Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

I'm working on a small (1000 point) Eldar force over Christmas holidays. I don't know if I'll be able to finish it, but I'm going to give it the ol' college try. I've spent most of this week assembling the models, now I can move on to painting.



The roster includes:
(1) Farseer
(1) Spiritseer
(3x10) Defender Guardians
(5) Wraithswords w/ Ghostswords
(1) Wraithlord w/ Ghostglaive and Two Bright Lances
(2) War Walkers w/ Two Shuriken Cannons
(1) Wave Serpent with Twin Shuriken Cannons and Shuriken Cannon

The weapons on the War Walkers, Wraithlord and Wave Serpent (barring the lone Shuriken Cannon) are magnetized for future swaps. The Wraithlord is probably over-gunned but I think it's a better place for Bright Lances than the Wave Serpent, YMMV.

Paint scheme wise, I'm going for a simplified version of this, which was done about 10 years ago and took entirely too long to do. Hopefully using an airbrush and washes will speed things along tremendously!

That's a solid start, and I'm always happy to find another eldar blog to follow.

I really like the colour scheme and I can see how it takes a long time, particularly the layering on the orange. Are you planning on trying to achieve the same effect more quickly via the airbrushing?

 Bellerophon wrote:
That's a solid start, and I'm always happy to find another eldar blog to follow.

I really like the colour scheme and I can see how it takes a long time, particularly the layering on the orange. Are you planning on trying to achieve the same effect more quickly via the airbrushing?

More or less. I may try to keep the color transition zenithal (yellow top, red bottom). I'm planning on basecoating in the grey and then cleaning up any overspray afterwards with the grey again, as Mechanicus Standard Grey has good coverage. All the original minis I painted were done painting panel by panel with thick coats of very wet paint, which was tedious but produced a very smooth coat, something that's pretty easy to replicate with an airbrush.

Love the colour scheme, and it’s nice to see the army all together - will be good to have a comparison once it’s all painted up!

Good luck with the project, I’m excited to see how it goes!

Nice! Cool project. If they end up looking anything like that Wraithlord, this will be awesome. Love that sword.

That's a lovely looking scheme and an ambitious project for the Christmas break! It's going to look like a great looking army if that Lord is anything to go by.

Good luck!

 youwashock wrote:
Nice! Cool project. If they end up looking anything like that Wraithlord, this will be awesome. Love that sword.

Thanks, I love that sword too, but I don't think I'll be duplicating the effect going forward, I'll probably go for glowy red powerblades. The golden wraith helmets are staying, though.

Nice looking scheme. Ambitious goal to get it done over the holidays. Unless you are at the point where that’s a month break.

 Nevelon wrote:
Nice looking scheme. Ambitious goal to get it done over the holidays. Unless you are at the point where that’s a month break.

No, I'm back to work after New Year's. I doubt I'll get finished, but I've gotten priming done and I'm working on basecoating and blends now.

Really cool color scheme on that Wraithlord!
Looking forward to see what you can achieve during the holidays.

 Ezki wrote:
Really cool color scheme on that Wraithlord!
Looking forward to see what you can achieve during the holidays.

Thanks! I've already blown through an entire pot of Mechanicus Standard Grey Air, though I got everything but the Wave Serpent basecoated. I'm gonna have to use regular Std. Grey on the tank. Hopefully I can get all the airbrush work done tonight.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
First day progress photo:


My lower back started complaining about all the time I spent today at the airbrush booth, so I decided to call it a day. Tomorrow I'll start working up the reds towards the oranges you can see on the Farseer, Spiritseer and heads/weapons in the metal tray. Once that's done I can start cleaning up the grey, get to work with washes, highlights, details etc.

Day two: Airbrushing done and progress on cleaning up the grey. I lost control of the color transitions on some of the small areas, it was probably a bad idea to try a 4 color fade on small parts. I also found out how bad an idea it is to airbrush metallics onto grey, as splatter got out of control pretty quickly.

Still undecided what two do with the swords, though I had a crazy idea to do blue and white highlights on the edges.

You're getting there!

Very nice. Those transitions look excellent!

Jeez, you're pieces are looking better as you speed paint than mine do with a month-of-Sundays deliberative approach. Great color scheme for them.

Orange and grey really do mesh well! You're flying through these models and they look fantastic so far.

Nice progress. You masking off bits? Or are you just that tidy with the airbrush?

And I hear you on the back pain. It’s pretty much my limiting factor on how much work I can get done.

 Nevelon wrote:
Nice progress. You masking off bits? Or are you just that tidy with the airbrush?

No, I'm repainting grey areas that got over-sprayed. Fortunately Mech Std. Grey has pretty good coverage as long as you don't over-thin it. If I was masking, I'd do the color fades first, mask them off, then spray the rest.

Blistering speed...and good looking models to boot.

More progress. Cleaned up the Wraithblades and got some color work done on the guardians. Started blacklining and painting the bumps on the Wraithblades.

Latest pic isn't loading for me, but the blending looks great in the first/second update and seems like a decent chunk of your work done already.

Looking good!

Time for some cone-heads. I decided to try some texture paint on the bases (Martian Ironearth). I'll probably add some tuft elements after varnishing.



Guardians are probably my biggest barrier to completion (there are 30 of them and they're fiddly and full of pointy bits paint loves to rub off of), so getting some of these guys done is paramount. Note that the guns are blue for a reason, that being that my Dire Avengers (done years back) have the same blue on their guns, and most Guardians will have had Dire Avenger training in their past. This also kept me from having to do a color blend on the guns, because Guardians are also fiddly as hell to assemble, so painting guns separate isn't a great option.

Maybe this means that if I ever do CC Guardians I'll have to do their weapons in scorpion green, but I'm okay with that, green, orange and grey go well enough together as blue does.

Really crisp and good looking bunch!
Adding some tufts to the bases sounds like a good idea.

Got 2 War Walkers done today!


I used Martian Ironcrust on the base, and will probably continue using it for stuff larger than 25mm bases. I thought I put it on thick enough to crack, but apparently not! That's okay, though, I'm cool with just a rough texture.

Note the gun limbs aren't glued in, so I can change the angle of the guns if I want.

Wraithlord done!


I must have put 8 extra coats of paint on the sword trying out various schemes. I finally broke down and copied the original Wraithlord sword scheme, though I detached the sword (the hand was pinned in place) to make my life easier. That also let me reposition the angle of the sword, which was bugging me. I should have had a more dynamic pose on this guy overall.

Doing the Wrathblades like this isn't going to be fun, but at least it will look good. I also decided against painting every bump as a gem like I did on the original - way too much work.

Another squad of Guardians done.

You're really rocking these guys out. Wraithlord looks awesome, glad you went with that look for the sword.

Great scheme and phenomenally quick progress. That’s probably a years worth of painting for some!

Looking great. I'm definitely envious of how quickly you're churning these out, to a fantastic standard. Well done!

The speed and quality on these guys is impressive.