Topic: Iyanden Wraithlist painting blog + modelling questions.

[vonny]

Hello everyone,

I was pointed towards this forum to post up some of my more recent work and to ask the community for some advice on my current and upcoming projects.

My biggest love in 40k are the Tyranids. Now, that may be a strange way to start a topic on eldar, but ever since I got to know their background (pretty soon after I started playing them) I toyed with the idea of an Iyanden army. I loved the story of how Iyanden, once the largest of craftworlds, had been brought low and now had to fight for survival using the most desperate of measures. While there was a seperate codex with special rules for the various craftworlds back then, I was still hard at work painting up my tyranids (a task that never ends) and couldn't spare the time or money to start an Eldar army.

Now, with the Iyanden supplement, plastic wraithguard, and the ghost army deal last christmas, and a birthday soon after, I figured this might be THE moment to get into the eldar. And, as it turns out, it was. Even though, looking through the forum, that I might come off as bandwagoning a bit. :S

Anyway, first off, my first unit. In an attempt to make the army as edition-proof as possible I magnetized the arms so I can still make them with swords too - but I haven't assembled or painted the other set of arms yet.



In the middle you see an unofficial squad leader. I made this just for some visual interest and to tie it in with the family trees of Iyanden without having to freehand that on all of the models.



Close up of this leader. Not sure if I want the iyanden symbol to stay white, or make the flame or the whole symbol yellow.

Next on the project list are 3 seperate things: A spiritseer representing Ayanna Arianal with the spear of Tuethlas

(I wanted it to look a bit more impressive than the normal singing spears)
As its obviously from a farseer kit, I will need to build the spiritseers customary warpvanes on the back myself. I've seen photo's of the official spiritseer model, and it looks as if there's a whole apparatus sitting on the back. Is this just for modelling convenience, or is this actually supported in the fluff somewhere? Is there anything I should keep in mind when building my own set?

I'm also currently trying to build a wraithlord, but in my quest to edition-proof the models I want all the weapons interchangeable. However, the magnets I have (2mm) seem slightly too large, and all the tutorials I've found on the internet indeed use either 1.5mm magnets (which I can't find anywhere on the internet) or pins only. I'm afraid that with pins only the weapons will wobble a bit on their mounts, or worse - fall off - during gaming. Have any of your magnetized the options, and how did you go about that? Have any tips or tricks I could borrow?

Anyway, hope you like it.

[Irisado]

I can't help with the modelling questions, but I hope that you'll update this blog with your painted units as you go, because they're very impressive.  Your use of yellow is particularly well done in my opinion, as it's a notoriously difficult colour to work with.

The freehand work is also impressive.  Keep up the good work.

[Chrysalis]

Your wraithguards look very nice, and I can't wait to see the other miniatures of your project. The spear of Tuethlas looks particularly promising!

Concerning the wraithlord, I have two, and both have magnetized weapons. I used 2mm magnets, and it was very easy to place them. Just cut off the little bar underneath the weapon that you're supposed to use to place the weapon. This way you have a flat and quite large area to make a hole and place your magnet. As for the magnet on the wraithlord himself, just fill with green stuff the slot where you were supposed to glue the "bar" of the weapon. Once the green stuff has hardened, make a hole and put a magnet instead. Now you can switch whatever weapon you want! (I hope I was clear, it's not easy to describe).

I'm used to get my magnets at:

http://www.supermagnete.com

Their shipping fees are quite expensive, so be sure to make a large order with your friends. But they have magnets of all sorts and sizes!

[vonny]

Well, I did warn you painting would be slow! Still, I wanted to show some wip updates.

Painting was slow, mainly because after Chrysalis' suggestions I did venture building my wraithlord. It's now completely done except for one thing: I'm not sure where and if I want to hang tabards off of its frame. So, having spent a lot of time building that, I eventually ended up not being able to start painting it. So I went on building something else, for which painting has started - the first wraithguard unit:


please keep in mind that this is a quick snap shot taken late at night, and the quality is bad. Also, for future readers: Once the unit is completely finished I'll likely remove the wip shots. So scroll down to see it:)

I'm still pondering what to do with the loincloth of the squad leader, though I have some ideas. I also have no idea yet on how I want to paint the... 'tubes'? from the elbow to the weapon. Not shown on the pic, but being painted along: the D-scythes.
Again, some minor conversions to the unofficial squad leader to set it apart.

also, a bit more work has been done on the HQ choice:


it was quite difficult to get the braid to feel in line with the flowing motion in the clothes of the rest of the model. also, the dark eldar head I used seemed incoherently small for the model, I hope this will be solved when I undercoat it and you don't see the difference between the plastic and the greenstuff anymore. All I need to do for this one is to fancy up the base and create the warp vanes on the back that spiritseers have. Any suggestions on how to do that would be most welcome.

If you're worried about the quality of my hair-sculpting skills, I would gladly point you towards this link

[Cavalier]

This army looks phenomenal! I love the patterns on the Wraithguard helms they came out fantastic, especially on the WG at the end of your last post. The hair sculpt looks really good too! Can't wait to see what you do with a Wraithknight. Keep up the fantastic work this is a great project!

[vonny]

Thanks cavalier. Your corsair eldar are always very inspiring to look at

those patterns are my attempts at painting on the house crests as found in the iyanden supplement.

[Cavalier]

I though I recognized those crests... and please you didn't "attempt" to reproduce them- you nailed it perfectly! Thanks for the compliments too.

[vonny]

aaand they're done.

Well, apart from the spiritrune on which I'm still undecided.

[Irisado]

Superb.  They are incredibly detailed, and you've done a great job with the colours.

What sort of spirit rune are you thinking of adding?

[vonny]

well, all the wraithbone construct models have this spirit rune/seal/thing? I forgot the name at the moment. The wraithguard/blades have it in the middle of their chest, and I want to give it some attention. But I just don't know what yet.

Thanks for the compliments!

[Irisado]

I see what you're referring to now .  You could just leave it as it is, but if you want to paint it a different colour, then perhaps just stick with the blue which you've used for the helms?  That would seem like the most logical choice to me.

[Cavalier]

These came out fantastic. Cheers on a really dreamy Iyanden scheme... super execution as well. Looking forward to seeing more.

[vonny]

Ok, so, at the end of august I'll be house sitting for my parent's house and cat for two weeks. Without access to a 'proper' computer, I won't be gaming as usual in my free time, and next to taking walks in the, admittedly, nice enviroment and perhaps watching a movie or two, I plan to do some painting.

To the end, I constructed and primed the next phase of my army:



See you in september

[Cavalier]

Hell yeah! I love the poses on the Wraithlords can't wait to see these guys finished. BTW according to the updated FAQ's there is nothing stopping an Eldar player from coming out of a Dark Eldar webway portal... so if you are looking for a delivery system for those Wraithlords... just sayin 

[vonny]

ok, so I didn't get to paint as much as I had hoped. Still, progress!

you'll have to be patient a tad longer though

Edit:

Well, the wraithblade's blades aren't really finished yet, but the wraithlords have been waiting for a photoshoot here on my desk for a while, so I figured I'd clear my desk up a bit and show you the results!

Here's the first wraithlord:


And here's the second one:


Both can be equipped with a variety of weapons...


...including the ghostglaives:


This of course inevitably leads to the following two options - One who seems to need to get an extra attack for his pistol/ccw combination, and one who looks like the average FPS player character should.


So what do you guys think?

[vonny]

And after finishing my wraithlords recently (see post above) I also finished the alternative weapon option for the wraithblade unit I had finished first of all.

[Grizzlykin]

Man i'm so jalous ! your army looks so cool >< the pose are great on the wraithlord and the paint are so nice!  awesome work !

[Alienscar]

I agree with everything that grizlykin said. It does make me feel slightly jealous seeing such a well painted and detailed army. Also the amount of work that you have put in makes me feel lazy. Did you just use your 2mm magnets in the end or did you end up buying new smaller ones?

[vonny]

hey guys.

Thanks for the compliments!
 As for the poses on the wraithlords: I actually spent a lot of time working on poses, as I didn't want the magnetizability of the models get in the way of dynamic and cool posing. The posing always comes first for me, because that's what makes them - it's hard to keep the different weapons on though, as the starcannons have a very different profile as the others on the back end.
I ended up using the 2mm magnets, greenstuffing the slots up first as someone recommended. I only did one pair at the front of the weapon slot - the back is actually a simple pin to keep the weapon positioned well.

[Cavalier]

Ah man the Wraitblades look fantastic Vonny! The blending on the blades is great, and the work on the helmets is simply top-notch. I just used my Wraitblades (with axes) for the first time and they successfully got into combat without taking any losses... though we had to call the game before we got to resolve combat (though my Autarch racked up some kills with his Soulshrive). Keep up the great work Vonny they look phenomenal!