The best laid plans of mice and men...

As mentioned in my previous update, i've given into temptation and started a Dark Eldar force. I also said the plan was for a hellion based force led by a conversion of Baron Sathonyx using Lilith.

Well of those three statements, two have largely changed. I'm still collecting a Dark Eldar force, but after perusing the codex a bit more, it'll likely not be as Hellion focused as i'd initially planned. Instead i think i'll be going with a traditional Warrior/Wyches core for the army to begin with, and then expand out into more specialised army types.

In fact i intend to build up quite a large collection of the pointy eared sadists and unless GW comes out with something utterly spectacular they'll likely be the last 40k army i start completely from scratch. I've reached the point now where i have several core units for several different forces, so future releases and updates from GW will simply add a few units to the armies rather than a full army.

Anyway, after taking a look at Lilith and the way she is attached to the scenic elements of her base, i decided it was best not to risk damaging the model by separating her (i'm rather cack handed when it comes to cutting metal) so she was dropped from my planned purchases. Instead i've used a combination of Wych and Hellion parts to create a plastic version of Hastur. For the moment she'll be a simple Helliarch, but as my collection progresses i'll hopefully use her as a proxy baron in the future.

I've attached a few images of her, she's still very much work in progress with a lot of detailing still to do but it gives an idea of my paint scheme for this first batch of Dark Eldar. I've gone for a black/orange scheme, as i've not used orange as a main colour since my Chaos Dwarfs way back in 1996-1998, so it's been fun to go a bit retro.

As it stands i currently have about 600 points of Dark Eldar, so it'll be another few weeks at least before they make an appearance on the tabletop. Until then my Blood Angels or Daemons will be pulling Veteran night duty. After last weeks abysmal showing, the Grey Knights are sitting things out on Titan for the time being. But if rumours prove correct, that should be changing around March time.

Right time to get back to the paint table, the sooner the Dark Eldar get finished the sooner i can start harvesting tasty souls. Om nom nom.