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I've been out of the hobby for a while, slowly getting back in. I hadn't painted a miniature in over 13 years, so I'm still working a lot of things out and taking waaaaaaaay too long to do it. But here are my Striking Scoprions, my first completed squad in a long, long time:



Exarch Close-Up:




I ceremoniusly apologize for the quality of my camera and photography skills.

I've also painted 8 jetbikes of a bike heavy 1500 point Eldar army I'm working on--mostly old models I've managed to keep track of, with a few new purchases like these guys.

These are looking really good, even with the bad quality shots! I'd be interested to see the rest when you upload them.

Thanks! I'm painting reeeeeeeaaaaallllyyyyyyy slowly, so I don't know when I'll be done with anything new. I'm working on finishing up my regular bikers, 4 to go.

Great work, that alternative colour scheme really works. It has a real feeling of 'I'm dangerous, stay away', much like a real scorpion.

Really cool colour scheme, but makes me thing more of storm guardians than striking scorpions. Look forward to more of your work.

 stargasm wrote:
Really cool colour scheme, but makes me thing more of storm guardians than striking scorpions. Look forward to more of your work.

I'm glad you like the scheme. I'm not planning on sticking with any of the aspect warrior colors for this army; my shining Spears are going to be primarily gold and white with black, red, green details and maybe something else mixed in.

I'm sticking with a pretty limited range of paints with this army so far, attempting to create a very cohesive look for the army. Red, white, black, gold, Green, and maybe two more colors to throw in the mix variously prominent and permutated. I guess my Warp Spiders will probably end up looking about like they should unless I do something..... drastic....

This is what the Jetbikes look like:



Side view:



I know, I know. I messed them up! I really screwed up varnishing all 8 of the jetbikes; they all ended up cloudy. Oh well! It was my fault for rushing through all 8. Looked fine at the time. A day later or so, they were all fogged up. I finished five entire armies way back in my day and never had that problem. Maybe I'm just too old and rickety these days.

Purple Saturday wrote:

I know, I know. I messed them up! I really screwed up varnishing all 8 of the jetbikes; they all ended up cloudy. Oh well! It was my fault for rushing through all 8. Looked fine at the time. A day later or so, they were all fogged up. I finished five entire armies way back in my day and never had that problem. Maybe I'm just too old and rickety these days.

Can't tell that from the pics tbh. But this is usually fixed with a quick shot of gloss varnish. Let it cure (give it at least 48 hours) and then try the matte again (assuming you were using a matte varnish that went cloudy) and make sure you're doing it where it's not too cold or too hot and not humid!

I really like the red and white scheme. And as stated, the cloudiness can be fixed easily.

Thanks for the tips! If it's that easy, I'll probably try that out eventually, but I just want to be done with these bikes right now. I kind of hate the models--a common sentiment I believe? I am much more excited to get to work on my Shining Spears and Warp Spiders.

Your scorpions are, shall I say it? Striking! Ha! I crack myself up

Working Slowly, but I swear I'm tenacious. I have just finished all 12 of my regular Eldar Windriders.

Here's the gang all together:



And a more aggressive view:



I have 6 Shuriken Catapult Riders to go, but I'm going to take a break from painting jetbikes to paint my Guardians instead. The Eldar Guardian might be my single favorite model that GW makes. Here is my scheme/first finished Guardian:



Front view:



Other side view:



Back view:



Arm-less view:



I have a little bit of free time, so I'm hoping to finish the Guardian squad quickly, quickly being a relative term.

Working on my Guardian squad, finished the Weapon Platform Team:



I'm definitely still working on making the eyes look not terrible (eyes.....).

Here's them again, slightly askew:

That's an awesome colour scheme you've got there. Those striking scorpions look... err... well... striking!

Looking forward to more.

These look awesome good work!! May get a few of these!

That red how?
EDIT: No seriously. How'd you do it?

They're horrible stop painting just kidding it's weird getting back into painting and can be challenging so well done on these. Very clean and straightforward and that in and of itself can be a challenge so I commend you.

Those look amazing! Possibly one of the most crisp elder armies I've seen! That's some dedication, I'd love to see what you could do with a wave serpent.

Thanks guys. I'll be expanding the scheme with more gold and violet. I'm still trying to pick at least one more color though.

 Brother Payne wrote:
That red how?
EDIT: No seriously. How'd you do it?

I'm using all Vallejo Game Color range paints thinned with Liquitex Matte Medium and water. What I did sort of varied model to model. I've been experimenting a lot with brush strokes, layer thickness, and contrast since there's so much I don't remember and never knew. Essentially though, the recipe would be roughly, painting in smaller and smaller areas towards the highlights:
3 layers of Heavy Red
1-2 layer of Heavy Red or Scarlet Red and Blood Red (1:1 or 3:2)
2 layers of Blood Red
1-2 layers of Blood Red and Fiery Orange (1:2)
Maybe 1 layer of Fiery Orange at the very tip top/ pin points of the model. This is all over a base-coat of Heavy Blue Grey and Grey Primer.

Some of the models have darker highlights and more steps between Heavy Red and Blood Red.

You have to be careful and make sure your paints are thin enough or the final highlights will make them look orange. It's definitely very bright and heraldic--to me, the Eldar will always be High Elves in space.

Purple Saturday wrote:
Thanks guys. I'll be expanding the scheme with more gold and violet. I'm still trying to pick at least one more color though.

 Brother Payne wrote:
That red how?
EDIT: No seriously. How'd you do it?

I'm using all Vallejo Game Color range paints thinned with Liquitex Matte Medium and water. What I did sort of varied model to model. I've been experimenting a lot with brush strokes, layer thickness, and contrast since there's so much I don't remember and never knew. Essentially though, the recipe would be roughly, painting in smaller and smaller areas towards the highlights:
3 layers of Heavy Red
1-2 layer of Heavy Red or Scarlet Red and Blood Red (1:1 or 3:2)
2 layers of Blood Red
1-2 layers of Blood Red and Fiery Orange (1:2)
Maybe 1 layer of Fiery Orange at the very tip top/ pin points of the model. This is all over a base-coat of Heavy Blue Grey and Grey Primer.

Some of the models have darker highlights and more steps between Heavy Red and Blood Red.

You have to be careful and make sure your paints are thin enough or the final highlights will make them look orange. It's definitely very bright and heraldic--to me, the Eldar will always be High Elves in space.

cheers, keep up the good work!

 Empchild wrote:
They're horrible stop painting just kidding it's weird getting back into painting and can be challenging so well done on these. Very clean and straightforward and that in and of itself can be a challenge so I commend you.

HA It is weird and has taken a surprising amount of effort to carry through. Between work and graduate school and life, it's hard to find the time and energy to paint when you're getting older.

I figured clean and straightforward was a good way to practice the basics and is effective for Eldar. Ideally, this army is practice for an Exodite army I've always wanted to make. But that potential project is at least two years away at my painting pace.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

MaxZ wrote:
Those look amazing! Possibly one of the most crisp elder armies I've seen! That's some dedication, I'd love to see what you could do with a wave serpent.

The Guardian squad has a wave serpent, so you will find out some day. Thank you for the kind words, I'm trying to keep it very clean and crisp.

Nice departure from the standard color scheme. The gold predator-dreadlocks look awesome against that armor scheme.

Due to holiday traveling and work/school commitments, progress on my Eldar has been slow. But I just finished two more guardians, and I'm nearly done with two more. I'm starting to pay more attention to painting their eyes, so hopefully the last three guardians will be my best.

Latest Guardians (5/10 completed):

Front:



Side:



Other Side:



Back:



More pictures on the way soon. Hopefully I'll finish the Guardians entirely so I can move on to the Warp Spiders--throw some more color in the mix.

And here are squad members 6/10 and 7/10:



Here's this gang of four all together:



Three more to go, almost done with their white sections.

Really fine looking work PSat. Great color scheme and (at least as far as I can tell ) nicely executed.

Thanks, I should be getting a new phone soon that has a better camera, so hopefully the picture quality will increase a bit.

My execution is a bit dodgy here and there, but I think I'm getting better. I'm at least making fewer mistakes that I have to cleanup later so my painting speed is picking up just a tad.

These are really well done for a new painter! Bravo, these are better than I can do and I've been painting solidly for a good 3 years now, haha.. I look at these and realize how slow I am x'D

Thank you for the kind words, but I don't want to deceive you! I'm not exactly a new painter. I used to play 40k when I was much younger, I started with Fantasy actually--from the age of 8-9 to about 14. Not that I was any good even for my age, but I at least made it a point to (try to) paint every single model I ever owned (don't ask me how I did).

As far as I can remember, these are the very last models I painted before dropping the hobby completely for a girl I was afraid of scaring away:



The Archon alone:




So I'm not exactly new, although I wouldn't consider myself well-practiced or particularly experienced or skillful... yet... But I'm trying to be as mindful of my technique and learning from the resources available here on Dakka and around the internet as I can be.

Your Archon looks exceptionally good for an old model!

And bah! WHO NEEDS GIRLS WHEN YOU HAVE TOY SOLDIERS...

very nice and clean.. i like the color pairings as well

 BrotherOfBone wrote:
... And bah! WHO NEEDS GIRLS WHEN YOU HAVE TOY SOLDIERS...

I was a very foolish young man.