# Eldar WIP - A preparation for Northern Ireland's biggest ever 40k tournament!



## TheKingElessar (Mar 31, 2009)

Okay, this Project log is hopefully going to spur me on to finish my Eldar army to at least a tabletop standard in the next 7 weeks until the GW-Sponsored Fields of Blood event at Q-Con. C&C welcomed, +rep for anyone who uses the word 'anal' or 'anus' appropriately (ie, not as an insult) and without further ado, a pathfinder who's pretty much finished:










My Fire Prism 1/3 's Prism Cannon:










The most important part of the army - Objective markers! :










Eldrad:








- though I've since done the highlights on the Stones.

And, the pattern on my Fire Prism's hull at a slightly earlier stage (most up-to-date pic though, :laugh :










The effect on the hull isn't a trick of the light, I use a coat of Badab Black after the spray has dried to bring out the layers and the organic feel of the Wraithbone material. Painting black wash over black hardly sounds like a hugely effective technique, but I find it works astonishingly well, both for depth, and for natural highlighting, allowing me to go straight to a coat of Adeptus Battlegrey.


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## Winterous (Mar 30, 2009)

Looking good so far.
I love the Prism!


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## TheKingElessar (Mar 31, 2009)

Thanks, I'm pretty chuffed with it, although it needs tidied up a bit. Started out with a 2:1:1 mix of Ice/Enchanted Blue/water,








adding Ice through the next three layers, then adding white, so the last coat before pure white highlights was about 8:5:1:2 or so (White/Ice/Enchanted/water)


Also, here's the whole Ranger squad:









But, this pic is from before I did the Stones and eyes highlights...doh!


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## Winterous (Mar 30, 2009)

TheKingElessar said:


> Started out with a 2:1:1 mix of Ice/Enchanted Blue/water, adding Ice through the next three layers, then adding white, so the last coat before pure white highlights was about 8:5:1:2 or so (White/Ice/Enchanted/water)


I think you just killed my brain!


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## TheKingElessar (Mar 31, 2009)

:laugh: Sorry! Thought anyone who reads this might want to recreate the look faithfully, so I went whole hog with detail :grin:

I also don't do half measures when mixing - I mix what I want, sometimes for no reason other than because I can! :laugh:


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## Winterous (Mar 30, 2009)

Fair enough.
When I'm painting my Tyranids (not very far in ) I just mix approximately, and it ends up slightly different for each model.
It looks good.


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## TheKingElessar (Mar 31, 2009)

I suppose that approach would possibly work for me, but I prefer to do the basics the same on all my models, and only variate in Squad, or between vehicles. When i (eventually) paint squadrons like War Walkers or Vypers, I'll probably paint them identically. Anyway, some progress today -


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## Winterous (Mar 30, 2009)

I like the squiggly line things!
Did you do them by hand?


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## TheKingElessar (Mar 31, 2009)

On the front of the hull? Yeah, a coat of Deneb first, to get the basic shape, then Bleached, very thin, straight over it to get the final angular design...the right side of the tank took about 8 attempts to get it where I'm happy with it...(finished up with about four coats of Bleached) still far from perfect, but it's table-top anyway. I did it before highlighting the black, and next time I'll try doing the highlights first...doing them after was useful as it meant less doing over, but probably slowed down the whole process a fair bit, and the highlights have been tidied a bit also - so that stage might as well have been earlier in the process.

Originally I wanted a bit moresymmetry than I achieved here, but I think next time I'll abandon that and just do it more like on the box art...althuogh I'm tempted by lightning crackles for the next Prism, scaling the tank's hull up to the Prism Cannon at the top. Only Ice Blue, Scorpion Green, or Skull White would really work for it though, which limits my palette a little more than I'm comfortable with - the green in particular doesn't sit well with bone. Blue forces me to paint another blue Prism itself...I'm thinking a purple one atm...maybe the third can have a bone support, with an NMM obsidian looking Prism...that _may_ be a little more ambitious than I can achieve, however...


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## Winterous (Mar 30, 2009)

You know what?
If I were to paint a fire prism, I'd do each facet a different colour.
That'd be cool!


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## Haekmo (Mar 1, 2009)

anal or anus hey??? hmmmm :grin:

nice work mate, not like the rangers i saw an old friend paint, his looked like a cats anus!!! lol

any how... nice work, nothing like a dead line to keep you painting, keep at it, i always use dead lines to finish my tournie armys.... i always get distracted and paint mini's i feel like painting, not what i should be painting  good luck champ...


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## TheKingElessar (Mar 31, 2009)

I bought a Dark Angel Captain one day I was painting in my local GW bacause I was bored painting Nob Bikers. Still have to do his banner...and his sword. Plan to do NMM purple on his sword, a la the Salamander in the Codex. Sadly, it's not that easy, the sword is inverted, creating odd shading, and of course I have Eldar to do.


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## TheKingElessar (Mar 31, 2009)

Wednesday's update (even though it's now Thursday AM...)

Bought and based some new Fire Dragons, because the painted ones I have are horrible:









Boned up one Serpent turret, highlighted a second:









Prism turret top essentially finished now:









Prism turret main pretty much done - crewman glued in, just need ot balance Prism with GS... :

























Driver also glued in now, just need to finish Cats and sensory apparatus:

















Happy with my progress so far. Goal for the week - finish that Prism, and one Serpent. 
Preliminary goal for next week - highlighted two more Serpents, glued both remaining Prisms, based and sprayed all 5 Dragons.


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## TheKingElessar (Mar 31, 2009)

Thursday update - a bit late, but hey. Only got to paint about half an hour, so, as an Easter egg, some pics of half-finished Warlocks and my WIP 'Riddler' Shadowseer...









Shuriken Cats on the Prism, almost done now.









Cannons on Serpent look far better in photo than reality 








Old school Warlock model








Style Council








I think if you zoom in on this one you should be able to see the detail around the eye...








Think this was the first freehand cloak rune I ever did...








The Riddler...


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## Winterous (Mar 30, 2009)

Pretty good man.
But, on the "Style council", it looks pretty messy, I think it's just the camera though.

And could you take some non-fuzzy pics of The Riddler?
Is it sculpted? If so, amazing work, from what I can see.


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## TheKingElessar (Mar 31, 2009)

:laugh: it's just the paint job makes it look like GS, its not a conversion at all...The flash on the Style Council pic shows the grey highlights on the robes, helmets etc, but makes lighter colours look awful...Sadly, the other pic of them I have atm is just as bad...
I'll get some up next week for them, when I finish Eldrad's new base - he just has a basic green one right now, for contrast with the robes, using pieces from the basing kit for the final version.


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## sir_m1ke (Dec 7, 2008)

Looking really good TKE! hope you can get them finished in time, im horrendously slow at getting armies together lol


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## TheKingElessar (Mar 31, 2009)

Tuesday night update.

Sadly, I'm working right through until Sunday afternoon, so very little time for painting until Monday, when I expect to put up the next update. In the meantime however, I have made some progress, glueing down the hull of my now-finished (to tabletop quality anyway, after the Tourny I may have the leisure to get them up to a better overall standard) Fire Prism. Made steady progress on another Wave Serpent, getting it to the current state in 2 days, although that 2 days = about 6 hours total, that's how lazy I'm being...:laugh:

Previously photo'd Serpent has had another coat of Bone, and a Wash of Gryphonne Sepia on the guns, it's almost ready to have the crewman glued in and hull glued down. Well, on to the pics!
























Embarassingly, didn't put the window on until taking this pic :blush: but you get the idea...








The way I get rid of the taste of paint when keeping the point of my brush...








































I do worry that the highlights still aren't visible enough in these photos...once it's done I'll try and get a better contrast...the grey is Adeptus, it's certainly visible enough on the model in 'person'...


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## Winterous (Mar 30, 2009)

Sweet work man, the Prism looks glorious!
*drools over the beautiful shiny face-melting crystal*


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## Bardictraveller (May 11, 2009)

I hate Fire Prisms.. but thats pretty much 'cause they kill my marines fast 

Nice job on the painting m8  I like your vehicles !


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## Winterous (Mar 30, 2009)

Bardictraveller said:


> I hate Fire Prisms.. but thats pretty much 'cause they kill my marines fast


You mean when used together?


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## Bardictraveller (May 11, 2009)

Winterous said:


> You mean when used together?


single prism or group of them.. the effects on marines are absolute horror (on the space marine side of the table :mrgreen


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## Winterous (Mar 30, 2009)

Bardictraveller said:


> single prism or group of them.. the effects on marines are absolute horror (on the space marine side of the table :mrgreen


But, the large blast is only ap4 with one!


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## Bardictraveller (May 11, 2009)

I know, but I have prodigious bad luck


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## Winterous (Mar 30, 2009)

Hehehe...
Would you prefer they used D-cannon?


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## TheKingElessar (Mar 31, 2009)

Thanks guys :biggrin: I've calculated that it takes me 9-10 hours to do a Wave Serpent, and probably another 4 to do a Fire Prism (I do paint quite slowly, lol) so at the current rate I'm well on target. Unfortunately, I still have approx 12 Dire Avengers, 10 Fire Dragons, 4 Wave Serpents, and a Fire Prism to paint...but I'm getting there... :grin:

I would cetainly prefer vehicle-mounted D-Cannons, yes


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## TheKingElessar (Mar 31, 2009)

Well, been ages since an update, and, although I haven't done as much as I'd like, here's some new pics to keep your interest, hopefully! 

My Serpents arrayed together:









And individually:









































Although...the first two are the same one, just used the flash to show up the highlights I've done the same on each.

I've also started my second Fire Prism - 










That's just it, sprayed, then Badab'd.

Finally, two mediocre pics of my finished Objective Marker (well, base is half done, but the model itself is completed)...

















...And then pictures of the markers I'll use to represent a Unit being Fortune'd, Yes, I did them freehand - both are first try, although I'm not quite satisfied with the second one of them.


















Again, thanks for looking!


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## Winterous (Mar 30, 2009)

Looks good man, I like the rubies on the obj marker.

And yeah, the second freehand one is a bit fat, but the lines are cleaner.
Perhaps you should paint black over them and try again, couldn't hurt.


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## TheKingElessar (Mar 31, 2009)

Yeah...it's actually worse in the photo of course, because of the size, but even so, it's fat. I'll def redo the middle of that one, but I'm probably best doing the Doom and Guide markers first. Doom will just be straight reverse, but any idea what rune I should use for Guide?


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## MaidenManiac (Oct 2, 2008)

If you have troubles painting such things on freehand then you could get a really fine pencil and use it to paint over the white you want removed


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## TheKingElessar (Mar 31, 2009)

MaidenManiac said:


> If you have troubles painting such things on freehand then you could get a really fine pencil and use it to paint over the white you want removed


Thank you, but I don't usually have trouble, without wanting to sound arrogant, but I was playing a game at the time, and I lost focus and my brush slipped - as you know, every mm counts in freehand, and it was effectively ruined at that instant  Still, it can be redone, probably Friday afternoon


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## Winterous (Mar 30, 2009)

Good luck with that man.


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## sir_m1ke (Dec 7, 2008)

Whats this? (rubs eyes) all of your tanks now have colour on them! damn it, now i have to use actual jetbikes and banshees instead of proxy models :laugh:

did you get your fire prism fixed again? seeing it break actually felt like a kick in the nuts to me :shok: its not even my model! but i know how long it takes to get one of those things to stick together :angry:


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## TheKingElessar (Mar 31, 2009)

No, not yet...and that's all my _done_ Serpents...still one hasn't been undercoated :laugh: although I've now highlighted my second Prism. Getting there


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## TheKingElessar (Mar 31, 2009)

A bit more progress, now highlighted both the Prism hull and the last Serpent - 
My Fire Prism:








My latest Serpent:








Close-up of the pink stone on the left hull:








Second close-up:


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## Someguy (Nov 19, 2007)

It's all looking good. Keep it going.


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## NurglingStomper (Jan 31, 2009)

Dude I really like your tanks! They look good, one thing though, for your bases, you might want to consider painting the rim of the base different from top color. Other than that they look nice, or shall I say umm... analicious? :laugh::laugh:


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## TheKingElessar (Mar 31, 2009)

Okay, didn't want to thank you both until I had more to offer, so - the last few days' progress:

Mace Windu-inspired crystal:








(Not really inspired by him, just thought that up, thought it was kinda funny...)
Previous stages of Prism - note, darkest colour is Leviathan, no idea why it's BLUE in pics...:scare:









































I don't think it's as good as the blue one...but it'll do, unless I get time to buy, build, and paint, a new one in the next *checks date* 17 days. Unlikely.

Finished Test model for FDs...








And without flash on...








Next one's on his way...









Finally, the first 3 Objective Markers are all done now, so 2 pics of all three!


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## Winterous (Mar 30, 2009)

Yeah, blue one is better, but oh well, it's a Prism for a reason 
Fire dragon looks nice, got an Exarch on the way?


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## TheKingElessar (Mar 31, 2009)

'Fraid not. I don't put much faith in Exarchs until unit size hits 8...weight of fire and such. Eventually I'll add some, as painting exercises, or just because I'm increasing squad size, but not before July, and probably not this year (unless the money gets diverted to food or some other boring thing, and I can't afford the 4 new armies I want!)


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## TheKingElessar (Mar 31, 2009)

Well, I didn't think I was quite behind enough with the army, or perhaps it was because I lost Yriel's left arm...either way, I decided to convert my own. Pics of him follow, along with the now finished FD squad (well, finished as in tabletop) and the third turret for my SIX Wave Serpents, which is barely done. Also, finished enough arms to field (almost) the requisite number of Dire Avengers...but I like the scheme less and less as I look at it more and more...going to try and knock out a whole new squad in the next 7 days...

































Also, anyone else think that the helmless DA Exarch head looks incredibly like Mark Lenard, who played Sarek in TOS and TNG?

The turret...








The Fire Dragons...


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## Winterous (Mar 30, 2009)

That's a cool conversion man.
The weird thing is, it kinda looks like him :S
Just needs the topknot.


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## Orochi (Jan 28, 2009)

After ANALysing the painting on the Fire dragons, i have decided they are beautiful.

Your DA exarch looks an awful lot like Yriel, but needs a loin clothe i think. Would be a nice clean side for a Decal or something.


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## TheKingElessar (Mar 31, 2009)

Some more photos for your viewing pleasure...and to make me feel slightly better about being so far behind.

























This last photo is of the trophies for Fields of Blood. Hopefully, the next pic of them will be in my triumphant hands, followed by one of my name carved to commemorate my achievement. More likely, you'll just get the photos from my games during the day, and my disappointed review of how an army that isn't as well painted as mine (in my head) won Best Army...


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## Sethis (Jun 4, 2009)

I think your guardians look like something out of Tron, but very very cool. I couldn't be bothered to spend that much time and effort on basic infantry, but then I'm not entering any competitions 

I love your Dragons, normally they look like an advert for a gay bar where the dress code is anything from "Sunglasses advised" to "Reconstructive retinal surgery required", but yours remain orange while being subdued and smoldering-y. Can I ask how you did it? Your WIP pics show one as being red and the other orange... 

Edit: I should read threads in order. I don't know if you were still looking for a rune to use as "Guide" marker, but I thought the farseer icon would be good, the one that looks like an Illuminati eye inside a pyramid.


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## Eviltim (Sep 25, 2008)

TheKingElessar said:


> Also, anyone else think that the helmless DA Exarch head looks incredibly like Mark Lenard, who played Sarek in TOS and TNG?


YES! I was thinking that the other day!


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## TheKingElessar (Mar 31, 2009)

Those are the other colour schemes for squads 2 & 3. The finished mini was Macharius, followed by blazing orange on orange bitts. Red bits were Mechrite, then Scab, followed by a 50-50 mix of Mechrite and Scab. Gun is Boltgun and Dwarf Bronze. Whole model coated in Badab Black, et voila! Simple, but effective!


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## Winterous (Mar 30, 2009)

Sethis said:


> I think your guardians look like something out of Tron, but very very cool. I couldn't be bothered to spend that much time and effort on basic infantry, but then I'm not entering any competitions


Catch this.
I play Nids, and I spend about 2-4 hours total on EVERY SINGLE GAUNT.
Given, I've only got a small amount done, but I still take ages


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## Sethis (Jun 4, 2009)

Aah, it's the badab black coating that does it. I'm still used to using the old Black Ink, which actually turned the model black if you didn't water it crazy amounts. Washing black onto bright colours just doesn't occur to me!

Winterous: You're insane.


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## Winterous (Mar 30, 2009)

Sethis said:


> Winterous: You're insane.


It's largely because I have little experience in painting, and largely because I just obsess over little details, like doing highlights, the pattern on the Carapace, getting the teeth and eyes EXACTLY RIGHT.

*shudder*
Sometimes it really sucks to be obsessive.


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## AM. (Jun 16, 2009)

Nice looking eldars and good luck with this trophy :wink:


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