Now some images of the little guys!

This set of images has some pictures featuring a unit that will be getting a boost in numbers as time goes on.  That would be the basic Kabal warriors.  Lots of them!

Of course, Asharah will be getting a boost in the number of Incubi as well.  Another set of 5 will join this group...

I have a few more Grotesques that I will finish off to make the unit even larger.

I have many more wyches to add.  The larger squads will go on Raiders, so that the Kabal Warriors can boost the firepower of the Venoms even more.

My thought process for the Wyches did not work at all in the tournament.  With no cover to hide behind, the Venoms were almost always shot down on the first turn, leaving the most important troop choice floundering in the open, nowhere near an objective.

Here's a shot of the little mosaic...

And and even smaller mosaic design...

The shot of the Kabal Warriors, which were way more fun to paint than I expected!

I look forward to doing some more of these!!

The view from within...

Now we need a few pictures from the inside of the Basilica Canus!

I had to put a few pieces of metal sheeting to make sure the raider would not fall off the board!

I tried to make sure I had chunks of destroyed vehicles that matched what I used for the base, which were also placed on the board...

The bikes racing around the bend!

Circus Maximus, indeed :-)

The Cronos resided on the upper level, along with a few of the Grotesques.

I think I could squeeze in a second Venom on this level!

I was very pleased that there was plenty of room for transport and passengers alike on the tops of the towers.

I bet you thought I forgot... :-)

No, I have not forgotten to snap some images of the Dark Eldar on the Basilica Canus!  Here is the first batch, mostly long shots and exterior views.

There is a surprising amount of room on here for additional units and minis, which is good.  That's because more are on the way!!

I was glad that there were a lot of good sight lines to all the various squads.

This will definitely be a very fun terrain piece for battles!  I can see all sorts of bloody action going on in here :-)

At first I was not sure if the upper levels would be adequate to hold the Venoms, the Raider and the Razorwing, but my fears were quickly dispelled.

More exterior views...

There were more touches that I wanted to add... more cracks in the walls, some freehand stuff inside the windows, etc.  I will do that later on just for fun.

Next up, some of the interior views and close ups!!!  Stay tuned!

Pondering the future...

I will be wrapping up some of the Dark Eldar coverage in the next week or two with more images of the finished vehicles that I did not have time to shoot prior to Adepticon, as well as some images of the army on the board.

Looking ahead towards future Adepticon, I am trying to lay out a framework for the next army.  It would definitely involve the Raging Heroes female Imperial Guard.  Depending on what is available, it might either be all IG, or a mixture of IG and Sisters of Battle.

I already have a ton of SOB that are prepped, based, and even partially painted.  It would be a blast to scratch build Exorcist tanks and such. :-)  This would dramatically reduce the amount of time it would take to make the army ready for Adepticon as well.

I also have a story and an army board idea to go with it.  The board would be a 'cutaway' of a hive city, where the poor districts are "down below", and the convent of the Sisters is in the clouds.  Essentially, they recruit among the members of this all female IG army, taking only the ones which they feel are most worthy of serving.

There are a few practical elements here.  Judging by what happened in the tourney this year, I need more minis (preferably those with 3+ saves) and armies that can benefit from bringing their own terrain along with them.  And tanks.

The vehicles provide lots of scratch building opportunities, which makes any army a lot more fun, and customizable.

A brief interlude...

I am going to step away from the painting the the Basilica Canus for the moment.  I was able to dig up all the images I could from the WFB tournament and process them.

There are not as many as I would have liked, but let's just say that some of the rounds were finished in a prompt fashion.  In a game where 1st or 2nd turn wipeouts are common, things like this can happen.

Here are a few shots of the army on the board right after I walked into the room...

This is the only shot I have of game one.  The Heirophant died on the first shot of the first turn, the skull catapult blew itself up on my first turn, and it was all downhill from there.  There is some kind of magic banner for the orcs that negates ALL magic items, which lead to the King getting wiped out easily in one turn.  That was the clincher.

The next game was the only one of the tournament to go more than 4 turns.  It was also the only victory for the Tainted Pharaoh.  This one was vs Ogres, as you can see.

There were some pretty dramatic instances of catastrophic rolls for the Ogres, which ultimately lead to their downfall.  Lots of whiffs on critical charges, leadership tests, and so on.  The biggest early moment was the casket taking out the mounted cannon of the ogres, which allowed the Heirotitan to survive.  You will see how important that was later...

The card in the middle of the table behind the chariot unit was the other big game changer.  I was able to get the Speed of Light spell on various units all game long.  This was vital in keeping them around.  Before this set of games, the secondary priest was always a Death Mage.  Of course, one has to be fortunate enough to roll that spell, and so on, even at level 4.

An example of Speed of Light in action.  You will also notice the Titan on the left engaging the big monster near the casket.  That purse fight would continue for at least 3 turns.

Sneaky snakes vs some fat guys...

King of the hill!

This view shows very few ogres.  Where the casket (and several other units and monsters) used to be is a big void.  That's what can happen when the casket blows up, as it did.  Everything in a 12 inch radius gets nailed with D6 S6 hits, no armor saves of any kind.  That blast took out the Titan, a bunch of ogres, and the Stonetusk!

This win put the TK at table 30, against lizards.  Unfortunately, there was not much that TK can do against them, given the leadership characteristics of the scaley folk.  They failed very few checks, while the TK failed lots of LD 10 restraint rolls, and so on.  I believe I failed 3 in a row at one point on a single turn.

This lead to the Tomb Kings being in very bad spots, and thus losing the game.

This was an interesting item which a loyal Wappellian brought up to me when the day was done.  Some of you might recognize this as the skirmisher base for my chameleon skinks.

However, this was not made by me!  This was created by a blog follower using one of the step by step tutorials!  How cool is that?

Looking into the Crystal Brush

Ah, the question... to enter, or not to enter.  I had decided long before Adepticon that I would not be able to enter figures into the Crystal Brush with all the emphasis on the armies, terrain, and a million other things.  There was no way that I could even ponder doing something specifically for it.

I had also assumed that the days of taking figures out of your army and entering them in the competition had passed by as well.  Fortunately for me, I had so many people attempt to dissuade me from that supposition.

While the folks from CMON let me grab a Dark Age figure I recently painted for them, I chose a few items from my tournament armies.  Five categories in all.

As you can see by the picture below, there are five shiny things. 

While my Dark Age figure won a Silver in its category, one of the Dark Eldar Venoms won a Bronze in the vehicle category.

I couldn't finagle the fancier Archon venom, since it was in another box in another hotel. :-)

In the Sci-fi Squad category, I entered a handful of the Reaver jetbikes.

I tried to pick a variety of bikes with different bases, riders and numbers of wings.

They managed to win a bronze Crystal Brush.  Wow!

On the fantasy side of things, I entered the Necroshpinx, which was not included in the tournament list.  Since my rounds in the tournament were ending nice and early, there was time for me to put all these items in the competition.

I was pleasantly surprised once again to learn that it had won a Silver Brush!!!

And finally, there was one more entry.  Try as I might, I could not squeeze in my beloved Ushabti bowmen into the list.  I thought I would give them the weekend off from guarding the Temple complex of Psusenes and hang out at the Crystal Brush.

The color on the tip of the brush is gold, which rounded out the awards.

When I was told that the awards ceremony had been bumped up to a time right in the middle of the last game of the WFB tournament, I was not so concerned, as I truly assumed that there would be no need for me to be there.

Then I was called up once, and again, and again... craziness!

So to everyone who would not rest until I entered figures, my thanks go out to you.  It is really gratifying that army entries can still make a go of it!

And to all those who voted for these entries, many thanks.