Friday 12 August 2016

Corsair Cloud Dancer Jetbike Conversions Underway

Cloud Dancer Jetbikes

What Ho my fine interwebz friends! Over the last week I have been working on a new unit for La Danse Macabre, Cloud Dancer Jetbikes.

I had been doing a bit of reading over on the Dark City forum about the Corsairs, and I like their fluff a great deal, their rules are really thematic and fit into the theme of my army quite well (a roving carnival circus as corsairs seems strangely fitting I think). It is sad that the Corsairs do everything better than the Dark Eldar, and play in a style that should be how the dark kin works. Sadly this is a damning reflection on the state of said codex that even reasonably fluffy players like myself are unhappy with it. Saying that I do still enjoy playing dark eldar, so depending on how I feel, or what type of game my opponent wants (fluffy, competitive etc) I can whip out either builds and give them a good game :)

Luckily my army is extremely flexible, with each unit being able to play as another wih relative ease (my guardians can also be used as wracks, mandrakes as Ghost Walkers etc.). The plan was to convert my reaver jetbikes so they could also be multi purpose, being able to be run as Reavers, corsair cloud dancers or eldar jetbikes as needed.

The start of the project was the kitbash between eldar and Dark kin jetbikes to create a more corsair themed unit, but one that could be used as all of the above with very little quibble. Unfortunately all of my jetbikes were already assembled and glued, so I had to whip out the hobby saw and hack each one apart just in front of the handle bars, and then glue an alternate front on each of them.

The second stage was to create the weapons I needed. Obviosuly I was already kitted out with the dark kin weapons, but I only had 3 scatterlasers (why would you kit them with anthing else ;) ) so more were needed. I kitbashed one using the mount from a reaver and barrel from the eldar bikes. Once this was dry I made a rubber mould of two of them, and then did a bunch of resin casts of them all. This was fairly unsuccessful, as my mould making/casting skills are still pretty basic. I was able to salvage the barrels on most of them and cut up some more mounts to add them to. Then each bike and weapon was magnetised so I can swap out/create weapons as I require.

The basic work on these is now done. I now need to work on adding some carnival fun bits to each of the bikes, and working on converting the riders. That should be fun :)

I have also cooked up another idea that I am really excited about. It will be used to represent either Hellions or Corsair reavers with jetpacks. I leave you with this pic as an idea of what I am working towards.

NafNaf

 

6 comments:

  1. Awesome! I love jetbikes (but hate scatterlasers). Can't wait to see how these turn out in the end! My buddy plays the reavers as much as possible. They are ridiculous when you do the pin/assault move with them!

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    1. Thanks :)
      Yeah reavers can be pretty brutal if used right. That's why I want a flexible unit, so I can pick and choose what I use them for :)
      Scatter lasers are pretty nasty. The other options are fairly sub par in comparison unfortunately, which is why I chose them to cast and magnetise.

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  2. As disturbing as ever chief. Bravo. I look forward to seeing drops bounce onto the blog.

    The jetbike conversions are pretty neat but I am just not quite seeing it yet.

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    1. Got a bit if work to do to them still, and they will feel more complete with the converted riders on. I was just working on the gun and chassis, and the extra bling will hopefully make them a bit more interesting and characterful

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  3. Good luck with the new unit! I'm looking forward to seeing what you come up with :o)

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    1. Thanks Marc :)

      Should be fun to work on them. Feels good to put down the brush and get converting again

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