Topic: Iyanden Wraithlist painting blog + modelling questions.

[Dread]

Very nice, so clean! Great work. I usually don't like the color combo but your yellow has such a pleasing, say glow, to it. The blue is subtle yet brings out the badassery in your paint work. The posing is really nice too, very dynamic.

[vonny]

Thanks Cav and Dread!

@Cavalier the helmets are still the same as those in the the first pictures of this thread - this was just finishing up their magnetized alternative weapon option. But Glad they still stand out!
@Dread I wanted a natural look for the yellow, something that fits what I think of with the word 'wraithbone'. And when I look at the painted eldar in the iyanden supplement, I think they placed far too much blue on those models, tilting the balance away from the blue accentuating the yellow and being far too dominant to still look good. I tried to keep away from that.

I've got my hands on some guardians the other day, and I really like those models. There's a lot of detail on where their armour is actual plating and where it's clothing, and I'm trying to think of a way to use that in painting. I have no idea what color to use for the cloth part though - the blue as I've used it so far would be far too dominant, as would be the black, but I think the bone color I use on bases and weapons would just be confusing - not a color for cloth, but for weapons and bases.

I'm open to suggestions (even if it's "just paint everything yellow")!

[Cavalier]

Lavender or a vibrant pink would look nice. I know its an unusual color choice for 40k models but I think it would look awesome. I actually red a rumor that GW is going to release a whole new batch of pink paints which is nice because they used to have a lot of em back in the day.

[Alienscar]

I think you should use a secondary or tertiary colour based on the two colours you have already used. So mix your blue and yellow to make a green and use this on your cloth. For the tertiary colour mix the green with the yellow or blue to make a blue-green or a yellow-green. This approach means you will end up with a colour scheme that is harmonious.

[vonny]

I had been thinking about pink as a spot color, to be used for the spiritrunes on the wraith constructs and the soulstones on the normal eldar, so your color suggestion isn't all out there. I think it'll clash too much if I use it in such large areas though.
The green is a nice suggestion, but I think it'll get in the way of the current primary and secondary colors already established. Maybe it'll work, but I can't really see it happening.
The more I think about it the more I think I should let the idea of seperate colors slip...

Meanwhile, I've been making progress on my spiritseer. No photo's of it yet, I'm afraid. I made a back warpvane out of some bits from the guardian sprue, and then greenstuffed it on nicely. In the end I decided I had to reposition the head slightly more back to keep a more eldary look (the pose started to be reminiscent of terminators or orcs). As an added bonus, this created more room on the front, creating more space for breasts to be hidden beneath those robes, thus giving a more feminine appearance. All in all, win! Just need to do some touch-up greenstuffing on the hair now.

[Rx8Speed]

I think if you are going to do a separate color armor plate and under clothing you have to go either black and yellow, or just all yellow. It would have to be more like a dark grey than black though

[Dread]

How about al yellow and then use a brown wash to darken the cloth part up.

[vonny]

ok, I think I'm finally done with my spiritseer. I added the warpvane to the back, removed the head from the body again, put it back on, decided the hair needed to be redone so I got all that off (and broke off the head in the process), put the head back on, and started sculpting again. Suffice to say, it took a while. 

So, this is where she stands now, and it's up to my painting skills to make it look good:


I hope better lighting will help as well

A shot of the warpvane, which is hard to see due to the lighting. Also some more impressions of the hair:


As stated before, I tried to keep the hair in the same flow as the robes and the cloth on the spear, so it wouldn't detract from the overall lines of the model. This made me cover up the face a bit more than I'd wanted to, but I can't have everything I guess.

I'm currently keeping myself busy with building some guardians as well. They're beautiful models and a nice kit, though there were two parts in it that I had some difficulty with identifying/imagining a purpose for. Perhaps people who've collected eldar for a longer time know these parts from elsewhere and know what they are?
Specifically the two circled parts in this image:

I reckon the left part is a camera or sensor array to be placed upon one of those shoulder-mounts from the guardian's backpacks, but the right one... I don't know. Do I need to fit it on top of a weapon as a rangefinder, is it some kind of binoculars? Some kind of bomb?
Speaking of bombs, those conical devices that hang from the belts seen here in the left of the image, I think they're the guardian's plasma grenades. Am I right?

[Cavalier]

Oh wow she look AMAZING Vonny. You absolutley nailed it with the flow of the hair... her whole pose is just so breezy and flowing. Great job!

As for those bits... the one in question is a "grenade dropper" from what I've been able to gather. At least thats what they are referred to on ebay. I used them on my Corsair Hawks to represent the Swooping Hawk grenade pack. I truly think that both the "grenade dropper" and the Dark Eldar shredder were both meant to represent something different prior to their release. I think the "grenade dropper" was going to be a special weapons upgrade for Guardian Defenders in 3rd ed, and I'm convinced the DE Shredder was supposed to be a flamer due to the fuel cannister and the nozzel at the end of the gun. Anyway just some crazy theories.

Keep up the great work with that Spiritseer I cannot wait to see her painted. Top-notch modeling Vonny keep it up!

[vonny]

I'm pondering if I should model a helmet on her base to count as the guardian helmet of xellethon when I equip her with it. Or if I should just explain it as "this is Iyanna Arienal, wraithguards instinctively feel they should protect her, she needs no helm for that!"

[Cavalier]

I wouldn't worry about the Helm. I'd just say its a counts-as one of her various runes or trinkets. I do that all the time.

[Irisado]

I think that a helmet would detract from the free flowing feel that you're creating with the sculpt of this character, so I'd leave her as she is.  I'm looking forward to seeing the paint scheme that you come up with .

[vonny]

Wow, that's settled then. Everyone in favor of ditching the helmet!

And Irisado, so am I. I only have a very loose idea on which colors I want where, with most of the ideas having to be formed during the painting... I just hope I come up with something nice

[Dread]

Yup, no helmet. Of course another thing is WYSIWYG at certain tourneys but I don't see that as an issue, since GW doesn't even cater to regular tourney's anymore. Can't wait to see it painted.

[vonny]

Right.

After being a bit disheartened in painting my eldar when I couldn't show them off here, I eventually finished painting my guardians. Lo and behold, not two days later the forum's back up! I should've painted earlier...

in any case, for your viewing pleasure:




meanwhile I'm really stuck on my spiritseer as I want to add the house symbol somewhere nice and large, but it doesn't seem to have any good spot for me to do that on.

[Irisado]

Great to see that this log is still going .  I love how well you paint with yellow, it's really impressive.  If the old wargaming story of well-painted units getting better outcomes on the dice is true, then your Guardians should perform very well on the battlefield on a regular basis .

[Rojopaa]

Really nice painting! I especially like the bright yellow and the freehand stuff. Looking forward to see that spirit seer painted 

[Cavalier]

Back in action! Hey Vonny I didn't see your update before the site went down. Very nice looking! I love the soft blues and the yellows are perfect. Awesome modelling too... I love the Dark Eldar headswap and the bases are amazing too. Can't wait to see what you've been working on... keep up the great work!

[Dread]

Looking good as always but where is the painted pic of your converted spiritseer? I love the bases, wish I woulda thought about using waffles, haha just kidding, I really do like the bases. Bought or homemade? The little details you do on your models, wow.











whisper(spiritseer)whisper

[vonny]

Thank you all for the kind words It's this forum that's keeping me motivated for this army (though having received some tyranids for my birthday, I might just get distracted)

@Irisado: Thank you. Unfortunately so far it seems my reasonably painted models have no luck, and my well-painted models have about enough luck to carry them through the first 4 turns of a game, and then they tank (in 6th I once went from being a potential 13 victory points to 1 ahead in turn 4, to 6-7 behind in turn 5, to 1-12 in turn 6). I'll report back once I've played a game with them all painted up!

@Rojopaa: Thanks. I'm very fond of the yellow (especially considering how easy I find to paint it, as opposed to the yellow on my lamenter space marines), and I'm especially proud of the freehand on the pointing eldar's knee.

@cavalier: Thanks! I got the idea for the dark eldar headswaps from you, so give yourself a pat on the back for that. it's the one with the huge scar over his head, so I had to greenstuff that in, and I wanted something more than just 'the bald one', so I tattoo'd him too.

@dread: Unfortunately, this is as far as I've gotten:
I was originally planning to add the house symbol large on the back of her cloak, but with me placing a wraithvane thing there and the slit that has always been in the back, I can't seem to place it anywhere anymore without it either being off to one side (which offends my preference for balanced aesthetics) or with a slit splitting the symbol, and with Eldar being heavily into symbolism, that seems wildly inappropriate. So... back to the drawing board!

about the bases: Homemade, but I have a friend to thank for that idea. Know those paper doilies that you get under your tea and coffee cups in some restaurants? Those