11/10/2005

All The Little Toy Soldiers

I've decided to write up a little rundown of all the stuff I'm currently working on. Ok... well... not "little", per se... but here it is nonetheless. See all those models lined up on my painting station thingie?

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That's what I'm working on. I've just recently begun to realize that, yes, I have a lot of Guardians in my army and that's a good thing... but they're all quite boring and the same. I painted them up very quickly when I got them so that I could get them on the table... all the same. I've decided that I want new Guardians to add to the lot and I want them to look good and unique and interesting. Like a lot of Eldar players, I took notice of the snazzy Wood Elf model line from GW and, like a lot of other Eldar players, I brainstormed how I could somehow add them to my own army. I took a look at the recent White Dwarf Canadian Supplement and saw some (okay, one) interesting idea for merging the Archers with Guardians. I'm going to make the best of that idea and see if I can't add some character to my militia. Here's step one:

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You also might know that I'm working on my Epic army and a while back I acquired a Cobra superheavy. I've been using that Wraithbone technique I keep talking about, and it's half finished... but here's what we've got nonetheless:

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The rest of the Epic army is going to be in my hands in maybe two weeks or so, and while I'm not sure I'm going to just go mental painting it all at once, I am looking very much forward to laying them all out on a table and looking at them and going "Oooooo! Nice!"

More Wraithbone: I picked up a bunch of Wraithguard from a friend who just wasn't using them. I have a strange relationship with Wraithguard in the sense that I like the models a lot, but hate most of the paintjobs people do. I am struggling now to make sure that I do a paintjob I can live with, because when Wraithguard are done nicely they look awesome. Does this one look awesome? I dunno. Once I've done the highlighting and touch-ups and the base, I might be bold enough to call it "competent".

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The other problem I have is that I'm not a huge fan of Wraithguard in the game. The gun they carry has a rather short range, their mobility isn't very impressive and their points value is rather high for what they do. Now that I have a "finished" Eldar army, painting up units like this is something of a luxury but, hey... I like luxury.

A new development in the Games Workshop world has inspired me to reconsider a new project: Their Lord Of The Rings line is no longer "hands-off" when it comes to conversions. You can now mix and match with other games from the GW line with impunity, play those models in the stores and do whatever you wish (so long as it's no displayed in the store window). This is told to me by a GW employee, so I'll assume it's true. Ok, so a while back I got me some of the Elves from the LotR product line because I fell in love with the sword-swinging models with banded armor. I am now picking up my plan again to start trying to turn them into Storm Guardians. Honestly, though? I don't know if this is going to go so well; the scale is way off, they lack the Guardian "look", they lack the Shuriken Pistol modeled (and it wouldn't be easy to add it) and I don't like the way the blue is going on. Nevertheless... here's a pic of a primed elf with a few strokes of Regal Blue:

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Not long ago, I mentioned a competition I've undertaken against Bill, and I did start working on the Farseer in question. I was unhappy with it (particularly the yellow) and tossed him into a pot of Simple Green where he has stayed for the last week. I finally pulled him out (and the paint slipped right off, which was nice), hand-primed him and took this pic:

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You might also remember the Wraithlord I've been working on. I've actually pulled it apart and rebuilt it twice... and that sorta sucks because I simply can't get the left arm (the one with the upturned hand) to attach to the shoulder firmly. I use Green Stuff, but it always seems to dry too rubbery (rubberily?) to hold the weight of the metal properly and, frankly, I can tell that one bump will knock the arm clear off. The other problem I'm having is that even if the Green Stuff does do the job, it looks like a wad of chewed bubblegum crammed into his armpit. Observe:

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Alright, so obviously that doesn't look so good. Instead, I've cut a piece of thin plastic tubing, filled it with Green Stuff, put a pin on both sides of the socket and glued away. It's drying now.

Note, by the way, how I've also washed the Wraithlord body with brown ink and how much better it looks nice compared to the pre-washed version.

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The Wraithlord's face is nearly done, though. He now has gems, Wraithbone, and some script/runes/designs with Regal Blue. I've also done a thing where I made runes with black paint, painted a thinner white line inside, then painted over that with yellow paint. I think I can honestly say that I'm not capable of painting smaller or finer lines than what you see down near the Wraithlord's chin.

The rest of the Wraithlord and the Wraithguard as well will all have various runes and markings on them which are similar to the Wraithlord's face.

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Just for fun (and for the sake of making this post longer than it already is), I'm going to compare this list to the last time I made a list of stuff that needs working on.
The Battle Of Macragge: Marines and their doo-dads (like the cannister thingie); Basing all the infantry nicely; Marine scenery (the Tyranid scenery is done). Not only completed, but sold since then.

Battlefleet Gothic: Four Shadowrunners, one Wraithship and Yriel's Flagship. No further ahead in any way, shape or form.

Dark Eldar: Sold the whole lot.

Eldar: About 40 Fire Dragons. Done! Swooping Hawks that need to be properly mounted and have their paint jobs finished. Uhh... nada. Some Grav Platforms that need work. Also nada. Overall touchup of scratches and chips. Several Heavy Weapons that need finishing (magnets installed and painted properly). Did that. Then there's the Scorpion, which needs a whole lot more paintin'. Well, a little bit here and there. Planning to do a good chunk of it on Friday.

Tau army: Got it, but it's sitting in a box for now.

Man. I haven't done nearly as much as I thought I would. Heh... I suck. :)

1 comment:

Kirith Kodachi said...

Wow, lots on the go and the wraithguard and wraithlord look awesome. And love the epic tank in there. Woot!