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 Inevitable_Faith wrote:
Oh procrastination, you pretend to be my friend but every time you always let me down.

Inevitable_Faith, procrastination is not your friend.

That Talos looks prime.

Waiting to see the finished project and model.

Cheers,

CB

@EDC: Thanks dude. It's looking a lot better than I thought it was going to look as I was making it. Man making this board has been such a steep learning curve for me.

@ChaoticMind: Thank you. I wish I could say the board was all of those things by design but that's hardly true. It's just the happy accident of me not knowing at all what I'm doing and how to accomplish it.

@Nevelon: Thank you man. Yeah the new Talos IMO is way better than the old one. It fits the theme of the other covens units much better. I remember years ago when I first started playing and a buddy brought his DE and he had the old Talos, I was shocked because it looked way more like a CSM contraption to me.

@CB: Procrastination is so charismatic and charming though! He shows up, with gifts, and we hang out and have fun. Then I realize how much time has passed and have to quickly kick him out of my house so I can get things done. I've gotten better over the past couple years at getting my hobby stuff done in a better timeframe but it's an ongoing struggle.

Well today was the big day, Armies on Parade and I... wasn't there. Due to some personal reasons yesterday I had to call in and cancel my entry. I had the time to get everything put together, in fact the archway for the portal was finished on Thursday night, I just had to mount everything up and do the last little bit of spray painting. The Talos could have been finished as well on Friday but since I had to cancel I got really depressed and couldn't bring myself to finish it.

Sorry this isn't a photo update post, I did do a bit more work on the Talos today but it was mostly just touch-ups to prep him for some washes, nothing worth showing. I'm just so angry and frustrated and disappointed that I wasn't able to make it, that all the work I've done since March culminated in... this. I know the models are done and I can always enter them in next year (with more stuff of course) but this was what I was building up to, this was the destination, the goal. I feel so defeated right now. Anyways, I suppose I just needed to vent. I'll keep plugging away at the army and be back to make some updates probably on Monday, the Talos should be done by then. I'll also throw the AoP board together so at least you guys will get to see what I was building.

/EndRant

Hope everything works out. Sorry you missed your deadline. But at the end of the day, you still have an awesome looking army to be proud of.

Thanks for the support Nev, wasn't a deadline issue but you are right I do have a force I am proud of.

And so as promised I did manage to finish the Talos tonight. This guy definitely crept way outside my safety bubble of things I'm familiar with painting. I really hope you guys like him.

Hey I_F - hope things are smoothing out and going ok. Have had a couple of sinking days myself recently and it's an absolute gakker :/
Anywho - the talos is looking fantastic. Really lovely job. Just love the juxtaposition of the cruel viscousnrss of the beast with the delicate sublime blossoms. Beautiful concept and execution.

Looking good IF. Anyway it's not about the destination, it's all about the journey and by all accounts you've pushed yourself and learned a great deal. Sure it's a kicker you didn't get to enter it into AoP, but you've got a kick ass force and a cool display board.

EDC

Nice work on the Talos. One thing I have a question about; Is the carapace articulated, or just layers? Obviously, the mini is a solid chunk of plastic, but “in world” how is it supposed to work? When you have freehand that crosses plates like that, it would only line up in one position if they flexed/shifted as it moved across the battlefield. The fact that there is a spine across the top implies that it is one solid piece, but just a thought while looking at it.

Also, with his more metallic and fleshy bits, how well does he fit in with the rest of your army? I suspect he looks great, but demand pics! Grab an army shot, let’s see what you’ve got.

@Jan: Thank you very much for your kind words. I'm perking up again now. Still disappointed I didn't get to go but I'm already looking forward to showing off a much larger force next year Those sinking days suck, but gotta do what we love everyday and wake up fresh the next day. Hopefully you kick all your sinking days to the curb whenever they pop up Jan. It's funny actually cause just as I finished the flowers on his carapace I held him away from me so I could take the model as a whole in (I was worried the flowers would be too much and wouldn't jive with him at all) and I just started laughing. Here I've got this monstrous vat-borne aberration built on pain... and I, not even as a joke, painted flowers on him. The irony wasn't lost on me. Overall though I agree, I think the juxtaposition does work fairly well.

@EDC: Thanks man, you're totally right. At the end of the day I am proud of what I've done and especially the growth in my painting skills (I'm less and less scared of flesh every day) and I look forward to seeing what I can do next.

@Nevelon: I'm honestly not sure if the carapace pieces in lore are articulated. To be honest from what I've read each Talos and Cronos engine are individual works of art made by a Haemonculus so it wouldn't surprise me if some are articulated, some aren't, some just have a decorative exo-skeleton frame and some are mostly flesh. Honestly with Talos engines I think we're limited only by our imagination and ability to modify the base model, the fluff tends to make them sound much more individual than GW's single model would imply. As for me I perceive this particular guys carapace to be a solid scalloped piece, no articulation. To be honest he hasn't made it with the rest of my force yet, he's still sitting on the painting tray. Getting some army shots together does sound like a great idea though. I've officially got a unit for each slot in a CAD so it feels like a good spot for a recap. Perhaps after fire practice I'll throw it all together and get some army pics in.

Ok big update here. I sat down to take the army photos like Nev suggested and that's when I realized: I've taken photos of any model I finished after I bought my photo booth but nothing pre-booth has proper photos. So what would have been a quick few snaps of the force all together turned into a full on session. Looking at it all too I really want to thank you guys for the amazing support, comments, critiques and motivation you've all given me to do this project (and my Craftworld Eldar project before it). I don't think I'd be where I'm at today if it wasn't for your kind words and brilliant tips/ideas. Thank you.

Ok enough gushy stuff. On to the photos!

Awesome work dude, they look great all together.

EDC

Thank you EDC. I'm currently planning my next addition. I have 2 more boxes of wyches and one box set aside for conversions into bloodbrides. I've got 3 raiders and a Haemy as well. I think I'll do a second unit of wyches and a raider to fill my second troops choice then perhaps move onto the bloodbrides for another elite. My goal is to finish what I have sitting in boxes before I buy anything new for the army. Having said that I'm tempted to buy another Talos kit and build a cronos this time around. This Talos was tons of fun to paint and I kind of want to do another one.

Great looking force. Looking forward to seeing it grow.

Well I was prepared to talk about the wonderful Talos, then you roll out the rest of the army. Fantastic work. Shock your opponent before the game begins with your army and forget about the AoP for this year.

Cheers,

CB

@Nevelon: Thank you sir. So do I

@CB: Thank you CB. If I show up to a game and my opponent likes the paintjob I've given my force then regardless of the results of the match I consider it a victory. I have an atrocious win record in 40k (no matter what army I play) and a friend of mine mentioned after a game once: "Well you don't always win but atleast at the end of the match you can always claim to have the prettiest corpse."

I think that's more or less become my motto for my 40k matches

 Inevitable_Faith wrote:
@Nevelon: Thank you sir. So do I

@CB: Thank you CB. If I show up to a game and my opponent likes the paintjob I've given my force then regardless of the results of the match I consider it a victory. I have an atrocious win record in 40k (no matter what army I play) and a friend of mine mentioned after a game once: "Well you don't always win but atleast at the end of the match you can always claim to have the prettiest corpse."

I think that's more or less become my motto for my 40k matches

There is another side to that coin. When you are brutally having your teeth kicked by some nasty list in the hands of a skilled player, having it be done at the hands of a gorgeous army takes a lot of the sting out.

You just need to transition from “pretty corpse” to “at least I was crushed by a spectacular looking army”

And frankly, getting the good looking army is the hard part of that equation. Get more games in, learn from your mistakes, adjust as needed. You’ll be tabling people in no time!

Nice job on the Talos!

Your whole army is looking pretty special so far.

@Nevelon: Haha so true man! I must admit I never feel as bad about losing to an army that is gorgeously painted as opposed to losing to a wave of grey plastic. Pulling any victories with this DE force should taste all the sweeter.

@aku-chan: Thank you very much Aku! I'm glad you like the force and especially the Talos. I was very nervous about painting the Talos since it's out of my safety bubble but I'm glad it turned out well.

 Inevitable_Faith wrote:
@Nevelon: Haha so true man! I must admit I never feel as bad about losing to an army that is gorgeously painted as opposed to losing to a wave of grey plastic. Pulling any victories with this DE force should taste all the sweeter.

Inevitable_Faith,

And that is the heart of what the Long Painting War is all about as we do battle with the armies of grey, silver and black.

Cheers,

CB

Sir, you are an inspiration, making it very hard to resist starting a Dark Eldar army of my own.

 ChaoticMind wrote:
Sir, you are an inspiration, making it very hard to resist starting a Dark Eldar army of my own.

Thank you very much ChaoticMind for the kind words, means a lot to me. If you decide to start a DE army they have some amazing models and just the right amount of unique vibe to them that your style would suit them well. I'd love to see what you'd do with some DE models.

Love this blog!

I had a DE army once, back when I was a lot younger so the painting sucked and I ended up selling them as I wasn't on board after my hobby matured a bit.

I've always wrestled with doing a second DE army in bone and a bright green, I tried it once and it looked cool, I still have the mini sitting on my painting bench.

Don't feel bad about doing skin tones, I'm the same with black and any colour/style that doesn't lend itself to intense shading and highlighting. You will always be your hardest critic, trust me I have quite a bit of experience with being hard on my painting/modeling. Besides, they look very nice.

I especially like the cherry blossoms, its very refreshing to see!

Happy wargaming!
~Mikey

Beautiful dark eldar.

@gummyofallbears: Thank you very much for your comment. Bone coloured DE sounds like a great idea, I'd love to see that. Do you have a plog here that I can follow to see the model you did? I think almost every artist across any medium is their own harshest critic, I feel it's important to be that way though because by picking apart our own work that's how we see where we need to improve. I'm glad you like the cherry blossoms, it seems they are being well received by most people and since that's the over-arching theme of my army I'm really glad they're being well received.

@Warboss_waaazag: Thank you kind sir

Ah thanks! I tried a few times to make a plog here but nobody really viewed it or commented so I just assumed my stuff wasn't original enough etc etc (and I suck at taking pictures lol).

 gummyofallbears wrote:
Ah thanks! I tried a few times to make a plog here but nobody really viewed it or commented so I just assumed my stuff wasn't original enough etc etc (and I suck at taking pictures lol).

Taking good photos is very important and it wasn't until recently that I started to up my photo-game to an acceptable standard (my craftworld Eldar earlier in this plog suffer from some truly horrendous photos). I've gone through some dry spells on this plog too where it seemed like no one was looking or cared to comment but eventually things picked up and there are some truly amazing people commenting and giving me tips on how to improve. Like the worlds best cat poster says: just hang in there.

If you do decide to start up a plog definitely let me know here (I'm a terrible lurker and may miss it otherwise) and I'd love to see your work.

 gummyofallbears wrote:
Ah thanks! I tried a few times to make a plog here but nobody really viewed it or commented so I just assumed my stuff wasn't original enough etc etc (and I suck at taking pictures lol).

Half decent photos really help. I've found that sticking a couple of sheets of kitchen roll a cut up cardboard box (the base and two sides) makes a passable photo booth for next to nothing.

Either way, I'll sign up for bone-coloured DEldar

Heh, thanks guys!

I might start on up when I get home, and the bone DE are a must because I realized how many unpainted DE vehicles I have sitting around so I might as well

Inevitable_Faith wrote:

 ChaoticMind wrote:
Sir, you are an inspiration, making it very hard to resist starting a Dark Eldar army of my own.

Thank you very much ChaoticMind for the kind words, means a lot to me. If you decide to start a DE army they have some amazing models and just the right amount of unique vibe to them that your style would suit them well. I'd love to see what you'd do with some DE models.

For the record: Yer a bad influence. I'm now actually considering either building on my existing or 1/2 starting over with my DE. Likely an illegal group even with unbound but painting projects are fun...

Inevitable_Faith wrote:

 gummyofallbears wrote:
Ah thanks! I tried a few times to make a plog here but nobody really viewed it or commented so I just assumed my stuff wasn't original enough etc etc (and I suck at taking pictures lol).

Taking good photos is very important and it wasn't until recently that I started to up my photo-game to an acceptable standard (my craftworld Eldar earlier in this plog suffer from some truly horrendous photos). I've gone through some dry spells on this plog too where it seemed like no one was looking or cared to comment but eventually things picked up and there are some truly amazing people commenting and giving me tips on how to improve. Like the worlds best cat poster says: just hang in there.

If you do decide to start up a plog definitely let me know here (I'm a terrible lurker and may miss it otherwise) and I'd love to see your work.

SECONDED! It's fun to see others progress but lurking around already subscribed threads is just WAY too easy.

Ynneadwraith wrote:

 gummyofallbears wrote:
Ah thanks! I tried a few times to make a plog here but nobody really viewed it or commented so I just assumed my stuff wasn't original enough etc etc (and I suck at taking pictures lol).

Half decent photos really help. I've found that sticking a couple of sheets of kitchen roll a cut up cardboard box (the base and two sides) makes a passable photo booth for next to nothing.

Either way, I'll sign up for bone-coloured DEldar

Again, SECONDED! Just a simple backdrop of printer paper can help immensely. Also I can personally attest that DE look good in bone.

@ChaoticMind: I'm glad I can be an influence to you, bad or otherwise I look forward to seeing some DE on your plog very soon!