Sunday 12 October 2014

Reviving My Dark Eldar - An Army Reborn

Looking at my armies this year as I finish off the last few models I decided that my Dark Eldar army looked a bit bland and uninspired despite the amount of background I wrote for it. You can see it in these posts: Part 1Part 2 and Part 3. I decided it was time for a dark and gritty re-boot so I moved the story of the Depravum on a few years to their fall and to what sick creatures have risen from the ashes. You can read the start of the story here: Rise of the Faceless Archon and it will continue over a series of upcoming posts that will be grouped together on a dedicated page. For now you can enjoy some army/unit pictures and some of my thoughts on the Scions of the Skin-Lord...

The Scions of the Skin-Lord



The Nameless Shrine
The Nameless Shrine has existed for millennia nestled at the heart of the Dark City. In days before the Fall they were mercenary assassins who stole the names of those they killed, a practice still practiced by the Incubi today. The current master of the relatively small order is Garthinax who offers the services of his shrine only to those who know his birth name and the ancient sealed name of the now Nameless Shrine. 

Haemonculi Apprentices

With both the Kabal of the Immortal Sin and the Haemonculi Coven of the Ebon Hand exiled from Commoragh their organisations have become interdependent for their mutual survival to the extent of being almost inseparable. This has seen an increasing number of warriors becoming specialised in many of the arts of murder and pain the Haemonculi practice; becoming close combat specialists and apprentices to the coven masters. 



The Depravum Trueborn



The Trueborn had previously been a single squad packing just about every weapon option I could give them. This one unit was often the most expensive on the board and rarely ever pulled its weight, in fact often becoming a hinderance. Thus I decided to split the unit into two, each with a specific function in mind: one short range the other long range. These would now be an appropriate size to mount in Venoms for some extra manoeuvrability. When I come to make additions to this army Venoms for these two squads will be the first thing that I buy.

The Ghouls of Kharcis Prime - Trueborn
The Goblin Man-Flensers
Talons of the Skin-Lord


To round off this blog post I am just going to show you some more close-up pictures of a few models along with my thoughts on how I have painted/converted them.

The armour colour I came up with just after christmas experimenting with the Oxide effect wash on some spare Tomb Kings. Using Hashut Copper as a base colour I washed it with Typhus Corrosion, Nuln Oil and then the Oxide applying layers of copper between washes and finishing with a final highlight of copper followed by Mithril Silver applied to the highest areas.

The armour on the Trueborn was painted as above but lacked the final layer of copper and silver to achieve a more aged and worn look. 

I also gave the entire army white helmets to echo the skull of the Faceless Archon and further white pieces of armour were used to make HQ choices stand out. 

Most of the army was also covered in the flayed skins of their foes which were either green-stuff, already on the model or made from various other capes. 

Such a vast amount of freshly reaped flesh requires a lot of blood! Some people who have seen this army think I went over the top, that may be true but I like to think it makes them look a bit more realistic for a group of psychotic space elf pirates whose leader tore his own face off. As befits an army of the 41st millennium I made the armour as weathered as I felt I could get away with without losing the copper effect of the armour. The effect paints that were bought out last year have been a real boon with Typhus Corrosion becoming one of my most used paints for my 40k models to add that extra bit of Grimdark.

My two favourite units: Hellions and Scourges really benefitted from the re-paint as did my army as a whole I suppose. They have evolved from a fairly generic green and purple army into something far more unique that I am far happier fielding. At some point I intend on adding a few vehicles and perhaps a new unit or two to make this army more effective.

I will be posting some more close up pictures of units featured in this post over the next few months as well as HQ characters with some accompanying background and fiction to help flesh them out. You can find all this by clicking on 'The Parade Grounds' at the top of the page and finding the link to the 'Scions of the Skin Lords' page which will have all the links to all the posts related to this army.

To see more from the Eyes of the Snake follow, like, comment, share, etc. and I will see you again soon.




++Doombringer out++


The Skin Lord will rise!


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