Wraithknight WIP

A few WIP shots of the Wraithknight. Still lots of detail work to do, but it's coming along nicely.

 

Building and Magnetizing a Wraithknight

Here are some work in progress pictures of the magnetizing efforts for the Wraithknight. I can build any of the primary weapon systems and will be finishing the secondary weapons up this week. I will also add magnets to where the torso connects to the legs to allow it to break down but still have a solid base. The legs are also only partially glued for ease of painting and putting on a nice base.

High Elves WIP

A few work in progress shots of the High Elves. Going to work on these some more this week, and then get ready for the new Eldar release. I'm really excited for a new book, and I really like a bunch of the new models.

High Elf Swordmasters

Loremaster of Hoeth

Loremaster of Hoeth

Prince on Griffon

Prince on Griffon

Flamespyre Phoenix

Night Spinner WIP

Mymeara Night Spinner

Mymeara Night Spinner

I really enjoy painting the vehicles for this army and so after working on the Harlequins, decided to take a break and paint the Night Spinner up.  I absolutely love both the rules and look of this model.  Strength 6 large blast with rending, barrage, and causes hit units to treat next move as difficult and dangerous.  In 5th edition this was awesome as you had a 1/6 change of killing any model since no armor saves were allowed.  While not as powerful in 6th edition, the barrage rules got better and with the increase in infantry the large blast is really nice.  It's also fairly cheap for an Eldar unit at 115.

I still need to do more detail work, including the pilot and gunner, and I need to find a windshield which I couldn't find.  I'm also going to try and do a grey highlight on the black intakes to give it a little more depth.

Skimmer WIP

So I pulled out all my old Eldar skimmers to repaint.  One falcon needs some repair work done on it, and both Falcon turrets are need of some TLC before they get painted.  The Wave Serpents all had their guns removed so that I can figure out a good way to magnetize them.  I decided against stripping the paint, as I found it doesn't come off evenly, and with thin airbrush coats the texture comes through.  They are not perfect, but considering that I got them for extremely cheap second hand, I'm not going to complain.

I used all Vallejo paint at this point.  White primer through the airbrush (only way to prime here in Seattle with the weather), followed by Vallejo GC Jade Green, Turquoise both thinned out with Matte Medium and a little water/flow aid.  The Fire Prism crystal is painted with Vallejo Model Air Yellow, Orange, and Scarlet Red.  Next step will be to varnish it and start on black lining.  

Models ready for a new paint job

Primed

Jade Green applied

Turquoise

Howling Banshee WIP

Howling Banshees

Howling Banshee close up

Howling Banshee rear veiw

Warlock

Farseer WIP

Worked on the Farseer last night and am almost done with him, a few more gems to do and figure out how to base him, since he has terrain built in already.  I decided on the power weapon effects using the same purple and magenta that I use on the majority of gems in the army to tie it all together.

Mymeara Eldar Farseer Front

Mymeara Eldar Farseer Back

Ranger paint test scheme

Ranger with Snow Camo Cloak

I did a test paint scheme on a Ranger tonight.  Ended up trying 4 shades of grey and white paint to do a snow camo scheme.  Pretty happy with how it turned out.  I need to do some work on his backpack and gear and get some details done on the front, but it gives me template for the squad.

Howling Banshee and Fire Dragon color test

Did a quick test of two of the aspect warrior types for the Mymeara. Wasn't sure if I was going to do them in traditional colors or in the jade and turquoise armor with accents from their aspects. I think I'm going to go with the scheme below as I would like to have the army to look cohesive as a whole, with individual accents for the various aspect warriors.

Deathwatch Sternguard Marine

I volunteered to put a model together for the Sternguard Deathwatch competition and charity event for the Badab Veterans group.  Pretty pleased so far with the model, though I still need to drill out weapon barrels and do a base up.For the weapon I kit-bashed a combi-melta up from an infernus pistol, DC bolter and magazine from a storm bolter.  Really happy with how it came out.  In fact this has inspired me to put together a sternguard squad for my own Lamenters after I'm done.

Death Company WIP

What do you do when you can't sleep at night?  Build models!  I recently used pieces from two Death Company box to build some Vanguard Veterans and had quite a few left over bits.  Combining those plus some bits from the bits box, I was able to put together this unit of ten DC.  Two are armed with power fists while the rest are chainswords and bolt pistols.  I will probably pick another box up eventually and build a few of the other options out, like infernus pistols and such, and the kit has tons of great bits for conversions and special characters.  The backpacks will be magnetized and have the option for jump packs as well.  I'm going to paint my DC in a white color scheme rather than the black that is traditionally in Blood Angels armies.

Painting a Storm Raven

So with one Storm Raven down, I figure I should learn a few things from the first build and painting that I could really do a better paint job, with much less effort.  The first thing was not gluing everything together, rather do sub assemblies that can be combined when the majority of the painting work was done.  So I built the wings, engines, and hull separately and then primed and airbrushed the base coat.  I'm much better with the airbrush now as well, and the finish on this one is much better.  I'm using Vallejo GC Heavy Ochre as my base color (thinned down about 1:1).

I also masked off a couple parts of the model that will have the checkered pattern on it.  I used blue painters tape, and then cut squares out and laid out in the area to do the black.  Much easier than free-handing all of them, though I will need to go do some cleanup.  I'm planning on adding more black and red details to break up the yellow and give it some nice contrast.  This model is also magnetized, and I made sure the polarity lined up with the other Storm Raven so I won't have to keep the different bits separate from each other.  The result should be finishing the model in a fraction of the time, to a higher quality.

Sanguniary Terminator WIP

Did some work on the Sanguinary Priest Terminator model made out of a Grey Knight Terminator.  Still need to clean up and do the power sword, but it came together super quickly and much better than any previous attempt at a white figure.  Followed Ron's guide on From the Warp here.  I'm going to eventually go back and repaint the other priest that I did using this awesome method.  

Wraithseer Conversion WIP

I finished up my conversion for a Wraithseer for my Mymeara Eldar.  It was not too difficult and I'm really pleased with the result.  The base is just a plastic Wraithlord kit and a D-cannon from a Support Weapon platform.  The spear is made out of the wraithsword cut off on top, plastic q-tips for the shaft and then the fuel tank from a flamer from the wraithlord kit for the butt.  There is a wire run through the whole length of the spear to give it strength.  The shield is just made from plasticard with a spirit stone glued to it.  Really excited to get this painted up and ready to play.

Terrain Failure - Ice Crystals

Cutting the ice pillars

Painting the ice pillars

Gloss varnishing the ice pillars fail!

Last night the wife and I had a crafting/Star Trek night.  While she worked on some crocheting I pulled a bunch of scrap foam from building the table to work on some ice crystals to use as terrain.  Managed to make a whole bunch of various sizes and was pretty pleased with the result.  I used some cheap acrylic craft paint (only slightly darker than the actual blue of the foam) and dry brushed the edges white.  This morning before work, I took them outside and gave them a spray of gloss varnish to give them a nice shinny look, but to my dismay they started dissolving away despite the paint!  Generally I use a thicker latex paint on foam which will protect it enough that spray paints and varnishes will work, but the acrylic paint is not thick/strong enough.  Probably half are ruined beyond repair, the other half should be alright, but I'll need to make more.  Next time I'm going to use Future Floor polish through the airbrush instead to avoid further failure.

Ice Table WIP #3

 

Did a little more work the last few days.  Put the third board section together (also have enough left over to do a fourth board later), and sanded the flat snowy portions of the board.  Next step will to do the white over-brushing to give a better snow effect.  I will probably end up gloss coating the board as well to have it look a little more snow-like.  I still need to figure out how to do the iced-over river.  Probably use resin with a little white and blue paint mixed in to cloud it up a little and give that a try.  Also time to start making plans for the various terrain bits that I will be doing.  Probably will start on the ice-crystal forests tonight and plan some pumping station style buildings.  Not sure what else I want to do.

I also found a similar board here that someone has built, and will be using some of his ideas, especially on the ice crystal forest.  Hopefully mine looks as good when it's finished.

Ice World Board for Mymeara Eldar WIP

I picked up the supplies tonight to start my new board.  I've been having an itch recently to build some terrain for a while now and decided to do something different and build an ice-world board.  It will go well with the Mymeara Eldar, but could be used for any army really.  The first picture shows my concept drawings.  The board will consist of 3 modular pieces (maybe expanded out with a fourth for variety later on) that can be put together in different ways.  The main feature is a large river that runs through the middle of the board that will be iced over.  I've marked where on the board the river banks need to line up so that they can be placed in any arrangement.  The other permanent feature will be some pipes that run out of the river from a pumping station.  The rest will be modular.  A few ideas that I would like to build: crystal forests, communications/sensor tower, islands for the river and outposts.  Also thinking a few Eldar specific bits like a webway portal.

After I finish cutting the foam up, I will paint with a light blue latex paint to seal the foam up, and then apply a fine sand to the foam portions to act as snow.  The real trick will be to do  the iced over river.  I figure I can paint it a dark blue and then use either a clear resin or water effects and than scratch the surface with sand paper to get an ice look, but I'm not sure yet.  Will have to experiment a little to figure something out.  If anyone knows a good tutorial on doing ice, especially in large scale post a comment.

Bastion WIP

For a change the last two evenings I've been building some terrain, specifically fortifications. Rather than spend the forty bucks for a Bastion I pulled out the foam board and went to town.  I also used some craft sticks to do some detailing, and some 'granny-grating' for doing some nice metal grating.  I will be putting firing points on the four empty walls and making a cool looking gun for the top.  When I paint it up the four arched panels will get some Lamenter's murals and iconography.

One thing I will do different for the next one would be the shape.  Octagons are a real pain and instead I will do a square with another offset square to give a nice shape to it with nice 90° angles.

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.

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.