PeteB's new nu-Eldar

If you've been following the blog for any length of time you may recall long time gaming buddy PeteB is a bit of a 'faction' butterfly. I think since I first met him he may well have gone through 7 or 8 armies to my one! After Blog Wars 8 he went and offloaded his Space Wolves and had been hobby sober up until my birthday when, having witnessed the crazy antics of my 40k @ 40 bash, promptly fell off the wagon and jumped headfirst back in to his first love - Eldar.

Given, how my own progress is a little slow I asked him where he was at, because he paints like a fiend and manages to achieve really good results in such a short time. So he sent me though a bundle of pictures with a little bit of text to explain his colour scheme and is army list, which is frankly filthy and I'm sure I'll not look forward to facing it in the future ;)  Anyway, there's loads of pics with a bit of text so I'll hand you over to PeteB hisself:

 Eldar (again!!!)

Colour scheme, same as space wolves (ish)

Guns and helmets sprayed with humbrol matt undercoat (no 34), rest of models undercoated with the fang, then drybrushed with russ grey, then drybrushed with fenrisium grey. Final highlight with etherium blue.

 

Fire prism has magnetised turret

Wave serpents have magnetised turret.

Wraithknight arms magnetised for transport.

Suncannon/sword wraithknight has magnetised shoulder weapon mounts, and magnetised r arm to swap weapons.

    

    

List for blog wars should be

Illic Nightspear

Fire dragons (5)

Fire dragons (5)

Dire avengers (5)

Dire avengers (5)

Rangers, either 1 squad of 10 or 2 squads of 5

Wraithknight with suncannon / scattershield

Wraithknight with heavy wraithcannon

Fire prism

4 wave serpents for dragons and avengers

Where's my head at?

Well, as you can see I'm actually back on the Dark Angels but progress is incredibly slow. I'm observing a slight derivation of my lack of mojo in that I really, really want to paint these models but just don't have the energy. In part it has to do with the fact my left arm is in constant pain. The spinal disc that is squishing the nerves in my neck, the same one that stopped me doing kendo, which forced me to come back to the hobby, has decided to flare up again. So my attitude sucks a bit and it's not helping me sleep so I'm more tired, which doesn't necessarily stop me from staying up late but it doesn't motivate me to stay up painting. It's not the whole reason but it's part of it.

But, I really want to get my Dark Angels up to strength and have a game with them. With some of my birthday vouchers I'm looking to get the Dark Vengeance Expansion and that should give me some fun options to play with. Even the Nephilim Jet Fighter, which is pretty rubbish in game terms will be fun. However, as much as I have that desire, I kind of need some hobby viagra to get me going. I'm pottering on, doing a little bit here and there but not making best use of my time. Once again it's also crippling indecision that is causing my hobby impotence. I really can't get my head round how I want to paint some of these bits.

And also, there are so many fiddly little bits that fall outside of my usual 'recipe' so that when I do make a decision I kick myself because the required washes and paint could well have been applied with a similar step three stages prior, which is demoralising too. I did discover I have nine of the Dark Vengeance bikers and six standard Ravenwing so when I get the DV Expansion I'm going to try and make as much as I possibly can from all the bits, hopefully a Command Squad and some Black Knights, get some Plasma guns/pistols to kitbash more Plasma Talons. I'll do the same with the Terminators. I want some Deathwing Knights and I'll use the remaining bits on my Deathstorm Terminators to make them more 'Dark Angel-y'. As I say my enthusiasm is completely there, just no va-va-voom. I have realised though the next step. I need to do the second highlights on the Terminators and also my DV tactical squad. It's a laborious job, but one I know what's required so I may as well do that to feel I'm getting somewhere at least. If then it's only the finishing touches then maybe I'll have come to a decision about those by then.

Meanwhile these sorts of guys where I just can't decide on cloak colours and whatnot, well maybe I'll have an answer to that, I mean my Azrael had his black surcoat chosen about 3 months ago after about 6 months of deliberating. I was going to do his main cloak red, because I've had good results on that [hence the Tactical Sergeant in red] but have decide it's either green outside/red inside or bone outside/red inside...

However, I'm not sure how evident progress will be and as much as I want to be blogging and keeping updates flowing, guess what? Yeah, that's being a bit difficult too. But it's blogposts like these that I imagine aren't the greatest to read for you are probably some of the most important as it helps me process the crazy elements of my addiction.. There's no reason why my hobby shouldn't be fun, if it isn't why do it? But equally there's no guarantee that it has to be fun and right now there are elements making it less so and that's made even more frustrating by my desire to do it - Catch 22! With a bit of luck I'll get over this soon and hopefullyget some decent progress and finished models under my belt.

Meanwhile, further to Greg and Marc's discussion on the 'black toxic slime' my Malanthrope is exuding I give you the sort of effect I was hoping to replicate.

My brother shared this on Facebook recently, it's the inside of an Audi TT v6 engine. It had done 86,000 miles without a service, when they recommend one every 18,000.

I'm not entirely sure this clarifies what I've done but this is definitely the sort of gunk I was trying to create.

I think even my ratty Nissan Micra has a better engine than this!

'nids part 167 - Malanthrope - TO DONE!

Another model finished! It's almost as if I have some mojo back! Well, almost. Anyway the Malanthrope is done.

I actually lost my patience with this part way through, all those sacks and tentacles became a real chore so I splashed on the toxic glow effects and although the end result is scrappy in some places the gore and gloss slime actually makes the model for me, so I'm actually really happy.

The base has also come alive thank to the black dead toxic slime that is left in the wake of the Malanthrope. Sure it's another effect I've just thrown into the mix but it makes things interesting, the base was so empty it needed something to 'liven' it up or at least break up the orange.

I really like how the acrylic rod almost disappear in this I'll probably Photoshop some of these to remove it. I kind of wish I could make some 'toxic miasma' somehow but I'm not sure if stuffing fluff, the sort use din most flickering smoke clouds is the effect I'm after.

Still, I may have a play around at a later date, see what effects I can come up with.

I actually photographed this outside, it was a lovely sunny day, hence the super bright colours and crisp shadow.

I do wonder if I should have put more pure white highlights in the centre of the vents...

I do think this guy is very creepy, his eyes are tiny, which made me think there wouldn't be much character in him but there is something disturbing about him.

You can see here just how scrappy I was with the painting but with all the Tamiya Clear Red X-27 and gloss effects applied I may well have been more disappointed if I'd put tons of effort into getting it just right only to cover it in gore! So the right choice I think.

I even managed to get some of the pure Bahama Blue showing through, more recently this has been totally covered up by the Soft and Strong Tone washes applied. 

You can definitely see my brush control on the striations is worse. I got some new brushes but I know it's just lack of patience. 

And bottom line it's done and I think back to those days in my parents loft when I'd spend forever not getting anything painted only to see Liam churn out army after army. Now I've got an army [and more] painted and it's coming to terms with what is achievable within my ability and I'm happy with the result, despite it;s imperfections. 

Now to add some more black gunk to the base I applied some of Anita's 3D Dimensional Paint. It's a glossy black and you can paint thin line with it. I've used it on something before but I forget what. Here I added some to the base and to the the bottom of the Malanthrope, the little drippy spikes. This shows that it's coating everything around it in a life killing ooze.

I did the same with the Venomthrope, although that was added after I photographed it properly.

The glossy black 3D paint was added in stripes over black paint and then coated with gloss varnish. I then added yet more Vernidas gloss varnish.

The whole thing had to look like it was turning everything into a dead black organic sludge. Which is odd considering I've got reclamation pits that are both yellow and toxic green, it's almost as if I'm making all this up as I'm going along!

Well, it's considerably better with it black and at least it allows the Barbed Strangler 'eruption' to actually stand out. When it was all red planet based it just disappeared now it actually look like it has a purpose - what that is I don't know but it kind of makes sense.

So, here's the Red Stamp of Approval! Another model NOT on my To Do List but once again it's nice to have completed something when things have been actually quite hard, hobby-wise. Now lets look at those Dark Angels again!