Dark Eldar Voidraven - Part Eight - Completed Pic and Musings on it's Use

Hi,

Browsing through my old posts I noticed that I didn't put a final pic of my Voidraven Bomber.  You can see my blog posts going over the conversion in 7 steps here.

The last pic I showed was before my first game at the MAD tournament last year:

However here's a better pic from the A Small Matter of Honour tournament from last year:

Musings on the Voidraven

Since the Voidraven was complete I have never played a Dark Eldar game without it.  Even though that it partially due to the fact that I really like the model, I wouldn't use it in so many games if I didn't think it added to my army.

Why haven't you taken a Ravager ?

When taking Dark Eldar heavy support choices you have to ask yourself the above question.  I would even go as far as to advise most people that they would have to consider a change of army list, or ensure they catered from a weakness in early game long range anti-tank firepower elsewhere in their army list, if they did not include at least 2 Ravagers in any games at 1500 points or more.

So saying this why should you pay 45 points more than a ravager (or 65 points in the configuration I use) to use the Voidraven.

1) The Voidraven is the most resilient vehicle the Dark Eldar have access to - still fragile, but tough by Dark Eldar standards :).  Unlike the Ravager it isn't open topped, and if the opponent does not have access to skyfire, or you kill their skyfire quickly (Quad guns die to splinter cannons as easy as 2 marines) then it is hard to hit (needing snap shots).

2) The Voidraven is fast, with a move of up to 36" it can target far off enemy units which the rest of the army might struggle to get to (particularly if it is later in the game when most of the Dark Eldar transports have been destroyed).  The height of the flying stand also helps to get line of sight against enemy units trying to hide.  An example being a small marine unit huddled behind 1.5" high wall (which blocks line of sight to the rest of your army) praying the game will end asap so they can claim an objective they're sitting near; the Voidraven's increased height will allow it to see the marines and can it let rip with lances and, if purchased, missiles.

3) It can me made dual purpose for a turn or two with the additions of missiles, I prefer using 2 shatterfield missiles, but the basic monoscythe missiles are also good (for the better AP5 to kill light infantry).  Most targets are already wounded on 2+, so the poison missile is pretty meh, and the implosion missile is expensive, situational and only a small blast.

4) The scare factor; mentioning str9 lances on a platform that can move 36" in a turn can make some opponents worry too unnecessarily about the Voidraven, and without skyfire it will take them the same firepower that could kill 3-4 venoms or raiders to kill the Voidraven :)

5) The Void Mine can be a nasty surprise, it may not do much most games, but a str9 ap2 lance small blast has killed vehicles for me.  If you're forced to fly off the board the Void Mine can be useful to do some damage as you fly off.

6) Outside of fortifications and allies the Voidraven is our best anti air unit.  Even having 1 Voidraven can threaten fliers, and distract them for a turn or two while the rest of your army concentrates of wiping out the enemy's ground troops.

7) By combining the fact that the Voidraven comes on from reserves, can move very fast (up to 36"), and by coming on at oblique angles means the Voidraven is very good at getting side armour shots the first time it fires.  A Ravager can struggle to get side armour shots against a good opponent, and Wyches have to survive the enemy firepower and sometimes take up to turn 3 to slap haywire grenades on a tank, so if a Voidraven can get side armour shots with str9 guns it can really help get rid of enemy vehicles early; assuming it doesn't stay in reserve for too long.


Why not take more fliers ?

I have tried this.  I took a Razorwing Jetfighter, Voidraven Bomber and a Quad gun in the same list to a tournament and in a few test games.  It was nice in some games ruling the skies, taking out the enemies anti-air quickly so my fliers were slightly less fragile than usual.

However by it's nature Dark Eldar are an alpha strike and glass cannon type army (particularly the way I play with them).  Although you can mitigate this, my taking more resilient wracks and going MSU (multiple small units) so the enemy has to kill multiple squads before really affecting your firepower, you will rarely win a war of attrition.

This leads to a problem with fliers - they don't start on the board turn 1.  Having both a Razorwing & Voidraven off the board meant that for at least 1 or 2 enemy shooting phases I had over 300 points off the board. This impacted the army too greatly, especially combined with the issue caused by using a Quad Gun.

Quad guns are great, and the Defense line it comes is also great...in some armies.  For the Dark Eldar I found it hampered one of their best advantages, speed and unpredictability.  Putting down a defence line and quad gun meant that before the enemy deployed s/he knew exactly where at least 2 small units of wracks were likely to be, in line of sight (rather than hiding on a hidden objective) that would probably be supported nearby by other units to ensure the guad gun was not overrun (one game I had to kill by own quad gun because it was overrun by traitor guard and choas space marines and was about to be used against my own flyer).

The Quad gun led to a more stand off and shoot attrition game which did not suit my Dark Eldar.  I much prefer the enemy having no idea how my army will deploy, and having the flexibility to completely switch their area of focus turn to turn to keep the enemy guessing.


So why a Voidraven over the Razorwing Jetfiighter

The Razorwing comes with 4 missiles for the same cost as a stock Voidraven before adding any missiles.  Iconically this makes the Razorwing Jetfighter the better Infantry Ground Attack vehicle (particular with the option for swapping the lances for disintegrators and having a nose mounted splinter cannon) while the Voidraven (with it's better lances) is the best best at taking out vehicles.

With anti infantry poison weapons through out the rest of the Dark Eldar army, the Razorwing Jetfighter more of the same of what I already had, while having some of the flier benefits mentioned above.

However having the stronger anti vehicular guns (in most cases 2 Void Lances is comparable to 3 Dark Lances) I didn't feel as bad not taking a Ravager as the 3rd heavy support slot.  Also the Voidraven was clearly the best tool against other flyers which was a concern, particularly if I was not taking allies (to get access to a Crimson Hunter) or a Quad gun.


So in Conclusion

The Voidraven helps with anti air, is very fast allowing it to target distant enemy targets, and it's missiles (for a turn or two) let it turn into a good anti horde unit, and if they pack too close even marines and terminators can find themselves having to make a good number of saves on top of the the two str9 lance shots the Voidraven has as it's main armament. To me it's Ravager+, and well worth the extra 65 points over a 3rd Ravager in my army list.

Mine for one will keep flying :)


What the future holds

Well 7th edition is released in less than 24 hours, and one change that helps the hard Dark Eldar heavy support choice is that all armies can ally with themselves*, so if you aren't using Eldar allies you can take Dark Eldar allies to fit in a 4th heavy support choice.  I'm tempted to have both 3 Ravagers and my Voidraven.


Let me know in the comments below, what your experience has been with the Dark Eldar fliers, and what you think of their anti-air capabilites.

Rathstar


* In 7th edition you can also have as many primary detachments as you want, but I'm sure that this will be restricted in any tournament, as the result can be become pretty ridiculous pretty quick, as the guys at the Sons of Sanguinius blog explain.

Dark Eldar WIP Voidraven - Part Seven - Touch-up Issues and Sneak Peeks [Updated with Sneak Peek answers]

Hi,

Before I undercoated my Voidraven I went back over the model to smooth some of the joins with a GW file, and GW emery boards.  The emery board could probably be easily sourced from out retailers, at probably a fraction of the cost, but they were only £4, and should produce a smoother finish, rather than the sometimes course and scratched look normal files make.  However this is where I realised I made a mistake.

When I did some second set of tidying up I used mulliput again, however when it came to smoothing my work with filing I came accross one disadvantage of mulliput.  It does dry very very hard, and it was very difficult to do much filing, particularly in the small areas.  The emery boards did nothing, and only heavy filing made an impact.  What I should have done, and I recommend to anyone else, is to start with mulliput, but then to do the final touch-up and finishing off to create a smooth transition between the parts with either green stuff or a mixture of green stuff and grey stuff.  This would make it much easier to touch-up the final work.

I still have some touch-up to do, but I'm going to try and do this after I have undercoated the model, with liquid green stuff.  I was hoping that some of the touch-up work would not be needed once the model was undercoated, and from a distance the small issues are unnoticeable  but when the model is examined close up they are.  The main issues I can see are a s slightly uneven finish in the mulliput in the delicate areas between the engines towards the front of the model (down to my poor modelling skills), and a slight difference in the height of the mulliput on the two engine extensions.

This last stage is also the fun part, because you can just raid your bits box and add any interesting pieces.  I used some reaver fins, some talos bits, reaver jetbike canopy.

To leave you in suspense below are some teaser pics of parts of the Voidraven before I undercoated it; bonus rep if you can say what all the bits are and where on the model they are :)  I'll fill in the answers at the weekend (Update: answers now added below, did you guess them all correctly ?).

Rathstar

This is the double wing section of the Voidraven,
created by adding the spare end of the wing over the
original one at an angle

This the tail fin section, that has been cut down
to give a much thinner vertical profile to the Voidraven

This is a Reaver jetbike tail fin,
which is replacing the main tail fin of the Razorwing

This is a Reaver jetbike Grav Talon,
which I placed on the side of the Voidraven cockpit

It's a bit blurred, but this is the undercarriage of the Voidraven at the front,
on the left is the bottom of the crystal canopy made from the full and half canopy sections
glued together to make a larger canopy.
On the right is a Reaver jetbike canopy and in between is some mulliput.

This is my Void Mine.
It is made from a Talos head, a small ravager engine at the back,
reaver tail fins for wings, and a reaver cluster caltrops.

Dark Eldar WIP Voidraven - Part Six - Putty Applied

Things have been a bit slow recently, however I've managed to start filling the gaps and smoothing the joins in my Voidraven.

After I did some test putty sections:

I checked them out after they had dried overnight.  They were all very strong, but I think if I had kept pushing with my nail I would have been able to leave a mark in the green stuff.

The mulliput was particularly hard, when I went to test filing it, so I’ve decided that I would start with mulliput and then go over any detail areas with a mix of green stuff and/or grey stuff.  For a smaller project I would probably use either green stuff or grey stuff, but for the large Voidraven I would use mulliput for the all put minor detail work.


For the first stage I started by kneading the mulliput into small balls, but later found it easier to either roll it into a long tine for engine gap filling and then spread it out and smooth it with the modelling tools.  For smoothing out the join between the front cockpit and the original hull I either used smaller lines of mulliput or stretched it out to be a thin film, cutting off some of the excess when it was put in place and smoothing the remainder.

I used a pot of water to keep the putty wet, both when kneading the two parts together and applying it to the Voidraven, this stopped the putty drying out, but also meant that watery putty got on the model. I was careful to clean this out of the recesses in the Voidraven so it wouldn't dry out ruining the lovely detailing.  The canopy also had a smear of light brown/yellow watery putty over it, so I cleaned this with clean water so the small details wouldn’t be obscured when if the putty was allowed to dry.

Here’s some pics of my progress so far:

I still need to do the underside of the front cockpit, and some light filing and touch up with a mixture of mulliput and greenstuff on the areas I’ve done so far.  I particularly want to improve the join of the two engines towards the front of the Voidraven to make it curved rather than a straight line between the two sections.

One thing to bear in mind when working with mulliput or any putty is that because water is being used to keep the putty moist things are going to get messy.  Bear this in mind when you consider the location you are going to work and what clothes you are going to wear.  Here's a pic of my work space when I had finished  not how dirty the knee of my trousers are:

Also I would advise clearing up thoroughly as soon as you are finished, as the mulliput, even the watery bits will dry very hard and would be nightmare to remove later.  The same goes for modelling tools, which you should ensure are clean of all modelling putty.


With a week to army list submission for the MAD II tournaments, and the event itself in two weeks, I’ve got to get to the painting stage soon, as I have to paint:
Quad Gun (currently undercoated)
Defense Line (currently undercoated)
One extra razorwing flock (part painted)
and repair a beastmaster and two razorwing flocks (darn fragile wings )

Hopefully next post will show be a nicely undercoated Voidraven (I’m still dithering on the tail fins though).

Rathstar

Dark Eldar WIP Voidraven - Part Five - Putty Wars & Void Lances

Hi,

After the unexpected quite modelling time I got on Saturday, Sunday turned into a complete fail, but I was back to modelling Monday night (abeit very late).

Putty Wars

Tonight was the first half of the modelling putty practice.  I'd already made my test peices:

The internet is a wealth of information, not all good mind you, but unless you're doing something very unique there's probably a video out there of someone else going it.  Therefore first I watched a couple of youtube videos of people using green stuff.  Main tips I took in were:

• Always keep your finger tips and tools wet to stop the putty drying out too quickly
• Be careful to knead the two parts of the putty together for long enough to ensure both parts of mixed together sufficiently

First up we have GW's Green Stuff.  As always with modelling tools, costing just under £7 for the following:

It's odd that there wasn't an even mix of yellow/blue.  Particularly when I spoke to some friends saying that previously (many years ago) that the green stuff didn't dry hard enough and being given the advice that the ratio was probably wrong and I wasn't using enough blue stuff.  Well time will tell if it happens again.

The green stuff was a bit harder to knead together than the other two, and came apart slightly when I was shaping it rather than spreading.  It's now drying and I will see how hard it dries and how easy it is to file tomorrow.

Next up was Gale Force Nine's Grey Stuff.  While costing £10 it came with 2 separate tubes of putty and had considerable more putty than the GW offering, but probably not as cheap as some of the green stuff offering you'd fine on ebay or from other manufacturers.

The grey stuff went on a bit easier than games workshop green stuff.  However the main claim to fame of grey stuff it that it dries harder, so I will be testing this tomorrow after it dries:

Lastly I had Mulliput.  This is definietely a more industrial version.  It was the only version to include instructions, which included a suggestion to use gloves (which I ignores) and to ensure the putty was kneaded together sufficiently.  As well as modelling uses it was advertised in the instructions as being suitable for industrial repairs (eg. boiler leakages, wall filling etc.).  What stuck me was that it would set under water, definitely not just for modelling:

Milliput was also the cheapest option.  For an amount similar to the Gale Force Nine's Grey stuff it cost only £3.99, from a town centre hobby shop.

The mulliput was very easy to knead together, and felt almost like plasticine.  It spead on easy, and if it dries hard it will probably win the quest to be my main material in the voidraven's next stage of conversion:

I made sure the mulliput went over the bits of plastic because I wanted to see how easy it would be to file down once it was dry.  The mulliput instructions also said that it dries without shrinkage, so I will compare the dried models to these pictures to see if there is any skrinkage or expansion in any of the putties used.

So I have my three samples all drying, waiting for the next stage; how well can they be filled once dry:

Void Lances

Before I finished for the night I wanted my Voidraven to take another step into looking like it's finished position.  First I glued on the rear thrusters, and I put on the section that holds the tail fin.  I'm putting it on regardless of whether I put on the normal tail fun, as it adds to the rear length of the model.

For the Void Lances I put a Bright Lance in between the mount and the barrel of the razorwing Dark Lance.  I glued the gun mount into the Voidraven, but I magnitised the barrel of the Void Lance.  Here's my completed Void Lance:

I may put some green/grey stuff around join of the bright/dark lance, but I think once undercoated and painted it will look fine.

Here's a picture of the Voidraven so far:

The stages remaining before I can undercoat the Voidraven are:

• Fill the gaps in the engines
• Smooth the join between the first and section cockpit sections
• Fill the gaps under the front cockpit, and attach the cockpit clear bottom
• Decide on and attach the fins at the back (the original straight tail fin, x-wing type fins, or both)

the void mine will be attached later.

That's it for now.  I'm only managing to grab modelling time in small bits, but this is showing it is possible to make progress, although in small steps, once I'm committed to using the time for modelling no matter if the time spare is only 30 mins or an hour..

Rathstar

Dark Eldar WIP Voidraven - Part Four (Gunner Canopy Choice)

Hi,

In my last post I said I was going to use a reaver jetbike canopy over the front cockpit of my Voidraven.  It looked fine when I put the sections of the Voidraven together to see what the model would look like finished:

However 2 things have caused me to doubt this.  First was the re-reading of the description of the Voidraven in the Dark Eldar codex:

"At the fore of each Voidraven is a crystal pod housing a saddle much like that upon a Reaver's jetbike, surrounded by targeting holographs and crosshair runes...From this lavishly appointed cocoon the Voidraven's gunner will unleash searing fusillades from the craft's void lances."

I have seen other conversions on the web which use the reaver canopy, and they painted the canopy light blue and white to represent crystal, however I not to sure the effect works that well, unless you are a very good painter and blend the colours very well.

The second factor that made me doubt my choice was when I put the reaver jetbike canopy on my Voidraven model.  If the reaver canopy totally covers the cockpit hole it appears too high at the back of the front section so that the pilot wouldn't be able to see past it.  If the cockpit is put slightly forward (so it doesn't come any higher) it is not flat with the front of the Voidraven, here's a picture showing what I mean:

I glued the canopy in place, hoping that it would grow on me, but in the end I decided to take it off.

I had a couple of options; I could put a gunner laying forwards in the hole, which would fit the description and look good.  I could leave the cockpit open at the top (as I do with the pilot) and use both canopy bits to be a bottom to the cockpit.  This would take a bit of work, as I would have to do the filling of the bottom section with modelling putty (as the canopy is not big enough to cover the gap), but could attach all the canopies until I have sprayed the model.

The other option was to put the clear canopy on both the top and the bottom of the Voidraven (I had an extra set as I got one when I ordered the hull).  Fill in the excess space on the bottom with modelling putty and the spray the whole model black.  I would them paint the canopy like a gem.

I went for the easier second option, and glued the top canopy in place:

I will make the bottom canopy out of the two canopy pieces.  Putting the half canopy at the rear of the full canopy to make a longer canopy.

So not much progress on Saturday, more of an quick 20 mins here and there when every I can catch it.  I've got my pieces of sprue frame ready for my modelling putty practice.

I've got loads of advice from friends and the comment section here, so I should progress into the difficult section of filling in the gaps and making it look uniform with the rest of the model during this week.

Rathstar

Dark Eldar WIP Voidraven - Part Three

Hi,

More small progress thursday evening.  I assembled the main hull (minus the thrusters), so it was time to attach the wing extensions.

Firstly I looked at the wing extension, and did some clipping.  I through the engine casing I had should be round, and then I use modelling putty to make a smooth transistion between the two sets of engines, however the engine casings I had curved round and the then started to curve away:

This had been caused by where the line for the saw cut went.  A quick snip with clippers and some filling soon cut off the offending section (at the top left of the thruster in the picture).

Next I wanted to pin the wing extensions in place to give the connection more strength.  To help me get the same position on each side I first cut out a section of the hull, so I could see the side of the thruster:

This allowed me to use the detail on the side of the thruster as a guide, so I could ensure that I could drill in the same place on both the main hull and the wing extension sections.

Not gluing the back of the thruster section in place allowed me to drill through one side of the thruster straight through and slightly into the other side of the thruster.  This would help the pin to stay straight and not move around.  Not having the back of the thruster in place allowed me to accurately ensure that the angle of the pin would be exactly (well as close as I could see) the same on both sides.

The pinning at the front of the engine, was a bit more difficult   One reason was that the front engine piece was much much thinner, so I had to be very careful when pinning.  On the wing extension I followed the same method and pinned through to the other side of the section so the pin would stay at the same angle and wouldn't move around.  This was possible because there was a massive open area in the wing extension allowing me to see in:

[previous picture before the engine parts were glued in, showing the gap in the wing extension section]

However on the main hull side it was all closed off, so I could only drill the hole, and it would be almost impossible to hit the front engine section inside.  However I used the detailing on the outside of the hull to ensure that I pinned in the same place on both sides of the main hull.

I also tested the fit and angle by putting the wing extension in place without glue.  This stage is very important and it actually caused me to drill another hole in the wing extension at the front because I didn't like the angel at the front compared to the angle at the back after I had completed the first one.  This allowed me to get it right first time when pinning the other wing extension.

Drilling an extra hole would have no effect on the final model, as the whole area will be covered by modelling putty later.  Drilling in another spot is fine, but beware trying to drill too close to an existing hole as it's likely the pin may move slightly and cause the holes to merge creating a huge unusable hole.

After all this pinning, and trying the connection without glue, it was time to glue everything in place.  Here's a picture of the back of the Voidraven showing the pins going straight through both thrusters:

[you can also see the sticky GW glue residue, which I will have to clean off  (or cover with modelling putty) later]

So I could see the Voidraven's hull in total I quickly glued on the extra front section, so I could see the dimensions of the final model (please note the thrusters and tail fin will add a bit of length to the back):

A reaver jetbike canopy will cover the front cockpit hole, then modelling putty will smooth the transition from jetbike canopy to main hull, and the same will be done between the front hull sections.  The gap between the engines will need extensive filling and filing to finish off the model.

However before I start any of this I need to try out using modelling putty, as I haven't really used green stuff (I may have used it on a model once, but if so it was many many years ago).  I'm going to cut 3 sets of 2 lengths of sprue frames, glue each set to a base about 1cm apart, and then I am going to try making a smooth  curve between each set of sprue frame using each of the types of modelling putty I have (green, grey & mulliput).

Although doing this practice will delay me, I think it's worth it because I could ruin my nice model if I my muck it up.  Not only will be able to use the modelling putty I think is best for the job, but it will also give me invaluable sculpting experience.

Talking to friends who use all three types of modelling putty and the comments in the tutorials posted in part 1, I expect I will use the mulliput (or a mix of mulliput and green stuff) to do the big areas, such as filling in the gap between the engines, and then green stuff for small detail work, such as smoothing the transition between the jetbike canopy and the main hull.  Grey stuff is supposed to be in between drying harder than green stuff, but I have also heard it can be brittle, however that may have been one bad brand (the brand I went for was Gale Force Nine's Grey Stuff).

I'm out Friday night, and Saturday is always filled with family stuff, so I hope to make some more progress on Sunday.


What do you think of the model so far ?  What experiences have you had with the various types of modelling putty ?  If it takes me this long to half assemble a Voidraven, do I have any chance of assembling and painting a razorwing flock and 13 hellions before the MAD II tournament in 28 days ?  I may have to see if I'm allowed to submit two lists for the tournament (with and without the hellions in).

Rathstar

Dark Eldar WIP Voidraven - Part Two (and DE Quad Gun WIP)

Hi,

Just a quick update on my progress on the Voidraven.  I've completed the wing extension, and I'd cut the main hull section.  I haven't got to the pinning and modelling putty stage, however I can now put the bits of the model on the table and have my first impression of how the Voidraven will look:

The Voidraven looks a bit too long at the front, but I think that will dimish once the engines at the rear have been put on, and the tail fin holder (pic below curtosy of Hoard o' Bitz, a great US bitz site) is put on.

I'll still undecided about how to put the tail fins on.  I have the standard tail fin, and I have the wing sections that I cut off the main hull.  I could just use the standard tail fun, and leave it there, alternatively I could fill smooth the mount of the normal tail fin and use the spare wing sections to make small diagonally placed fins (x-wing style), or I could do both.  I'm a bit torn, any suggestions ?  I don't have to decide until after I've got the rest the model completely assembled, but I need to be there by the end of this weekend to have a hope of getting everything painted for the MAD II tournament in 30 days time.

By way of distraction I also put together the gun section of my Quad gun (apologies for the slightly blurred picture):

It was a very simple kit bash, being just a hellion skyboard with 4 raider/ravager dark lances glued on.  The gun is now undercoated black ready for painting.

I was just going to attach it to a flying stand, which in turn would be glued to the base of the normal Quad gun model, however I decided that would be a bit boring, so I've ordered an Eldar Support Weapon Platform to be the base:

I will glue the stem of a flying base to the middle of the platform to give the appearence that the Quad gun is hovering above the platform base.  I'll also try to put the platform on a small flying stem so the whole model is not too low.

That's all for now, hopefully more updates on sunday.

Rathstar