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 Inevitable_Faith wrote:
The Guardians look great. I especially like the heavy weapons platform.

Thanks! Glad you like them.

Still very busy with school and work stuff, and will be for the next two weeks.
So no further progress with the models, as I have not had a chance to even touch a brush.

One thing I managed to do however: ordered some bits and kits from black friday sales to convert some better looking eldar. Also got the new necromunda box.

Man, has it been a busy few weeks.
So much work, school stuff and other boring responsibilities. Haven't had time even to pick up a brush.

But still, a small update just to show that I'm not gone anywhere:

My waylands order arrived couple of weeks ago.
Ordered couple of kits for cool parts, conversions etc. Still need to buy a box of wyches too.
These will go for the eldar and the dark eldar projects.

Also got the necromunda box, as I really wanted to try the new version.



And as a friend of mine insisted, I had to start assembling the necromunda miniatures so we could give it a spin.



Might post some pictures of the necromunda gangers when they are finished

So building and painting these takes some time, but I will be getting back to the eldar after christmas.
Even thought about dedicating a few days just for mini's during the holidays, as a way to relax from all the stress that has been going on for a few weeks now.

Quick update:

10 necromunda gangers built plus all the terrain.
Next up some basecoats and probably proceeding to finally finish all my eldar tanks.

Finally some progress with the Eldar as well.

Started working on the swooping hawk conversions.
Decided to "borrow" some of Ynneadwraith's ideas about combining harlequin parts etc.

Started by spreading tons of different kinds of bits all over the table.


Some images from the work in progress:




This guy was supposed to be an Autarch with wings, but as I very rarely use it in my lists I decided to use the half complete model as a hawk.
I'm aware that these guys don't have close combat weapons, but it just looks too cool with the spear that it had to stay


Still a bit unsure about some of the hand positions etc, so those might change a bit.
Also I'm missing a few hawk wings, need to scavenge a couple more from somewhere. The bat wings that come with the scourge package, don't quite fit to these quys imo.

Still a lot of work to be done with these.
Painting wise I think I'll finish all my tanks and farseers first.

Hey again. It's been a while..

I have had some lack of motivation towards painting and updating this thread. Some of it is due to personal hardships over the last winter and spring, some due to school and work stuff.
Trying to force myself to finish some painting projects that I did not feel like doing just because I had told myself that "this army or this unit needs to be done next" was not a good approach.

"I have not updated my dakka blog in a few weeks, I have to paint something and write about it".
Picking up a brush just because "I had to" just lowered the motivation even more.
Eventually this led me feeling stressed about a hobby. A hobby that I love and a hobby that should be one of the things that helps me to ease all the stress.
You should NEVER feel stressed about a hobby.

Over the summer I finally got the motivation to paint back, even got a few games under my belt. And man it felt good.
This also made me realize something. It is okay to take a break. It is okay to jump from one project to another. It is okay to write something, even though the last update was a few weeks, months or years ago. And now, I had the urge to start writing this post at 3 in the morning

Most of you won't care about this scribble, but mostly I'm writing to myself and convincing myself to do things that feel right at the moment and when it feels right.


And now to the matter at hand:

I have been doing a bit this and that. Painted another squad of guardians (after realizing that storm guardians are still a bit meh, even though a lot better than before), made some new wyches for my deldar army and finally finished some Necromunda models so I could test the game out.

Without further ado, it's picture time!

So first an "old" picture from the late spring. Did some kitbashing with the dark aelves box set to make some more wyches.
This girls are still at this point. Will finish them some day.


Next up couple of the Escher gangers from the necromunda box.
Still need to do the bases.




And then some WIP chaos cult gangers.
I had a couple of unopened boxes of chaos cultists lying around. Don't even remember why I bought them couple of years ago.
After I noticed that the rules for cultist had been released for Necromunda, I thought that finally I could put the to good use.
But no, I did not want to go the easy way and just make a gang out of the vanilla cultists. I have collected a ****ton of bits from all over the place, so they came in handy.

A basic autogun cultist.


Cult witch (a really bad image, sorry about that).
This one uses a dark eldar wrack legs, a vampire counts skeleton rider (don't remember the real name) torso, daemonette hand and a cultist pistol hand.


Chaos Disciple with a shotgun (again, bad image).




Chaos disciple with heavy stubber and some basic gangers.


Some of the walls that came with the box. Painted all pieces in like two hours or so.
Really had to fight the urge to paint all the nuts and small details on these, even if no one would never even take notice


Then the second squad of guardians for my eldar army.
This time I wanted to create couple of more dynamic looking characters. Thanks to Ynneadwraith for the idea!


So yeah, this is pretty much the stuff I have been working on during the last couple of weeks.

One last thing.
I have always wanted to take part on the armies on parade. This year I finally decided to do it.
The army that will be displayed is going to be Death Korps of Krieg in a winter trench setting.
As I get all the WIP images sorted out, I will do another (image heavy) thread with just a couple of posts to track the progress. I have already done quite a lot of work on it, and still have couple of weeks to finish it.

A small spoiler of what is to come.


Thanks for checking this out and keep on wargaming!

Hello again.

For a few weeks I have been busy with the armies on parade board. Now that's complete and it's time to get back to other projects.
You can read the project blog for the board in here: https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/764420.page

So for the last 5 weeks or so, I have finished only one model.
Did a quick 2 hour paint job (I'm a really slow painter when it comes to single miniatures) for one Death Rider for the board.

So the deal was that I put on a timer and after two hours the miniature would be complete, no matter the state it was in. Base included.
I paused the timer when the washes dried of course. Did this just that I could finish the model quickly and then continue making the board, as I was in a bit of a hurry.






Now that I think about it, the grey background was not the best choice.
But all in all, I'm happy with the model. Will need to finish the other four sometime in the future. Thought about getting 15 of these: two squads, one command squad and one commander.

As for the Eldar project, I have not yet managed to finish the playable force completely. Jumping from one project to another, the progress has been inconclusive.
Been playing some games with them though (shame on me for playing with unpainted models).

So, time to get back on track and finish those few unpainted models plus some that have been "painted", meaning they have some base colors but not yet finished.
For some reason when I was younger, I just kept buying models, assembled them and then maybe added few colors and jumped straight to the next unit. So I have a ton of half finished miniatures. Very annoying.

Finally started working on the Crimson Hunter.
It will have the same theme as all the other vehicles, but this time I wanted to make the pattern a bit different.


Challenged myself and tried to make a "black hole" - like effect. The black paint came out too thick and I'm not very convinced, but if you don't try something new you never learn.


The current state.


Will get this finished the next week. It's going to be pretty busy with school etc. but I have a few spare hours here and there.
Then it's just the squads of half finished dark reapers and fire dragons!

Agree that the Swooping Hawk needed to keep the spear- I think it would be cool to have a whole squad outfitted with 'aerial lances', like in Poul Anderson's book "War of the Wingmen". S is: kickass!

Good job on the gangers- especially the Escher leader.

_Great_ job on the Crimson Hunter- what a terrific starfield, and the black hole effect was very well done.

Thanks!
Painting the gangers proved to be a nice change. Got 7 escher gangers ready and based and three more to go. I will take more pictures when I get to build my "mini studio" again.

I think sometimes I give myself a bit too much criticism, especially when I try new stuff like the black hole effect.
I just have to learn to be satisfied and stop comparing my models to all the stuff other people have done.

 Meer_Cat wrote:
Agree that the Swooping Hawk needed to keep the spear- I think it would be cool to have a whole squad outfitted with 'aerial lances', like in Poul Anderson's book "War of the Wingmen". S is: kickass!

Now that would be cool! Got to put that under consideration.

Managed to arrange a few hours of hobby time in between all the other stuff.
Got the Crimson Hunter done. Couple of quick pictures from my hobby table:






At the moment I'm working on the dark reapers and firing dragons.
This is the point where the troops are at the moment:









So a lot of work to be done.
There are two things I really dislike when painting. One is repainting old or hald painted models. Other one is finecast, especially the models from a first few batches, as they are full of mistakes.
The units I'm working on combine both of these elements
I think I will just quickly paint these to tabletop standard, so I can finally complete this force.

When I'm done, I will take pictures of the whole force and all the necromunda models with better lightning etc.
Building up the photoshoot setting takes a bit of work, as I have to take it down every time when I'm done. So It's only worth it to take pictures of many finished models at the same time.

IMO, it looks more like a galaxy than a black hole but it still looks insanely good and still works really well inside the aesthetic you have.

Something of sorts yeah. Thanks!

Still working on the dark reapers. Night time is the best time to paint am I right? No interruptions at least.


There are oh so many small spirit stones on these but I want to paint them just to get some more color for contrast.
These guys will follow the same black / purple theme as the guardians.

Edit: Yes, one of them is missing the missile.. Maybe he fired it already?

Read through your blog, wonderful stuff and I didn't realise you had this blog on top of your Armies on Parade blog!
I really like the colour scheme of your Eldar, and I like that you're painting your aspects in a similar scheme to your guardians. It's something I did with my Dire Avengers but I've found anyone I play against get confused when I tell them that they aren't guardians (their fault but hey ho).
The crimson hunter looks excellent, the black hole swirl is really nice and I love those Dark Reapers.

 Tyranid Horde wrote:
Read through your blog, wonderful stuff and I didn't realise you had this blog on top of your Armies on Parade blog!

Glad to hear you read the whole thing and enjoyed it!
It seems that the first post was 6 years ago, but I cannot say that I have been "blogging for six years". I have taken a lot of breaks, some shorter and some longer. The longest seems to be couple of years even.
Still though, I wanted to continue updating this same thread. That way I can look back on all the stuff (well, few posts) I wrote years ago and follow my improvement regarding both painting and writing a blog.
I decided to give the armies on parade a thread of it's own, as it was something completely different both in scale and effort.

 Tyranid Horde wrote:

I really like the colour scheme of your Eldar, and I like that you're painting your aspects in a similar scheme to your guardians. It's something I did with my Dire Avengers but I've found anyone I play against get confused when I tell them that they aren't guardians (their fault but hey ho).
The crimson hunter looks excellent, the black hole swirl is really nice and I love those Dark Reapers.

Cheers!
Typical Mon-keigh, can't tell the difference between a citizen and an elite warrior. But yeah to be fair, they have a lot of similarities.
Regarding the color scheme, I like to keep the army unified. Aspect colors are cool and all, but I just dislike the idea of having "all the colors of the rainbow" in my army for some reason.

Dark reapers pretty much done, will show you guys some pictures when the washes dry etc.
While they are drying, I'm starting to work on the squad of fire dragons.

Woop, Dark Reapers done! Finally!
It took a while, but most of it might be because of Red Dead Redemption 2 was released..

A bit more black parts than the guardians, as these are supposed to be a bit more "evilish".







Turned out quite nice, fits well with the rest of the force. Still need to fix that one missile though!


So while writing my last response, I realized that I have been painting models for quite a long time. As sort of a bonus I wanted to take some time to display some of my FIRST models I have ever painted. Still have them laying around of course. It really was a nostalgia trip to browse trough all my older stuff (including my first 40k orks, but they will be displayed later).
All of these models are from the lord of the rings strategy battle game, as it was the first game I ever played. Anyway, you can read the full story in the first post of this thread.
Picture time!

This is the first model that I remember painting. After picking the gondor starter box, I went to my grandmas house and immediately started brushing away.
As I had no prior experience and there was no one to give me any guidance, I just kind of dipped the brush in the pot and applied the color in very thick layers. I think I was 10 at the time.


The next model I want to show you guys is from the Mines of Moria boxed set. One of the hobbits (I forget which one, Merry or Pippin?). I had just discovered inks (old versions of the current wahses). Used to apply quite a lot of that stuff on all models.


After a few years of training (at the age of ~12-14?) I had learned the basics of drybrushing. From then on, I used to drybrush all metal parts.
I remember getting some grass material from a friend of mine. Used that on all the bases.
I did not even remember that I did the bow strings from some basic thread. I'm surprised that I had the patience for that back then


Last model I want to show today, is one of the wargs I had. My Moria army consisted of a ton of goblins and ten wargs.
I'm still pretty proud of this actually. Developed the dry brushing technique even further. This might have been back in 2007-2008 (14-15 years old).


If I find my old fantasy battle orcs that I have left, I could post a couple of pictures from them if you guys are interested.
I sold most of them back in the day, but if I remember correctly, I might have a few of them left in my parents house somewhere.

Also, just to celebrate the end of Orktober, I ordered the collector's edition Ork codex. Even did a headcount on my old orks.
So I think I will be starting to post some orky stuff somewhere in the near future.


Enough rambling and back to the matter at hand.
Still have the Fire Dragons to finish and then I can finally move on to other projects. I still have ~1000pts worth of Eldar to finish, but that includes models I rarely use. I will paint them eventually, but the main goal at the moment is to have a few playable armies. Playing with unpainted models is a sin of the past from now on.

Just a quick work in progress update.

Working on with the Fire Dragons. The same theme will continue with this squad.
Terrible image, but as these are far from ready I don't think it matters that much.


I wanted to add some spot color with the orange cloth pieces. I think it works well enough, as yellow is the complementary color (not sure this is the right word?) for purple.
It also represents the aspect colors a bit.

Still a lot of details to paint and have to redo their bases.

Offtopic: I managed to get my hands on a decent camera. It will of course take some practice, but over time the picture quality will hopefully improve!

I find it really cool being able to look back at the work you've done in the past and comparing it to where you are now. Awesome stuff!

The Dark Reapers look sweet with the details added to them and you've made a good start on the Dragons.

Thank you! Glad you liked them.
Some more of my old models will be shown when I start working on my orks once more.

Fire dragons finished!
The paintcoat is a bit thick, as these were painted before. I did not find it relevant enough to strip the paint off, as I just wanted to finish these quickly.
They will be seen on the board only for one or two turns per game anyway


While the basing paint was drying up, I started a little "mini project" on the side.
Decided to make a bit more interesting looking base for the crimson hunter.

First added some ruin pieces on the base.


Some toilet paper and 50/50 mix of water and glue to make a nice texture.


And to top it off, a bit of sand and small rocks.


Took me like ~20 minutes to make, so it's just a quick effort to add something more to the base.
The glue mix needs to dry over night, but I will throw a quick paintjob on it over the weekend.

So, my ork codex did not arrive yet so the Eldar journey continues.
It was actually good that it did not arrive, so I can actually finish this project properly for now.

I decided to finally finish the swooping hawks I started like 10 months ago. Also thought about painting a squad of dire avengers to the new color scheme, so I have some diversity in my troop slots.

Time to dive right back into my bitzbox once again and mutilate some old models.


Finishing these guys was pretty quick, as I had 3 and a half of them done already. One of the main reasons to put this project in hold 10 months ago, was the fact that I did find enough of "hawk wings".
After going through all the boxes and bags I had laying around the house, I managed to find three more sets of wings! So I even have one extra pair.
I'm aware that these guys still have the splinter rifles, but I think it won't matter that much. Most of my friends who I play against would not even tell the difference.








As a bonus, I suddenly got the idea to kitbash a Farseer. I have Eldrad and one or two of basic farseers already, but the old farseer model is just too darn static in my opinion.
Just for change I decided to make the new seer a she.
Half painted scourge legs, wych torso, harlequin cape and some greenstuff later I was pleased with the result.
I'm not very experienced with greenstuff, so this was a good practise.


The finished result. Ended up using a wych head too, as I already have so many seers and warlocks with helmets. Wanted to use a spear even though I almost never pick it in my lists, but it looked much cooler than the sword. Maybe I can spare a few points for that.






Now they just need some paint on them.

Your flyer base looks excellent, can't wait to see it painted up!

Liking the farseer kitbash, will you be adding anything like a ghosthelm around the head to distinguish it to be even more like a seer? The spear is good in game by the way, 5 points into a little bit more potency is quite useful in a pinch!

Lovely sacrifices to Slaanesh.

Tyranid Horde: Thanks! Should be easy enough to paint, if I don't get stuck with all the small details that no one can even see. The ghosthelm idea sounds good, I actually found some reference images from Dawn of War 2 which might help. immediately after uploading these images I thought to myself that she has too little details, gotta add some more!

Excommunicatus: Heh, indeed Talking about Slaanesh, I actually played with the idea of converting a unit or two with daemonette etc. parts. The idea behind that was to make a few models that would be fallen to Slaanesh. But as I have so many different ideas with all the armies I have, maybe this will stay as an idea. For now at least.

Just re-discovered this and I love your Witch-elf Wyches they work really nicely! Swooping Hawks look great too

So, FWIW, if you ever go to the Bolter and Chainsword there's a guy there called Kierdale who did a Witch Elf Daemonette kit-bash thing that may help for inspiration.

They'd probably work pretty well as counts-as Harlequins, IMO.

Your flyer is downright gorgeous, and I dig the Seer conversion.

Beautiful modelling and painting all around! I love those Necromunda Chaos cultists, the one with the Daemonette head is my favorite!

Thanks a lot guys!

@Ynneadwraith: Glad you like them! The wyches are still just basecoated. I should work on them some more, but the project was put on hold as I'm currently thinking about some army wide ideas for the Drukhari.

@Excommunicatus: Gotta check that out. Thanks for the tip! Also using them as "harlequins" sounds like a good idea.

@youwashock: Cheers! The seer need some more work, so I need to sort that out. She will be the next character to be painted.

@mcmattila: Appreciate it! She's my favorite too. I need to do a few more, as we are thinking about organizing a campaign and five autogun cultists is not enough.


Originally I thought starting to paint the Swooping Hawks during the weekend, but life got in the way. Luckily I got to play some extempore Necromunda with a friend of mine, so still got to have some hobby time.

Managed to do some work with the flyer base though. Nothing special, but wanted to have something a bit cooler than just modelling sand and/or rocks.







A few details to sort out and gotta clean the stand from paint and such. It would have been easier to create the base before gluing the whole thing together. Oh well, live and learn.

Got the flyer base done.











Not too detailed, but I did not want to spend too much time on this. Just a small sideproject.
Really enjoyed painting and modelling it though, as I really love doing urban scenery stuff. Already blooming with ideas to expand my terrain collection.

Started to work on the Swooping Hawks finally!
Just some basic colors added.



Did some color testing on the wings. Only painted one pair, as I wanted to test things out.
While painting the fire dragons, I got keen on orange and yellow shades. Wanted to try the same sort of thing here.





This of course needs some more highlighting and tidying up, but I kinda like it so far.
What you guys think, yay or nay?

A good base makes an even better model, really well done on the flyer base, very impressive stuff!

I really like the colour you've picked for the wings, and the work you've put into it thus far is excellent. It's a yay from me!

Wow, nice vivid colours on those wings! They look so different to the original swooping hawks (which I happen to love) but I think it captures the Eldar aesthetic really well

Thanks for the input guys!

@Tyranid Horde: Appreciate it! You are right, good bases actually make a huge difference. When I get most of my old Eldar models done, I think I have to do some rebasing on some of them. Already have a few ideas for the three wraithlords I have.
Painting the 4 other wings (and finishing the first one) will take a while, but I think it will be worth it.

@Scythern: Cheers! They indeed look a lot different, as I wanted to make a bit more dynamic illustration of these guys and gals. I've always liked the scourge wings, so that was a good excuse to do some kitbashing.

Will keep on working with these tomorrow and hopefully get them done so I can start painting the Farseer.
Just got my Ork codex, so I want to get this batch done. Then I can get to work on my Orks with good conscience. They have been gathering dust on the shelves for the whole of the 8th edition, as I was not too happy with the Index rules.
This does mean a few orky updates, but I will still keep developing my space elves. So to my elven brethren, this is not the end of the Aeldari!

A bit offtopic, but wanted to share a few ideas for the future:

I've been brewing with the idea of rebuilding my Dark Eldar force a while now. I really liked to play with them back in 6th and 7th edition and by watching a few battle reports I think I like them even more in 8th.
When I used to collect Warhammer Fantasy Battle, I gathered some Vampire Count models. After pondering and browsing for convertion ideas, it suddenly hit me: I wan't to do a "vampire themed" Dark Eldar force.
After googling some more, it occured to me that I was not the first one to think about that. Found some great conversions for inspiration.
I would not mutilate all my old models, but as the force is almost completely unpainted / half painted it would be a great opportunity to try something different. I have around 2000pts of them so far.
This will need a lot more thinking and figuring out the color scheme etc.
Always thought about learning to use an airbrush, so this project would be a good place to practise (after a few failed test models of course).

Anyway, back to work on the current task at hand!

Dang, those wings are beautiful.