OH NOES! A generic painting log. Mainly Eldar and some CSM.

[RAM_mit]

Oh, well, don't we all love painting logs.
I'm a pathetically slow painter, and I get bored, distracted easily. Yet, I have found, I somehow always return to my Eldar. And many of them are OLD, I mean, they are 12 years old. Well, possibly more old than that, but I entered the hobby exactly 12 years ago!
I don't know how much Eldar stuff I've got. Some of it is painted, and some of that painted stuff should be promptly forgotten forever. It gnaws at me knowing about those terrible, terrible plastic guardians from the mid-nineties, each a clone of its neighbour... them with their chainmail-colored lasguns and that fluorescent, lurid green splattered all over them, for example. But I am Strong. I'm a Survivor. And, most importantly, I have eventually grown into a better painter
After surviving my hatred of 3rd edition, I recently got interested again after years in WH40k, bought an Eldar Codex and started painting and gaming again, and these are the results... I'll post what I have done in the last three months, and I will try to keep this thread alive with anything I'm gonna paint for me, or for my friends, or just for fun. But, mostly, it will be Eldar!

Let's start with the first minis I bought from GW in 5 years... Dark Reapers!



I chose this grayish white over black because I don't dig too much black minis. And after all, white for the Japanese is the color of death too.



This is a close-up of the Exarch. He hates you very much, all of you, but don't you worry, for some reasons when I use him his aim tends to wander quite afield... Well, he hates anyone, he's a bit of an Emo.

[Ornithoticus]

lovely painting, nice to see reapers in a colour other than black

[RAM_mit]

@Ornithoticus
Well, thank you! I think that as a color combination it works pretty well, and it still manages to avoid being unfluffy (I wouldn't dare to be unfluffy ;P)

Here is the next installement... my fire dragons. I stuck to the same colors of the older ones I did in my youth... sadly the older ones are not to par, obviously but I think I can stand that for the time being.


The newer models (still not the REALLY new ones)... those are pretty standard colors... well, they used to be. In the new 'dex, the poor Fire Dragons are painted in a ludicrous lurid orange, with Bad Moon Yellow helmets.


And this is the whole squad, complete with the older models and Fuegan the Melta Maniac. I also would care to say that I still haven't used those guys, since I've played only in Cities of Death scenarios, where heavy cover makes Fire Dragons next to damn useless. And to think that in the fluff they imply that they see most of their use in the fine art of cooking people hiding inside bunkers!

[Ornithoticus]

nice dragons, nice to see the unifying red between the two units youve completed so far

[RAM_mit]

@Ornithothicus
As a matter of fact the unifying red, well, it may be a problem... meaning: I'm starting to think I only know how to do that kind of red!
Since I prime my models black, it's Scab Red -> Red Gore -> Blood Red almost every time... even if I start from a brown or violet/purple base color, it adds up to be this kind of dark, clotting blood kind of red. Which probably is not that bad, given that I'm starting from black.
For the time being, here's a close up of one of my Dragons. Later I'll upload my Banshees, which I finished yesterday!


Had to use the flash for this little guy. I hate using the flash to photograph minis, as it makes them look very very weird. Especially since i don't use NMM and it reflects badly on natural metal paints.

[Boss_Salvage]

Gorgeous Eldar, like the alternative paint sheme on the reapers.


... but I'm waiting for the CSM myself, especially if they're at the same level as these pansy eldar!

- Salvage

[RAM_mit]

And here are my Banshees. I had a whole lot of ideas about how I wanted to paint them, but then I fell on this very simple combination, the same as my Dark Reapers. I may be a traditionalist, but bone and red are definitely the colours of this aspect warriors, and that's it.


My banshee as a group, they should have been 9, but I had already one of them all painted up, and originally I thought about doing them in the same way. I completely changed my mind after a bit of experimenting. I like these ones better


"Don't shoot a' dem until ya see da pale fussy-phorescent green of dem eyes, boyz, or ya'll-UGGH!"


Close up of one of the girls, the best in a bunch of pretty static poses, IMHO. Of course with such a kind of slanting angle the model was pretty top heavy and I had to glue a coin in the underside of the base.

BTW, I never said it aloud, but C/C is very welcome!

[Ornithoticus]

nice painting though im not too sure about the colour scheme, i think banshees might look better with a cleaner whitish bone rather than the one youve done. by that i mean, maybe it needs a couple of highlights

orni

[RAM_mit]

@boss_salvage
Weeeell, the first ones you'll see won't be on the same level at all. I once had a little chaos army which I ended up selling to an old friend. Recently we have been both sucked up back into the hobby, and since he doesn't paint at all I offered to help him out and do him another squad, some havocs. For the time being I will upload a pic of the squad he passed me back, as a color reference. I think I will fix the composition of this old squad too, since I made it some 8 years ago using 2nd ed rules, and it is not legal anymore.

[RAM_mit]

@Ornithoticus: well, yes, I see your point... But I think that it would turn out to be too different from the bone colour of the fusion guns of my Dragons, and the tips and helmets of the Reapers. And to think I already highlighted to 50-50 bleached bone/skul white! Besides, I like moodier colours.

[RAM_mit]

Here are my old chaos space marines, which were sold to a friend.
Those are 9 years old, and at least I can say that I have become a better miniature painter. Well, they aren't HALF bad, but I'm curious to see how the NEW squad I'm painting for that same old friend is going to look! To tell the truth, I'm looking forward to doing some more of these old guys
I had strange tastes back then... purple-red and acid green? Wow! I'd call that color scheme a little weird now, but after all they were a rather Slaaneshi Legion.


"OMG look! Don't you think that our champion looks suspiciously Spacewolfy?"


I'm gonna base them all of course, now that I ain't so lazy anymore. And do something for their composition, they are SO 2nd ed. Two heavy weapons and a special weapon, 2 of them with CC stuff... not very codex anymore!

[Boss_Salvage]

Hotness! Good old skool CSM, and a happy red/green color scheme (if on acid o_O). Are the new guys more 2nd ed. models? That would be sweet to see, but I'm looking forward to your new CSM no matter. Same scheme, or a better take on the same theme?

- Salvage

[RAM_mit]

@Boss-Salvage. As a matter of fact yes, the "new" ones will be as old as these! Some of them older, IIRC. They are fantastic models!
I'll keep the same color scheme, but it will be painted in a cleaner, more efficient way... certainly with less errors and with some of the tecniques I have learned since then. But it's important for the two squads to be paired seamlessy on the battleground!

[RAM_mit]

I am so slooow! Dammit! Well, while I did the bases for the old CSM and after having assembled the new ones, I'm waiting for a windless day to get some primer on them!
In the meanwhile my warp spiders materialized in front of my eyes... they were already primed, well, had been primed for ages really. The exarch is already painted, but in a style that I don't dig anymore (and besides, I suspect that the color I painted him with has been discontinued by GW). So that leaves me with 5 spiders, and no particular restriction in colorscheme. When I think about it, I'm a bit bored about all those Eldar vividly coloured. I wanted to do something subdued, at least as a base color, but to offset it with a bit of vivacity. So I went with Graveyard Earth and Rackham Precious Blue (a total experiment!). This is what it looks like so far... of course, it is WIP.


No, it's not really very fluffy, but I really don't like black, red and white put together.


This pic is particularly crappy. The light source drowns the highlight blending completely. The carapace runs from a Graveyard Earth-Chaos Black 50/50 mix on the lower part to an almost pure Commando Khaki on the top.



This is the first time I post a WIP pic anywhere! Unfinished work always looks like crap to me, especially since I'm such a messy painter. So don't bash my self-esteem, plz
I'm not sure about what colour would be best for the spinner... any suggestion?

[RAM_mit]

Well, I didn't receive much advice! Lol, no matter. Here are some more WIP shots of my Warp Spider (soon to be joined, I dearly hope, by his temple-mates)


Here I did the helmet in Rackham Precious Blue, which reavealed itself for the bitchy, grainy color it is. Still, it is SUCH a vivid hue! I also went for light gray/white for the weapon, totally betraying the idea of making a more subdued Aspect Squad.


Here, I painted some more details, did some metallics, but not too silvery. I know, it's not fashionable anymore to do metallic colors, especially on Eldar where it has no sense at all to weather metal just to make it interesting. Nobody expects rusty Eldar.

[Boss_Salvage]

Like the spider color scheme a lot, for the earth tones of the brown as much as that it's unique and not red. The blue and white look good too ... actually, the blue looks great, nice gradient on the knee pads especially.

- Salvage

[Smokedog]

I looked through this log and fell into depression yesterday becaue they are painted better than I can do...

so after seeing my log, can you give me any tips or give tips to people in general?

Thanks

[AventineCrusader]

I am really digging the scheme on that Warp Spider, not to mention the rest of your stuff (I like the Reapers especially). You may say you didn't succeed in making it subdued, but I have to diagree. If you can paint an Eldar in earth tones and pull it off, more power to you!

I also look forward to seeing those Havocs refitted, I really love seeing garish old 2ed. colours...

Crusader

[RAM_mit]

@all: Thank you, it boosts my resolve to go on
Well, I am very happy with the earth tone, since Graveyard Earth is such a cool color! I admit I had a lot of problems with it, though, since it is terribly watery and with a rather poor quantity of pigment. Then I discovered it comes out beautifully if you paint it over codex gray!
As for the blue... well, I have Rackham to thank for that. You just have to thin them dramatically!

[FearFrost]

Nice work! Good to see another nice eldar blog _