Seekers of Slaanesh completed squad

My entry in the Rarity games first painting contest was a squad of 5 Seekers of Slaanesh.  Even though the number of entrants was less than we were hoping for, I was still proud to take first place.  I'm very happy with them and spent considerable time coming up with the painting scheme for the riders (previously used on 60 daemonettes) and the mounts themselves.

Seekers were one of the main draws for a Slaanesh army.  With a 12" move, a run move of 6+D6", and fleet they can get across the board in a hurry.  They have 3 attacks base with rending, I5, and WS5.  They will destroy almost anything they get into contact with.

As is the case with almost everything Slaanesh, they are fragile.  They are no more survivable than a daemonette with 1W, T3, and a 5++.  All high volume firepower will take them out, including even lasguns.  You can count on losing a few to overwatch no matter who you assault.  This can be a problem with them since you're losing nearly 3" from the front due to the length of the base.  Another weakness is dangerous terrain tests from difficult terrain.  This can quickly add up if you have to go into terrain, then run or assault.  They don't have grenades either.  They rely on their fast init to kill units before they can swing, so dropping to I1 sucks.  Hopefully, they can move fast enough to stay out of terrain.

To keep them alive, I've been heavily relying on the grimoire to get a 3++. Unfortunately, when it fails they are dead meat with only a 6++ unless Be'Lakor is around to give them invisibility.

I chose to give them the Rapturous standard and instrument to make them look cooler.  I used the daemonette version rather than the seeker version mostly because they were already finished.  They are magnetized.  I find it rare that I want to take these options.  The standard is decent even though they are one use only dropping my opponent by D3 WS during assault.  Usually, this is enough to force them to hit on 5s or at least prevent them from hitting on 2s. For 30 points though, I have other areas to spend the points.

I plan on making this one into a herald on mount.I want to use the amrored Seeker bodies from the exalted chariot kit for her.  The left arm is from the herald kit.  The head is one of my favorites.  There seems to be 3 different sizes of heads in the kits, so I've elected to split them out to herald/heartseeker/rider levels and make my own.  Not that I have a choice, there isn't a herald seeker model. 

The herald with 6 attacks on the charge at WS and init 7 is going to mess some stuff up.  It's worth upgrading her to a greater etherblade for 20pts.  She's then Str5 AP2 (plus master crafted).  The real decision is which loci to give her. 

The locus of beguilement is fantastic.  You re-roll all your hits plus when you challenge you get to choose who accepts.  It's easily the best exalted locus.  However, so far I've been taking the locus of grace, which gives move through cover.  It really adds up in time saved to not have to take dangerous terrain checks.  For seekers, you have a 1/9 chance of dying every time you move through terrain.  This seems over harsh for such a graceful unit.  I hate losing units to terrain, so I'd rather take the hit on assault power than risk losing units and restricting my movement.

This is a daemonette head, but looks really good on the seekers.  So far each of them have a distinct head.  I don't think I can keep this up for 2 full squads of 20 though.  I really like the horns and pose of the arms.

Unfortunately, the  lower leg still has some mould lines that only show up with the flash. I didn't notice it while painting.  This is a big problem with miniature photography.  Things look so much better in person than when photographing them and they appear 3-5 times larger.

The spine heads took a lot of adjustment but I'm pretty happy with them.  The drybrushing on the underside just looks fantastic.  I'm really happy with these.

The color correction I do on them makes the seekers appear a little more fluorescent then I'd like, but at least the purples show up well.

The bases are from tabletop art and ended up looking even better than I expected.  They really make the models pop with the monochromatic bases contrasting the

The toes of some of the seekers line up perfectly with the bases.  Unfortunately, there are only 3 so I had to order 7 sets.

I used the smallest magnets I could find and they still are too big.  Several of the daemonette arms have the magnet sticking out.  For the seekers I had to actually drill into the body partially.

The instruments hold well, but the standards are a bit too heavy and jostle more than I'd like.  Nothing I can do about it at this point.

This seeker was my test model.  The color palette is the same as the daemonettes although, I don't use the temple guard blue anywhere.  This helped speed up the process.  I did struggle on some of the webbing and spines, but nailed it pretty much exactly as I wanted on the first try.

The standard doesn't have any special process for it. Just a basecoast, wash, and highlight.  I should probably go in for a 2nd layer of highlighting.  I still have a long way to go in blending.

I think I might redo the tongues.  They were the last thing I painted.  I used retardant to try to blend the colors but there were still somewhat sharp divides, so I use the bloodletter glaze then slapped on a layer of 'ardcoat, which makes them too shiny.  The white tip is a bit much too, maybe just the bright orange would be fine.

I still need to pin these to the bases.  The legs are so flimsy and touch the bases with such a small area that I feel they won't hold up to repeated usage.

My painting process for them has improved already and I was able to knock out a second set of five.

 

10 down, 10 to go.