Heroes Make Their Mark On The Latest Dark Eldar Releases
October 4, 2014 by brennon
The latest raft of Dark Eldar release has been focused in on some more heroes and the specialised aspects of the army from Games Workshop. This week brings out the pre-orders for their Haemonculus Coven Codex alongside the Succubus and Archon HQ units...
The first focus of the new selection of pre-orders is the newest supplement for the Dark Eldar army that concentrates its efforts on the Haemonculus Covens. This book contains rules allowing you to use an army focused on these flesh workers of the army as well as a selection of new scenarios and more rules to make them the focal point of your collection. Considering how cool and vibrant the work on Dark Eldar can be this sounds like it could be a good buy for those obsessed with the dark arts.
As well as the supplement focusing in on the Haemonculus Coven there are also some new releases for the rest of the Dark Eldar army. The first is the Succubus (pictured first) that is quite the cool looking addition to a Wych based army. She embodies most of the dynamism that you've come to expect of the Dark Eldar and is a new take on an old sculpt that we've seen in previous editions.
The Archon on the other hand is rather a poor offering from Games Workshop. As I mentioned when the leaks appeared it certainly has the dominating and overbearing aspect of the Dark Eldar down but I think it lacks the lithe deadliness that we are used to seeing from this faction in Warhammer 40,000. It looks far too relaxed for an army that's meant to be raiding and pillaging Real Space.
Overall a rather cool addition when it comes to the Haemonculus Coven and the Succubus is a great HQ unit but sculpting wise I think it's a no go area when it comes to the Archon.
What do you think?
What a gracious pose the archon has got, carrying a pistol the size of a lascannon
Personally I love the Archon model. The dude is posing and lording it up for his troops. Nice scuplt
Yeah I can see a certain arrogance to it and the details are great, I would just prefer him to be a bit more active and some head/weapon options would have been nice.
I agree. The Archon has a bad pose instead of being a bad-ass. At £14 each I’d rather kitbash both and put them on scenic bases to make them stand out, there’s little difference between them and the wych and warrior kits, aside from some bling which could be more or less easily added.
I love the Dark Eldar range on the whole though.
I really like the Archon, there’s a wonderful sense of arrogance about him.
For me though, the thing I really want to see for any GW release is the sprue. The Archon has been designed so that you can customise him using bits from the other Dark Eldar kits without having to chop him up. It’s great to see GW moving in this direction with their character models.
Both sculpts are rather good but over all from those two Succubus has better pose. She is charging to battle ready to kill and bring pain. Archon how ever looks like he does not care and he just stands there. Too many character sculpts in 40k have that pose and I feel that that more dynamic action pose that Succubus has fits DE much better.
The archon is to static a pose I could see it used for scenery as a statue or an objective trapped in a stasis field just glad i’ve still got the old one
Archeon’s pose is odd, think its the way he is stood, not a big fan of the crossed arms thing.
Succubus – is a nicer pose but pretty much the same as old metal – face looks very plastic – could be the paint job.
Sans cool factor for me
In an effort to save money GW have now hired Third World pre-schoolers to paint their models.
$28 for a man-sized plastic figure on foot? And a static one at that. Am I reading that right? The top one has a better pose, but not $28 better. I’ll wait for a disgruntled hobbyist to post one on Ebay… won’t be long. Just need to get rid of that silliness in the right hand and replace it with a sword or axe, and then it will make a good drow hero for fantasy… and of course, paint it better.
dude, in what universe are those badly painted 😛 lol
… could they be painted a bit more colourfully … well yeah, I know I would …
but I think most people would be pretty pleased if they could paint like that 😛
… the only thing I’d really change, is to just paint all the metal bit’s in non metallic 🙂
… but then again, GW still need’s to pimp out all their metallic paints I guess 😛 ha ha
@cpauls1 your painting must be amazing if it makes the GW painters look like Third World pre-schoolers (odd choice of phrase that. Why Third World I wonder?). Is their perhaps a blog or forum where we see some of your stunning work posted?
ive seen the work you have done erastus, and its light years better than this … what i think he means is GW has put their standards pretty low on the painting side, for being GW. The first thing i reacted to was the archons static pose and the out of proportion pistol, but then i started looking closer on the hightlights and how they have painted the faces … its like they have been speed painted, no effort to blend any of the ink colour with the flesh colour.
I think it’s a bit unfair to criticise the painting that GW do with their miniatures because I honestly think it’s missing the point. GW take a very different approach to, say, Corvus Belli. CB show off their miniatures by hiring one of the best professional miniature painters in the world. Infinity miniatures look incredible in the publicity shots, but with the best will in the world, how many gamers are ever going to get their miniatures looking like Angel G’s? GW on the other hand, paint their miniatures competently, using a few basic techniques and post videos showing their… Read more »
Personally i dont care if i cant get the end result of angel giraldez, when i see one of his infinity minis painted up it shows me what can be done with the miniature.. not one detail is lost in shoddy paintwork. It sets the mind working on what type of character the miniature is representing, tempting me to try get some of the effects going without the use of an airbrush. I understand what you mean with the purpose of keeping it “simple”. Even if GW has a purpose with their paintjobs I still think it makes the miniatures… Read more »
I totally agree with that last part @hatamoto When I’m browsing miniatures I might want to buy, I’d much rather see an unpainted miniature, than a miniature with someone else’s interpretation of it – regardless of how good the painting might actually be. I’m not saying companies shouldn’t use painted minis on their websites, but if they are going to paint them, I’d like to see an unpainted shot too.
Nope. I’m a terrain guy. I’m currently working on a six-story castle floating on three waterfalls, which will be capped off with the GW astromancer thing and the stone blight ruin, or whatever it’s called. I don’t usually buy that sort of thing but the missus comes home with them every now and again just to give me a treat. It’s wired with lights, and is a jumble of Romanesque, medieval, and Renaissance styles. It will go on Pinterest when I’m done. I paint to high tabletop quality, just to get the figures on the board. That’s all I have… Read more »
the Archon looks like a simple retask of the crossed-swords mini in the Dark Elf Corsairs. .. complete with the cloak. The corsairs look more dynamic tho.. and I even use modded versions of them them as my Trueborns.
I’m liking the Succubus mini 🙂
The Archon sculpt is poor, expecially when you compare it to the stellar models GW have been releasing lately.