Eldar - Armorcast Tempest (more or less) Painted

It was a little cooler today than it's been for quite some time, so I spent some more time on the Tempest. Picked out the bone color on the weapons, engines and underside, then laid in the yellow following the plating lines on the main hull.

 

My buddy Dave suggested that I carry the yellow striping up onto the turret which worked out really well I think. The overhead shot shows it off fairly well. I'm not totally happy with the bone (again), so it's going to get another pass - the translucency really shows up in the pictures more than it does in Real Life(tm) for some reason, but regardless it means it needs another layer.

The old Armorcast vehicles don't have nearly the level of detail which means they paint up crazy quickly! Not sure what's next up - I've painted a mess of tanks so it's probably time to work on some more infantry...

Eldar - Armorcast Tempest, I got the blues so baaaaaaad...

Finished the cleanup of the Tempest last night while watching a movie and after work today I braved the heat in the hobby loft to get the base blue on it!

I'm thinking I'll do yellow in three stripes from the turret collar to the edges of the hull, following the plating to define the rays. The underside, weapons and engines will get the bone color treatment and the various gems and cockpit windows will follow. It really is a quick and easy paint scheme I'm finding!

Recently there was a bit of news about Feast of Blades 2013 coming up in October in Denver - I went last year as an observer and had a good time. They're running a narrative drop in/drop out apocalypse game, so I'm thinking it may be fun to head down and throw down the Knights (imperial and eldar), the Tempest and the Baneblade, and the Leviathan command carrier!

Eldar - Armorcast Tempest, the cleanup

My buddy Dave over at Ex Fide Vivo scrounged around in his (also significant) hobby storage area and unearthed a few Eldar goodies which he donated to the cause - however he will no doubt regret such a magnanimous decision at some point in the future. We have a running joke about gifted units kicking the butts of the giver going back nearly twenty years, when I gave him an old War Walker which proceeded to ANNIHILATE my army in every game thereafter, much to our amusement! The big find was an old Armorcast Tempest that has been kicking around in a box for a decade or so.

When Dave got the Tempest, it had already been through multiple owners and it had been, shall we say, extensively primered. So into a bucket of Simple Green it went. ...That was three weeks ago. Stripping the paint proved to be an archaeological process - turns out the model had five coats of primer and paint on it. Green when Dave had it, apparently it had also been blue, red, orange and white over the course of its lifetime. I'd pull it out every couple days, give it a good scrub uncovering the next layer and then back into the dip it went. Eventually went through two gallons of Simple Green just to get it to what you see here! At this point after one last good soak in a fresh bucket all that's left is the 'scraping all the nooks and crannies' step which as you can imagine is going to be a rather tedious process. Luckily, I can do that in the living room while watching a movie, as you can currently melt lead in the hobby loft. Oof!

Eldar - Falcon and Wave Serpents painted

It has been in the high 90's (35+C) over the last week, which means it's been just brutally hot up in the hobby loft. Had a bit a reprieve though and I took advantage to finish off the painting portion of the Eldar transports.

  

 

Started off with the basic 'chevrons' look, which ties in with the ones on the Wraithknight. Happily however the Wave Serpents don't have quite so dang many gemstones. I like them a bit more scarce I have to say. Went with the same reddish-orange gemstones. What felt odd was the fact that I somehow ended up reversing the gradiant angle I usually go with (going with the bright area in the lower right corner rather than lower left).

  

 

The second Wave Serpent got a sort of 'swoopy' colored slash, and a few framing sections on the cockpit. Eventually I'm planning on going back in to add some waterslide transfers, so the larger open blue areas will be ideal for some symbols and whatnot.

  

 

Next up is the Falcon, which got alternating blue and yellow panels. Easy peasy! One thing I'm not 100% happy with is how the larger flat bone colored sections turned out - a little streaky here and there, though it does seem to show up worse in the pictures than it does in Real Life(tm).

Here's a shot of all three of 'em. Overall I'm really pleased with how they turned out - now I just need to finish up all the troops to go into 'em!

One last shot with the two Wave Serpents alongside the Wraithknight. It's all coming together nicely!

Heresy Era - Davinite Priest

My buddy Dave came back from Origins recently and was kind enough to grab one of the Event-only Davinite Priests for me - finally got it washed and dried and snapped a quick pic of it:

I plan on doing another Thousand Sons army once FW rolls around to it, with an eye towards a late-heresy theme set during The Scouring. Just prior to the Rubric of Ahriman, while the legion is succumbing to their final doomed stages of madness and mutation - This guy will be there helping along the process! From a painting standpoint I'm planning on doing a somewhat varied paint scheme with some units solely in the old crimson and bone, and other units beginning to or completely bear the new blue and yellow livery of the current era. We'll see how that goes!

Dave also snapped a bunch of pics at the con while he was out at Origins, definitely worth a look!

In other news, several of my ebay auctions are ending tonight and tomorrow, and there will be a couple new ones going up - a big ol' box of Dark Eldar bits (including several full on the sprue units and vehicles) and a similarly large box of Ork bits (as well as a fair sized assembled-but-not-painted ork army)...

Eldar - Even more transport-y goodness

Pressing onwards - Finished up the yellow and took a crack at the canopies after work this evening and snapped a few more pics!

The yellow started off as Hot Orange, followed by Fiery Orange to get a nice smooth undercoat. Once that dried it got a few passes of Golden Yellow, and as it's a somewhat translucent color the underpinning orange gives it a nice warm glow. After that I went back in with a micron pen and cleaned up the creases between the yellow armor panels.

 

I tried my hand at what was originally supposed to be a NMM gold sort of thing which didn't really work out the way I'd planned. However, I do kind of like it - I might give it wash of some variety to tie it together a bit better. Wet blending/feathering is still not my forte, even after decades of trying. Heh.

Next up is the whole gemstone process, to tie these in with the Wraithknight, which I'm thinking should look pretty neat. Guess we'll find out!

Eldar - Wave Serpents and Falcon painting in progress

I'm trying to take a lot more pictures in progress with the Eldar, and get some more consistent albeit smaller posts for the blog. A bit more brush time on the transports this afternoon - brought the bone back up a tone from where they left off in the last post, and took a whack at getting the yellow started:

I decided that the yellow would be different on each vehicle, going with the chevrons on one, alternating panels on another and some big curves on the third. At the moment, they're just picked out in the initial hot orange, which will be followed by a fiery orange then golden yellow once it cools down in the hobby loft a bit.

 

Snapped a couple semi-side shots to get a better feel of what's going on with the chevrons and curves. I'm pretty happy with the 'individual but still stylistically similar' vibe. Not sure how I want to do the cockpits just yet, I'm considering having another go at the 'reflected horizon' effect that I'd attempted on the Nephilim, though perhaps a green tinted gemmed look could be interesting as well. Thoughts?

More to come soon!

Eldar - The Transports begin...

While rooting around in the Closet of Doom I uncovered the box of Eldar bits which happened to have not only the rest of the bits to finish off the second Wave Serpent but also enough bits to build an entire Falcon! ...And a War Walker, but that's going to have to wait for a bit. I started off with the basic blue sponge technique I used on the Wraithknight which turned out pretty well on the larger flat surfaces. It's really quite simple - started off with a basecoat of midnight blue, followed by sponged-on ultramarines blue, magic blue and ice blue. After that, it's all tied together with a guilliman blue wash.

Once the wash dried I blocked in all the areas that were destined to be bone with leather brown. This took a lot of coats to get a decent coverage, but is key to the whole process. The bone color doesn't go on well directly over a black undercoat in my experience, it tends to get splotchy. Painting the bone over a brown undercoat is far more forgiving!

Next up, the first pass of bone goes on, and the models really start to come together - I'm considering doing the vanes on the Wave Serpents in bone as well. It's at this point where I need to think about what I'm going to do for the requisite yellow to fit the Alaitoc scheme. I'm planning on keeping the yellow fairly minimalist, probably just a few select panels, or perhaps some chevrons.

Step three in the bone process is the wash it all down with devlan mud. Once that dries I'll go back in and add another pass of bleached bone on the upper surfaces, but that'll have to wait for a bit. It got far too hot up in the hobby loft and I was forced to retreat until this evening!

Blatant self advertisement - Ebay auctions

With GenCon rapidly approaching, it's time to get some stuff on the auction block and squirrel away the funds to offset the cost of the trip. Over the next couple weeks I'm planning on putting up some various bits and bobs from the depths of the Closet of Doom (including a couple big ol' boxes of bits), and to lead off the charge is the Dark Angels army I'd finished up some months back. It's roughly 2750 points and about $600 worth of retail, but I'm starting the auction at $500. The whole army is also packed securely in battlefoam trays for storage and transport! Unfortunately due to the size of the package and the recent hikes in international shipping, I can only ship to the US and Canada. It's a shame, but shipping the box the army is packed into overseas would cost northwards of $280. It's insane.

Warhammer 40k Dark Angels Army - 2750 points

Other miscellaneous stuff I'm auctioning off at the moment

This main auction is for a Dark Angels army of approximately 2750 points. The army is comprised of the following models:

HQ
Belial (Custom kitbash)
Deathwing Command Squad (5 Terminators)
Company Master
Interrogator Chaplain Seraphicus
Librarian

ELITES
Deathwing Knights Squad (5 Terminators)

TROOPS
Deathwing Terminator Squad (5 Ranged Terminators)
Deathwing Terminator Squad (5 Ranged Terminators)
Deathwing Terminator Squad (5 Assault Terminators)
Tactical Squad (10 Tactical Marines)
Scout Squad (5 Scouts)
Scout Squad (5 Scouts)

FAST ATTACK
Assault Squad (10 Custom Assault Marines)
Nephilim Jetfighter

HEAVY SUPPORT
Vindicator
Whirlwind


ARMY SHOT



There's closeup shots of the various units on the auction page - More fun stuff to come soon!

Eldar - Wraithknight Painted

98 little gemstones later and the Wraithknight is painted!

 

Now that it has been sealed, it's time to consider what sort of transfers it'll get. I'm considering an Alaitoc symbol on the faceplate, or perhaps on the loinguard. Not sure what else it needs - A friend of mine suggested that it needs some banners hanging from the weapons, so I'm trying to figure out a good way to do that. Planning on going with some triangular kill banners, which may be a perfect place to add some Alaitoc symbols as well...

 

The spirit stone on the back was picked out in green, and based on some feedback regarding the metal I had used on the joints I went back and re-did those sections in bone, which I think works out better overall. Then it was dozens and dozens of gemstones. Oof.

I went back and made the same joint color update to the Wraithlord and snapped a quick pic of 'em for scale. Overall the Wraithknight was an absolute blast to build and paint! I'm definitely scheming on building another one - though next time around I'm thinking it'll have the scattershield and magnetized wraithglaive or suncannon arm (as well as magnetized shoulder mount weapons). That'll have to wait for a while though - with GenCon rapidly approaching I gotta save my pennies!

Eldar - Striking Scorpions painted, and a tiny bit more Wraithknight

I wanted to finish up the half-done Striking Scorpions unit from earlier, and was able to find some brush time in over the last couple days. The lion's share of the work was already done, so it was just a matter of picking out the details!

I'm pretty pleased with how the green on green worked out, and I tried to continue on the yellow stripe spot color to the weapons. Gave the pouches and holsters a khaki base followed by some devlan mud in the recesses. Once that was done they got the standard  graveyard earth and dark flesh on the base followed by a little static grass.

The rear of the models shows the light green undersuit and darker green armor plates, as well as the ever popular dreadlocks. As we all know, scorpions are known for their dreadlocks!

While waiting for the bases to dry I finished off the yellow trim on the Wraithknight and started picking out the 80-some odd gemstones. That stage is gonna take a while to finish!

Eldar - Wraithknight painting continues

Got a bit more brush time in on the Wraithknight yesterday, I'm definitely enjoying working on it!

 

Laid down the bone color on the weapons and head which consists of a basecoat of leather brown, followed by a layer of bleached bone and a devlan mud wash. Once that dried I went back and re-highlighted in bone. I then went in and picked out a couple areas that I'm intending to be yellow and laid down a hot orange base, but haven't applied the yellow as yet. I think I'm going to keep the yellow fairly minimalist overall - just the vents up top, and some trim work on the hip plates.

 

After that I went in and blacked in all the umpteen zillion bumps and protuberances that will end up getting the gem treatment, similar to the Wraithlord earlier. There are plenty to do, and some of them are rather large which I think should end up looking pretty cool. The larger size means I can hopefully work in some further color gradients than I was able to do on the itty-bitty ones on the Wraithlord too.

So far so good! In other news, we've managed to get five more tunes recorded with the band so I thought I'd share 'em - check 'em out here!

Eldar - Alaitoc it is! Wraithlord painted, and more work on the big guy

Had a nearly free Sunday today and settled in to do a test model for the craftworld I settled on - Alaitoc's mottled blue and yellow has long been my favorite, but since it had been three years since I tried it, I decided I'd start off with the Wraithlord before I try scaling it up to the Wraithknight.

 

I started off with a midnight blue basecoat over black primer, then sponged on magic blue and ice blue. Once that was all done, I gave it a guilliman blue wash to tone it all down and tie it together. The joints were given a boltgun metal and black wash, and the weapons and head picked out in bone.

 

The cloth was given the yellow treatment, then I went in and picked out the umpteen dozen gemstones. Holy cow there were a bunch! Overall I'm happy with how it turned out, and the end result matches more or less what I had intended (which isn't always how it happens)... Hah!

 

I was itching to work on the Wraithknight some more, so I gave it the mottled blue treatment and snapped a few pics while I awaited all the wash to dry in the little nooks and crannies.

 

I'm thinking I'm going to go much the same with the Knight, i.e. the weapons in bone, reddish gemstones, and bone color on the helmet. I need to figure out what is going to be yellow though, perhaps just some trim on a few of the armor plates. In retrospect, I should have added some cloth-style banner bits, but I don't really have anything suitably eldar-ish... Something to think about for the second knight I'm planning...