Look what I got today

Sadly I won't have a lot of time to look at it until the weekend.  Gorgeous book and I'm looking forward to diving in.

Scorpion Grav Tank WIP

Scorpion Grav Tank

 So after a bath in simple green and some scrubbing to remove the old paint job, I primed up the Scorpion Grav Tank for my Mymeara Eldar and got a base coat down with the airbrush.  There's a whole lot more work to go and I'm really not looking forward to painting the giant gems on this thing.  I still have a lot of trouble making them not look terrible.  I might try masking the hull and use the airbrush as that could give me some nice gradients.

Last Game of 5th Edition

For my last game of 5th Edition I decided to bring out my ignored Eldar army, Michael came over and we played the Battle Missions Book mission, Infestation.  This represents the end of a Tyranid Invasion and the planet is destabilizing (as a result all area terrain is dangerous).  The Eldar deploy completely in one table-quarter and the Tyranids get the other three (though they can't deploy within 12" of my deployment zone.  In addition the Tyranids all get Stealth, and the Eldar all get Preferred Enemy.  I was really excited to play a different mission, as I am more of a thematic gamer, and don't rally like the standard missions in the book.

I won't go into all the details but the Eldar won 8 Kill points to the Tyranids 3.  The MVP's for the game were definitely the War Walkers who with Doom and Guide erased much of the giant Gargoyle  swarm and the Hive Tyrant.  They took a nice dent out of some Genestealers and the Zoanthropes as well and only lost a single weapon (they were nicely bubble wrapped and he didn't have any long range shooting).  The other was actually the Guardian squad.  They were fortuned up on the second turn and the Warlock and one normal guy actually survived a squad of hormagaunts and Genestealers assaulting into them.  That allowed me to focus fire on some incoming squads and probably won me the game in the end.

The Striking Scorpions were the biggest fail of the game.  Another screening Guardian squad would have been just as effective and cost way fewer points.  The Shining Spears were better than I expected, but just don't have enough attacks to do much for their point cost.  The Night Spinner was fun as well, but not better than another 3 War Walkers would have been.  In the future I would drop the Spears, Night Spinner and Scorpions and pick up two more Guardain Squads, a small unit of Pathfinders and 3 more War Walkers.

One problem the Eldar have with the Tyranids is the high initiative, something that they depend on to survive. The Tyranids on the other hand have trouble dealing with the massive amounts of fire (24 Strength 6 scatter laser shots, and 30 Bladestorm shots with doom and guide is rather disgusting).  I had a ton of fun playing, though I'm excited to see what 6th edition will have to offer.  

Eldar - 1997 Points

HQ: Eldrad Ulthran

HQ: Avatar

Troops: 10 Dire Avengers, Exarch (Bladestorm ;  Defend ; Power Weapon; Shimmershield)

Troops: 10 Dire Avengers, Exarch (Bladestorm ;  Defend ; Power Weapon; Shimmershield)

Troops: 10 Guardians (Scatter Laser)

               1 Warlock (Enhance, Singing Spear)

Elite: 10 Striking Scorpions, Exarch (Scorpion Claw)

Elite:   8 Harlequins (Harlequins Kiss)

            1 Shadowseer (Harlequins Kiss; Fusion Pistol)

            1 Troupe Master (Power Weapon; Fusion Pistol)

Fast Attack: 5 Shining Spears, Exarch (Skilled Rider ; Star Lance)

Heavy Support: 3 War Walker (2x Scatter Laser)

Heavy Support: 1 Wraithlord (2x Flamer; Missile Launcher)

Heavy Support: 1 Night Spinner (Holo-Field; Spirit Stones)

Tyranids - 1999 Points

HQ: Hive Tyrant (Lash Whip & Bonesword; Adrenal Glands; Implant Attack; Regeneration; Toxic Miasma; Wings; Leech Essence; Paroxysm)

Troops: 8 Genestealers (Toxin Sacs)

Troops: 8 Genestealers (Toxin Sacs)

Troops: 8 Genestealers (Toxin Sacs)

Troops: 12 Hormagaunts (Adrenal Glands; Toxin Sacs)

Troops: 12 Hormagaunts (Adrenal Glands; Toxin Sacs)

Elite: 3 Zoanthropes

Elite: 3 Zoanthropes

Elite: 8 Ymgarl Genestealers

Fast Attack: 24 Gargoyles (Adrenal Glands; Toxin Sacs)

Fast Attack:  5 Spore Mine Clusters

Heavy Support: Trygon Prime (Adrenal Glands; Regeneration)

Eldar castling in corner

Genestealers finishing munching on some Guardians

Avatar versus Genestealers 

Dire Avengers hiding on roof of building

End of game result

War Walker WIP

Mymeara War Walker 

I worked on a War Walker tonight for my Mymeara army.  I'm really excited so far with how it's coming out.  Looks much better than my old paint scheme.  It's also nice to have a break from painting so much yellow with the Lamenters, though I will continue to work on them as well.  The weapons are magnetized and will be white and black when they are painted up and the upper body is also magnetized to the legs for transport.  As a bonus most of the work is done with the airbrush so the army should paint up pretty fast.

I'm going to try something different with the bases and use some water-effects to have an ice-world theme.  Also looking at different products and ways to do snow.  I've seen the baking soda methods as well as the crushed glass products.  Might have to try a few out to see what works best.

New Eldar toys

While visiting parents in Eastern Washington I picked up some old Eldar models off of Craigslist.  The highlight was an old Scorpion Super Heavy Grav Tank.  This is not the current model, but it still looks good.  I also got 2 more Falcons and a bunch of jet bikes. There are a bunch of old infantry as well that I need to inventory and sort.
They will be off to a nice bath of simple green and get painted soon.

Mymeara color scheme test

 

 

 

I couldn't sleep last night after getting a nasty cold, so I pulled out the airbrush and paints and did an experiment to see what colors to redo my Eldar in.  I like the result so-far, though I went a little too heavy with the blue on the airbrush and in future models will have more green.  Also the white is a little too stark.  I will try and get a warmer white for the base and use the brighter just on the highlights.  I also had some trouble with the airbrush clogging up on the paint, so I need to mix my base colors up with a lot more thinner in a separate dropper bottle ready to go for when I crank the army out.  I also need to figure out what I'm going to do for bases.  I want to make ice-field bases.  I'm thinking maybe I could use some water-effects on top of painted-broken tiles.  Should be a fun experiment.

Colors used:

White Pimer

Vallejo GC Jade Green base

Vallejo GC Turquoise

Vallejo MC Black

P3 Menoth White Highlight

Gems were done with Citadel Liche Purple and Warlock Purple.

Vanguard Veterans WIP

After a late meeting this evening I finally had some time for some hobby work.  I got a box of Death Company for my birthday and picked some jump packs from Chapter House Studio.  I combined the two to make some VV to go with the army.  I armed all with power weapons and the Sargent with a thunder hammer.  I figure with their ability to assault out if deep strike I can use them to really mess a unit up.

I plan on basing them tomorrow and if weather permits, get them primed as well.