Big Box of Eldar

Quintet

2009-08-05T20:36:00.001-07:00

First five Bonesingers out of twelve. I tried some alternate basing on the middle one. He's standing on a piece of GW's urban basing kit.

Yriel and Bonesinger

2009-08-01T22:14:00.000-07:00

Here's the completed Yriel (minus static grass... I always varnish before doing static grass) and the first of a group of Bonesingers assembled. That ... thing ... in his right hand is pretty fiddly, and extremely thin on the lower part where it meets the hand.

I might convert one of my own Bonesingers into a Farseer. I think a witchblade in place of the flute thingy would look pretty cool.

Dark Reapers WIP

2009-07-25T22:30:00.000-07:00

These guys are done except for static grass. Man that is a lousy photo.... everything is darker in person and the whites aren't so washed out. They're Reaper "linen white" which matches the box pic pretty well.

I took a look at the army list entry for these guys. They are scary. Really scary.

Maugan Ra WIP

2009-07-25T22:28:00.000-07:00

The gamma on this photo is all wacky. He's really got more bone color in him than pure white. Also the cloth is much darker in person. Aaaanyway, another "by the book" scheme that is turning out good.

Yriel WIP

2009-07-25T22:26:00.000-07:00

Yriel is nearly there. I had a moment of stupidity when I did the eye of Isha on the banner with inverted yellow/black. Oops. Basecoat with Iyandan Darksun and try again.

I tried to get him as close to the book as possible.

Eldrad

2009-07-25T22:24:00.000-07:00

I got the camera out to take some pics. Eldrad here has been done for a while.

Camera > Phone

2009-07-20T07:40:00.000-07:00

Well, once again I can't find my camera. Seriously, this is getting old. All the same I couldn't let a WIP photo get neglected after having put so much work into these guys. They're looking pretty good. Eldrad has been finished for ages, but Maugan Ra and Yriel are finally approaching that stage. Come to think of it I should have photographed Eldrad's cool free hand on his back.

Anyway, take heart. Your minis are coming to life at an accelerating rate.

October to July? Really!?!?

2009-07-14T07:12:00.000-07:00

Okay, I knew it had been a "while" but I didn't realize it had been many months.

Good grief. Hobby ADD.

Anyway, I really, really need to take pics of these guys. Yriel is almost done, and Maugan Ra is looking pretty bony. Dark Reapers are dark. (That sounds like a lolcat, doesn't it. loleldar?)

The sad fact is the more Eldar I paint the more I want to do my own army. I even broke down and bought a single Wraithguard model. He sits alone on the shelf, unassembled and silver. Honestly, I have a hard time seeing myself playing Eldar... I can't make 3+ saves, let alone actually have some tactics that keep fragile T3 guys alive. Maybe that's why I picked a Wraithguard as my first model.... hmmmm. No Iyandan army though... I'm painting him Biel Tan. I just can't resist thorny vines, I guess.

Soo..... by the end of this week I should have some pics! Really!

As to the build-it-fight-it competition, I got smoked. Eldrad rocks, but when your opponent has a full tactical squad of marines, starts < 24" from you and uses his Librarian to teleport the whole squad right in front of your face and rapid fire you down to ZERO models at the beginning of turn 1 then you don't really have much of a fighting chance.

The most interesting battle was the third one, where the last two models of the game were Eldrad and a Space Marine Commander in terminator armor with a thunder hammer. We went round after round, Eldrad slowly eating away at the commanders wounds, while barely making his invulnerable save against the instant death hammer. In the end, with one wound remainging, the marine landed with the hammer and splattered poor Eldrad across the cardboard terrain. Epic.

The Eldrad Distraction

2008-10-29T11:18:00.001-07:00

I know it's out of order, but I painted Eldrad and he looks great (if I may say so.)

It was for a "build it, fight it" event at FLGS. I bought and built a box of Guardians to go with Eldrad, thinking the Starcannon would work well against the many Marines I was bound to face. I got seriously owned in every battle. The worst was the Marine player who teleported right into my face, rapid fired me with every Marine and killed every model I had but Eldrad before I even got to move. Ouch.

The other Marine player got smoked by the Starcannon, but in the end a captain in Terminator armor with a Thunder Hammer was too much for Eldrad. It only takes one invuln miss at S8 to turn the Farseer of Ulthwe into blood paste.

Yriel and Maugan

2008-09-23T09:55:00.001-07:00

I've been painting Yriel and Maugan Ra at lunch, and I'm having a change of heart. I've always liked the Yriel figure, but Maugan Ra never appealed to me much.

Painting him, on the other hand, has changed that.

I like painting bone. My Blood Ravens use a great deal of bone colored detail. Maugan Ra has bone. He has tons of it. The "'eavy Metal" studio model has a very cold palette for the bone. I like a warmer one, and I really like Maugan Ra with the bone scheme.

Priority List

2008-08-22T09:54:00.000-07:00

1. Yriel (like in the codex: black, bone and yellow)
2. Maugan Ra (Uthwe)
3. Dark Reapers (Uthwe)

after those, the priority becomes
1st troops
2nd Elites
3rd Fast Attack
4th Heavy Support
5th HQ

The batch that I am looking at right now is as follows:
2 x Falcon Grav Tank
1 x Wave Serpent
1 x Fire Prism
3 x War Walker
1 x Wraithlord (I would like to do this one extremely high quality using my new GOLDEN DEMON POWERS!!! (sound of thunder).... 100% gems, freehand, etc.)
3 x Vyper (1 in box, 1 on sprue, 1 primed)
7 x Guardian jetbikes (4 partially assembled/primed, 3 on sprue)
8 x Swooping Hawks (one appears to be Exarch)
7 x Warlock w/ sword (1 missing sword... I will convert something for him)
2 x Warlock w/ spear
3 x Farseer
1 x Dark Reaper squad (5 models)
...and that doesn't even empty the big box!

Saga of the Big Box

2008-07-16T05:55:00.000-07:00

More than a year ago I received the big box from a commission customer. I had done two Eldar "army box" sets for him, and he wanted to have more done. A lot more. Over time I was way too slow and had to return all the non-Eldar models that were included (some of which would have been quite fun to paint, but hey you can't have everything.)

This blog will... hopefully... chronicle the box as it approaches empty.