Raging Heroes Ashara standing in as a Dark Eldar Archon

I got a shipment of figures in from Raging Heroes about a month ago and had to bump the Ashara SF figure to the top of the pile.  Not that I need a cool new Archon for my Blood Rain Kabal, but she was just too tempting to wait her turn.

There is no shortage of detail and it is really a beautiful sculpt.  I especially appreciate all the different head and weapon option which I can mine for future conversions. 

Once I began painting a couple of things turned up immediately.  The most salient of which was that most of the wonderful detail is very soft edged... rounded even.  This soft border is especially prevalent on the filigree bits on her flowing sleeves.  I hadn't noticed this until I got started but it has an effect on technique.  Many techniques use the sharp edge of details to help carry and control paint, especially in fine lining.  The details here are so indistinct around the edge that these techniques are not as effective.  Essentially the detailing has a large freehand element.  This is not inherently bad but makes a difference in how much time it takes me to turn out a decent figure.  I'd intended to just have a quick run at her with a basic scheme and continue with the previously scheduled work.  No plan ever survives contact with the enemy!

The other odd bit was that the figure has cast in pins but they don't actually help with alignment.  Ultimately I ended up removing them and pinning traditionally.

I'm still quite taken with the figure even though it is a lot more work than I'd originally imagined.  I have a couple more of these in both the fantasy and sf version so I'll get plenty of practice.