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A Pictured Update

So I've gotten around to doing some more work on Maugan Ra (pictures below). I've done a ton of filing and sanding. Most of the fur at the top of the cape on the back is gone. I'm still debating on whether or not to add a backpack of some type. I have a few options available, but don't know if I want to use any of them. The one thing I think I'm going to change is to make it look like the Necron is rising out of the ground, rather than look like it's dead at his feet. A little bit of cork around him, and some sand should help. Overall I'm really happy with the work so far... I just don't want to screw it up by adding some green stuff and screwing it up.







This was something that I decided to get a bit of a start on. These are the bases for my Wraithguard. I've actually done a bit of work on the Wraithguard as well. I have to say, cutting and filing off flash and mold lines from pewter SUCKS BIG TIME!!! I've gone through all of the bodies. I still need to get all of the heads. Then it's cutting off the tabs at the bottom and adding pins. It's all going to be time consuming since I have 10 of the pewter ones, and not the resin ones.



As always, Questions, Comments, and Criticisms are welcome.

Thanks for reading.

The gun that guy is wielding is impressive, but at the current pose seems impossibly heavy for him to wield. Perhaps change the barrel length? or make the party he holds on to smaller? Mostly the barrel length is what makes me question that hold. Or the best solution is a shoulder strap.

Well, the assumption that I'm going with is that it's normally wielded with two hands, but he is currently holding it with just one.

I guess I should add a second handhold onto the gun to make it more obvious.

Thanks!

A Few Tests.

So I'm home sick today, and managed to take an hour to do some painting. Nothing to extensive. I didn't want to go too long and end up having to go away and let the paint dry before I could use it. Plus I just wanted to do some test items done.

Below you'll see two canopies that I've painted. I started with a Snakebite Leather, and then layered up with Bleached bone. I was happy with the one on the right, except for the top. I want to use it more than the one on the left. I guess I'll have to paint over the top again.



Here are some pics of a Fire Dragon Exarch. this thing is old... Really old. This was before I realized that I should remove flash and mold lines. You can actually see a big piece of metal that I should have removed at the bottom of the firepike. The red was already there, but It's the grey that I added.

I wanted to see what it would look like because I want to use the grey as a base for all of my Eldar foot soldiers. It's just codex grey with a black wash. I need to go over it again with more codex grey to highlight it up.



It's too bad that the light is so dark on these pictures... it kind of ruins the quality a bit.

The idea for the Eldar troops is that they will all have grey cloth underneath their armor, and the armor will all be different depending on the Aspect.

Fire Dragons will be bright red
Scorpions will be green
Howling Banshees will be bone white
Dark Reapers will be black or purple
Swooping Hawks will be light blue
Dire Avengers will be dark blue
Warp Spiders will probably be brown
Guardians will be dark red

Into the future.

So I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm kind of excited for the future release of the Tau Empire. In higher point games I have been using a commander, 2 broadsides, and a group of fire warriors. I'm liking the look of the new broadsides, and the commander comes with the cyclonic ion blaster (overcharge anyone?).

My only problem will be the cost to get all of the models that I want.

As always, Questions, Comments, and Criticisms are welcome.

In A Wasp Nest

So I'm pretty sure that I mentioned this already, but I decided to try my hand at making my own Wasps. I in no way, shape, or form take any credit for the idea of this wasp... it all goes to Finnin, which I believe I mentioned in an earlier post.

It was an interesting process, I felt so bad cutting up the wings on an old Viper Jet Bike, but hey, I don't use them that much anymore. I'm planning on pinning the weapons so perhaps if I'm really desperate, I can use them as either a war walker, wasp, or viper, as long as I'm not trying to mix and match.

The initial installation of the wings was pretty smooth, but one of the wings has a permanent bend to it, so it looks a little off compared to the other wing. but overall they look pretty good.



The only problem that I ran into was when I tried to get the wings onto what I will call the hips (where the legs would be attached on a war walker). it seems that the fenders collided with the wings, making it not come together. I ended up fixing this with an extension that I created from a piece of sprue. I figure that in the location where it'll be, it won't be too noticeable.



Here is a look at it with me holding it together. I don't have any blue tac so I can't really do it justice, but I think you get the gist.



As always, please leave your questions, comments, and criticisms.

Thanks,

A Quick Update and Speculations

So it's been a while since I've had an update on my Altansar. It's mostly because I have been really busy at work, and at home. It happens. The only thing that I've really been able to do is work in filing, pinning, and finishing the bases for my Wraithguard. I still have to work on attaching their heads, but I'm sure I'll get to it.







As for my other projects, right now my Farseer is out in the garage with it's first layer of primer drying. The Wasps are in my box, still unfinished. Maugan Ra is also in my box. I decided against doing any green stuff on my warlock.

As for Maugan Ra, I'm not sure that I'm going to do much more on him right now. I've been reading a bit on the Eldar rumors, and if what they say about the Autarch and howling banshees is true, then I'm not going to be using Maugan Ra too much.

Most likely my HQ choices are going to be a Farseer of some sort, and a Howling Banchee Xentarch. Lucky for my I have 20+ Howling Banshees in my boxes in the garage. I'll just mean a ton of basing and priming and painting on my part.

Personally I'm not sure what to expect from the new Eldar models that are rumored to be coming out next month. And I'm hating the wait.

From what I've read, I'm thinking of picking up the Black Warden. I'm suspecting that this character is going to be a replacement for Eldrad Ulthran (Since he's currently dead in the current timeline). I'll probably get the Howling Banshees Xentarch, and one of the new Tanks. I'm thinking that a bigger tank, that also works as a transport, is going to be for Wraithguard.

But in all reality, I think I'll have to pick up the Codex, and then a few models kits at a time after release (Once I know what I want).

That Maugan Ra conversion is brilliant so much better than the current GW one. He actaully looks scary now. are you going to give him the skull helmet anywhere on the model?

Young Logan

Thanks for the praise. Right now the work on the Maugan Ra conversion is on hold. I'm waiting on the Eldar Codex coming out soon. Right now my HQs are probably going to be a Farseer and a Howling Banshee Exarch. So I'm going ahead with painting the Farseer, but I'm holding off on MR for now.

Plus I'm afraid that my GS skills are going to ruin it.

So it looks like the internet is exploding with picture of the new Eldar models. I'm liking the look of the Wraithguard. I'm definitely getting the new Ranger IC, as well as the Spiritseer, but I can't justify the price on the wraithknight.

I think the one troubling thing that I'm noticing is that I'm going to have to rebase my older Wraithguard already. It looks like the new pictures have them on 40mm bases, instead of 25mm.

Here's hoping that I can re-purpose them for those 20 Howling Banshees that I'm planning on running.

So I finally started being able to take a lunch at work, and do some painting on my break. Here are two images to show what's going on with my farseer.



All I have right now is a black primer/base coat, with some graveyard earth to block out which I'm planning to build up to red. I figure that putting down a brown coat will help make the red go down smoother, since red on black can get a bit splotchy.

On a separate note, I also managed to take off the bases on the Wraithguard pretty easily. Just need to get the Howling Banshees ready, as well as make 10 Terminator bases for the Wraithguard.

Thanks.

I'm back, this time with more work on my Farseer/Spiritseer. I know I'm not going to pick up either of the new figures for the Farseer or Spiritseer, so I have no problems with working on this model.



I got the red over the brown, and I'm quite happy with how it turned out. You can really tell the difference with not having the brown down first, if you look at the feet.

As of this point, I put down two coats of red gore with a wash of nuln oil, and one coat of dawnstone. I still need to add a second coat of dawnstone before washing that with nuln oil as well. Then I'll go back over the raised portion with their original colors, and most likely a highlight.

Thanks for visiting.

Farseer WIP 3

Well, here is the next set of WIP pictures of the Farseer. I'm a little late with posting these pictures since I've already added to the singing spear and hand. I've also glued on the head.



Right now all I have left is to finish up the base, color the head rune, and pick out some of the gems in green (head and chest minimum).

I'm liking the look of the powered hand. I stole the idea from the new codex cover. I also added some edge OSL highlights, but they look a little drastic on camera. I think they look better in person.

New Releases

As for the new releases that are coming out, right now my order of purchasing is probably going to be: Codex, Illic Nightspear, Hemlock Wraithfighter.

I'm not sure about the Wraithknight... more from a dollars standpoint, not from a coolness, strength on the battlefield standpoint.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
I'm not sure if you guys are tired of seeing my WIP pictures or not, but here are some more. Please feel free to give any feedback that you might have:



Thanks!

That is one bad ass farseer you go there you does look suitably angry. the osl effect is a nice touch too makes me look like hes charging his laser and gonna cast mind war or something.

Well, from the looks of things from the Codex Leaks, it's most likely that my Howling Banshees are going to be staying in the BattleFoam when I play. I had such high hopes that the Autarch Paths were going to be a real thing, but now it looks like it didn't happen. No Banshee Troops.

What's probably worse, is that the Banshees might be fast, but they are still going to die in waves trying to get into Melee. Although from the looks of things, Striking Scorpions got a ton better. Starting tomorrow, it'll be time to do some playing around to see if I can figure out if I can make Howling Banshees viable in the army I want to field, instead of using Scorpions.

well i hope it will be awesome when it drops good luck finding a list to play that is always the hardest part about this game

WOW!!!

That's all I have to say about the new Eldar Codex... "WOW!!!" I don't know what I was expecting, but overall I am very happy with how thing turned out for the space elves. Sure I'm kind of sad about how things turned out for Howling Banshees, since I have 22 unpainted ones sitting in my boxes in my garage now, but oh well.

I played a few games this past weekend, and in doing so, pulled out a few figures that have been collecting dust on them. I finally opened up two boxed up Wave Serpents and used them. And Loved Them!!! I also broke down and picked up Illic Nightspear. I'm still trying to figure out how to properly use Illic, but I had fun with the rest of the army none the less. Right now the base of my army is as follows:

Illic Nightspear
Spiritseer
Guardian Defenders in tricked out Wave Serpent, with warlock.
Wraithguard in tricked out Wave Serpent
Jetbike Squad
Rangers
Striking Scorpions
Warp Spiders
Nightspinner/Fireprism
Imperial Bastion

Right now I'm debating between the Fireprism and Nightspinner, and I'm leaning towards the Nightprism. Barrage just seem to suit my play style more.

Since this is a Painting and Modeling Blog, Lets get to that part.

I ended up creating my own Imperial Bastion from scratch using a few posts on Dakka as inspiration. I'll have to take some pictures of it and post it, but suffice it to say, it's made out of cardboard. The guys I played with seemed impressed with it, especially since I got to play-test using it, without having to shell out $50 for one.

Since the new Wraithguards are now on 40mm bases instead of 25mm bases, I ended up taking the previous bases off of my Wraithguards, and putting new 40mm bases on them. I'll get pictures of this up as well. I'm planning on taking the previous bases and use them on my guardians seeing that I'm planning on bringing 10 of these guys in a WS in every list I build.

Since I'm planning on using at least 2 Wave Serpents, and 1 Nightspinner, I've been trying out some color schemes, trying to figure out what I like. Below are the results of what I've tried. As for the lines, I'm liking the blue the most, but I was so wishing that the washes would have made the green or red look better. The purple part is blue with a red wash.



Now that I think about it, I might go back over those sections with actual green and purple to see what those look like before I keep decide. On the one picture you can see lighter panels on the far wing of the tank chassis, but I didn't like the way those ended up looking for the top, but they did give me a few good ideas for what I want to do for the bottom of the tanks. Right now for the top, I'm going to go with Chaos Black panels with Codex Grey edging.

As for the Illic model, there are a lot of things that I like about it, but a few things that I don't. Since the man is supposed to be a Necron fighter, I think that fits in well with the army background that I was going for, so he seems perfect to bring. I just want to paint him to be Altansar instead of Aliatoc. I just hated the look of his head, so I decided to give him the head of a guardian, rather then the one he came with. This actually plays well into the Altansar theme, since in the new codex, they make mention that the Eldar from Altansar don't take their helmets off anymore. I should try to see if I can find a ranger head for him instead, but I think I like the look of the guardian head that I'll keep it as is. See below.



The other thing that came to me about the figure is the piece that he's supposed to come standing on. To me, the curve of that stone work looks eerily familiar. Can anyone say Necron Destroyer. I'm in the process of getting one in trade from a friend of a friend of a... you get the point. I'm thinking that I can chop of piece of the body off and make it look crashed and damaged, with Illic standing on that instead of the stone work he currently comes with.

I have to say, I'm thoroughly impressed with the model and the lengths that GW has gone to make sure that it we aren't dealing with an large amount of damaged spots (flash & bubbles). The largest issue I had was having to bend the gun barrel straight. Nothing that a bit of really hot (not boiling) water couldn't take care of.

Anyway, it looks like I have a lot of pictures that I need to take for you guys.

As always, thanks for reading, and please leave any comments, criticisms, or questions.

Back to the World of Painting.

So I finally took the time to not only paint, but to also take a ton of pictures of it... and I do mean a ton. I was able to scrap the ones that I didn't like and have kept the best of the best (Lucky you!).

First up is the Imperial Bastion that I scratch built. Mind you this isn't a completed item, in that I have no fire points, nor Heavy Bolter emplacements. One of he guys I was playing with this weekend thought I could make it into an Eldar building, but I was thinking an Imperial building with gems sticking out of it. But that'll be after the fire points and Heavy Bolters.



It actually comes in three parts: Base, Column, Battlements. If I wanted to, I can take out the column, and it'll still stand tried and true.

I finally managed to finish my Farseer. Now I just need to pick a color for the part of the base under the cork. Purple might be one option to go, but so would blue or green.



Along with the Farseer, I got a little work done on Illic. I managed to get his body primed, and start painting up the head. First are two group shot with the Farseer, then individual shots. Since I'm painting him up to be a member of Altansar, instead of Aliatoc, I'm thinking of giving him a different name for when I play. I'm liking Buanna Solanum (Reaper Nightshade).

That might make sense: a former dark reaper, who chose to go the path of the outcast. I might have a good story for him... A little known reaper who escaped with Maugan Ra, but soon afterwards, chose the path of the outcast, but is now reunited with his craftworld, along with Maugan Ra.



The back is nothing special, but I figured I could show it.



I'm actually pretty proud of the glowing eyes going on with the head. It's too bad that Illic doesn't have night vision or the green glow would make a ton of sense. The only problem with the pictures how well they show the imperfections fom my work. That line on the right side of the helmet is killer, but at least it's not too bad. I think this example will work pretty well with the rest of the body.



As always, keep your comments, criticisms, and questions coming.

Thanks,

Everything is looking good in my opinion. There is however a mold line on that Eldar head on the side.

Yeah, that's what I was referring to when I said that the line on the right side of the head is killer.

Illic Picture Update.

I don't have much time, so here is a picture update of what I'm doing with Illic. Once I have more time, I'll write up what exactly I did.




Automatically Appended Next Post:
So here is the start of my paint-up for Buanna Solanum (Illic Nightspear).

So one of the things that I wanted to do with my model was have the gun be dark in comparison to the rest of the model. The Jacket is going to match the base coloring that I used in my Farseer. The gloves and chaps are going to be the grey coloring on the robes of the Farseer. The armor area is going to be crimson. Those three main area are going to be lighter, so I wanted to go with a darker tone on the gun.

In the recent How to Paint citidel miniatures book, there is a section that describes painting black marble with blue veins, in the tomb kings section, and I decided to do something similar, but in a green. I think it came out pretty good.

First I started with a base of Dark Angels Green. I don't know what the new color is, since I was mostly using old colors. Over that I dry brushed, and edged it in Snot Green.

Once that was done, I washed the area with Thraka green to tone it down a bit. Once that was dry, I did very thin highlights with Reaper Mini's paint Jade Green. It's kind of somewhere in between Goblin Green and Moot green with a little scorpion green mixed in (at least that is how I would describe it. After that I gave it one more wash of thraka green.

I've just started on the red area. It's started with Scar Red from Vallejo paints. I'm pretty sure that it's supposed to be their version of scab red. Over that I have a nuhl oil wash.

I'm planning on going back over it with scar red, and then a bit of blood red. Once that is done I'll give it a red wash to help bring the blending together.

After the red, I'll keep working from the inside out, so I'll probably do the Jacket next. I just have to figure out what I want to do about the Camo pattern. Given that this is supposed to be Forge-World Mars, I have to be thinking Urban Camo. I was thinking of doing something in a three circle theme, with a mini purple dot in the middle of one of the Circles, something to tie it into the Necron gems popping out of the ground.

Perhaps instead of circles which are more organic, I should go with triangles which seem more industrial. Maybe one small triangle, partially within a Large Triangle, and then with a purple dot somewhere within it.

for my Altansar army are supposed to be green. I wonder if I can do the gems in purple since pathfinders are outcasts?The last part will be figuring out the intricate detailing. Part of me wants to do it in green to tie it to the gun, but Spirit Stones

A Challenge From An Unlikely Source.

So for father's day this year, my wife got me a gift certificate to my local gaming store, which I was thrilled with. It gave me a reason to buy the new Crimson Hunter/Hemlock Wraithfighter. I didn't want to spend the money on the Wraithknight, even though everything that I ready about it says that it's a beast. The only problem overall was my wife's reaction.

It's funny how much our life mirrors that of the Big Bang Theory, since her reaction to my over-enthusiasm was to ask what this toy plane does. I started to talk about the game, but was quickly interrupted and she changed her question to asking what does it do after you place this thing on the table. After which my enthusiasm was more tempered since the answer is, "It just sits there, until I move it."

The other thing she asked was how long it was going to take me to put it together an paint it, while reminding me of another model she had purchased for me. When I first met my wife, I wasn't playing or painting WH40K, but I was trying to get into building normal, Testors models. That experiment didn't go well, as I lost enthusiasm for it.

But to get back on point, what is has done is light a fire under me, which means that I'm once more shifting my focus. This time from Illic and my troops to this 'toy plane'.



So to start, I've got a start to the base. As of right now, I'm going to have about 4 Necron gems sticking up, from about 3 places. The one thing that I'm going to add is part of a wing from a Necron Doom Scythe/Night Scythe to the base made out of Plasticard. I didn't know if I wanted to make it look like it was shot down, or coming out of the ground, but I think in this case, since I'm planning on using the Crimson Hunter version of the plane, I'm going to go with making it look shot down.

The other thing that I want to do with the plane is magnetize it so that I can use it was the Hemlock Wraithfighter if I want to instead of as the Crimson Hunter. I've already ordered the magnets, and those should be in my hands within the next two weeks (fingers crossed). I'm hoping to have a lot of updates as I work through the building and painting of this. But for right now, I just have to have part of it ready for use by Sunday for a game. I'll just have the base manageable, with the bottom of the plane itself ready for use so that I know where to measure from.

As always, any comments, criticisms, and questions are always welcome.

Thanks,

Crimson Hunter Base

So I've started on the Crimson Hunter base, and I think I have a lot done. I started with getting the Night Scythe parts cut out. I decided to go with using Plasticard to make the Night Scythe, mostly because I'm trying to be as cheap as possible, and I didn't want to have to by an actual Night Scythe for this. In order to pull this off, I found a pretty good picture of a Night Scythe from the top down, and edited it so that it would be about 6 inches across when I printed it out. It's pretty hard to find out how wide that thing is on the net without being able to measure it, but I think 6 inches was a good approximation.

After that it was merely taking the time to trace it onto some Plasticard, cut it out of the Plasticard, and then file the edges smooth. I decided to be a bit tricky with how I glued it down, to make it look like crashed paneling. Other than this, I just added the 4 Necron Gems.



After this, it was only a matter of adding some sand to the areas between the cork, and around the downed Night Scythe wing. I'm thinking of adding some more layers of sand around part of the Night Scythe wing, in order to make it look like it crashed and pushed the dirt and ground into a pile in that area. I think it'll help make it look more realistic.



Once I'm done with the sand, this should be ready for priming!

Question, Comments, and Criticisms are always welcome.

Thanks,

Argh and Blart!

So I finished the base for my Crimson hunter yesterday. There isn't enough of a noticeable difference where I would have posted an image. The only problem is that I forgot to take it home so I could prime it to start painting it. So without anything do to on the base for the crimson hunter, I started to cut a few of the pieces off of the sprue and cleaned them up. I have the pieces for the cockpit, cut and ready for sanding or gluing.

Since I didn't have much to do with the Crimson Hunter, I decided to put a bit more work on Illic Nightspear. All I managed to do was to finish up the red armor, although I was a little sloppy in places, I didn't mind, since I'll be painting over that. So All I have left on him are the grey leathers, the brown/camo coat, and the miscellaneous trinkets. I think I'll do the trinkets next.

Here is where he stands as of now. I took the pictures from a few different angles, as well as used the camera flash in one, and some overhead lighting in the other.




Let me know what you think.

Also, WOOT on 5000 views!

Thanks,

All your work is looking great, I particularly like your concept for the Autarch, my one annoyance about him is he looks anorexic xD His waist is way too small for the rest of him, other than that, awesome!

All your bases... and what not.

So I managed to get a game in this weekend. My friend who has been playing Tau a lot lately decided to bring his Orks this time.

It was a fun game, and I almost managed to pull off a draw, but it ended up being a win for him by one victory point. Looking back on things, I should have been more strategic with final positioning (If I had placed my Crimson Hunter in his deployment I might have had linebreaker), but it was a close fun game, and one that I didn't concede him the win late in the game. I liked having the Crimson Hunter, but it came into play too early, as I went first, and it came out on turn two, so it was looking for flyers, and there were none. Although my Farseer managed to not die for 2.5 turns worth of close combat, I just need to remember that he gets two attacks, not one. As fun as that list was to run, I think I'm going going to go back to using Illic Nightspear, and Imperial Bastion.

The other cool thing about the game is that I got my Necron parts that I traded my unused SM dreadnought for. Below you can see my test fit of Illic on the Destroyer's torso/abdomen (what do they call that part on insects?).



I think it's going to look awesome, and I haven't seen anyone else try to do the same thing. A Necron hating guy standing on a Necron. Here are pictures with Illic blue tacked onto the finished base. All I need to do is add sand, and prime it (goodbye copper, sorry).



I did managed to get the Crimson Hunter's base primed as well, so I'll probably working on 12 bases simultaneously (Illic, Crimson Hunter, 10 Guardian bases).

As always, questions, comments, and criticisms are always welcome.

Illic Update

So I've been working on Illic a lot lately. For some reason my brain wants me to finish it. So here is a picture of it.



I've finished the gray parts of the model, and I added the first two coats of brown to the duster. Overall, even though the model is very neutral in its color scheme, I think it still has pops here and there. The base is mostly done, and all I need to do is paint up the gem. If you look at his foot, you'll see that It tends to stand away from the base, so I'll need to glue that down when I'm closer to being done.

I still need to put in the color for the sword and pistol. Part of me wanted to do a darker brown for them, but then I think it'll blend into the duster too much. I think I also have to add a little metallic highlighting to the exhaust of the destroyer on the base, but I'm not sure if it'll detract too much from the actual model.

I have a feeling that I'm going to end up having to touch up a few of the gray spots, where the brown is bleeding into it, but that should be the worst of my issues on this model.

As always, question, comments, and criticisms are always welcome.

Illic Finished?

So I got a ton of work done on Illic as of yesterday and today. I glued him all together, and did a lot of the fine detail work on him.




The one thing that I'm not sure about is whether or not I want to add a camo pattern to his cloak. If I decide to go against the camo pattern, then I'll just need to seal him with matt and gloss varnish.

I'm pretty happy with the model overall. I tried a couple of new things, especially going pretty extreme with the highlights in order to help it stand out on the gaming table. I think for an HQ, I'm liking the look and detail. I hope I don't go this drastic when I'm working on Guardians.

Doing the camo would look fine.

I would also have to determine what Camo pattern to use.

I'm going to vote 'no' for the camo - I think it looks great as it is now, and I would worry that the camo would be a bit too much and too busy for the model. You've done a really good job on him - really liking the headswap, it's very appropriate, and would hate for things to go wrong at the last stage.

I always worry about camo on minis because it'd be REALLY fiddly to do all the highlight on those seperate areas of colour, and if you don't, it'd look flat compared to the other forced highlights, especially if, as you say, they are quite extreme highlights on the rest of the model - it might look unfinished. Part of being an artist/designer is knowing when to stop, and I think you've reached that point.

The green on the base rim is really distracting, and is taking attention away from the model though - black or brown?