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Hi folks, As part of my Asuryani force, Ynnari oriented, I had marked on my list the addition of deepstriking units under the form of a Drukhari combat patrol plus other stuff. I've already painted the Incubus as part of the CtA24. Comes the time of the Kabalites. I have hesitated quite a long time before choosing a colour. I finally decided myself for an Akhelian green. It is close to a teal colour that can traditionally be associated to the dark kins. Their alliegence to the Ynnari sect will be only marked by subtle red details 5ribbons for example) or red paultrons. This illustration is a good impression of what I may aim at. But before diving into the painting I made a test model. For this I used the Archon mini. I was initially planning to make a kit bash to get it as an Harlequin Death Jester Proxy, as others overhere have done, especially the model displayed by @The Yncarne a few months ago: But in the end I went to a kit bash based on the bits I had in stock and keeping the boy into the Drukhari band wagon: Incubi stuff. A simple head and weapon swap. The miniature is IMHO improved by these changes, even if it still looks dumb. But not so dumb than the initial crossed arms version... So a margin improvment... The Akhelian green has been applied on a grey base coat, with deeper grey on the legs. This pic is not adapated to see the latter so you will ahve to trust me on that; but it is a nice variation. The full end result can be seen there: Interestingly enough, I cannot say which pic is worse... Generally speaking, I have not been very clever on that model. Some parts are of difficult access once glued, so prepainting would have been required. Foolish me. Anyway, after corrective actions taken to hide coloured spots that ended up where they were not supposed to be, it ended up quite OK. I've just forgotten that the paultrons were planned to be red. Not so important here as the fleshed cape is largely hiding them. But something to be checked on next models. I will stick with this scheme I guess; at least for the next 10 footsloggers. And for the 10 Scourges I enlisted last week too... See you soon.

Hi folks, I completed my mandrakes tiday, putting final snow touch to their base and correcting some clown noses caused by miscontrol of white paint for hairs. My inspiration was this illustration: It is slightly different from the usual paint job of GW; mainly as hexfire is blue and not greenish. I found it more convenient and more adapted to bring a common point in terms of colours with the swirling soul wave of my Yncarne. All these models are close from the proposed patrons from heavy metal teams (if they are still called like that) but more easily achievable with my more limited painting habilities... For the tatoos, if these esoteric marks are tatoos, I painted in "negative mode": I fiilled all the tatoos and grooves with an electric blue and tham I painted the skin around through an almost dry brushing technique. This left most of the tatoos free of Eshin grey paint and avoided trying to fix it with my trembling hand latter on. Rest of the model is quite straight forward even if I tried a variant on the blades: mixing bone parts with the doomed iron of these daemonic figures. Finally flames were done in the exact same way as for the Yncarne model I did earlier this month: Frost earth on a withe base; and then brueches qnd washes with Fenris grey, Ulthuan grey and Drakenhof nightshade. The other variant was for the shade shield of the mandrake that tries to hide itself from the light (before teleporting on a secondary objective). For this one I went a dark grey washed with a black, while top part was brushed with a dark blue and a grey. Et voilà! These 10 Mandrakes will be a nice addition to the Ynari force of mine, giving some nice dirty tricks available to the whole force. Let's them prepqre my vows for October pledge in 12 Month of Hobby! See you soon,

Hi folks, As I had time to waste while some minis were drying, I spent some time reading fluff, something that I did not do for at least 10 years. Just to give you a small idea, I left if long time before the opening of the great rift the Imperium Nihilus and the Primaris stuff. Whatever one can think about the “event” and the story moving further (I won´t enter in another controversy for something that is and will stay. Like it or no), one positive move as far as I am concerned is a kind of new door opened to gives depth to the Asuryanii. They already gained depth and texture (indirectly) through the development of the Necrontyr. But the fracture of Biel Tan and the rise of the Ynnari was a good promise (“Sky full of stars”, paraphrasing Coldplay). I decided to dive into it while liquidating my Aeldarii pile of shames in CtA23 and still on-going. So, it is time for some “fun facts” about Ynnari, while comparing story plots and rules. The rise of the Ynnari was facilitated by the intervention of Jain-Zar, leading other Phoenix Lords. Yet Phoenix Lords cannot join Ynnari forces. Although they sided/backed them in battle. Drazhar has been appointed to hunt down and kill Yvraine, yet you can enlist him into an Ynnari force There are key members/dramatis personae in the Ynnari band side (more or less directly involved in the chain of command), yet these are not always identified as such in the factions´ keywords: Jain-Zar and Eldrad (as mentioned already), the Triumvirat of Ynnari characters, Yriel the Corsair Prince and Lelith Esperax. I am missing some? Have you seen how Slaneeshi looks The (horned) Yncarne? And what if all the Ynnari stuff ends up being an inside job? Could Eldrad be lured? I am probably paranoid… The Gyrinx is theoretically a wonderful and powerful familiar for psykers, yet it does not do anything. Strictly nothing. Does it meow? I am not even sure of that. The Ynnari forces: there are as far as I counted 3 osts wandering around, one led by Yvraine, one led by her lover (the Visarch) and the last one led by Eldrad (the exiled). Yet only Yvraine´s led armies can be eligible to the Ynnari faction rule wise. The last point is interesting and is known as the Yvraine tax. And if it is not known as such, this is at least how I do call it. If I pretend fielding a legal Ynnari force, under the current state of the Index, I hav no choice than aligning Yvraine. SO, let´s do it and paint her. And here comes the result: I am still ot able to paint any face or eyes, so that part of the model is poor. but seen from afar, on tabletop and among other stuff, you do no notice. At least this is how I try to convince myself. Pallet is very similer to the GW paintjob , athough colours may change a little bit. No purple and rather red for the robe for example. The snow base is a little bit plain and bland. But on the other hand the size of the model does not really leave that much space to texture anything. at least the pet brings eye catching contrast. See you soon with more Asuryanii stuff - I have a bunch of models WIP, from very oldies to most recent releases...

Hi Folks, After painting most of what I though I could in the Imperium forum, I added 2 almost "last minute" vows in the Xeno Forum: - 5 Incubis and their objective marker - for 5 or maybe 6 pts - the Yncarne No surprise, these are a way to increase my Asuryanis though Ynnari faction play. See previous entry and probably some future ones too. In both cases I aligned my scheme on the ones promoted on GW boxes. I am chronically lacking of creativity (this is proved) but I also wanted to limit the decision making process (I can proscratinate a lot). I managed to fulfill both entries in 1 week, and being a copycat while using narrow colour pallets helped a lot. Let see the suspects. Incubis have been largely inspired from the claimed "Ynnari scheme" that can be found on the back of the box and on the GW websites. The armour is made of Incubi darkness, washed with 1:5 black in water. The rest is annecdotical: metal (clear) for blades qnd cuting stuff, red ribbons and white pads. I tried the Vallejo 70.951 as white on Corax white and the contrast is a little bit violent. It might require a future downdown. The Yncarne is as straight forward as can be. red character and frosthearth energy cloud. Everything in COntrast. first time for me the base coat is 100% Contrast on a model. Them subtility is added through washes and dry bruches. I had quite a lot of issues with the final assembly and I have not been able to position properly yhr character on the swirl. I identified 2 delictive points: 1. the base of the swirl is set with a small mispositioning on the scenic base 2. for some reason the bottom of the hair of the Yncarne and the top of the hair on the swirl, where you make the connection, are a little bit deformed. you cannot match all the details and grooves, as if the bottom part was a little bit larger than it should be. There is a small additional angle too. Resulting that the Yncarne is not that centered and looks like it tries to slide ahead. It gives a puzzling idea of forward movement, like trying a hoover jet for first time... But I am any way OK with the result: an ambitious model and probably the most complicated to assemble so far. Here are some close up of the base and epic hero: CTA2024 is now over for me. I ended 24h before deadline, so, I am happy that all my items and vows are complete. See you soon,

Hi Folks. There are as much reasons to choose and play an army than players. Or maybe not that much but a least a serious amount. So I will not pretend listing them all or even pretending covering the main ones. I will instead stick to a selfish and auto-centered exercise on why did I choose to build up an Ynnari force. I am not really an Eldar guy. I liked them and even started gathering an army in 96. I bought and stored some models, essentially after recovering some guardians from a friend on mine that left the hobby at this time and offered them to me a bargain. I have been left with a lot of guardians, falcon chassis and jetbikes. They were left there, waiting for some time. A first attempt for seriously using them was with the release of the Crafworld index. I was VERY tempted to build up a Saim-hann force. I even started building some potential models for kinsmen. But the soufflé went down. Another almost successful resurrection was the issuance of the Black Guardian list in the Eye of Terror campaign book. But the magic did not happen. Back to the pile of shame. CTA23 has been the last memorable event that affected these pointy ears. After 27 years most of the Aeldarii models were at last painted. I guess I have only 10 to 20 guardian bodies left in the waiting room. I kept Saim-hann theme – I never really abandoned it and I secretly hope for a Nuadhu Firehearth model someday… But I still haven´t played a single game: the army needed some legalization and improvements. And this is where the Ynnari trouble starts. A standard move would have been to select a few additional units and increase the army core with the usual suspects: Aspect warriors and so on. But I am not so fond of Aspect warriors in general (except Warp spiders and Dark reapers); although Aspects are the primal form of the Eldar units (I still have my 1st Ed compilation book (the yellow one), I am not that plugged into them. I instead decided to keep on moving on the guardian heavy thematic planning to add walkers and some rangers (inc. shroud-runners). The pile of shame has grown with some of these, but they remain in standby as, after a Paper-hammer* series of small games (in order to simulate and emulate my army construction) the tactical options appeared as being limited. Or better said: they almost paly as my AdMech. It is not what I want. Scouts´ models remain unpainted, even unbuilt. Another option would have been to build up a more fluff-oriented list going back to the roots of a wild rider heavy army. It is however not something that looks playable nowadays. May be for fun, but on the long run?... Paper-hammer stroke once again. It has been another fail So, what is left, except putting Aspect warriors? Ynnari. These have been a third choice, after the 2 previous errantly valuations. Yet they tick some boxes in terms of new tactical tricks. Indeed, getting these Dark-kins gives access to a series of deep striking units that will nicely balance the tactical options. Deep striking transports and skimming tanks. Fast units. Everything is into the speed aspect. I can have something that is still in the mood of that Saim-hann spirit will getting access to relatively cheap troops and units fulfilling a variety of tactical roles without slowing down the historic units of my rooster. To summarize, the decision to go Ynnari has not been a first choice. Rather a third one (And I hope they will not be axed in the next Aeldari codex so that I will not have to repent, again…). Decision has been made based on the play style and tactical options offered by the inclusion of the Dark Eldar units. It opens the rooster to a huge amount of units (probably as much as in a SM army, may it be?) so that variety and surprise effect can be guaranteed (if the collection growth allows it). What is going to include this Ynnari force: The drawbacks of Ynnari is the Yvraine tax. But as it has to be, so let it be. If you go Ynnari, you go Ynnari: so I cannot stop to Yvraine as a signature unit only. Let´s put the Yncarne too. This demonic figure has some tricky tricks to bring to the force. Add some Dark Eldars: a Patrol box for the moment (I touched it at 90 bucks…). I may increase the contingent with some Scourges and a Venom latter. As I “accidentally” get a KY Nightmare box, I also have a unit of 10 mandrakes available Corsairs may increase the rooster, especially as I have enough spare guardian bodies in order to build 2 units out of one box. What is missing from this list are the Venom, the Scourges and the Corsairs – 142 USD before discounts. Everything else is in the Pile of Shame already. In next instalments we will see how I am progressing with the painting of these models, starting with the Yncarne and Incubis. See you next time, *There are variants such as Lego-Hammer or Playmobil-hammer too. I even heard of a Hotwheels-Hammer once, but I guess the guy was talking of Steve Jackson´s Car Wars instead… PS: and I do insist that I am not starting a new army of any kind...