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...

Eldar - Wraithknight built

I got a call yesterday afternoon from the local plastic crack dealer that the new Eldar releases had arrived so I swung though and picked up the codex and the sassy new Wraithknight. Since I've been working on the Imperial Knights recently I was quite interested to see how the new model compared, and I was not disappointed! What was slightly surprising was how static the model was designed to be out of the box - I was expecting to be able to pose the legs and torso however I pleased, but the way the upper legs were designed to attach to the pelvis, and the way the knees and feet peg in place it seems as though it was designed such that it's meant to go together in a very specific way. We can't have that now, can we? A fair bit of cutting and filing ensued to remove a number of pegs and tabs that force the particular pose that it's designed with and I was finally able to get a good running pose out of it.

To be fair, there's nothing wrong with the original pose out of the box, and I suppose it was designed such that the novice modeler would be able to get a nice solid build out of it without having too much trouble. A bit of time with the clippers will be required if you wish to have the lower legs in any pose beyond the default though. I altered how both upper thighs attach to the pelvis, straightened the left leg and increased the bend on the right to really get it looking like it's charging forward.

 

The arms and upper torso went together like a dream, though there were an awful lot of fiddly multi-part bits that I would have thought could have been single pieces rather than assemblies, but they did all fit together beautifully. I went with the twin heavy distortion cannons with underslung scatter lasers, as when the scatter lasers hit any other weapon systems the model may have become twin linked. Not a bad combo I think!

Standing next to the Prometheus I was quite pleased with how they compare scale-wise. A little taller, but nowhere near as massive, just like an Eldar knight ought to be! I'm still in the midst of deciding what craftworld to go with for the army, though I'm leaning towards Alaitoc. I think the mottled blue camouflage with yellow trim could look pretty sharp!