"The Avatar's gaze seemed to bore into the very heart of the Eldar warriors, kindling the fire of battlelust there. All fear, all hesitation was burned away by unholy joy and murder lust. The killing power within them stirred in answer to the being's call. A cry of pure exultation was torn from Karhedron's throat. It mingled with the great roar of the entire army."
I'd have liked to save the Avatar till the end, but due to holidays I only had a couple of weeks' painting time so it made sense to make April my Leader month. I found this terrifying god-incarnate to be the best and also hardest model I've painted so far - I wanted to make him look like he was made from molten iron, so he had to be dark red with yellow in the hottest parts, but the process of painting lighter colours rather than the usual shades into the crevices took some getting used to.
Next, I patched up a 3rd ed Farseer (whose arms I'd previously stolen for another Farseer conversion) with bits of plastic arm and high elf banner pole, and mounted him on a Vyper which I was able to pick up fairly cheaply as it was missing its turret. I'll have to count him as a Warlock Master as I already have one Farseer for this army.
Lastly, I painted up an Assassin-class Ghost Warrior. This lovely Rogue-trader era model was the very, very generous gift of fellow OWACer Graeme. In the lore, Ghost warriors were, like Dreadnoughts, machines powered by the souls of dead Eldar. However, unlike the looming, powerful Dreadnoughts, they are small and stealthy, fitted with energy shields and built of a material that hides them from sensors, and so they act as infiltrators, assassins and saboteurs. They disappeared in 2nd ed, and so for points I'll count it as a Harlequin Solitaire with a refractor field. I used more yellow than usual and a diamond pattern on its arms to make it stand out from other troops and give the idea of harlequin-like stealth fields.
All these characters leave me very short of troops and support, so next month's challenge is to rectify this - I'm aiming to paint my pledged Warlock, squad of Scouts and a War Walker, but also fill out the army with some extra Guardians, Guardian Jetbikes (one of which was another very kind gift from Graeme), a Support Weapon, and a squad of Swooping Hawks if I have time. Then, for the last month, I have plans for some terrain and/or objectives.
April Total: 646 pts
Avatar - 300 pts
Warlock Master, Vyper Jetbike, Singing Spear - 222 pts
Ghost Warrior (Solitaire), 2 Power Fists, Shuriken Catapult, Refractor Field - 124 pts
The molten metal effect is very effective and looks especially nice on the legs. Your bases are also very impressive and make the models look like mini dioramas. Excellent work
ReplyDeleteThree great models there. The Avatar looks fantastic with his liquid metal core and that base really works for him. The Vyper / Warlock conversion is great use of the opportunities provided by "damaged" models, and then the subtlety of the paint job on the Ghost Warrior completes a contrasting trio. Well done!
ReplyDeleteExcellent basing on these bigger models. I'm guessing it's slate? Some extra base weight would come in handy! I have memories of the ol' PVA blood gloop taking FOREVER to do, so nice work. The reverse highlighting looks effextive - especially around that left knee!
ReplyDeleteI've always liked this version of the Avatar and you have definitely conveyed the idea of it being a creature of slowly cooling molten iron!
ReplyDeleteThe Warlock/Farseer on Vyper conversion is simple but very effective and full of character.
I like your idea for how to use the Ghost Warrior in 2nd Ed, and love that it came as gift from the OWAC community! :D