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Long topic title is long; much like my beard, hours spent awake in the realm of the real world and the length of my ... CD collection.

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A Brief Introduction

I would like to introduce myself firstly, being a new member to Dakka. My interest in GW was planted when I was around 12 - roughly a decade and then some since then. As befitting of all students and young people, my financial situation ebbed and flowed like the tide. More often than not I had no real money to blow on plastic miniatures or paint so the GW hobby was brushed aside properly for several years. However, this situation turned at the start of the year and I have finally been able to dive properly into the hobby and divert funds into the tabletop machine.

The Eldar have always fascinated and enthralled me, right from the first exposure to Games Workshop. Their allure seems to be (to me) in their ungraceful fall from sublime power, the pinnacle of technology and civilisation crumbling into the depths of nothingness. What entices me far beyond this however is the Craftworld Altansar. It is this fallen and marginalised Craftworld that is taking up my time and painting attention. Now, to the models!

Hello!

Since these images were taken before I had any thought of setting up a plog on Dakka Dakka, they're quite uninformative and won't be terribly easy to show as a progression-thing. Simply know that I started painting my Eldar force in early August. It took some time to find a good solution to painting Guardians quickly and effectively. The images will probably explain themselves. Each image is large so the thumbnail has been posted.



First Batch, Early August

First models painted for several years. Came out OK but nowhere near fine enough for my tastes. lack of any real definition. Dislike the red & black blockiness.








Second Batch, Mid September

Round two. Made heavy use of washes and a 3-stage highlighting on the armour plates, progressively highlighted a smaller area each time. Very satisfied with these. Ignore the terrible highlighting of the helmet and the gun... I made a big mistake there. Later covered this up with some more delicate highlighting of black:purple ratio of 3:1, progressively lightened to a 1:1 mix then black wash to seal and blend - looks MUCH better. Said highlighting method for black can be found in second picture.






Pair of Grav Tanks

Vehicles! Bah, how I hate thee'...












Wraithlord

Picked up a pair of Wraithlords cheap on ze' interwebz. Both had already been constructed and primed, partially painted and blah blah. Quality was OK, worked with what I had. Could have done a much better job on this...






Dire Avenger Exarch

Began this two nights back. A little rough still, needs finishing. I wanted to give the DA some more 'flair', specifically heavy use of Vallejo Royal Purple.

Tried my hand at proper colour blending this evening on my Fire Dragon Exarch.

Some really nice stuff, I like your red but I think your guardians black and white heads need some work, maybe try some more coats starting at darker shades for the white? Looking forward to more, nice go at blending by the way

Thank you for taking the time to look and comment model collector! It is much appreciated. The Guardians are a point of contention for me. All of the models that you see in the above images were the first ones that I painted for several years. I learnt a lot very quickly on those 30 or so Guardians. Those labelled under the "Second Batch, Mid September" were my second pass at a new set. They came out much better but again the helms and face-plates fell a little flat.

I plan on returning back to all of the Guardians and addressing this - especially with attention to the helmets. A friend passed on some invaluable wisdom in subtly highlighting black with a mix of 1:1 purple:black, then working it up gently. I did actually apply this technique to the second batch, as well as tidier faceplates, I just failed in taking newer photographs. I've got some DA and a group of FD in the works right now to apply these newly learned methods.

However, it is always a learning process. I've really felt like I've progressed far beyond those Guardians already, especially with the blending that I did earlier on my FD Exarch.

Thanks again model collector! Always feel free to comment and criticise.

The black and red scheme is nicely executed. The wash really helps to bring out the details. The great thing about starting with a simple scheme is that you can go back later and update it once you master your highlighting/blending. Good job on the blending in that last pic by the way. Keep it up!

Hello Hello!

Finished off my Fire Dragon squad tonight after the weekend passed. They are mostly complete now, a few minor details missing such as the scales on the Exarch's fist. Satisfied with them to a fair degree, they'll do for tabletop gaming. I progressed a little in my painting with these, really quite happy with the blending on the helms of each FD. These are old old old models of mine, some of the first Eldar I bought way back - they've been through some fairly dire schemes before. I would really love to pick up a new box of these one day soon, do the FD Aspect some real justice.

Nothing quite beats painting on new models, IMHO.



And my next project shall be...


Thanks,
Eiríkur

Currently deciding whether to go with an ice-blue witchblade or purple. A friend suggested that I use orange AKA Avatar of Khaine but I'm not convinced.

Went with the blue.



Next up, his accompanying Warlock squad.

Shh. Super-secret...

You have some excellent blends here! That is a technique that I've never had the guts to try...

Great start! Will you add Maugan Ra seeing how he's so closely tied to Altansar?

Thanks!

I fully intend to have Maugan Ra as my centerpiece model.

The current plan goes as this to either finish or begin painting;

- 1 Vyper
- 3 Jetbikes
- 5 Dire Avengers (To finish)
- 6 Fire Dragons
- 5 Warp Spiders
- 6 Harlequins
- 1 Wraithlord
- Silly number of Guardians (Need washing and brought into line with newer standard)
- 1 Farseer (OOP)
- 4 Warlocks

I have a lot of work to do, as you can see.

Work in progress, one of my Warlocks. Sword needs some more work, as does the small bag. Really enjoyed painting this one...

I like your work. I'm more of a fan of the traditional aspect color scheme, but I can appreciate someone who wants a non-rainbow army.

I love the Fire Dragons, they came out great.

Witchblades always give me trouble, too. I've got mine a bright blue, but I'm not pleased with the look.

Looking forward to seeing this army get flushed out!

Thank you.
I've always been of the mind that the traditional aspect colour schemes fit in nicely with certain craftworlds such as Biel-Tan and to a lesser degree Ulthwe. I had a good long thought about it for Altansar and ultimately decided against it for the following points:

- After 10,000 years spent in the Eye of Terror and aversion from other craftworlds, I would assume that the aspects have taken on a more dark and (sinister?) hue of colourings.

- Cohesion and blending within the army.

- Because I am so fething tired of seeing duplicate DA, DR and FD in player's armys.

As for the witchblade, I've toyed with green and purple variations but decided upon blue - it seems to fit nicely. I actually like it due to the deep blue merging up to the ice blue tips. Not too garish...

Takk! I look forward to seeing it on the table.

I like the color scheme and the whole concept. Excited to see more.

Small update; I've decided to cancel any work on my Harlequin squad until I really feel that I can do them justice with my painting. I've started work on two of them and, although not badby any real stretch, they're not good enough for what I deem to be 'real gems' of the army. So, for the moment, they're on the back-burner.

Gives me time to flesh out the rest of my army I suppose! Hopefully going to finish my Warlocks this weekend, as well as my Dire Avengers.

Eiríkr wrote:Small update; I've decided to cancel any work on my Harlequin squad until I really feel that I can do them justice with my painting. I've started work on two of them and, although not badby any real stretch, they're not good enough for what I deem to be 'real gems' of the army. So, for the moment, they're on the back-burner.

Gives me time to flesh out the rest of my army I suppose! Hopefully going to finish my Warlocks this weekend, as well as my Dire Avengers.

My, what large self control you have

Very nice looking stuff.

Latest Warlock to join the HQ. Plus a shot of the current HQ group...

I am personally decided upon the blue for the Witchblades however a friend has, quite bluntly said that "it is gak and doesn't go with the red, black or purple". He advocated a purple blade; this I would find far too similar to the rest of the model paint choice as well as the rest of the army. Another friend is advocating an orange witchblade AKA the Avatar's. What do you think? I really enjoy the contrast here. It'll be one of the few instances in my Altansar army where a visibly bright and vibrant colour is used purposely.

Well, I've already said I like your warlocks and their blue witchblades, so now I'll say I like your whole army's color scheme. Would love to see better pictures of the Wraithlord. And more Wraithlords.

Thank you my friend!

More shall come, in good time! I have a lot of plans for this army as my painting techniques progress and my er... money deflates.

Keep the blue witchblades, colour and contrast always looks best in my opinion. In fact, I'd do a even brighter highlight on them

A little box of tasty Dragons arrived on my doorstep this morning. Struggled to find some in metal, I reckon GW and all indies are phasing them out now for Finecast versions. Still, six of these beautiful models shall be winging through a paintjob soon! May even try my first hand at magnetising the Exarch's weapon choice.

Subbed

Really nice to see the black develop on the warlocks, great to see improvement! The red robes are fantastic as are their weapons. However I'm not too sure about the large black area on the hands.... It draws my attention to the hands rather than the weapons or the helmets, maybe purple? To try and link them more to the farseer(?) otherwise brilliant. Looking forward to seeing what you do with that harlequin.

Thank you, fine chaps!

Regarding the hands, I -think- the Warlocks have the knuckle stubs that are common amongst other Eldar sculpts. I'll check when I get home from work. Always meant to highlight them out in a bone // bronze colour to break out the black-block-hand.

As for the black overall, model collector, I've found a really satisfying and subtle way of highlighting up black. Clearly it works.

Hoping to get a fresh update in later tonight with my final Warlock (for the moment) and a couple of new Fire Dragons. Thanks again!

The Warlocks look really great; my only suggestion would be to apply a contrasting colour to the face, as it gets a little lost at the moment.

Those are some very nice paint jobs!

Keep up the good work fella!