Friday, December 24, 2010

Dynamic Redirection

I took a break from painting the Tau. With the re-release of the Dark Eldar I wanted a chance to do something else and not get burnt out. As with the Tau always advancing in new directions, I got some of the new Dark Eldar models and "experimented" with some new ideas.

At the end of second edition I had started with Space Marines and then Craftworld Eldar. My first Space Marine Army were the Dark Angels. They were well... dark. They were the first of the first Space Marine chapters and I figured why not. They had a cool looking symbol, so in the name of the Emperor... Many, many, many mistakes were made. Losing an entire army on the first turn: thank you void grenade, haywire missiles, shokk attack guns, and other stuff. I soon came to the realization that Space Marines lacked many things in second edition, one of them being mobility. Land speeders just didn't have it, and died way to easily. For those of us who made the worst mistake ever in second edition: to put your troops in transports, especially rhinos, that also lead to units shooting at juicy targets with big uberguns. So the Space Marines were sold for.... Craftworld Eldar.

Saim-Hann was for me the complete polar opposite of the Dark Angels. From big, bulky, angular vehicles to sleek, slick, sophisticated vehicles that raced across the battlefield. The loss of heavier armor to slightly less armor was a bit of a hindrance, but the pay off in firepower and agility was worth it. In Second Ed the Eldar could bring some enormous firepower to the table, and they could quite literally: Reach out and touch you. The Craftworld Eldar also had something that the Space Marines didn't have: Initiative and a very high one at that. Force fields were also a staple of Eldar technology. Finally the models were so easy to paint so it was stupid simple.

Take falcon, and wave serpent out of box. Sometimes use X-acto knife to take off molding lines... sometimes. Spray paint every thing flat black... not in the house. Getting really creative now hold on: Take four pieces of masking tape and make two "V" shaped patterns on the hull of the Falcon or Wave Serpent. Next spray paint red and let dry. All of the canopy's that you spray painted black... paint dark blue where (ultra marine blue)the windows are and then high light with light blue (enchanted blue)after that. Once red paint drys remove masking tape. Viola: insta Saim-Hann Falcon or Wave Serpent. For guardians apply same theory with one exception: no masking tape and paint helmet and gun dark gray (fortress gray), use watered down black on gun and then highlight head with lighter gray (space (cheese) wolves gray), with again watered down black on front of helmet where the eyes are. Paint base (snot or goblin) green, use clear PVA glue on base, swirl around in plastic container filled full of favorite base terrain or fish aquarium rocks, yes the statue of limitations has finally ran out on that one, and then put onto field. This also works on Farseers and Warlocks. Just pick out the runes with shining gold and brazen brass (tin bits) and again use the dark blue and light blue combo and Voila again.. insta ground forces with out adding any water. No I didn't use water in my paints like I do now. But back then, it was all about kicking ass and making people feel bad about playing....ya. Then Third Ed came out.

Dark Eldar were the fo schizzle. For me the models looked sexy, hello wyches. Again they had high mobility, this time, very high mobility, and their firepower was off the scale. The Space Marines had gotten several upgrades when the rules were rewritten. I sold my Craftworld army and went the from the monkish Craftworld Eldar (prudes) to the everything in excess, Dark Eldar... yes I would like an extra bottle of chocolate syrup with my sin and decadence. Nothing was too vile, too Evil, or too in excess, and the Dark Eldar had the firepower and hand to hand to back it up. There were two main flaws to the army, when it crumbled... it really crumbled, and the models were extremely brittle.

Again like the Craftworld Eldar the army was extremely easy to paing. Especially seeing the army on the front of the book. Testor's (tm) had or still has a color called Artic Metallic Blue. It came in both spray cans and individual jars. Raiders, Ravagers, and Troops were painted very quickly. The metals took a while... However now comes a twist....

One of my really good friends at that time, Jason, really taught me how to paint. Layering, lots of layering, painting in white or bone, or the worst thing ever: Painting Faces. One thing I dreaded the most: Faces. Without going into great detail I was transitioning in, he was transitioning out. In the course of my teachings, I left some of my metal figures over at his apartment and when I came back a few days later; they were painted, and painted quite well, far better than I could have done. So... picking up on this, I just "happened" to leave figures over at his apartment, and my army's special units were being completed at record speed. When I finally got called out, there was much tribute that was paid if I recall correctly: Subs for Scrubway, Taco's from Taco Smell, there were many emergency resupplies of Code Red, you get the picture. However, I had a finely painted Archon, Dracon, two full Incubi Squads, twenty wyches, ten grotesques, ten mandrakes, ten hellions, three homenculi, one talos, one beastmaster and five warp beasts. To this day I still thank Jason, and tell people that I didn't paint my metal Dark Eldar figures, that laurel is all his .

However the bad side to playing Dark Eldar: no new codex in ten years, and most of all: The Raiders and Ravagers were prone to having their stands break. I spent more time repairing the plastic flying base stands, and drilling out holes in the bottom of Raiders and Ravagers than I had time on the table. If one model got knocked over, it would be followed by a SNAP with the base separated from the model. The Ravagers had metal, pewter side panels, add to that metal guns, disintigraters or dark lances, plus the weight the of the model itself, and every time it was knocked over, bumped or what ever I usually lost a stand. In a 2,000 point army I could easily have three Ravagers, and anywhere from five to eight Raiders. I liked the "Air Cav" army but it was a pain to maintain. So when the Tau came out with Devilfish and Hammerheads the Dark Eldar got shelved.... So darkness changed to light, yang to yen.

So now the yin has changed for the yang. The new rules for the Dark Eldar just came out last month. A new line of spectacular looking models, hit the shelves, probably the best in years produced by GW. The next Tau codex is not scheduled to be released anytime soon. Not to mention a deep buried emotion to eviscerate my opponent on the table and then laugh at them hysterically. I am shelving my Tau and painting my Dark Eldar. Once the Dark Eldar are complete I will start back on the Tau.

I am recreating the army I played back in 3rd Edition: Air Cav. This army will again be Raider, and now Kabalite Warrior heavy, retain the Female Archon, Incubi heavy on elites, no wyches, and Ravagers for Heavy Support. This time around I am making one fundamental change: Metal fricking stands.

This time from the lessons I learned from posing Tau models in new dynamic ways mainly: XV 8's and XV 88's, pinning body parts: I applied those lessons learned to the Dark Eldar. Up until I had taken a class from the GW store in Syracuse, which is now gone... those were some really cool dudes BTW, they really shattered the image of the typical GW Trolls, but thats another story for this blog, I would really butcher models. Now not so much. With the hand drills, and some new tools I had an idea of never having to fix a base or a stand ever again.

Once I had a new Dark Eldar Raider I took out of the box and looked at the pieces, and with the directions, got the pieces for the under belly and dry fitted them together. After seeing how the pieces fit, I saw there was a gap between the bottom and the part that was the initial part of the floor of the Raider. So now going to the local national, orange themed, hardware store I found what I was looking for: 3/8in x 3in aluminum screws and the aluminum bolts to go with them. So here is the step by step:

On the bottom of the Raider where the stand would go take a hand drill and make a hole there so the drill goes all the way though. Once that's done, use a hobby knife and widen the hole, until the screw will fit through. Only make the hole big enough for the base of the screw to go through, not the head. Once you get that done, take your first bolt, and run it all the way up so its flush against the bottom of the Raider. That will hold the screw in place. Now with a second bolt glue it to the base and let it dry. Once the bolt drys to the base you can then screw the screw into the bolt onto the flying base. What you have now is an indo destructo aluminum stand, that you can take the bottom on and off. Upon completion of painting the Raider or Ravager, you can epoxy the bottom bolt to the base so it will never come off, and then use CE glue with or without accelerator to lock down the top bolt to the base under the Raider. I will post pictures in my next blog.

Also coming new lessons learned painting models....