Incubi and Archons

Today GW has treated us with more information on what went into the Incubi and Archon design.
Exactly what was used in the conceptial design of Incubi and Archons. These are by far one of my favorite units from 3rd edition, and I for one cannot wait to field them in an elite choice. The new models have a new exciting look. While I like what went into the making of the incubi model, They look a little bit too much Lord of the Rings for me. However, if we simply cut off that little hook at the end of the sword, and Im very happy with it again.

I had used Incubi for fun with my Dark Eldar in the past, and they made excellent shock trooops. They were abnormally resilient, especially when combined with Drazhar, a Master Incubi, and a Dracon.

The Archon looks menacing, but actually seeing the codex will be important for me, as we dont as of yet know what the weaponry is and what it can do. Model looks good. I will need to alter it though knowing me. A Soul Trap, and Huskblade are apparently the name the Archon's wargear he is displaying. Anyone know what they do?

Jes: Of course, a Dark Eldar army is not just about the core troops; there are several sub groups that lie outside the Kabals. The Incubi are one such group, enigmatic warrior-mercenaries with a mysterious origin. They needed to be sinister, menacing, evil. The blade-like trophy racks and horned helmets were meant to give a 'forked' silhouette, like devil-horns, that would contrast with the 'pointed' silhouette of the Kabalite Warriors. This daemonic aspect serves to intimidate opponents, as it has done for many real-world warrior cultures. The helmets also had disturbing connotations, given the myths that surrounded the founding of the first Incubi temples. At this point it was not certain what form the punisher (their fearsome weapon) would take; while fine for a guard, the halberd doesn't feel like the weapon of a warrior cult who live only to perfect the art of combat. The new Archon model needed to be compatible with the plastics, as that would give the maximum potential for conversion (short of making the whole thing plastic). Taking off the arms would allow any of the plastic arms to be used, and using the same neck fitting as the plastics would give access to a wide range of heads. A fitting for the trophy racks was also included. The model would be supplied with some bespoke metal arms and a couple of special heads that could be used on the model or to convert others.

The weapon of the warrior is the sword; the knight's broadsword, the samurai's katana, the duellist's rapier, but it needed to be none of these patterns. Renaissance two-handed swords were wielded in a complex way using both the hilt and a grip forward of the quillions called a ricasso. Using the idea of a multi-use two-handed sword, the design developed into a gracefully curved but brutal-looking blade with multiple grips, which we called a klaive. As close combat specialists, the Incubi have some of the heaviest armour in the range; using the Warrior armour as a starting point extra plates were added, most notably the tassets and rear armour. The shoulders were made heavier but the shoulder spikes were removed as the twin trophy racks would be the feature of this area.

The Archon model was started very early in the project, but once several of the other sets were sculpted he was revisited to bring him up to speed with the evolving design. Once the body was done, Phil delved into the codex and suggested some more exotic options for the weaponry that we hadn't covered with the plastics. We chose a soul-trap and a huskblade as they were really nasty.

We end the first week of Dark Eldar news. I'm very excited about this release, as you can tell by what I've been posting. I will get back to other subjects asap, with the next page in the Faeit 212 story, as well as other projects I've been working on.