Alaitoc War Walker 2

It's been some time since I finished my first War Walker, and given how good these are in the game, it was inevitable to get second one sooner or later. So, here it is!

 

War walkers are fun (if a bit challenging) to assemble and paint. For me, this one was a good practice at painting the Alaitoc scheme, and I've learnt an important lesson as well (more on that soon). Again, I've built this one with Scatter Laser and Eldar Missile Launcher weapons as this proved to be a pretty effective combination, even though it lost the Laser Lock combo. Flyers and light vehicles beware!

 

 I had some trouble getting back the right marble pattern after such a long pause from Eldar models but luckily enough, my artistic girlfriend helped me - thanks for that! In the end I'm most satisfied with the paintjob. The canopy, however, ended up looking really bad. During the modelling process I accidently got some plastic glue onto the inner side of the canopy... Which had an immediate effect on the material transparency. The canopy is therefore much darker than on my first War Walker, which sucks... The lesson: keep plastic glue the hell away from transparent bits!
 

Still, the two models don't look so bad together. It's still hard to justify the difference in my head though. Hopefully I'll eventually find a spare canopy... Or paint a power field effect of sorts over these. Given how rare these bits are, I think I'll take a long break first.

One new thing I did for this model was painting the patterns around upper engine exhausts (or perhaps coolers?) with yellow color. It's a really nice bit of eye-candy contrasting with the dark-blue marble around it, so I've used the opportunity and repainted the part on the first model as well.

Well, that's about it. Thanks for reading, and, in case you have a comment or suggestion for the canopy problem - I'm one big ear!

Alaitoc War Walker

After almost half an year, I finally returned back home - and now I'm almost drowning in paint and getting lost in the labyrinth of model boxes everywhere around me! In this quick update, I would like to share some pictures of my first painted War Walker.

Again, this was the first time I applied the marble color scheme to something this big - and I'm pleased with the result. I tried to make a good mixture between light blue, blue marble and yellow to make the model well-defined and visible. The protecting glass was washed with blue ink and covered with Ardcoat (gloss varnish), which gave a rather nice effect in the end. 

The model is armed with a rather universal configuration - Scatter Laser and Eldar Missile Launcher. I already had a small testing game againstTyranids and it definately got its points back - can't wait to assemble more of these!

What I really love about this kit is the Eldar Dreadnought Base - some really nice details there! I had fun covering the base with a layer of swamp-like mud and grass, using Stirland Mud for the texture. I guess I will need to experiment bit more with the other War Walker bases, though, to make them look more different.

Anyways, see you soon! Getting back to The Pyre now...

Alaitoc Guardians

Wow, is it really July already?!

I had this squad painted for a while now, but it took me some time to get decided on the Weapon Platform - especially in regards to the marble effect. I've decided to use stippling only on the shield and frontal panels to make the vehicle bit more interesting. Kudos to my girlfriend for help with that! The decorations are a mix of old and new decals, I still don't feel confident enough to freehand Eldar runes.

Assembling these guys was quite fun. Sure, the Guardians box is old and the mould lines are ever-present, but the models can be assembled in various poses and the kit has plenty of interesting bits such as various antennae, targeters, grenades and spare clips. There are two shields available for the platform, and the box includes each of its pontential weapons. For more variety, try kitbashing with the Dire Avengers box - for example, the model below has a one-hand shuriken from the Dire Avengers exarch.

I planned to do some squad markings for the Guardians, but in the end I've decided against it - at least until I get another squad. My idea was to choose squad colors and paint them on either on kneepads or the antennae on back. I've also left the Guardian helmets free of the Guardian symbol; the reason for this is that I have actually seen only few Guardian models with it - even the Games Workshop showoff models don't have it! And I'm not even sure it would look any better.

The bases were done in similar way as with my Dire Avengers - various bits of plasticard and frames painted to resemble Eldar ruins, painted with Eldar symbols and sticking out of Stirland Mud texture.

By the way, I've tested the unit few times and I rather like it, even though the lack of a proper armour save is really annoying! I guess these guys will mostly camp at base around an objective, which is why I armed the platform with a Bright Lance. The low rate of fire makes it rather unreliable, though. Maybe I should switch to a Starcannon or Shuriken Catapult?

Alaitoc Farseer (updated)

The rulebook speaks clear - every army has to have a leader. For my Alaitoc Eldar, I decided to make the classic choice, and went for a Farseer - a female one, in honor of the Dawn of War series.

I didn't convert much on the model - mostly just replaced the helmet with a Dark Eldar female head. I was thinking of converting the chest a bit, but in the end decided against it, since the runic armour is bulgy enough as is, and guardian female torso is not nearly as impressive as the original one.

Regarding the Singing spear, my plan for the Eldar is to make their power weapons gloom with dark blue glow; still have to work on that a bit. The spear has actually broken during painting and so is held together with a green stuff scroll - I think that turned out rather cool.

Regarding the model itself, it was fun to assemble and paint, and I'm glad Games Workshop has released it in plastic, even though it is shame that the kit lacks any additional bits - a missed opportunity in my opinion. The scenic base is a neat boon though. The head conversion was pretty easy, though some filing was required.

Anyway, see you soon! I plan to update this post, as well as some older posts with new pics - thanks to a friend I have plenty of good quality pictures such as these above waiting on my hard drive.

Alaitoc Dire Avengers

 Shea nudh Asuryanish ereintha Asuryanat.

It's been quite some time since I painted Eldar, and I never finished any actual squad - that is, until now. Eldars were the talk of the month recently, so they got to my attention again. It was very motivating to find out that Dire Avengers have been boosted with the new Codex; on the other side, it feels bitter to see their price effectively doubled (and no, I don't mean point-wise). Good thing I got mine squad from the old Battleforce box, which was a fair value.

Regarding the models themselves, I enjoyed building them, though they definately get monotone quickly. That's why I assembled one of them holding a grenade - and that was even before it was known that the unit will have access to plasma grenades now. The squad was painted with white primer and Enchanted Blue (Caledor Sky) undercoat washed over with blue shade (and then highlighted with Enchanted Blue again). I wanted to tie the unit to my other Alaitoc Eldar, so I painted their weapons with Iyanden Darksun (Averland Sunset) and their helmet crests with blue and yellow.

The Exarch is a real fun model to build and paint - especially for all those funky weapon options he has. I went with the close combat setup for its iconic look (note that the Exarch can throw grenades now, so he can still do something in the shooting phase). I tried to paint the power weapon as if it is glowing with dark blue energy - that's why I painted the blade with gloss varnish. The shimmershield effect has been achieved with blue wash followed by a drybrush of yellow.

I added the picture above to show more of the bases and of the Exarch's flag, which was - I confess - done mostly with transfers, the result looks good though. I'd like to pay more attention to basing and this squad was a good start. The bases have been painted with Stirland Mud followed by a black wash and a sporadic XV-88 drybrush - I have to say I'm very pleased with the texture colour, it sticks very well to the base. I added some Eldar ruins to the base, mostly just pieces of sprue painted with simple freehanded runes. These little details really add a lot to the overall atmosphere.

Anyway, time for me to get back to work on the Farseer! And the Killa Kans, and the Bikers, Cultists, Warriors,... (head explodes)

First Alaitoc Guardian

Hi again! Just wanted to share a picture of my first painted Alaitoc Guardian. I didn't really use stippling here (I save it for vehicles), but I had great fun painting the carapace armour with Enchanted Blue, Ice Blue and Asurmen Blue wash. It definately looks better than my first try on Alaitoc, which ended up a bit too dark-coloured.


As you can see, there are still many things to improve on the model - for example the fingers holding the shuriken catapult could get some washing, and the jewels could be more detailed as well. I'll probably return to this model when I'll work on other Guardians, but right now, Genesis Chapter is the priority.

Also, I experimented with the basing a bit. You can see a piece of ruin there with an Eldar hieroglyphe (which is actually the symbol for Guardians). The plan is to make the Eldars look as if they are guarding an ancient sacred place.

Anyways, Merry Christmas (or Chanuka/Kwanzaa) and happy New Year! I'm sure about to have fun with a new Ravenwing Battleforce that I'm about to use for my Genesis Chapter army.

Gotta love the Ravenwing upgrade sprues... They make me think about assault cannon Razorbacks.

Anyways, see you in 2012! That is, unless the mayan prophecy turns out to be true.

First Alaitoc Jetbike finished!

Happy new year 2011!

I'm sorry for inactivity, just have too much trouble IRL right now. Can't wait to get back to Warhammer!

Anyways, I have finished an Eldar jetbike, craftworld Alaitoc. While I like the way the front plate went out, I'm rather dissatisfied with the rest. I will try a much lighter color scheme next time (I have a whole Eldar battleforce ready for assembly here). While I have used Mordian Blue, Enchanted Blue, Ice Blue and Asurmen Blue on the Jetbike, I plan to use mainly Ice Blue / Asurmen Blue on the Guardians. I hope it will bring a more contrasting result.

Here are pictures of the jetbike:







Well, that is all. Since I'm new to the Eldar, I would really welcome any sort of tips and criticism!

Ergotoxin out.