Holiday Break - Time to Paint

Little bit of painting got done over Christmas. I completed my Autarch with power weapon/fusion gun/WarpSpider Jump Pack. Here is a top view of the Autarch.



Here is the Front view.



Back View.



and Side View.



Next projects are Tanks (Falcon) and a small squad of Banshees. I have magnetized the falcon weapons (still need to fix the missile launcher and create/magnetize a bottom mount Shurican Cannon), base coated teh bottom and top. I have also base coated 5 banshees and 1 exarch with executioner. Lastly, I glued together the exarch base.

Still have to paint the Falcon, create based for the 5 banshees, and paint up the squad. I will be putting a Devlen Mud wash on the banshees (white base coat), then following with a bleashed bone highlight on the armor. 3 layers of red (Mechrite Red, Scab Red, Blood Red) for the back of the banshee masks, then 2 layers of green (Dark Angels Green, Goblin Green) for the Exarch mask.

Now to head out to GW Sugarland to paint and maybe play some games.

Slacker Paints new model!

Great news! A new GW store has opened within 10 minutes of my house and I am going to be the Old Guy regular hanging out down there. I spent some time breaking in my new seat painting up Dire Avenger Exarch #2. I know, 2 months between updates makes me a slacker, but at least things are inching forward.

Here is a quick snapshot of both Avenger squads, with Exarchs out front.



Here is the Exarch in his glory.



A view of the Right side.




A side view of the left.




Slightly blurred view from above.



And the Exarch in front of his squad.



So, I have the base completed for my next model. I will be painting up an Autarch with Warp Spider Jump pack, Mandiblasters, power sword, and fusion gun. Once he is complete I will have a fully fieldable army (2 troop, 1 elite, 1 fast, 1 HQ) and will be looking for some games. Not sure what I will be doing after that, I am considering tanks and/or Banshees.

With Christmas here, I am hoping to find some extra time to get some new units painted.

25 Days and we have completed squads

25 days into the month... 3 weeks since the last post! Well, its been a hell of a month and I have not made much time to paint. I got back to the hobby side today and spent several hours (damn I paint slow) completing the Eldar I have on my work-tray.

So, here we have a look at Dire Avenger squad 2.




Here is the Squad with the completed Dire Avenger Exarch.


Here we have some pictures of the Exarch from the sides and front. I shake too much for my free-hand to be very good, but its passable.

From the Right


From the Left


From the Front


And then we have the other new squad I added. Here we have the Wraithguard, re-based with dead Tau parts. I am looking forward t using this unit, as I have never fielded Wraithguard before.






So there we are. Short post tonight, but the several pictures make up for that. Next project in the Dead Tau Project is an Autarch. I am not sure what weapon load-out I am going to use, but I have a great base from a friend of mine that I am going to use. The base has a dead ethereal molded onto it, and should look fantastic!

My Husband Fu is strong!

So I have executed a coup! Here are the display end tables in my living room:

Here we have the 40K collectors edition rule book:


And here is the Collectors Fantasy rule book:


Yes, my husband Fu is strong!

The Boys in Blue - Squad 1

Well, I have completed squad 1 of my Dire Avengers. Now the boys in blue have arms and guns! I think this picture is one of my favorite out of the set that was taken.

The Eldar Boys in Blue:


Ok, on to the normal pictures. Here is a set from Table Top distance both from the Front and the Side.



And here is a quick shot of the back, showing one of the Avengers with his plasma grenade hanging off his belt.



So that's it for Squad 1. I am considering painting the crests of Squad 2 Black and Green, but have not settled on that yet. Following Squad 2 is the already assembled Exarch, then modeling/painting Exarch #2. Following that I am not sure. I have a unit of Wraith Guard that are already painted but need some basing done. They are in Swordwind colors (good) and painted well. Picked them up from Ebay but they will fit nicely. I will probably base them and then figure out next steps.

I am seriously thinking about taking my Spray Gun to a couple tanks. I have to check my box's, but I believe I have 2 wave serpents and a Falcon to paint up.

Another step along Avenger Road

Ok, I got a little more work done today, yet another stage along the path of completing the Avengers. I added the bone coloring to the tidbits hanging off their belts, and painted the helmet crests grey in anticipation for some Green and White. I also got some primer and a base coat onto the arms. Next steps are washes and highlighting the guns.

Here is a quick picture of the workspace. Very crowded with the arms and guns still on the sprue. In the top right corner you can see a quick and messy base coat on my Exarch's Tau victim.
A closer look at the base coat on the arms. These will get a blue wash, then some black and bone touch up on the guns. Clips will be bone, scope will be bone. I will use some grey to draw out the richer black on the rest of the gun.


A look at the profile. You can see the grey on the crest and some bone on the tidbits in back if you look close enough.

Here is a rear view of some avengers. You can see the bone added.


Quite a funny little tidbit. I was trying to figure out what these two tidbits were and I finally got it. This is an extra clip for the Avenger Catapults.


And something that surprised me, Avengers carry around extra scopes for thier rifles!

And thats it for this afternoon. I am off to pick up the kids and will post more after my next painting sessions.

Dire Avengers Stage 3 plus an Exarch

Another update only a week after the first! Unfortunately its still another month. I feel good today and even though my painting is certainly slow, but its coming along steadily.

Ok, the first set of pictures is my first Dire Avenger Exarch. This is a mod I have been considering for a while and I believe it is going to come out looking good.



And here is a look at the model staged with the Tau held by the neck. I did not stick them together yet, I will do that after painting. The arm holding the Tau is resting against the body.



And a close look at the Tau and arm alone.

Ok, I have gotten more done than just the Exarch model. I also have put down some grey/white/green on the 18 Avengers. Here are some pics.

Squad 1 - From a tabel top view distance.


Squad 2 from a table top view distance.


Here is a close-up

And here is a table top view of both squads from the back.


Another Close-up view of an Avenger.


The Eldar get in their first game!
I also had a combat patrol (400 point) game with my son and his Orc's this weekend. This was my first game of 5th edition and I have some thoughts overall. First, let me post the lists:

Eldar:
10 man Warp Spider Squad
9 Warp Spiders
1 Warp Spider Exarch with 2x death spinner, power blades, withdraw
9 man Dire Avenger Squad
9 Dire Avengers
9 man Dire Avenger Squad
9 Dire Avengers


Orc's
1 Wierdboy
10 Boys
8 boys with Slugga/Choppa
1 boy with Big Shoota
1 Nob with Power claw/Slugga
1 Truck w/ Big Shoota, Grot Rigger, Red Paint Job, Boarding Ramp, Reinforced Ram
10 Boys
8 with Slugga/Choppa
1 with big Shoota
1 Nob with Power claw/Slugga

We played an Annihilation mission, since we both had 3 kill points. It was an overwhelming vistory to the Eldar, but a well fought battle from the Orcs. The game went to the bottom of turn 4.

A couple observations for 5th edition.
1. The missions in the book are built for a 6x4 table with full FOC armies.
2. Wound allocation prior to rolling saves actually helps more than I thought.
3. The new vehicle damage chart is not as bad as I thought.

Let me expand a bit on points 2 and 3. On point 2, there were 2 turns when I unleashed shots on his orc units. I unloaded 18 shots on the an 11 man orc squad from the avengers. 18 shots translated to 13 wounds. 13 wounds were assigned as follows:
8 wounds to Boys
1 wound to Big Shoota
1 wound to Nob
1 wound to Wierdboy
2 more wounds to boys.

This ended up killing 3 boys.

Now I unloaded the spiders on the same unit. 22 shots translated to 19 wounds. 19 wounds were allocated as follows:
5 wounds to Boys
1 wound to Big Shoota
1 wound to Nob
1 wound to Wierdboy
5 wounds to Boys
1 wound to Big Shoota
1 wound to Nob
1 wound to Wierdboy
3 wounds to Boys

Final tally was:
13 Saves to the boys
2 saves to the big shoota
2 saves to the Nob
2 saves to the Wierdboy

End result, Boys, Big shoota, and nob fail thier saves.
Wierdboy makes 1 save and stays alive.

In a similar turn-out in another round of shooting, the Nob of the other squad stayed alive with 1 wound and but ended up running off the table.

Now, regarding my comment 3 about the vehicle tables. I will admit that I was firing on an open topped vehicle so that made better. My death spinners can now penetrate vehicles, even though they get -1 for being an AP - weapon. Overall, my penetrating hits were rolling at -1 on the chart, which means no Explode result, but a Wrecked result was possible. Glancing hits are at the normal -2, so Immobilised was the best I could get. Overall, I think warp spiders will be good for vehicle hunting due to the torrent of fire they can dump out. With Str 6 and 22 shots from a full squad, thats a whole bunch of chances for damage. Then, its just a matter of adding up a lot of Weapon Destroyed and Immobilised results to stack them for a wrecked.

New Pictures

Well, the airbrush did not work as well as I would have liked. Also, I am noticing the trend of only posting new pictures every month. At this rate, it is going to take me years to complete my army. I really need to get motivated and paint up a whole mess of squads!

Ok, onto my Avengers and Stage 2. My intention was to use the airbrush to lay down a solid base then a wash on all 18 avengers. The goal here would be to get good definition, be able to quickly go back and do some highlighting, and get some great looking models. Unfortunately, the shortcut did not work all that well. After looking over the dried result, there was no true definition between the depths and the ridges, it just looked like the air-brushed wash stained the entire model darker.

Overall, the darker color is not a bad thing. I chose to paint on a brighter blue to the armor plates, leaving the darker blue plus wash as a shadow.

So, I have now completed the bases (painted, highlighted, flocked), mounted teh Avengers, and painted the armor and armor plates. Still to do:
Helmets
Crests
Tabards
Gems and decoration
Add Arms and Guns
Paint Arms and Guns
Build Exarchs

Now to the pictures!

Here are the Avengers from a "Table Top" Distance.


Now a closer look at the 18. First picture is 12 from the left, while the second picture overlaps and shows 9 from the right.


And a quick look at some of the bases in the rear.

I am using some of the pieces from the 40K basing kit and I think they have come out looking fairly good.

Airbrush Update

Well, I actually sat down yesterday to take a look at the Avengers and start painting on highlights. Unfortunately, they needed a new coat of base paint due to the original brushing not hitting all the spots. I pulled out the airbrush and cans of air and went to town. The can froze after only hitting a couple models and basically I realize how bad the cans suck.

So, I have picked up a compressor and completed the airbrushing (base and wash) or the avengers. For those who are looking for a little compressor, I strongly recommend stopping into AC Moore. AC Moore has 40% off coupons on the internet that can be used for 1 item. I took the coupon and picked up a Badger 1810 compressor and a airhose. You will need an airhose but the store has them in the same case as the compressor. The air-bursh end of the hose fits the Citidel Airbrush perfectly.

Overall, the compressor is not to loud and the paintbrush works well. The pressure seemed to be a little lower than the can, but the paint seems to go on evenly.

Now I am back to where I thought I was 2 weeks ago, I need to highlight my Avengers and then paint up the bases.

New Blog - Awsome!

So over on the right I have added a link to my friend Trevors new blog. I have to recommend that anyone following the Dead Tau Project take a look at what he is up to. Trevor is my normal regular opponent for both WHFB and WH40K, and is the Tau player I use as my inspiration for the dead tau on the bases!

Trevor is doing some amazing greenstuff work on his Fantasy Ogre army. Check it out.

Magnus Turpis Ravus Vir Res Project

So I am moving on the the Dire Avengers. I ended up not moving forward with the color's choices posted earlier for the blue. I will be using the Citidel Airbrush to paint my Avengers en mass. This picture was actually taken after the base coat, I notice I am getting purple tint to the glass jar. It has not discolored anything yet, which is good. (water for cleaning still ends up clear)
I will definitely need a small compressor, as the cans of air are freezing during my painting and this throws off the airbrush.


Below are the avengers prior to the base coat. I am using 2 box lids for my airbrush station and have affixed the avengers to a piece of foam-core with some blue-tac.


And here we go with the blue base coat.


The new plan is as follows:
1. Airbursh the avengers Mordian Blue Foundation paint
2. Airbursh a wash of 1 to 1 Asuramen Blue Wash and Badab Black Wash (from the new wash set)
3. Touch up with Space Wolves Grey on the armor edges
4. Work the white of the helmets
5. Green soul gems

Then I need to make a decision for the shuricat's.

More pictures to come as I proceed through the process.

As I mentioned, the next set of pictures is the completed squad of Warp Spiders. I nearly had them completed last night but ended up needing a break. I got burned out on gems and the guns after gluing the arms and guns to the models.

I think they came out well. These pictures are a "Tabletop View" of the squad, with the shifted between the squad and the Exarch.






So they are complete and ready to play. Now I am moving on to 2 squads of Dire Avengers. Once I took a quick look and realized that 18 avengers, 9 spiders and the exarch comes to 488 points. This is enough to play my son with his Orcs, or I can drop 4 spiders (18 Avengers, 5 Spiders, 1 Exarch) and I have 400 points for Combat Patrol. I am looking forward to starting to play a few games with the Eldar.