Andrea's Space elf warriors (or Guardians, as modern people use to say) - APRIL

 Hi OWACErs,

I am back after the March pause... thinks started running since (every) February: work duties intensifies, child-related stuff multiply (sport tournaments, school trips, etc etc) and so all the time saved before was rapidly consumed.

BUT...

But this time I managed to hold the ground and here we are with the April monthly quota: some Space Elf warriors (still have some difficulty in calling them Guardians, being Rogue Trader era miniatures)

Ten guys, a per OWAC rules, although I planned to make more... I will finish them for the next month (the second "Leader month") and for the moment I will enjoy the freshly painted ones! Among them, one of my favourite Eldar miniature: the commander with the demon face helmet. It always hits my mind as it looks clearly evil, with his terrifying aspect, but belonging to a good-aligned (or so it is assumed) faction. It looks like some samurai helmet masks which were crafted as a demonic face:  I never investigated more (perhaps it is time to do it) but maybe that was the inspiration?

There is also another think that hits me during the painting, something that for some reason I never noticed before. Here is the first squad:

Well, beside demon-mask and the guy with flamer on the back, which were both released as part of the command squad (1988), the other three are clad in a full-covering armour with some reinforcements to the legs (look the guy on the right and the two guys on the left): this kind of amour cannot be found in any other space elf warrior. This three guys were first released in the late 1987 along with others that made my second squad:

These wear a plates armour over the iconic chainmail which will be the distinctive mark of early 2nd edition guardians, especially those serving at the heavy weapon platforms.  

I am now wondering the meaning of this difference: I mean, my first though was that those with reinforced armour carry some heavy weapons so it is reasonable they wear such an armour. Though, one of them just carry the shuriken catapult as the others with chainmail & plates armour. Were them just random figure? Or was there some basic idea was knowledge has been lost (or just I did not investigated enough)?

Anyway, this is why I decided to paint the armour slightly differently, the first with yellow shoulder pads, while the other in full blue-grey. And no... no black stripes on helmets, as long ago, after too many tentatives gone wrong I decided they are better without!

Well, since it was nominated and in case you are asking yourself (I know you want to know), yes I have also the command squad! I only painted them about one year ago:

The Space Elves command squad, here with two commanders, a standard bearer and a musician (how fucking 80s' could be an harpist in a sci-fi far future, eh!)

Ok, so this month is 10 warriors (guardians) therefore they are worth 110 points.

Next month will be the Farseer month and, maybe, some extra!

ciao, A

Andrea's Space Elves - Month 2, Leader month: the Avatar(s) of Khaine

 Hi OWACERs,

here is my leader for the Leader month: the Avatar of Khaine!

It is the first time I paint this incarnation of the Avatar, having already painted the NewHammer one, and I never used in the battle. Honestly, I wasn't a fan of the model but after this month I can say it is really funny to paint. Unfortunately the model was a little ruined in some details, especially the gems, so it was not completely satisfactory but I liked the exercise of blending the colours to give the fiery aspect. Overall, I am happy with the result.

Well, short after finishing I though that this was the good moment to slap some paints on another model. If the 2nd edition Avatar looks badass, and the 9th edition one looks like the overgrown brother, there is another one that is so much badass-looking that he could sell chunks of badassery at the fish market: the Rogue Trader incarnation!

We say, in Italy, that in the little barrel there is the best wine. Well, I think this is exactly the case!

So, know I have (except for the side track of ForgeWorld ones) all official Avatars, that could help me start an old project: EvolHammer, or how miniature design changed over time (one day I will publish a blog on this). So, I can't keep myself and I have show you the series (Parental Advisory, heresy inside: NewHammer models will appear):

Someone says "scale creep"? The son, the father and the grandfather

And so, for the sake of army points painted, here we have:

The Avatar of Khaine (Leader)........... 300 pts

Well, thank you for looking and see you the next March!

ciao, Andrea 

Warriors from the Craftworld - Andrea's Space Elves - January rank & File

 

Hi All, 

here is my first entry: Wraithguards! 

These are something I never painted before (contrary to the rest of the Eldar, which I already painted some 20 years ago, and then sold for getting Preatorian Imperial Guards... uhm... which I sold a few years ago to get Eldar again!). 

So here they are, and I hope you like them as much as I am satisfied to finally see them done!

There are not much paints from Heavy Metal studio about them, likely because they were issued  after the Codex did, except for the classical Ulthwé color scheme.  Though, my craftworld is Alaitoc which is quite well known in ModernHammer but less common in the days of the 2nd edition.

So I have followed the paint scheme of my other constructs, like the Dreadnought and the War Walker I painted a few years ago.

Next are the Howling Banshees. These are one of my favourite Aspect Warrior unit, probably my most favourite! The picture below is taken from the WH40K rulebook and it was the first time I saw Banshees. 

That colour scheme remained in my mind and I wanted to (re)reproduce it. This also include the Exarch having a different color scheme, which in the 2nd edition make sense as, being heroes, they were not really part of the squad (and they could be selected even if the squad of the same temple is not).

I am really happy to have them painted (again): it was a real pleasure to paint them, the sculpt and the definition of these pieces is so sharp that make the painting very simple and smooth!

So, here is what I achieved this month:

5 Wraithguards....................... 175 pts

4 Howling Banshees............... 108 pts

1 Howling Banshees Exarch...   62 pts

Total........................................ 345 pts

Now I just need to decide what to do next: another rank and file, or the leader? We will se next month!

ciao, A

Space Elves! Intro post - Andrea

 Hi OWACers,

I am Andrea and I going to [continue] painting the Eldar!

This is what, among all things I hoarded in the last years, will be my new challenge:

The family picture of my OWAC9 challenge

But let me introduce myself: I am a happy 50yo guy from Italy, introduced to the Warhammer world in the middle 90s. Started with Warhammer Fantasy 4th ed, later I included also the WH40K 2nd edition; ooooh, great days where those days!

This is not my first OWAC, as I successfully concluded my challenges in OWAC1, 2, and 3... well, then I started the OWAC5 but fell in the field of bone (I dared to paint the Space Wolves: I love and hate them)

My past [successful] OWACs!

So, this year is WH40K again but, this time, with my old good space pointy ears! The list, following the 2nd edition codex:

                                            Unit                                       points

                                            Avatar of Khaine                    300

                                            Farseer                            170

                                            Exarch Howling Banshee      62

                                            Guardian Squad (x6)              66

                                            Guardian Squad (x6)              66

                                            Howling Banshee (x4)           108

                                            Wraithguards (x5)            175

                                            Dreadnought War Demon    160

                                            Wave Serpent                         150

                                            Scatter Laser platform             59                                            

                                            D-cannon platform              55

                                            Total                                     1349

The idea is to give justice to most of my remaining Eldar miniature and to give rise to a small force to properly play Rogue Trader. As you can see there are still many units from 2nd edition: let's say they are useful to get the proper amount of pieces for the challenge, and they will be a due addition to my 2nd edition Eldar army. 

Oh, artwork! As an aspirant Rogue Trader player, I just took one of the wonderful illustrations of that time, which was one of the pictures that hits my imagination the first time I come into contact to sci-fi Warhammer:

For some reason (who knows what I was thinking about in that moment), bases decoration pattern of previously painted RT and 2nd edition Eldar does not match, so it is likely that bases will be a bit different.

OK, let's have a closer look to units which will be (more or less) organized in:

Two leader/monster months 

Two rank&file months (1: two guardian squads; 2: Wraithguards and Banshees)

One Veichle month

(do I said I am loving 3d printing?)

Extra stuff month

That's all, I think, for the moment. Of course, there is more to paint than I presented here but anything more will be surprise ;-)

Good luck to all challenger, may we all finish our goals!

ciao, Andrea

ZeroTwentythree's April Eldar - Journey to the Field of Bones (0 pts)

March-April Eldar: Journey to the Field of Bones

Unfortunately Real Life issues have become too much and I have not had time to paint in March or April. I used my Wildcard slot to cover for April, but still haven't caught up.

Here's what I had been working on...

Kitbashed Zoat Terror Squad

Piscean Warriors aka Saharduin aka Fishman 1 & 2 from Knightmare Miniatures

I didn't even complete the sculpting on the Zoats.

My meagre totals this year:

Rank & File

Scout Squad                         82 pts

Scout Squad                         82 pts

War-Cry Dreadnought        140 pts

Banshee Dreadnought        160 pts

War Walker                         349 pts !!!

5 Bombots                            50 pts

Bonus

Scout Champion              21.5 pts

Farseer                          426.5 pts

Terrain                                 0 pts

T.B.D. Spirit Warrior           0 pts

War Walker Pilot                 0 pts

Terrain                                 0 pts

OWAC VIII Total          1,311 pts

ZeroTwentythree's February Eldar - Rank & File (699pts)

February Eldar:  Bombots, Dreads, War Walker (Rank & File - The Heavies)

The OWAC IV phase of the pirate crew focused heavily on regular troops. This time around I'm still painting rank & file, but focusing on support troops & heavies.

So here we have two Rogue Trader dreadnoughts, a Banshee & a War Cry. I definitely wanted to paint a Banshee as that was the model I had in my original Space Elf force back in the day.

War walker. I decided to go with the same purple as on the support weapon platforms & crew. Speaking of crew, I like the idea of having some dismounted crew figures, so I looked through the infantry bits and got as close as I could to the model on the walker. In hindsight, I should have tried sculpting the hair to match. I added a bit of green on both models to break up all the purple.

As I was prepping for this year's challenge, I saw something in the list that had previously escaped my notice:

Bombots! OK, so there were never any actual figures. I gave it some thought and decided to kitbash some hover-bombots. I got some little plastic craft eggs, carefully cut them up, added some sheet styrene fins, little Eldar gems (Eldar love gems...) with greenstuff, and a bit of wire. I don't think they turned out too bad. I had hoped to convert a bombot "handler" but wasn't able to settle on a conversion, but maybe they will appear in a future month's entry.

I also had one old Epic dread that came in a package with some other Eldar stuff for the OWAC4 project. I thought I would paint it up as yet another (small) spirit warrior; build out to be determined.

Lastly, some bonus material.

Continuing my plan for the Grav-Attack Ranch, I made a quick & sloppy, second model. I need to get some cheap putty to finish the base before priming the new one.

Inspired by the power field walls I did in January, I had a couple of other related ideas for personal or portable power field barriers. One is like a personal power field. A "power mantlet"? The other is like a portable field fortification, inspired by the ability of sappers to build field fortifications in WFB 3rd ed. I'm not sure what the plastic end bits are, or even what kit they come from. Something much newer.

Shown here with (previously painted) Kev, for scale.

So my first two months were the sneaky and the heavy support troops. The next few months will involve some more vanilla troops & weapon platforms, weird aliens, and heroes. I think I'll save the heroes for the end. So that narrows it down a little.

Rank & File

War-Cry Dreadnought        140 pts

Banshee Dreadnought        160 pts

War Walker                         349 pts !!!

5 Bombots                            50 pts

Bonus

T.B.D. Spirit Warrior           0 pts

War Walker Pilot                 0 pts

Terrain                                 0 pts

February Total                  699 pts

OWAC VIII Total          1,311 pts

Byron's Pirate Eldar- The Wave Serpent of Aedysseil - Rank and File month (240 pts)

 Life has been a tad hectic this first month (doesn't bode well, I know) as I transitioned from sculpting dwarves to painting Eldar. So my offering for this month is fairly limited, just one big vehicle. 

This is the Wave Serpent of Aedysseil. As I explained in my intro post it is a hybrid between the early Eldar Wave serpent and a later Dark Eldar Raider. In the best traditions of Rogue Trader it has been made from found objects - Marbles, chessmen, bottles, cardboard, lego rubber treads etc.

Primed

Combining the themes of Warhammer Fantasy references in my Space Fleet and Greek inspiration I freehanded the Isha Rune from the 5th edition High Elf army book on the prow. I hope that it comes across like the Greek eyes at the front of triremes. 

This picture is to show off my basing a bit. I made an elongated hexagonal base for the Wave Serpent to match the bases used for the minis. Also, to make it look like it was hovering, I stole some Jenga blocks from my kids and glued them on the bottom. I then put some painted cotton balls underneath to look like wind getting kicked up. 

This is a pic for scale. The vehicle is way too big. 

Points

Wave Serpent (grav attack tank, with increased capacity, swapped weapons for a single las cannon, -2 damage, and only a 6+ save.) = 240 pts 

Fixing up a book

I had an additional project related to my army this month, fixing up an old Rogue Trader book. I got this copy of the Book of the Astronomican for $20 off Facebook. It's in rough shape - no good for learning about the Pirate Eldar of Olde.

Assessing the Damage

Here are some pics to take stock of the damage.

Spine falling apart.

Lots of wear and tear

Gluing the Pages Back in

   With so many pages falling out I will need to reglue the pages in.

Here I am applying the glue to the back of the pages. I use a comic book bag between the pages to prevent any spreading glue from accidentally gluing the pages together. 

Brush to smooth out the glue.

Lining up comic book bag

Placing the book atop another baggy so it doesn't accidentally stick to the surface

Baggy on top

Weight to make sure it dries flat.

Marking up the worn pages

The next step I took sharpies of various colors to color over the white areas where the book was worn. This isn't going to result in a perfect restoration of the book, far from it, but it makes the white wear less immediately noticeable. Finally, I put a strip of packaging tape along the spine and the leading edge of the front and back pages. I have kids and I've found this makes the pages less susceptible to creases and further wear.

Final Comparison