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Thanks youwashock!

Had a day off yestedray, so I decided to have a hobby day.
I thought about wrapping the Swooping Hawks up in a few hours and then proceed to the next unit, but it took a lot longer than I thought.

So I "only" got them done.
It was not a good idea to just sit and paint until they were done. After 6-7 hours straight, I started to rush a few things here and there. Mainly the bases, which are a bit anti climactic.
But, what's done is done. After all, I'm pretty pleased how they came out.

I also tried out the camera I acquired (Canon EOS 450D). I'm not too familiar with all the aspects of it, but I still think these are better than the ones I took with my phone camera.
Still need a lot better lights around the house.







The exarch.
Sadly the images from this model did not turn out so good, as I was playing around with the settings.


The last one is a pretty messy picture, but I posted it just so you get the idea how he looks up front. Not that I think about it, the weapon could have been painted with different color, as it blends a bit too much to the rest of the model. Oh well.


That's all folks!

On a side note, which size do you use when uploading images to the Dakka gallery?
These were pretty big, but they looked pretty bad if uploaded in full resolution. Any tips?

These look beautiful man, the wings came out superb. Great job.

Incredibly striking. Between the lovely work on the wings and the contrast you are getting with the yellow and purple, these guys are a surefire hit.

They looked good in the previous post but man the camera makes these guys look even better.

Really great work!

Appreciate it guys! Happy you like them.

@Tyranid Horde: yeah the camera really makes a difference. I took like 50 images and only the ones I posted turned out okay, so still a lot to learn.


It seems that the color palette on these models worked well enough. Having good contrast and colors that work well together is something that I have not always gave enough thought. I realize now that these are things I need to study more in order to develop as a painter.


Had quite a lot of hobby time today too, as my girlfriend was at work so no mandatory plans for the weekend. Will post updates tomorrow, as it's getting late and I still need to upload the images.

As promised, update time!

So yesterday I did a bunch on random stuff as I wanted some change from painting the same purple theme for a while.
Started by sorting some of my hobby tools and materials. Noticed that I still have a bunch of stuff left from the Imperial Sector building package I bought a couple of years ago.
Layed them all around the table and started to tinker with different ideas on how to use them. Made a couple of small designs in my head, glued a few walls together and stored them again.


I really should get them assembled, as it would give me a bit more room for storage. IF I manage to find a place to store the completed buildings. But that will be a story for another time.

Next I took out my Eldar/Drukhari bitz and decided to complete some old half finished kit bashes.


The only one I actually managed to finish was the Drukhari Succubus. I started creating her at the same time I made the witch aelf wyches. As I stated earlier, I'm thinking about some sort of "horror" stylish vampire themed look for the army.
So here's the model.


The Succubus can't fly of course, but I thought it would be cool to add those wings. A hero character Queen of Pain (Akasha) from the game Dota 2 worked as an inspiration here.
Picture in spoilers (illustration from Deviantart).


Still thinking about adding some horns and / or tail for her. Will paint her when I finally get a good grip on the theme I want to have with the Drukhari and decide some color schemes.


And to make the progress even more random, I started painting the Dire Avengers and the Farseer after all.





As for the Farseer I did not manage to create anything to resemble a ghosthelm. I might try that again in the future, but I think I'm going with this for now.
Working with the Eldar models for now. Not sure what I'm going to do after that.

Next week will be a bit busy, so the progress will surely get slowed down a bit I'm afraid.

Liking that Succubus. Very good interpretation of the source character.

I love that Daemonette head, used it on my Malefic 'Lord' concept.

Would you consider selling those terrain bits?

Wow, I've just seen your finished Hawk conversions - and I am absolutely in love with the colours you've got on the wings. Those are excellent, well done!

@Youwashock: Cheers! As said earlier I might still add some horns, but we'll see.

@Excommunicatus: Yeah I think it's the best one in the box! Saw your concept, looking good!
Do you mean the readily made terrain pieces or the unassembled bits? I'm afraid I still need most of them, BUT if there are some left when I'm done with the terrain project I could send you some.

@Bellerophon: Thank you, glad you like them! Trying to learn something new every time I work on a new unit type. This time it paid off.

Not a problem whatsoever. I just wondered if you wanted rid of them and I would have a home for them and Canadian dollars for you if you did.

I personally prefer the one with the mad hair on both sides, but you can only really use that one once per army. Mad hair on one side is definitely a close second.

Thanks for the comment.

Managed to get some hobby time after all. This update is more of a quick wrap up from the last week or so.

I managed to somewhat finish the Dire Avengers. Painting them got a point when doing the same colors all over again got a bit boring, overwhelming even.
11 of these guys (9 Avengers and 2 Exarchs) was maybe a bit too much. As I'm a bit of a slow painter, the "quick" color scheme did not turn out to be that quick after all.
These guys and gals ate some of my hobby motivation, but when that was about to happen I just started to paint / do something else.
Anyway, I thought that just a quick brushing would do and managed to finish them after all:

Definitely not the best work I've done, but I think they look decent enough on the tabletop.




I will paint the Exarch's flag when I figure out what I want to do for it.
These guys look a bit dull, but I had no motivation to do better highlights etc. Maybe some other time.

As I said, did some other stuff too. Decided to do a bit of work with the Farseer and repainting Eldrad. Sadly I don't have any old images of him.


Had a lot more fun with these guys, which helped to keep the train going so to say.

Painting while you are tired and doing a hundred million things at the same time is not a good idea.
Results to this:


Luckily did not get any Nuln Oil on my keyboard or clothes etc.

Step by step nearing in my momentary goal of having an Eldar strike force up and running with the same color scheme

While they're all up to your usual (stunning) standard, could you do some close-ups of Eldrad sometime?

He (She?) looks spectacular.

 Excommunicatus wrote:
While they're all up to your usual (stunning) standard, could you do some close-ups of Eldrad sometime?

He (She?) looks spectacular.

Thanks!

I will of course take some close ups when he is finished (I think it's a he. Funny, I always imagined a girly face under that helmet).
This was just a little teaser.

Just catching up on the last few updates, some good work done here!

The succubus is a great looking model, a few trips to the haemonculi have gone well by the looks! The farseer looks great too along with Eldrad, and I'm seconding the request for some close-ups

The dire avengers also look great but they're never a quick paint job. The last two squads I've done are just draining to paint, even when I only plan a few colours.

Finally, feeling the pain there on your bottle of nuln oil. I was at the local grabbing some paints and my bag ripped, ending up with bottles everywhere and my tall bottle of seraphim sepia rolling onto the road and getting run over! Sad times haha.

Glad you enjoyed this stuff, cheers!

Still have a thing or two to finish for Eldrad before I build my photo studio again.

I can imagine the scene as you run around chasing runaway paint bottles
Sympathies though, as it's never fun when that happens.

The dire avengers and that farseer look amazing. Great work.

Stunning Crimson Hunter and the wings on the Swooping Hawks are amazing. Great work!

Those Avengers are looking grand. I enjoy your schemes, sort of colours that most people would make look bold, but taken in a much more muted and more realistic way.

As to that spilled wash... this is why I'm pleased that my Army Painter washes come in dropper bottles!

Edit: And looking again at those hawks, you know, I might just have to take inspiration from that paintjob. My first squad are in the studio standard scheme, and I was contemplating doing my second squad in more of a nighttime sky sort of scheme. Beautiful orange wings to represent the sky of sunset could work very well. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery and all that; I shall see if the idea still holds when I get around to them.

Your custom Farseer is looking real good with some paint on her, and Eldrad's sword is fantastic.

A bit late to the party, but I'd also like to say that those Swooping Hawk wings are absolutely stunning!

Also, regarding photography, I'd recommend reading this article by Tale of Painters' Garfy: https://taleofpainters.blogspot.com/2016/01/tutorial-beginners-guide-to-miniature.html

This really pushed my mini-photography to the next level! The main takeaways were:
-Get a tripod
-You don't need special (daylight) lamps, though paired lamps are recommended
-Find the correct white balance

My own lighting setup still isn't ideal as I've got one two very different lamps, both in brightness and temperature, and I don't have gray card yet, but I can still take what I consider pretty good and color-accurate photos. I find the white balance that looks closest to natural, shoot in RAW, and let Photoshop auto-adjust WB and exposure if it still looks a bit of on the computer screen.

Thank you guys! I'm really flattered.

Bellerophon wrote:
Edit: And looking again at those hawks, you know, I might just have to take inspiration from that paintjob. My first squad are in the studio standard scheme, and I was contemplating doing my second squad in more of a nighttime sky sort of scheme. Beautiful orange wings to represent the sky of sunset could work very well. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery and all that; I shall see if the idea still holds when I get around to them.

Go right ahead! One of the reasons I like to write about the stuff I've done is to share ideas and techniques with other hobbyists.
Looking forward to see the result!

mcmattila wrote:
Also, regarding photography, I'd recommend reading this article by Tale of Painters' Garfy: https://taleofpainters.blogspot.com/2016/01/tutorial-beginners-guide-to-miniature.html

This really pushed my mini-photography to the next level! The main takeaways were:
-Get a tripod
-You don't need special (daylight) lamps, though paired lamps are recommended
-Find the correct white balance

My own lighting setup still isn't ideal as I've got one two very different lamps, both in brightness and temperature, and I don't have gray card yet, but I can still take what I consider pretty good and color-accurate photos. I find the white balance that looks closest to natural, shoot in RAW, and let Photoshop auto-adjust WB and exposure if it still looks a bit of on the computer screen.

Thanks for the tips! I have to check out that article. I have to agree, your photos look really good!
Most of the work in progress images are really bad I admit, as they are just quick shots from my working table using a phone. Poor excuse I know.
Hopefully when I get more routine with the new camera and possibly photoshop (which I use for cropping etc) I'll be able to provide better pictures for you guys!


Caught a flu during the weekend and did not have the energy to paint. Instead used the time to browse other hobby blogs and ordered some hobby stuff, including a playmat and some miniature trays etc.
It occured to me that my hobby tools are really unorganized, some of it is in poor condition and I lack many tools that would make painting and modelling easier. This has to change.
I will post an update later on how I intend to fix this.

Feeling better now but did not go to work today, so I will spend the day painting and organizing stuff. Gotta finish a few things for a game I'm having with a friend of mine in our FLGS tomorrow.

Did some last minute brush work before the game(s) tomorrow.
I actually managed to finish the Farseer. Took a bit of time as I decided to try and learn some wet blending. As it took some time, I did not yet continue painting Eldrad

Usually I try to thin my paints as well as I can, but without a proper palette it gets hard at times. I'm mostly using whatever is handy, like a piece of plasticard, old citadel paint pots or my thumb nail. The problem is that when I mix paints, they dry out awful quickly. This of course is one of the downsides when using Citadel paints, but I like their color range and consistency. Trying to wet blend with that setup just made me angry.

Enter a wet palette:

Been hearing a lot about these, but somehow just never got around buying one before.
And as I did not own one, I had to create one using a plastic container, some toilet paper and baking parchment.


Man did it blow me away. Will absolutely use this thing from now on! This was the first step on improving my hobby equipment. More to come.

So I practiced wet blending on the Farseer's breastplate, "backpack" and arms. Not visible from the current images but as it is currently 2.30AM I don't want to wake my girlfriend by taking out all the camera equipment.
Just wanted to show you guys some progress. But bear with me, I will take proper pictures in time.







As I'm known to jump from one project to another (trying my best to avoid it), I started working on one of my old Wraithlords. The reason for this was simply to include it in a game tomorrow, even if my original plan was not to paint those at this time.

This is the shape it was in. Painted like 8-9 years ago.


Usually I don't want to repaint stuff too much (if the models are completed), as I like to have the older models around to see how I progress over the years.
This time though, I did really want this guy to fit the current theme of the army.



Of course I did not complete the model in time, so I had to alter the list(s) a bit.

That's all today. Will probably post some game related stuff tomorrow!

She turned out lovely. The blade is again a standout element, and the sash is just great. I wouldn't knock the Wraithlord in either version, but the update is cool.

 youwashock wrote:
She turned out lovely. The blade is again a standout element, and the sash is just great. I wouldn't knock the Wraithlord in either version, but the update is cool.

Thank you!
The older version of the Wraithlord looks a lot better in the picture as it actually was. Lot's of unpainted details and really messy paintjob.


Update time!
Be warned, this is a bit lengthy one.

So I did not write a gaming update as I promised earlier. We were in a hurry, as there were many players in queue in the FLGS, so I did not have enough time to take pictures (the few I took failed totally).
I played one 1000pts game against a friend of mine (Astra Militarum) who was just playing his third game or so. Did not manage to play other games, as there were three of us and I thought it would be more important to let the "new quy" get some games under his belt.
Tried to take a bit more casual list with just footslogging Guardians, some Windrider Jetbikes, Swooping Hawks and the Crimson Hunter. Mostly models I have not yet wielded in 8th edition.
I did not try to lose on purpose of course, but took the game easier than usually. Still my opponent called the game after round three, as I was leading 10/3 victory points and he had only a few characters and a dozen or so guardsmen against a whole lot of space elves. He learned a great many things though and we both had fun, which is the most important thing.
He won the second game against Tau wielded by a third friend of ours. I've noticed that even though it's not fun to lose on purpose, sometimes it's good that a new player wins a game every now and then (or atleast gets a few units destroyed). Otherwise they might start getting bored or angry with the hobby.

Then to some other hobby stuff. Sadly still no more painting or modelling progress, BUT I managed to start a project I've been meaning to do for a few years now: organizing all my hobby stuff.
This means buying a bunch of tools and containers, upgrading my miniature storage, sorting all the bits I have etc etc.

Over the years I have collected way more models that I've had the capacity to store properly. I have a ton of bits from various kits, which are held in closable plastic bags (luckily each army has a bag of it's own). My painting gear is in pretty poor condition (especially the brushes) and stored all over the house. The reason for this is the ignorance of my young self, moving a couple of times and the fact that I have tried to postpone this daunting task further and further. No more, this has to be settled.

As seen from the various pictures I have taken for this thread, my painting area is not the most ideal. I don't have a "hobby table" and have to do all the painting and modelling in front of my computer, ghetto style so to say. This means that I have to take my painting gear out every time I want to do some modelling (sometimes I leave it there for a few days). That's why I can't build a proper painting station, which would be ideal.

This is the box I have stored all my paints, brushes and tools for years. Yes, it sucks. Not the box itself, but the fact that everything is just thrown there and it's really hard to find anything.
And yes, most of the brushes are in poor condition. Got one or two that I actually use.


You have the permission to laugh, facepalm or whatever.
The first thing was to empty the whole box and to do an inventory check for what I have and don't have. The box had a dozen of empty or dried out paint bottles, which flew straight to the garbage can. I also found some lost brush covers, a few Ork bits and other random stuff lying at the bottom.

Thinned most of the old paints with water and organized them again. Still using the same box though, but storing only paints in there from now on.
A few new brushes managed to get into the picture too.


Which gets us to the next step: I went shopping.
Bought a bunch of new brushes (2 drybrushes, one large drybrush, a shade brush and a bunch of different sized "normal" brushes), some paints, glue (citadel and revel), drill bits, knife blades and a bunch of fishing lure cases. Also ordered some gaming related stuff and still waiting for my miniature storing trays from Feldherr.

All the brushes etc. fit well in one of these! The standard brushes I bought were Roubloff Kolinsky ones. I really like them, as the ones I have been using are almost as good as the Winsor & Newton ones that I have tried before. And a lot cheaper too.


When all the paints and tools were sorted out, it was time to do the same for all the basing stuff and bits.
As I stated earlier, I have a one or two of these bags for each army. These are okay, but when doing some kitbashing it's hard to find that small head piece. It's a bit like building a Lego model: the piece can be found until you really need it. Then it disappears in to the warp.


Also had a bunch of different sized boxes filled with random pieces. Some of the contents were from old conversion projects, some are just parts I've found lying around and tossed to storage.


So it was time to put on some music, pour a glass of "apple juice" and diving in bag by bag.


And after a couple of hours:


If you are wondering whether one of the boxes reads "spandex", you are right. It's an joke name for all Eldar a friend of mine invented years ago.
Everything is sorted: large pieces are in the bags and the lure boxes have sections for heads, torsos, weapons etc. This will help with kitbashing a ton I imagine.

Acquired one half sized glass shelf for our Bestå (IKEA brand) cabinet to display more models. A bad picture, but you get the idea. There is also another glass cabinet like this one, but it contains whis... apple juice bottles.


Finally a display of my "work bench". One of the reasons for this project was to make it easier to move the hobby stuff away when I'm done. I think I have achieved that now.
Mind you it's not actually this dark in the living room. Still meddling with the camera settings.


Took a while, but I'm happy I got this finally done. The cabinet looks a lot better now, as I threw away a few full bags of trash and I can finally locate all the stuff from now on.
Let's just hope that I can keep it tidy in the future as well.

Still need to acquire a new cover for my table (the piece of hardwood I use was actually meant to be used as a base for some terrain), better clippers and something else I can't remember from the top of my head.

Hopefully now I can finally get back to painting.
There will be a vol 2 of the great reorganization when the miniature trays finally arrive.

Thanks for reading!

Sorry for possible spelling errors.

I heartily approve of the organization effort! Being CDO myself (OCD, except the letters are in the correct order) and space-limited I do much the same as you, with parts organized by type in boxes and bags very similar to yours. I'm in the process of beating all the loose bits back into their cages, as a matter of fact. With the last LOER competition and now this castle gatehouse project, I've gotten a lot of stuff out, and much of it now needs to be put back. Good luck and keep up the good work!

I too am OCD and love your update. You will be much happier going forward, you will save so much time not having to look for stuff and are less likely to buy doubles of things you already own!

Yeah my mind if finally at ease regarding all the bits and hobby tools!
I'm actually enjoying painting a lot more now, as I don't have to go around the house finding just the tool I need.

Finally finished Eldrad!
Also some close ups from the farseer kitbash.

Took a while, but I think I'm happy with him now.
So many details to paint, which was a nice challenge. Some of them are a bit blurry, as I did not manage to strip all the old paint from the model.
Also tried to use wet blending on the cloak. Turned out okay after a few failed attempts.

Without further adue, pictures!



Tried a different approach on the cloak, with lighter colors on the bottom rather than on the edges. A bit bluish, but looks good enough in my opinion.
Some thickness is definitely visible here.








Close ups the Farseer too as promised:













Tried a different objective for the camera, so a few of the pictures came out a bit blurry. Also it seems that the light was pointing too closely, as some over saturation can be seen.
All the pictures looked good enough on my laptop, but when I moved them to a 2k IPS display to edit, I was not happy with the results. But there is no crying on the market.

And man the camera does not give any mercy regarding the details and paint thickness. What looks good enough when observed with bare eyes, proves to look a bit harsh in a close up picture.
Luckily, no one watches these models that close. I hope.

This means I'm pretty much done with the Eldar for a while. I still have many ideas for kitbashing, but I gotta do something else for a while just to avoid a "hobby burnout".
There is already some things brewing, which will be revealed a bit later...

Both figures are ace! I'm really taken by the work you did on Eldrad's sword and the Farseer's spear blade- really top notch! You do gems really well, too.

The blade on your female character and the head on the wraithlord are both beautiful pieces of work. Well done , I’m not usually an Eldar fan, except striking scorpions, but wow.