Xmas Painting

In the last couple of days I caught up with some of the accusingly white Eldar models in my collection. I still need to add some base gravel and do the gems, but I'm very happy with the progress I made.

A tale of two Hell-Blades

Not too long ago, as part of my first Forgeworld order, I got a Hell-Blade body with badly warped tips and missing molding. As I understand is normal, Forgeworld customer service was helpful and - furnished with the details and a picture - happy to provide a replacement part.

Having worked a bit with resin now, I tried to get the warp out by heating, bending and setting the part with hot and cold water respectively, but was unable to get rid of the bent fork look.

When the replacement body arrived, I decided to get creative and used my hot air gun turned to 180 degrees Celsius instead. Funny enough, this did the trick. I scraped off the mostly missing modling.

The path was clear: I have to built the missing parts myself and get myself another Hell-Blade for my troubles! :)

Besides the Body, there is the tail including the pipes behind and the rear frame of the cockpit, the guns, the pilot, the cockpit cover and the turbine part at the end.

I used 1mm thick plasticard to make a tail section for the spare body, with some guitar or rather bass strings for the pipes. Heavy weapon team machine guns were doubled up and inverted to make twin-linked loooking machine guns.

The gun configuration is different, but clearly recognizable as what it is supposed to be. Good enough for me!

I cut templates out of paper, transferrred the outline to plasticard and cut out the two side window frames. Then I drilled small holes in each corner and lots of medium and big holes in the to be removed window space. Then I trimmed it down to a frame that can - after painting - receive a clear plastic sheet as window.

The original pilot is human rather than space marine sized. I guess that's why the ballistics skill is a point lower ;) I used a guardsman torso, trimmed down to remove the belt and back to fit and added a pointing arm as well as a combination of two other guard arms to make it look like he's fiddling with the controls. The head comes from a Dark Venegance cultist and ended up in my bits-collection when I converted loads of the buggers to look distinct.

Now I have to decide on a paint scheme. Decisions, decisions!

Legion Autocannon Upgrade Kit

Recently, I had to prox special weapons again. This made me sort all my CSM, take stock and get two boxes of regular chaos marines to assemble with special and heavy weapons. I had ordered two autocannon kits previously, and will focus on adapting those to the plastic csm kit.

The magazine backpack attachment does not fit the CSM backpack at all, obviously the mag is meant to fit snugly on a 30k backpack. In particular the CSM backpack is thicker in the lower area and this results in the mag's rear not being in line with the backpack's rear by about 2mm, which again results in thr ammo belt ending up in the wrong position relative to the models arms and weapon.

After some trials,  I settled on clipping the tailpipes off the CSM backpack and flattening the area between them by trimming it down with the hobby knife. In addition, I took a chisel hobby knife blade to the inside of the mag and cut the two tabs on the top at about half thickness.

 

This results in the parts fitting into the right position,  but without good contact for gluing. I superglued a small ball of green stuff into the mag, coated the backpack with superglue and pressed it into the mag. As the green stuff sets, it will be slightly flexible but hold the parts in place.

I'm quite happy with the result!  :)

  

Magnetizing infantry bases

Imperial Armour 13 made me keen on my Chaos Space Marines again. Given an opportunity, I grabbed some Guardsmen and vehicles. For me the first step is squaring the models away for my storage scheme, so I got out the magnet foil.

Recently, I started putting weights into the bases. Initially, because I had some soaring Shadow Specters that I considered likely candidates for spillage, but then just because in addition to the lower centre of gravity, this gives more adhesion surface for the magnet foil. Since the result is very convincing, I thought I'd write it down. :)

1. Squeeze a circle of gel glue into the base and place a appropriately sized coin or washer on the glue.
2. Using a flat object, push the coin/washer into the glue so that it is level with the base edge. Let the glue dry.
3. Sand the edges of the bases and any potential glue flat.
4. Cut the magnetic foil into stripes wider than the base, pull off the covers and place the models/bases on the self adhesive surface, leaving a gap between bases for the scissors.
5. Cut the strips between bases and cut out the foil around the base, leaving a narrow rim of approx 1-2 mm.
6. Trim the rim using a sharp hobby knife by resting the blade on the base edge and turning the base into the blade - just like a pencil sharpener.
7. Enjoy!

Spartan progress

The news about Imperial Armour 13 pushed me not only to order it and some other stuff from Forge World,  but also to grab my Spartan conversion box again.

I've now got the weapons and their mounts built. I've oriented myself a bit on the Sicaran's mounts. I've also attached the heavy bolter and the pea-shooter gunner with magnets. I put the dirge casters on the quad laser where the target optics would usually go.

Next step: paint :)

I also built the Sicaran and can hardly wait to try it out in a game!

Avatar WIP

Just a quick picture post.

MC Eldar

For a while now, I had a Forgeworld Avatar and a Wraithseer queued for some love. Paranoia about resin part preparation kept me from this for a while. Last weekend I put the bits together and got them ready for priming and a base coat of paint.

I magnetized the Wraithseer's head, gun and torso to hip joint. I haven't decided on how I'll keep the spear from breaking when it's bumped. The wrist is very narrow and the elbow isn't much wider. Either try to magnetize and risk a part breaking when drilling or pin the wrist and fix potential damage when it occurs. Decisions, decisions.

Anyway, once these HQ-MC models are sorted, I can fit four monsters into a single combined arms detachment, or five into a double-CAD 2000 points force. The Wraithseer requires a wraithguard or wraithblade unit in the army, which is better taken in the troops rather than the elite section, which again requires a spiritseer as HQ choice.

Update:

Now for the Avatar, that is a whole different challenge!

Spartan on-track update

After dithering for a while, I bit the bullet tonight and just glued on the tracks. To get an idea of how the model looks with the tacks, I blue-tacked the weapons and bits'n bobs on as well.

Shuriken cannon & co

After recently being asked to mix my army list up a bit for replay entertainment value, I dug into my unbuilt Eldar bits for options. Since I had done some eBay fishing, there is quite some stuff there.
On my hook I found a Fire Prism spure minus the crystal from the warp hunter kit. I've put that together with magnets and transparent plastic cut into the facets of the prism.
I also collected all the heavy weapon platforms for the guardians.  I have two different metal platforms. I suspect that the bigger ones might be an old version of the Vaul support battery. I'll magnetise the weapon bits so that I can swap between warwalkers, lords and the platforms.
I also found three old metal war walkers. That gives me the option to field two sets! :)

 

Edit: now assembled with magnets and base colours.  

To do: details, varnish, oil shade and basing. 

Jetbikes as model accessories

I'm currently looking at all non-wraith non-Serpent Eldar models which I have available. That includes a bunch of Eldar psychers. A key feature of farseers and warlocks is that they can buy jetbikes as upgrade.

So far I've only played spiritseers who don't have that option and a single farseer whom I stuck on a support weapon antigrav platform in lieu of the usual jetbike-farseer conversion.

With the option of a jetcouncil in mind, I started wondering if I cannot come up with a way to equip a regular farseer or warlock model with a jetbike. My idea is to make something like a scenic base in which the actual mini with its regular base is placed.

I've recently taken the first steps in casting resin in silicone molds. That gives me the option of scratch building a count-as jetbike base/model and then make as many casts of this as I need. Obviously, that idea prohibits the use of GW bits, but that shouldn't be a problem.

On the plus side, each psyker will be an official GW miniature and as such ok for playing in stores. Not a crucial aspect for me personally, but a nice bonus.

I've made a sketch and a play-doh mockup to visualize the proportions.

Eldar vs Orks 2950 Points

Yesterday I played a game at the local tabletop club. Agreed was 2950 points, no super-heavies, battle-forged, no special characters, no allies.

Army line-up.

 Sorry, I don't have the ork list.

Jetseer, mantle, warp-charge stone, two spiritseers.
4x 5 wraithguard with holo, ghost-walk serpents, 3 jetbikes. 6 Swooping hawks.
Knight w/suncannon, Knight w/wraithcannons, Lord w/ lances,
Warwalkers w/Scatterlaser+Shuriken. Fire Prism, Warp Hunter.

Mission Maelstrom of War: Spoils of War (pg 151). No night fighting. Mysterious Objectives (all turned out sabotaged on my side), Forests treated as dangerous terain according to terrain datasheets. Eldar win initiative and deploy, Orks seize initiative.

Turn 1.1 Orks

Orks rush forward with bikes, stormboys, boys and vehicles. One Truck fails it's terrain check and is immobilized. 

Turn 1.2 Eldar

Wraithguard get out of transports. War-walkers, serpents and wraithguard kill bikers. Fire Prism and Lance-Lord blow up Panza. Serpents cull the boys mob on the flank. Warphunter, Sunknight and jetbikes kill all but one stormboy. The second knight kills the last one to keep the objective clean.

Turn 2.1 Orks

Turn 2.2 Eldar

Turn 3.1 Orks

Turn 4 brought the centre-table knight down, the two groups then charged the Eldar line. Ork Commandos and the Dakka-Jet appeared from reserve. The commandos flanked in on the right behind the wraithguard, the Jet was positioned on the and wiped out the walkers.

We called the game at that point due to time. Eldar won by points (see counter dice on the ruin front left in the pictures).

Say Mon-keigh!

After finishing my guardians, I decided that it was time for a new group shot showing the painted models of my Eldar army.

Mind you, painted doesn't equal totally finished. ;-]

I'm very happy with the overall 'someone did that on purpose' impression. The combination of the harsh yellow and the amber oil shade yields a vibrant look with a lot of depth and definition.

Next up on the painting bench: warp spiders.

Swooping Hawks

My jump troops were unpainted and I picked them as small lot of minis to paint up. These are metal minis, assembled, primed and then hit with liquid mask. The liquid mask is brushed on and catches the yellow base coat on the bits that I want to be white or blue, since the yellow would be an issue there.

Base coat on, liquid mask off! Oops, I should have covered all hands, weapon parts and ornaments with liquid mask as well... Improvisation time!

Painted dark grey on wing struts, weapon barrels and pipes. Red on ankle ornaments. Blue hats. Metal on beaks and blue wash on the yellow ribbed part of the guns to turn those green. Tank brown and sand paint to prep the gems for Tamiya Clear Red. Then I applied a clear coat of varnish.

A day later I applied brown oil wash on the yellow parts and black oil wash on the white parts. I'm quite happy with the result.

Now another coat of varnish, Tamiya Red on the gems plus my alibi-basing and I'll dare count these as painted.

Oil shade

I have been reluctant to add shade to the bright yellow space elf models. Mostly that is inexpereince and not trusting myself with a brush to make smoth shades with that harsh a contrast.

To get a handle on this I bought some oil paints: black, umber and red for starters and some turpentine-replacement. The good thing about those is that when applied on clear varnish, they can be pushed around for a really long time compared to acrylic paints and shade. It also flows really nicely along ridges and into recesses.

The guadians I was working on got hit with clear varnish (actually Emsal Voll Glanz, a Johnson's Klear equivalent floor varnish). 24 hours later I got the oil paint mixed up, loaded up a brush I marked for use with oil paint and got going.

The picture below shoes how nicely the oil shade runs into the recesses outlining the guardian's sixpack.

A few days later I varnished the wraithguards and applied oil paint to them as well. For the picture below I grouped them all up and left one model from each group without the shade. These are marked with an X. The fact that they blend in quite well implies that the shade isn't a big addition, but when looking at the model up close, the shade really makes it look much more substantial.

I now varnished a wraith loard some war walkers and a bunch of rangers and will go for them next. Then I need to determine what I will finish this process with. Another coat of varnish, possibly matt or satin most likely.

Guardian brushwork

In the last two days I've painted some red details on the guardians calves, upper arms and some sashes. Today I spent time with edge-highlights on the guns and shoulders. I've not ever really done that yet, so I'm still enjoying loads of opportunities for improvement. ;-]

I painted some pendants in bronze, the soulstones in tank brown with a sand highlight and glued the heads back on. It took a bit longer to do this than it takes to sum it up.

 

I realize that there are some mold lines and rough spots left, but for a bunch of old models that I recycled it's not bad really. 
 

 Finally, I put on a clear coat of varnish in preparation for applying some oil shade. The varnish is drying now, strategically while I have to sleep and then work anyway. Maybe I should call that in preparation for experimenting for the first time with oil based shade, but hey. We'll see soon enough how it goes.

Guardians dusted off

Recently I had a moment to demold the guardians that accrued with various lots of secondhand Eldar. A moment lasting about five hours, but at least I hot most of the lines and assembly issues sorted out.

I hit the models with white primer, brown from below and then primary yellow from above. All Vallejo Airbrush.

The heads I broke off and stuck on paperclips. They also got white primer, followed by yellow for the face, covered up with liquid mask when dry. Then I hit the heads with white primer again. Blue all over, followed be blue with black on the lower rear and a burst of blue with white on the top. Then I removed the mask and colored the red eye lenses in with a pen.

  Yesterday I painted the shuriken catapults german grey. That is where these models are now.

I'm looking at going for a varnish coat and oil wash to pick out the details on the bodies, but have to visit my local art store for supplies first. :)

Spartan Progess

I've been making tracks. I cut 2mm thick plasticard to 1" wide strips, then separated them into segments, cut into the edges and then bumped out the bit inbetween using a chisel and a gentle tap with a hammer. Cleaning up with a knife afterwards. I clipped 4mm thick ABS rod into lengths to fit inbetween the segments and sliced thin plastic rod for the rivets. I glued the segments and the rod bits on thin stripes of plasticard for stability.

The tracks I made were one section long enough for the straight bits on the top and bottom of each track, a section of four segments for the next longer part of the track as well as a bunch of two segments and single segments.

Then put down sticky tape, put the track on them and a wall out of Lego bricks around them and poured mixed up silicone on the whole mess. This created a mold for the track sections. I don't have any pour-able resin at hand, only 2 component putty. The stuff I have left there is much more supple than green stuff or Milliput, but nowhere near as suitable for a pouring mold as a thin liquid would be. Ah well. =]

Straight away I wasted a fist-ful of the stuff since I underestimated the binding time. It gets spry really fast, say within 3-4 minutes of mixing the components. Not having any other use for the stuff, I cracked on anyway and filled th mold a couple of times. I should have more than enough track now, enough to pick and chose the less awful results. ;-]

I put two long, two four segment and two two segment bits on the model for the picture above. While the individual bits don't look too hot, the overall look is very close to what I wanted to achive. Not too shabby for a first try.

For the armament, I will use eight lascannon bits of which I have four so far. The spartan has a ridgelike shield ahead of the weapon mount. I'm thinking the rear part of the original track cover sliced in half might do nicely when extended with a bit of plasticard.