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Someone in another thread over the weekend suggest I start a thread chronicling the progress of my new Biel-Tan army, so here it shall be.

Some background - I started playing 40K _ages_ ago - during the Rogue Trader era. I actually was part of the same gaming group as Yakface back in the 90s. I played up through the very beginning of 4th edition and then stopped playing for about 10 years due to work and family. Mostly stopped painting as well. Back then, I had trouble fielding a fully painted army, I painted slowly, mostly for display, and my forces tended to be a collection of minis more than a cohesive army.

Recently, some co-workers started pushing to get a 40K group together and play some games at the office during lunch or after hours. I caved in... and the addiction crashed back in full force! Even though I still had my assortment of painted Eldar from way back when, I decided to start a new Eldar force from scratch, and set a goal for myself to crank out an army painted to a table-top standard in a relatively quick amount of time. This was all just under two weeks ago. I am currently at 59 finished models.

So, here we go - lots of pics behind each Spoiler!

DAY 2 - Guardians :
Started with 11 Storm Guardians (and 2 Defenders). Going with a quick painting method known locally as Gately Goop - a mix of paint and acrylic craft sealer. In theory, similar to various dips, except that I like the results better, it dries faster (I was drybrushing bases on Gooped figures within about 15 minutes of initial application of Goop), and can be easily painted over for additional detail or touch-ups since it is still a painting primer medium.



In progress photos behind the

Day 4 - More Guardians:
This time, 18 Guardian Defenders and 2 Heavy Weapon Platforms. Also got a start on my Dire Avengers. Oh yeah - and the weapon platforms are using magnet mounts for swappable weapons.





In progress photos behind the

Day 5 - Dire Avengers and Warlocks:
10 Dire Avengers and 4 Warlocks.





In progress photos behind the

Day 9 - Fire Dragons and Rangers:
Had to skip a few nights due to work and family, but back to it heading into a weekend. 6 Fire Dragons and 5 Rangers.





In progress photos behind the

Day 10 - Farseer:
Had a busy weekend of family stuff, so I only took some time on Saturday to knock out a HQ unit so that I could be ready to start playing some small games and reacquaint myself with the rules. I have been averaging about 60 minutes per figure for most of the army. This guy took 90. Some of that was loss of efficiency by focusing on one mini, some more on doing a bit more after-goop touch-up that I did otherwise.



In progress photos behind the


If people are interested, I will continue to update this post as I finish batches and will post below with general work in progress.

Hey, welcome to Dakka!

Looks like you have some good stuff there, if I may suggest not to use the spoiler tags and just letting the pics appear, you will probably get more views and feedback that way.

Enjoy!

 MajorTom11 wrote:
Hey, welcome to Dakka!

Looks like you have some good stuff there, if I may suggest not to use the spoiler tags and just letting the pics appear, you will probably get more views and feedback that way.

Enjoy!

Agreed.

These models are gorgeous, why use spoiler tags and hide them?

 Kanluwen wrote:

 MajorTom11 wrote:
Hey, welcome to Dakka!

Looks like you have some good stuff there, if I may suggest not to use the spoiler tags and just letting the pics appear, you will probably get more views and feedback that way.

Enjoy!

Agreed.

These models are gorgeous, why use spoiler tags and hide them?

I dunno - I guess just trying to avoid spamming pics in a thread. I'll go ahead and remove the spoiler blocks.

And thanks, MajorTom, for moving the thread for me.




Automatically Appended Next Post:

Got no painting at all done yesterday, and not so much time today, but still some, so... Day 12!

Started work on a Falcon tank and 3 Vypers. In all the time I have previously played 40K, I have never had any painted vehicles beyond bikes or walkers. Plenty of vehicles bought, many built and primed, none with even initial paint. When I started digging through my old stock of 40K stuff, I am confused why I owned 5 falcons in various states of assembly, and 6 Vypers not assembled. I quit playing just before the Waveserpent kits came out so I had none of those. Two should be arriving in the mail this week.

Day 13:

Not a lot of progress. A lot of family and work stuff today. But still... SOME progress is better than none. I hope to finish the Falcon tomorrow.




I am still sifting through some of my old mini stuff in boxes (looking for the jetbikes I know I used to have), and I found an unbuilt current version of the plastic Eldar Wraithlord. I must have purchased it just before I stopped playing. Of course, I find this AFTER I just ordered one online!

In 2 days, I am getting 2 Wave Serpents and the Wraithlord. Not sure where to expand my army from here. More Rangers? More Dire Avengers? More Guardians? Some jetbikes?

I guess I need to jump in and start playing again and just find out what I like. My first game under 6th edition is tomorrow!

Day 14:

Finished my first painted 40K vehicle ever! And it was... a learning experience. It was way outside my area of expertise, and the lack of knowledge showed. Not sure now how to proceed with the rest of vehicles.

First, the model with base colors done:



Then, I Gooped it. And it made a mess of things. At this point, I was panicked. The model looked like a disaster.



Luckily, Goop is NOT a dip. I can easily paint over Goop, so I set out to see if I could clean the model up.



Overall, I think it cleaned up ok. Not great, but ok. There is so much for me to learn about vehicle kits, that much is clear. Still, first vehicle is a milestone. And at 2 weeks into this project, I have an even 60 models painted and ready for play.



Oh, first 6th edition game today? Small match, 500 points, and won. But... I was getting beat hard for most of it, lol. One lucky turn of getting every dice break suddenly burst the game open in my favor. And even that would have slipped away if the game had gone one more turn, but... it didn't.

Now to figure out what to paint next...

You have a very fast, effective painting style, keep sharing stuff

 shamikebab wrote:
You have a very fast, effective painting style, keep sharing stuff

Thanks. Hitting a bit of a speed bump now as I get into models that need a lot more assembly. Also waiting on models I ordered online. I guess I could paint up Banshees, but I gather they are pretty much less than useless these days.

My traditional painting style is MUCH slower. I had started experimenting with this Goop technique just before I took a break from the hobby for so long, but that was mostly and assorted generic fantasy figures I had from companies like Reaper. This Biel-Tan force has been my first stab at applying the technique on an army scale, and I am satisfied with the results. They might not be as well painted as my previous efforts, but am now much more able to field all painted minis. Plus, I am focused on consistency of appearance and maintaining particular design aesthetics, such as all of them having the green helms with white face plates, even all the aspects, to maintain a cohesive army (something often missing in an Aspect heavy Eldar force). By contrast, my older Eldar force was always an assortment of well painted figures, but never an ARMY.

So my current force actually looks much better on the table top during a game.

For comparison, here is a Banshee exarch I painted 12 years ago:


Or a Dark Angels captain:


Either one of the above figures took more time to paint than I have spent on my entire Biel-Tan force so far.

Nice work, I love the colours (not as blinding/flashy as other eldar, a tad more grimdark), and the scheme is well-executed.

I know how you feel but I just can't bring myself to batch paint models, they all have the potential to be so pretty!
Beautiful models, both your batch painted ones and the Captain/Exarch, particularly the Exarch, just wow.

Day 18:

No new painted models to share - I kept running into model prep as a speed bump to actually painting and was realizing that while I have lot of unpainted Eldar, I did not have the figures I wanted to paint and field. So I went toy shopping and dedicated the weekend to cleaning, assembling, basing, and priming miniatures instead of painting - 54 minis, 2 weapon platforms, and 2 wraithlords now ready to paint. Let phase 2 begin!

The collection of ready phase 2 models:



Building the Wraithlords and HWP - all the weapon mounts are magnetized:



Building the troops! I will sum up by saying Guardians (and Dire Avengers) are tedious to build. Finecast is crap, crap, CRAP:




Automatically Appended Next Post:
And for the hell of it - a recap of what got done in the first 2 weeks:

Wow, that is a really nice result for such a quick technique. Since I am a really slow painter as well, I am very impressed. I wanted to paint an Army fast to Play with for a long time, but haven´t succeeded yet. Keep on going and you will be one of my new heros!

Day 20:

Didn't get much time to paint until tonight, and won't have much again until Thursday, but I did make some good progress tonight on Scorpions and 6 more Rangers:


Should easily finish these on Thursday and get started on something else.

Day 21:

Completed 6 Striking Scorpions:




What they looked like pre-Goop and basing:




And painted up 6 more Rangers for good measure:




Next up should be 16 more Dire Avengers, hopefully done this weekend.

Tally is now at 72 figures done.

Day 22:

Not much new done, real life and all, but in the purpose of pushing myself by keeping a record of progress, here is the next group - 16 Dire Avengers with blue base coats done.

Day 25:

Finished the 16x Dire Avengers. Doing all 16 together became a bit tedious. Since I have 20+ Guardians still in the queue, it is clear I will need to break those up into 2 batches to not go insane.

In progress (from day 24):


And done:



Tally is now at 88 figures done.

Day 26:

Started and finished 9 Guardians, 2 Warlocks, and Maugan-Ra in the last 24 hours.

In progress:









And done:






Tally is now 100 figures done. Next up - 12 more Guardians!

Day 29:

Finally got a chance to finish up the rest of the current round of Guardians and their support weapons. Painted up a couple of Eldar bits as objective markers while I was at it:









Next up for the weekend, 2 Wraithlords and perhaps finishing the 3 Vypers I started...


Tally is 114 Models done!

Day 30:

Started in on the 2 Wraithlords:






The shoulder weapons had been painted in the last batch. I expect to finish these up tomorrow and probably move on to picking back up on the 3 Vypers I got half way done a couple of weeks ago. Also mostly finished building this Autarch today:

Very cool blog. The paint scheme is relatively straight forward, fast, and provides a great tabletop result. I've had a very similar bug hit and I applaud your efforts at building so many Guardian models. That is the one part of the project I do not like at all. Thanks for sharing.

Thanks!

Even before someone suggested I start a blog thread here with my progress, I was posting updates every day or two in my gaming circle. Mostly to pushing myself forward in constant progress, but I also saw an immediate effect in my friends as they suddenly found new motivation to get their own stuff done.

And for getting back into the game, I just HAD to focus on a faster style. As a single parent of two young kids and working full-time, I just wouldn't have time to pull it off otherwise.


Beginning to run out of Eldar to paint though! The wraithlords will conclude my second phase of painting. Working on acquiring my third phase now - wraithguard, jetbikes, and swooping hawks combined with the wave serpents waiting to be built, but otherwise... might be time to start in on a Marine auxiliary force soon.

I'm blown away by the speed and quality of your work. Makes me want to fix up my eldar instead of selling them xD

Thanks!

Day 31:

Finished up the 2 Wraithlords this morning:





I can't spray seal them yet since it is raining, but they are basically done.

Now on to the Vypers and assembling Wave Serpents!


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Addendum to add:

And a recap of the last couple of weeks - all of my phase 2 selected minis done:

Day 34:

Came back to the Vypers I had started when I did the Falcon. Got them mostly done. I still need to paint up the canopies and put them on bases:




Unfortunately, in a bit of a forced slow spot at the moment as I have mostly run out of stuff to paint. I need to build the 2 wave serpents I already have, and finishing prepping the large support weapons, but mostly waiting for the 6 jetbikes, 10 wraithguard, swooping hawks, and striking scorpions that should all be here in the mail by week's end...

This is definitely one of the most impressive displays of concerted painting effort I have seen in a long time. I am an obsessive painter and I spend a lot of time on each mini. Your project makes it clear that minis can look great without a major time investment in each one.

Day 2 (Round 2):

Well, I took nearly 2 weeks off to assemble some figures and vehicles, but mostly to do other life type stuff. Round one finished with 116 models in 31 days - about 2700 points of Eldar painted in a month. Ready for round two! Given the lengthy break, I decided to start day tracking anew, to push myself with a fresh start. I picked up the brush again this weekend, starting with 10 Wraithguard on Saturday and finishing them Sunday night:







The Wraithguard are 2 different squads of 5, one with Wraithcannons and the other with D-scythes. I also added decals on the tabards, which I placed before the goop pass in the hopes it would make them feel more a part of the full paintjob. Seems to have worked.


I also got base armor color down on a squad of Howling Banshees and a squad of Swooping Hawks. I hope to have them done in the next day or two:





Feels good to have brush back in hand for another round!

Day 5 (Round 2):

Finished up a squad of 7 Swooping Hawks and a squad of 7 Howling Banshees. Yes, I know the Banshees suck in the current rules, but I had the models and figured why not. I am not a competitive player either, so I will likely even field them at some point.

Also, the model strength at the feet on these models is ass. Especially the hawks. I have no doubt there will be some repairs needed at some point in the futures...

In progress:






And done:





Next batch might be a few days - lots of work work to do and weekend stuff with the family...

Really like what I can see so far, I really need to start trying to speed paint my troops... I always take too long on them and then never finish them... I may have to just use an airbrush much more than I already do, and do as follows, grey base coat + wash for the base color and then just add the white + detail to my models later. But anyways you sir have a very nice style of painting Subscribed.