Falcon III

The Eldar Falcon tank I started when my wife was out of town over a year ago has been sitting in a nearly finished state on my desk for a while now, and it was really just the base holding me back.

I finally finished it with a bit of weathering power, and here it is. 

Here is the base, where I tried to do too much and had it take much longer than it should have.  In fact with brickwork, ground work, painting, washes, and weathering powders, this probably took about 1/3 of the time it took me to make the whole tank! 

Next up SHOULD be more Eldar, but you never know what will eventually come out here. 

Wraithblades

So in my last substantive hobby post, back in February (!), I outline my future plans for the Eldar army, which consisted of doing the basing for the figures I had finished, finishing up the ones which were 80% done, and then painting the figures which I had built and primed.

So naturally instead this happened:

Yes, that is right, I went off the plan, which itself was already off the original plan, and made up this unit of Wraithblades (the choppy version of Wraithguard, which are basically robots piloted by Eldar ghosts).  This version has a large axe and a shield on the left arm, but they could have two swords instead. 

Each of these fine robotic fellows is comprised of a few parts

17 parts each!

Here are some closeups:

I actually painted these fairly quickly, but then got hung up on the bases, as is often the case. 

I went with the same sort of decayed urban zone as the Wraithlord, but then nearly ruined it with some overeager application of weathering powders.  I basically scraped that all off, and here is the result. 

So these turned out nicely, but the kit was sort of a pain.  All the parts of the Wraithlord, but a quarter of the size means that it was less satisfying to build, and the fixed ankles limited possibility.  There are however still two options I do not have, so I suspect there is still the possibility of another kit in my future. 

I have a couple other projects nearing completion, so it should look like I am making progress soon. 

I still have to do all those bases though... 

New Year, Same project

 Last year, I started on building an Eldar army, something I had long wanted to do.  The intent of this was to "quickly" build up a force to combat my kid's Space Marines.  I had collected the Eldar over a very long time, and with the interest in 8th/9th edition 40k and the kid's new Space Marine army, it seemed like time to get going. 

As it happened, I quickly outpaced the kid as return to in-person school soaked up the available free time.  (free-time that was not spent on Minecraft anyway).  This in turn slowed me down until it came to Dreadtober, where I bashed out a Wraithlord in a month.  I also added to the project with a Falcon, Autarch, and Howling Banshees. 

Here are the original project figures after about a year of work:

Clockwise from the top we have Dire Avengers, Fire Dragons, a Warlock, Rangers, Swooping Hawks, and in the middle we have some Guardians.

Aside from the Dire Avengers, these are largely finished, with just gems and bases to go.  Since I plan to base everything at the same time AND am not 100% sure what I want to do, they have been in this state for a while.  The Dire Avengers need a bit more highlighting and work on the white of the helmet before they are at the same stage as the others. 

Now a logical, and sensible person would have stayed with the army as seen above, finished that, and then moved on to expansions on it (or the 1001 other projects I have piled up on my desk).  Instead, we had some scope creep.

Added to the army above we have a Wraithlord, Falcon, and Wraith Guard.  Bizarrely [or characteristically] these added items were finished before the original.  The Wraithlord is 100% done thanks to Dreadtober, and the Falcon just needs a base and sealer coat.  The Wraithguard only need basing. 

Also added to the army but not yet finished are the Howling Banshees, striking scorpions, and an Autarch. 

So what is next?  Well the 9th edition Eldar Codex is coming out in a month or so, and with it a ton of new kits.  I also have jetbikes, more guardians, more Swooping Hawks, support weapons, and a squad of War Walkers that I could/should add as well.  A Farseer would also be useful...  So plenty more to come, I just need to find the time. 

Dreadtober 2021 - Alaitoc Eldar Wraithlord Finished

Well this is exciting, as it is very rare that I actually finish anything, particularly if it is for myself! 

So you will forgive the self indulgent photographs that follow.

Basic shot, similar to all the others, so that you can compare.  Note here that I sealed it with matte spray, and then went back and gloss highlighted all the gems.  I also added a bit too much weathering powder, scraped from pastel chalk, then fixed a bit with 70% alcohol.  If you look closely, you can see that the alcohol interacted with the left foot a bit.

Sword shot! Bone and polished bone for the sharpened blade edge. 

The back side.

A side shot to give you an impression of the whole thing.

Closeup of the base work. I took the suppled 60mm Eldar base, and removed the broken bit of Eldar scenery from the middle (now where the grass tuft is).  I covered over the Eldar ground work with some plastic card to make the pavement.  Then I did about three times as much work as I needed to by trying to do too much and then ruining what I had and then trying something new.  I think it came out ok in the end. 

Final photo, scale shot to let you see how big this fellow is! 

Thanks for following along with me as I painted this guy.  I learned a few things about painting, for example that a zenithal highlight and "two thin coats" really can do a lot of work for you, and "add a bunch of water" does not make a paint turn into a glaze. 

Next I should really finish up my in-progress Eldar before stating something new...

Dreadtober 2021 - Alaitoc Eldar Wraithlord part 4

 Nearing the end, where I either futz around with details endlessly instead of moving on to a new project, or finally get it done! 

I finished the gems, added some "writing" to the stole, and worked on decals.  The decals were an exercise in frustration, as two tore, and one did not fit where I wanted it to go. Still need to glue the torso and the legs together, and coat with a sealer (look at the shine on that dome!). 

Dreadtober 2021 - Alaitoc Eldar Wraithlord part 3

Just a small update today on the Eldar Wraithlord project.  Most spare time this weekend was spent shoveling mulch, so not very much time to paint. 

Most of the work was done on the sword, which I helpfully excluded from the photograph... oops. I did start in on the gems, and did a few touch ups and highlights here and there. 

I need to get this done before the end of the month for "Dreadtober" but also because I have other things I want to get painted! 

Dreadtober 2021 - Alaitoc Eldar Wraithlord part 2

 As mentioned last time, I am working on a Wraithlord (an Eldar Dreadnaught) as a way to expand my Alaitoc army, and also conveniently to get some hobby energy by building something during a time when others are working on similar projects. 

Here is the current status:

Still to come, work on the sword, metal highlighting, decals, gems, and final assembly. 

Dreadtober 2021 - Alaitoc Eldar Wraithlord part 1

Sometimes there is a hobby challenge or group effort that just seems to line up nicely with what you might already be planning on doing.  One of these regular events is "Dreadtober" where hobby-ists build and paint a dreadnaught or equivalent unit.  It also happens that I am working on my Eldar army, and have a Wraithlord new in box.

As it happened I had Indigenous Persons Day* off for the first time in 30-35 years, so I was able to put in some time painting on Monday.  Knowing that I might have time, I built and primed the Eldar Wraithlord in advance so I would have something new and exciting to work on (remember, new projects are always better than finishing projects... for certain values of "better")

*formerly known as Columbus Day

Wraithlord built, warpvanes kept separate

Building this kit was pretty amazing, as it has a wealth of options for hands/feet/arms/decoration, choice of several different gun combinations, and the shoulders, hips, and waist are all ball joints, which allows nearly too much possibility.  I decided to go with a pose that suggested that the wraithlord had swung around to fry someone with the left hand flamer, and then a swept back sword arm. I magnetized the heavy gun (here a scatter laser) so that I could switch it out if needed, and also to protect it from damage.   I enjoyed building it so much that I was soon on ebay looking at how much another one costs... fortunately did not pull the trigger yet. 

I primed the figure on Sunday, which was fortuitous as it was both warm, and relatively low wind.  Had I waited another day it would not have worked out at all, as the temperature dropped and the wind came up.  I went with an over all black primer with a zenithal cream spray to help pick out details, as well as hopefully to help with highlighting.  After I sprayed the figure but before the paint had dried the torso fell over, which accounts for the black splotch on the center of the head. 

Primed Wraithlord

Here is how it stood at about noon yesterday.  I kept the figure separate at the waist, which allowed me to get under the torso.  This being a newer Eldar figure, it has a ton of gems and such all over its body, so being able to maneuver the brush around is helpful.  I have completed all the first coats of all the colors, including the four different "yellow" shades.  If you look at the legs, or the left forearm, you can see some of the lighter bit from the zenithal highlight actually worked out for once?  Maybe there is something to painting two thin coats...

More to come, as I got a couple more hours of painting in yesterday, but did not take any pictures yet. 

Alaitoc Eldar Progress

 I have been painting a bit lately, mostly on weekend afternoons when the chores are done, the children are occupied with screens, and the light is good.

Here is where I am currently:

In this picture (aside from the mess) we have an eldar guardian squad, swooping hawks, and wraithguard that are nearly finished.  Also in progress are the rangers, warlock, fire dragons, and dire avengers. 

All of the bases will be done at once later, but I should probably get going on that soon too. 

Falcon II

I have been very busy in the past couple months with a variety of projects, few of them hobby related. (or even leisure related at all)

I am inching that Eldar falcon closer to finished though. 

I know that in this picture it looks like it is pretty  much at the same stage as previously, but in actuality all the major painting is done, and it is ready for decals and final assembly.  After all this I still really enjoy this kit, although not enough to build another one right now (which would not make sense list wise anyway).  I am sure that GW will release a new version of this tank "soon", since this is from 1996, but soon for Craftworld Eldar is probably middle of 2022 at least. 

This also shows the only free space on my painting desk, which is a problem in itself. 

Weekend Paint Work

 On Sunday the wife and kids went with my mother-in-law to Yosemite for the night, leaving me with the dog (and chores).

Like an idiot, I thought it would be a fun little project to build up and paint something new with the free time, rather than working on things I already had sitting around on my work table (and there are a LOT of things there lately).

In keeping with my Eldar project, I thought I would build a falcon, which I had new on sprue from an old Eldar battleforce box (where for $85 you got a fair amount of figures, at the time it was 12 guardians, 3 jet bikes, Viper, the falcon, and some of those jungle trees that GW threw into everything at the time.  I think I got it for $65, and now the falcon itself is $55)

To make the project faster, I thought I would try spraying the parts on sprue.  I used this spray in the winter when I was preparing the Eldar and marines that the kid and I have been working on, and it had a great color, but was hydrophobic, and all the figures had to be coated with gesso to use regular paint.  Figuring it was due to the temperature or humidity last time, I conducted a little test on an old sprue, and pleased with the results, sprayed all the sprues for the falcon.

Parts all sprayed and ready to go!

Naturally, the test spray worked, and the actual spray did not... however, I did not know that at first, and got to work building the kit.  This model first came out in 1997, so it is not the most technically advanced, but on the other hand that means that it is pretty easy to figure out how to assemble.  For a kit of that age, it is also interesting how interactive it is, with turning turrets, elevating guns, and opening rear door.  While this kit is well overdue for a refresh, it still comes together pretty nicely. 

Main inner body parts clamped and glued

When I got the tank completed in sub-components, I found out the awful truth about the paint.  Every brush stroke slid off, and thinning paints made it worse.  Fortunately, GW base paints do stick, so by painting everything in thick base paint, I was able to move on.  

Looking pretty good so far, but the frustration of painting each piece a couple of times with very thick paint sapped my will to continue, and I went to bed rather than finishing the paint job, and did not meet my goal of starting and finishing a project in one day. 

Still to come, washes, highlights and layering, and about 100 meters of edge highlights... 

Warhammer Underworlds: Beastgrave

 So my wonderful sister often buys hobby items for me for Christmas or my birthday, and I then usually gratefully put the desired item into a box and never get around to painting it.

This year however, my sister gave me something in concert with the kid, which is to say Warhammer Underworlds: Beastgrave (which in our house at least is pronounced "BEASTGRAVE!!!" in a gravely announcer voice).  For the uninitiated, Beastgrave is "season three" of Games Workshop's Warhammer Underworld game, where players build warbands and card decks, and then fight it out on a board for glory points.  6-8 Warbands are released every season, and older cards are eventually cycled out of "standard".  So far so standard.  

However, with Beastgrave being a GW game, it comes with some amazing pushfit miniatures, and shockingly they are not that expensive, with a whole warband and deck of cards coming in about the same as a single plastic character. 

Beastgrave, full of heavyweight cardstock

These are pushfit

Anyway, the kid convinced me that we needed to paint the figures and play a game before he went back to school, and we shockingly managed to make that happen, building, priming, and painting nine figures in less than 10 days! 

I was assigned the beast-men known as Gashrak's Ravangers

Gashrak's Ravangers painted by me (my photography was particularly poor)

Draknar the Gor

Murghoth Half-horn

Koresh "the sneak"

The kid painted the beast-elves. (Skaeth's Wild Hunt)

Skaeth's Wild Hunt (photography even worse, so attempted to correct a bit in Google)

Conveniently, we got the kid a set of Games Workshop paints for Christmas, which meant we had about 1/4 of the required paints to hand.  We cued up the painting videos from Games Workshop, and aside from having to mix 3/4 of the paints or use substitutes, it all went rather smoothly.  Painting following a guide was surprisingly enjoyable, and I have been eyeing a couple of the other warbands in consequence.  If the game is as fun as promised, more warbands may be making their way to our house soon. 

US Army Color Tests

As a bit of an escape from painting buildings in Normandy, I did some color tests for the US forces.

I was mainly thinking of triads for painting armor after looking at the rather excellent painting guides produced for the new Victrix 12mm tanks (the guides take large scale modeling effects and apply them to the tiny tanks for some exquisite effects).  The guide suggests using the color modulation method, where you create much more extreme contrast by highlighting each segment on its own.  In the guide AK-Ammo brand paints are used, since they are pre-mixed in various shades of OD.

Anyway, since Ammo paints are rather scarce in these parts, I thought I would look at what paints I had on hand, and then mix them with the Olive Drab paint that I have (Vallejo 887 Brown Violet). 

The paint tests above are mixed at roughly 1:1 with the OD paint, and then brushed with a coat or two onto a 3x5 card.   I picked a mix of GW, Reaper, and Vallejo paints to make a shade and highlight of the center row of base OD. Since I am color blind deficient in this range of colors, I sent the picture above to my sister, who as an interior designer has a much better sense of color than I do.  She selected a couple of colors to test further, which I then used on the card below.

Here I spray primed the card before painting it, to get a better representation of the color on the final models, and then mixed various ratios of paint.  The center blob is OD mixed with black, which seemed like the best (and easiest) way to get a darker shade.  Anyway, an interesting little project, which amongst other  things reminded me how hard it is to mix colors!

While I had the paints sorted out, I painted a paratrooper just to see how it would go. 

The last time I painted any paratroopers was in 2014, and I must say that the 15mm figure was much harder!  I did have all my color notes from then, and I think it was helpful, particularly for the specific bits of gear not covered in the Battlefront painting guide.  Now I just need to churn out another 40 of these guys... (and finish off those Germans)

Ave Dulcis!

For Halloween this year, the boy wanted to be a Roman soldier... well alright then, I think we can make that happen...

Fantasy Figures

As seen in my last post (was it really two weeks ago?), some miniatures I have painted recently.

Usual excuses about photography with a cell phone, and lighting.  I may eventually get around to taking better pictures, but given my track record on that regard, I would not hold your breath.

The two enigmatic large bases need a bit more work before I show them off with their proper occupants.  I have enough figures to show off that I will break them up into a few posts.

First off fantasy.

Leading the charge is this Night goblin on a wolf, which I converted back in August after being inspired by Sebastian's work over at Eastern Empire. (Inspired should here read "nearly directly ripped off")

Next up are these Reaper peasants, although really only the one could be a peasant, while the others are clearly city dwellers.

These may need another application of matte spray

And finally we have a chaos standing stone made from the one grasped by the plastic giant. I carved away the excess material (a giant hand) and ended up with this stone.  Seems like it needs something else though... spent candles, and some blood maybe?

Tomorrow I have some various Inq28 figures to put up, and then we will have another wait until I actually get something painted. (I did assemble and prime a troupe of Harlequins, so there is material forthcoming eventually!)

Friday painting progress

Managed to have a couple of days of painting at lunch time this week, and did some final touch ups and base edges for these figures.  Eclectic mix of figures for various games, including the peasants in the foreground, which I am painting in the picture in my masthead holding #1 child who is nearly 7...

Next they are off to dullsville... dullcote that is.

Remembering Cadia

Some of the chaps about the blogging world are taking the opportunity to "Remember Cadia", which as you may be aware was recently destroyed by Chaos. (or will be in the far dark future that is Warhammer 40k)

I happened to have an unfinished Cadian infantry squad myself, which I had originally bought with the idea of making it an armored fist squad in my Imperial Guard army. (armored fist squads were mounted in Chimera AFVs, and purchased separately from the regular platoons in the codex of the era)

Unusually for the time period, I actually painted the figures about 90% of the way complete, needing only some ink, highlights, and of course basing.  I believe that I painted these about 14 years ago, and they have actually been used in a game (pulverized by an assault squad of Space Marines).

Starting status

As you can see most of the base colors have been completed, and while it may be hard to make out in this shot, the figures even have painted eyes, something I gave up about the same time as these were last worked on.

Fast forward through a couple of paint sessions, and here we are.

Now just awaiting some suitable weather for a matte coat, some grass tufts/flock, and good to go.

Friday - Painting in Progress

Pictured is the sum of my painting for this week, which includes the base coats on three tank crewmen and base coats on three Inquisitorial Castellany troopers.  Not too much, but they should finish up quickly when I have the time to take another crack at them. Particularly pleased with the heraldry on the pavises.