Stephen's Songs of the Damned - Wild Card (85 points) - "Snake Dance"

Take my hand said Cleopatra
Take me to the fires to burn
Save your passion and your kinship
Take me to the flames the flames
The flames the flames

The March Violets

"Snake Dance"

Natural History

Rebirth

1984

Back again, in this short month of February, with a project I felt I could accomplish given an insane workload and, well, you know...:: gestures around wildly ::

The Vyper holds a special place in my heart, as it is the first plastic kit that I purchased from the Citadel range, right when it came out - until that point the unit was only something I would see as  conversions of metal or plastic Eldar Jetbikes chopped up and fused together with epoxy and good wishes, to mixed results.  

I think "mixed results" is also a good description of the unit's tabletop performance over its checkered history - in 3rd Edition, when the mission was to get as many starcannons on the board as you could, they were everywhere, slagging power armor with ease and panache.  

They kind of languished after that, having a minor resurgence for me in 5th when the lethality of the game meant it didn't matter what I fielded, so I found some success in using them at extreme range to harass my opponents with missiles and give them slightly less good choices in what to kill that turn.  

Since then, their fragility has meant they've only shown up in my themed lists, and rarely even then.  The imminent Codex:  Aeldari (😏) has me looking at them again, as they may be more fun to use than in recent years - not having the option for a second shuriken cannon is a little upsetting, as I'll have to remove them at some point.  Ah, well - fingers crossed!

Pretty happy with how the eyes/waystones came out

Couldn't decide which 'glamour shot' angle I liked best

Close up on the crew details

The original Vyper I bought in 1997 is still in my collection, but it's already painted up, this particular Vyper finishes out a squad of three for my overall Ulthwe' army.  In working on this unit, I've been experimenting with darker skin tones as well, which is something I haven't done a lot of with my Eldar to-date, it's technique I'm looking forward to learning/improving.

1 Vyper Jetbike with Lascannon and upgraded Shuriken Cannon - 85 points

85 points for February 2022 (238 points painted so far)

February Playlist (some of the music from my painting sessions this month):

The March Violets, "Snake Dance"

Stoneburner - "Lisan Al Gaib"

Concrete Blonde - "Sky Is A Poisonous Garden"

Stromkern - "Stand Up"

The Prodigy - "Poison"

Soundgarden - "Get On The Snake"

The Jesus and Mary Chain - "Snakedriver"

Skinny Puppy - "Tin Omen"

Bassnectar and Kraddy - "Snakecharmer"

Stabbing Westward - "Falls Apart"