Friday 17 February 2017

Dark Eldar Wracks

I'm literally wracked with guilt over this latest purchase .... (pauses of laughter.... no, ok). With that chronic joke out of the way, welcome to another bizarre side project.



I'd always loved the look of some of the Dark Eldar units, but particularly the Haemonculus related miniatures (these days we have the supplement Haemonculus Covens too for real fanatics!). Wracks have a really nice evil air about them and I'd be remiss in not mentioning that this is one of the best crafted and most detailed plastic kits I've ever seen. They're not cheap though at £22 for 5, but I really feel that the expense is worth it for miniatures of this quality.




The kit comes with a range of different options; plenty of fearsomely jagged cutting blades for the blood crazed masses to enjoy. You also get a full range of kit for the leader with Scissor Hands and Whips; plus a rather nice Venom Blade that I went with because it looked so cool. The only downside is that they all have their heads locked in a frontal position that didn't make them look too dynamic when I was posing them. To counter that, I cut two of them right at the top of the neck so I could turn their heads a bit. A little greenstuff in the gaps and hey presto; new poses.

I've started these as a bit of a fun modelling and painting challenge. I wracked my brain for inspiration (did you see what I did there?) and came up with a few ideas for the colour scheme and as I'm always looking to expand my horizons, I'll also be trying out a new technique or two,  so fingers crossed they work out (although if you look a bit lower down, you'll see an early first look at the scheme).




After getting the rest of the box built and suitably greenstuffed, I had a go at painting the first model up. He's still a work in progress and I'm trying to get a feel for the colours. At the moment, the only finished part is the high gloss red armour; although now that it's done I just hope the rest of the miniature can live up to it (well worth the 8 coats of paint it took to get that finish! ... unless we're counting undercoat in which case it's probably 11 or 12, what with the unintentional airbrush overspray)



Whether or not there'll be a whole army in a minute? I guess only time will tell. For the moment I'm just going to paint these up, and if that goes well maybe I'll add a Haemonculus or a few more bits to build a little kill team with.

Oh, and if you were expecting an update on Squaduary; I can only say that I've been distracted (luckily I was ahead of the game! but if this continues I'll be wracked with guilt for a second time!)

13 comments:

  1. Looking wracktacular! I can't wait to see if you end up making an army of these guys, welcome to the dark side.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ah, the Dark Side *poorly designed breathing apparatus optional*

      The dark side also appreciates puns ... the most diabolical of humours.

      Delete
  2. They look great dude, I like the head posing and you are right it does give them a sense of dynamism even though it is a relatively small change, plus that red armour looks ace ! Keep up the good work :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, I built the plastic myself!

      They are awesome models though. At first I thought they were a bit expensive, but having built them I think they're worth every penny.

      Delete
  3. Really nice looking scheme there even at the WiP stage

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks. I've almost finished the first one now after several hours more work and I'm really happy with it. Pictures will probably go up over the weekend when I'm done.

      Delete
  4. I have always loved the wracks. I also really enjoyed painting the haemy for my body. Just cool models! I'd love to see a new version of grotesques.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm going to assume you meant "buddy" ... not body, like "I just love the feel of his Liquifier against my skin, so I painted it... for my body"

      Delete
  5. Lovely builds! They definitely benefit from having the head twists, good stuff!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah, I thought so. The square on heads look quite imposing when they're all lined up, but a little bit of conversion goes a long way in getting a little bit more dynamism out of them (although with models this nice I feel almost greedy!)

      Delete
  6. Those are some great looking models and I like the test scheme so far.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks. Now I just have to scale up the scheme to a whole army... This could take some time...

      Delete