So, I will keep a blog here and update my progress as I go. It's not the most well traveled spot on the interwebs anywho. :-)
Dark Elves are my new army of choice. They offer, to me, the ultimate gaming experience in all of Warhammer. The ability to play in all three phases - well. On top of that, the army list can easily be scaled to a maximized list for playing in 0 comp tournies and scaled down for "softer tournaments".
My list starts as what I plan to run at the Core Competency tourney in November in Chicago. It's a 2 day tourney where soft scores + fluff gets you more points than anything. OH yeah, and 40% core is a requirement! This list will be great as it provides me a solid foundation for my Dark Elves and enough spearmen for almost any build. It will be very easy to add units to this army to scale it up in size / power.
The Army List
Lvl 3 DE Sorc
Web of Shadows (Themey but fail item - easily replacable for other tournies)
Focus Familiar
Dark Pegasus
20 Spearmen - Full Command
20 Spearmen - Full Command
20 Spearmen - Full Command
10 Crossbowmen with Shields
10 Crossbowmen with Shields
5 Dark Riders with Musicians and Crossbows
6 Dark Riders with Shields and Full Command
6 Dark Riders with Shields and Full Command
5 Harpies
5 Harpies
6 Cold One Knights with Banner and Musician
6 Shades with Great Weapons
14 Executioners with Full Command
1 Repeater Bolt Thrower
139 -ish models
224x points
As to the models
There will be heavy conversions. Each unit of spearmen will be created using different models with similar elements (spears, banners, etc...). The harpies will be converted around a piece of artwork directly linked to the theme. The crossbowmen will be converted based on some inspiration from German GD painter George Damm.
The big conversions that will set the theme of the army will be for the Dark Riders. I will be converting them all into Driders using Spider Rider Spiders, Beastmen and Dark Elf bits. Below is a very rough conversion test of my ideas just to see how well the bits worked together. I am really happy with the results but foresee a ton of cutting, pinning and sculpting in my future to make these a reality.
As to the Theme
My army will be based around my vision of the Drow that I have in my mind which was largely influenced by all of my AD&D gaming experiences in the 80's. I have never seen a well done entire Drow army and I think it's time.
As to the colors
Skin color for the drow is the most important choice. Lots of the text refers to them as having obisidian skin. R.A.Salvatore & the Drizzt books started depicting drow with a dark purple-gray colored skin.
My skin color will be based on the image from the Super module Queen of the Spiders which was published to contain all of my favorite D&D modules in one series.
See my first attempts at this rough color scheme.
I love the WE sculpts. She has been a ton of fun to paint on so far. So much so that I have decided to paint up a unit for the Chicago Golden Demons.
Basing
The basing of the army has been a bit of a challenge. I need to create cavern floor to represent the underdark. I was going to use cork as I could get nice textures with cork and it is both cheap and easy to work with... But I found that I'm not happy with 'pure' cork for a number of reasons, the big one simply being durability. On a suggestion from a friend, I have been messing around with Durhams Water Putty. I initially didn't like this stuff but later found I just hadn't allowed it enough time to thoroughly 'dry/cure' due to the thickness I was creating. This stuff may fit the bill nicely. It is also cheap and easy to work with. I am also playing with some Sculpy on a suggestion from Cathy Wappel. I really like working with this stuff and definitely see me using it a lot in all future projects.
The basing will feature numerous additional elements. Some will be sculpted and some will be generated using green stuff press-moulds. You'll have to tune in later to find out more.
TTFN
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