The tournament challenge - 9 weeks, 9 Eldar units (Week 7: Falcon, War Walkers)

Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you:

No adverts like this in the forums anymore.
Times and dates in your local timezone.
Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance.
Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely.
Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net.

If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

**Mymearan**

---SCHEDULE---

WEEK 1 - 3x Shining Spears (unassembled) - CHALLENGE COMPLETED link
WEEK 2 - 6x Warp Spiders (unassembled) - CHALLENGE FAILED link
WEEK 3 - 6x Fire Dragons (base coated) - CHALLENGE FAILED link
WEEK 4 - catchup/rest
WEEK 5 - 10x Dire Avengers
WEEK 6 - 10x Dire Avengers again (since there's 10 of them I figured two weeks) CHALLENGE FAILED link
WEEK 7 - 1x Falcon, 3xWar Walkers - CHALLENGE PARTIALLY COMPLETE link
WEEK 8 - 20x Guardians (I have 12 finished and 8 base coated, but I might want to paint my unassembled old school 2nd ed ones instead. That might not happen though...), Spiritseer, Farseer - CHALLENGE ABANDONED, TRYING TO MAKE THE ARMY LOOK AS FINISHED AS POSSIBLE link
WEEK 9 - 6 Swooping Hawks, 5 Rangers (nearly done)

Original post:

So I thought this was isolated enough to warrant a separate blog from my normal hobby blog (see my sig). In 9 weeks, I'm attending a 2000 point tournament with my Eldar army. Now, I did attend this same tournament last year, but had to rush the painting incredibly and only barely met the required standards, painting a couple of colors plus wash on most units. This year, I want to do it as properly as I can manage. This means finishing what I started last year, and building and painting some new stuff on top of that. I'm a very slow painter, so this will be a challenge indeed.

To give an idea of the sort of painting standard I'm aiming for, here are two of my finished units, my Wraithguard and one of my Wave Serpents:

Now here's my proposed army list, comments welcome:

---1991 points Eldar army list---

Spiritseer 70
Farseer: The Spirit Stone of Anath'lan 115

10 Dire Avengers: Dire Avenger Exarch (power weapon and shimmershield) 160
• Wave Serpent: Holo-fields; twin-linked scatter laser; shuriken cannon 145
5 Wraithguard: D-scythes 210
• Wave Serpent: Holo-fields; twin-linked scatter laser; shuriken cannon 145
10 Guardian Defenders: Heavy Weapon Platform (starcannon) 110
10 Guardian Defenders: Heavy Weapon Platform (starcannon) 110

6 Fire Dragons 132

3 Shining Spears: Shining Spear Exarch (star lance; Monster Hunter) 100
6 Warp Spiders 114
3 Vypers: 3× scatter laser; 3× shuriken cannon 210

3 War Walkers: 3× scatter laser; 3× starcannon 210
Falcon: Holo-fields; bright lance; shuriken cannon 160

Now, I know Vypers are pretty horrible, but I just got the models and at least want to try them out. If I switch them out, it will be for some Swooping Hawks and Rangers. Luckily my Wave Serpents and Wraithguard are alreay fully painted, but that still leaves a lot of models to finish.

---WEEK 1 - SHINING SPEARS---

Actually week 1 doesn't start until monday, but I need all the time I can get! So far I've only started assembling my Spears. What a pain in the ass they are! I had to pin both the lance arm and the little back banner at the back of the bikes. On top of that, I have to paint the rider separately to make it easier, but I can't glue the whole rider together because the left arm holds a console that has to sit a certain way on the bike, so I had to glue that to the bike and keep the rest of the rider separate. I also have to paint the bike canopy separately. Phew. Anyway, these guys will be undergoing priming:

**Mymearan**

Today was canopy day! Spent way too long doing the blending, which I'm not very used to. The closest one is finished.

**master of asgard**

Looking good dude, keep it up!

**Mymearan**

Thanks! Spent tonight redoing the canopies instead of making progress -_- very happy with them now!

**Zambro**

Quite the challange, best of luck with it!

And kudos for not swamping the board with Wave Serpents

**Josey4u**

Keep posting. I want to start a Sam Hann (?) army and would love to see how you do these bikes to paint. I am going to use my airbrush and tape im sure, but maybe I should pain it in pieces it looks.

**Mymearan**

Week 1 continues! Marathon painting session today, ~3 hours spent doing work on the rest of the bikes. A LOT of time spent painting over splotches of blue/green on the white parts. So annoying keeping the white actually white. What's missing currently is some shadowing similar to that on the canopies plus painting the gems. That'll hopefully get finished tomorrow and then it's on to the riders!

**Mymearan**

Aaaand the bikes are done and glued! Took way too long, very fiddly and those blends were a pain in the ass. Wish I had an airbrush... really happy with them though, except I can't get a handle on doing great-looking gems. Now onto the riders!

**Januine**

Mymearan wrote:
Aaaand the bikes are done and glued! Took way too long, very fiddly and those blends were a pain in the ass. Wish I had an airbrush... really happy with them though, except I can't get a handle on doing great-looking gems. Now onto the riders!

really liking the blending/shading you've done on the bike canopies - looks lush. Sooooo much more effective and powerful than just leaving them totally plain white. Lovely work

**Mymearan**

Januine wrote:
Mymearan wrote:
Aaaand the bikes are done and glued! Took way too long, very fiddly and those blends were a pain in the ass. Wish I had an airbrush... really happy with them though, except I can't get a handle on doing great-looking gems. Now onto the riders!

really liking the blending/shading you've done on the bike canopies - looks lush. Sooooo much more effective and powerful than just leaving them totally plain white. Lovely work

Thank you! Glad to know it was worth the effort

if you look at the two latest pictures you can see just how much difference it makes on the engines, before and after shading.

**Zambro**

The blending is very good! Looks a lot better than a flat colour!

regarding gems, it looks like you have the main method covered, but maybe a higher contrast or bigger red areas. Failing that, a lick of gloss varnish will make them shine and really help

**Mymearan**

Thank you zambro! I agree that I need better contrast on the gems, but it's damn hard.

Anyway, after having the hobby room occupied by visitors for two days I'm now almost out of time to finish the Spears. So today after they left I had time to finish the bases and do some basic shading on the riders. The question now is, can I finish the rest of the riders tomorrow..: because on Monday I'll have to start on the Warp Spiders. We'll see!

**Januine**

Keep up the great work. Mymeara is such a lush ECW paint scheme to do. Just finihsed up my first Mymearan wraithlord and well happy with it. Those Shining Spears are coming along great - cant wait to see them all assembled and ready to zip into battle!

**Mymearan**

Thank you Januine. Your patience is rewarded by... a FINISHED unit of Shining Spears! That's right, WE DID IT!

WEEK 1 - CHALLENGE COMPLETE

And since I lost both thursday and friday, that's the whole unit assembled and painted in 7 days (I cheated and started last saturday). I have to say I'm pretty chuffed! Yesterday I hadn't even started the riders, and now they're all done. It was a bit of a mad dash tonight, and I resolved not to do any additional shading on them like on the canopies, instead concentrating more on details like the gems and the helmets. I'm very pleased with how they turned out, couldn't have done it this quickly without your support! Well... on to week 2 and the Warp Spiders!

**Zambro**

They look great!

**Januine**

They look cracking. great job

**TP^DC Deputy Manager**

Excellent job! The shading is (as previously stated) a brilliant addition. Keep up the hard work!

**Mymearan**

Thank you guys! Like I said, really happy with them.

---WEEK 2 - WARP SPIDERS---

Alright! The Warp Spiders will be painted in a scheme I stole from the Internet. Black "undershirt", bone white carapace, turquoise heads, black/metallic (don't know if I'll do gold or silver) guns and green energy stuff on the guns. So far I managed to put a black base coat, a zandri dust base coat and an Agrax wash on the zandri dust. Next will be ushbati bone on the bone parts, followed by highlighting the black stuff and then details. Very excited to see if I can finish on time. Thursday and Friday will be mostly occupied, so we're basically looking at five days.

**Warboss_Waaazag**

Those shining spears look quite pretty! Looking forward to the rest of your units getting finished. Warp spiders have a good start.

**Januine**

you're making me feel guilty fella. Finshed my Mymearan wraithlord but really need to make a start on the WS....keep mucking around and painting other stuff. New Harlequin boxes arriving this weekend too

**Mymearan**

Well... Things aren't going very well this week! Wednesday saw very little work done, Thursday and Friday no work at all due to Life Stuff. So today I managed a couple of hours, but there isn't much visible progress. What I've done is Zandri dust base, agrax wash, Zandri dust cleanup, ushbati bone on the bone parts. Then I had to clean up and add some black parts. This took quite a few hours, resulting I. The image you see below, and not much else. The bone white has a nice depth but still needs Screaming Skull highlights, and then there's highlighting the black, doing the helmet and some other stuff blue and tons of details left as well. Luckily, I have managed to secure several hours away from my familiar duties tomorrow, and will hopefully get closer to completion. I'm not sure if i want to stop as soon as the week ends or continue and steal time from the next challenger. What do you guys think?

**Zambro**

Well, you have tomorrow to paint too. They might just get done

Personally, if next week rolls around, and they aren't finished, I would shelf them. I mean, they have white, black and bone so they are 3 colour legal. Move on, and circle back to them if you finish the next batch before the end of that week.
Leaving stuff half painted isn't ideal. But if your on a tight timetable, you have to accept the risk of it happening sometimes.

Anyway, scheduling issues aside, the bone colour looks great! What's next, after these guys? (never mind, just re-read the first post

)

**Januine**

I'd push on. Get them finished. I hate shelving stuff to be finished later....they just sit there, staring at me in an accusatory tone.....lol. I picked up all the new Harelquin stuff yesterday (late Valentine's prezzie from the finace) and can't wait to get into them but gotta finish up a Deathwing squad am working on first......do not want that lot staring at me from the shelf lmao

**Mymearan**

Thanks guys! Although it seems we're at an impasse in regards to continuing or not... At the moment I'm inclined to shelve them for the moment and return if I get more time before the tournament. That way I can also keep following my schedule, which is very motivating. There's a lot to do on them still, all the gems, all the black parts and some more details. At least I managed to finish the white and blue parts (not the tassels though, I hate painting hair) I'm sad to announce

WEEK 2 - CHALLENGE FAILED

Here they are as of now:

**TP^DC Deputy Manager**

Still look good though. You'll probably be more annoyed if you fail 4 challenges or more because you "stole" a few extra days for the WS. Plan for the war, not the skirmish . . .

**Mymearan**

Thanks TP, and you're right, time to move on! Tonight... It's Dire Avemgers time!

**Mymearan**

---WEEK 3-4 - DIRE AVENGERS---

Well, I bought a spray can if Molotow Papyrus to hasten the tedious base coating stage a bit. Unfortunately it didn't have fine enough pigments, or I did it wrong, because it turned out a bit grainy. Quite disappointing, but I'll soldier on. Base coat and Agrax wash so far.

**Mymearan**

Well... There's been a change of plans! The graininess on the Avengers was too much for me, so in the stripping vat they go! I'll return to them another week, but i have to change the schedule for this week as a result. So this week, since ive already lost a couple of days, I'll be doing my fire dragons. They're already base coated and will require the least bit of work, especially since they're mostly black. One of the Fire Dragons was finished, but I was not very pleased with the look and had to polish him up a bit. Mainly I redid the whole helmet, which was black, painted the ribbons to match the helmet, and painted the weapons gold (they were also black). This was pretty quick and dirty buy you get the idea, and I'm satisfied with the look. The question is, do I do any highlights on the black parts? I was thinking very bright grey edge highlights, but it might get too busy? Maybe it's best as it is? What do you think? Do you like the gold weapons, or should I make them a more contrasting color?

**Januine**

ooohhhh - he looks the business! Maybe a little bit of edge hl on the black but not a really bright grey, I'd keep it well subdued.
looks great so far

**GiraffeX**

He looks ace, the only thing I would do, would be to pick out the larger gems on his breast plates and helm.