Blood Bowl: Dark Elves

A new season is about to begin!

We have never been large sports fans, but that has not stopped us from playing some miniature-based sports games. Interestingly, our very first blog post was for Mantic Games’ Dreadball. Of all the sports-themed games we have played, we always come back to Blood Bowl. Back in 2006, I got Bronze in the Open category in Golden Daemon Baltimore for a Norse blitzer. In 2016, when Blood Bowl was released after many years being out of print, we got back into it again, and even started a small league which we never finished. Now that a second season was announced, we are preparing to get back into the game. With that in mind, I decided to start assembling a Dark Elf team that had been sitting unused in my collection!

Dark Eldar: Duke Sliscus conversion complete

"We learnt long ago that the inscrutable universe turns upon an axis of suffering, because pain is inevitable."

The past month and a half has been a busy one for me, as I prepare for my PhD thesis defense. Despite that, I have found some time to spend on the hobby and used it to finish my conversion of the Dark Eldar Duke Traevelliath Sliscus. Started sometime last year, the conversion was very close to completion when I was distracted by all manner of other projects.

Between the Bolter and Me: 2013, a year in review

It is hard to believe that Between the Bolter and Me is already a year old! What started as a means to stay excited about miniature-based wargaming amidst my time in graduate school has blossomed into something bigger.  Instead of just serving as a distraction, it has become a fantastic outlet for my creativity and has encouraged me to become a larger part of the developing community. I am more excited than ever to be in the miniature gaming hobby and to be a part of the community as a whole. Over the year I discovered and have been inspired by a huge list of other hobbyists and their blogs, including Migsula, Jeff Vader, Kari Hernesniemi, Mikko Luoma, KrautScientist, Pijamas Gagarin, and Dave Taylor, to name just a few.

My confidence and skill as a modeller has improved by leaps and bounds, particularly in the area of actually modelling with greenstuff. And while I still have not started painting yet, it is only a matter of time!

With 2014 just getting underway I wanted to take some time and review some of my favorite models that I (and the other members of Between the Bolter and Me) converted in 2013.

Dark Eldar: Converting Duke Sliscus

Follow the Serpent!

Ever since the release of the Dark Elf assassin Shadowblade, I knew I wanted to use the model as a foundation for a conversion of Duke Sliscus. The model’s dynamic pose seemed to play nicely with the image of him I had in my mind, a flamboyant firebrand of a character.  I mused on how best to create the characters, and with the later release of the Dark Elf fleetmaster, I knew I found the last few pieces I needed.

Dark Eldar: Kabalite Trueborn - Part 3

They cower. We carve.

It has been a long time in coming, but I have finally finished the fourth member of the squad of Dark Eldar Trueborn that I started some months ago. The final member of the squad is very much in line with the other members of the squad, adopting a pretty unassuming pose, with his blaster poised and ready. The model took advantage of the recent reinvisioning of Dark Elf range by using one of the heads from the wonderful plastic Dark Riders. Each of the squad members are based on Dragon Forge Tech-deck bases, perfect for reinforcing the idea that they are seasoned space pirates, accustomed to raiding void-crossing vessels.

Dark Elves: New possibilities for Dark Eldar and others!

The new Dark Elf models are just begging to be converted!

This past weekend marked the first wave of releases for the new Dark Elves army book. With a release schedule somewhat reminiscent of the Dark Eldar in 2011, the army is slated to have a second wave of releases in the near future. Taken together, these two waves largely see a complete resculpting of the army’s range of miniatures. This is an exciting time for the Dark generals of Naggaroth and the Warhammer 40k generals alike. This new set of releases offers a large collection of new pieces suitable for all sorts of conversions, be it individualizing some Dark Eldar warriors, or converting an INQ28 death cult assassin. With this post I wanted to talk a little about some of the new releases and my thoughts about them and how I envision them being used in conversions as well (this is greatly facilitated by all of the releases being in plastic!).

Dark Eldar: Kabalite Trueborn - Part 2

The Blasterborn assemble!

The past couple weeks have been a busy time for modeling on my end. Despite my best efforts, I have not been able to keep focused on a single project and, as such, I still don’t have anything completed. One that has been occupying a lot of my time has been continuing to build my first squad of Kabalite Trueborn. I have made pretty good progress since my last post about them and now have three that are near completion. As I work on the fourth, I thought I would show some pictures of the new squad members to see what everyone thinks.

Dark Eldar: Kabalite Trueborn

High Elf Shadow Warriors integrate nicely with  Dark Eldar warriors.

For the next installment of my quest to build a Dark Eldar army, I want to show my initial efforts to convert a unit of Kabalite Trueborn. At this point I have finished the the majority of a single Trueborn and wanted to get any feedback or suggestions for completing the model and converting newer members of the squad.