might seem odd. I will probably reshoot later under better lighting conditions.

I'm in Print...Twice!

2011-04-11T09:28:00.000-07:00

Well I'm excited, I recently found out that my Nurgle Rhino and my Imperial Graveyard have both been published in Coolminiornot's 2009 Annual!

It's really an awesome book filled with so many great minis. My mind is spinning with ideas already just from skimming it. It's available for purchase Here

In other news I decided to redesign the blog a bit and I have a ton of projects on the bench:

- 50% done painting the Chaos Patrol Boat Display. Updates will be online within a week for that.

- 75% done painting 3 Dark Eldar Raiders and 1 Ravager

- 50% done painting 10 Dark Eldar Hellions

- 90% finished with my new Terrain Board

Plus I've started painting a whole slew of Awesome Quantum Gothic Terrain my Wife bought me. If you haven't seen their site, go check it out. It's pure awesomeness: Here

New Game Board In Progress

2011-03-28T08:45:00.000-07:00

I'm almost done making a new Game Board for myself.
Here's 2 pics taken from my Iphone over the weekend.

Saturday Painting:
Basic acrylic gray house paint laid down with grit in it.
Then assorted gray, green, yellow and rust colored paints sprayed to break up the gray base color.

Sunday Painting:
The entire board was drybrushed with the base color to break up the spray paint.

Several coats of green weathering pigment mixed with water were laid down to get a base mossy look.

Assorted browns were airbrushed along the rock face to achieve a striation look in the bedrock. The craters were shadowed and the dried river bed was accentuated with greens and browns.

The next step is to continue detailing the craters, fix a few of the striations I'm not happy with, clear coat it and add some grass. Hopefully it'll be done by the end of next week.

Chaos Patrol Boat Part 2

2011-03-25T08:44:00.000-07:00

Here's an update. Some pics after about 3 hours of airbrushing.

I used all Vallejo paints, laying down heavy greens and browns first, then going back over everything with rust spots and dark shadows. A final airbrushed coat of Devlan Mud helped add to the grime.

I hand painted the sea mines (before I got my airbrush) and laid them in the water base. I still have many airbrushing layers of oil and clear resin I want to add to bring out the water effect

The next step will involve painting all the details on the inside of the cabin and all the Brass Chaos Trim complete with a heavy green rust Patina.

Chaos Patrol Boat Part 1

2011-03-25T07:13:00.000-07:00

I decided it was time to finish up some old projects I had started, so here's some pics of my idea for a Chaos Patrol Boat that I began building about 4yrs ago. A little bit of water isn't going to stop these bad boys.

The concept was pretty simple, an armed troop transport for the water. I built the core body from sheet styrene, and 2 GI joe tank sections. I designed the chaos trim in Adobe Illustrator, then printed it, transferred it to sheet styrene and cut it out very carefully by hand. The Heavy Bolters were form an old Leman Russ while the spotlight was from Forgeworld. I added tons of Baneblade bits like the exhausts, armor plates, floor plates, side drains, some spikey bits, assorted skulls, tools, pipes and anything I could find to really add to that Pirate feel.

I made the Chaos Seaman from assorted bits all mixed up together to get a very pirate feel to him. As if he's been scavenging for a few hundred years. I also really enjoyed building the rear Door with the Eye of Horus icon on it as well as the skeleton life preserver and 40k-esque anchor.

I built up and primed the 2 sea mines that will be floating in the scenic base.

I made them form acrylic half-spheres, assorted styrene shapes cut from a hole punch,
styrene tube and some bent wire. The design is based off of a WWII German Sea Mine.

The next step is to buy all the paints and pigments I need to give her a proper paint job as well as getting all the materials to make a dramatic water base (which I have never done before...wish me luck)

BFG Dark Eldar Cruisers

2011-03-24T11:57:00.000-07:00

Well I knew this would happen eventually. With so many great bits to work off of, it was almost impossible to resist the urge to make some BFG ships for Dark Eldar that didn't suck like the GW ones.

Here they are, 2 Corsair Class Cruisers and 1 Torture Class Cruiser. They are all made from new and old Dark Eldar bits as well as regular Eldar bits.

The Voidraven is Painted!

2011-03-14T09:14:00.000-07:00

This was my first attempt at Airbrushing in terms of miniatures (I've used them before for Art School projects). I laid down a 3 shade blue to black gradient across the model with the airbrush, then hand painted the blue highlights. All My airbrushing was done with Vallejo Air colors.

The Pilot was a 3 shade green to black gradient laid down with the airbrush as well.

The Tribal areas were hand painted first in Mechrite red, then followed by Warlock purple. I wanted to add some battle paint chipping on the front of the Voidraven to look as if it's been flying into things and slicing and dicing for awhile.

The base was made with Scibor Statue ruins, resin skulls, a GW dead Space Marine and a lot of leaf litter.

WIP pics can be found HERE

Dark Eldar Scourges Painted

2011-02-25T07:41:00.000-08:00

These guys have been a long time coming...but I finally Painted them.
The blue/grey armour is what the rest of my Kabal of Endless Twilight will be painted with. Aside from that I just wanted to try unique feather patterns for each scourge and realistic bone colored helmets.

More info and WIP pics can be seen Here

Dark Eldar Incubi & Drazhar Painted

2011-02-21T07:19:00.000-08:00

Here's some pics of the newest finished addition to my Dark Eldar Army; 10x Incubi & Drazhar. I customized Drazhar to make him more current to the new sculpts. More info is in this POST

Overall the only thing I wanted to do to make this unit unique is try to make the Klaives & Demiklaives look like they were forged from some bizarre blue alien stone rather than metal. I feel it worked rather well and I'm happy with the final result.

Incubi

Drazhar

Dark Eldar Gladiator Diorama

2011-02-16T09:06:00.000-08:00

Recently I entered this Diorama into 40kForums Dark Eldar Painting Competition and won 1st Place in the Pro Category.

Initial Idea
This whole project started when I was looking through my leftover bits and I had a Shardnet & Impaler set left over from my Wyches. My wife glanced over and was like "Those are cool looking". My response: "They are cool looking, but they suck in the game." Then like a bolt of lightning it hit me. I started immediately thinking of a diorama scene with a Dark Eldar Gladiator right as he finishes some random alien warrior that was Shanghaied from his home world during a raid and brought to Commorragh for combat sport.

Building the Diorama
Building the Eldar Gladiator was easy, I just used what I had in my bitz box and put together the most dynamic pose I could get. The alien warrior, on the other hand, I had to hunt for. I wanted something beyond the regular 40k Xenos, so I went searching through the fantasy range and saw some cool Beastmen plastics. Thankfully, Windowbox on ebay sells single figures clipped from sprue and I was able to purchase just a single Beastman Standard Bearer. I clipped his one hand and replaced it with a Zombie hand and then replaced his axe with a cooler looking Chaos Knight mace.

Now the arena floor was where things got interesting. Several years ago I bought a DIY chemical metal etching kit from MicroMark.com. I had at several points over the years thought about breaking it out and etching some sheet brass for miniature detail parts but I just never did for some reason. This however was the perfect time to use it.

I designed the floor to look like it was part of some larger arena composed of alien marble and treacherous to walk on due to the fact that random spikes can shoot up from the floor and impale you at any time. I wanted it to be riddled with Eldar glyphs and brass inlaid symbols. I designed the whole floor in Adobe Illustrator, then following the instructions in the etching kit, transferred the pattern to some sheet steel. Granted this did not happen right the first time, and it was on my 3rd try that I was able to achieve the effect I wanted.

After the floor was sufficiently etched, I used a hole punch to punch right through the steel where the spikes would come out. I then mounted it on a 60mm base, drilled holes through the base to make the spike chambers even more recessed and then blocked off the chambers that were not going to be used with sheet styrene. I made the spikes from simple toothpicks and just popped them trough the open holes.

Painting the Diorama
Coming up with a scheme for the Eldar was easy. I always liked Warlock Purple colored troops, so I basically just decided to do a split armor scheme Warlock Purple / Black. His hair color was simply a choice of what color I think best complimented the armour scheme.

For the Beastman I wanted him to not be the typical brownish color scheme on GW's site, so I decided to go with a gray fur scheme. His armor I wanted to show it's age, as if he's been in that arena a long time without much maintenance at all.

I decided that rather than fully painting a the floor I would make a decal for the marble texture. I found some cool textures online, mashed them up in Photoshop & tweaked the colors till I was happy with the marble color. I then printed the marble texture on inkjet decal film and applied it directly to the sheet steel which allowed for a metallic translucency to show through in the lighter areas. After the decal set, I touched up certain areas by hand and painted some cracks in the marble by hand as well. With the dry decal on the base, the Eldar glyphs were clearly defined in the recesses and I was able to just directly paint right into them.

The blood was fun to make. I used Vallejo water effects mixed with a drop of old school GW red ink. It worked first time perfectly. I just applied it onto the model and the floor beneath the wound with a pin.

Conclusion
Reflecting back on the Diorama now I see many areas I would have improved if I wasn't under a deadline for the contest. I would have spent more time on certain details like the black highlighting on the Eldar Armour, the hooves on the Beastman, the details on the Beastmans mace and adding another layer of color on the rust areas of the brass inlay in the floor. I wasn't really too happy with the spikes either but I had already repainted them twice before I called it quits on them. However in the end, I was still proud of my work and I guess that's all that matters.

40k Forums Dark Eldar Competition

2011-02-03T07:35:00.000-08:00

To all my readers that happen to be a member of 40k forums as well,
please swing over there and vote in their Dark Eldar Contest:
[url]http://www.40kforums.com/vb/forumdisplay.php/62-Dark-Eldar-Painting-Competition[/url]

I have an entry in the Pro area, but sadly I can't say which cause the contest is supposed to be anonymous :p However... you might be able to guess from the Photography style.

But please take a second to go vote! :)

Sidenote: In 2 weeks when the contest is over I'll be posting a full work up on my entry with WIP shots as well as a whole slew of painted shots.

The Court of the Archon

2011-01-24T09:24:00.000-08:00

I've wanted to build a court for a while, but after extensive research into alternate figs for the Medusae and the Sslyth, I realized that I'd need to scratchbuild / convert most of it. In all the pics the bases are not finished and mold lines have not been fully cleaned yet.

Ur-Ghuls
For my Ur-Ghuls I wanted to elaborate on the fluff a bit and make something unique for my Army, so I came up with the concept that maybe the Ur-Ghuls are the result of Warriors failing or betraying their Archon. After the Warrior is caught in the act, they are turned over to the Haemonculi for a bit of "fun". Slicing them up, lobotomizing them, replacing higher-level brain functions with scent-pits and them sending them back to the Archon for "amusement". I mean what could be more fun for a twisted Archon than to watch those who fail him get turned into groveling senseless ghouls. :)

I used Vamp Counts Ghouls tops mixed with DE Warrior legs to achieve this effect. I chopped the tops of the heads to resemble the deamons from Constantine and used green stuff to blend the torsos to the legs ss if the Warrior was stripped down to the waist and shipped off to the Haemonculi.

Lhamaeans
Nothing too special here. Basically just harder looking Wyches. They were made with a combination of Wyche, Warrior and Hellion parts with left over Torment Grenade Launchers from a Ravager kit mounted on their back to represent Poision vials in stasis.

Medusae
Based off the fluff description for the Medusae I realized that I would certainly need to completely sculpt them. I started thinking of Lovecraftian Cthulu ethereal creatures and that got me on the whole idea of floating Space Squid.

I sculpted the arms form green stuff with a metal floral wire center to allow me to bend it like a "natural" tentacle would. The diamond shaped hands were sculpted separately then added on at the end with some green stuff. The floating entrails were done the same way, but more "chunky" in texture rather than the smooth tentacles. The center spinal column was made with thicker black wire and styrene tube. I cut the tube into little ringlets and glued them to the wire spaced out like vertebrae. I then added some green stuff blob organs around it to match the fluff.

I made the head under the assumption that it would be some Dark Eldar artisian making the metal Helmet/Visor that contained their optic blast. I basically reference one of my favorite DE helmet designs (that already looked squid like) and scaled it up larger with a hint of Cylon Visor added.

I'm in the process of sculpting 1 more Medusae so I can have a full unit. Pics will be up in the near future.

Sslyth
Now these 3 were some extreme converting. I made them using mostly Warrior parts, some left over Hellion blades, Reaver Heads (for that Cobra Commander Look) and Tyranid Ravener tails.

The Tyranid tails were way to big initialy to use for the conversion, but after I cut off the upper portion, I realized I could green stuff the mid area to match the detail and blend in the Kabalite Armour upper torso with the organic Tyranid lower torso. Thankfully the Tyranid back scales were very similar in shape to the Kabalite Armour and it helped the transition become easier. I then added some extreme utility belts made form a collection of random bits I had left over from the rest of my DE army, mainly hanging weapons belts form the Raider/Ravager kits and hanging skull trophies from the Hellions.

Here's a picture of the Court all together.

Drazhar and a New Archon

2011-01-24T09:19:00.000-08:00

Drazhar
I really already liked the old sculpt for Drazhar (probably the only good old Dark Eldar Sculpt), so I decided to use him and make a few modifications to make him more current to match the rest of my forthcoming Incubi.

The 2 outdated looking areas IMO were the Demiklaives and the back Incubi spine/blade things. I used and extra set of spine/blade things from the new Incubi set as a replacement and Some Plastic Hellglaive blades left over from the Hellions box to solve this problem.

Archon 2
I wanted to create a second Archon for my Kabal that has alternative wargear options from my first Archon. Basically he's all plastic bits from the Warriors box with some extra green stuff hip armor, a Wyche Power Sword and a cool looking Incubi Helmet.

I wanted to make him look more agile and ready for combat than the stoic looking regular Archon metal fig.

Dark Eldar Voidraven Bomber

2010-12-17T08:52:00.000-08:00

Converting a Revell Batwing into a Voidraven.
I've seen a few done before, but I wanted to take my own approach to this conversion process.

For starters, I restructured the wings and remove some of the more obvious "Batwing" like elements; like the tail fin. I decided to crop the wings and position them backwards so that instead of a Batman symbol, it looks more like a swooping evil bird.

I chopped the fronts of the side pods to make a space to house the Dark Lances (which count as Void Lances). All the chrome recessed areas I painted Warlock Purple with an Ogryn Flesh Wash.

For the Pilot, I converted an Eldar Warwalker driver by adding a Dark Eldar head and some styrene shoulder pads. The pieces managed to fit perfectly inside the Standard cockpit area.

For that added Dark Eldar flare...I added spikes form the Raider kit running the prow and some blades from both the Raider kit and Reaver kits. The rear engine I made from some Eldar Webspinner cowlings and small engines form the Raider kit. The tail fin I scratch built from a piece of sheet styrene then I "sharpened" the edge a bit so it looked more blade-like.

The missiles were made from modified IG Hunter Killers with the warheads and engine part coming form Warwalker hip joints. The missile launch mechanism is from and old Dark Eldar Jetbike blade bit. The orb like missile targeters are form an old Star Blazers kit I had laying around. I just thought it looked perfectly Eldar.

Haemonculi Coven Complete!

2010-12-13T08:55:00.000-08:00

Here's my Third and Final Custom Haemonculi. Just like the 2 others, the core body is a classic male warrior with head, pistol & power weapon arms coming from the Kabalite Warrior Box. The Huskblade is from the metal Archon Blister. The Liquifier gun is a splice of a classic splinter rifle merged into a Tzeentch Pink Horror Arm. Splinter Pistol has been modified with styrene rod & shapes to represent a Stinger Pistol just like the the other two with the only addition being the underslung blade. The belt/tabbard/corset area was a combination of Classic Warrior Legs, Greenstuff, Kroot knives/ bags, Kabalite Warrior Tabard & WFB Chaos Maurader trophy skulls & hooks on chains.

I took a few pictures of the entire Coven. I primed the first two Haemonculi gray along with The new Urien Rakarth Figure.

Custom Dark Edlar Scourges

2010-12-07T08:14:00.000-08:00

With my Dark Eldar Scourges, I wanted to make a unique unit that was identifiable as belonging to the New Dark Eldar Range, but a simple scratchbuild. I wanted something dynamic, that matched the fluff, looked like it belonged with the rest of my army, but was clearly not just warriors with jump packs or repainted Craftworld Eldar Swooping Hawks.

I made the core bodies from Sanguinary Guard wings glued onto Warriors bodies, but I used 3 of the warriors from the Raider sprue cause I felt they had that "Jumping into action" kinda of pose. On the wings I added Kroot grenades modified to look like Adrenaline injectors. I converted 3 Splinter Rifles into Shard Carbines by chopping the barrels short and adding Kroot shoulder straps.

The heads were the main thing I was focusing on with the conversion. I wanted my guys to have the crazy hair with feathers and stuff woven into it like mentioned in the fluff, but I wanted them to have unique masks. Then I though that what if this specific unit of Scourges made masks that looked like stylized bird skulls? I wanted them to kinda look like the flying Birdmen from the 2nd Highlander film, Corda & Reno...but on crack with Dark Lances! They were made form Kroot heads (for the dreads), greenstuff and neck/collar parts form Wyche heads.

The bases were made with Slate, Scibor Minatures ruined statue heads & 28mm skulls from an ebay vendor.

Custom Haemonculi 2

2010-12-07T08:09:00.001-08:00

My second Haemonculi is very similar in design to the Haemonculi Ancient except for it's Male and has some different wargear. The core Body is a classic male warrior with pistol, knife and Agonizer arms coming from primarily the Kabalite Warrior Box. The Liquifier gun is a splice of a classic splinter rifle merged into a Tzeentch Pink Horror Arm. I wanted it to look like an appendage grafted on rather than the main arm like on the classic Haemonculi figures. The Splinter Pistol has been modified with styrene rod & shapes to represent a Stinger Pistol based off of Jes Goodwin's sketches just like the Haemonculi Ancient.

The belt/tabbard/corset area was a combination of Classic Warrior Legs, Greenstuff, floral wire for the corset stitching, Kroot knives, Kabalite Warrior Tabard & WFB Chaos Maurader trophy skulls & hooks on chains. His head is form the new Wyche Box with a top knot form the Kabalite Warrior Box. The base is some slate along with 2 resin skulls I bought form a vendor on Ebay.

2 Haemonculi down, 1 to go.

Custom Haemonculi Ancient

2010-12-03T09:17:00.001-08:00

The core body is a classic Female Dark Eldar Warrior with her Shiva-like arms made from left over knife/pistol arm bitz from both the Kabalite Warrior Box and the Raider Box. The Splinter Pistol has been modified with styrene rod & shapes to represent a Stinger Pistol based off of Jes Goodwin's sketches. The Husk Blade is from the Metal Archon figure attached onto a Kabalite Warrior arm.

The belt/tabbard/corset area was a combination of Classic Warrior Legs, Greenstuff, floral wire for the corset stitching, Kroot knives, Kabalite Warrior Tabard & WFB Chaos Maurader trophy skulls & hooks on chains.

Her head is a a Slaanesh Deamonette head sliced to fit within a Dark Eldar high neck piece. The Collar is a left over piece from a WFB Empire Battle Wizard. The Base is some slate along with 2 resin skulls I bought form a vendor on Ebay.

I have 2 more custom Haemonculi in the works and I can't wait to finish and paint all of them.

The Webway Has Opened Forth...

2010-11-16T08:33:00.000-08:00

The beginning of my Dark Eldar Army.... The Archon, Duraeth The Wight.

Space Marine Spectre Diorama

2010-10-20T08:19:00.000-07:00

I started this diorama about 6yrs ago when I first got into Warhammer 40k. It was inspired by a White Dwarf article that had 4th edition rules for using spectre's on the battle field.

Recently I got the inspiration to bring it out of storage and finally finish paint it. This was my first attempt at freehand painting a banner and only my second attempt at OLS painting.

When deciding what chapter to make the Spectre, I did a little research and found out that the Warhawks chapter was all but lost at the hands of the Word Bearers so that's what inspired the banner design and the red Khornanite helmet.

All in all I'm content with the results, I could do better next time, but I did learn a great deal form this test model.

Chaos BFG Blackstone Fortress

2010-10-04T13:54:00.000-07:00

Here's some painted pics of My Blackstone Fortress.

Slaanesh BFG Chaos Repulsive Class Cruiser

2010-10-04T13:50:00.000-07:00

Here's some painted pics of my Chaos Repulsive Class Cruiser. I made a few modifications to the model to make it more unique.

On the Command Level, I re-sculpted the front viewport to be a large single screen and I chopped the clunky Chaos symbol off the top and replaced it with a Skull form A COD tile. On the dorsal gun deck, I chopped off the molded in turrets and replaced them with some plastic turrets at a 45˚ angle. I though it made it look less static. On the Engine level, I added Armorcast plasma weapons cinematic effects to simulate plasma engine exhaust, and I flipped the ventral fin around to make it look more menacing; as if it was coming at you and not moving away.

The over all color scheme is based off my Mark of Slaanesh and matches the rest of my In progress fleet.

Slaanesh BFG Chaos Cruisers

2010-10-04T13:48:00.000-07:00

Here's some painted pics of two of my Chaos Cruisers. I made a few minor modifications to the model to make it more unique.

Mainly I played around with the placement of the attenae and the turrets. On the Engine levels, I added Armorcast plasma weapons cinematic effects to simulate plasma engine exhaust, just like I did on my Repulsive class Cruiser. The over all color scheme is based off my Mark of Slaanesh and matches the rest of my In progress fleet.