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First of, If your reading this, I would like to thank you for looking at my brand new painting blog. I've been doing warhammer off and on from just about the tail end of 4th edition, I would hazard a guess at about 8 years or so. I started when i was still living at home with my parents and I am now 27 and have been on my own for 6 years. First and foremost I am a player. I like building things to the point where i can play them and never been much for painting. I have taken extended breaks from the game in these 8 years because i was frustrated that models that i converted and really liked were literally ruined by my horrible skills with a brush. I started my gaming career way back with the still part metal Fire prism that has long since been lost to the fickleness of the warp, but much of my first eldar force still remains and a lot of it i have repainted for my new Iyanden army. I am starting a blog exactly because I used to dislike painting, Not only am i hoping to get commentary on what i have done, but i hope to improve myself and motivate myself to continue painting by sharing the fruits of my labor with this community.

So lets start then, My Iyanden army is beeing led by a Spirit seer with the spear of teuthlass, the guardian helm of xellethon and a wraithforge stone. she is amy personal version of Iyanna arienal and I converted her from the plastic farseer.

Next up is the HQ i use in a more competitive list, an autarch with the mantle of the Laughing god, A Laser Lance, A Jetbike and a Fusion Gun. This model is built up from parts from quite a few diffrent kits, and I still need to go over him to pick out his spirt stones and a few other small details such a freehands and I think I am going to redo the cloak, I wanted something a bit more in tune with my army then the checker pattern iof the harlequins but i recently saw a very nice blue and yellow checker pattern that did the job admirably, so i might go back and paint that on instead.

This 5 man squad is the first unit of dire avengers i ever bought, I just painted straight over it because i thought i painted thin enough, but there are a few places where the paint came out a bit to thick. Still i overall like them, and as there will be a bunch of them i dont think anyone will notice much.

Heres a unit jetbikers i converted from the Dark Eldar raiders, with the helmets, they look just like spirit seer helms so i figured they would fit in well in an iyanden army.

This Wraithlord was also a salvage project from the old one i had that shattered into 50 pieces long ago, I had to change the back fins and his left arm as i lost his hand long ago. D-scythe flamers from the wraith guard kit and the dark lances from the raider jetbikers make up his flamers and bright lances and i am really please with the small arm mounted look it give him. The spear you see him with is a kitbash from a Vampire Counts standard, A Grey Knight Nemesis Warding stave and 2 ghost swords from the wraith guard kit. I personally love how the glaive on this guy turned out.

This is my first wave serpent for the new army, I bought a new one and I like how it came out, Its probably the best bit of painting i managed in this army. I especially love the freehand for the unit marking the eldar rune for number 1.

And then we get to the work in progress part, This is what i have on my bench right now, A unit of old metal wraith gaurd, mounted with their bases on top of the new terminator bases i should be using, with this small height raise they are just as tall as the new plastic to boot. I'll post more pictures for these guys as i paint them up.

Nice Yellow (particularly the Spiritseer). How did you do them?

The yellow is actually just Casandra Yellow wash over white, It has a really striking effect that makes the painting considerably easier for me.

Well, either you're a liar or your painting skills have improved a lot in a short time. They look really good!

The only thing I can think of is the "dirtiness" of it all. I've always seen eldar as quite clean, but these guys seems a bit gritty. Don't get me wrong, I like it! But is it what you're after? Or do want that "clean" feeling?

Keep up the good work mate!

I THINK a lot of the percieved dirtyness comes from the flash on the camera. I used an older pot of the GW satin varnish. It has just a little bit of shine to it that gives the models that nice clean Eldar look IRL. I can see what you mean about them not beeing as clean as the models GW has on their site though. But I'm actually ok with that I think. What would you recommend if i did want them to be more clean looking?

And thank you for the compliment, I do think GW's new paint system helps out people with mediocre skills turn out better looking things more easily now. Before the new washes I can asure you my painting was not even half as good. I was actually surprised how easy it is to get nicer results. I painted most of these models over the course of the last month.

As said, I like the gritty look, but if you wanna make them real "clean" I have a method that I use on my marines helmets, being bone-coloured. It's an easy, but time-consuming, method:
1. Prime the mini
2. Use a base-colour. For bone I use Khemri brown, for yellow I don't know what's suitable
3. Paint you main colour over affected areas, watered down. In this phase I don't care about full coverage.
4. Wash with suitable wash. For bone agrax earthshade is good.
5. Paint the main colour with patience, since it has to be watered down. This gives you a possibility to leave darker areas in crevasses.

That's how I do it, and it gets nice and clean. If you're curious on how it looks I have pics on my marines!

And regarding the GW paint system. I like the new system, but do not use it the way they want! Ha! The sad thing is that some of the older colours doesn't have a good match in the new system.

Oh, and regarding photographing! Don't use the flash in the camera, try to use desk lamps or in the best cases the sun! The flash on cameras is focusing on the things right in front of the camera, and that will easily make a good painted mini look... Well, I don't want to say crap, but its the only word that will explain in a good way.

Ohh, Yeah, I think I might be making on of those Tinfoil Cardboard Photoboxes for better picture taking soon. Altough I'm not sure how much help it wil be if i keep taking pictures with my phone XD.

As for your painting tip, That actually sounds kind of what i do for my blues. I start with a layer of one of those beautiful old colours that are not available anymore you mentioned. Necron Abyss then i go over it with alaitoc blue drybrush, wash it with nightshade and then brush back up to alaitoc Blue. I think the flash overexposed that part, the efefct doesnt really come to its right in the pictures, The way it looks on the rear hatch of the serpent is how it looks over most of the serpent IRL, the blend isnt as harsh as the picture makes it seem. But ohh well, you know what they say you don't notice a lot of flaws on a mini until you take a picture of it huh :<

Quick update as i did some painting tonight on my unit of wraithguard.