Dire Avenger Exarch

Caught the Eldar bug now for a bit so the Marines and Orks are going to have to wait - here's the Dire Avenger Exarch:

...and on the subject of "what to do next?" - take a gander at the Christmas haul - not too shabby :o)

Dire Avenger

Better clear the backlog of painting before I do the rest of my Christmas presents... there's still an Eldar battleforce on the list, so here's another one for our pointy-eared aloof friends:

Wave Serpent WIP

Not finished, and I'm not quite happy with this yet, but you get the idea:

Guardians complete!

Wow, this having-time-off-work thing is a hoot - miniatures disappearing from the to-do list with alarming speed. Here's the rest of the Altansar guardian squad all done and dusted. I've also a made a start on a Wave Serpent to carry them, but not quite happy enough with that yet for a picture...

Altansar Eldar

These have been languishing in the box for far too long now, so I thought I'd start off by finishing what I started with the guardians. The weapon platform has been posted before, but I've updated the basing to match my marines:

Looks a bit better I think.

Followed this up with a helmet-less squad leader:

I'm quite pleased with the way this guy turned out. Compared with the marines, this is a lighter flesh tone (done with Elf Flesh, washed with ogryn flesh, then highlighted back up with more Elf Flesh, then mixtures of Elf Flesh and Bleached Bone). I actually managed to grow a little patience this time and paint the head and arms separately before assembly. This makes life a lot easier and the paintwork look cleaner.

Blood red used to be my least favourite colour, because it seemed a little thin / transparent. Nowadays it's my favourite colour, precisely because it's a little thin. I'm learning the lesson that in the past I was not diluting my paints enough, and getting a blobby finish. Much better to have thinner paint and use several layers of it to build up to a smoother finish. The Blood Red on the squad leader here is washed with Devlan Mud, then slowly highlighted back up with more Blood Red - just the two colours but it gives a nice smooth burnished look.

These Eldar Guardians are really easy to paint up (I'm really enjoying these - should do more Eldar) so I should get the rest of the squad posted here soon.

Third army underway... Eldar time

Trying to paint your way through an army without losing momentum is quite hard, so how do you make it easier? - well, by starting another army to add to your "to do" list of course! And then when you've got figures in various stages of completion all over your house, what's the best thing to do? - well start ANOTHER army of course! - Yay!

Ahem... well I suppose variety is the spice of life so this way I can flit between different figures as much as my goldfish-like attention span requires. I've started an Eldar force, to add to the Eagle Warriors marines (Whirlwind underway for these guys by the way, pics to follow), and the good old Orks (Black Reach Orks nearly done, got to do those crazy helicopters next).

As best-wife-in-the-world bought Maugan Ra for me, I guess the Altansar craftworld would be appropriate fluff-wise, plus I like the whole gothic / skeletal / angel-of-death type imagery that you could tap into for them. So here we go, Altansar Eldar #1 - I've started with a guardian to try out a purple / red / black colourscheme:

... and here is the (old style) weapons platform and gunners:

I think the purple and red works OK for this squad, but maybe for vehicles and further squads of guardians I might go more purple and black and less red for a more brooding look. By the way, the weapons platform is magnetised, so that the various weapons can be swapped in as required, only got this one painted so far though.