Farseer on (count as) Jetbike

So, an Eldar Iyanden List I want to play includes a Farseer on Jetbike. I don't want to order the Chapterhouse kit or get into making a green stuff cloak to cover up the mishaps of converting a biker to a Farseer.

There is a great plastic Farseer kit, but that fairly static in pose. I decided to try an alternative to the jetbike model and want to use an support battery antigrav platform instead. I had one lying around. I gently ripped off the glued gun emplacement. ;)

To my joy, a 25mm round base fits exactly in the center of this platform. That allows me to have the plastic farseer stand on the platform on his base, so I can tie that together with deco and paint and use the model without the bike if needed.

Additionally, I gave the farseer the sniper rifle. I found a dark eldar rifle for this and attached that and the figures head with 2x2 mm magnets. The base is held on the antigrav platform with another magnet pair.

You can see the model here. My focus was on utility and having a model that won't be confused with anything else and matches the jetbike dimensions closely to avoid modelling for advantage discussions from the get-go.

I want to add some rune deco to both the base and the antigrav platform, but I'm pretty happy with the model's overall look.

Update: I carved runes into the models base and the sides of the platform and applied some paint. It's not finished, but far enough that I could glue the farseer to the base and make the model playable.

Wraithknight Mk.III moar!

I've spent Sunday using the brush on the parts. I used Citadel Warplock Bronze and Hashut Copper for the Rune on the back and the big bulges on the hip armour plates. The gems were done as before, with VMA Tank Brown, VMA Sand and Tamiya Clear Red. I used VMA German Grey and Citadel Nuln Oil for the grey bits.

Tonight, I did some careful edge highlights using VMA White and VMA Yellow. Then I grabbed my trusty bottle of Revell Contacta plastic cement and went to town. The model stands by itself without a base, hip, shoulder and neck joints are held by magnets. I've also put magnets into the shoulder weapon mounts - just in case.

Here is the assembled model next to the second Wraithknight I painted, which is now no longer alone in my Iyanden army. The painting parts method is by far better than trying to paint an already completely glued model - like the one I did first as a favour for the owner and rehersal for me - and also still much better than panting an over-magnetized model - like the wraithknight I assembled when it came out with no thought about airbrushing or even painting.

I'm now going to stick the new wraithknight on it's base and get to doing the base deco. For that I need to make a halfway convincing job out of the swarm lord. The nicer look on the new knight has me considering re-doing or touching up my other knight, but I'm not sure what way I'll go there.

Wraithknight Mk.III

I've hit all subassemblies of the wraithknight with primer and paint now. Then I attempted to add some shade to the yellow parts. I'm not too happy with the result. I will have to see how it looks with greylining, edge-highlights and gems.

My plan was to have a Swarmlord with a hefty hole or two in its thorax as casual(ty) base deco. Using a hot air gun at 180 degrees Celsius, I was able to bend the plastic kit into shape to make this work and look a tad better than the model instriding pose just tilted on its side.

My first Apocalypse game

Being new to the hobby, there are certainly a lot of firsts. I wanted to share some pictures and a short video walkthrough of the battlefield of my first apocalypse game at the local friendly wargaming club.

We used four regular size gaming tables and a couple of the bigger terrain pices that don't get much use in normal games.

This first picture shows the deployment of the Tau and their human auxiliary troops that happen to sport two scout titans and my chaos space marines.

Here the orks have crash landed in a wide band between the skyshield landing pad and the fortress.

The loyal imperial forces and space marines on the other side of the battle are dug in among the ruins. Some marine forces will deepstrike via half a dozen drop-pods and seven blo(l)od angel land raiders.

With the special 60" formation move and enough luck to score a penetrating hit and an explosion, each of my drakes killed a vindicator before the first move.

Not too long after the game started we had a lunch break, which I used to do a quick video walkthough of the battlefield. I didn't think about switching off the radio, so I had to remove the audio rather than get into trouble over some faint noise in the background.



These pictures show the battlefield shortly before the game ended after turn two.

It was amazing to see this many minis in action! I've learned a lot and will be revising my setup for the next game.

Hellfire FTW

From left to right, my first, second and third heldrake. Apocalypse formation ready in time for the game on Saturday.

And we are back!

Due to starting a new job and hobby time spent playing 40k, I didn't make any progress on the modelling or painting fronts in the last weeks.

Now I'm scrambling to get ready for an Apocalypse game this Saturday, for which I still needed a third heldrake to complete the Apocalypse formation. Having learned from previous builds, I went with assembly of groups of parts with access for painting in mind. I got the flame pattern done.

In parallel, I've got a second wraithknight and a hive tyrant on my bench. The tyrand kit makes a flyrant and a corpse under the knight's foot. I stuck the flyrant on four stacks of 2 euro-cent coins hotglued together and superglued to a 60mm round base and two bottom-to-bottom plastic cemented square bases on top. That gives the flying model some lift and also a hefty base weight.

The wraithknight is now removed from the sprue, cemented together, scraped, sanded and magnetised. The parts are split into three groups for the main colours

Next steps are painting the trim on the heldrake and putting that together. The wraithknight will get a German Grey primer coat for the parts on the top left. A black wash will follow. Everything else will be primed white. The parts on the bottom left then be airbrushed blue, while the bunch of parts on the right will be hit with yellow.

PS: Getting there... looks like hot wings to go for tomorrow night.

 

Battle report Grey Knights vs Iyanden 1750 pts

Game background
A new player showed up at our local gaming club yesterday. He'd recently moved to the area, was looking for new stomping grounds and happy to play a game of 40k using his Grey Knights. We agreed on 1750 points.

I played the same wraith list as before, just sans Reavers.

Grey Knights
Scriptor, Mastery Level 3, Terminator Armour, Psi-sword (omniscience, guiding spirit, doom), Warlord
Xenos Inquisitor, Psi-sword, Servo-armour, Psi-gas-grenades, Beam-grenades, ML1 (omniscience)
9 Purificators, 4 Halberds, 2 Hammers, 2 Flamers, Knight of the Flame, Halberd
Vindicare-Assassin
10 Strikesquad, 7x Psi-swords, 2xPsi-Bolter, Justicar, Hammer, Rhino
10 Strikesquad, 7x Psi-swords, 2xPsi-Bolter, Justicar, Hammer, Rhino
Land Raider Redeemer, TL Assault Cannon, Psi-Ammo, Multimelter
Dreadnight, Sword, Flamer, Teleportmodule


Parameters
Mission 5: The Will of the Imperator. 2 objectives.
Deployment 2: Standard
Iyanden wins Initiative and keeps it.
Grey Knights force Nightfighting for round 1 via Warlord table.

Turn 1.1 Iyanden
Serpents advance 6" to 12".
Serpent evacuates the Assassin from the Ruins.
Two Serpents damage Rhino on the right.
Wraith knight attempts to damage the Dreadknight.

Turn 1.2 Grey Knights
Land Raider advances and attacks the shield-less Serpent with Multi-Melter and Assault Cannon. Serpent makes the cover saves.
Grey Knights disembark from the Rhions. The squad on the left attack the previously hit serpent with Psi-bolters. Serpent makes the cover saves.
Dreadnight jumps 30" and hits the Wraithblades and the Wraithknight with his flamer. One Wraithblade falls.

Turn 2.1 Iyanden
Wraighguards disembark either before or just after the Serpents move.
Serpents glide into fire position on the disemparked Grey Knight squads and saturate the targets.
I had the glorious idea to go for the Dreadnight with my Wraithknight. I knew it would be a chancy thing, but didn't realize how long my odds really were. After shooting, impact and the Wraith's I5 attacks, the Dreadknight had one HP left and then promptly skewered the Wraithknight with his Psi-Sword. Oops! =]

Turn 2.2 Grey Knights
The Dreadknight his the same target with his flamer again, without losses this time.
The Land Raider advances 12"and then floors it in the shooting phase putting distance between itself and the Wraithguards 10 S10 AP2 shots.
Grey Knights on the left shoot at the Wraithguards with Warpscythes, but fail to inflict losses.
Grey Knights on the right advance towards the objective marker.

Turn 3.1 Iyanden
The Serpent between Wraithguards and Land Raider moves out of the way to the front left.
The other three Serpents take up firing positions. Two shoot at the Grey Knights on the left but fail to eliminate models. One chucks as many shots as possible at the Dreadknight hoping for a failed save for that last HP. This hope bears fruit and the Dreadknight falls.
The Spiritseer casts the Iyanden Primaris Power Voice of Twilight in the middle of the Wraithguard groups, succeds and grants all three units Battle-Trance. The two Wraithguard units on the right move through terrain and then run to get all models into the 12" range to the Land Raider. The Land raider is wrecked but does not explode. The Grey Knight are forced to hop out.
The Land Raider behind the Wraithguards pours fire into the disembarked Purificator unit, but this is stopped cold by the Omniscience of the Scriptor who makes all of his twin-linked 2+ saves.

Turn 3.2 Grey Knights
Purificator unit attacks both Wraithguard units. Using Grey Knight special gear the Toughness is dropped from 6 to 5 and instead of hitting on 4+, the Grey Knights auto-hit. Enough 5+ DS3 wounds are dished out to completely wipe out both units remaining nine Wraithguards but leave the Spiritseer as last man standing. The Seer promptly fails his moralecheck at a penalty of 9, which isn't a shocker considering a morale value of 9. The seer legs it 10".
The Grey Knights on the left try their luck again with the Warpscythes, but fail.
The Grey Knights on the right try their luck another time to get to the objective inch by inch.

Turn 4.1 Iyanden
Warpscythes move out of the forest. The Seer moves out of the way.
Serpents glide in position to test the defenses of the Scriptor and his unit. The Scriptors luck holds - but not forever. The Inquisitor and two knights survive the onslaught.

Turn 4.2 Grey Knights
The Inquisitor and his knights chuck three grenades at the Serpent, but fail to break through the Armour. The Grey Knights on the left and their Ride shoot at the Warpscythes again, but fail to wound.

Turn 5.1 Iyanden
One Serpent fires at the knight at the objective marker, who go to ground. One knight falls.
Two Serpents knock out the Inquistor and his knights.
Warpscythes convert the surviving two knights on the left into pure ash.
The last Serpent uses it's Scatterlaser (and some luck) to knock out the Rhino.

Turn 5.2 Grey Knights
The Grey Knights are still gone to ground.

There is a round 6!

Turn 6.1 Iyanden
Serpents glide into firing position and wipe out the last Grey Knights.

Outcome
Grey Knights: 1 Warlord
Iyanden: 5, First Blood, Warlord, Objective

Iyanden Victory!

Battle report Imperial Fists vs Iyanden 2000 pts

After the first game, I played the Iyanden army again on Tuesday night with another member my local gaming club. We agreed on 2000 points. My game partner setup up the terrain before we rolled for deployment and choice of halves.

I played my wraith list again. My opponent fielded an Imperial Fists Army with Black Templar allies.

Imperial Fists
Captain + command unit with melters and apothecary + land raider
Devastors with 4x Rocketlauncher
Tactical troop with melters + Rhino
Tactical troop with plasma, split into groups of 5.
TriLas Predator
Black Templar allies
Chaplain + Crusaders + Land Raider Crusader
Tactical troop + Rhino


Parameters
The Fists Player set up the table before we rolled deployment or sides.
Mission 1: Crusade, 5 Objectives
Deployment 4: Hammerstrike
Nightfighting in Turn 1
Imperial Fists attempt to steal the initiaive, but fail.


Deployment

Turn 1.1 Iyanden
Serpents advance 6" to 12". Wraithknight jumps forward one ruin. Wraithblades disembark.
Reavers ignore nightfighting thanks to their Exarch's nightsight, but fail to damage the Templar Land Raider.
A Serpent shoots at the Predator and inflicts 2 points damage using the serpent shield.
Two serpents and the wraith knight shoot at the tactical troup at the objective and inflict losses.

Turn 1.2 Imperial Fists
Templar Land Raider uses melter and assault cannon on shield-less Serpent.
Predator targets the same Serpent. Serpent loses hull points, but survives.
Fists Land Raider fires it's twin-linked lascannons at a serpent, which also loses hull points, but survives.

Turn 2.1 Iyanden
The absolute super-hero Marine bolder and bigger than even the Fluff is the one marked in the picture below. He managed to save all 10 hits his unit took! YIPPEE!

Total carnage!
Wraithguards disembark. A unit of five shoots each land raider. Both land raiders take penetrating hits which result in explosions! The Fist's command unit takes no losses, the templars take a few losses. A serpent each hits the passengers of each exploded land raider.
Two serpents pour fire into the devastator troup and wipe it out.
Reavers pop the Predator's last hull point.
The wraith knight shoots at the other squad at the objective marker.

Turn 2.2 Imperial Fists
The squad at the objective marker takes pot-shots with plasma at the Serpent, but is ineffective.
Templar troop advances, but fails the attack range roll and takes overwatch casualties.
Rhino advances and kills a Wraithblade with it's bolter.
Command troop assaults Wraithguards and kill two of them.
Imperial Fists Rhino advancese and take cover in the land raider crater.

Turn 3.1 Iyanden
Serpents disengage to get out of melter and plasma range.
Spiritseer blesses the Wraithguards with Battletrance. The Warpscythe bearing unit manages to line up in a fire line and hoses down the crater with their S4 DS2 flamethrowers, leaving turning to ash as the marine's only option.
Wraithguards on the other side of the table pop the Templar Rhino.
Reavers use their S5 DS3 rockets to wipe out the passengers.
Two Serpents fire at the Templars, inflicting further losses.
One serpent fires at the plasma squad at the marker, wiping it out.
Fist's command team kills two more wraithguards.

Turn 3.2 Imperial Fists
Templars fail their attack range roll again and suffer withering overwatch fire.
Command troup kills the last Wraithguard and is stood alone in the middle of a lot of yellow.
A lone marine is parked behind the ruin at the objective marker.

Turn 4.1 Iyanden
WOOOSH!

Result
Victory for Iyanden.
Imperial Fists: 0
Iyanden: 2 Warlord, First Blood

Battle report Tyranids vs Iyanden 2000 pts

Note: Since I live in Germany, I bought my books in German to avoid translation as communication barrier while learning 40k. For that reason, some unit or weapon names may be slightly off.

The game was agreed to run 2000 points. I played my wraith list as detailed earlier.

Tyranids
Hivetyrant with whip and sword (Ironarm, Psionic Screeching) + 3 Tyrantguards
Tyrannofex with Capsulecannon
5 Venerators
3 Swarmguards
2x20 Hormagants w/Poison
20 Symbionts w/Symbiarc (Puppetplay + x)
8 Ymgarl-Symbionts

Parameters
Mission 1: Crusade, 4 Objectives
Diagonal Deployment
Terrain placed on table cooperatively without rolling.
Small spikes in the middle can be used as 5+ cover.
Nightfighting is in effect in round 1.
Tyranids have initiative and deploy first. Symbionts infiltrate at 18".

Iyanden steals the Initiative!

Turn 1.1 Iyanden
Serpents move out of terrain zones, in which I placed them in ignorance of both start and target of a move requiring a difficult terrain check. The one next to the wraith knight is immobilized, the others make it. I should have placed them behind terrain for cover before moving.
All Serpent's passengers disembark.
Reavers benefit from their Exarch's Nightsight and shoot at the Tyrannofex, and wound it.
The three mobile Serpents  and the wraith knight have only one target with 36", which is bad news for the Symbionts. The immobile one and all wraithguards have no visble/in range target.

Turn 1.2 Tyranids
All Tyranids advance.
The Swarmguards are not in Synapse range, fail their morale check and run into the ruins.
The Tyrannofex shoots at a Serpent, but doesn't damage it.
The Symbiarch uses Puppetplay against a Wraithguard with warpscythe which I placed in the floor beneath the Reavers. The power works, but wounding fails.
 

Turn 2.1 Iyanden
One serpent finishes off the Symbionts unit.
Three Serpents and the knight shoot at a unit of Hormagaunts, inflicting heavy losses.
The reavers shoot at the tyrant.

Turn 2.2 Tyranids
Tyranids advance.
Swarmguards succeed with their synapse check and destroy a serpent.
Ymgarl Symbionts appear in front of the Wraithguards in the forest and attack both units.
Overwatch kills two attackers. Two Wraithguards die.
Other reserve rolls fail.

Turn 3.1 Iyanden
The immobilized Serpent kills all but one Hormagant of the previously decimated group.
A Serpent, the knight and the reavers shoot at the Tyrant and inflict losses on his guards.
A Serpent eliminates the front rank of the second hormagant unit.
Ymgarls fail to wound the Wraithguards. Wraithguards kill a Ymgarl.

Turn 3.2 Tyranids
Everything goes wrong. The Tyrannofex misses again.
The Swarmguards fail their test and continue to stand in front of the wall without a target in sight. The Tyrant casts Psionic Screeching at the knight and succeeds, but rolls less than the knight's morale and therefore doesn't cause any wounds.
The Tyrant and the Gaunts fail their attack range rolls.
Ymgarls fail to wound and suffer losses.
Venerators reserve roll succeeds. Deep striking behind the serpents fails and the roll grants the opponent the choice of the deep strike location. The tyranid player pro-actively places the models in the diagonally opposite, furthest corner.
 

Turn 4.1 Iyanden
Concentrated fire against the Tyrant slowly but surely wears him down.

Turn 4.2 Tyranids
Alpha Tyrgon appears with 9" deviation and narrowly avoids hitting a ruin. He shoots the Wraithblades, but they make their saves.
Tyrannofex and Venerators advance.
Hormagants attack Wraithknight and deal two points damage.
Tyrant fails his attack roll again.
 

Turn 5.1 Iyanden
A Serpent halves the HP of the Tyrgon.
Another Serpent damages the Tyrannofex.
The Wraithknight kills some Gants, but takes two more points damage.
The Wraithguards do a tricky shuffle that ends up amusing the Tyranids with cozy warm fire that cannot wound the Tyrant thanks to Ironarm.

Turn 5.2 Tyranids
Tyranids advance.
Tyrant casts Psionic Screeching and suffers perils of the warp, which kills him since he had only one HP left.
Tyrgon attacks Wraithblades, but kills only one since the others use their invulnerable save successfully. Suffers wounds.

There is no sixth turn!

Result
Tyranids: 1 point Linebreaker
Iyanden: 2-5 Warlord, First Blood, maybe an objective, didn't measure.

Victory for Iyanden!

Obviously, my opponent was extremely unlucky with his dice rolls. Having no sixes at all after the initial assault with the Ymgarls was atrocious, missing 8/10 Tyrannofex shots and most Guard Synapse tests as well as the deep strike failure all hurt. Not to mention setting up the Symbionts and then losing the initiative.

I had played my Chaos Space Marines against his Tyranids several times already, losing each time. As a first 1v1 with this new army and new list, this was really inspiring.

Iyanden 2000 Wraith-List

After a lot of masking tape action, I got my models ready to play. The paint job isn't finished, but I was itching to see what they could do. Oh boy, I discovered they can do wonderful things  I'll post battle reports shortly.

HQ
Spiritseers [Iyanden] (185)
+ Wraithseer,  The Wraithforge Stone [Iyanden], Guardian Helm of Xellon [Iyanden] (115)
+ Wraithseer (70)

4 Troops
5 Wraithguards (160)
+ Serpent, TL Scatterlaser, Shurikencannon, Holofield (145) (305)
5 Wraithguards (160)
+ Serpent, TL Scatterlaser, Shurikencannon, Holofield (145) (305)
5 Wraithguards, Warpscythes (210)
 + Serpent, TL Scatterlaser, Shurikencannon, Holofield (145) (355)
5 Wraithblades, Ghostaxe and Shield (160)
+ Serpent, TL Scatterlaser, TL Shurikencatapult, Holofield (135) (295)

Heavy Support
Wraithknight, Suncannon and Shield, 1 x Scatterlaser (300)

Total 1750 Points

Addition for 2000 Point games:
Heavy Support:
6 Reavers,
+ Starstrike rockets,
+ Exarch, Reaver-Launcher, Starstrike Rockets, Nightsight, Firestorm

I put this list together with the idea of playing something completely different. Iyaden being heavily reliant on Wraith constructs appealed to me and I went as far as I could points permitting with this theme.

The list uses the Iyanden Eldar Supplement. That allows me to designate the Wraithknight as Warlord and gives me the chance that he gets nice buffs from the Iyaden Warlord table. The supplement also allows sticking up to five Spiritseers into one HQ slot. The Wraithforge Stone can heal a Wraith unit for 1 point on 3+, the guardian helm is automatic success on Look-out Sir! and permits delegating challenges to a wraith model in the same unit.

More importantly for the short-weapon range of the droids (12", flames or melee only) is the Iyanden Primaris Power for Runes of Battle. This grants all wraith units within 12" of the caster Battletrance and Furious Charge, offering improved mobility.

The Serpents can transport 6 of the Wraithguards - or five of them plus a seer. The 12" movement distance is great, but the serpents do not offer fireports or serve as assault vehicle.

The Wraith units offer a respectable amount of AP2 attacks. In total 10 shots S10 AP2, 5 Flame templates S4 AP2 and three 3" blasts S6 AP2 blasts from the knight.

In addition to the wraith AP2 attacks, the serpents offer significant fire support. A hit with the twinlinked Scatterlaser makes all other weapons twinlinked. The Serpentshield offers D6+1 60" S7 shots that ignore cover. Add a Shurikencannon and the Serpent kicks out a nasty amount of S6/S7 shots which lack AP, but saturate a target quickly.

I wrote the above in hindsight, with four 1v1 games under my belt in the last few days.

Wave Serpent progress

A lot of patience using blue tape, the hobby knife and tweezers was used to mask the other three serpents as well. I then pre-highlighted the edges with white primer and applied Vallejo Model Air blue. A night later, I peeled the blue tape, which left me with four top shells like the one on the right.

Next, I hit the previously grey-black primed weapons and lower hull with Vallejo Dip-shade black using my Airbrush with the big 0.4 nozzle. This makes them look less clean and boring!

Then I set my airbrush aside and picked up a brush. I painted the lines between the body pandels with German Grey rather than black. This was the first time I did any black-lining. Clearly, I could have benefitted from reading up on it or practicing it earlier. Breaking the surface tension of the paint with dishwashing detergent might have been helpful. Anyway, it looks better than the naked hull. I'll have to clean up some bits in the yellow.

The soulstones I painted with VMA tank brown, then with a tank brown sand mix, sand and black to create a diagonal gradient. This isn't as clean and nuanced as doing the same with airbrush, but fairly clean. After this was dry, I added Tamiya clear red diluted with a bit of alcohol.

The pilots got some details in blue, black and Tamiya clear blue. I let this turn to green on the instrument panel. After these steps and gluing in the turrent antenna, rear air-intake, sensor thingie and cockpit, the serpents look like this.

I measured the big flying base height using my calipers. It clocks in at 24mm. My plan is to use regular 60mm opaque plastic bases with an inverted 20mm high U stood on it. That U will be painted just like the lower hull and look like vertical fins thanks to the cut and colour. 6x2mm Magnets will connect the base to the lower hull. I'll glue 5x3mm magnets under the bases to make them stick to my sheetmetal in the carrying case. This solution will stop the wobble of the regular flight base, but still leaves me the option to use those regular bases.

Iyanden Knight and Serpents WIP

Inspired by playing against Eldar for the first time recently with my CSM, I dusted off the pounds of Eldar metal I got earlier this year from eBay. Those minis came with a Iyanden theme, but have since been stripped and now re-based and primed. I had the Eldar Codex and the Iyanden Supplement already, since they were on my to-do list. Now was the time to get busy with this. My intent is to have a playable 1750 point army painted and ready to go for a local club meeting next Friday.

Clearly, I have to try the wraithknight. Just because he looks awesome. Just as certain is that putting him on the table in naked plastic is a no-go. Taking what I learned doing a wraithknight recently, I went to town on mine.

Clearly, the fact that I liberally put magnets everywhere when building this helped making the parts accessible, but still wasn't enough to minimize masking for airbrush. This shot shows all parts with grey Vallejo primer, blue and German grey applied.

I then covered up the grey painted areas, did the blue parts and covered those up. I used mostly masking tape, but tried liquid mask on the shoulder pads, one knee and the socks. Looks a bit like a papercraft project! 

Unfortunately, I messed up the liquid mask. Again. It wasn't the drying time or thickness of the mask this time, I gave it almost a day. Yet, it stuck on the blue paint and didn't rub off as intended, leaving spots behind. My best guess is that I didn't give the blue long enough time to dry and messed that up with the mask. Oh well. I cut off the shoulder pads, sanded them and then did them over before gluing them back. The kneepad and the socks I only did clean-up and touchup on.

The yellow is Citadel Yriel Yellow with Flash Glitz Yellow as highlight. The blue is just straight basic Vallejo Model Air blue, the grey is VMA German grey with Citadel Nuln Oil over it. Citadel Warplock Bronze and hashut Copper for the metal parts. VMA Tank Brown, Sand and Tamiya Clear Red for the gems. VMA white primer and white paint for the helmet and the glaive.

Next up are wave serpents. Yes, they are FOTM, but also staple Eldar Transport. I'm not interested in playing six serpents, since I want to use Wraith units instead of the cheaper infantry. That's why I picked four.

After the hassle with excessive masking to overcome problems created by too early or too far assembly with the wraith knight, I wanted to be certain not to do this to myself with the serpents.

I inserted 6x2mm magnets for the chin and top weapon mounts. I beefed up the turrets sides with 2mm thick plasticard and used 6x6mm magnets inserted into the plasticard. The magnets are totally oversized for gripping power, but the size just works with the gap between turret and weapons. I would have used 3x6 or similar if I had them on stock, but didn't want to wait. I carefully drilled out the holes in the scatter lasers up to 3mm and inserted 3x3mm magnets. The choice was clear since their mount part is 3mm wide. The little armour plates that go on the weapons have recesses that are marginally over 2mm wide and deep, so I stuck 2x2mm magnets in there.

Using poster glue pads, I stuck all the small parts which didn't receive magnets on metal cans and lids split by colours. The bottom hulls I primed in Vallejo German Grey-Black, just like the weapons and air intakes. Everything else I primed white. Not really by choice, but my grey Vallejo Primer was pretty much out. Thinking to try the Vallejo Yellow which needs a lighter base than the Citadel, I went with it.

I then liberally applied VMA Medium Yellow and let that dry overnight. Next I got busy with blue tape and a hobby knife to put a mask on the top hull. Then I hit it with VMA blue and then with some more blue with white mixed in to create gradients rather than completely flat blue segements. That distracts from the really annoying to highlight yellow. ;-]

After removing the mask, it looks like this. Just clicked together with the magnets of course, nothing glued yet. You can see the serpent spikes on the right.

I'm not certain what I'm going to do with the pilot or the transparent plastic in front of him, but I'll pick something once I got the rest done.
Another thing I'll have to figure out is transfer decals. I'll test this and see if I like the supplied decals or if I'll try to cut my own stencils for airbrush decals. Looking at an army, that might make sense, but the quality needs to be on the level. I'll do some test pieces.
A final point are alternative bases for the grav tanks. The originally supplied ones are way too wobbly for my taste.