An easy way to paint Gems...

Painting some gems for the Eldar Avatar from Forgeworld and Harlequins. I used a very simple 4 steps technique.

1- A dark base covering the whole gem.
2- On top of this Dark layer, cover 3/4 of the surface with a mid-tone
3- Now underline the Gem with the lighter tone at the bottom of the gem.
4- And add a dot of white on the dark top side of the gem.

For a green gem, I used the following colours from Citadel: Caliban Green (1), Warpstone Glow (2), Moot Geen (3) and White Scar (4).

Jump Monstrous Creature... The Wraith Knight

Back from a long silence with more Monstrous Creatures for the Eldars... And a a jump one! How funny is that. Anyway here's my Wraith Knight.

Undercoated with Mephiston Red spray, sadly the can is no longer available at GW. Will try to use the Pure red from Army painter in the future but not convinced thus far... Any suggestion welcome.

Bit of wash, bit of Drybrush and all those sorts of things... Painting that is

Bit of energy effect on the main gun, bit of basing, bit of gems painting, here's the final result

Wraithseer, Wraithlord and the Avatar of Khaine

Seems like a lot of you Flickr people like that Monstrous Creatures picture showing an Eldar Wraithseer, Wraithlord and the Avatar of Khaine, with a few other forces in the Background. I spotted some shadow spectres, a Wraithguard (Took me a while to spot him though...), Striking Scorpions, Warp Spiders, Eldar Jetbikes and an Autarch on his Jetbike...

That pictures and some others taken during this Apocalypse game, the so-called "Apoca-fez" can be seen on Flickr at: Apoca-Fez January 2012

Eldar Phantom Titan - On the Table

Quick update on the Phantom Titan progress. Not finished yet but good enough to get into battle. a few friends and I had this little game at Warhammer World last month (January 2012 then). 209,000 Points. I managed to bring 11,000 points of Eldar, including the Phantom Titan...

Picture courtesy of Tagule's photostream on Flickr

More pictures of the Epic day on that other Flickr Photostream:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/brigu/

A few pictures of the building process. In this picture, we have a good view of the base. I used a terracotta flower pot saucer, Pouring a 1 Kg of resin in it. Using Terracotta is important as the resin reaction when mixing the product is highly exothermic. I could feel the heat through my Heavy gloves. Was a bit of an issue to remove the base from the Saucer, so I simply used a good ol' Hammer. On the picture we can see some bits left. Well, part of the scenery now.

 I used 4 mm brass rods in the legs and Hips. Hips always an issue for me, so here it's pinned, green stuffed, glued and I won't touch it any more. For transportation issue, that part is detachable from the base and fits into a GW or KR case. The whole model, including the base can be carried in 2 cases. I'll post some pictures of the model in his cases.

Next was the upper body, the easy part frankly. The focus here was to give him an attitude, working in line with the legs dynamic.

Then the fins and the arms, that was tricky bit. The shoulder especially. To make it sturdy but still able to be carried in a box, I worked the fin and shoulder as a single part. The fin is pinned into the body and detachable at will. the weapon is itself detachable from the arm.

Tip here is to make sure the fist is not glued in case you would like to be able to swap it for the mighty blade. I wanted to use a big magnet for the barrels of the guns but that definitely is too heavy. I ended up pinning and gluing both gun barrel (they're huge!)

Detail of the Torso, the gun is pinned, again, for transportation reason and so to be able to swap both weapon choice.

On this picture we can see where the main weapon get into the arm, just using 2 huge pins. It's very simple indeed.

Now for the paint Job. I have the overall idea. Not sure yet for the Guns, that's why they're still dull red. the body paint is final though. Face mask has been painted as we can see on the first picture. The base has received a prime and a few scenery elements. Shoulder Missiles need some painting and the pilot of course will be worked out too.

In conclusion, lots to do still but it was certainly a lot of fun already along with the Apolcalypse game itself.

The story begins here:
http://www.monstrouscreatures.com/2011/04/eldar-phantom-titan-part-i-delivery.html

Grey Knights, a digression from the Eldar Path...

The Phantom Titan is doing well and should be finished on time for our big Game this coming week-end. After this I will post some Picts and How-To, especially on the Base and the Pinning.

In the mean time, I've been painting a few Grey Knights because, because.. mmm, No, I can't find any reason. It all started when Fred, from  Fred's Warhammer Stuff offered me a few models he spotted on an auction. I thereafter bought Draigo as I like the model and subsequently bought a Dreadnight just because I'm a huge Alien 2 fan.

Anyway, here's the result:

... That's it for now, thank you for watching.

Eldar Shadow Spectres with Exarch

A few Shadow Spectres with their Exarch. Not the best Paint Job ever but I had a good time painting them.

Recipe:
-From a white primer
- Armor Merchrite Red, quick Blood Red on top, Dry Brush of Scab Red, Edge highlighted first with a Blazing orange/Yellow/White mix on the orange side, a second time with a whiter mix.
- Reactors are Badab black washed (front and rear events)
- Ribbons, Loincloth, Chaos Black, Highlight Codex Grey
- Face Mask, Chaos Black
- Rifle Chaos Black, Prisms are then Dry brushed on the edges with Regal Blue, then Enchanted Blue, Ice Blue and Skull white, used some gloss for the finish. Vanes on the side received a Mithrill Silver dry brush following by a wash of Asurmen Blue.
- Stone/Base is Wash Sepia, Wash Devlan Mud, Liberal paint of Tausept Ochre, Dry Brush of Bleach bone to finish
- Gems are Dark Angel Green, Goblin Green, Scorpion green with a white skull dot.

Eldar Phantom Titan - Part II - The Cleaning

Quick update on the Eldar Phantom Titan. It's now been cleaned and primed. I received the special long drills I ordered so I will be able to insert those long 3mm brass rods I have. I also received the resin kit so I can mold the base, none of the hobby site I know being able to provide quite what I wanted.

Until more pics of the current assembly, here's some pictures of the soap cleaning just giving an idea of the cheer amount of pieces involved here.

Next stage, base and foot

Next:
http://www.monstrouscreatures.com/2012/02/eldar-phantom-titan-on-table.html

Eldar Phantom Titan - Part I - The Delivery

Amazing! That's the first thing. Impressive, that's the second thought. What have I done? That's the final thing that went through my mind when I opened the box...

So it's all started with a box

In that box there were some bags 

 In those bags a Phantom Titan

... And I thought the Revenant was scary... Silly me... See this little red dot in the middle of the picture..? That's an Eldar Guardian. Now you understand what I'm talking about...

Eldar Revenant Titan - On the Field

We had this great game at Warhammer World in Nottingham a month ago... About 150,000 points on the table between the 19 of us.

The Titans are not finished yet but I thought they were ok enough to be fielded. Anyway a few pictures...

That's it for now. More projects on the way, time and procrastination permitting...

Eldar Revenant Titan - Part I 

Eldar Revenant Titan - Glueing

Now's the time of glueing the parts with the pins. For transportation purpose, the Fin and the Pulsars are not glued. The shields will be glued later on as I want to darken the inside before attaching them for good. The head is an entire project altogether, I will see later on about it.

I chickened out on the first Titan (the one on the left in the picture above), I lowered the left leg and pinned it down to the base... Thing is I want to field those without having to worry. That's what I already said when I decided to use thicker brass rod, that was very true then and it's still here. However I was not entirely convinced altogether it would be enough, nor was that Necron friend of mine while talking about it last weekend.

A note about the shoulder: The rings are not glued yet. Will adjust depending on shield position first.

Apart from that I cleaned my airbrush, even though I'm very careful with the tool, traces of paint accumulate on the needle itself, slightly clogging the airflow, loosing some control in the process. Another reason not to start the painting per se, my way of procrastinating I suppose...

Next, mix of Black and red in the airbrush for some shading...

[I have an Apocalypse game at the end of January... Seems I might make it on time...]

Titans on the field here

Projects starts here: Eldar Revenant Titan - Part I

Eldar Revenant Titan - Basing

Basing can be fun, and a mini is not finished if the base is not... well, based.

From all the different methods, my chosen recipe here:

Glue the elements
PVA glue the surface
Add bits and sand
Let Dry
Immerse in a PVA Glue/Hot Water mix
Let Dry overnight
(Undercoat/Basecoat/Paint later on)

I decided not to charge the base with too many elements.. Too simple? Possibly... We'll see.

Bases are 100mm resin from Fenris Games - see Eldar Revenant Titan - Part III for more details. The one on the left has already been undercoated, never mind, let's do that again.

In the mean time (yesterday in fact) the Eldar Revenant Titans received their basecoat.

It went quite well, it's a good base for shading and highlights, hence the medium red, will go easily to red-dark / black in one direction and to orange, white on the other side, allowing some hopefully nice effects.

Eldar Vampire Hunter - Part I

Yesterday I finished priming the Second Eldar Revenant Titan, part of the project Eldar Revenant Titan. Quick note about priming inside a room, open the window and get yourself a decent mask, no, really...

Anyway, I didn't want to start the actual painting today so I started that other project, the Eldar Vampire Hunter, my first flyer, and a super heavy too, I'm all excited. I intend to let it fly with 2 interceptors, but that's an other story altogether.

First thing first, that's what it looks like straight out of the box:

Quality of that Forgeworld model was somehow a big disappointment, not my first forgeworld but so far the very worst, giant mold lines, resin missing in some places, big chunk of resin all over the model, most parts kinda twisted - not the wings though, that's a relief... And both canopies missing.. I though about sending it back frankly, but Hell this is 40k and this is hard core.

With the amount of resin to remove I started with the filing, I'll clean the parts later. Don't even think about using a file alone, you need the power of a dremel or equivalent and a good dust mask - no, really, resin definitely is toxic, not only it can provoke asthma but it can also induce problems with your Endocrine system, in short you don't want any of that.  Also, get some safety glasses, I had a few bits and pieces flying around...

... Two solid hours later, all mold lines, extra bits and imperfection corrected.

Next step, removing the grease in warm water and straightening the parts. I would qualify this as a good start, and most importantly it was a lot of fun.

Eldar Revenant Titan - Part III

Some progress on the second Titan. I assembled the legs together and pinned the whole thing to the base. I must say I'm quite pleased with the result. The pose is quite similar to the first one, with a dynamic toward the front but still different in the intention.

The pinning was much more simple than the first time. Not necessarily a surprise, when you know where to drill it makes things easier. I also directly double pinned everything with some 2mm brass rods... This guy won't wobble, common problem reported countless time with Eldar Titans. Again, don't go cheap on the Drill/Rods, thick and doubled is the only way.

One word about the size of the base... This is one problem for which I could not find a proper answer on the Net. So I tried... 3.5" 4.0" and 4.5". No question asked here, 3.5 is way too small, 4.5 too big and 4.0" just perfect - Ok might sounds like Goldie Locks and the 3 bears but that really is the story.

Then about the material, wood is just too light, you don't (well I don't) want your great model being flipped over at the slightest tremor of the board. Those guys at  Fenris Games are selling a 100mm Resin base I found adequate. They're selling through ebay and even though I really try to avoid ebay as much as I can, I must admit they have a very good product/delivery/service. Anyway check my supplies section on the side for the address. Now this base is heavy enough - the thick one, not the flat, thin one mind you - And here again I tried both. Heavy enough so it holds the model very well that is. Still I'm not adventurous enough to displace the gravity center of the model off the base, That again because I want to be able to field those Titans without having to worry every time someone dare breathing is that direction.

Eldar Revenant Titan - Part I

Vampire Counts - Varghulf

Varghulf from my Vampire Counts army, not much to say about it except that I had a great time painting this one. 

White undercoat, then several layers of various washes and drybrushes, not much "real" paint per Se. Still need to finish the skeletons we can see in the background. I also need to improve my photo technique and environment, using some kind of proper photo mini studio.

The 1,000pts army itself should be something like:

Vampire with at least crown of command

40 Skeletons, Spears, War Banner
3 Spirit Host

1 Varghulf 

10 Zombie or so

That's just a draft but I already feel I should add some Dire Wolves if I want to be able to quickly crash any shooting enemy unit. To be continued...

Eldar Revenant Titan - Part II

I finished the pinning and did spray the undercoat. Not that easy as the model is not assembled yet. Thing is that some parts are going to be painted on their own before final assembling. That and the various body shields creating recesses and places where it would have been quite difficult to spray. This is an important part of the process, work it slowly, no need to flood the model with paint or you will loose details. Anyway, that's the box containing all the under-coated parts:

I also started thinking transportation and weapon destroyed damage, two situations where having detachable guns is highly preferred. Hence added some magnets in the Pulsar guns.

I briefly reassembled the main parts to check the coherence (Plus it looks way better in black already).

A quick word on a known issue with resin I had with the model.. Air Bubble... Frankly nothing to be worry about. Just a bit of green stuff and a file, problem solved. Before/After:

et voila, Green Stuff, FTW.

And to close this post, about the Revenant itself, Fluff speaking.. They do come in pair right? So as a direct result and before starting the actual paint, I need to assemble and undercoat his brother, here on the right. Just finished the cleaning, score!

Eldar Revenant Titan - Part III

Eldar Revenant Titan - Part I

That's what it looked like when I received it. Content was split between 3 plastic bags.

Cleaning the parts, filing everything - I'd suggest the use of a dremel vs using a file - It's way faster and much cleaner when handled properly.

It did sit like that for weeks, just didn't know where to start. My first experience with resin prior to that monster has been an Avatar and a couple of twinlink EML for the Eldar Serpent. The Titan here is just playing in a different league.

So after a few weeks, and some reading trying to catch some experience from others. I started by the start.. One foot. Forgeworld is actually suggesting exactly that. Get an idea of the pose you want then build your way up.

Again here I'm using the Dremel, the manual drill in the picture is very handy to pre-drill but with the amount of drilling required it's not an ideal tool.

This is a very scary first step and probably the reason I delayed it so much. I mean that thing does not come cheap. Why would you voluntarily drill through such an expensive toy. Note that I used 1.5mm brass rod I later had to swapped for a more stable 2mm.

From this point on, again, just build your way up.

And again

The hip was a problem as nothing wanted to fit properly. At the end, after several unfortunate drilling I had to refill some holes with green stuff, drill again and glue as I don't want that part to be removable anyway. Just wish I could have painted it separately but it will have to be that way.

I also picked a base, that one is too small and too light.

And higher, still higher.

Time to change the base as I finally found something decent. I also replaced the 1.5 brass rod by this 2.0 Much, much more stable. Also added a few elements of scenery on the base.

Great moment, adding the pilot in his seat. Sort of the star at the top of the Christmas tree kinda feeling.

And that's where I stand now. I feel the most difficult part is behind me but I have no illusion that model is keeping some more challenges yet to be unleashed.

 

 Eldar Revenant Titan - Part II