Dark Eldar Archon

As a side project, I am working on a small dark eldar force just because they look cool, heh. After much thought of it I decided to do the Kabal of the Dying Sun as my paint scheme...

And thus here he is! It is amazing how much detail are in these newer models. All in all, it wasn't a complex paint job and I went with a head from the warriors squad all because I misplaced the head I was going to use (I still hate myself over that), but he is a cool model. Most of paint job was from some tutorials on the GW site on the dark eldar except for the armor, which is just some Necron Abyss with a blood red highlight to get the kabal's proper color scheme. The dulled down gold was just a simple heavy black wash over gold and a silver highlight.

This will probably be the only mention of the dark eldar for a good while. I decided to focus on my marines and then orks since I love those lunatics.

Knowledge is Power: Origins of the Sable Swords

Continuing on from before a long while back when I first introduced I am making fan fiction of the Sable Swords, I mentioned I am slowly telling their story through a series of post. Well here it is!

Origins of the Sable Swords: A Legacy Born From Mystery...

The Sable Swords are a proud and honorable chapter, fighting in the Emperor’s name wherever they can and bringing his wrath to the far-flung worlds of the Imperium. However many outsiders, even including some space marine chapters, question the mysterious origins of the Sable Swords. For an odd reason, all records of the founding and first few hundred years of the chapter was lost or erased by someone for an unknown purpose. To make it more questionable, only one figure has survived this, Exallmen, the most coveted hero of the chapter. He is the only person to pass on the knowledge and practices the chapter currently conducts from the lost days before disappearing him-self, leaving many to question Exallmen’s motives and even if he was the one responsible for erasing the chapter’s history. For whatever reason, Exallmen left behind a chapter devoted to honor and purity. From him, many brothers fight to live up to his name and prove their loyalty to the Emperor, but also to recover what they had lost. For not only to they fight the enemies of man, but scour the galaxy in search of clues of the relics Exallmen ordered them to find, supposedly all from the chapter itself. Why Exallmen would scatter them if he did is unknown and may stay a mystery till the day all the relics are recovered.

Imperial Fist Captain

I did my research of course and he is the captain of 5th Company by his shoulder  plate trim.

For fun and for a friend of mine I decided to changed things up with space marines with a captain of the Imperial Fists. He always liked the fists and their successor chapters so it was just natural I picked one of them.

Rather subtle, but he does have some conversion work in the form of his thunderhammer. If I remember correctly (I did this months ago when I wasn't posting) I used the hand and handle section of a Blood Angel glaive encarmine, the arm and part of the handle of a power axe from the assault marine squad and the head and power generator section of an assault terminator hammer. Not the most clean conversion job, but painted you can't even tell so I declare it a success. The rest of him was made using the space marine captain set with the head from left over bitz I have.

The most annoying and tedious part of this was the fact he is almost entirely the two colors I hate doing the most, yellow and white. White I already know the frustration with it from the white possessed marines and my Sable Swords, but yellow I was rather worried about since I never did it before. Looking up a method online to get a good yellow I went with one that including a layer or two of Iylanden Darksun (sorry for my misspelling of the name if so) washed in Oygren Flesh followed by a layer of more Darksun on select areas to create a sort of shading. Lastly I highlighted in Bleached Bone.

As for the Imperial Fist emblem, I tried the water transfer sheets, but as always they are highly tedious and half of the time they came out lopsided or with bumps so I resorted to free handing. Making sure I captured all the major parts of the emblem, I came out with a successful chapter symbol.

The Chapter So Far...

As the past posts suggest, I am collecting a space marine army of the Sable Swords chapter, an official chapter that I am throwing my own twists and creativity into (Hell... I think they have a total of 10 sentences devoted to them). The biggest addition is the different characters and the organization of 1st Company (aka veteran company) into a knightly order called the Black Chalice Knights. I'll save more info on the chapter as I slowly introduce the characters and different aspects of chapter they represent.

On a more tabletop level, I am collecting an army representing that of 2nd Company and members of 1st Company with Kozri'el Icaden, Knight-Captain of 1st Company, leading my force. My friend Josh is also doing a Sable Swords army based around these ideas and is collecting 4th Company with members of 1st as well, but with Chapter Master Guildas himself heading the force. 

Sorry for the far shot, only way I can get the entire force in the photo.

Here is my force as it standing. A scout was lost to the warp for a good while forcing me to play without him, but the Emperor has protected him and has returned to the chapter. Since my last post here have been the new additions.

-Tactical Squad Aratus has been completely finish and also a plasma gunner was made to switch out the flamer.

-Chaplain Iscariot, my personal best painted model I have ever done.

-Assault Squad Tregan

-Finished Eboran's (the dreadnought) base and scratched built a pair of twin-linked autocannons (Using a tutorial from Ron Saikowski) for him to use instead of an assault cannon and dreadnought arm.

Yeah not a lot, but school does that to your hobby life...

Besides that, here is my center piece model for my army. I present you Knight-Captain Kozri'el Icaden, Hero of Grimhall, converted and painted by Ron Saikowski. Utterly fantastic model, I am glad I got him.

Eventually I intend of commissioning another model of Icaden in power armor to use for different strategies and represent him in the armor Silverflame, but that's a story for another time.