Monday 3 October 2022

TOTALLY NOT A ZOMBIE

 So it's the start of the challenge Zomtober/Apocalypse Me and I got distracted finishing another piece for my Dark Eldar army. I was taking stock of what was left to do, and realised I needed one model to finish the Court of the Archon. Rather than another one of the three I already had I decided to add a Sslyth, this is what 40K has to say about them :

The Sslyth are a sentient xenos race of reptilian creatures with a snake-like lower body and vaguely humanoid torso, though they sport multiple arms and a head more serpentine than human.

As true Drukhari make rather dubious bodyguards due to their treacherous nature, instead, Archons employ these more reliable alien mercenaries.

Of all the species to haunt Commorragh's satellite realms, most Dark Eldar Archons have found the Sslyth to be the most reliable -- and survivable -- bodyguard species available for hire.

These four-armed, serpentine monstrosities hail from a world long lost to the caress of She Who Thirsts, yet their short-sighted and self-indulgent nature makes them safe enough for the Drukhari to exploit.

All but inured to physical pain, and happy to be paid in slaves and sensory gratification, these alien warriors make excellent, if dull-witted bodyguards. (I remembered Matt ! LOL)

Now GW did produce a model for this but it is no longer available, you can find them on Ebay, but they've gone up a lot in price, but I hadn't bought one when they were available for two reasons 1 it's produced in Finecast, which I'm not a fan of, and 2 I didn't like how the second set of arms were so close to the first set, which would make it hard for the creature to move both sets of arms ! So I decided Friday night I would build my own, and below is what I came up with, I've also included a picture of GW's for reference.







Now I've got this distraction out of the way, I really need to get on with my challenge entries, so until next time stay safe and have fun !

Cheers Dave

26 comments:

  1. Lovely sculpt, Dave, and cracking paint-job too. I wasn't aware the Sslyth were part of the Dark Eldar army, just a simple space-farer. I'm not likely to pick up a band of them either now its gone OOP, as those eBay prices are pretty crazy. LOL!!!

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    1. Thank you Simon, it's the second one I've sculpted, as a customer bought the first one at a show. The prices on Ebay are indeed crazy, on any of the OOP models, saw someone selling Khymera for £50 ! Have seen on Etsy some great looking 3D prints if your looking for an alternative.

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    2. Thanks Dave. I'm pretty sure I've got a Fail-cast one somewhere. I was thinking of a crew for Space Station Zero tbh, so will just stick to the one if I can ever be bothered to dig it out.

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    3. It would certainly make an interesting crew member, so many ideas on what you could add, NO don't need any more projects ! LOL

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  2. Great sculp Dave and love the colours. Great job mate.

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    1. Thank you Justin, was one of those spur of the moment ideas, luckily acted on it and got it completed ! LOL

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  3. Curses I am foiled again from Zomtobering. this is due to half the house being ripped apart and everything in boxes. Good luck to all participating!

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    1. That's a shame Ohil, but can fully understand under the circumstances, hope the work goes quickly on the house.

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  4. What a cool sculpt. Though I'm now used to your work, you never cease to wonder me with your creations and compositions!

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    1. Thank you Suber, glad I can still throw out a few surprises to amaze ! LOL

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  5. It was only once I'd blown up the pics that I could orientate myself to what exactly the figure was, but once done I realised just how good a model it was ! Well done sculpting such a great figure nd keeping it in the colour scheme of the rest of the force was a good choice too.

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    1. Thank you Joe, as it wears Kabalite armour that the Archon gifts to the creature as part of it's payment, knew I wanted it in the same colours, but left off the bloody claw markings, being it's a different species, and thought a green skin would tie in well, but used purple as a base colour to add to it's alien feel.

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  6. Well we have all month don’t we?
    Excellent job creating your own miniature. Looks great. Sometimes I wish I had 4 arms. I could paint twice as fast. 😀

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    1. Thank you Stewart, I do like to focus on the challenge that's going, but this was just too good of a win to pass up ! LOL I have been working on a group of Zombies as well during this, and researching a possible scenery piece to do as well, and as you say the month is young so plenty of time.

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  7. That looks pretty awesome Dave! It might not be a Zombie, but it could be a apocalyptic mutant! :)

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    1. Thank you Brian, it would certainly fit in an alien invasion as well, just I had promised zombies, and hoping to cover two different Apocalypse's with them.

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  8. John@justneedsvarnish4 October 2022 at 14:50

    I like the way you just decided to create one yourself! Brilliant, Dave! :-)

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    1. Thank you John, doing this for a living certainly helps ! LOL It all came from converting models, when I wanted models to better represent the art GW showed.

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  9. Fantastic work, Dave, just fantastic, both the sculpt and the painting. And I really like the idea that the Dark Eldar don't trust each other to the point where they have to employ an alien race LOL!

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    1. Thank you Matt, the head was based off a Viper, which I just lengthened the eye horns, and wanted the colours to tie in with the rest of the force, but make him unique. Was one of the best bits of the second codex, to be honest, although I did like running the Archon in a group of Incubi in the first edition ! LOL

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  10. I can't complain about seeing more Dark Eldar! It was nice to read the backstory on the snake-man. I never understood how the GW model fit in with the Dark Eldar. Having said that, yours came out great and should fit right in with the rest of your army. I'd say you were smart to sculpt this one instead of buying it too!

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    1. Thank you Jeff, you'll have a few more posts before the end of the year, and probably a few next year as well ! LOL Glad the backstory gave a bit more on how they fit in, the joy with sculpting a piece, is you can have a very individual model, and add in your own ideas.

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  11. What a smashing sculpt, you've done a great job on him, I immediately thought of the snake men from "Masters of the Universe" but that will probably not be a surprise to you!😁

    Cheers Roger.

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    1. Thank you Roger, there have been Snake Men, and Women in so many films and series, it'[s hard to say where the influence came from ! LOL I do remember the ones in He-Man, and also there was one in Dreamscape back in the 80's as well.

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  12. I'm a fan when GW produces minis for any non-mainstream xenos and these were no different. But you make a good point - all well and good having two sets of limbs, but if they can't move above mid-way due to the other set getting in the way, kinda silly!

    Yours looks far more sensible and beefier too! That snake-boi can take a beating and keep on coming!

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    1. Thank you Dai, it is a common problem in Sci-Fi models and films, they add an extra set of arms, but don't consider how the muscles around them would work, and I agree the more xenos the better.
      They are a beast on the table, which is probably why GW limited the number of them ! LOL

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