The Slicing Noose (Part 2)

When we left off in Part One, I was waiting until it "warmed up outside" so I could prime these models. Well, that's happened for sure, like, thrice over the years, but I got distracted along the way. The original intention for this series was to have one or two miniatures showcased in each part, more or less from start to finish, but I found myself working on them in an assembly line anyway.

I started with the flesh.

And some of the bases have metal on them, so I picked out those areas using Leadbelcher.

Next I started to apply the Khorne Red basecoats to their body armor.  And then I didn't touch these things for over two years! But something recently inspired me to do so. 

Fast forward about 28 months from when all of the above was written. My current job only has me scheduled for 1 day a week but I can be called in any day. I wake up and get ready in anticipation of work, and during that nervewracking wait time I found it to be quite a relief to jam on some miniatures. Instead of jamming on the miniatures already on my table I found myself picking at these wyches. With such a fleeting window of opportunity I just haven't been taking the work in progress shots I originally had hoped to do with this project. So I just jammed on them until they were done. 

The Slicing Noose. 

I was originally going to showcase two models at a time but with the way this turned out, I'm just going to wrap it all up here. 

WiP shot.

I wanted the rims on these bases to be different from the Terracotta color that I typically use as it doesn't work right with these industrialized scenic bases. I tried Folkart Antique Copper (666 proceeds the name on the label so I suppose that is the model number or something? It seemed appropriate regardless.) which has a new penny sheen look to it. I liked it at first but ultimately decided that it overwhelmed the models so I lightly painted over that with Leadbelcher which gave me a really interesting look.

Folk Art 666 Antique Copper.

The first of these finished models is the leader of the squad, Vylekh the Untouchable. I followed the pics of the Slicing Noose from the pamphlet that came in the Kill Team box as far as trying to figure out what is what on these models. They are insanely detailed for a base troop kit. Vylech has some extra details on whip and trophy rack that I took pains trying to reproduce. Not sure how successful it was but I feel "close enough" about it.

Vylekh the Untouchable.

A detail that stuck out on all of them are their IV tubes of stimulate chemicals throughout their bodies. The damned things just kept being discovered long after I thought I was close to.being done with this unit. 

Bithanded Khaur. 

These combat drug tubes were painted using Rotting Flesh base coat with a glaze of Tesseract Glow. I think these turned out well. 

Veshrari the Cruel.

The weird skin pelts they all wear at their groins were all painted in typical Cadian Flesh through Kislev Flesh staging. I think it's the most disturbing aspect of these models...

Pelythia Berrebaal.

The hair was done by using a basecoat of Wazdakka Red, the Fire Dragon Orange which was followed by a wash of Bloodletter. This was lastly highlighted with another light dryburshing of Fiery Orange. 

Mellyx Veluxis.

Ultimately I think I preferred how the flesh turned out on my Venom Pilots so I will likely return to that method on whatever murder elves that I paint next.

Unless the Screaming Blade.

Thessa khrone.

Nyx  Bloodslyk. 

The bones and hair ties were done using Ushanti Bone, washed with Agrax Earthshade, with the bones highlighted again with Ushanti Bone. 

Xela Vexx. 

The greenish glow of the eye slots on the crome masks were done by using Rotting Flesh (or whatever it's modern equivalent is called) with Tesseract glow washed over it. This came better than I had hoped! In the pics of the Slicing Noose pamphlet these masks were painted White, but I just didn't like the way it looked so I opted for Mithereal Silver.

Shexen  the Faceless.

And that's it, they're done! Will they see battle in a Kill Team or a 40k game first? There are challenges for both, but for now I am just pleased to get them done. Having said that, while taking these pics I found myself nitpicking at some details which I may go back and correct. (Seriously, is that a fricking cat hair on Vylekh's face?!) If so there just might be a part 3... but, I am thinking I should do up a second unit, and use The Slicing Noose as coloring guides for the next batch. Either way, it's nice to have options, right?  

Terror Tactics

"An Extra Night of Gaming." That's what the event was called on our local Hobbytown FB page. It was this past Monday, and somehow the stars aligned themselves in such a way that I was able to participate.

Attempting to employ terror tactics. 

There were a few games being played when I arrived, but not long afterwards the Kill Team game ended and Josh agreed to play a game with me. We chose the Terror Tactics mission and selected our teams. Since they worked well last time I chose to run the exact same Kill Team of Dru...I mean Dark Eldar. Josh selected a team of Primaris Marines.

Dark Eldar Deployment.

Marine Deployment.

I managed to get the Initiative every round of this game! Really, it was the only time that my dice wanted to roll well, as the rest of this match felt like I was in contention with my dice as much as I was my opponent! It started off well with a segment of my force moving towards the board edge while still peppering the Space Marines with as many poisoned needles as possible. I missed a lot, or failed to wound, or the Marine made a save, or I didn't take him out of action when I did manage to hurt him. This made this match more challenging for me, that is for sure!

Dark Eldar advance on Turn 1. 

The first few rounds seemed to go fairly even handed, I kill a guy  he kills a guy, etc. We both our Leaders early on also. But by the 3rd Turn Josh was able to let the Primaris sink their teeth into my Kill Team and start tearing. My Wyches, who stole the show in their last match, were shockingly ineffective against the Primaris Marines in this game. The Comms Specialist and his synergistic benefits were amazing in this game, and this being my first time seeing it in action, I was impressed greatly by his performance.

The floundered charge. 

I had gotten about three models off this board via his deployment zone however the other victory condition was that if one of the teams broke, than the other team could win. Josh focused on achieving this victory condition. When his Reiver slaughtered my Kabalite Warrior Gunner (with the blaster) in an assault, I was left and the last Warrior was brought down by shooting, I had only the other Kabalite Warrior Gunner (with the Splinter Cannon) left on the board. He was in rough shape, and it was no surprise when he failed that test.

Don't fear the Reiver.

If this match taught me anything it was that mastery of the CP system is key to Kill Team. I was poorly suited for this in this match as I am still unfamiliar with my options, while Josh used his with strategic cunning and was able to undermine my most clever strategies. My best use of the Stratagems did get my Wyche Fighter out of a bad situation and able her to escape, but that was more out of desperation on my part than any sort of strategy!

"This sector is secured!"

Thanks for a good game Josh, we'll meet again! Really, if the game had ended on Turn 5 instead of my dice willing the game to continue for another round, I would have won! But that extra round was all the Space Marines needed to rally and take the day! I had fun, in spite of my frustration with my die rolls and with the mechanics of the game in general. After decades of the 'I go U go' system, this version of 'I move, now you move', although refreshing, is hard for this old beard to adapt too. I guess I just need to play more, right?




Some of the other games that took place that night were awesome to observe. Josh, fresh from his win against me, took on a Death Guard army. It was a good example of how undeveloped an all Primaris army currently is as far as support options go. Take a look at all those heavy support and vehicles on the Death Guard side vs. the Space Marine side and you can see what I mean. I left before it ended, and forgot to take a 2nd pic, but it was a brutal clash with Josh's marines hitting with everything they had!

Primaris vs. Deathguard.

The other big game was between The Bob and Matt. Matt used his Genestealer Cult with Imperial Guard Allies and Bob brought his Ulthwe Craftworlds Eldar. It was a brutal match with devastating death tolls on both sides.

Cult corrupted Guard vs. Ulthwe Eldar.

It boiled down to the final fight for the objective. I think the Eldar won, but it was crazy close (so I could be wrong?)! It was a fun game to watch. So I asked Bob who won and this is what he said:

"Matt did on objectives.
8-4 I think,
I had more models left but he had the only unit left that could score.
Fun game."

The final fight! 

Indeed, fun games all around, and I was glad I could participate!

The Slicing Noose (Part 1)

After the recent Kill Team game, where I tried out some Wyches for the first time, I decided I needed to go all the way! I figured out that I needed the expanded cards and rules for the Drukhari (um, I mean Dark Eldar) that came with the Slicing Noose boxed set. And also, more Wyches!

Rules and... stuff! 

After reading through the background material and the short story, I decided it would be fun to actually run and play this Kill Team as presented. I am sure more of my local gamer-peers would prefer just to make up their own unique team, and normally I would too, but I also thought this would be a neat challenge. Each member of the Slicing Noose is named and has a corresponding miniature to represent them in the booklet. I want to build these Wyches to match the photos as close as possible, with the exception that their garments will have red highlights instead of green/blue-ish.

The entire Slicing Noose as presented by GW.

Matching these images up to the parts on the sprues quickly proved to be a maddening exercise in futility. So my solution was to simply assemble all of the legs at once and them match up the parts.

"She's got legs, and she knows how to use them."

The leader, Vylekh the Untouched, was fairly straight forward model to put together, despite my 3 year old jumping around and shaking the whole room like a maniac.  

GW's example.

 My Vylekh the Untouched. 

Keen eyes might spot that I am using Plastruct Bondene Styrene & ABS Plastic Solvent Cement for the construction of these Wyches. However while attempting to clean off the mold Lines in the pic above, Vylekh popped right off of her base. And that was after a night of curing! The bases I am using are a mix of Necromunda and Sector Imperialis bases. They are made from a harder plastic than the standard slots base, so maybe more cement was needed for the feet? I decided to not fool with it and just use Testors Cement for the feet/base joining.

These bases are tough stuff so I had to use my drill to make a small hole in these bases, then clip off the tabs, but leaving enough to fit into the holes.

Poser tool time! 

This worked out really well I think, although it took a bit of adjusting to get it to work right.

The completed legs. 

Now on to matching the torsos to the legs. This was a more challenging exercise than I guessed it would be, but fun none-the-less. It took quite a long time getting them right, but in the end I did. When it came to the blade and gun arms....well, that proved to be a royal pain in the rear. I got most of them right although there are two that I know for sure that got mixed up. Not a really big deal, but fixing them could potentially damage them so I left them alone. Matching the heads was fairly easy however, but in the end the whole construction/matching process was very time consuming, but I think I mostly succeeded.

The assembled Wyches.

And that's it for now, hopefully it will warm up enough soon for me to prime them and get the painting process rolling.

Something Wychy

Wyches!

Recently I managed to make it to my local game store for a game of Kill Team. Prior to going I had decided to use my Dark Eldar (Drukhari, as you noobs call 'em) but I wanted a bit more variety, so I figured I would take some Wyches to the game also. Only I have made zero progress in getting any of my plastic Wyches assembled (let alone painted!). I did have three of the older models kicking about that I primed and base prepped about two years ago. I decided way back then that they were simply not appealing to me any more and did nothing with them.

Wyches in their ...prime.

Until now.

I had about three hours to spare prior to the game. I figured if I was going to play a game chances are I would take photos for a battle report or a recap, and regardless of exactly what I would end up doing, I wanted to at least have these models basecoated. Using Rakarth Flesh as a basecoat on the flesh and Abaddon Black to darken up their garb, I was satisfied enough with this.

 Basecoated

But I was liking how they were turning out, and how fast it was going, so I proceeded into the middle layers. Reikland Fleshwash was liberally applied over the skins and Khorne Red was thinly painted onto their gladiator costumes.  

Middle coats added.

And that was the level they were at when I took them to last week's game. They performed admirably, and I was glad that I had painted them up to that point as they did appear in few prominent pics in the report I posted.

Game time!

Once back home I felt that I needed to finish these guys up properly and they did well for me in that game overall, and it will be awhile before I can give the plastic models the time they will deserve. Rakarth Flesh was painted over the Reikland Fleshwash, really bringing these Wyches to life.

Rakarth Flesh layer. 

Blood Red was painted along the edges of their armor.

Blood Red on the gladiator armor.

I used Craftsmart (formally Folk Art) Graphite to highlight the hair.

Graphite hair undercoat.

I then used Nagaroth Nightshade on the hair.  I liked how it turned out, and decided not to darken the hair further.

Nagaroth Nightshade wash on the hair.

I had to put some emphasis on that hair step in this post mainly because I have never done that mix before and I need to have a record on how I did this in case I decide to do it again.

Next up, the armor was highlighted first using Wildrider Red with a Sunburst Yellow highlight.

Armor highlights.

However I found that to be a bit too intense so I toned it down with a Bloodletter wash.

Finished Shardnet and Impaler model.li

I was unsure what that heck the thing on the belt was supposed to be. I interpreted it to be a flower so I painted as such.

 All of these models have a variety of tubes running all over their bodies. These I assume are to represent the combat drugs and stims that they are all amped up on. I am glad the newer miniatures don't have this design as it is a pain in the ass to paint these things. I opted to used Blood For The Blood God to imply blood coursing through the drug dispensers. Yeah, it clashes a bit with the armor,  but then I didn't neccesarily want to make this feature anything more than subtle.

Completed Wych.

This Wych seems to have the most I.V. tubes coming out of him. Seriously, that doesn't seem to me to be a wise thing to have going on with a gladiator does it?

Rearview of completed Wych.

This next guy performed above and beyond in that Kill Team game and held his own for many combat rounds against a Veteran Purestrain Genestealer. So I decided that he should have a commemorative Genestealer skull for his base.

Wyche bad-ass with Genestealer skull.

Again, Bloodletter really helped pull back that Sunburst Yellow. Their blades were painted using Bolt Gun metal near the edges, a Nuln Oil wash with a highlight of Mitheral Silver. I am pleased with how these blades turned out.

I should probably upgrade this guy in the next game as well as give him a name...

(Insert name here)

Here they are completed! I am surprised with how well these turned out, how relatively fast I painted them, and easy it was to paint these overly exaggerated miniatures.

The finished trio.

Yes, these sculpts are ugly. I expressed this quite a lot in a review I did of the original Dark Eldar line, however as gaming pieces go they do the job they were designed to do. And they do it well! They have a strong silhouette, or profile, and you can easily read what they are armed with. Although the newer plastics have vastly superior anatomy, details, and scaling, what they make up for in realism they lose some of the instant "reading" in the heat of battle. But that is a theory that needs to be put to the test, so consider this just an old guy's opinion for now.

Ready for their next fight! 

The last thing to do is spray a matte varnish on them, as these are metal and they can easily chip. I will have to wait until the weather here offers me an opportunity to do this however.