Topic: Blazinghand's Blue Craftworld Eldar

[Blazinghand]

In the realms of modelling and painting, I'm somewhat of a beginner, but I have big ambitions: many magnetized and painted aspect warriors and hover tanks! I'll post what I'm working on here.

Most recently, I've succeeded in magnetizing the turret of my Falcon hover tank.



The turrets now can change out with each other and retain the ability to rotate! The Night Spinner turret is still in progress painting-wise, but the magnetization and assembly are done. I still have to figure out what to do with the rear hatch, since in the case of a Night Spinner or Fire Prism, the rear hatch is supposed to be sealed. I may try to find a way to have a detachable fuel cell or Eldar doodad over the door there as is on the normal model.

I've also been working on this Fire Dragon Exarch:



A little less impressive, but I want to be able to take him with different loadouts. These days, the Dragon's Breath Flamer is pretty good, but I may want him using a Firepike (if they make it stronger) or a Fusion Gun (if I can find a bit for it) once the Codex comes out. Since Fire Dragons for the most part don't have wargear options, I might as well make the Exarch as customizable as I can.

Next on deck for me is finishing my Wave Serpent hulls, and a big Autarch conversion project. I have a spare DA Exarch and a lot of bits that I hope to make into a Swooping Hawk Wing Autarch. Or, if I'm feeling very ambitious, a Swooping Hawk Wing / Warp Jump Generator / Foot Autarch with magnetization. I have some Dark Eldar Scourge wings I want to try to use as the wings for the Autarch, which would look really great.

[magenb]

The Autarch is the only elder infantry I've been game to magnetize, even then it was just the back pack options, way too thin for my liking  . nice to see some other options


The feather Scourge wings would look sweeeeet on an Autarch.

[dog_of_war]

Great job magnetizing the exarch. The only eldar models I've had the guts to magbetize are the wraithlords. I'm impressed you were able to do so with such slender models as magenb suggested.

Scourge wings are stellar. I replaced all of my swooping hawks wings with the scourge bird wings and they work so well. Looking forward to seeing what you do next.

[Cavalier]

Nice! Love the GIF's too thats sweet. Magnetizing is always worth it. I just magnetized up a bunch of options for my Serpents. The Dragon Exarch is impressive. Thats really small model to work with and drilling into the metal isn't easy. Props man, looking forward to more

[Ynneadwraith]

Awesome work being primarily on the art side of things i've never even considered magnetising so it always impresses me, especially as other people have said with a model so slender.

What's the paint scheme?

[Blazinghand]

I worked on basing this weekend. My old metal Wraithguard are still walking around on 25mm bases, making them very unstable and top-heavy. So, I decided to make 5 new 40mm bases for them, as well as upgrading an old 40mm base for a weapons platform.

First, I brushed a 1:1 mixture of white glue and water onto the bases. Then I dipped them into a bowl with a mixture of sand and chopped up wine corks, and pulled them out. After drying, I tapped them a bit to get the excess sand off, and I added a couple more pieces of cork with some glue to make them look good.


The image with the legs on it is for my Autarch, who is still in progress. I'll post photos of him when I'm done.

Next, I primed the bases grey. Then, I laid down a basecoat of Mechanicus Standard Grey. After that dried, I added a bit more texture and filled in some blank spots (and added some texture to the rocks) using Astrogranite texture paint. Next, I highlighted by drybrushing the raised bits and sand with Administratum Grey to make the sand and upraised texture pop.



Lastly, I washed with Nuln Oil to make the cracks and recesses visible.



Other than a bit of touch-up, these are now done! My Wraithguard and weapons platform will soon be rolling onto the battlefield in style.

[Saim-Dann]

Wow, Blazinghand!
From the magnetizing to the gifs, then onto the basing. Very, very nice. Showing some serious skills there, mate. Thanks for the inspiration... Be well!

[dog_of_war]

Looking great. Thanks for the step-by-step tutorial. It was very informative.

[Blazinghand]

In my latest project, I have been magnetizing my Wraithguard (new plastic ones) and my Support Weapon Batteries (old metal ones). The Wraithguard are still a work in progress, but I have magnetized one support weapon. Watch me swap out this Shadow Weaver for a Vibrocannon!



Pretty nifty. I'll be able to play with both of them and decide which I like better, or which fits my army the best. The D-cannons are still being stripped of paint, but they will be magnetized as well.

[Saim-Dann]

G'day BH's!
Magic stuff, mate. Another lefty? Sign of a truly creative genius... Be well!

[Blazinghand]

Here are those bases I made a while ago, now with Wraithguard attached:



Still need to figure out highlights on the body and gems, and what to do about the heads (my thin layers of white aren't working out too well). I may try a layer of light gray, then another layer of white and leave it at that.

[Saim-Dann]

Looking good Blazinghands!
Doesn't even have to be light grey, mate. Just a smidgen of black to the white so that it still looks white will do.

We did the same when signwriting sooooo many years ago. If we didn't have enough white. We'd just add a dash of black to thicken it up a bit. Nobody noticed.

[Cavalier]

Hey Blazinghand. I got a super easy fix for those heads. Just use Celestra Grey. Its seriously amazing. Its super light grey that goes on like a dream. I use it for EVERYTHING. If you pop over to my project log you'll see I used it on the wings of my Corsair, but if you go back through the thread... everything thats painted white started out with Celestra Grey. A lot of times I dont even bring the Celestra up to white because it reads as white visually just by contrast alone. Seriously give it a go its amazing.

You could also use Russ Grey to highlight the bodies. Thats another favorite color of mine. It'll give your guys a nice ghostly vibe with the shades of grey.

Anyway man looking good, keep it up just a bit more and these guys will look real nice. And trust me get Celestra Grey!

[Blazinghand]

So I still haven't given the white heads a try, but I have gotten to work on a squad of Dire Avengers that have been kicking around the garage for nearly 10 years now:



Still need to do gems, highlights, and of course the Exarch's head. I stopped by the store to pick up some flesh colors and will take a crack at things tonight. Still deciding what transfers should go on the flag!

[Saim-Dann]

G'day Blazinghand!
Paint-the-flag, paint-the-flag!!
You've got the skills and the eye, mate. With such a large surface, give it a crack.   

[Ynneadwraith]

Hell yeah paint the flag freehand is actually really quite fun, and eldar runes are a good way to ease yourself into it.

One of the tricks I find to getting things to look crisp and the same thickness is to do a first pass painting the rune on, and then go back over the edges where necessary with the base colour.

[Blazinghand]

Hmm, I'll give that flag a try when I get the chance. I've actually been doing some work on my Autarch. A history of his pieces:

Legs: Dark Eldar Wyche legs
Torso: Eldar Dire Avenger Exarch torso
Head: Eldar Dire Avenger Exarch helmet (though I may change this for an un-helmeted head)
Wings: Dark Eldar Scourge wings (not yet attached)
Pauldrons: Wraithblade shoulders
Left Arm: Dire Avenger Exarch pointing hand with shuriken pistol mounted on wrist. Shuriken pistol clipped off, Forceshield from Wraithblade added in its place

So, a lot of work coming from various sources went into this! Today's story, however, is about the right arm. The new rules for the Eldar Autarch on foot (which this will be, with the Faolchu's Wing relic to be the rules for his wings) has a weapon called the spar-glaive. I originally planned to model this with a Dire Avenger Exarch power glaive arm, but a power glaive is a pretty wimpy weapon compared to a spar-glaive. How can I model the more powerful spar-glaive?

It actually turned out to be pretty easy. I took a ghostsword from an Eldar Wraithblade, cut the blade off of it, and put it in the place of the blade from the Dire Avenger power glaive.



I used these little alligator clip guys to hold it in place while the glue dried. That's a pretty big glaive! Compared to the old power glaive, it's huge:



Here's how the Autarch is looking with the new weapon:




So at this point I consider most of the conversion and modeling work done. I may want to find a way to get his right leg to look more armored, but I might just put a grenade belt there and call it a day. I still need to get a basecoat down on the arms and shoulders, basecoat the helmet (or find an unhelmed head and paint that), another basecoat on the legs, then do all the more detail-oriented painting. Once I'm done painting the model I will attach the (separately painted) wings.

[Saim-Dann]

Wow, Blazinghand!
There's a lot of work there, mate. Looking blessed nice so far. Are you pinning these pieces or just gluing them?... Pointy ears forever!!

[Blazinghand]

I was hoping just to rely on glue, but things to seem a bit wobbly, including where the one foot from the wyche legs touch the ground. not sure what to do with that. Attaching the scourge wings might uh, balance him back a bit to even things out, but stability and good connections are a concern.

[Saim-Dann]

Definitely start pinning, mate. When the odd model of mine falls off the table, they just bounce and everything is still in place.