As this blog has reached a reasonable length and considering the length of time this blog has been going, it seems fitting to update the original post of this blog (you can find the original post spoilered below) so that for the new reader you can see digest a quick overview of work I've done since the beginning of this blog and what I intend to do!
To summarise this blog briefly, this is a blog detailing my ramblings and machinations as I work through two distinct branches of painting and modelling; my pile of shame, and my eBay excavations, after which this blog takes it's name. I intend on working on both aspects simultaneously, but sometimes certain projects will dominate the blog for a while! The point of distinguishing these two branches is to show how much anyone can save by buying used/pre-owned models or by picking up deals.
The overarching goal of this blog is to reduce this pile while painting infantry to table-top standard, and characters to what I consider display level. I am by no means a good painter but I do try my hand at learning new techniques, and painting up different models! There'll be kitbashing, converting, basing and weathering involved in most of my projects as I try to alter the original models to produce something unique in every project!
For the most part, this blog focuses on my homebrew Craftworld of Fir Farillecassion (Watchers over Ancient Wrongs) and the Dark Eldar of the Weeping Eye Kabal, an allied detachment both on the table-top and in the lore I have created for my armies. The models I paint range from the current plastics to older metal models, it adds some nice variation and it lets me denote aspect shrines.
You'll also come across some scale modelling, something of a rarity on Dakka but it's fun to see how realistic I can make tanks and aircraft! It also lets me flex my diorama making skillz as I feel a scale model needs a base to be properly finished.
Below is my to-do list, it'll only grow with time and hopefully the green text will also increase with further projects!
To do list (from eBay) 1 Dark Eldar Battleforce (minus jetbikes) (10 Dark Eldar Kabalite warriors, 10 Dark Eldar Wyches, 1 Dark Eldar Raider)
1 Dark Eldar Succubus
2 Eldar Falcons (1 finished)
1 Eldar Fire Prism (old metal prism kind)
1 Avatar of Khaine (metal)
3 Eldar War Walkers
5 Eldar Jetbikes (old model)
5 Eldar Fire Dragons (old, metal)
4 Eldar Wraithguard (metal)
7 Eldar Warp Spiders (metal)
1 Eldar Farseer (metal)
6 Swooping Hawks (metal)
1 Sons of Horus Reaver Attack Squad (5 man)
1 Death Guard Lord of Contagion
1 Squad of Plague Marines (7 man)
1 Dark Eldar Archon (Kitbash)
1 Sybarite (Kitbash)
To do list (the pile) 1 Eldar Fire Prism
1 Eldar Wave Serpent
10 Dire Avengers
Tamiya 1/35 Panzer II
3 Farseers (1 WIP, 1 Finished)
3 Warlocks (2 WIP)
1 Support Platform
10 Ork Boyz & Nob
As I add to this blog, I'll update this post with showcase photos of my models completed but I also have a P&M showcase thread HERE
HQ Spiritseer Elraseth Deathspeaker "The mists of space and time retreat from my mind"
Farseer Baralon
The Weeping Eye Kabal Archon - The Weeping Maiden "Mine is the right to lead"
Troops Kabalite Squad - The Splintered Eye "We feed off their pain!"
Dire Avenger Squad - Asuryan's Will Shrine
Dedicated Transport
Wave Serpent - Vaul's Messenger "Swiftly, we deliver death to the enemy"
Heavy Support
Falcon Battle Tank - Eldanesh's Hope "Just as Falcon brought Anaris to Eldanesh, we bring warriors to the front"
Fire Prism - Khaine's Lance "Bringing massive firepower"
Fire Prism - Kurnous' Arrow
Spoilered is the fluff I have written thus far for my armies, it's focussed more on the Dark Eldar for now, but I fully intend on fleshing things out over time!
Spoiler:
The Weeping Eye Kabal
Although barely recognisable as a traditional Kabal, the Kabal of the Weeping Eye are made up from a caste of exiles and corsairs, as well as disgraced Kabalites from other Kabals. Now, however, they are a shattered remnant of their former selves.
The Kabal lived in self-imposed exile from the Dark City in the myriad of corridors that makes up the Webway. Their departure from Commorragh was a result of the birth of Yncarne, it’s psychic screams causing the fabric of reality to tear between realspace and the immaterium, incidentally enveloping large portions of the Dark City in the warp and causing Khaine’s Gate to rupture.
Many areas where the Weeping Eye operated were dragged into the warp or were subject to daemon incursions shortly after the fall of Khaine’s Gate. As a result, many of the Kabal’s members, along with the Archon were lost to She Who Thirsts in an instant, their souls like blazing beacons in the roiling chaos of the Warp before being snuffed out.
This left the remaining Weeping Eye members reeling at the decimation of their Kabal. It did not take long for other Kabals and rivals to take the opportunity to defeat this weakened Kabal and take territories back from this once proud Kabal. Internally, ambitious members sought to overthrow the other, causing brutal infighting in the streets of the Dark City. The Incubi mercenaries, with no patron, quickly departed the areas they were employed to protect, inviting the predations of stronger Kabals.
Under countless attacks from the outside and within, a concerted effort was made by various members of the Weeping Eye to escape the dire situation that sought to destroy their history. It was at this moment, a plan to escape into the depths of the Webway was made, in the full knowledge that the Webway was more dangerous than it ever had been.
The months passed quickly as the Kabal glided ever further from the pale light of the Dark City, encountering twisted horrors where the Webway and the Warp bled into each other and vibrant death worlds through long forgotten gates. The fauna on these planets only allowed a brief reprieve from the Thirst that permeated the souls of the Dark Eldar and even then, the effort involved to capture these creatures only caused an already undersupplied Kabal to struggle.
Some Kabalites turned on each other in desperation to stave off the starvation from the lack of pain, entire raiders crashing as crew infighting erupted. Only the strongest survived this brutal ordeal in the forgotten corners of the Webway and drew in unseen observers…
As the bloodshed drew to a close, the torture subjected to their brethren was not enough to sate their own brutal appetites. The Weeping Eye ventured further into an ever-widening corridor of the Webway. Corridors of this size were rare but not unheard of, as the Craftworld of Lugganath ventures into the more well-known pathways in search of their own solitude from reality. It was here the Kabal encountered a world-ship, it’s glass dome arching into the darkness of the Webway, pale wraithbone spires and towers glittering in the half-light of an artificial sun within.
Although its size dwarfed that of the light craft used by the Weeping Eye, it was comparatively small next to a world ship like those of Iyanden, Alaitoc or Ulthwe. The Craftworld teemed with small craft moving from port to port and through smaller Webway gates dotted along the world ship’s lower reaches.
This was the Craftworld of Fir Farillecassion (more to come on the Craftworld lore!)
Immediately registering the Dark Eldar as enemies, a battlehost of the Craftworld’s Seers and several Aspect Warrior shrines hailed the small host of Dark Eldar craft. Outnumbered and outgunned, the Weeping Eye requested a meeting with Craftworld leaders to acquire supplies so that they may continue their journey.
The Seers of Fir Farillecassion had expected the arrival of the Dark Eldar through the skeins of the infinity circuit and offered the Weeping Eye another choice: Sanctuary within the confines of the Craftworld provided their dark brethren adopted the way of the Path.
The Dark Eldar scoffed at the arrogance of their Craftworld cousins offering them such an option. Desperation was starting to take hold however, and the Weeping Eye required souls to fuel their curse. Rather than outright throw out their old ways of living, the new Archon suggested a compromise to satisfy the Seers. The Weeping Eye would act as a mercenary force for their Craftworld cousins, acting as a vanguard to the main battlehost in return for weaponry and autonomy rather than strictly following the strict Path of the Eldar.
Reluctantly the Craftworld’s Seers accepted this, as lives spent that were not the Craftworld’s own was better than those who followed the path. The Bonesingers were commissioned to create the weapons for their dark brethren and wove beautiful weapons of pallid wraithbone in the image of splinter and darklight weaponry. The weapons produced were faintly psychic, but this would not be enough to attract denizens of the warp. In truth, these weapons would be better in the hands of those with psychically attuned to wraithbone constructs, but they would serve well in the hands of Dark Eldar. These were specially crafted to be compatible with the munitions of the Dark Eldar.
Now the Weeping Eye Kabal serve as a pseudo-corsair fleet, operating in tandem with their newfound allies. The uneasy alliance between the two species is peaceful for now, but with more and more realspace raids conducted by the Weeping Eye, how long will the Craftworld tolerate the potential of an outside threat on account of their out of control allies?
Drukhari Wych Cult - Cult of the Shrieking Crone
The history between the Cult of the Shrieking Crone and the Kabal of the Weeping Eye is one steeped in blood, from the gladiatorial arenas within the depths of Commorragh to the realspace raids conducted on Imperial worlds. The Shrieking Crone Cult benefited greatly from the patronage of the Weeping Eye, supplied almost constantly with spectacular trophies and slaves to be used as challenges within the arena. Vast crowds would gather to see what the Succubus of the Cult had planned for each event. Rumour has it that within the holding cells of the arena lie horrific aliens of incredible size from the far reaches of the galaxy. Disconnected from their swarms and reverting to their base primal instincts, their shrieks and howls have reverberate through the depths of the City and any who hear them know exactly who houses them.
In return for the supply of slaves and challengers, the Shrieking Crone accompany the Weeping Eye Kabal much like any other Cult would accompany their patron Kabal into battle. However these Wyches also colour their armour with the same shades of the Weeping Eye and perform harmoniously in a synchronised flurry of splinter rifle and blade. The Shrieking Crone wyches can be often seen accompanying members of the Kabal to events held within the Dark City. Where one faction can be found, the other is surely nearby.
The Shrieking Crone Hekatrices and Succubi favour the agoniser as a weapon of choice, attempting to inflict as much pain as possible to any unfortunate soul caught under the whip before capturing them. These vicious poisoned whips draw out the cries and wails of any who fall under them, no matter the toughness or resolve of an enemy.
When the Kabal of the Weeping Eye fell, so too did the Cult of the Shrieking Crone. Robbed of their patronage and unable to acquire the game necessary for their arena, the fickle crowds that dwell in Commorragh quickly departed to fresher pastures. This loss in reputation was crippling for the Cult, and came under numerous attacks from rival Wych Cults and even Kabals with personal grudges against the female warriors. They too fled the Dark City with the Kabal in search of potential game to reestablish themselves as a prominent cult.
Eventually agreeing to similar terms that the Weeping Eye has agreed with the Craftworld of Fir Farillecassion, their weapons were replaced by those of wraithbone, woven by the skilled bonesingers of their psychically attuned cousins. The wraithbone blades and splinter pistols glisten in the dim of the Webway, awaiting the opportunity to be unleashed on the foes of the Shrieking Crone.
Craftworld Rune: Watchers over Ancient Wrongs
OP
Spoiler:
Greetings all! Welcome to the start of my hobby blog!
Background Before I knuckle down into the nitty gritty of my blog, I'd like to introduce myself. My name is Tyranid Horde or Liam if you prefer to use my real name, I'm 22 and I'm fresh out of a master's degree that's left me with a lot of free time on my hands as I attempt to find a job. I've been into 40k since I was 13 years old, starting with (obviously) Tyranids. When I started, I was big into the hobby and reasonably active on Dakka for a few years. As I got older, I kept collecting models, jumping from 'Nids to Eldar and progressively transitioning from a Nid player to an Eldar player.
When I started university four years ago, most of my Eldar came with me and that's when I stopped playing and painting. I didn't have the time or the money to dedicate to the hobby so I trawled eBay for cheap models to strip and paint.
Fast-forward to now: Everything is still the same as it was when I started uni. The difference however is that I'm much older and I've matured much more since that point and I think I'm ready to start a blog of my forays back into the hobby, starting with the models I have lying in boxes from eBay. There's a fair amount of stuff, and I definitely think it will keep me going for the foreseeable future. Everything I have bought has mostly been £20 and under, the majority under £15 from memory. I won't be doing them in a specific order, but I'd like to start with Dark Eldar to ally with my Eldar force.
Photos! Rather than ramble on about my to do list, here are some pictures of the start to the Kabalite squad:
The kabalites have been undercoated grey and have received a coat of mephiston red with a sepia wash to pick out the recesses. I plan on going over the armour plates with the same colour of red and highlighting it with lighter reds. I'd really like to do some stark highlights with a bright colour like you see in the GW photos but I don't know what a good option would be for that kind of armour, anyone have an idea? Failing that, I might just paint muted reds rather than go over the top with them.
My rationale behind painting them red is that I've never had the opportunity to paint red before. My Nids were white and purple, my Eldar were black and green and my Templars were black and white. I have no specific Kabal in mind as I paint these so I need some feedback as I go along with my colour scheme. I'll have a test model up soon!
In terms of what they're close to in terms of colour scheme, they'd be closest to the Red Grief Wych Cult, but rather than paint the undersuits black, I'd like to keep those a dark red and make the armour a lighter red provide some contrast. I'd like to have some hints of gold in the scheme but I'd like that to be a small portion of the model.
I need a few opinions on the weapon colour schemes. Would they look best with metallic weapons or with bone coloured weapons similar to wraithbone? I know that in the lore, wraithbone isn't used by the Dark Eldar but maybe I could weave that into their fluff as I'll be using them with my Craftworld Eldar.
Overall, my aim is to improve my painting skills over time as I have a lot of catching up to do. On the side, I'd like to find a club near me to play some games and I'd like to write some fluff for my Dark Eldar and my Eldar.
So if you fancy seeing some utter messes of eBay grabs and the nostalgia of old models, from the stripping to the painting, maybe this is the blog for you!
Thanks very much for what looks like a lengthy read, I'll hopefully have some updates in the pipeline every day to keep myself going!
Hello all! It's been a few days since my initial blog post so here's what I've been up to since!
So the models aren't finished yet, they're all line highlighted and most of the detail is done. All that is needed to be done is basing and some small details like pouches and eyes. I decided to go ahead and paint the weaponry with a bone colour (not sure if I've done it well or not), let me know what you guys think of it. I painted the tabards a dark colour with celestra grey as it has a bluish tinge to it but I wanted them to appear worn.
In the end, I didn't go for stark highlighting and kept the highlights a little more subtle with a lighter red. I underestimated the amount of edges on these models, it took a lot longer than I remembered to edge highlight! Let me know what you guys think of the red with where I can improve!
Some individual shots
Some group shots
I plan on writing some fluff for the next update so stay tuned!
Welcome back to Dakka. I think the edge highlighting turned out nicely, it's especially obvious how much work went into the legs, but I think it paid off. Good luck continuing your progress and with the job search.
Really nice looking paint jobs, they're coming along well. I always enjoy seeing unloved eBay models being rescued. I love the weapons - are you going for a wraithbone style on them? Not something I'd expect from Dark Eldar!
The kabalites have been undercoated grey and have received a coat of mephiston red with a sepia wash to pick out the recesses. I plan on going over the armour plates with the same colour of red and highlighting it with lighter reds. I'd really like to do some stark highlights with a bright colour like you see in the GW photos but I don't know what a good option would be for that kind of armour, anyone have an idea? Failing that, I might just paint muted reds rather than go over the top with them.
I quite like the muted tone you've used, but if you want a nice bright highlight I've found Evil Suns Scarlet to be really good. I even go up to Fire Dragon Bright if I'm feeling fancy.
Here's some gallery links so you can see what it looks like - one of them is AP Chaos Red>Black Wash>Mephiston Red>Evil Suns, one is Mephtiston Red>Brown Wash>Mephiston Red>Evils Suns>Red Glaze, the last is Mephiston Red>Brown Wash>Evils Suns>Fire Dragon>Orange Glaze.
Syro_ wrote:Welcome back to Dakka. I think the edge highlighting turned out nicely, it's especially obvious how much work went into the legs, but I think it paid off. Good luck continuing your progress and with the job search.
Thanks very much, I think it's most obvious on the legs because of my lighting set-up. I have no dedicated light box yet and I'm using my phone to take photos. I did concentrate quite a bit on the legs as they're relatively large armour pieces.
GMSchofield wrote:Really nice looking paint jobs, they're coming along well. I always enjoy seeing unloved eBay models being rescued. I love the weapons - are you going for a wraithbone style on them? Not something I'd expect from Dark Eldar!
The kabalites have been undercoated grey and have received a coat of mephiston red with a sepia wash to pick out the recesses. I plan on going over the armour plates with the same colour of red and highlighting it with lighter reds. I'd really like to do some stark highlights with a bright colour like you see in the GW photos but I don't know what a good option would be for that kind of armour, anyone have an idea? Failing that, I might just paint muted reds rather than go over the top with them.
I quite like the muted tone you've used, but if you want a nice bright highlight I've found Evil Suns Scarlet to be really good. I even go up to Fire Dragon Bright if I'm feeling fancy.
Here's some gallery links so you can see what it looks like - one of them is AP Chaos Red>Black Wash>Mephiston Red>Evil Suns, one is Mephtiston Red>Brown Wash>Mephiston Red>Evils Suns>Red Glaze, the last is Mephiston Red>Brown Wash>Evils Suns>Fire Dragon>Orange Glaze.
Cheers! Yeah the weapons will be styled after wraithbone, I was inspire by the Ulthwe weapons but there's not a chance I'd be able to get that bright a bone colour consistently. From what I remember wraithbone is psychic by nature so I think I'll have to write that into the fluff as to why my DE are using wraithbone weaponry.
Thank you for the step-by-steps for painting red! They're all a good bit quicker than my method of painting red. I did highlight the edges with evil suns scarlet but I didn't want to go any further than that in the end. I went for: MephR>Sepia Wash>Layer MephR>Sepia wash>Evil Suns. I think I just have a thing for washing everything with sepia at this point. I may end up borrowing your fire dragon scheme for my own dragons, the orange is just lovely!
Hey all, update number 3 this evening for ya! Wrapped up the Kabalites today, just finishing off small details like the eyes and the pouches, with small highlights that were pretty similar to the original grey I used. I didn't want them to be what the eye is drawn to. Seeing as they're line troops, I hope they're at least table top quality. Let me know what you think with some lovely C&C!
Sybarite on his own (not sure if I like the agoniser, but from a few feet away it's okay-ish)
Group shot from the desk:
In addition to finishing these fellas off, I wrote a little bit of background to my Kabal. It's a bit long winded, but at least it's paragraphed and reasonably coherent!
The Weeping Eye Kabal
Although barely recognisable as a traditional Kabal, the Kabal of the Weeping Eye are made up from a caste of exiles and corsairs, as well as disgraced Kabalites from other Kabals. Now, however, they are a shattered remnant of their former selves.
The Kabal lived in self-imposed exile from the Dark City in the myriad of corridors that makes up the Webway. Their departure from Commorragh was a result of the birth of Yncarne, it’s psychic screams causing the fabric of reality to tear between realspace and the immaterium, incidentally enveloping large portions of the Dark City in the warp and causing Khaine’s Gate to rupture.
Many areas where the Weeping Eye operated were dragged into the warp or were subject to daemon incursions shortly after the fall of Khaine’s Gate. As a result, many of the Kabal’s members, along with the Archon were lost to She Who Thirsts in an instant, their souls like blazing beacons in the roiling chaos of the Warp before being snuffed out.
This left the remaining Weeping Eye members reeling at the decimation of their Kabal. It did not take long for other Kabals and rivals to take the opportunity to defeat this weakened Kabal and take territories back from this once proud Kabal. Internally, ambitious members sought to overthrow the other, causing brutal infighting in the streets of the Dark City. The Incubi mercenaries, with no patron, quickly departed the areas they were employed to protect, inviting the predations of stronger Kabals.
Under countless attacks from the outside and within, a concerted effort was made by various members of the Weeping Eye to escape the dire situation that sought to destroy their history. It was at this moment, a plan to escape into the depths of the Webway was made, in the full knowledge that the Webway was more dangerous than it ever had been.
The months passed quickly as the Kabal glided ever further from the pale light of the Dark City, encountering twisted horrors where the Webway and the Warp bled into each other and vibrant death worlds through long forgotten gates. The fauna on these planets only allowed a brief reprieve from the Thirst that permeated the souls of the Dark Eldar and even then, the effort involved to capture these creatures only caused an already undersupplied Kabal to struggle.
Some Kabalites turned on each other in desperation to stave off the starvation from the lack of pain, entire raiders crashing as crew infighting erupted. Only the strongest survived this brutal ordeal in the forgotten corners of the Webway and drew in unseen observers…
As the bloodshed drew to a close, the torture subjected to their brethren was not enough to sate their own brutal appetites. The Weeping Eye ventured further into an ever-widening corridor of the Webway. Corridors of this size were rare but not unheard of, as the Craftworld of Lugganath ventures into the more well-known pathways in search of their own solitude from reality. It was here the Kabal encountered a world-ship, it’s glass dome arching into the darkness of the Webway, pale wraithbone spires and towers glittering in the half-light of an artificial sun within.
Although its size dwarfed that of the light craft used by the Weeping Eye, it was comparatively small next to a world ship like those of Iyanden, Alaitoc or Ulthwe. The Craftworld teemed with small craft moving from port to port and through smaller Webway gates dotted along the world ship’s lower reaches.
This was the Craftworld of Fir Farillecassion (more to come on the Craftworld lore!)
Immediately registering the Dark Eldar as enemies, a battlehost of the Craftworld’s Seers and several Aspect Warrior shrines hailed the small host of Dark Eldar craft. Outnumbered and outgunned, the Weeping Eye requested a meeting with Craftworld leaders to acquire supplies so that they may continue their journey.
The Seers of Fir Farillecassion had expected the arrival of the Dark Eldar through the skeins of the infinity circuit and offered the Weeping Eye another choice: Sanctuary within the confines of the Craftworld provided their dark brethren adopted the way of the Path.
The Dark Eldar scoffed at the arrogance of their Craftworld cousins offering them such an option. Desperation was starting to take hold however, and the Weeping Eye required souls to fuel their curse. Rather than outright throw out their old ways of living, the new Archon suggested a compromise to satisfy the Seers. The Weeping Eye would act as a mercenary force for their Craftworld cousins, acting as a vanguard to the main battlehost in return for weaponry and autonomy rather than strictly following the strict Path of the Eldar.
Reluctantly the Craftworld’s Seers accepted this, as lives spent that were not the Craftworld’s own was better than those who followed the path. The Bonesingers were commissioned to create the weapons for their dark brethren and wove beautiful weapons of pallid wraithbone in the image of splinter and darklight weaponry. The weapons produced were faintly psychic, but this would not be enough to attract denizens of the warp. In truth, these weapons would be better in the hands of those with psychically attuned to wraithbone constructs, but they would serve well in the hands of Dark Eldar. These were specially crafted to be compatible with the munitions of the Dark Eldar.
Now the Weeping Eye Kabal serve as a pseudo-corsair fleet, operating in tandem with their newfound allies. The uneasy alliance between the two species is peaceful for now, but with more and more realspace raids conducted by the Weeping Eye, how long will the Craftworld tolerate the potential of an outside threat on account of their out of control allies?
Finally, now that I've "finished" the squad, I want to paint a character to take a break from batch painting. This is my farseer which arrived headless but a bargain nonetheless, I really love this model and I found some reaver jetbike blank faces so I can make this a stand-in for a spiritseer. He doesn't have a staff, but it looks kinda cool! He came painted, but he's since been stripped and primed for painting. I'd like to try out wet blending as I've never tried that before. Anyone have any good videos or tutorials for that?
Also, got a game organised at a GW nearby me for Thursday, so I'm looking forward to rolling some dice!
The Kabalites look lovely (the bone weapons just work with the red so well), but I do have one criticism - sort out the bases, even if it is just painting them black! I'm pretty sure you're waiting for more of the army to be done before doing it, but stray paint on an otherwise plain base always just screams "unfinished" to me, regardless of the quality of the paintjob.
The head really works on the farseer, but I've never even attempted wet blending so I have no useful advice to give.
One question - why do you have a single Sons of Horus squad on your to-do-list surrounded by a list of units that can work together? Is it just a "I need a change" unit you're saving for when you overdose on Eldar?
Thanks! I think that's what they're called now, but they're always DE to me.
GMSchofield wrote:The Kabalites look lovely (the bone weapons just work with the red so well), but I do have one criticism - sort out the bases, even if it is just painting them black! I'm pretty sure you're waiting for more of the army to be done before doing it, but stray paint on an otherwise plain base always just screams "unfinished" to me, regardless of the quality of the paintjob.
The head really works on the farseer, but I've never even attempted wet blending so I have no useful advice to give.
One question - why do you have a single Sons of Horus squad on your to-do-list surrounded by a list of units that can work together? Is it just a "I need a change" unit you're saving for when you overdose on Eldar?
Thank you! I completely agree with you about the bases, I need to get myself to a hobby shop and get some sand at the very least. I'll sort that out when I can.
Cheers for the feedback on the farseer's head, luckily the pointy bit at the back of the head doesn't interfere too much with the rest of the model.
The Sons of Horus unit was an impulse buy on eBay if I'm honest, I spotted it going cheap and I figured I'd start collecting 30k slowly. Never happened, but it was an eBay find so it's up there, albeit a bit random!
Not a very big update, but I'm not long back from the nearby GW where I had my first intro game to 8th edition. No command points or anything yet, which I would have liked but ah well, it's a starter game. I didn't get paired up with a manager but someone else in the store who was also new to 8th. Needless to say, we missed a few things but it was pretty fun in the end! I'm can't say for sure yet which edition I prefer more between the two most recent editions but we'll see with time. Doubt I'll be running over to 30k just to have my myriad of special rules back!
Played using power level which was quick enough, using my Eldar vs his Orks. Turned out to be a bit of a bad match-up for him, my Dire Avengers w/guide was pretty nasty. He did get into combat which is where I lost most of my units, S3 against T4 is never fun! Got a pretty marginal win in the end, good fun all in all!
Also: in case anyone is finding it hard to find things on eBay, Facebook Marketplace is a solid option too, someone nearby was getting rid of some Eldar so I picked this up on my way home for a lovely £24 ($31)! Sort of amazed at the savings but there you go, brand new in box and now I have another farseer to add to the other four that I have... I think before I sign off, what lists are good for eldar right now? I don't want to be min maxing when I'm playing for fun but I would like to play a few tournaments later on.
Cheers War Drone, really appreciate the compliment, the bone could probably do with a highlight of white but I like it as is.
UPDATE Spent a little bit of time today and yesterday working on learning to wet blend, which is something I've never tried to do before. The farseer/spiritseer cloak seemed like an appropriate place to test some wet blending. I've seen in tutorials than drying retarder should be used but I didn't have any of that so I worked quickly in small parts of the cloak to get the effect I wanted. Hopefully you guys like it, some C&C will be very much appreciated on this one!
Then with the front of the model, I worked on simple layering of greys for the inside cloak bit and it looks okayish. I may redo it yet but here it is:
Finally, I need a few suggestions on what I should do about the face plate. An idea I had in mind was painting the plate in silver but I think that would conflict with the colour scheme of the model over all. A second idea I had would be to make the faceplate black with green around the detailed bits.
Hey all, back with another small-ish update on some of the stuff I'm working on.
Currently working away on my Spiritseer counts-as by adding a few more details to it like edge highlights, blocking in colour where needed etc. I decided to give the face plate a slap of green paint to see how that looks, tell me what you think! Failing the green plate, I may just paint it the bone colour I used for the DE weapons like Excommunicatus suggested, I didn't see his comment until I'd already painted it!
The model is almost finished at this point, I reckon I've a few more edge highlights to do then I have the witchblades and gemstones to work on and that'll do her.
Also finished off the Kabalite squad properly with some simple basing. Most of my basing materials are at my parents so I've improvised with some baking powder and gave it a quick 3 colour drybrush. Not sure which direction I want to take the basing as I had a deathworld theme in mind to match the little bit of fluff I wrote.
Rather than dedicate all my time to the Spiritseer, I've decided to make a start on batch basecoating my wych cult squad. My general plan for them is to paint them similarly to the Kabalites but I'm happy to take suggestions on what colour I should paint the leather parts of the model! Also dreading painting skin, not something I've done much of and I tend to veer wildly away from it any chance I get... GW just had to make them bare-headed didn't they?
I'm also looking for a wee bit of feedback on the base colour for my wyches. Some are based Mephiston red while the others are based Khorne red, which is a lot darker. Here's a side by side to give you a sense of what I'm on about and a few opinions would go a long way!
Youwashock: Cheers! I'd been eyeing those reaver heads for ages and figured they'd make a nice headswap.
small Update
Evening all (depending on where you are in the world),
So since my last update I haven't done a whole lot of work on my models, I had an interview yesterday afternoon so I'd been preparing for that so fingers crossed on that one! What I have done however, is focus on painting some more details on the Spiritseer and I basecoated the Wyches' armour in Khorne red and based them while I was at it. Here is the Spiritseer prior to getting a bone layer, which I sort of like as is:
And here is the Spiritseer now with the bone face plate and I've detailed the hilts of his witchblades:
Here's the base of one of the Wyches using baking powder rather than sand. Gives me a textured base and the grains are a little bit more to scale. I do plan on adding bitz to break up the monotony of it as well as some flock:
Also may have impulse bought a DE Succubus from eBay... Don't shame me! Got her for £3 quid inc. shipping and I needed an HQ for a DE detachment anyway. Not the best put together model in the world by the guy I bought it off, but it'll do, I may throw it into some Dettol.
Finally, I had a play on inkscape and drafted up a Craftworld Rune for my Eldar, which I plan on putting onto my tanks and walkers with some attempts at freehand. Lord help me. I'm terrible with these kinda programs, I'd much rather draw them out. Definitely didn't rip this from anywhere, not in recent history at least.
So to round this update out, need some C&C as well as a few suggestions on my Spiritseer regarding his witchblades. I was thinking about going for blue in an NMM style (new technique for me to try) but we'll see. I also need a hand with what colour to paint the leather of my Wych cult. I don't just want to paint it black, although I may just do this for the sake of it.
Been a few days since my last update, my weekend was taken up by the girlfriend coming over so there was a distinct lack of hobbying and a great deal of binge watching Netflix! I did however manage to get her to humour me with a small game of 40k on the coffee table, which was kind of her lol.
That being said, prior to my weekend, I stripped a few of my models that have been lying in my box of things to do, including Warp Spiders and some lovely old school Fire Dragons:
And then subsequently primed them along with the war walkers, one of the falcons and the succubus:
Also decided to raid my bits box and I've started kitbashing together an Archon for my Drukhari. The DE Raider has bodies to spare and I have plenty of bits from the warrior kit so here's a selection of bits that I plan on using:
If it isn't obvious already, I'm having a real problem sticking to one thing at a time, which is something that happens to me a fair amount when it comes to the hobby. So I think rather than focus on one thing at a time, I'll have a few projects on the go and it'll liven this blog up a little bit so there's something for everyone.
So in saying that, I basecoated the Wych squad with brown for their leather and I think it'll compliment the muted reds I use quite red. If you visualise the bone weaponry with that they'll look pretty decent I think! C&C is appreciated though, these guys make me sad with all the detail on them, sometimes there can be a little too much in the way of detail in these kits:
Slapped a few coats of the base colour for my war walkers, they see play in most of my lists so it's about time they got some paint. If you look into my gallery at my older Eldar, I had a black and green scheme, but I'm kind of moving into a dark green base with brighter green accents. I think it makes the units more coherent and lets me try out some airbrushing should I ever invest in one.
Finally, here is the spiritseer, which is as done as it can be minus the base. I sort of fethed up the lightning on the sword and save from sanding the paint off it, I don't know how I can fix it. Help would be greatly appreciated on that one. Here he is anyway, I'm still relatively pleased overall though. Let me know what you think!
I have to say I'm really looking forward to painting those fire dragons, those sculpts were the first ones I'd ever seen since playing Dawn of War and I was quite sad when they weren't the same. So here comes another question seeking opinions. My grand plan for my army is to make them less like the rainbow Eldar you see in the codex, but rather painting them similarly in a black/green scheme. This idea is quite an old one and now I feel like painting the models as you would see them in a codex, although not as bright. My Dire Avengers and Striking Scorpions follow this but I don't think I have the heart to do that to these sculpts. They're so nice and they just need to be typical dragons. So: Typical craftworld dragons or my own personal scheme?
Anyway, cheers for reading!
First things first..you have the ugly fire dragons...
Secondly...that is totally up to you. I think the variety of colours is one of the strengths of playing Eldar...because you'll never get burned out on a colour scheme. I do think a lot of other players "expect" different colours on Eldar and it makes them easier to explain "The red dudes have meltas.." Aspect Shrines are pretty particular about their armour, colour and appearance, so as long as the different aspects share a colour theme, but it isn't identical it would probably look pretty good.
Personally I just occasionally tie in my aspect warrior squads with a simple sash of purple to match my Craftworld colours.
I like the work you've done on the Seer. Attractive.
Elbows wrote: First things first..you have the ugly fire dragons...
Ah man! I always thought they were one of the nicer fire dragons! The older ones than that I always found a bit compact. I don't like their Banshee and Scorpion counterparts from that era though, they really are ugly!
Thanks for the input for the aspect warriors, I reckon its just easier to paint them as their aspect shrines than devise some way of not making them look similar to other models. A sash is a good way to go about it!
Back again with another small update, I'm moving house at the moment so things are a bit up in the air, and by up in the air I mean most of my hobby stuff is shoved into a box where I can't really reach it right now!
I have however kept plugging away at my Wych Cult squad and I've written a little bit of fluff to coincide with my Kabal. In terms of what I've done to them, I've given everything a second base coat to solidify the colour scheme and then I made a start on highlighting the leather to make it less flat and bland. I shouldn't be surprised the leather is flat considering the paint I used is called flat brown
Annnyway, I took a different approach to the highlights and mixed a lighter brown to cover areas where I would expect light to hit the model. Seems pretty trivial, but I've only ever gone for edge highlighting and minor layer highlights in the past. The lighter brown is only a small bit brighter than the original so it'll require a few more lighter shades and some washes to blend it all together nicely. I like it so far and it seems to work well with the start I've made to the muted reds that I like to do.
(Terrified to paint skin and I have no flesh tones so bare with me and ignore the dude in the middle who looks like an overly purple Asari from Mass Effect)
Sorry for the poor lighting, I took photos outside and it's a bit grey out there!
Fluff spoilered so you don't have to torture yourselves (or maybe you want to, I don't know who reads this)...
Spoiler:
Drukhari Wych Cult - Cult of the Shrieking Crone
The history between the Cult of the Shrieking Crone and the Kabal of the Weeping Eye is one steeped in blood, from the gladiatorial arenas within the depths of Commorragh to the realspace raids conducted on Imperial worlds. The Shrieking Crone Cult benefited greatly from the patronage of the Weeping Eye, supplied almost constantly with spectacular trophies and slaves to be used as challenges within the arena. Vast crowds would gather to see what the Succubus of the Cult had planned for each event. Rumour has it that within the holding cells of the arena lie horrific aliens of incredible size from the far reaches of the galaxy. Disconnected from their swarms and reverting to their base primal instincts, their shrieks and howls have reverberate through the depths of the City and any who hear them know exactly who houses them.
In return for the supply of slaves and challengers, the Shrieking Crone accompany the Weeping Eye Kabal much like any other Cult would accompany their patron Kabal into battle. However these Wyches also colour their armour with the same shades of the Weeping Eye and perform harmoniously in a synchronised flurry of splinter rifle and blade. The Shrieking Crone wyches can be often seen accompanying members of the Kabal to events held within the Dark City. Where one faction can be found, the other is surely nearby.
The Shrieking Crone Hekatrices and Succubi favour the agoniser as a weapon of choice, attempting to inflict as much pain as possible to any unfortunate soul caught under the whip before capturing them. These vicious poisoned whips draw out the cries and wails of any who fall under them, no matter the toughness or resolve of an enemy.
When the Kabal of the Weeping Eye fell, so too did the Cult of the Shrieking Crone. Robbed of their patronage and unable to acquire the game necessary for their arena, the fickle crowds that dwell in Commorragh quickly departed to fresher pastures. This loss in reputation was crippling for the Cult, and came under numerous attacks from rival Wych Cults and even Kabals with personal grudges against the female warriors. They too fled the Dark City with the Kabal in search of potential game to reestablish themselves as a prominent cult.
Eventually agreeing to similar terms that the Weeping Eye has agreed with the Craftworld of Fir Farillecassion, their weapons were replaced by those of wraithbone, woven by the skilled bonesingers of their psychically attuned cousins. The wraithbone blades and splinter pistols glisten in the dim of the Webway, awaiting the opportunity to be unleashed on the foes of the Shrieking Crone.
As usual, thank you for stopping by and I welcome any C&C!
Fluff spoilered so you don't have to torture yourselves (or maybe you want to, I don't know who reads this)...
Spoiler:
Drukhari Wych Cult - Cult of the Shrieking Crone
The history between the Cult of the Shrieking Crone and the Kabal of the Weeping Eye is one steeped in blood, from the gladiatorial arenas within the depths of Commorragh to the realspace raids conducted on Imperial worlds. The Shrieking Crone Cult benefited greatly from the patronage of the Weeping Eye, supplied almost constantly with spectacular trophies and slaves to be used as challenges within the arena. Vast crowds would gather to see what the Succubus of the Cult had planned for each event. Rumour has it that within the holding cells of the arena lie horrific aliens of incredible size from the far reaches of the galaxy. Disconnected from their swarms and reverting to their base primal instincts, their shrieks and howls have reverberate through the depths of the City and any who hear them know exactly who houses them.
In return for the supply of slaves and challengers, the Shrieking Crone accompany the Weeping Eye Kabal much like any other Cult would accompany their patron Kabal into battle. However these Wyches also colour their armour with the same shades of the Weeping Eye and perform harmoniously in a synchronised flurry of splinter rifle and blade. The Shrieking Crone wyches can be often seen accompanying members of the Kabal to events held within the Dark City. Where one faction can be found, the other is surely nearby.
The Shrieking Crone Hekatrices and Succubi favour the agoniser as a weapon of choice, attempting to inflict as much pain as possible to any unfortunate soul caught under the whip before capturing them. These vicious poisoned whips draw out the cries and wails of any who fall under them, no matter the toughness or resolve of an enemy.
When the Kabal of the Weeping Eye fell, so too did the Cult of the Shrieking Crone. Robbed of their patronage and unable to acquire the game necessary for their arena, the fickle crowds that dwell in Commorragh quickly departed to fresher pastures. This loss in reputation was crippling for the Cult, and came under numerous attacks from rival Wych Cults and even Kabals with personal grudges against the female warriors. They too fled the Dark City with the Kabal in search of potential game to reestablish themselves as a prominent cult.
Eventually agreeing to similar terms that the Weeping Eye has agreed with the Craftworld of Fir Farillecassion, their weapons were replaced by those of wraithbone, woven by the skilled bonesingers of their psychically attuned cousins. The wraithbone blades and splinter pistols glisten in the dim of the Webway, awaiting the opportunity to be unleashed on the foes of the Shrieking Crone.
Just force people to read it. I do. I'm guessing that 99.9% of the people who read my stuff just go "oh, he's finished saying that now" and move on to another thread, but I don't let it bother me. Just bludgeon them with words.
I would not worry much about painting skin...like cloaks they are easy to highlight in the right places and even when there is a slight error you can fix it easily.
Add my praise to that for the Spiritseer. Everything else looms to be coming along nicely. As for the Aspects, I am in favor of traditional color schemes.
Excommunicatus: Cheers, I should probably stop spoilering things at this point, let people read it if they want!
Cpt Brown: Cheers Cap. I appreciate it, I'll be giving the skin a go soon enough.
youwashock: Thank you, I reckon I'll keep true to the Aspect Shrines with some variation like you see in the codex.
Greetings all!
I've sorted out my living arrangements and now I'm back home in Ireland, where the green contrasts quite well with the overcast sky. I've had a distinct lack of internet and when I have it, it's dog-slow. It's been a little slow on the painting front too, but that's not to say I've done absolutely nothing!
So to start with, I've not looked at my project pile in years outside of the stuff that I brought to uni and I hate to say it but I'm rather ashamed of what I've managed to amass in my room in terms of Warhammer and historical aircraft and tanks. There are quite a few things I've found in my room are things which I haven't even realised I'd bought. It's pretty depressing if I'm honest, on top of the fact I'm moving home away from my friends and girlfriend and I have yet to have a successful interview for a relevant job. Regardless, maybe the time at home will help me out mentally and let me sort out some personal stuff. It also lets me try to make a dent in the pile of plastic which looms ominously above my wardrobe! I may yet go through the box of stuff and list everything I need to do but that might demotivate me rather than motivate me.
Anyway, onto what I've been up to:
Having come home, I've had access to all my old modelling materials and I've come across some travel poker chips which I think will make excellent bases for my Eldar and their cousins. It's also giving me ideas for making an Eldar themed board as I have a lot of them and they're about 25mm in size so I can have a range of bigger sized chips to cover larger areas. So here's a base I've mocked up to act as steps with some broken pieces to make them appear like they're old and haven't been used in a while. Ideally, I'd like to tie the bases into the lore that I can write so as to enhance the flavour of my armies.
The chips were sanded a bit to add some texture for when the paint goes down and to help the glue stick.
Here's a model to help with the scale of them. Perfect for Eldar!
With the base, I figured I'd make it for my kitbashed Archon and I've tacked some pieces together to get your opinions on which you prefer. I can use both, but I want one to be the centrepiece to the army.
Archon "A", this one I'm quite a fan of as the flail adds a lot of motion in addition to the tassel on the helmet. I don't know what to do with the off hand yet, I feel a pistol is the obvious choice, but I'm open to suggestions.
Archon "B", this one I like also, as I like the motion of the model moving up wraithbone steps to face an enemy head on with the husk blade in the air. Let me know what you think of this one.
I've also been a little bit sidetracked this week by Orktober and having found a few undercoated and assembled boyz, I thought I'd give them a lick of paint in the Death Skulls scheme. They're still in varying states of progress, but let me know what you think! The green skin is still something I'm not very good at, but I like the muted effect.
Thanks for looking, as usual, comments are always appreciated!
Two updates in two days? It's almost as if I'm being productive! Mainly been playing around with my Archon kitbash and playing with poker chips (without exchanging money for them) rather than painting and it's pretty refreshing!
I've swapped out heads and tacked on a big flowy hair piece to add some more to the model and I'll likely add a trophy rack to her back to distinguish her from every other Kabalite. In addition, I've chopped a hand off another model to attach to the outstretched arm and I've done the same with a pistol hand. Let me know which you think is better although I'm leaning a little bit towards the open hand.
Seeing as most of the higher ranking Archons died in the Khaine's Gate incident, I figured that the Archons taking their place are very similar to the Warriors that they once were, hence their armour not being as regal as one might expect from a Kabal Archon.
I've largely decided that the striding dude is more suited to be just a warrior, which currently I have no use for, although he may make a good Sybarite for a Kill Team should I ever decide to make one. I swapped out the pistol for a rifle to see which is better so a few opinions are always welcome!
With splinter pistol:
This is the rack that'll be going on her back (likely needs more skulls):
Some quality kitbashes here, really love the elegance and sense of movement you have added to your Dark Eldar. And that poker chip base is excellent in both concept and execution.
As for the Orks I agree on the muted skin tone, it suits the Deathskulls well.
Excommunicatus: Cheers, I've been debating it for a while. Hopefully with some paint slapped on they'll still look good.
ListenToMeWarriors: Thanks very much! Wyches are something you can add a lot of motion to but can be quite jarring if overdone. I tried to match their heads and arms to their running positions for added effect. Same goes for the Archon and the Sybarite.
Update Time!
Finally made it to two pages it seems! My updates are somewhat sporadic so I really need to get myself a bit more organised.
Speaking of organised, I am most certainly not organised in the slightest. My attention has been straying to lots of different half-finished projects from when I stopped painting. I'll get to that later though.
So I returned to my old gaming club and had a game of 40k at a real points level instead of the previous two games. I have no pictures, but I'll write up a mini report for you all.
I went for a fun and fluffy Biel-Tan list, with plenty of shuriken and Aspect Warrior squads to maximise the army trait. I wasn't expecting much from it but it was surprisingly good! 1750pts - Eldar - Battalion and Spearhead for a total of 9 command points. List 1 Farseer w/ spear, doom, mind war 1 Spiritseer (warlord), w/ the spirit stone of anathlan, jinx/protect and Biel-Tan Natural Leader (pseudo-Guide) 1 Farseer w/ fortune and executioner
3x 5 Dire Avengers inc. Exarch 10 Guardians w/ shuriken cannon platform
6 Striking Scorpions inc. Exarch w/ claw 6 Fire Dragons inc. Exarch
3 Shining Spears inc. Exarch
3x Wave Serpents w/ triple cannons (two had vectored engines)
5 Dark Reapers inc. Exarch 2x 2 War Walkers w/ double shuriken cannons
My opponent brought Space Wolves, consisting of 45 fenrisian wolves, 5 cyberwolves, 2 lords on wolves (1 which makes dogs autopass leadership in a 12" bubble), a rune priest, 15 long fangs (5 Las, 5 Plas, 5 Missiles), an attack bike and some bikers. He set up first and I deployed my two farseers, dragons and dire avengers inside their respective serpents and largely huddled everything into a corner in case I didn't get first turn. I paid a CP for the guardians to set up in the webway, with my scorpions and war walkers with their own special reserve rules.
Turn 1 I got first turn despite his +1 to take first turn which was great for me. I drove everything forward and shot up his wolves as I felt I needed to neuter his charges as much as possible. I used the spears as a screen for one wave serpent between some terrain after flying up and using fire and fade to retreat 7 inches. The reapers ate some of the long fangs with the spiritseer beside them and the spiritseer protected one wave serpent. I flew one serpent out to the side with a 5 man squad of avengers to see if my opponent would direct some wolves that way. He did, which split his force in two and away from the 12" autopass morale bubble. He took some wounds off my serpents across the board and assaulted the isolated serpent and my spears which shielded my other serpent. Isolated serpent bit the dust and killed two of my avengers inside. My spears were wiped too and he consolidated towards my serpent.
Turn 2 The guardians came forth from the webway on the same flank as my war walkers, behind his advancing line of doggies, bikes and warlord. The scorpions jumped from their hiding spot to aid the 3 remaining avengers who were tying up 15 dogs and a lord. My other avengers disembarked with the farseers and the dragons did the same. The two serpents backed up a bit and the reapers moved up to get a target on his warlord. I fortuned a serpent closest to the long fangs, doomed and jinxed his warlord, failed executioner and mind war on different targets even with rerolls. I obliterated the majority of his wolves in this turn with the pincer move of the walkers and the guardians on one side and the avengers on the other. The dragons killed off his bikes and attack bike and I proceeded to murder his warlord with the dark reapers. The scorpions charged and whiffed/didn't do anything worth their points other than kill half a dozen doggies. His turn two involved charging his remaining wolves into the dire avengers, failing a charge with one squad and making it in with the other. Didn't get very far with them as they died to overwatch and killed two avengers. The rest died to morale on that side. The other lord and his dogs wiped the avengers and the scorpions but they were far away from my main force and were out of the game.
Turn 3 I rearranged my army into good positions and shot the wolves that were left, wiping the squad and putting the lord to one wound. I killed a long fang squad and killed another to a man and that was pretty much my turn. My opponent called it there, seeing as I was in a much stronger position by the end of my T3.
Overview Probably a really good match-up on my side, my weight of shots didn't care about the autopass morale bubble and any combat he got wasn't enough to put a dent in my army by the time he got there. I feel like the list I brought doesn't care about first turn due to the low model count on the board at the start of the game and the ability to strike in a pincer move with the guardians, walkers and the potential support of the scorpions. The scorpions were disappointing and I don't think I'll be taking them again. Maybe it was a mismatch in terms of opponent, wolves aren't infantry so the mandiblasters couldn't deal out any mortal wounds. The 25% chance of a charge is also horrible so I guess they'd need their own transport to get them into combat. I still like them a lot though. Hope you all enjoyed the read, I need to take photos next time.
Onto the painting and modelling side of things, you'll see what I mean by lack of organisation or rather I'm distracted. When I left the hobby, I left with a bunch of unfinished projects: A squad of dire avengers, a fire prism and a wave serpent. They're all assembled, so it sort of meant I could use them without completing them. Now I'm going to finish them as I don't want to use unfinished models in my games anymore. With my eBay finds, I decided to do a mass airbrushing of my tanks.I plan on doing a wraithbone underside so I did a basecoat in Zandri Dust. I did the undersides today and I'll do the topsides tomorrow. Here's a before and after:
Here are the topsides, the green stripes are an old scheme I wanted to do but it doesn't really fit the theme of my army anymore so I'll be respraying them dark green and going for some gradient highlights. Haven't tried it before so it'll be an experiment!
I forgot how much I hate assembling the Falcon chassis, its miserable to put together. It's gappy and the pieces don't fit well, I'm shuddering to think of that bloody metal cannon I have, the dry fit I've been trying is awful, I'm going to have to pin the whole thing. I still have one more Falcon chassis after this and I'm grimacing. Here are the Avengers, I've done a basecoat on the weapons and given them a wash. I need to highlight the armour and improve them overall, but it's a start at least. I did put a half a poker chip on one base to add some variation.
I did make some progress on the Wyches. Their flesh is a little dark for spending their lives in Commorragh, but maybe I can bull some fluff as to why
Holding off a bit on the Archon as I see the Unofficial Painting Competition has a theme which I can apply the model to!
Cheers for reading, even if somewhat random with my set of stuff to do.
If you think fitting Falcons together is bad, try adding that hull to a FW resin troop compartment for the old Wave Serpent. Lots of putty and sanding is all I can say.
I like the color scheme you have going on with your wyches. Especially the bone colored weapons work really well!
Sidetracking from one project to another is not a problem in my opinion, as long as the models get finished eventually.
I have had the bad habit of leaving the models half finished for years though
Thanks Captain Brown, I can only imagine the pain involved with those parts, I tend to stay away from Forgeworld on account of the warping of delicate pieces and it seems to be Eldar that suffer the most (those bendy pulsar barrels ).
Cheers Ezki, they'll hopefully be done at some point or another! Looking through my collection of older models, especially my Tyranids, I never really finished the finer details of each model, I more or less painted the skin, carapace and weapons then hit everything with a wash. No highlights or anything like that so they're a bit comical!
Should be uploading photos of the falcon shells later, I need to hook up the compressor again and mix some paint. My airbrush is a siphon variety from Lidl but it does okay, I need to think about getting a gravity fed one.
I've also entered my Archon kitbash into the painting competition so there should be more of that in the future too!
-TH
Automatically Appended Next Post: Hey all again,
Got some basecoating done on the topsides of the tanks, I did basecoat the wave serpent turret, the falcon turret and one prism turret but not the metal one turret, which I think I'll do at a later point, I need to properly assemble it before going to paint it. The turrets likely need another coat of green as I don't think I mixed the paint well enough.
My left hand is now green as a result. I think in future I may prime any tanks I have black, the green is much nicer with that colour of undercoat. I'm losing light so tomorrow will most likely be the day I coat the undersides with ushabti bone, focusing on the panels, leaving the recesses as the basecoat.
Might be pretty dull just seeing basecoated tanks but it helps my motivation by having something to document. Here they are:
Some close ups. They may need another coat but I do like them as is.
Finally, I've done some work on the Sybarite. He's received a basecoat>wash>layer>wash so far. Highlights and detailing to follow.
Got another update for today, getting a real streak going on and hopefully I can keep it going!
Today I started doing my painting quite late on and I lost the light of the day to take decent photos but I did get some. It gets dark just before 5pm here and the weather has been pretty awful so getting photos with good natural light is difficult.
I made some progress with giving the raised parts of the undercarriage a coat of Ushabti Bone/Ivory. Tomorrow I'll likely do a lighter green highlight on the visible parts of the tanks and then think about doing some panel lining with a sepia tone to enhance the depth of the undercarriages. After I do the lighter green highlight I could do some edge highlights after that, but I'll have to see.
Some close-ups of the two Fire Prisms. One has a grey undercoat and one has a black undercoat leading to slightly different results:
If you want to see the Wave Serpent and the Falcon, I've spoilered them as they're quite similar to the other two.
Spoiler:
Here are the tanks dry-fit together and the dark green/bone combo looks nice as is:
Does anyone have experience with assembling the old Fire Prism cannon? Its a pain. I pinned metal to plastic for one side but I don't think simple super glue will keep the crystal part to the cannon arm securely. Here's a photo for reference:
To round things out, I painted up the Archon in the same way I did the Sybarite and its looking decent so far. I'm doing the whole thing in a sub assembly so its easier to glue into place:
That's all for now, thanks for reading and any comments are greatly appreciated!
Elbows wrote: First things first..you have the ugly fire dragons...
Ah man! I always thought they were one of the nicer fire dragons! The older ones than that I always found a bit compact. I don't like their Banshee and Scorpion counterparts from that era though, they really are ugly!
Thanks for the input for the aspect warriors, I reckon its just easier to paint them as their aspect shrines than devise some way of not making them look similar to other models. A sash is a good way to go about it!
Ha yeah, those are the ugly middle sculpts alright. But I think a lot of it depends on what point you came across them. Like, the three generations (so far?) of Dragons, Scorpions and Banshees all have their 'classic' 2nd edition Jes Goodwin sculpt (which most people love), the 3rd ed redesigns which are quite different and therefore most people don't like them, and then their current (4th ed?) versions which go back to being more of an updated version of the Goodwin originals and therefore people like them more. But for me, I said over in my thread, the 3rd ed Banshees (which you quote here as being ugly) had just been released when I got into Eldar, and consequently I love them and think that's what a Banshee should look like. The Dragons and Scorpions however were still the 2nd ed originals at that point so I think the 3rd ed redesigns are awful. All a matter of timing I think.
Tyranid Horde wrote: Thanks Captain Brown, I can only imagine the pain involved with those parts, I tend to stay away from Forgeworld on account of the warping of delicate pieces and it seems to be Eldar that suffer the most (those bendy pulsar barrels ).
I was a little hesitant when I bought my Scorpion because of the thought of warped pulsars. I think I'd even noticed on some of the offical painted FW versions that the barrels weren't entirely level with each other, but I loved the model and took the chance. Of course they were warped, but I've actually managed to straighten them out pretty well with the hot water method. Haven't actually assembled it yet so I don't know quite how well I'll get them nicely level with each other, but they're straight now and it wasn't too hard. And I reckon the Scorpion is the worst of them because you need to make the two pulsars match, while the likes of the Lynx and Revenant you don't have another pulsar right next to it so it's not so bad if it's not perfect.
I'm looking forward to seeing all of your Falcon chassis completed. For an old kit I think it still looks great - even if it is a bit of a pain to assemble! I never did the old school metal fire prism, but the actual prism piece definitely looks like it could use pinning. I wouldn't trust straight glue on that one.
Some really cool stuff in here. I love following Eldar threads!
Syro: Cheers, yeah its been fun digging into it again, although it's been sidetracking me a fair amount!
Ezki: Thanks! Yeah I need to think of something, its very gappy as well when I dry fit it so greenstuff or some polyfilla might go a long way and add some rigidity to the cannon overall.
Bellerophon: Thanks for stopping by! My apologies for insulting your favourite banshee sculpts! I think you're right when you say it's when you come across them. I was only starting my Eldar when I was playing Dawn of War with my friends so the fire dragons in that game copy the ugly sculpts. The spade headed banshees make an appearance in that game too but I never used them to any degree so my introduction to banshees are the current sculpts.
I'm always nervous when it comes to bending resin, from my personal experience with finecast, I can never get the bend out of it entirely. Hopefully the pulsars on your Scorpion line up well when you do get to assemble it, I bet it'll be awesome when its done!
I love the Falcon chassis, to me its an iconic model at this point and it's probably worth the time to make sure it's assembled correctly.
Update Time!
Hey all, it's been a couple of days since the last update, had a busy weekend so I didn't have time to sit down and properly get some hobby time in.
That being said, I've done some highlights on the tanks today and I'm pretty pleased with the results! First time for me highlighting with an airbrush so I've made some mistakes which are evident if you look at some of the close-ups below (leftmost tank). The siphon is definitely the limiting factor right now, it sometimes splatters and it has done so at a few points on the models. From the tabletop, they look pretty sweet and I'm pretty proud of them for what they are. I've put the canopies on before I painted them because I want to try some blending as I think the clear canopy is lacking a bit when it comes to my colour scheme. The mistakes I've made can be tidied up I think so I'm not too worried, but I'd love to hear what you all think!
Onto the photos!
Here they all are with the undercarriages attached:
A close up of the tank with the least mistakes (I've spoilered the rest of them as I don't want to flood you with the falcon over and over):
Spoiler:
While I was at it, I decided to hit the War Walkers with a highlight too as I didn't fancy doing their highlights by hand! They're coming along slowly as they've taken the back seat to my tanks, but they're getting attention here and there. I'm looking for magnets for these guys so if anyone knows where to get some good ones for these I'd love to know! (I've spoilered individual shots)
Spoiler:
Finally, I did a wee bit of work on the painting competition project. I've made a start to the poker chip base. Needs more layers of bone as it's quite rough right now:
Does anyone have experience with assembling the old Fire Prism cannon? Its a pain. I pinned metal to plastic for one side but I don't think simple super glue will keep the crystal part to the cannon arm securely. Here's a photo for reference:
Tyranid Horde,
I used a pin vice drill to make holes in the metal and plastic and used brass pins to keep the parts stable and then 5 minute epoxy as it is stronger than super glue. Takes a while though.
Tyranid Horde wrote: Bellerophon: Thanks for stopping by! My apologies for insulting your favourite banshee sculpts! I think you're right when you say it's when you come across them. I was only starting my Eldar when I was playing Dawn of War with my friends so the fire dragons in that game copy the ugly sculpts. The spade headed banshees make an appearance in that game too but I never used them to any degree so my introduction to banshees are the current sculpts.
I'm always nervous when it comes to bending resin, from my personal experience with finecast, I can never get the bend out of it entirely. Hopefully the pulsars on your Scorpion line up well when you do get to assemble it, I bet it'll be awesome when its done!
I love the Falcon chassis, to me its an iconic model at this point and it's probably worth the time to make sure it's assembled correctly.
No worries, no insult taken. I'm well aware that I'm probably in a minority for liking those banshees so much, I guess because they didn't stick around for long so most people's 'first impression' is either the original or the current ones. Makes mine a little bit more unique I guess - as far as a couple of squads of non-converted metal minis can be anyway. I'm not entirely happy with my pulsar barrels yet, they're in the sort of state where they're not perfect from a couple of angles but they're pretty straight and match each other fairly well. Unfortunately the turret cast points one of them a little bit more upwards than the other one so when I start assembly I'll have to do a bit more adjustment there to get good alignment. Oh well, Forgeworld was never advertised as being easy! At the rate I'm going it'll be ages before I build it so that's not something to worry about just yet.
Totally agree with the Falcon chassis being iconic. They've existed for the whole time I've been interested in 40k - and that's nearly 20 years now (blimey, how time flies), and I've always thought they look great. But then, I expect nothing less from Jes. His sculpts manage to carry some sort of timeless quality where even though they're clearly a product of the casting and moulding tech of the time, they still look cool while others age badly.
Those highlights are looking pretty nice. Do you plan on adding any more? I reckon they'd pop with a really fine, light edge highlight. I'm trying to do my Biel-Tan vehicles in that sort of style, really dark in the middle of the panels coming up to a bright highlight on the edges and I like the effect.
Tyranid Horde wrote: While I was at it, I decided to hit the War Walkers with a highlight too as I didn't fancy doing their highlights by hand! They're coming along slowly as they've taken the back seat to my tanks, but they're getting attention here and there. I'm looking for magnets for these guys so if anyone knows where to get some good ones for these I'd love to know! (I've spoilered individual shots)
Yeah - highlighting a War Walker by hand takes ages! I assume when you mention magnets that they're for the weapons? I've magnetised that style of heavy weapon with these. I put one towards the rear end of the slot, slice the back half of the tab off the gun and drill a hole for the magnet so that it's flush with the gun body. The remaining bit of the tab at the front will still sit in the slot and make sure the gun points the right way, and the magents hold it. It works pretty well. In fact I'm running low, could use some more soon.
Captain Brown: Thanks for the input! I figured pinning was the way to go and the two part epoxy is a good idea, luckily for me I have some!
Bellerophon: It really is amazing to think that the Falcon is almost 20 years old, it really is cool how the models hold up to the modern ranges out there. I doubt they'll be updating the sculpt for a long time yet.
I do plan on doing some line highlighting, using the same colour of green (warpstone glow) to go over certain areas and new areas I couldn't do with the airbrush. I could step it up with a line highlight of a bright green like scorpion/moot green. The rest of my army gets a bright green highlight so I was thinking of doing the same for these tanks and the walkers.
Thank you for the link for the magnets, I've been meaning to pick them up for ages and I've never used any before, usually I just glue the weapons or pin them in certain cases but that's a bit restrictive.
Excommunicatus: Thanks very much! You'd better watch out, Eldar aren't very big fans of the Slaaneshi types! I'm debating just keeping the chips fairly simple, I haven't really thought of a way to make it fancy on a 25mm base.
Ezki: Cheers, I need to do a few larger models with the chips to get a proper feel for them but I don't know when that will be.
Small Update
Evening all (or morning in my case),
Just a smallish update this evening just to keep myself on track with making this a habit. I've been chipping away at the grav tanks and I decided to work on the canopies, as the last time you saw them they were green and I felt that rather than dive into highlighting, I'd break up the green a bit with some layering on the cockpits. I didn't follow any guides and sort of winged it to get the result you see below. They're kind of cartoony with the pretty staggered gradation of the layers but I'm reasonably pleased with how they turned out. I may yet give the canopies a wash to blend the gradation a little bit more but hey-ho. First time in a long time using a wet palette too so it made mixing colours so, so much easier and it meant I could paint all of the canopies in one go without the paint drying. Why I stopped using one I'll never know!
I also worked on some fine edge highlighting, which I applied to the fire prism to start with and gauge what people's reactions are to it. I did a two stage edge highlight and I'd really like to know what your thoughts are on it. Personally, I like it quite a bit, albeit time consuming.
Fire Prism with the painted canopy and highlights:
I like those canopies. I imagine they look very good on the tabletop!
Gotta try to paint mine a bit better too, as I was just lazy and brushed them with one color.
Yup, those canopies work for me. I am often torn between the clear or painted canopies but always go for the former as I will not do as good as a job as yours.
Thank you all, I honestly wasn't expecting such a response but I'm really pleased to see its getting a positive response!
I've always liked to paint the pilots but whenever I'd go to paint the canopy structure I chicken out and just leave it as clear plastic. I didn't have any liquid mask when I was spraying so I just covered it all and tried something new. The wet palette helped and it let me mix a good gradient. It was a bit of a risk as I did it to every canopy I had and I wanted some uniformity. Not sure it'll work on the War Walkers with the same effect, maybe I'll try on an older Walker.
All I can say is just give it a go, eBay bits sellers have spares or try it on a spare piece of sprue!
In terms of the hobby time since the last update, I've not been up to much, I've highlighted one Fire Prism and the Falcon while the other two tanks await the same. I've got my hands full with my girlfriend visiting for the week so maybe I can sneak a quick update somewhere.
I'm back, after my week long hiatus. That's not to say I've been completely idle, just mostly idle! I had a nice week break to be honest, but I'm still keen to get back to painting properly!
With what I've done so far, you'll have to take my word for it, I dropped the girlfriend to the airport this afternoon and don't have any decent photos of the work I've done. I've been layering up the weapons on my Dire Avengers but I still need to do some recess shading to wrap them up, then they're done for good. I've finished highlighting my Falcon and the Fire Prism so I'll be doing the Wave Serpent and the other Fire Prism next. I started messing around with an old finecast Zoanthrope by sanding a lot of where the mold was slipped and it's still not perfect. I also based it with some Eldar bits so I'm working towards a narrative with all of these poker chips!
I managed to snag some metal swooping hawks from eBay so I'm quite excited about those. I eventually want to have at least one squad of each aspect so when those arrive I'll only need Banshees, Spears and Spectres.
I also bought magnets and while I was at it I bought a lightbox! It's a pretty cheap one from amazon but I didn't feel like building a proper one and this is a decent option as it's collapsible and it has built in LEDs. It came with a bunch of backgrounds which I'll experiment but for now I've used a black background as it gives a clean look. So I'm excited to actually make my photos at least somewhat decent when I finally upload finished models. Here are the results of my initial tests:
Scale shot:
Spiritseer:
Kabalite Warrior:
Fire Prism (WIP still!):
Zoanthrope:
I'll have some proper updates this week but thanks very much for reading again and any comments or even tips on how to get the most from a phone camera is very much appreciated!
Yeah, seems to make a big difference! Paid just over £10 for it with free shipping from Amazon but you might find it cheaper. I just bought the smallest one from their range.
Grand. I'm not allowed to order from amazon.co.uk, but luckily amazon.ca has exactly the same product for only $9.20, which is roughly six quid. Kiss-kiss, bang-bang. The cheapest at my local camera-store is $49.99 and doesn't include lights.
I like how the Fire Prism is turning out. At fist I though your single color was going to make for a very plain model. But with the contrasting color underneath the green highlighting shows up.
I have to acquire a similar small lightbox. Just have to find a place to store it. Currently it takes a lot of effort to create decent conditions for good pictures. I have to clean my table, cover it with something (grey cloth, magic the gathering playmat etc.), move around some lights (including stealing my girlfriend's table light) and setup the camera. This would make things a lot easier.
That lightbox seems great for the price, those are some crisp photos. The tanks are looking grand. The bone works really well with the green and, well, I'm always biased towards any sort of green Eldar as a general rule.
I'm enjoying those canopies too. Like you say, the transition could be smoother but then again I could see the staggered transitions being a sign of layers within the glass (well, futuristic space elf glass substitute) or something similar.
Captain Brown: Cheers, it means a lot! I was really relying on the engines and the exhausts to compliment the green and it seems to have worked!
Youwashock: Thank you, that's what happens when I amass models and paint nothing! Didn't think I'd have a mech army when I started Eldar.
King Thor: Thanks for stopping by! The fact a lot of my models that have yet to be painted are from eBay, it gives me the motivation to actually strip them and get them painted up. The Kabalites are primed grey to give a neutral base and then basecoated mephiston red and given a sepia wash. That is subsequently layered with meph red and washed again but not as heavily. This dulls everything down enough so that an Evil Suns Scarlet highlight is stark enough without going too high up the red spectrum. Hope that helps!
Ezki: Thank you! The great thing about this little light box is that I can collapse it down and store it in a bag about the size of an A4. I don't have the space for a permanent light box so it's a perfect, if a little small.
Bellerophon: I started out wanting to paint Biel Tan but I couldn't for the life of me paint white, so I made my own variation and now I've made it my own Craftworld! I sort of wish I took more time on the canopies but I could definitely bull something fluff-wise
Nevelon: Cheers Nev, I appreciate it. I'll be very sad on the day they announce a new Falcon design. It only really needs a re-tooling.
Update time!
Hey all!
I've made it to three pages and I'm humbled to see so many of you replying to my blog, it's honestly such a motivation for me and it makes me want to push myself with new techniques and styles. So thank you very much!
So over the past few days I've slowed down a little bit in terms of painting, I've moved onto a lot of detail work with the tanks and whatnot so taking photos of the range of different things is a bit of a challenge. I'll post pictures and chat about them as I go, I've got a few different things to show!
I've managed to highlight all my tanks sufficiently with the exception of the metal prism cannon turret. That's been assembled at least and it seems sturdy thus far. I've also gone about picking out some of the raised parts of the tanks to be gem stones and I've started with a dark purple. I'll do the whole gemstone technique on them so hopefully they'll look good when they're done as they'll add a bit extra to break up the monotony of the green. I'm also planning on painting the prism cannon crystals purple as I have an idea in my head that maybe they're cut from the same material. It lets me experiment more with blending and building up layers. My collection of tanks on the desk:
Gemstones have been basecoated on all tanks, but here they are on the turrets:
I've touched up the weapons on my Dire Avenger squad and they're a nice solid bone colour now and the headcrests have their basic colours down. I may paint over the old terrible freehand I did on their helms and they need some highlights on the armour still and I'm unsure if I should go for a simple lighter green highlight or go for some stark bright green highlights like I have on my tanks. Comments welcome
Seeing as the Unofficial Painting Competition deadline is nearing, I sat down and put some more colour onto my Archon. I think it needs another sepia wash to tone down the scarlet then I'll do a finer highlight of the same colour to enhance the extremities. The change from painting green to red is quite refreshing! The base is feeling a little plain and I don't know how to spruce it up.
Finally, I took a group shot of my Kabalites just for giggles and I'll update my original post to show off the finished pieces there!
As always, thanks for checking in and reading, C&C is always welcome and Happy Thanksgiving for those who celebrate it (a day early I know)!
Looking good. A little bit of sand or crumbled material could add some interest to the Archon's base. Some brighter highlights on the Avengers sounds like a good call, too. Eldar all over this place today. I love it.
Cheers youwashock, now that you mention some sand I am tempted to sprinkle a little bit of baking powder or a tuft of grass to give it a run down feel. The whole plan of the base is to be like abandoned Eldar ruins but it's difficult to do on a 25mm base.
On another note, my local comic shop started stocking GW products and some people have started painting up armies so I'm gonna try and run some demo games at the club for anyone that wants to come along. Hopefully it'll be fun!
I've been a bit lax with the work I've been doing this week, I'm currently experiencing Storm Diana, which is ravaging the West coast of Ireland and it's making the house pretty cold and it's sort of unbearable to paint!
I have been a wee bit busy though, I've worked away on my entry for the Dakka Painting Competition and now it's finally finished! It's been really fun to paint up something for a competition and I've never done that before so maybe I can snag a few votes?
I headed down to the gaming club at the weekend and a friend of mine fancied trying out 40k for the first time. I brought along my Eldar and he used my Black Templars in a 1000pts game using the full rules minus stratagems and we had a great time! I brought a pretty soft list as my BT army was and still is in no way good, it's just a bunch of cool models from when I dabbled in marines (everyone dabbles in marines right? Right?). I brought a pretty soft list for this game and included using a Falcon for the first time ever. Brought some striking scorpions and once again they failed to deliver, which is horribly disappointing...
I've been painting gemstones on my Grav Tanks as well as the prism cannon and I didn't feel like they were substantial enough updates but when they're finished I'll show them off properly, but you can get a peek of them in the photos below.
I decided that it was about time I started basing all of my models, I've been pretty diligent recently with making sure my models are based and have a bit of flair but I've decided that all of my models, past and future, will be done so my army actually looks like a coherent army and not just a rabble of random units. So I based most of my Eldar with sand and some cork chips that came from definitely not alcoholic grape juice. Here's a small selection of what I've been basing:
I've been doing some slow updates on my Sybarite and he's not changed much, but I have assembled the model fully now and painted him up a little:
I'm nearing the end of a lot of the projects I've been working on as of late so you'll start to see some new (or old) stuff soon, I promise! The grav tanks I want to finish this weekend with the exception of the metal prism cannon turret, I need to prime it and I don't want to do it by hand. The War Walkers and the Wyches are real sticking points right now, the Walkers just need me to sit down and magnetise them and do detail work, while the Wyches need layering, highlighting and general detail work. The Wyches feel like a chore in all honesty so I may shelf them or paint them every so often.
The Sybarite is getting there and the Dire Avengers need their bases painted and highlights so they'll be nice to finish. After these projects I'm trying to decide on what I want to paint next. I'm keen on painting Fire Dragons as I like them but I doubt I'll use two units in one game so Warp Spiders may be the choice. I'm pretty limited by what I've primed but hey, it makes me get them done!
Thanks for having a look, C&C is always very much appreciated and I'll be back with Grav tanks next time!
Thanks Nev, might be a good shout with the vines, I always find it difficult to get some detail into smaller bases outside of a few cork chips or poker chips as of late.
Ah Ezki, can go for the challenge this month! It's the open round and you'd do a great job!
Give it a go Fifty! If you leave out the pilots you get extra bits for later!
Speaking of fresh blood, I may have convinced him to start collecting! Had another game with him today using the AoBR models with some list tinkering to balance the game out and he seemed to have fun!
Update time!
Howdy all,
A rather small update again from my side, I'm still plugging away on highlighting my Dire Avengers and I'm still basing away. I can't seem to help myself when I see my old models. I really want to touch them up or just flat out repaint them but that's probably best reserved for a later date.
So I'm happy to say that I've finished three out of the four grav tanks that you've all been seeing over the past month(?). I finshed them off with some panel lining to make the panels themselves stand out more and I think it worked. The older fire prism got left on the back burner a little bit as I missed the window to prism the cannon and I haven't tried to prime with an airbrush before so I don't even know how to start with that. I need to take a few group shots but the lightbox barely fits one model let alone three! Might do an army shot at some point over the holidays after I've done a bit of decorating but here they are individually for now
Falcon Grav Tank:
Wave Serpent:
Fire Prism:
Let me know what you all think, comments and criticism is very much appreciated. I also need to have a think about my entry for the open round painting competition so we'll see if I've decided by the next update!
The grav tanks are looking good - really smooth and I like the purple spiritstones and crystal against the green. It's a classic combination. I'm jealous of getting several of them done in one go!
Good to hear about the fresh blood too, it's fun to be somebody's intro to a hobby.
Bellerophon: Cheers! Thought the purple looked like a nice compliment to the green but I didn't want to go much further, otherwise I'd have it looking like Yme-Loc! I think doing them in bulk is the way to go for me, I hate looking at primed models and getting the major details done asap motivates me to finish them up.
Cain: Thank you! The photos hide some errors but I'm pretty pleased with the blending!
Ezki: Thanks! Was worried the canopy colour would clash with the purple but seems to be okay!
Captain Brown: Thanks! When I first made a Wave Serpent I didn't realise the vanes were part of the model so I was always used to the barebones look of them. Then I see every other Serpent has them but I keep thinking they'd break easily. I might paint them up and test them yet though.
Update Time
Evening all (or morning/noon/night)
A rather small update this evening in the form of showing off my December Dakka Unofficial Painting Challenge entry. As it's the open round this month I had a dig through my pile to pick something that would be a decent standalone entry and standout from the norm. So I picked up a 1/35 scale Tamiya Panzer Kampfwagen II Ausf. F/G which you can see below:
I know scale model kits aren't the norm on Dakka and I've not seen anyone do much with them here except for some exceptional pieces on the gallery area of this website. It's quite a cheap entry into painting and modelling and that's how I started originally with a starter airfix set. I think this Panzer cost me a tenner so for what you get it's great value. You get the tank, a tank commander, and four soldiers.
The kit is quite nice and from doing some background research I've found out that this kit is quite old. It's got plenty of detail though and you can get a brass etching kit from Eduard to add more detail but I don't have the time to get that now so I'm rolling with the stock kit. Rather than paint it as the box art, I plan on going for the typical sand colouration you see in the Afrika Korps as the F variant of the tank. I do have some foam which I can cut to shape and make a small diorama, time permitting. I won't be entering the soldiers into the challenge but I'll be painting them up in tandem as I won't do them otherwise!
The plan is to make it a bit of a battered tank, like its been through an actual war, not just a pristine tank rolled out of the assembly line. Aside from just drybrushing and paint chipping, I want to make a few dents and scratches to make it more than just superficial damage. Then the tank will get plenty of weathering and because it's North Africa, there'll be lots of sand!
Anyway, I made a start to the assembly of the model and by start, I mean I've pretty much finished the assembly and it's ready for priming. I reckon I'll do a black prime all over then do a zenithial white highlight to give the desert yellow a bit of variation for when I basecoat it. While I'm at it, I'll prime some other models too, namely that Prism Cannon turret so I can get that finished. Here are some progress shots of the model:
Ready for priming:
Some dinged up wheels:
I'll have some 40k in the next update so normality will resume but this'll be a fun project!
Thanks for reading and if you have any tips or tricks when it comes to scale modelling, let me know as I've not ventured outside 1/72 scale!
Ah yes, this brings back memories!
Used to build many models like this during elementary- and junior high. Most of them were 1:72 scale and manufactured by Revell.
The ones I remember more clearly were the russian battletank T-34/85 and the modern british Challenger. Even did a small base for the Challenger from styrofoam.
Now that I think about it, I think I have stored some of them in my parents house. At least I hope so, would be a real shame if they were lost.
Not sure I had any Tamiya kits though, but I've heard they are pretty good. Maybe I should give one a go someday..
Look at you, getting me all nostalgic!
Not sure how the plastic is with that one, but some of the models I built required a good soapy wash before the paint would stay on the surface.
Anyhow, interested to see this one finished.
I'm always a fan of military model pieces. They are after all usually more demanding to build and different to paint compared to 40k.
I hope you can pull off a small diorama!
Glad to bring back the memories Ezki! Going back to the roots with this one, my first model tank was a Panther in Afrika Korps livery and this one will be too! Sometimes it can be fun to look back on these things. This kit wasn't too bad for adherence but I've heard other kits can be a nuisance.
A small update for the evening, got the model primed with a black basecoat, then gave the topside of the hull a white coat to see if the basecoat I do shows it up as a bit of a pseudo highlight. I then basecoated the model with Tamiya's XF-60 Dark Yellow, which seems to be a decent colour as a base for Afrika Korps. It's got a bit of a stench but I always have good results from it. I airbrushed it on because there's not a chance in hell I'd make a smooth enough coat of paint with a brush. The difference between black and white isn't hugely noticeable but it does make a slight difference. Everything will be dulled down anyway once I get to weathering and such.
I also cut a squarish shape in some insulating foam to make a start on my diorama. I've never made one before so it's going to be very much a learning process. I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing in terms of where in North Africa this diorama is set or what the terrain is like. Seems like a bit of research is necessary! After that, if anyone has good terrain building techniques or materials, I'll gladly accept them!
So, some photos:
Panzer primed up:
Basecoated:
A literal start on the diorama:
In other news, I primed the fire prism turret so now I can properly get to work on that. Apologies for the poor photo below but hey ho, it's literally just been primed. I've also cleaned up and primed a forgeworld scatter laser turret I've been hiding in my pile for the past few years. It's out of production now apparently which is a shame as I would have liked another turret to swap out falcon turrets which will surely never see play outside of casual games.
Tyranid Horde wrote: Captain Brown: Thanks! When I first made a Wave Serpent I didn't realise the vanes were part of the model so I was always used to the barebones look of them. Then I see every other Serpent has them but I keep thinking they'd break easily. I might paint them up and test them yet though.
That is exactly like I always liked the original FW version with the six gems and the bridge between the two front wings instead of those vanes..
Thanks Cap, you're right about the old forgeworld kit, made them stand out that much more than the vanes.
Update time!
Hey all,
Been a few days since the last update, been busy with this whole Christmas thing this month so progress is a little bit slow and a little bit distracted which you'll see why in a moment... It's a bit of a photo dump.
I've decided to do a few projects at the one time as I can see WWII armour isn't to everyone's fancy and to break things up a bit I've decided to do some more Eldar while I'm painting the tank, as ideally, I'd like to be done with Eldar so I can move onto something else. That's something that won't be done for a while but the pile is getting smaller quicker than it's growing!
I've spent a lot of time making sure the coat of desert yellow is as smooth as possible on the tank before I moved onto detailing. I assembled it and fiddled with those god-awful rubber tank track until they stuck on... and consequently popped off on one side. The instructions say to melt them but I'm not keen on doing that, especially considering they're too tight to put over the wheels once they're glued as a loop. I initially used plastic glue and it does give a reasonable bond to get the tracks to where they should be but the bond doesn't seem to last. I may superglue it after to strengthen the bond but if anyone has tips for rubber tracks let me know!
Here are some pictures of what I've done on the tank to date:
With the rear, the details were a bit bare so I added a little bit extra by putting an MG-34 on a bi-pod with an ammo box and a german helmet to give the tank some flavour. The ammo box had no handle so I bent some wire to shape and glued it on. I plan to have the tank parked up so it sort of makes sense.
I did a few initial coats of paint on the tank commander, who'll be out of his tank and standing beside it:
Moving away from WWII, you'll see why I've been a bit distracted. I wanted to get the prism cannon basecoated and highlighted with my airbrush but the siphon feed means the volume of paint isn't high enough to warrant using it. So I had a run through my models and decided that I wanted to paint some single models in tandem with everything else I'm doing. I built up a support platform and a few models that I got to make a Seer Council back when 5th edition Apocalypse had a datasheet. It's a shame Warlocks are kinda trash in this edition with Brotherhood of Psykers but you can never have too many Seers! I also did some much needed highlighting on the Dire Avengers so I'll do a photobooth shot once I'm happy with them but there'll be another WIP pic below.
I'm not very happy with the highlighting I did on the prism cannon but it can be fixed to some extent an I'm sure once the detailing is done on it, it won't look as bad I hope. Same goes for the support platform. I think the model is far too small to get the nice gradients I got with the grav tanks but I did try it out and it wasn't the best. That being said, I can now line highlight and paint the details so I'm looking forward to finishing off the Fire Prism and actually be able to field a competitive spearhead detachment.
The spoiler contains basecoated minis for the Seer Council, nothing interesting, just some metal models and the new plastic seer.
Spoiler:
Thanks for having a look and hopefully I'll get another update soon!
Is that Fire Prism's gem/cannon the one that needed the serious gap filling? If so it turned out nicely, well done. Non sci-fi stuff is looking good too.
I love a bit of scale. I love getting the weathering gear out and going to town. really making it look realistic with damage and wear, which I dont often do with my 40K stuff. I was actually thinking about starting a thread on it to see if anyone else dabbled in scale. One bit of advice I'd give you for painting scale vehicles, is to basecoat with a grey or light tan rather than black, then pre shade your panel lines. this will give you depth to your paintjob as the next layers go over, and wont look so flat.
Cheers Syro, yeah that's the one, nightmare of a thing to put together and luckily it'll be the only one as I now have three fire prisms.
Well spotted Cap, I picked it up back when Scatter Lasers were OP in 6th edition so I could replace a turret on another grav tank. Wish I bought another because they're much nicer than the new ones.
Queen_annes_revenge, it's always good to see more scale modellers. Weathering is probably the most fun part of the whole thing for me. Worth starting one to see, you'll find all sorts have done it at some point.
Thanks for the advice, everything helps. It's my first time doing a model that isn't 1/72 scale so it's a new challenge.
A smallish update for the evening but it's worth a read. Before I get onto what I've done on the P&M side of things, I'd like to talk about Phil the Dakkafex.
Here he is:
Phil the Carnifex, or Dakkafex because of his loadout, is one of the Carnifexes that I have in my Tyranid army that doesn't see the light of day anymore. He comes from a time where washing everything made it better and it did, but I didn't do anything else to it. 14 year old me thought this was great and called it done.
Now on Monday night, I posted him to my instagram feed after digging him out from his box and used the typical #paintingwarhammer tag just to make it show up. I head to bed and wake up to a comment from Warhammer Community asking to feature it on their website. I say yes and low and behold he's put up in the gallery
One of my worst models is up on their damn website!
Onto the P&M side of things now and I'm happy to say that after about three years, my Dire Avengers are finished and don't look too terrible! The freehand symbols will be kept, even though they are awful. I don't feel like redoing the whole helmet. Highlighting these guys were a pain due to the sculpts but oh well, I only have another ten of those to go in the pile of shame. C&C is appreciated on these guys!
I spent some time painting gemstones yesterday on all of the models that are currently on the table, which was fun, if not a lengthy process of layering. Got some highlighting of my extreme highlights done too while I was at it on the Prism cannon, wave serpent turret and the support platform. I also based the guardian the support platform comes with so having plenty of fun with poker chips again.
The prism cannon is quite lovely, there's a nice weight to it and the big prism is so cool. I'll be working on more highlights and blocking in the bone details on the arm of the cannon. There's a big mould line I've missed so that's a bit annoying but there's no going back now!
The support platform is a lovely kit. The weapons are easily interchangeable and you don't need magnets for them either. I got mine when they were sold as single boxes but now they're in teams of three which is better. I'll always have one left over if I ever get more, especially now that CA has seen a huge drop in points for platforms and their weapons.
Here's the Forgeworld wave serpent turret, I need to do the weapon in a bone colour because it's far too much green when mounted on the chassis.
Just thinking about the guardians in this platform kit really makes you think about how badly the current guardian kit they throw into every Eldar box needs an update. Aspect Warriors are badly in need of an update but guardians and dire avengers need it more.
Thanks for reading and looking, this one was a bit of a ramble.
Good work all around!
That old Fire Prism turret looks so much better than the new in my opinion.
I share my opinion with you regarding the Guardian kit. They are just so static compared to many other (non Eldar) kits.
One of the main reasons why I attached wych legs to some of them.
Almost have forgotten that those heavy weapon platforms even exist.
Good to see one being worked on though! Would like to see how they work on the tabletop.
Also grats on getting your model on the GW website
Congrats on getting Phil on the GW site. It seems just typical that they'd select a model that you consider one of your worst!
It's cool to see the support weapons too. They're so rarely seen, but I've looked at them occasionally and thought that I should get some. I look forward to seeing the finished result.
Just thinking about the guardians in this platform kit really makes you think about how badly the current guardian kit they throw into every Eldar box needs an update. Aspect Warriors are badly in need of an update but guardians and dire avengers need it more.
I don't think they're too bad - I'm still very fond of them aesthetically (hey, it's Jes Goodwin, the man can do no wrong, even though they're all in that legs-apart "taking a poop standing up" pose that GW seems to love), though that may partly be because the current guardians were my first ever 40k models back when the set was fairly new in 3rd ed. The main thing that I do find annoying about them is the lack of options on the sprues, and even that's mainly for the weapon platform crew which is a much newer part of the kit than the rest of them. I hate that you just get the four arm options for the gunners. The regular guardians all holding their shuriken catapults ready/aiming is sort of OK to be repetitive, but it annoys me that from the kit, every squad must have a pointing gunner, must have one holding the shuricat up in the air, etc. Enough that I bits-ordered a few sets of the regular shuriken catapult arms just so I could give a few platform gunners a regular shuricat pose instead. But I suppose that's a strike against the general lack of plastic amongst eldar infantry that we just don't have the bits for kitbashing. Like most folks I've also got a marine army and it's just so easy in comparison, so many kits with compatible parts.
monkeytroll wrote:Good work on getting an old excavated paintjob on the site
Cheers! Still scratching my head as to why he got picked!
youwashock wrote:Congrats on the 'Fex being posted. That is legit. All the work on the Eldar is looking good.
Thank you kindly!
Ezki wrote:Good work all around!
That old Fire Prism turret looks so much better than the new in my opinion.
I share my opinion with you regarding the Guardian kit. They are just so static compared to many other (non Eldar) kits.
One of the main reasons why I attached wych legs to some of them.
Almost have forgotten that those heavy weapon platforms even exist.
Good to see one being worked on though! Would like to see how they work on the tabletop.
Also grats on getting your model on the GW website
Cheers Ezki! I do like the old prism kit better, although I think I need to dump some ballast into the tank to weigh the front down, it points into the sky as soon as the turret gets mounted! They are indeed quite static, which I don't mind so much, but a variation in arms would be nice. Unfortunately, I don't see myself playing just one support platform, I need more!
Captain Brown wrote:Tyranid Horde,
Completing a squad is always a great feeling and the enjoyment of fielding a painted force is always worth the time it takes to paint.
Cheers,
CB
You're quite right Cap, that squad always sees play and to have them finally done is a huge boost for me mentally.
Bellerophon wrote:Congrats on getting Phil on the GW site. It seems just typical that they'd select a model that you consider one of your worst!
It's cool to see the support weapons too. They're so rarely seen, but I've looked at them occasionally and thought that I should get some. I look forward to seeing the finished result.
Just thinking about the guardians in this platform kit really makes you think about how badly the current guardian kit they throw into every Eldar box needs an update. Aspect Warriors are badly in need of an update but guardians and dire avengers need it more.
I don't think they're too bad - I'm still very fond of them aesthetically (hey, it's Jes Goodwin, the man can do no wrong, even though they're all in that legs-apart "taking a poop standing up" pose that GW seems to love), though that may partly be because the current guardians were my first ever 40k models back when the set was fairly new in 3rd ed. The main thing that I do find annoying about them is the lack of options on the sprues, and even that's mainly for the weapon platform crew which is a much newer part of the kit than the rest of them. I hate that you just get the four arm options for the gunners. The regular guardians all holding their shuriken catapults ready/aiming is sort of OK to be repetitive, but it annoys me that from the kit, every squad must have a pointing gunner, must have one holding the shuricat up in the air, etc. Enough that I bits-ordered a few sets of the regular shuriken catapult arms just so I could give a few platform gunners a regular shuricat pose instead. But I suppose that's a strike against the general lack of plastic amongst eldar infantry that we just don't have the bits for kitbashing. Like most folks I've also got a marine army and it's just so easy in comparison, so many kits with compatible parts.
Thanks, Phil definitely isn't the worst of my 'Nids, but he's not the best! The worst spot is reserved to my other Carnifex, who I may show off at some point.
Don't get me wrong, I love the aesthetic of the models, they were the first Eldar I'd painted up and I have a real soft spot for them. I think my main issue is that the kit is quite tired now, the details are quite soft and the lack of options in terms of posing is something that could be worked on. Unfortunately, the way GW seem to be going is limiting the ability to swap parts between kits outside of head swaps and weapon swaps based off Primaris and Death Guard models. Conversions are going to be a thing for dedicated modellers out there and the average Joe (for example, me) will be miffed with the inability to make a unique looking army. The 1k Sons boxes came out with loads of options but that release makes me think that was a series that were a good bit older than Primaris marines.
Update time!
Hey all,
It's that time again folks, another late night semi-coherent ramble from ya boi. The countdown to Christmas is well and truly underway and I'm just about sorted with presents for the family and the girlfriend. Painting time has been cut considerably with all the interruptions occurring nigh on all the time now so any I do manage to do is reserved to after 9pm and the blog updates are after 12am. I don't mind too much though, it's a nice way to wind down before hitting the sack.
The local gaming store is basically a comic book shop with a Warhammer stand but recently there have been a good few new entrants into the hobby and after having a bit of a chat with the owner, he's interested in getting someone to paint up a few models and a board to show off the game(s) in the new year. Might be a potential commission job for me seeing as I'm not the worst in the world and I could churn out a starter set in no time! I don't know where I'll be in the new year in terms of jobs but if I'm about I think it'd be cool to dip my toes into something like that, I've never been paid for doing what I like so it could be an interesting side job while I hunt for one relevant to my Masters degree. Speaking of which, I'm officially graduating on Wednesday so I have a flight to London booked and I'm almost ready to go.
Also, I can't believe I've hit four pages on this P&M blog, this has been a massive motivator for me and the other blogs on this site are also great to get the ideas flowing.
Anyway, what has the Nid player come Eldar player been doing since his last update? Well I mentioned I was at my LGS during the week and they had a big box of old 40k books selling for a Euro each! Here's what I found:
Honestly I just had to get it, I love old 40k books and seeing this blast from the past will be a great source for inspiration. The book is older than me with it being published in '94 (I was born '96) and seeing the development of the fluff from this codex to 4th edition to the current edition has been really interesting. Exodite dragon knights sound cool as hell by the way and I really want to make some! Jes needs to get his finger out and push yet another species of Eldar just to get some Exodites on the board.
I don't have any photos as it's pretty dull, but I've been fiddling with my diorama for the Painting Challenge. Mainly chopping into the foam that I've made a design on top of to give the piece some undulation and some height. The plan is to have a wire fence with a telephone mast to add a vertical element to the diorama because that's important apparently for a good diorama. That'll be behind the tank on a slight verge above the road.
I've been working on getting the base for my wraithbone down on the host of models I have on the table so while it's not hugely interesting, it's a good bit of progress that's helping push these models closer to completion. The poker chip bases also got some treatment and I tried out the poker chips on something bigger than a 25mm base. I'm seeing issues with the fact they're circles so filler might be needed to fill the spaces between the chips. Might lead to some nice patterns though!
I'm getting to the final stretch with the fire prism now, I painted up the canopy on it and the hull canopy as well as doing some bone detailing. I couldn't remember how many stages I did last time when I painted up the canopies so I think I went with around 6 colours to bring it up to the grey final colour.
I'm also just about done with the scatter laser turret, just needs some layers of bone and a final highlight and I think that'll be it.
The support platform has seen the underside get a basecoat which took ages over black primer, something I won't be doing again!
Finally, I've been working on the Farseers, one of which has received more attention than the other. I'm worried that I'm putting too many colours onto the model, the inside of his cloak will be a bleached bone colour with dark green on the outside which is fine but I'm wondering if that clashes too much with the robes under the cloak? Then the green helmet might just be a bit too much. Let me know what you think, it's early development so the grey areas will be blocked in and hopefully it'll look better.
That's all for now, I keep saying I need to update more regularly but life gets in the way annoyingly. Thanks for reading!
Firstly, congrats on graduating! If you don't mind me asking, which field were you studying?
There are definitely some strong power metal vibes on the older artwork. Great stuff!
Making money out of something you like might be really interesting!
If you get into it, just be careful not to overdo it. At some point the thing you love might start feeling like a chore, which takes away from the joy of doing hobby stuff.
I'm not saying that it will come to that, just a heads up!
Really good work on the models, still rocking it with the canopy!
I think the bone color works well on the cloak, does not clash at all.
The green helmet on the other hand might be a bit too much as you said, not sure. Maybe try a little darker shade?
Cheers Syro, I may go back and pick up some more of them, great source of inspiration for me!
Thanks youwashock and Captain Brown, there may be a few more colours on it yet so I may have to tone it down a bit
Thanks Ezki! I've graduated in Petroleum Geoscience so that should be a good start into exploration geology! You're quite right about overdoing things, I burned myself out last time painting stuff I didn't want to paint and I didn't touch a brush for three years. I think I'm in a better place mentally now than I was then so I think this time I'll know when to stop. I don't think I could paint as a full time job. Might be fun as a side project but full time I wouldn't like.
The canopy this time round is a little lopsided but it looks decent enough I think. Thanks for the feedback on the helmet too, I think I might have to tone things down to match the scheme.
Thanks Nev, pleased with the eldar and pleased with myself, time to find myself a job!
Hahah quite true Bellerophon! Can't quite match the brilliance of that codex, it's a classic
Not much of an update from be but it's been a few days so I figured I'd throw up a life update/painting update.
I haven't painted anything but I did do some work on my diorama before I left. I'll throw up some photos when I'm home as I'm posting from my mobile. I'm currently on a train from Dublin to Belfast this morning after a 15 hour journey from London to Dublin last night by boat and by train I managed to get unlucky and had my flight home cancelled due to the drone shenanigans at Gatwick with no flights available at short notice. My car is in Belfast hence the journey up there this morning! Not the best way to end my graduation but these things happen, and at least I'll be back before Christmas!
I've been notified by the delivery company that my new airbrush has arrived in the post office so that's a lovely thing for me to play with over the Christmas break. I spent ages researching what the best airbrush would be for my price range and skill level and I decided that a Harder and Steenbeck Evolution would be the best for me. I've read a lot of reviews on Dakka and elsewhere that say the Ultra us a really good brush for the price but has limitations and the Evolution is an all round better brush. I got the set with a 0.2mm and a 0.4mm needle so I have options to play with! I was considering the Iwata HP-CS and the Badger Krome as I'd found them in a similar price range but I think the versatility of the Evolution might be better from the get go?
I guess if anyone has any tips on airbrushing with a gravity fed brush I'd really appreciate it!
-TH
Edit: It turns out I do have some photos I uploaded but tired me forgot I had them!
I've been notified by the delivery company that my new airbrush has arrived in the post office so that's a lovely thing for me to play with over the Christmas break. I spent ages researching what the best airbrush would be for my price range and skill level and I decided that a Harder and Steenbeck Evolution would be the best for me. I've read a lot of reviews on Dakka and elsewhere that say the Ultra us a really good brush for the price but has limitations and the Evolution is an all round better brush. I got the set with a 0.2mm and a 0.4mm needle so I have options to play with! I was considering the Iwata HP-CS and the Badger Krome as I'd found them in a similar price range but I think the versatility of the Evolution might be better from the get go?
I guess if anyone has any tips on airbrushing with a gravity fed brush I'd really appreciate it!
Cool, I'll be interested to hear how you get on with it. I've been meaning to venture into airbrushing at some point and that's one of the models that I'd looked at.
Bellerophon: Yeah it'll be an interesting set of experiments! I'm terrified of touching the airbrush right now, it's so dainty compared to my cheap one!
Update time
Hey all,
Merry belated Christmas! I'll be making this a quick one as it's gone 2am and I need to catch up on my sleep, but I've spent the past few days maniacally working on my Panzer and it's accompanying diorama base whenever I can dodge the family for any extended period of time.
I got to have a look at my new airbrush today. It's a Harder and Steenbeck Evolution 2in1 so it comes with two lovely nozzles for me to play with. I'm pretty nervous about getting it out to start using it as it's not the cheap one I currently use! It's quite weighty, which I really like and the finish is really nice too. I picked up a bunch of stuff with it like thinner and cleaner as well as a hose to connect to my 25L compressor! I think I'll be seriously considering a smaller compressor with a tank in the new year as the current one is rather large. The parents bought me a big LED desk lamp that comes with a magnifier attached which is pretty sweet and I'll have to try that out at some point to work on my coordination. I've been using two small desk lamps for the longest time and this new lamp is a life changer, I can see so much better now! No one asked, but here's my painting set up as is in my bedroom:
It's not the tidiest or the biggest, but it serves a purpose. The rest of my paint, bits and modelling materials get stored in a number of wave serpent boxes beside the desk. And speaking of modelling materials, I'm planning on making my own weathering powders from a set of hard pastels. I see other people choose soft pastels but as long as they're not oil I don't think it'll matter too much. I've ground down a few colours so I can make some colour mixes and apply it to my tank. It's very boring grinding down pastels and next time I'll just chuck them into a coffee grinder but here they are with the set I've bought and what they turn into:
Before I do any of that thought, I'd like to show off another WIP of my tank and the diorama. I've done some light weathering so far but I need to add some scratches and the aforementioned powders before I can call it done.
The base itself:
Thanks for looking! C&C welcome on the build so far, I need to find something to cover the foam on the sides but I don't have anything suitable to hand right now I think.
Tank and diorama look ace!. While you could put something on the sides, I think they actually look pretty good as-is. The colors are soft and don’t distract from what’s on top.
Weathering powders and airbrushes are things that I rely want to try some day, but there are a lot of reasons why I don’t. Always fun to see others experiment though.
That diorama looks really good, well done!
The different grades of sand and some scarce vegetation really make it look realistic.
Something that comes to mind would be to paint the edges black, but that is not mandatory.
I found a great article while doing my armies on parade board which had some good examples on how to build a base for a diorama.
This article (in the spoilers) is in finnish so sorry for that, but it has some really good images.
Long story short, the guy in the article made the edges from 1mm thick polysterene board and the frames from wood batten(?).
This is something that takes time, so it might be a bit too big of a project for the dakka painting contest, but wanted to link this nevertheless.
The diorama is looking great. Your work space is a lot cleaner than mine, but I thought it was funny to see that it looks like you took the magnafying glass off your "helping hands" pose-able alligator clip stand just like I did. That's an interesting way to store paint brushes too, how's it working for you?
Thanks Nev, I appreciate it! I was thinking of just leaving the sides as is but there was a few paint runs that I couldn't get rid of easily so a cover up was the compromise. Airbrushing is good to get into but I'm currently a little nervous about using my new one! As for the powders, I'm going to be using them all the time now, they were super cheap to buy and they'll likely last me years.
Cheers for the link Ezki! I've bookmarked it for the next diorama build, I'm kinda kicking myself for not doing that part first as it would look so much better blended into the base itself.
Thanks for stopping by mcmattila, glad you like it!
Thanks Syro, although I must confess, I tidied my desk up substantially to show it off! Yeah, not a fan of magnifying glasses, I prefer just using my eyes but I reckon if I practised a bit with them I'd train myself and it'd make me more accurate in the long run. The brushes are just tacked onto the wall, not pretty but it functions at least!
A rather small update this evening, I finished the model and took some photos. My lightbox was too small so the desk got cleared for some flattering photos:
Welcome to the my last blog post of 2018 and this one may be a little bit lengthy due to me making this a bit of a year review (well, since September anyway), so if you'd like to see the Fire Prism and the Farseer WIP, scroll on down for the photos!
Year review Ah 2018, a year which saw quite a substantial change for me in both my personal life and my hobby blogging life. In my personal life, I have achieved a distinction in my Masters of Petroleum Geoscience and my thesis is currently under review for the Earth Model Award run by Halliburton, both of which are huge milestones for me and adds to the fact I'm rewarded for the effort I'm putting into my subject area. There are lots of other things that I could talk about but this is a hobby blog!
This year saw me return to my favourite hobby that is the painting and modelling side of Warhammer as well as the gaming aspect. It might seem strange to some, but I had a severe case of burnout that caused me to leave the hobby for almost three years and leave Dakka, a website which I frequented heavily over the years. What brought me back I think was the urge to do something different with my spare time. Hearthstone and Magic: The Gathering was fun and all but it didn't have the creative side of things that I really longed for in a hobby, and I kept feeling the itch to come back after catching up on some of the lore that preceded 8th edition. I also had a hell of a lot of free time after finishing the coursework side of university!
Since September, I've made a point of painting up lots of the eBay models that I'd bought down the years with some intermittent spells of working through the pile of shame. I said originally that I wanted to paint up a small Dark Eldar force to make a soup for my larger Eldar force and truth be told, that objective failed pretty miserably! I've fully painted a grand total of 11 Dark Eldar models and still have those Wyches at a mid stage towards completion! That being said though, I've finished a lot of models in my Eldar army and I can officially say that I've got a fully painted playable army with some pretty potent elements in the fire prisms and the wave serpent(s).
I've also made an effort to teach myself some new techniques and improve my patience when painting. I've never been very good at painting, but since I started again, I've felt myself improve in terms of the techniques I'm using and the speed at which I'm painting models. Before, I'd never attempted layering in any serious fashion and I'd never considered blending or airbrush highlighting at all. Now that I'm improving on these techniques I think my painting is much better than before. In addition, I feel that I've made some improvements in my basing techniques and it helps my models stand out a bit more. It's allowed me to make up a diorama from scratch and not have it be a mess!
Finally, I have to say that I'm really happy that I started my blog and more recently my hobby instagram page. I get so much inspiration from the blogs here on Dakka and it makes me push myself to improve and bring something new to the metaphorical table. Writing up a blog gives me objectives to achieve and deadlines to meet without being super stressful and the feedback I get improves my work considerably in return.
I could probably waffle on a lot more but that'll do I reckon. In the new year I'll do a "Plans for 2019" post at some point to give me some objectives that I may or may not achieve.
Onto the P&M side of things, I finished the classic metal fire prism today to what I think is an acceptable level. There are a few glaring mould lines, which if I could get rid of I would! I'm not worried enough to file them down and repaint those areas however! I'll take some light box photos for the next update but the shots from the table now that I have the lamp isn't too bad really. The balance of the tank is bloody awful and tilts back as expected. I need some weight in the front somehow but it needs to be concealed.
I also finished the forgeworld scatter laser turret alongside the fire prism so that will most likely replace a falcon turret for my competitive games of 40k but here it is on top of the fire prism hull:
Finally, we're moving onto the Farseer. I spent a good while trying to wet blend this guy's cloak to an acceptable degree and it's still in progress. I got some great advice from queen_annes_revenge on improving the blending in places and brightening the green on the flapping part of the cloak but I'm very happy to accept more advice on the cloak and the rest of the model! It seems that as I paint the characters of my army, I want them to be of a better standard than my line guys as more people will be likely to look at those (or so I hope).
Apologies for the blur on this one, I hope you can make out the general details:
Thanks for reading, I hope you all have had a great year and hope you all have a happy new year!
Happy New Year! And wow, congratulations! That is quite an accomplishment in university, I hope you win the award Like youwasshock, I'm glad you're back in the hobby too, and your reason for returning is the same reason I stay with 40k and D&D, I need that creative outlet too. It's been fun reading you're blog, and I'm looking forward to what you will accomplish in 2019.
Keep at it, Tyranid. 2018 was a good year for ya, and the fruits of your labors are bountiful. The green on your Farseer's cloak looks vibrant. The "flapping" part could use a little more highlighting, as could the top of the right leg's edge and the tops of the sleeves. Not as much as the flapping part, but a bit more I think to make the leader really stand out.
Wonderful colors. Looking forwar to seeing the army all come together.
Seems that you had a great year!
It's always a good feeling when you get back to a hobby after a while.
The Farseer is looking very nice!
As you said it yourself, your painting skills have improved a great deal during the time you have been writing this blog!
I enjoyed reading the Year Review TH, it's great to see your reflections and also that you feel you've improved - that's all any of us can wish for.
I'm enjoying the latest models too, the cloak on the farseer is looking really cool. Reminds me of painting that exact same model and also feeling really proud of the cloak. I think the sculpt just begs for some beautiful layering and shows it off really well.
Ah cheers guys! I really do appreciate the support! Glad you guys like the cloak, rather pleased with it at the moment and I reckon I'll get a few photos up tomorrow. I have a second one of these which I'll get round to, but seeing as this one is the stock model it opens the other up for some converting!
Can't really call this an update, but I cleaned and assembled a squad of old Steam Lords from Anvil Industry that I got six years ago... And never touched bar a coat of paint on a pair of legs. They'll be entered into January's Painting Challenge: Bonds of Fellowship. I don't really have a set colour scheme for these guys as they don't really fit my old BT army and I don't fancy painting them black so suggestions are very much welcome! I'm going to make a small diorama for them too as they'll be more of a display piece than anything. Suggestions for the theme of that are also welcomed!
It's been over a week and very little of that week has been spent at the hobby desk unfortunately! Any hobby time I have spent since the start of the new year has been spent going back and forth between dark green and light green as I try to blend out the Farseer's cloak! It seems to be working though, with the feedback I've been getting here and elsewhere have been really helpful and I do seem to be making it work. I'm tempted to leave the cloak as is now, but if you catch anything that could be improved, please do say so! I've also worked on making the spear look good with some blending, may as well put some effort into making the model a high standard (for me)! I may need to repaint some parts of the inner robes as some of the sepia wash I used for the wraithbone bled into the crevices.
I took a few proper photos of the classic Fire Prism too, which was heartbreaking considering it's lovely habit of tilted backwards like a rearing horse.
So, what are the plans for 2019?
I said back in my OP that I wanted to improve my painting over the course of this blog and I'd like to continue that into 2019 as the overarching goal. I have a few points I'd like to stick to for 2019 so here's a list:
1) Do not buy any new models, but if I do, I want to paint more than I buy.
2) The eBay pile I want to reduce, if not eliminate by the end of the year.
3) I want to try more historical scale modelling, meaning aircraft and tanks mainly, with the potential for making some dioramas.
4) I want to finish off my Craftworld army. No army is ever truly finished, but I want to try my hand at something non-Eldar.
5) Learn airbrushing!
Misc: More gaming, more fluff writing!
I could go on and on with goals and aims but I reckon 5 points is enough to keep me going. Some of them are quite ambitious, but others are more manageable.
The Seer is looking really good. Only thing you could do to work it further is push the value scale even more, darker in the recesses, lighter at the edges. I don't know how far you want to take the contrast though.
Looking ace! You are really improving from what I can tell.
Blending always takes a lot of time, especially when trying to figure out different techniques. Atleast it does for me, as I'm not an expert at it.
Seconding what Youwashock mentioned: painting the lower areas a tad darker might give a little more definition. Something similar like in the lighter areas of the front robe.
The cloak is very good nevertheless!
Good goals I think. Would be cool to see the whole Craftworld army finished.
It's always good to try and paint more models than you buy. Something I have started doing only a year or so ago..
The Farseer is looking really good - I can see the improvement on blending the cloak from one photo to the next. Like has been said, even greater contrast wouldn't hurt, but it's looking nice enough already I'd be worried about making a mess of things by trying to change it too much.
Youwashock: Cheers! Ask and ye shall receive! I've darkened recesses and added some blending.
Ezki: Thanks, I've put a good few hours into this Seer so it's good to see the work is paying off. Don't know how possible the paint more than I buy will do, I'm already tempted!
Nev: The green is rather bright, I guess it's the consequence of my stark highlight for the rest of my army.
Bellerophon: We'll see about goal no.1, hopefully I can stay true to my goal!
Cap. Brown: Thanks a lot!
Hey all,
Another small update, I've not really been painting much other than the farseer, going over and back between blends and touching things up here and there. Happy to say now though that I think it's finished. I've darkened some of the recesses and lightened other areas. Bit of a learning curve but I think I'm more confident now than when I started with my wet palette and making blends on the go. Let me know what you all think!
I've also been messing around with a support platform guardian, as I have a few more guardians to paint and I'd like to get a confirmed scheme for my infantry. I have a squad of Biel Tan guardians I did years ago and another squad is black with green helmets so I'm unsure which direction to go with future guardians as black isn't the dominant colour any more. Let me know what you think of this one too, I think I prefer this scheme more than the black and green guardians, albeit more time consuming! I also have just seen that there's a smear of ushabti bone on the nicely painted helmet, much to my chagrin!
Excellent work on the farseer. That cloak turned out very well.
The one thing about that guardian scheme is I was asking myself where his chainsword and mandiblaster were. Very scorpian vibe. Might be unavoidable with the pallete you are working with. But he looks great.
The Farseer's cloak has come out really well, I can tell that a lot of time has gone into that green. The robe he wears under the cloak looks like it hasn't had as many layers/blends by comparison - the highlight seems a bit extreme and abrupt. It's hard to tell whether it's the paint or the photo, but I think that would benefit from a bit more blending/more transitions? On the whole though, good job!
I like the guardian scheme too. Using a lighter shade of the same colour for the helmet isn't something I've seen often and I think it works well.
Question for you, Mr Horde - with the little light box you got (which I've since picked up), are you finding any difficulties in getting the light levels to look right on your models?
With the LED strip that came with it, I'm finding mine to look really overexposed (though I note that I'm using the camera on my phone (a Samsung S9) to take pictures while I look for the charger for my actual camera) - this is despite trying with the white and black backgrounds, so far.
My phone is not a Samsung, but it is an Android and I have found that it always, always, always overexposes close-up photos, unless you put so little light on them that the pics come out grainy and illegible.
Also that none of the on-board settings make even the slightest bit of difference.
The only solution I have found so far is to roll with it and use image-editing software to correct the issues. I use the image-editor bundled with *spit* Windows 10, or GIMP, depending on how much work is needed to fix the image.
youwashock: Thank you! Kept the base simple and luckily it matched my poker chip style base.
monkeytroll: Thanks, glad you like the cloak!
Ezki: Cheers, definitely worth the time and glad you like the guardian, might use that scheme for the rest of them.
Thousandeyes: Thanks for stopping by and glad you like what you see! The gaming scene up in Donegal is pretty quiet right now unfortunately.
Nev: Cheers, The Guardian scheme is the same one I used for my striking scorpions, although modified slightly and painted a fair bit better. I may have to think of something to denote them as Guardians a bit more!
Excommunicatus: Thank you kindly!
Bellerophon: Thanks, and you're quite right, not as much time has gone into the front cloak, it's something that I'll probably go back and redo. Glad you like the guardian too!
Captain Brown: Cheers Cap!
Fifty: Thanks so much!
Dysartes: Yeah, it's a bit of a finicky little box, you have to angle the LED strips inwards to catch the model correctly. I'm using a Samsung S8 as it's better than my old DSLR so right off the bat I can tell you that using the auto setting results in overexposed photos! At the start I messed around with exposure and all that stuff on the manual settings but you need a tripod for that kind of work and I didn't have an attachment for my phone, so I just auto focus the model and slide the brightness down on the little icon that pops up on the screen (I think it's white balance?). Using the Dakka gallery uploader tends to wash the images out a bit so darker photos are better. I hope that helps, once you get used to the little light box it's hard to go back!
Hey all,
A rather small update considering the length of time I've not updated this blog, There was a small period of burnout for almost two weeks where I didn't really want to paint so I built a partially built Hawker Hurricane MkIIc to be painted once I get the knack of my new airbrush, practised with said airbrush, sorted my bits into new tool boxes I bought in the Euro shop (aka pound shop/dollar store), and took stock of my pile of shame and half finished models.
Long story short, I need to finish my half painted stuff as a priority
Annnd speaking of half finished stuff, you may or may not remember those Ork Boyz that were partially painted and promptly forgotten about but I decided to paint them up to a reasonable table-top level rather than going gung-ho on them. I knocked them out as Deathskulls, they're a cool clan but for some reason I painted their clothes blue instead of their armour which shows you how much I pay attention to how Orks are painted. I gave them pretty simple bases with a few marine bits thrown on. I think they're officially meant to be on 32mm bases now and the nob would probably benefit from it, but they were already stuck on the bases before the codex came out. Here they are anyway, let me know what you think!
I'm meant to be entering 5 of the Anvil Industry Steam Lords into the painting challenge tomorrow but I couldn't find a scheme that I really liked and the theme of the models didn't fit my small force of Black Templars so I had to have a think and I settled on Luna Wolves. I think trying to paint the grey/white of Luna Wolves is what burned me out. Love the scheme, don't love it when I decide to brush paint it instead of airbrush it. I switched to Sons of Horus but I've gone for the first company colours of black, red and gold. Typically seen on Justarian Terminators, but squads of Reavers get them too, so I guessed that these guys would suit as they're a bit different from the norm. I don't know if they'll be finished on time but I'll give it a go!
I feel a lot better to see the Orks shifted (I'm selling them off too so PM me if you want some Orks!) and it's motivating me to get the Steam Lords done. Let's see if I can hash these guys out in time!
The brown and blue work surprisingly well on those boyz.
Sometimes painting minis can start feeling like a chore, especially when trying so hard to achieve something repeadetly without success or working against a deadline. At those times it's easy to forget that painting should be the thing relieving from stress / burnout. Not the other way around. Been there a few times myself.
You did the right thing switching the project to something completely different! You'll come around with them eventually
Cheers for the support Ezki, youwashock and Syro, unfortunately I didn't finish the entry on time but I'm still chipping away at them. I found out, much to my annoyance that the weapons they come with don't fit the arms and bolters that I can replace them with are a very tight fit in their hands! I am considering shelving them for a little bit as I've got this month's entry to paint up.
Hey all,
Bit slow once again this week as I've not so much been painting but I have been to a new game night run by the LGS and I ran an intro game of 40k for one of the newbies that had turned up. I also got to try out a Flash Gordon RPG which is a bit like D&D but a bit faster in terms of character building. Was a pretty fun evening and after that I got some assembling and priming done during the week. If you frequent the painting challenge for this month you'll see I've entered the Sons of Horus Reaver Attack Squad I picked up from eBay a few years ago:
These guys took ages to clean up to an acceptable level and I'm still finding mould lines here and there. I based them on 32mm bases instead of 25mm as it takes them in line with the modern marines. Here they are primed and luckily enough the rattlecan primer worked pretty well in 5 degrees Celsius:
As you can see, the previous owner didn't exactly do a brilliant job of removing the nubs from some of the pauldrons... They've been snapped off rather than painstakingly removed and filed down like a normal person should do when they invest in Forgeworld. Anyone have recommendations on fixing these up? I could add some more damage to convey some battle damage. In spite of the damage though, they're some lovely sculpts and I'm looking forward to painting them. So I pose another question: Should I paint them in the First Company colour scheme or go for the classic sea green of standard Sons of Horus? Input is appreciated!
I also got up to some magnetising, which is the first time I've done anything of the sort. As my War Walkers have been staring at me for the past few months (years), I wanted them to have all the options to future-proof them. I used 2mm x 1mm magnets and they just fit in the width of the weapons. I still need to pin the mounts as that's a part that breaks quite a bit for some reason but with magnets storage is handy too!
On the painting side of things I've been working on that Wych Squad which I'll show off once it's finished. They only need a few more hours put into them to finish them so I'll show them once they're done. Other than that, I dug through my models and found my first Guardian for a bit of a ten year comparison. It's not quite the full ten years, more like nine and a half but prior to that I'd never painted a model. Hopefully there's a noticeable difference!
Those new Sons are quite cool models. My 30K model knowledge is rather limited, so it is neat to see unfamiliar figures pop up. I vote Sons green for the armor.
youwashock: I reckon I'll be trying out green Sons, it'll be a challenge but I'm up for it! Just need to get to the hobby shop to grab some paint.
TheEldanariPrince: Thanks! It's probably the brightest model I've painted thus far!
Captain Brown: I reckon I'll keep my first models, although I may consider repainting them at some point. They're a bit hilarious to field alongside my more recent models.
No updates, but I made it to the front page a few days ago, definitely something ticked off the bucket list
Added the final touches to my Wych Squad over the past few days and they're done, but I'm not overly happy with them. I wasn't a huge fan of painting them and I think it shows. Skin was not something I'd tried before/avoided so it was a bit of a challenge getting a tone I liked. I've also not really given time to practising faces, something which I have experience of now thanks to these guys. One thing I could have done first were the eyes, my brushes weren't small enough to do tiny detail work and I gave some of the Wyches googly eyes on a few before giving up and going over them again.
I can attribute this set of models down to practise and I'll definitely sort out my work order for the next set of models.
Here they are:
Some spoilered individual shots for those interested!
Spoiler:
I managed to finish off the Vaul's Wrath Support Battery I'd been working on too. I did do a nice base made from poker chips but no one will ever see it because the platform covers the whole base. The kit was quite lovely overall, the great thing about the weapons is that they're all interchangeable and don't require magnets to slide on and off the mount. I doubt I'll ever use it in game but I'd like two more to complete the set just in case.
Here it is:
Spoilered photos of the individual Guardian and the platform:
Spoiler:
And finally, a little progress shot of the War Walkers. When I left them I didn't realise how much more work was involved in them, but I'm getting stuck in. The most labour intensive part of the whole thing are the bases. I want them to match the poker chip bases that you see on my Dark Eldar and the more recent support platform to tie them into the aesthetic that I'm going for. The only issue is that these bases take so many damn layers to bring them up to a nice bone colour.
Here they are, in various stages of completion, with the most progress made on the leftmost walker, and the least on the right:
And here is an individual shot:
Considering I've magnetised all the weapons I own that are compatible for these guys, I'll need to paint them all up too. I'll crack out the airbrush for those, something I should have done for the bases
I mentioned the poker chips and how I want to tie in my bases to each other. I was thinking about starting up a thread in the fluff to flesh out my Craftworld and Kabal. So considering the Eldar ruins theme, I have a few options to consider that I'd like some feedback on and they each open up their own stories.
1) Theme the ruins to be that of a Crone World. It's something not explored often in the lore so leaves me to be creative. I could write a fluff piece about the collection of spirit stones and potentially include Slaaneshi daemons or Chaos Eldar (something mentioned in 2nd edition and is hinted at in the 8th edition BRB). For larger pieces of terrain the ruins could still be wraithbone but twisted into something else entirely. This ties into the Webway and forgotten paths that the Kabal could have entered in their escape from Commoragh.
2) An Exodite world besieged by another race. I've modelled some of the Wyches with Tyranid spikes and spore stacks so I could show the ruins among a world covered in flora that erupts during the invasion of a Hive Fleet. This would tie in my own Hive Fleet into the lore of my Craftworld (something I've not touched in a very long time) and I have loads of bits from my Nids to embellish the terrain/bases. This would also lead into some Exodite Knights which have been inspired by a few I've seen here and from artwork/fluff in the 2nd edition codex.
3)??? I'm open to more ideas!
Anyway, thanks for having a read, any comments and criticism are always very welcome!
Dinosaurs are pretty sweet to be fair. I'm looking at Drakespawn knights for them should I go down that route. Their lances make a nice analogue for Shining Spear lances!
Some good work here TH. Those poker chip bases work particularly well with your Eldar. The colour scheme on your boyz is cool too. As for the SoH then sea green gets my vote, even though it strikes me as a difficult colour to pull off consistently. That said I expect you’ll smash it!
Even though you are not completely happy with the wyches, I think they came out nicely. Still loving the bone coloref weapons, in which I fell in love during my first browse on your thread. If I remember correctly, I mentioned them in my first post here too. I understand the feeling of trying to finish a sunit of "not so fun to paint" - models.
The effect on that turret is ace!
For the fluff I vote option one. Fallen eldar, or ones mutated by chaos, is something that wakes my interest. Slaaneshi guardian conversions are something I've been toying around in my mind, but having so many different ideas and no real purpose where to use them I've never started crafting. As a finnish metalhead, I already have a theme album for all stuff that is chaos, even though I don't yet have any chaotic armies. Anyway, it would be cool to see something like that.
If you decide to go with the dinosaurs, that's a really cool path too!
Thanks for stopping by gobert! Glad you like the poker chips, I'm dying to work on some bigger bases to show off what I have in mind! I have the paints ordered for the SoH, it'll be fun to try a new shade of green.
Thanks for the input Cap, the larger bases definitely aid that look.
Cheers Ezki, as time has passed I'm a bit happier with them, they look nice sitting beside my Kabalites and Archon. It's a good weight off my chest to have them finished.
Fluff wise, it's 2 to 1 for Crone World vs Exodite World. Thinking more about the options, I'd mentioned Drakespawn as the dinosaurs for Exodite Knights. The plus with Exodites is that I can use them in the same army as my Craftworld and Drukhari, but with Chaos Eldar, they'd probably have to be their own self contained force. As Ezki mentioned, Slaaneshi Guardians are a go to in terms of making a civilian population. A mirror to Exodite Knights could be mounted Eldar on Seekers. The Sylvaneth, specifically the grunts, while a force of order could be painted to be sufficiently twisted wraithbone.
No real updates on the P&M side of things recently, there's been some family stuff going on and I've been packing for a move as I've managed to get a job as a Geologist! So I'm moving back to London, if anyone is around and wants a game, give me a shout! My paints have finally turned up at the LGS, so I'll finally be able to make a start on the currently primed SoH Reavers. It'll be tight to get my models painted up in time for the painting challenge, but I'll give it my best shot!
First of all, an extremely sheepish hello from me, I've not properly updated this log since the middle of February and I've already used the packing for work as an excuse and I've no real excuse for this hiatus other then being lazy and tired! I haven't been painting or modelling but this past week I've sat down and I've been tinkering away with what I'm going to be painting for this month's painting challenge but before I got any painting done I needed to decide what I wanted to paint for the "Art of War". No surprised I have a bunch of aspect warriors for this and I'll be going for a Fire Dragon exarch that got rescued from eBay. I am debating doing multiple aspect warriors for this as I think it'd be cool represent multiple different aspects (or arts) of war.
Since moving away from all my models and the pile of shame, I brought along my Sons of Horus which subsequently got broken on the journey over and I also don't have a compressor to continue airbrushing those. I brought my War Walkers, which will be done in the next few weeks, and I brought over my Fire Dragons, Swooping Hawks and Warp Spiders, as they're all pretty different and I won't get bored painting them. I have also managed to find 10 metal Howling Banshees on eBay for a reasonable price so there's another Aspect to add to the Swordwind. Totally just ignored my 2019 resolution with that one...
The positives of being away means I have to get creative with my basing now that I don't have my go to sand. I discovered (or rather saw someone else use it) some structure paste from Flying Tiger for 3 quid a tub. They come in a range of textures so I bought a smooth one and a rougher one to see how they go. I've tried it out to base an entire model as well as use it as filler where the sand hasn't covered parts of bases.
The pots are a decent size, and for what I'm using it for, it seems to be decent value.
Here it is on the base of a swooping hawk and below that is where I've covered up gaps where sand hasn't covered the bases of my warp spiders and fire dragons:
I'll make sure to paint up an example to show off what the paste actually looks like tomorrow.
Thanks for reading as usual, and hopefully I'll have more frequent updates. Thanks to those who congratulated me on the job, things are going pretty well so far and it's nice to finally be part of the working world.
It's good to see you back Tyranid Horde, and no worries you don't need to feel obligated to keep us entertained, all of us just want a break to do other stuff even from such an enjoyable hobby. Good luck with the contest, and I'm curious to see how the paste looks painted.
Good to see you back, yours is always one of the blogs I keep an eye out for. Sorry I missed the initial chance to congratulate you on the job, but I'll do so now - congrats!
Was the 2019 resolution by any chance to avoid buying models or to stay off ebay? Because I went with something similar, and have also utterly failed at it. It's not so bad building up the pile so long as you keep chipping away at it...
Glad to have you back!
Hobby breaks happen and sometimes they last longer than we initially thought.
Don't sweat it, we'll be here. I too have been a bit lazy on my modelling for a while now...
That modelling paste looks really handy. Have never seen those in any of my local hobby stores.
Looking forward to see how it looks painted!
Thank you all for your support, it means a lot, even if I'm becoming more infrequent with my posts!
So hello everyone,
I'm back again with another update, almost a month after the last one and progress is a little slow but it's more than March's attempt at getting through my pile of shame.
I think I'll start with what I've actually completed first and then move onto what I'm working on. To start with, I've actually completed an entry for the Unofficial Painting Challenge for the first time since December's Open Round as the previous entries I'd chosen were not what I wanted to paint. So as it was the theme "Art of War" some Fire Dragons were apt for the choice. Then I thought doing one of each aspect would be an even better idea, letting me complete a bunch of models at once! Needless to say, I failed in that task down to pure laziness but I finished the Fire Dragon exarch at least and I'm reasonably proud of him. I wanted to go for an old school colour scheme but I spent an evening after basecoating the model and went with whatever I felt like. Tell me what you think of him as I'll be moving onto the rest of the squad this month. Also, it's not super obvious, but the structure paste was used on the base for some parts and the effect of it is subtle but I think it helps make the base look less like painted sand.
Sleeping Wyvern Shrine Exarch:
I was debating starting a separate blog for this but seeing as I can barely keep this one up to date I'll do it here. I bought Blackstone Fortress at the start of April and I spent a lot of time cleaning, assembling and priming them and I'd like to keep a log of my progress as I go through the box-set. My aims with Blackstone is to collect all the expansions for the series as they come out and paint them in a way that reflects the artwork more so that what 'Eavy Metal have done with the models as they're quite bright and garish. I don't want to go down the path of Blanchitsu but muted tones and a darker theme is a little more apt for a darker corner of the galaxy.
Here's an artsy shot that got uploaded to my instagram (shameless plug, it's in my signature):
I decided to start with the basic grunts first and alternate with the heroes as I go along. I began with the Ur-Ghuls, which in my opinion don't make much sense in Blackstone but I'll go with it and it's good to see a more accessible option to them instead of the finecast model. As I said, the model is going off artwork and not the bright blue that GW have decided on. I'm trying to get the hang of painting up the bases and they'll be refined more in later models but they're okay for now. Let me know what you think:
Now, onto actual progress I've made. Practically none, but small steps and I'm getting more motivated as time goes on to paint a bit more. The Fire Dragons are slowly getting painted up and I had to abandon trying to paint them all as the painting challenge deadline loomed but here they are, a far cry from finished but they're enjoyable nonetheless. As I mentioned for the Exarch, feedback is greatly appreciated on these guys, especially on the greys I've used to compliment the orange and yellow. I feel like going for bone (which I was intending on doing) might have been too much with the weapon also being a bone colour.
Onto some Blackstone progress! I've been working on the Spindle Drones since finishing the Ur-Ghuls and once again I'm going for a darker, more sinister feel to them as depicted in the artwork. I've used some paste to break up the monotony of flat bases and I sanded the bases to make them flatter. I think it makes a nice effect and hopefully it'll look good painted up. The drones are going to be a light grey but with stark shadows as I want them to appear like they're floating through the gloom of the Fortress, which means I'm going to try some OSL on the lenses! They're very basic right now but suggestions are warmly welcomed!
Moving on from that, my Banshees arrived in the post and the primejob they game with wasn't great so I reckon they'll be getting reprimed before any paint hits them. I based them with pure paste and gave their bases some texture as I went along. I think I may choose the Banshee exarch for this month's "To The Death" themed painting challenge. I won't enter more than one model this time...
And my destruction of my hobby resolution continues in earnest as I've picked up the OOP Necromunda Farseer Yrthrian Mardawn and her retinue of Fire Dragon bodyguards, who are a completely different sculpt from the other models! I don't think these are recasts, but I may be wrong, I haven't identified any obvious mistakes or miscasts on these. They're very narrow but pretty funky models! I got these pretty inexpensively on eBay as I see they're pretty pricey in other auctions online (£50-£70).
Wheee. Another delver into the mysteries of the Fortress. Really nice start with the ur ghouls. The base effect looks great.
For the spindles, if you're going dark with a bit of lens OSL I would recommend doing a bit of uplighting from the floor as well. I'm going to try that on my Mallex, just as soon as I manage to get back on the painting pony
Great job on the dragon exarch, he looks really good, looking forward to seeing him with all his mates! The Ur Ghuls look like a really nice and dark start. Seeing Flinty and now yours are tempting me towards the Blackstone Fortress, it looks a really nice kit which you’re doing credit to!
I wouldn’t fret about your progress, my last unit took about 25 years to complete! Keep em coming!
Cheers Flinty! Your blog and a few tutorials I've seen on Youtube has made me decide to bite the bullet on the set considering it's going to be a continuously updated game and not just a one off like Dreadfleet. Definitely going to be uplighting now, didn't even think of it!
Thanks youwashock! I can honestly say I've never seen many paint these sculpts outside of the original studio model. I'm not sure what scheme I'll go for, whether to keep her as Saim-hann or go for my own Craftworld for consistency's sake.
Thank you gobert! Aiming to get the dragons done soon but in the meantime, get Blackstone! I'd be interested to see what you'd do with yours!
No photos right now, but I'm going back to my War Walkers as my local shop has a mechanised themed painting competition and there seems to be no restrictions on what I can enter so that squadron will do!
Tyranid Horde wrote: And my destruction of my hobby resolution continues in earnest as I've picked up the OOP Necromunda Farseer Yrthrian Mardawn and her retinue of Fire Dragon bodyguards, who are a completely different sculpt from the other models! I don't think these are recasts, but I may be wrong, I haven't identified any obvious mistakes or miscasts on these. They're very narrow but pretty funky models! I got these pretty inexpensively on eBay as I see they're pretty pricey in other auctions online (£50-£70).
Tyranid Horde,
A couple of points...
1) Bad Tyranid Horde...increasing the backlog of unpainted models can lead to delays in completing the models you already have. 2) Tyranid Horde scores on the OOP Necromunda Farseer Yrthrian Mardawn
Necromunda had several interesting models that only were on the shelves for a short time, like the Steel Legion sniper model. Great find with the Farseer and congrats that you found it for less than the going rate.
Ooh, another Blackstone project! And a very nice start with the ghouls! Your rendition of the BSF bases is one of the better ones I've seen, the blue lines seem to be positively glowing!
And while I'm not an Eldar man, I got to say that you've got some cool Fire Dragons. The paint scheme is appropriately fiery!
Nice start on the blackstone fortress stuff, the Urguls are great. Really good fiery orange on the fire dragon too, can't wait to see the squad finished and what you come up with for BSF
It's been 5 months since I've last updated this blog and it's mostly my fault for not doing so! I've also been spending a lot more of my evenings playing 40k rather than just talking about it so that's something too!
With this update I think I'll go for a big one rather than spread it out over a few updates as I've been up to a good bit in my absence from blogging.
I did manage to complete my Howling Banshee Exarch for the painting challenge and the rest of the ladies are still in progress and coupled with Psychic Awakening they might get done sooner rather than later. It's a shame their rules are still a bit pants but here's the Exarch below. I spent a lot of time on here but I'm unlikely to spend as much time on the squad as I did with her and I think the rules have a bearing on how fast I paint things!
Contrast paints came out and I spent a couple of hours with one of the free models from my local GW. It was a lot of fun to slap paint onto a model without much care but the one thick coat ethos isn't the best thing to do if you want a good looking army by the end.
As it's been a few months since they came out, a lot of the hype has died down and I have to say the high pigment count and the ease of painting with contrast has me using some contrast paints more than traditional paints for things like fur, leather and more. The Blackstone Rogue psykers I painted got their jacket trim and furs painted with contrast and I think it's given them quite a nice effect!
I did make some progress on the Blackstone stuff, but a lot of them fell to the wayside a bit as I focused on playing games and painting up my Eldar for games in the Bad Moon League, which is a series of games that takes place in Bad Moon Cafe in London. I've painted up the Spindle Drones and I've made a start to the Eldar Ranger but much to my dismay her sniper rifle is so thin and spindly that it has snapped multiple times. Not much of a game piece honestly. I do plan on getting the Ambull and Escalation Expansions at some point but I need to finish the base set first!
I haven't painted a huge amount of models since May, but I've been working on my techniques or learning brand new ones so I can become more of an all round painter and find my own style. Faces are one of things I've generally veered away from and a lot of Blackstone models unsurprisingly have faces. I picked up a Knight Incantor model for £5 from GW's intro to Sigmar magazine and tried out blending and glazing on what is a pretty good face to practise on. I also wanted to try out painting eyes, which is something I hadn't tried either. Below is a before and after showing the progression from half done to a finished face.
Following on from "TH learns faces", I was on holiday in Italy and they'd just released Conquest over there. Never seeming to turn down a bargain, I picked up a copy of issue 1 to try out some of the Intercessors. I watched a video on colour theory and rather than shade a colour with a darker shade of said colour, working in a different darker colour for the recesses gives a visual differentiation and tricks the eye into seeing a darker version of the same colour. I applied this to an Intercessor painted in the Salamander Chapter scheme and shaded the greens with purple to see how that worked out. He's still a work in progress but working with relatively simple cylinders and spheres was really refreshing and helped me practise my blending. I was also inspired by beboppaints' mantis warriors so attempted something similar. By no means as good, but I'm content with my progress
Finally, I also got round to getting a compressor for my airbrush and with that, I made a start to some of the Exodites I'd gotten using a gift voucher my lovely gf got me for my birthday. I spent the past two weeks rushing to get them tabletop ready but I should be finishing them this week/weekend. Here are some WIPs starting from the basic kitbash to where most of them are currently:
Dragon Knight (counts-as Shining Spear Exarch)
Batch airbrushing:
Some detail work and contrast over dark reaper and grey:
On the table:
I have some more stuff in the works but for now, that's enough of a wall! I'll have some close ups of the units I've painted so far soon as I've not had the time with the tournament that I played in at the weekend. I came 11th out of 72 players and even got best Asuryani player!
Cheers again and hopefully I'll update this thread a bit more!
Welcome back TH! Looks like you’ve produced some good stuff in the time you’ve been away! The salamander looks really great, I would not have thought you’d used a purple for the shadows! Might have to read in to this theory!
The Rogue psykers looks great, did you use your airbrush for the glowing eyes or some other technique?
Thank you all for the kind welcome backs! I'll hopefully have some photos up tomorrow of the finished Exodite Knights as they need to be done for the Dakka Painting Challenge!
@gobert the eyes and cheeks were painted with a brush and brought up to white for their eyeballs to show energy radiating from them. Just a bit of layering got a pretty effective result!
Got her for £3 quid inc. shipping and I needed an 
Not the best put together model in the world by the guy I bought it off, but it'll do, I may throw it into some Dettol.
