Alright, Ive started the long trek of painting 6 skimmers, and through a ton of trial and error and a lot of wasted hours hand painting, ive decided to airbrush all the tanks and it is turning out very nice and is incredibly fast to do. The skimmers being painted are 3 wave serpents, 2 fire prisms, and 1 falcon.

Wave Serpent (all three look the same):



Falcon:



Fire Prism (both look the same):



So the base coat + highlights were all done with an airbrush, and I have to now hand paint the finer details. So whats left to paint is all the guns, the undersides, the vents, and lining the crevices dark blue/black to give the panels some contrast, as well as possibly edge highlighting some areas (but im not 100% sure I will do this). Anyways, hope you guys like it, im pleased with how it turned out.

Wow, that just looks super amazing. I can't wait to see moar!

At first I was like....outofthebox grey?
And then I was like... ooooh!
Nice work.

looks very nice,
well done on the airbrush, looks great.
now to hand paint the rest of it...!

U fooled me too ... Maybe with some other background it will be more obvious what U have done ... Great work ...

I wish I had the time for my airbrush too ...

Looks really nice!

Awesome!

I am more and more tempted to get and airbrush setup every time I see one of these threads.

Your tanks are fantastic, and I'm looking forward to seeing more!

lol they look grey to you guys? hmm maybe its moniter settings, they are very blue IRL (and they look it on my screen). Its hard to get a picture that captures it I suppose. thanks for all the positive feedback though

Mafty wrote:lol they look grey to you guys? hmm maybe its moniter settings, they are very blue IRL (and they look it on my screen). Its hard to get a picture that captures it I suppose. thanks for all the positive feedback though

No , its just confusing since bare plastic yields the same shading under a light source.

Looks very blue on my screen.

likin the light blue highlights

Update:

Been a while since Ive worked on my army, not a lot of time with finishing up university, but now that is done, im back on track here.

Anyways, I have an 1850 tourny this weekend and need to bust my ass this week to basically paint half my army lol. Ive nearly finished 3/6 tanks.

2 Waveserpents and 1 Falcon:

Very promising start, I'll be interested to see how the final product looks!

I like the subtle painting and blending on the tanks, looks very eldar, who did you do it may i ask?

Young_Logan wrote:I like the subtle painting and blending on the tanks, looks very eldar, who did you do it may i ask?

if you meant "how" did I do it, it was done with an airbrush. The rest is handpainted now. The lining is taking the longest part so far, about an hour per tank. Still lots left to do on the tanks, but Im trying to get them to a good tabletop standard for now for a tourny this weekend. Future painting on them will include all the gems, personalized markings for each squad, weapons finished with more detail. Right now the weapons will stay as is for time sake (I have about 30 models to paint by saturday lol)


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Update:

All 6 tanks are "done" (done enough for table ready for this weekend).

Heres some pics of work on the fire prism and all 6 bases:

The metal mold for the prism cannon is incredibly crappy and required lots of green stuff which I further smoothed out with a dremal after this picture.


Heres one of the 2 finished prisms for now


And the finished bases with magnets attached since the wonky GW design is just silly

Well I did manage to finish the army in time for the tourny. It wasnt painted to a high standard, but it was table ready (sort of lol, Ill be adding much more details to them in time).

All 6 tanks were finished, and all 41 models were painted (yikes, painted 41 models in 2 days), I basically spent two full days and most of the nights painting non stop. By the tourny morning my back and neck were in incredible pain and it defintly was not worth it lol, I will never do that again, butttt atleast my armies fully painted (sort of, moreso than it was).

Heres some pictures of the progress:

All of them lined up being painted:


Storm Guardians:



Fire dragons, Ill be adding red to the guns, melta bombs, and helmets:



I also painted 8 striking scorpions, 2 warlocks, finished off 10 guardians, and painted 5 dire avengers. But they all look the same, every model got the same paint scheme, no one got special treatment at this point. The fire dragons were actually my favourite model to paint, really liked all the details on them

Well done, on the army. Nice cooler scheme and looks clean. Done in a very impressive time, as well.

Man I have to try out my airbrush one of these days! Your stuff looks awesome, very nice, interesting tones, definitely a nice break from the usual scheme suspects.

good job!

The airbrush: one of the best tools for getting an army painted fast. I love using them, albeit a novice. Armies with a lot of the same color on them (Eldar and Space Marines especially) make for some very fast base coating.

What are you using to line the vehicles? I've tried inks in the past, but what a chore.

Sarigar wrote:The airbrush: one of the best tools for getting an army painted fast. I love using them, albeit a novice. Armies with a lot of the same color on them (Eldar and Space Marines especially) make for some very fast base coating.

What are you using to line the vehicles? I've tried inks in the past, but what a chore.

black ink and a small brush, it takes about an hour per tank, I had 6 tanks to do........lol it sucked


On another note, ive just picked up 2 more wave serpents, 9 GJB, 1 autarch on JB, 20 more dire avengers, and 6 more fire dragons. So upcoming will be warlocks on jetbike conversions, and of course 2 more wave serpent paintjobs


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Since I bought all the models used, the paintjob on them was terrible an awfully thick, soooo this is the result of that:

the simple green bath (I have a lot of models in there lol):


And some now clean fire dragons ready to get new paint (metal models cleaned really easy and quick):

Whats the stripper? Looks like it did an amazing job there!

Cheers

kid_happy wrote:Whats the stripper? Looks like it did an amazing job there!

Cheers

Probably simple green.

May I make a suggestion? Get yourself a pigma Micron pen, or a fine nib sharpie, just draw in the blacklining, If you are using black ink, it should turn out very similar in about half the time, if that. It may be shiny like the ink, but nothing a matte sealer won't fix if it's a problem. For those Eldar vehicles with their really defined panels, that seems like a good solution to me!

Thats a very vibrant blue. The infantry should stand out well on the table.

kid_happy wrote:Whats the stripper? Looks like it did an amazing job there!

Cheers

"the simple green bath (I have a lot of models in there)"

May I make a suggestion? Get yourself a pigma Micron pen, or a fine nib sharpie, just draw in the blacklining, If you are using black ink, it should turn out very similar in about half the time, if that. It may be shiny like the ink, but nothing a matte sealer won't fix if it's a problem. For those Eldar vehicles with their really defined panels, that seems like a good solution to me!

Yea, im just worried that it wont look the same, can you get those pens at local art and hobby stores? lining with the ink was a nightmare, altough I managed to get 6 tanks done from it lol

okay, next up, the seer council on bikes!!!

well, firstly the autarch, which I bought used and seems to be fairly broken and missing pieces (yay....).

So ive greenstuffed his tabard back onto his side and greenstuffed the flag back onto the laser lance.

Not sure what or how im going to get the flag poles back onto his back, I might end up having to buy something there.

Ive also just bought 6 warlocks which will be cut up and put onto 6 GJB plus a farseer.

*note* this is after paint stripping, you can see how the metal model comes much cleaner than plastic does. The black primer basically didnt come off, the blue paint on the model did though. Also wear gloves if anyone tries to use this stuff, my skin around my fingernails seems to be eroding away and it hurts like hell

Quick update:

Based 8 dire avengers and 5 fire dragons and primed them, which turned out nicely after stripping them from the terrible paintjob that was on them.



And heres the autarch with his laserlance installed:



And 2 wave serpents which have also been paint stripped and reprimed and had the weapons cut off (since the old owner glued them) and magnetized on there:

I love the stands might do that with my Tau!

@ Thortek: precisely what i was thinking!

@Mafty: What dimension magnets are you using? I assume rare earth, but what diameter and thickness?

Also, what type of airbrush and gas source are you using? I'm looking into purchasing one and would love some advice.

I've been thinking basic siphon-fed double action with a compressor, but wonder what you're using.

Oh and btw, everything looks great.

Captain Klaw wrote:@ Thortek: precisely what i was thinking!

@Mafty: What dimension magnets are you using? I assume rare earth, but what diameter and thickness?

Also, what type of airbrush and gas source are you using? I'm looking into purchasing one and would love some advice.

I've been thinking basic siphon-fed double action with a compressor, but wonder what you're using.

Oh and btw, everything looks great.

yes rare earth magnets, bought from KJ magnets. Im at work, so not sure on exat size, but something like this one: http://www.kjmagnetics.com/proddetail.asp?prod=R621


as far as airbrush goes, its nothing new, and not sure what it would equate to today, my dads an artist and we have 5 or 6, for gas its just a compressor. Sorry couldt help more with the airbrush bit, I just use what we already have

That's fine! Wow 5 or 6! You don't have any problems with constant pressure from your compressor?

I've recently been magnetizing a bunch of models with tiny 2mm by 3mm magnets.

Captain Klaw wrote:That's fine! Wow 5 or 6! You don't have any problems with constant pressure from your compressor?

I've recently been magnetizing a bunch of models with tiny 2mm by 3mm magnets.

I run only one lol, im just saying we own that many. We have a fairly large compressor, goes up to fairly high PSI, I run the airbrush on a fairly low level of PSI though, doesnt require a lot.

To magnetize arms (or weapons) I use 1/8x1/32, which is basically 1mmx3mm.

Anyways, hope to get some progress pictures up this week of everything im working on

Captain Klaw wrote:That's fine! Wow 5 or 6! You don't have any problems with constant pressure from your compressor?
I've recently been magnetizing a bunch of models with tiny 2mm by 3mm magnets.

If you buy a compressor with a Tank attached you won't have any issue with inconsistent pressure being supplied. It also reduces wear on the compressor.

As for the tanks, I did the same thing with the initial photos, started off thinking they were just assembled and then looked closer and started to distinguish the painting. I myself must upgrade my airbrush to a dual action, and learn how to use it, so many wonderful things can be done with one.

Any ideas on how much a decent compressor and tank would set you back? I've been I'll lately and the hobby store websites are hard to navigate.

I remember my uncle had a dual action paasche a while ago, I only had a single action, and found the paint regulation very fiddly.

Look forward to progress pics!

update:

alright, on the road to the NOVA open, so lots of updates to come.


First: working on the autarch and farseer jetbikes:

Farseer: so changed out the regular fins, added someinthg a little more fancy (lol), and added a couple bits here and there to spice it up



Autarch: just added the same things the farseer got, so they can stand out. Also added a flag and antena to the autarch since the one I bought came with neither (used).

lols, are those fins chopped dire avenger helmets?

maybe lol. They are the ones you put onto the normal headed guy, which I never did. I think they will fit right in once painted

more incoming:

all the warlocks hacked into small bits:


Green stuffed robes on all warlocks legs:




Farseer:



Warlock bodies attached:

While Im loving the paintwork, Im dying on the inside for your mould lines...

What Airbrush do you use? Do the expensive brands necessarily offer quality for price?

That comes a bit late, but here's another tip for a quick lining.
1. spray your tank with gloss varnish (2 coats preferably)
2. use oil paints, thinned with white spirit/turpentine, to line the recesses. Don't be shy to go messy and hit other areas
3. use a brush/piece of cloth dipped in thinner to wipe away oil paint where you don't want it to be
4. Let dry for a couple of days, then respray with gloss varnish
5. Spray with matt varnish

Takes a few days to do everything, but it's very time efficient when painting tanks assembly-line style

what mould lines? theres certainly none on the tanks......

Wow. You really did a job on those warlocks I sold you. Curious to see how they paint up.

Looks good so far.

Well, if I ever get a jetlock council, I am stealing those models from you, how much GS did you end up having to use?

Very nice Mafty! I can't wait to see them in person all painted up!

Inquisitor_Syphonious wrote:Well, if I ever get a jetlock council, I am stealing those models from you, how much GS did you end up having to use?

Not a lot of GS actually, the robes are very thin, and they are ontop of the jetbikes legs.

Hulksmash wrote:Very nice Mafty! I can't wait to see them in person all painted up!

If your at NOVA con you will see them


Heres another update:

Farseer Finally: (Im very pleased with this BTW):

Nice work on the jet council. Its a damn good thing that they're psychic though

Good work so far in particular the airbrushing, very subtle blending.

I'll be sure to keep an eye on your progress and maybe pilfer an idea or two!

RE: Mopuld lines: On the seer council jetbikes.

Not sure how you go about things, but I remove mine before assembly.

AvatarForm wrote:RE: Mopuld lines: On the seer council jetbikes.

Not sure how you go about things, but I remove mine before assembly.

Well, theres no mould lines, not sure what your talking about or seeing. If you mean by the bottome "engine" portion, its not a mould line, its where the 2 pieces of plastic meet each other and creates a bit of a line. But thats the two plastics meeting each other, not a mould line. In any event, I went over every jetbike and found nothing, so you see something I dont.

Anyways, they all look like this now:



And my new companion, an Iwata Eclipse HP-CS Gravity fed (I find gravity fed really important especially when mixing paints). I was using a cyphon fed one before (the bottle underneath) but it required to much paint to fill the bottle and was difficult to mix colors. This will make life much easier, its not top of the line, far from it actually, its entry level equipment and ran me $200. So far all those who PM me about what airbrush I use, this is what I will be using now. :

well since the last post ive been incredibly busy painting, and that airbrush has been hard at work. Ive actually decided to repaint all my tanks (well, I decided 3 weeks ago, and Ive done just that).

Anyways, heres the new color scheme, using the same colors, just utilizing a more drastic blend. Here is the Fire Dragon serpent. (all 8 other tanks look the same minus the fire dragon symbol)



V for Valhalla:


And how the jetlocks are coming:
The farseer, an enhance jetbike, and a destructor:

Wow...

*nuff said*

How are you doing the markings? Transfers?

with the airbrush, theres no stickers anywhere. Obviously a template is used, and lots of masking off. I think it would be impossible to freehand those logos lol.

heres 1 of 3 falcon/nightspinner/fire prism bodies:



with a "tattoo":



And a nice ForgeWorld nightspinner turret (obviously not done):

that airbrushing is amazing.

All 6 warlocks with appropriate logos:



Embolden:



Destructor:

Looking good!

Mmmmmmmmm... more airbrushy goodness...

Autarch:

My centerpiece for the NOVA open:

My farseer:






In the time given this is what I was able to come up with for my conversion piece as well as my single minature (two seperate categoires, but can be the same model). Im very happy with it, and I dont think I can do anything above and beyond to make it any better.

Really cool paint scheme! Love the airbrushing. What kind of paint do you use for your airbrush?

You should put up a full army pic. Do you have a display board?

sum1thtdiesalot wrote:Really cool paint scheme! Love the airbrushing. What kind of paint do you use for your airbrush?

Just the citadel paints watered down 1/1. It sometimes drys up in the airbrush clogging it (due to being fairly fast drying acrylic paint) so I have to clean it out fairly often.

pandaman wrote:You should put up a full army pic. Do you have a display board?

Display board is being built tommorow along with a full army shot before I leave for the NOVA

Hmmmm.. thanks ill have to try that once i get airbrush all set up. Can you airbrush the foundations on too? just water them down more?

sum1thtdiesalot wrote:Hmmmm.. thanks ill have to try that once i get airbrush all set up. Can you airbrush the foundations on too? just water them down more?

I imagine so, airbrush just needs fairly watery paints to spray them otherwise they clog and it wont work. Vallejo makes model airbrush paints, but ive never tried them since all vallejo stuff has to be ordered online for me. There are actual airbrush paints out there though, so you can look into them, I just dont bother since I want specific colors.


Anyways, moving right along here:

2x5 Fire Dragons:

I'm going to ask santa claus to get me an airbrush for Christmas!

weetyskemian44 wrote:I'm going to ask santa claus to get me an airbrush for Christmas!

Only major surfaces are airbrushed, a lot of this still is hand painted (unfortunatly ). Airbrushing defintly is quicker and easier and produces better results.


Anyways, 2x5 Dire avengers:





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Phew, long day, well this is the end of the models for the NOVA. Just need to do some final tank details + display board and im all set to go.

Heres the storm guardians (warlock to come):

I look forward to giving it a go - I paint portraits and peoples pets and stuff for $$$ so its a dual use purchase.

Your eldar kick ass dude

Hahaha V for Valhalla! That's great, looks awsome to! Beautiful army so far, keep it up. Also, did you just use green soap to clean your models? (You folks call it green, but I'm from Holland and just want to be sure ) And if it is green soap, does it work on plastic models to? (Say.. An eight month old Chimera)

Timonth wrote:Hahaha V for Valhalla! That's great, looks awsome to! Beautiful army so far, keep it up. Also, did you just use green soap to clean your models? (You folks call it green, but I'm from Holland and just want to be sure ) And if it is green soap, does it work on plastic models to? (Say.. An eight month old Chimera)

I assume you mean for removing old paint. And if so, its not soap, the product is actually called "simple green". Its all purpose cleaner, and I suppose whatever is in the ingredients dissolves acrylic paint. I used it on both plastic and metal, go back to page 2 and you can see the little bit I did on it. Or just google "simple green"

Anyways, the warlock as promised (now this was rushed as Ive completley run out of time at this point, so it is what it is):

Looking really, really good. The simple scheme goes well with the bold insignia on the jetbikes etc. After the Nova, I hope you go back and add more sigils etc. in the same style but smaller scale to all the infantry models.

Good luck in the tourney!

army on the display board:





Check out the bat reps as I will be posting all 4 games (even if I didnt do well lol)

Awesome eldar, awesome board, awesome everything!

Mafty wrote:with the airbrush, theres no stickers anywhere. Obviously a template is used, and lots of masking off. I think it would be impossible to freehand those logos lol.

need a picture of the templates... or at least info on where you got them/ how you made them

Fizzics wrote:

Mafty wrote:with the airbrush, theres no stickers anywhere. Obviously a template is used, and lots of masking off. I think it would be impossible to freehand those logos lol.

need a picture of the templates... or at least info on where you got them/ how you made them

its a paint mask, made on the computer and the cut using a plotter. I doubt anyone would actually be able to make them, you would need a vinyl plotter to be able to make them, which I fortunatly have access to.

alright back in action. another GT coming up in 2 weeks, changing my army up a bit and Im once again in cram mode (which I really dont like btw lol). So 2 more jetlocks to come and 5 more dire avengers. Also going back to the falcon, so the turret needs to be painted.

Anyways, tanks and models needed the V logo, so I bought some clear transfer paper, here they are all nicely printed. Should have them on all the model/tanks tommorow:

okay so the decal transfers 100% did not work out. The decals once put on the tank could not be seen and the ink seemed to wash off the transfer paper if left in water to long (couldnt find a protective spray locally). Regardless, it didnt work out and ive now moved on lol.

Heres some updates on the seer council:

changed 3 destructor locks to regular nothing locks (so repainted the top portion of the jetbike):



2 new jetlocks in progress:

more updates:

The two jetseers are done:



The entire 9 man seer council now:



My new list also incorporates a guideseer in a falcon, and here he is:

Nice painting! Im sure that seer council is brutal to face.

5 more DA:

When I see these, I just know I have to get an airbrush.
I really like the painting, the colours are actually a bit similar to my eldar. Though I look at the name a bit inquiringly...

Saintspirit wrote:When I see these, I just know I have to get an airbrush.
I really like the painting, the colours are actually a bit similar to my eldar. Though I look at the name a bit inquiringly...

the name of the craftworld? Valhalla heavenily warriors is the idea, hence the blue color scheme as well. Valhalla is norse mythology, hall of heros, etc.

Anywho, thanks for the comments, Ill be putting up some more pictures tonight, I did gem work on every single tank for tommorows GT im attending (also check out batreps sun/mon)

These are very, very nice Eldar! Actually, seeing this makes me question my plan of buying some Eldar on my own, due to the knowledge that my painting will not nearly be on par with this.

Mafty wrote:the name of the craftworld? Valhalla heavenily warriors is the idea, hence the blue color scheme as well. Valhalla is norse mythology, hall of heros, etc.

That I knew, it's just that there is a planet named Valhalla in the 40k world too. Oh well.

Very nice work... love the airbrushed designs... I really need to pick myself up an airbrush one of these days!

Love the design on the bikes. Good work on the blending, seeing these results it always tempt me to buy an airbrush as well..

I wish I had an airbrush I have to hand paint every model I have. Would have made my lone falcon look a lot better. but I manage with what I have. Your army looks slick as hell.

Punisher91090 wrote:I wish I had an airbrush I have to hand paint every model I have. Would have made my lone falcon look a lot better. but I manage with what I have. Your army looks slick as hell.

A lot of things still need to be hand painted. It really only helps for painting big large surfaces like tanks and jetbikes. Still many hours sitting at the desk with a paintbrush

Nice work Mafty!

Question: I may have missed it, but how are you making your stencils? I saw the bit where you said the decals were fail but while skimming through, I didn't see anything about the stencils for the graphics. They look really sharp!

-Les

LBursley wrote:Nice work Mafty!

Question: I may have missed it, but how are you making your stencils? I saw the bit where you said the decals were fail but while skimming through, I didn't see anything about the stencils for the graphics. They look really sharp!

-Les

heh, yea the decals where fail. I used paint mask, which was cut on a plotter. Its just vectored images of whatever I want really, and than masked off and spraying the area. It really requires a plotter though (which I fortunately have access to). I suppose it could be done by hand, you would need to buy paint mask (its a big roll, its like vinyl, but less tacky), and you could hand cut your design and do it that way.

Mafty wrote:
heh, yea the decals where fail. I used paint mask, which was cut on a plotter. Its just vectored images of whatever I want really, and than masked off and spraying the area. It really requires a plotter though (which I fortunately have access to). I suppose it could be done by hand, you would need to buy paint mask (its a big roll, its like vinyl, but less tacky), and you could hand cut your design and do it that way.

Did you spray your printed decals with a layer of varnish? You can use off the shelf gloss varnish like Krylon which you can pretty much buy anywhere. Leave it to dry for a night and that will prevent your inkjet ink from running when submerged.

Nice job on the airbrushing by the way. I've been working on a BA army and doing it with an airbrush.

okay, back to some updates. another GT coming up (lol, i only paint when GTS are coming up).

Anyways, adding all the detail work that hasnt been added in previous paintings, so that means bedalizing time!

First tank done (aside from the turret):

I love what you did with the cock pit windows they look great and the symbols look awesome. over all great stuff.

Heres what the turrets look like, all gemed out now