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EDIT: I'm taking down some pictures from this initial post, since this thread is pretty pic-heavy already. I'll also post my progress when I make any up here.

I'm not known for being any sort of great painter, let alone a particularly fast one, so I've set myself a generous portion of time in which I intend to paint my latest army's Dire Avenger component. Check out the intended colour scheme, which is primarily Scorched Brown up to Snakebite Leather, and Dark Angels up to Goblin Green. The helmets are Fortress Grey hit with watered down black and knocked up to Skull White highlights. C+C please!

Colour scheme intention. Apologies again for the flash photography; next update should be in natural light. This is the Exarch for Squadron A.
(removed, see updated pic below)


Squadron B, featuring basic guardian heads, and 'The Rabbit,' a cruelly misunderstood Exarch out for revenge. My greenstuff skills were not up to the intended antlers, unfortunately.


Squadron C, featuring metal bits from the Storm Guardian kit. A couple bear unhelmeted plastic heads from both the Guardian and DA kits, and one has a basic plastic Guardian head... I really didn't want more than one unit of Dire Avenger crests, as I'm sure you can tell. Further thanks to Legoburner for the quick copy to clipboard function! Better photos soon.

I intend to start on this project on the 1st of January, so stay posted if you care at all

PROGRESS REPORT:
1st January '09
Today I've cleaned up the last of the models, stuck antlers on Exarch B (see relevant post below) and undercoated the entire lot.

2nd January '09
I've done all of the relevant parts in Scorched Brown. Too overcast for a photo, plus it's not much to see in a group shot!

4th January '09
Finished armour in Dark Angels Green. Blurry photo at bottom of page.

9th January '09
Upgrade Scorched Brown areas to Bestial Brown.

12th January '09
Helmets and areas to be painted Bronze/Yellow picked out in Fortress grey.


17th January '09
Getting there... More than half done, more than half out of time...

18th January '09
All of the base colours will be down by the time I retire tonight. Bases, highlights, inks, more highlights and static grass still to come...

20th January '09
Bases started...

23rd January '09
Bases done, Green Stage 3 done, browns cleaned up.


Click the picture below for a 2304x3072 zoomable gallery link!

As promised, here is a better photo of my intended colour scheme, now that the sun has availed itself to me. We're getting some pretty terrible weather here in Far North NSW / SE Queensland, but the skies have opened up after a brief windstorm this afternoon.



Afternoon sunlight - the shadows are a bit long, but I have to work, damn it! Note the face-cloth/bandana thing on the basic Avenger. I know it's utterly pointless for someone to wear a close-faced helmet and a facecloth, but it was an easy enough greenstuff job that I did to most of Squadron A. Helps with the Wood-Eld-Iness.


Here's one of my Fire Dragons at about 95% completion to demonstrate the theme a little further. Since they share at least the Scorched Brown basecoat with the Avengers, I'll probably be doing all of these at the same time.

I don't intend to start proper until New Year's day; I still want to clean up some flash, and Squadron C hasn't got the Dire Avenger back-sensor thingies glued in place yet.

Of course, if no one is going to encourage me, I may never start.

Nice work! Keep it up. I am doing something similar with guard. I have to paint...

Hellhound
10 guardsman
1 sentinel
1 melta gun guy
time permitting a objective base

By Jan 11th.

I will post photos here along with what is already done. http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/225557.page

The hellhound will be done by tomorrow. If I can do it you can to. Once again nice work.

P.S. I will post here when each block is done. You keep me going I will keep you going. Deal?

Looks awesome. Maybe you can get a Wood Elf bit or two for the antlers.

Sha1emade:
...and I'm sure they'll be as brilliantly painted as the rest of your Cadians so far!
It's incredibly humid here ATM, and my paint just isn't doing what I want it to... I know I have to travel to Sydney some time in the coming month, so I'm giving myself a generous amount of time, as I said. But yeah, sounds great, and I'll do likewise if you want!

Tacobake:
... Great idea - I don't know why that didn't already occur to me. The current 'ears' are built around a couple bits of paperclip wire... Butchering a Wood Elf Lord for his headgear is not something I'd consider beneath me (hate elves), but it's a bit pricey for one Exarch. I seem to recall a discounted WE character blister pack at a smaller local toyshop, so I ought to go see if it has antlers/horns. Alternatively the latest Dryad box is something I've long considered picking up for when I get to converting my Grav-Tanks.

I am feeling a little embarrassed regarding my own collection of half (85%) painted Eldar.

Maybe you can use other WE bits for an Autarch or for regular Guardians.

Regular guardians!



Wood Elv... Eldar are about shootiness and running away!

lol, Arctik Firangi, I'm mixing up my eldar with bits from wood elves and high elves to give them an exodite feel.

I like the conversions that you've made, but Im not sold on the color scheme. I think it's because I like my eldar to look immaculate, clean, crisp. The green & brown make them look a bit grubby to my eyes, even though it's a good match and fills the fluff you're pushing. Keep up the good work!

Thanks Gav! I can just imagine your last name is Thorpe if I don't like anything you're saying! Seriously though, the humidity and the general amount of time I have to paint also gets in the way of any hope for 'immaculate' painting... but white undercoats don't agree with me anway. From what little I've seen of your other greenstuff work, I hope to see some shots of your Eldar project soon!

I'm not fazed though; I'm actually avoiding the use of too many wood elf parts - I definitely just wanted greeny, browny organic looking Eldar models. The tanks have a slight makeover in the pipeline involving vines and possibly some dryad bits... but I'll stick to my claim of a Night-Goblin-like hatred of elves, and an obstinate denial of any similarities between Eldar and... you get the idea.

And in spite of what I just said, here's my extended reply to Tacobake:


Normally retails for $22AUD, so 17.50 is pretty good. This will be the first actual bit of wood elf to get involved thus far, and I don't see myself using the rest of the model as suggested.

Anyone want to trade it for anything? The weapons are a bit bent, eh? That's probably why it was discounted.

I'm too lazy to caption this picture.

I was a bit drunk again last night, but I'm okay now. Today is the first official day of this log! I have done no painting whatsoever!

I've done a little work though:

First, I had thirteen DAs that still needed those fiddly little back-things glued in place, as I mentioned earlier. The silly ponytails on the metal Storm Guardian heads made this a little difficult in some cases, but a slight bend of either bit got them together just fine. I also went though removing a few more mould lines. Those ones on the back of the barrel supporting hand have been irritating to work with.

Next, I got to work on that idiot 'Rabbit' Exarch. I never liked Donnie Darko anyway. I took a few photos along the way, so enjoy!:




This was the problem, as pointed out in my last post. That antler is firmly modelled into the lowe part of the sword blade just above the hilt. I considered forgetting the conversion because I couldn't find my hobby files... but then I decided to give it a try.


First I sawed the horns away from the head, and bent the arm out so that I could get at it properly. I didn't want to damage the sword or the arm any more than I had to.


I ended up with these pieces - much better than I'd hoped. The Wood Elf Lord is still intact, and the blade is too. The bit still stuck to the antler had some sort of a vine patterned sculpt, which could be easily resculpted, but I'm probably going to save the blade for this army rather than rebuild the elf-git.


I still couldn't find my hobby files, but I had a smallish chainsaw file that was the exact right size to sort out the bulk of the material I wish I could find my smaller files, because the antler is a little bulkier than the other one still, but it was sculpted like that and looks good enough regardless. Pulled out the stupid GS ears, widened the holes. I can't find my pin drills either. I have my vice, but it fortunately had the largest of my tiny drills in it - exactly what I wanted.




And there you have it! A Rabbit no more, but a Stag in charge of his squadron of Wimpy Hornless Does. (A Doe is A Deer; a Female Deer)

Tonight I'll get the units undercoated - I'm just waiting for the temperature and humidty to fall a little. I had already undercoated my Fire Dragons, and I did them over with Scorched Brown in the car yesterday. Now I get to do it 25 more times!

Update for January 2nd:
I've been bent over painting Scorched Brown onto 25 Dire Avengers. Note that five from Unit A have already been painted to 80%-90% completion, as seen in the test shots above. That's why I'm hoping to get five Fire Dragons done as well, to round out the figure to thirty... Here's what the other 25 look like now. I also put a base of Dark Flesh over the four bare-headed guys.



Note that I've never batch-painted this many models at one time. Hell, I even painted my Skaven a rank at a time. I'm completely and utterly sick of Scorched Brown. Next to come is Dark Angels Green on the armour plates!

I know what ya mean. I HATE batch painting. It does feel good to finally move on to the next stage however. Nice work keep it up. I just finished my hellhound and now on to 10 guardsmen. I will feel your pain. It will be all worth in at the end my friend. Stick with it!

Looks like it's going to be good. Nice work so far.

Update, Day the Third.

Lost a bit of momentum... Got the green basecoat onto ten Avengers. Will hprobably get a couple more done tonight. And hopefully by the end of tomorrow they'll all look like this!



I had an old pot, about 1/4 full of Dark Angel's Green, which I added a good bit of Goblin green to, for the next green stage. The brown goes up to Bestial Brown before that, though.

Looking good! That conversion turned out very nicely. I probably would have tried a bit more wire work, or looked for a stag miniature and sawed off the antlers if they were about the right size. Oh, and thanks for the complement!

Batch painting is kinda like long distance running: the excitement of starting a run, the intimidation at the prospect, the pain that kicks in about a quarter of the way through, the mindless high you get once you break through your wall, and the exhilaration of finishing something that you weren't sure you could do in the first place.

I'm dealing with my own batches at the moment, so I feel your pain: 12 banshees, 14 guardians on foot with heavies, 12 exodite guardian "jetbikes", 6 exodite shining spears, and 16 warlocks. Yes, 16 warlocks. Fun.

Outside of the antlers, not bad work so far.

Nice job keep it up. I will be finishing my Commissar tonight and will be posting a pic today or tomorrow. You are keeping me working. I feel I should be catching up. I admit I am slow. Glad you do not suffer from that problem. Getting there!

Joyous_Oblivion wrote:Outside of the antlers, not bad work so far.

Surely it's an improvement on what I had?

Sha1emade wrote:Nice job keep it up. I will be finishing my Commissar tonight and will be posting a pic today or tomorrow. You are keeping me working. I feel I should be catching up. I admit I am slow. Glad you do not suffer from that problem. Getting there!

I've just run out of weekend daylight, so expect a few days slowdown... but the brown and green is done throughout now. Keep it up! Inspiration! Hurr!

Finished my Commissar and am pretty happy with it. 9 guard and a sentinel left to go!!! Wish I could slow down, I am behind schedule. Don't be like me and fall behind. Ya end up getting no rest.

Still day 4 (30 minutes left, but gotta work tomorrow, going to bed...) and I've done 10 up to the Bestial Brown stage. Hopefully get the rest done tomorrow afternoon. I'm ahead of my own schedule.. not that I had one. I seem to be making good time though.

DRINK!

Damn it... cheap booze... I... Poast! Poast again! Have painted! Five more of them. Much work tomorrow, but seven hours from now. Where was I?

I've painted five more models. Ahem. Miniatures. To the point of 'Bestial Brown' -ness as I mentioned earlier. Ten to go. I can't paint anymore because I'll make a terrible mess. Many years ago I learned to spell and type correctly whilst drinking, but painting?.. no gakking way. Trumped the autocensor, there. Eat gak, Dak'.

Today I also started knocking up an Ork Nob conversion. 'Eavy, 'e is. Shhh!

I am in my car and my modem is my phone and it costs a lot of money. I have the hiccups. Better sign off now, before a fool of myself I convert. Eat this, HBMC:

BYE

Boy am I glad you're in Oz and I'm in Usa... Drinking + Driving + Phone =

Hope you make it to work safely!

I like the conversions, nice job on getting the WE theme across and good luck finishing your vow.

Arctik_Firangi wrote:(A Doe is A Deer; a Female Deer)

Ray, a drop of golden sun...
sorry, my family LOVE Julie Andrews

Gavin Thorne wrote:Boy am I glad you're in Oz and I'm in Usa... Drinking + Driving + Phone =

Hope you make it to work safely!

I wasn't driving. It's illegal to drink/phone-drive here too. When I 'poasted' it was 0100 hours, my car was quite stationary, my phone was plugged into a laptop as a wireless modem, and I was getting the dregs of a second bottle of wine. I'd done the painting earlier in the day...

Then I woke up up at 0800, pulled up pretty alright, went to work (which involves driving over 100 miles), and got home about 1700 (hour and a half ago). I've just had breakfast. Painting time again!

Tacobake wrote:

Thankyou, I'll be here all night.

Sounds crazy.

Well, I for one feel better about your life decisions... I'd hate to lose a fellow eldarite to the follies of inebriation!

Keep painting! I'm finishing my banshees as we speak, but they've been basecoated for weeks now. The Guardians only need their final highlights, oh, and to have the grav platform painted. Waiting for bits for my 'locks and the remainder of my "jetbikes". You'll probably be done before me, but your personal challenge has been an inspiration to keep me rolling.

Well, my phone company disconnected my line, but apparently couldn't tell me why... so I've been offline for a couple of days. Gave me some painting time I suppose, but I've been working too. It's Friday afternoon, so it's time to get stuck in again!

I've painted Bestial Brown over all of the original Scorched Brown areas. I was going to do my Goblin/Darkangels green mix next, but I feared I would go mad if I had to dip into one of those two colours again. Knowing I'd have to eventually anyway, I've skipped to the Fortress Grey stage. This is going on the helmets, as well as anything that is to be painted yellow or bronze during the detail stage. Once I've finished this stage I'll get stuck into the green again, and then I can start my favourite part - inking!