Commissions: Dark Eldar Fighter

You'll recall seing WIP pics of this before Mecha Month started. When the client ordered a set of keel blades and other knifey bits from the Raider sprue, they really brought the model together. I'm only sorry weren't any good bits to use as missiles, but oh well. It has a really sleek, pod-fighter feel to it, now. 

Did I mention how awesome Dragon Forge flight bases are? Because they're awesome. All I had to do was stick a rare earth magnet in there to secure the fighter, and away we go. I may have to start on an air force for my AdMech army.

The Eldar Falcon was hell to cut apart, and even worse to trim down with all those curilinear surfaces. One of the ideas I'd had was to mate the two halves together and make a delta-wing style craft, but the thing looked too much like a Jedi Starfighter, and this one has a lot more of a mean, weaponised look to it, while keeping the lines of a racer. Those keel blades really set off the design, though, especially the rudders on the main drives:

There's also a set of large blades underneath, coming off of the nacelles, which the craft sits on when it lands. Yes, they'd dig into soft ground and sink the whole craft, but what the hey, the thing probably moors in a claw at Comorrach, and they probably never land when on a raid. You can see them better in the front-on pic: 

Yes, the thing ended up looking a little like the Batwing. Somehow that's more acceptable to me than the Jedi Fighter. Looking at those underside blades,  I'm sure the crazy-ass pilot goes skimming along through crowds at ground level, too. Of course, you're risking getting the fighter caught on, say, a tank, but no one accused the Dark Eldar of being safety nuts. 

Arguably, you wouldn't need big blade rudders when you have thrust-vectoring flaps on your engine nozzles, but they really unite the design and tie it in to the rest of the Dark Eldar fleet. Plus, without them the ship's a little control surface-light, and I wanted it to feel really nimble. 

He got a box of Kaballites, too, and some Wyches and Incubi to round things out. I wish I could have spent some time to take detailed pictures of them, but I finished them on game night, and had just spray-enamelled them before getting ready to meet the client there. 

I really love the new Wych sprue. They're really excellent sculpts for plastics, although those one-legged running poses are really, really fragile. I can see them breaking off in the transport case, but luckily, that's not my problem. Some of their weapons are a little too frail too, such as the chain-like razor flail mini. Again, it looks nice, but how long can it last being transported around? I guess it's good that he does a lot of hosting and not many away games.