A Tale of VIII Painters - Ray Part 5: Metal Gear?

My next update was going to be about how I painted my Wraithguard, thus bringing my Eldar army up to 1,500 points. I blame Wayland Games for it not being about this.

A Tale of VIII Painters - Ray Part 4: Crimson Hunter

Painting vehicles is, I find, a challenging task; getting a consistent finish over large textured surfaces and (since most vehicles benefit from being constructed and painted in sections) ensuring the colours look the same for each part (especially when blending or mixing comes into play) is difficult. As a result, when I end up buying vehicles I try to get them painted in as few sessions as possible.

A Tale of VIII Painters - Barry - Dark Eldar Part 2

Ambition is a good thing, right?  It can drive us forward, motivate us, help us reach goals we wouldn’t normally try for.  However, you can be overly ambitious and should sit back and take a heavy draw on the cigarette of realistic expectations once in a while.*

So, what did I say in my first piece?  I’ll finish my Reavers, one Venom and at least make a start on my first Raider.  Riiiiiiiight.  If I’d actually taken a drag of that ciggy I’d have revised that pretty quickly.

So, what did I get done last month?  Well, I managed to finish my Reavers and their riders, so not even close to my expectations.  Oh well.

Painting for Lazy Cheats Part II: King Ra and his Jaffa

Last week I introduced you to the basic principles and concepts surrounding the creation of my Tomb Kings army, and showed you how I cheated my way to finishing the 75 skeletons required for my 2400 point list.

Of course the foot soldiers of the Tomb Kings are only so much inanimate bone without a Hierophant to maintain the spells holding them together, and what use are these skeletal minions without a King to lead them in to war? With that question in mind, and without further ado, allow me to introduce you to King Ra:

A Tale of VIII Painters - Ray Part 3: Dire Avengers, Assemble

Initially I hadn't planned to include any Dire Avengers, or indeed Aspect Warriors of any sort, in my Eldar army. I like the concept behind them (Eldar picking a job they like, like shooting missile launchers or being a ninja, and getting really good at it) but some of the models are a mite ropey and on the whole they didn't fit my bike-focused plan.

A Tale of VIII Painters - Simian - Part Three

Progress!

When I last put up a piece on the pathfinders, I was debating camouflage. Despite the advice to just leave them as is I didn't start this challenge to take the easy route, I wanted to stretch myself and my abilities and learn more about painting techniques. Therefore I went for it with the camouflage.

Firstly I brought the cloaks down a bit by using a fairly heavy agrax earthshade wash all over them. Letting it pool in the recesses.

Painting for Lazy Cheats Part I: Birth of a Tomb King’s Legion

I’m partial to many an aspect of tabletop gaming, being particularly enamoured with making my own fairly unique conversions, swapping the odd part here and there, and kit bashing my own HQ units. This coupled with the fact that I'm not all that artistic, and don't have a steady hand, has historically meant that my minis don't tend to get painted, as I prefer to move on to assembling the next exciting thing.

I've collected a few armies in my time: Dwarves, Eldar, Space Wolves,Thousand Sons and Lizardmen. None of them are even 10% painted, I always get disheartened by what seems like an insurmountable task awaiting me.  I made a decision last year to start a fresh army, Tomb Kings, to keep things simple, to finally have a completed Army. And by 'completed' I mean a 2400 points list all painted to a standard I, at least, am not embarrassed to field.

Falling Back Into the Hobby

Firstly let me just say its all Aidan's fault, well maybe partly James's, but mainly Aidan.


These men are to blame.

A Tale of VIII Painters - Tim - Part 1

Planning & Procrastinating

Having decided on a theme for the army I headed to the store to get some advice on colour schemes. After first trying to fob me off with the standard black armour (I guess it is best to eliminate that as an option, first) I told the chap I was after something in brown/green. Earthy, and a bit foul (Have you ever peered in to a festival toilet?).

He recommended (Unfortunately this is from memory and from the old paint list):

A Chaos Black undercoat

A base layer of Scorched Brown

Drybrush several layers of Knarloc Green on top

Drybrush with Camo Green to pick out the edges

That was just for the armour.

Bugger that.

A Tale of VIII Painters - Ray Part 2: The First Jetbike

The time has come for me to begin painting this month's main attraction, the Eldar; I've added enough red, brass and cream trim to my Barracuda for the moment and Forgeworld haven't sent the new cockpit yet so it sits on my shelf waiting to be completed.

Basing basics. And some advanced things.

OK, as my first real contribution I will be going through some basic and advanced basing techniques with supporting pictures where I am able. I will go through this step by step, by the end you should be able to produce a cohesive look to your models with a few more advanced techniques for centerpiece models. I will assume that the reader has no prior knowledge of basing.



Man'o War Demolition Corps on snowy 'tundra' bases

A Tale of VIII Painters - Simian - Part 2

So, yellow.....that's not a fun colour to paint! I know I wanted to challenge myself with this but I'm not sure I thought it through all the way. Why did I not go for a simple scheme that didn't involve yellow? Either way, I've made my bed and I'm damn well going to a smooth yellow finish on their helms.

Going back a couple of steps, in part one I'd just finished stippling the armour with the two blues and lightening the Helms and face masks ready for the yellows.

I next applied a Blue wash to the armour to try to make it stand out more and painted the helms and face masks with Ulthuan grey to bring them closer to grey before I applied the Casandora Yellow wash. the results of this wash are below. I also painted the weapons with Ulthuan grey to get them ready for the Ushabti Bone. This is the first time I've really bothered doing transition colours and I have to says its been very beneficial, especially working from a black undercoat as I always do.

Tales of Painters VII - Aidan - Part 1 - Malifaux, Ten Thunders, Painting

That about sums up what the Tales of VIII Painters will be about for me.

Malifaux

For those who aren’t au fait, Malifaux is set in an alternate Victorian era where a rift in the fabric of reality leads to the world of Malifaux.  A place where magic exists and monsters are real.  The world of Malifaux loosely consists of 5 factions:  The Guild - the self appointed law in Malifaux, The Arcanists – a secret faction who concentrate on honing their new found powers, The Resurrectionists – a loosely grouped bunch of individuals who use magic to control the dead, The Neverborn – the monsters inhabiting Malifaux and The Outcasts – basically everyone who doesn’t belong to the above.

A Tale of VIII Painters - Tim - Warriors of Nurgle Intro

I Hate Painting

But I like making army lists. I like buying cool models and I like putting them together. If I have spare time I like playing computer games.

Altogether this means I have 3 armies in various unfinished states and a quite comprehensive shopping list of units I need for different lists I want to try out. Reading back over that sentence one word sums up my attitude - I "need" new units. Not want or would like to pick or think that they look cool, in my mind I need them.

And the issue with that is that I am embarrassed to use the armies I have. So despite thinking up some fun new list to use or having a cool new model to field and being eager to get a battle, when I actually put the units down I mostly feel disappointed (particularly when the opponent has a beautifully painted force with twice the models of mine).

A Tale of VIII Painters - Anthony - Exodites Part 1

Eldar are the first, and so far only, army that I've ever really collected, starting way back in the '90s before taking a break from wargaming that lasted roughly 15 years. Currently I have around 2500pts of mostly painted Craftworld Eldar that have barely seen a tabletop battlefield in the intervening time, so what a great time this would be to finish them! Of course, we already have two great Eldar blogs on this site already, so for my Tale I've decided to do something my younger self dreamed of, but which my older self's disposable income can finally afford: Exodites.

A Tale of VIII Painters - Ray Slows Down With Fast Eldar

Being as I am the sort of person who likes 40k flavour but also completely ignores it when designing armies should it get in the way, the idea behind Saim-Hann Eldar seemed cool (Celtic influenced Wicker-Man style cult Eldar bikers who think if it doesn't have an engine it's not worth taking) but I wanted to make it my own thing.

So I decided to make an army based on the Saim-Hann theme, tentatively called Craftworld Saim-Hradh in keeping with the general "pick a festival or season from Gaelic religion" thing the Eldar have going for them in naming terms. It's going to have the same general "rules" of building a themed army (lots of bikers, lots of tanks and other fast units) but with a tiny bit of flexibility, mostly because there's too many cool Eldar models I want to own like Wraithguard, Rangers and Harlequins.

A Tale of VIII Painters - Barry - Dark Eldar

Ok, those who read my initial post will know I'm effectively the n00b of the group.  A bit of a historic background in wargaming but completely new to 40k.  My choice to go with Dark Eldar was based purely on the fact I thought they looked good, with no research in to their background or effectiveness on the field.  I started with the battleforce and have been adding bits on here and there as I go.  I took a similar approach with my initial assembling and painting.  Not really working with a particular list in mind, just going with what I thought looked good.

A Tale of VIII Painters - Irregular Joe - Lord of The Night

 The Flesh is Weak!

Somehow, I knew I'd leave it all unfinished. Some deep, intrinsic knowledge that regardless of time, effort, and money spent, my passion for the background, the sheer coolness of it all, it would all fall by the wayside.

I talk, of course, of my Iron Hands army. 

A Tale of VIII Painters - Simian - Part 1

Eldar, the very thought of doing an Eldar army fills me with dread. All the different colours, all the patterns. the requirement for a delicate touch (being colour-blind and a ham-fisted is not a good thing!). But that's exactly why I want to do them, no only are they one of the most beautiful armies with some of the best models but also because I know they'll be a challenge for me. I can paint power armour, I know that, I have an entire Dark angels force of probably 7000 points all painted. So with that in mind Eldar are my challenge.

The Illic model was the first one in the codex that caught my eye and so was the first one i bought, there is also something very iconic about the Avatar of Khaine, though the idea of painting such a detailed model worries me. However I didn't sign up to this to worry about my abilities, I signed up to improve and stretch my painting abilities. I've assembled a small 750-1000 point force with a couple of options for the HQ choice with the plan of using them as an Allied contingent.

What I have:

A Tale of VIII Painters - Cobra - Initial Dilemma

OK so I have signed up to this pledge of documenting the painting of an army.  My initial dilemma is this, which of my unpainted 40k armies should I be painting

So I decided to put this out to the internet; should I paint my Marine White Scars army or my Dark Eldar army?

The White Scars will give you bikers and vehicles a plenty.

The Dark Eldar has most troop types, jetbikes, vehicles and Haemonculus troops

Post below to vote and help me decide