Adding Grotesques to the Kabal of the hope betrayed

First i kind of want to do a shoutout 

One of the main youtubers that i watch to get some Dark Eldar inspiration is SkaredCast, he has a solid youtube channel that was invaluable for me when i got started with my Dark Eldar army. He has a couple of "where to start" videos that are especially good, and i can heartily reccommend watching his battle reports, win or lose they are always a joy to watch.

Now, on to the post proper.


As i have covered before, one of the banes of the Dark Eldar is Assaulting, on paper they look pretty good at assaulting, higher than average Initiative, WS4 all around, army wide fleet and possible Furious charge, FnP and Rage when power from pain starts rolling in. What is NOT to like?!

Oh yeah, overwatch. We have a 5+ as a rule, and when our cover save is taken away we wilt faster than snow in summer. So, the options are to
I) Give up on assaulting and go for a shooty army. With LOTS of poison and blasters
II) Add some Battle brother allies.

Why only Battle brothers? Because, at least for me, it gives a more cohesive feeling for my army proper, you can use the same bonuses, you can actually be within 12" and it means agreater width of tactical placement. In my amateur mind at least. Now most people go for the Eldar for some Good Assault or even a Distort weapon or two, which is neat-o and all. But i have too damn many armies already, and getting a "small taskforce" is what got me into my current FIVE armies. (more on that later) so i am going for a Coven addition, with which i can at least fool myself to thinking it is of greater benefit.


So, i will do a "tactical" analyses (the quote signs referring to my lack of tactical acumen) but here and now i want to adress the elephant in the room.

Let's slang some troof' the grotesques are EXPENSH BRAH'.

STOP

Yes, Plastic crack is a luxuary hobby, YES i know that by defintion GW is expensive. I am not getting into a discussion on the inherent justification for pricing on the GW range. Not right now at least, i am referring to the fact that a unit of grotesques are a minimum of Three Grotesques.

That equals approximately 75 USD$, which is almost a riptide, or one and a dreadknight or one and a half unit of Wraithguards.

So, like so many Dark Eldar players i started looking for options, now one of the forums i frequent gave the advice of using Crypt horrors, as you get three for the same price as one grotesque (again approximately) and they are about the same price. Looking through my bit box and looking at other pictures online i seemed to find an easy solution.

What you will need is the following

• one box of crypt horrors
• three 25mm bases (Terminator size, for easy reference)
• modelling tools- Ie Glue, clippers and modelling knife 
• a Talos/chronos box, preferably bits from two. 
• greenstuff

1. First of, build the main body and legs into one whole part. Do not attach head or arms at this point 
2. Now, the heads for the Crypt horrors are the same "nub" that you have on the "talos/chronos" kit, so the separate masks that you get six extra in each talos kit goes on just perfectly on the Crypt horror body. 
3. in each Talos kit you get a spare CC weapon that looks like a metal hand, and several spare bracers, one of the bracers has syringes and vials attached, like on the flesh gauntlet on the Grotesques proper. You also get a HOST of spares of loose vials, syringes, tubes and bony protrusions and vestigial arms you can attach, basically anything that detracts from the flat body of the crypt horror. 

 Now, you can use greenstuff and the bracer to easily create expanded musculature, if you are a skilled modeller you can probably "bulk up" the model proper. I however, Am not. For some diversity i used a scythe blade from the talos kit to make a CC weapon arm with a hooklike protrusion.

4. If you want to simplify the process, you actually get a coupe of extra arms for the talos kit, that easily fits into the hole for the Crypt horrors. I used it below, to make a recognizable agonizer weapon for my Aberration.

4+ poison AP3 that rerolls to wound on everything that has > T5? YES PLEASE

Now, i actually bought a Grotesque, to use as an aberration, but i was actually pretty happy with the way these turned out. So it became my liquifier holder. 

This is the size difference. Do not that these conversions ARE slightly bigger than the "ordinary" grotesque. But this way you are spared the indignity of building.....Finecast *shudder* 

And you are done. You can add bitz to your hearts content, there are plenty of Wrack bitz and taloz bits that fit these conversion perfectly. 

remember

If you want to be fluffy, after fighting your friend/enemy ask if you can hit up their bitbox, add some helmets, arms, weapons or the likes to the base, it adds a bit of local flavor. 

I actually painted everyting yesterday as well. So here are the "finished" look. 

The gang's all here. I am really fond of the predatory hunch of the front modell, it gives a slightly canine look. 

the "finecast" grotesque in front. remember. no torrent if he is behind your own models. 

Schwiggity schwooty, he is coming for you.

And one last for my "abberation" LD4 be damned. he got his own whip.