Ruins, Raiders and Rending Claws

Over the last few days I have been working on a number of different projects. I have managed to get these ruins finished for Lord of the Rings and continued to work on my Dark Eldar. I had hoped to get more done with the Dark Eldar but the weather conspired against me at the weekend and a combination of high winds and rain meant that I was unable to prime my raiders for painting. Instead, I took the time to work on Space Hulk and started to paint up some genestealers which have been primed and sitting on a shelf looking at me accusingly for a number of months now.

Below you can see my raiders in their various sub-assemblies. As I plan on airbrushing these I decided to keep them in a number of separate parts to make this easier. However, even if painting by hand it would make sense to paint them as sub-assemblies because of the number of fiddly components that would make certain areas hard to access with a brush.

Here is my first genestealer which was completed a while back as a test model. As you can see, I have gone with the traditional genestealer colours of blue and purple and tried to paint these in a dark moody style like those seen in White Dwarf. I have also tried to get a contrast in textures between the hard carapace and the softer skin by using sharp edge highlights on the carapace and subtle blending on the skin.

And here are four of his mates who I was working on over the weekend.

The raiders are going to have to wait until the weekend before I can airbrush them but hopefully I will get a chance to do a bit more work on these guys throughout the week.

-Andy.

Dark Eldar raider with wych crew

Here is my raider converted to have wych crew. The gunner was simply swapped for the one from my venom while the pilot was made using parts from the wych kit with the original pilot’s arms. All in all a very simple conversion but one which will tie the model in nicely with the squad it transports.

When kitting out the raider I was inspired by the wych’s background. The codex describes them using their reaver jetbikes as weapons when fighting in the arenas of Commorragh and I thought that they would extend this philosophy to their transports on the battlefield. As such I have given it all kinds of aggressive upgrades such as chain snares, a shock prow and venom blades (represented by the spiky, thorn-like rails) to encourage me to use it offensively in games.

Hopefully I will get some time to paint this before term starts again next week.

Andy.

Venom crewman

Just a quick update to show the finished gunner who will be glued to the back of the venom when it is finished. As you can see, I have used a Kabalite gunner from the raider kit to build him rather than the wych gunner who comes with the set. This is because I plan on switching them around and using the wych gunner on a raider so that it matches the wych squad it will transport.

Dark Eldar test model

Here is my first completed model for my Dark Eldar army: a test model for the Wych Cult of Strife. Originally she was painted int he red and black colour scheme of the Wych Cult of Domination (see White Dwarf 241) as I wanted my Wych Cult members to have a different colour scheme to the rest of my Dark Eldar. However, the black and red was lacking something and so I repainted the armour green and bronze and added a purple sash.

A close up of the glow effect on the sword:

I have also done a little more work on the venom:

Let me know what you think.

Andy.

Dark Eldar venom WIP

A Hobby Detour

As is so often the case, my hobby plans have shifted slightly. Originally I was planning on allying my Harlequins with a Craftworld Eldar force. However, the brand-new Harlequins really showed up how dated the Eldar range is. Instead ideas started growing in my mind of collecting a Dark Eldar army instead. As luck would have it, the opportunity to purchase a sizeable Dark Eldar army at a significantly discounted price came up via a friend of a friend.

At the moment I am uncertain what colours to use to paint my Harlequin jetbikes; I want them to look like the deep purple jetbikes seen on the cover of White Dwarf but I’m unsure what paints to use to achieve this. As a result, I decided to put the Harlequins on hold and get started with the Dark Eldar instead, using the venom I assembled earlier as a test model.

The model is painted in the colours of the Kabal of the Black Heart. It was primed black before being given a basecoat using Incubi Darkness spray paint. Highlights of Kabalite Green were airbrushed on. The panel lines were shaded with Nuln Oil and a subtle edge highlight of Kabailte Green was applied (although they are hard to see in the photo). The next step will be to add further highlights using Sybarite Green before painting the details.

-Andy.