Eldar Corsairs and Exodites

[Gropius]

It's been a while since I last posted any progress in here. Since then I finished university, moved to a new city and got a new job. All that did not leave much time for painting and also kinda killed my enthusiasm for 40k.

But in the last few weeks I got a bit of my mojo back and can now show you at leat a little bit of progress (which -probably- will continue to be very slow):







As You can see I worked a bit on my Wraithguard. They just need some touch ups, a bit of basing and maybe some freehands/transfers. The pictures make the black look a bit flatter than it actually is (at least I think so). I think the blue could be highlighted a bit further, too.

I also tried my hand at some osl for the spirit stones. The idea behind that was to show the difference between the empty stone of the living Eldar and the stones that contain a soul. At the moment I am thinking about what that would mean for Exarchs and Phoenix Lords? Would the stones on their armour still contain the souls of the absorbed wearers or would they be empty as the souls are in the armour itself? Any thoughts on that?

Comments and criticism are welcome.

[Aryllon]

Nice idea with the glowing spiritstones, effect is particularly good on the black guns!
As for freehand / transfers, a bone glyph of some sort on the blue tabards (to break them up a bit) might be all you need. The constructs themselves look cool enough already

[Thewintersoldier]

I really like the Osl it adds something to the overall feel I think of the models. In path of the outcast gav thorpe describes the spirt stones glowing bright when the eldar is in close proximity of chaos/slaanesh. The way you painted yours reminds me of that! I do agree with Aryllon that a glyph on the tabards would really finish them nicely.

[Atia]

nice stuff, realy love your exodit riders keep it up

[Student]

Those wraithguard look great. I really like the glow of the spirit stones.

[Gropius]

Thanks guys. I am going to try some runes /emblem on the tabard. At the moment I am trying to figure out a craftworld rune that looks good and is reasonably easy to paint. Having a decal for it would be nice, too. I am also testing colours for that at the moment. probably bone or something in the red to yellow range, or as an alternative runes in a colour variation of the base colour (light blue on dark blue etc.)

[Gropius]

And here are some work in progress Rangers.







Second picture shows the colour of the cloak better, third picture the colour of the armour.

[Sauragnmon]

Yay, Rangers, the best sniper unit in the game. All the more evil with the Sniper rules, since your precise shots are precise Kills a good ammount of the time.

[Fold]

Great cloaks on the rangers. Very Obi-Wan

I think the spirit stone OSL looks great in most places, especially on the black, but on the bone sometimes is taking on more of the appearance of blood splatter than red glow. Somewhat ironic given whenever I've tried OSL I find it much harder to do on black! E.g. 2nd WL on 3rd pic, the dark red-brown below the stone looks off. Maybe you can adjust those areas using whatever technique you used on the black?

[Gropius]

Yeah, its a bit rough on that one. The problem ist that was painted the same way as the black, but ist just did not work that well on the bone. If you find it easier to do OSL on lighter coulours, fo you have any tips to do that?

Here is a blast from the past. I don't think I've ever shown these. I think they are nearly ten years old and I still like how they look, but I am not yure they fit in my current scheme with all the metal parts. At the very least I have to repaint those bases.

[Fold]

Yeah, its a bit rough on that one. The problem ist that was painted the same way as the black, but ist just did not work that well on the bone. If you find it easier to do OSL on lighter coulours, fo you have any tips to do that?

I have taken to using a glaze medium (from Vallejo) to turn the OSL colour into a transparent glaze and laying the colour using that. This way means you can do all the normal shading and highlighting first and then lay the light colour over the top without having to worry about combining the OSL colour with various shades of base colour (effectively doing the source lighting and normal shading at the same time) which I'm guessing is where it went wrong on that Wraithguard?

The downside is that the glaze approach doesn't have the vibrancy to go over dark colours which is why I'm struggling. Feel free to share back your approach

[Gropius]

I have taken to using a glaze medium (from Vallejo) to turn the OSL colour into a transparent glaze and laying the colour using that. This way means you can do all the normal shading and highlighting first and then lay the light colour over the top without having to worry about combining the OSL colour with various shades of base colour (effectively doing the source lighting and normal shading at the same time) which I'm guessing is where it went wrong on that Wraithguard?

The downside is that the glaze approach doesn't have the vibrancy to go over dark colours which is why I'm struggling. Feel free to share back your approach

In principle I do it exactly the same way. It is probably just a matter of mixing ratio. And on the bone I should have started with a lighter colour for the glaze. Should have probably left away the red layers that I started with on the black and jump straight to the orange/yellow.

Here is a small update on the rangers:





Photobucket somehow totally screwed up the pictures. The are a lot sharper on my dektop. That's quite annoying.

---edit:new pictures. These look a bit better.

[Aryllon]

Nice, love them.
You seem to have gone down the same route as I have; "five Avengers, check, five rangers, check, ok troops done so now I can add all the cool stuff"

[kharandhil]

Impressive painting, I'm always a bit sceptic when I see unpainted conversions only ,but then I saw your painted units and wow, you sure have some skills. Pretty much an all eldar lover like me, except that I don't have any plans to paint my eldar anytime yet.

I'm looking forward to see your dragon riders painted, though I would wait for the new dex. People say it contains rules for them, you might have to convert a little more.

Not a fan of the gems on the wraithguards. You went towards the robot direction rather than the eldar one. It would look good on any other robot ,but not on eldar wraithguards, just doesn't fit the fluff, it's supposed to be a gem, not a light. It's a bit too human to my taste.

[Felwether]

This is just top notch stuff. Very smooth and crisp.

How do you go about painting the black weapons? Boring question I know, but black is probably the colour I struggle with most even after 15+ years of painting!

[andyg2006]

Really clean lines and good detailing (not to mention OSL)...I'm really liking your plog here.

[Gropius]

Question to those who already have the new codex: Are there any depictions of the alternative Exarch weapons, that don't have models, in there? Schematics or paintings with them?

This is just top notch stuff. Very smooth and crisp.

How do you go about painting the black weapons? Boring question I know, but black is probably the colour I struggle with most even after 15+ years of painting!

Thank you. Black really is hard to get right. I am not 100% satisfied how it came out myself but here you go:

1. Basecoat Vallejo Black Grey
2. Wash with mix of 3/3/3/1 Badab Black/thinner/glaze medium/Vallejo Black
3. Highlight with black grey
4. Highlight with mix of Black Grey and Codex Grey
5. as 2.
6. as 4.
7. Highlight with Codex Grey.

Probably a bit too complicated when looking at the end result.


edit:
Here's a wip pic of some old warlocks I am currently patching up.

[Gropius]

update on the warlocks:



Think I have to brake up the large areas of blue a bit. Still trying to figure out a good accentuating coulour. Not sure on the red of the gems either, at least not on all of them. Witch Blades are still a bit boring. Have to do something about that, too.

Some very old Guardians are getting a new coat of paint. Basecoat looks a bit rough in this picture, doesn't it?



And finally a wip pic of Jain Zar. Cast was a bit crappy on the legs, so I took the opportunity to elongate them a bit and also cut down her feet a bit. I'm thinking of doing some work on her hair, but I am not sure I have the green stuff skills to pull that off.



Thoughts and criticism are welcome.

[Spider-pope]

Very nice work on the robes of those Warlocks, really good shading and highlighting.

[kharandhil]

I would add some freehand symbols on the warlocks, their paintjob looks so good, simple, but extremely effective (because the paintjob is that smooth and well done) It's purely a choice, but I think it would greatly improve these warlocks.
It's pretty funny how you painted a whole squad of warlocks in a very short time. It's impressive how well done the black is, simple highlights, but very effective ones. This army is becoming better and better with each squad.