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I like the helm, very good!

Not sure what would be best on him... Highlights would definately make his body more defined, but could also ruin the dark look.... I guess I'll stay out of this decision

I agree with the other guys. Just highlight the black, but not with a bright shade.

Thanks guys! Will definitely be highlighting the black. Sadly Real Life is conspiring against me and I haven't gotten much done so far. I have put the base coat of red on all the guys and that's about it. Will do the gradients to yellow and white tomorrow, and hopefully guns on Sunday, and I think that's all I'll have time for. Still, progress!

oooh - they're looking lush!! nice job

Well they only have two colors on them, but thanks, glad the color scheme seems to be working! Will take a bit of time getting all of them looking like the middle one though.

So unsuprisingly, I did not have enough time during the weekend to finish the Fire Dragons. I did get quite far though, and managed to finish the "fire" parts on all of them, but still

WEEK 3 - CHALLENGE FAILED

I have preemptively decided to take next week as a catch-up week and start the Dire Avengers if I have time, since I know I will get very little hobby time due to personal commitments. Still, might give me enough time to finish of one of the unfinished units! I have also decided to swap out the 3 Vypers for 6 Swwoping Hawks and 5 Rangers, since they are quite far along in painting and the Vypers aren't even assembled.

WEEK 4 - CATCHUP

Well... Instead of finishing stuff, I started on a display board. I plan on taking a picture frame of appropriate size, covering it in plaster and sanding/flocking it. Fairly simple. I want one stand-out feature though, which will be a watch tower for my Rangers. Here's what I got so far, the platform they will be standing on.

Love the idea of a display stand. Was thinking of a similar idea for a bike squadron.

do you do it for a lot of your units?

Haven't done it before actually, so we'll see how it goes

Mymearan wrote:
Haven't done it before actually, so we'll see how it goes

I'll watch with interest

WEEK 5 - DIRE AVENGERS

I spent most of last week away from home, so I basically didn't get anything done. Now I'm back and ready to be productive! Dire avengers, right. As you might recall, I was unhappy with the graininess of the spray paint I used on them at the beginning of week 3, so I stripped them. Tonight I put them back on their bases and primed them, which isn't terribly exciting I know, but tomorrow I will start the painting and hopefully have a nice picture for you guys

I'm also varnishing my Shining Spears, those old metal models chip so, SO easily... They've lost paint just by standing in my shelf already!

So this is the army I will be taking to the tournament, missing only the Dire Avengers:



As you can see, there's a lot to do still. In fact, only two Wave Serpents, the Shining Spears and the Wraithguard are finished. The Guardians are the first models I painted when I got back into the hobby, and in the future I will be replacing them with old school guardians that will hopefully also be better painted.

One thing that struck me was the army is so... blue. Yes, that's my craftworld scheme, but I felt like I needed to change it up a bit. So I did this to my Dire Avengers:



Which I feel will be a welcome splash of color. Red is also the color I've used to signify character status on my Spiritseer and Farseer, so it seems appropriate that the Farseers bodyguard should wear red.

Sorry for the lack of updates guys! I have been quite busy. But I've also been painting! The dire avengers have now, after the mephiston red basecoat, been shaded with heavily thinned rhinox hide in the recesses. After that, I've thinned down evil sunz scarlet and painted it on the armor to brighten it a bit. The five guys on the right in the photo have been brightened, the ones on the left have not. Don't know if there's much of a difference?

Mymearan wrote:
The five guys on the right in the photo have been brightened, the ones on the left have not. Don't know if there's much of a difference?

The ones on the right do look lighter, but not sure I would have picked it up without prompting. It's all about little steps to build on and reach the final goal, this is therefore an essential (minor) addition (whoopsie, if you hadn't guessed I'm all about motivating whenever possible)

Thank you deputy manager!

Now, my updates have slowed to a crawl I know, and in fact I have been away since Thursday and haven't had a chance to really do anything. So here's the Dire Avengers in their current state, and of course...

--- WEEK 5-6 - CHALLENGE FAILED ---



--- WEEK 7 - FALCON AND WAR WALKERS ---

On to the next week! Falcon and War Walkers, currently looking like this:

It's masses of work to do a squad a week, especially to your standard. At least you're doing more than me

Thanks a lot for the compliment, it is indeed a lot of work, especially with a one-year old making sure no work gets done until late at night when both he and the wife have gone to bed! Sadly I've had to realize I probably won't finish any of the squads I do, but at least they will be a lot more finished than they were before I started I also have a secret weapon of Alone Time coming up hopefully at the end of next week...

I have two children and I therefore completely understand your challenges.

Ah the fabled alone time...

...let me know what that's like

I've fouund myself getting up earlier in the morning to get those lovely pataches of 'me time' when I can get a little painting done. Getting married next month so catching some painting time these days is precious eh?!! Your falcon is looking righteous fella. Lovely smooth colours. gonna be a dandy when finished

They look great! (albeit half finished )

I'm sure you'll be able to hit the 3 colours, and atleast be tournament legal.

Thanks a lot guys, it's very motivating! Tonight I feel like I didn't make enough progress in almost two hours, I only managed to finish the highlighting of the blue on the hull. After that I'll need to do the blue on the turret/second cockpit, the highlights on the bone, and finally the transfers. I had hoped to be finished with the Falcon by tomorrow, but it'll be a struggle for sure.

That's already made a huge difference - time well spent

Yeah, the highlights on the blue lift it up nicely.

Thank you! The sad thing is that during this whole challenge, the Falcon is the only thing I've had time to highlight (the Shining Spears didn't really need highlights, only shading). On the Warp Spiders, the Fire Dragons and the Dire Avengers, I only managed to do basecoat - shading - second basecoat - third brighter basecoat. Highlighting is my last step, so it will be a lot of fun when I can finally get there!

Also wanted to ask you guys for advice. I have my normal hobby blog in my signature, which has been a catch-all for all my projects (mainly 40k, Necromunda and scratchbuilt terrain), although I haven't been updating it since I started my nine week challenge. Do you guys prefer the "catch-all" setup, or separate blogs for each thing? In this case, one for Eldar, one for Necromunda and one for terrain? I'm thinking one massive blog is better since it gets more updates and thus more activity, but maybe people prefer more specific blogs, what do you guys think?

up to how you like to work. I sperated my stuff into two seperates as I like to jump between 2 different blocks I'm working on; the DV box on one hand and Eldar on the other.

I've only got one for now, because painting only DAs, when I start making Tau or terrain I may do separate blogs but like knowing everything's in one place. I have a contents list in my OP that I update as I go. It's up to you really.

Hm, yeah I'll have to think about it then!

In other news, I had three hours to hobby today, and felt sure I would finish the falcon.



I didn't! What I did do though, was finish ALL the blue highlights, not just the hull, tinted the windows and also painted what felt like millions of little gems and screens black. Of course, then I have to actually paint them like gems... Holy gak. I also haven't touched the bone parts, they will be highlighted tomorrow. After those things are done its pretty much just transfers left!

Feth!! She's looking beautiful fella! The highlights on the blue are perfect - just the right level. How'd you tint the canopy glass?

Thanks! I also tried to improve the cockpit parts by adding a highlight going straight down the middle to simulate reflecting light. I think it looks pretty good so I'll probably do it on the sides of the noses also; in fact the way the actual light from my lamp is reflecting, the same effect is achieved on the sides of the nose as well, so I'll just paint it there

the tinting is done with Blood for the Blood God, just a few layers with a flat brush. Before I put the canopy on it looked like crap, all streaky and uneven, but when you put it on its impossible to tell since yoi can see the pilot, instrument panel etc through it.

ahhh - love that BFTBG tech paint. seriously cracking stuff. That and Typhus corrosion are two of my favourite paints. I'll need to tint the canopy when I (eventually) get around to painting that WS that's sitting sadly in my cabinet. I was gonna go with getting some Tamiya Clear paints. must do a little experimenting with BFTBG first