Showcase: Farseer

Another showcase from my growing Eldar army today, in the shape of my farseer. Of the several different makes of farseer that GW make, this one has got to be my favourite. The pose and flow of the model is just plain gorgeous, and it was a real treat to paint.
In particular, I wanted to try to refine my blending techniques, and to try out a technique for painting crystal weapons that I found in White Dwarf a few months ago. Here's a brief rundown on painting the model, starting from a black basecoat:
The white sections of the robe started with a coat of Astronomican Grey, followed by a thinned down wash of Badab Black. This was then highlighted with a layer of Fortress Grey, before two thin coats of Skull White were applied. The red waistband and wrist banding were painted in Red Gore, then highlighted in four stages by adding increasing amounts of Elf Flesh to the first colour. This was then finished with a wash of Leviathan Purple, to add depth to the colour, and a good deep set of shading.
The black sections were highlighted with a 50/50 mix of Codex Grey and Chaos Black around the edges, followed by Codex Grey, then Fortress Grey, each stage getting progressively thinner. These sections were then given a coat of Badab Black, to combine the highlights.
The green cloak was tricky. I started with a coat of thrakka Green, to get a nice deep shade in the cloak recesses. I then layered on Dark Angels Green, then blended on about seven more layers, through steadily lighter mixes of Dark Angels and Snot Green, until the most raised edges were highlighted in pure Snot Green. A fun tip for blending is to tie the layers together visually by going slightly lighter than you normally would, then tying the whole shebang together with a wash of the darkest colour, very VERY thinned down into a glaze... foundation paints aren't great for this, though, so the glaze was Dark Angels Green.
The crystal blade technique is fairly tricky, but soooo worth the effort... it goes something like this: start with a coat of 50/50 Hawk Turquoise and Space Wolf Grey. Each time the object you are painting changes aspect or facet, the colour will alternate between light and dark... see the photos below for an idea on what I mean. So pick where the 'light' on your model is coming from, and highlight accordingly. For the dark sections, add a small amount of Regal Blue to the original mix, and blend it toward the centre of the dark sections. With each stage, add more Regal, until you get pure Regal Blue in the very centres of each 'lowlight'.
For the light sections, first start by increasing the amount of Space Wolves Grey, until you have pure Space Wolves Grey; use this to hard-edge highlight the very edges of the item you are painting, too. Then start highlighting further, adding small amounts of Skull White each time, until the final highlight is pure Skull White. Finally, add small reflective stripes to the dark sections of the item; again, see the pics below... they aren't amazing, but as always they're the best of a bad bunch :)
All comments are welcome, as ever. Hope you like the pics.
~MyBlueOblivion

Showcase: Avatar of Khaine

Second in my Eldar showcase is my Avatar of Khaine. Almost as soon as Forgeworld released this larger, updated version, I knew I had to have one; it's a gorgeous remake of a classic model. Having one to hand for my army is also very thematic, as Biel-tan seem to field these combat monsters as a matter of course.
First things first, I decided that such a gorgeous model needed a bit more work on its base than I'd normally go for... that said, I'm taking the Eldar up to what I call 'showcase standard', so its geting a lot more work than a normal playing army overall. After building the Avatar, I first added one of the small Isha statuettes from the Dire Avengers kit. This looked a bit odd standing on its own, so I struck on the idea of it being part of a larger ruin. Some carefully applied Green Stuff later, and I'd sculpted a kind of ruined 'step' onto one side of the base. It looks a little like the Avatar just stepped down from it, so maybe it's the edge of a part-ruined webway portal... or something like that! I then added a resin Space Wolf icon from the scenic basing kit - those kits are brilliant, and for the price you pay contain a tonne of bits - and I couldn't help having a dig at my brother's Wolves :).
The paint scheme was started from a white basecoat, which is a bit unusual for me as I prefer starting with Chaos Black. The cracks and rents over the model's body were painted first, starting with Blazing Orange, blending upward through Golden Yellow to Sunburst Yellow, then to Skull White in the deepest parts of the model... kind of 'reverse highlighting'.
The raised sections of armour started with a coat of Scab Red, then was blended through Red Gore to Blood Red towards the plate edges. A fine line of Blazing Orange was then added to the edges of each plate, before a thinned down wash in 50/50 Baal Red and Devlan Mud.
Originally, the Wailing Doom (the beasty's sword) was painted in a Charadon Granite-based scheme. Just recently, though, while painting my army's Farseer, I came across a fun painting article in White Dwarf... it's in the Beastmen release article, if you fancy a look. I liked the effect on the Farseer so much, that I decided to try it out on the Avatar. The end result is striking, and actually lightens up the colour scheme of the model.
Lastly, the hieroglyphic markings on the Avatar's - Horns? Antlers? - and the glyphs on his loincloth were painted on freehand. Again, it's advisable to mark out where your icon is going, to make it easier to keep the symbol neat; myself, I just go for it. In the end, go with whatever you feel most comfortable with, but don't be afraid to push the envelope... you won't know what you can do until you try!
~MyBlueOblivion

Showcase: Warp Spiders

Just to prove that the blog isn't dead, it's time for some new posts, this time from my growing Eldar army :)
First up is my Warp Spiders squad, including my converted exarch. The five of them were good fun to paint; I've always enjoyed painting red, and as that is the main colour for this particular Aspect, it was a bit of a treat.
The colour scheme starts with Mechrite Red, which is then layered up through Scab Red to Blood Red. Edge highlights were added in Blazing Orange, then the armour was washed in a mix of Baal Red and Devlan Mud. The weapon muzzles were painted in Dark Angels Green, slowly blended up through Snot Green to 50/50 Snot Green and Skull White. A final spot of Skull White was put in the centre of each section; this was then washed quite heavily with Thrakka Green wash, leaving the weapon looking like it is glowing.
To make the squad stand out a little, I decided to paint an individual 'spider web' pattern onto each of their jump packs in Skull White. The trick to this is combining a steady hand with properly thinned paint; too thin, and the white won't cover properly, too thick and it looks like the spiders drew the motiffs on in crayon! If you want to try something like this, I would suggest following the advice seen in a recent White Dwarf. Mark out roughly where you want the pattern to go, or even draw it out on paper before you start.
I did none of the above, of course, but then I didn't get the title FlashGit for nothing :) I hope to add more spiders to the squad at some future date, but for now, the squad looks nice as it is, methinks.
~MyBlueOblivion

Showcase: Chapter Master Lazerian

This is one of my older projects, an Imperial Fists Chapter Master. Lazerian was done as a commission piece, one of several done for the Tempus Fugitives 'Age of Apostacy' campaign weekend a few years back. The Fugitives were operating out of our local GW at the time (a few of them still are), and when the campaign weekend went into its planning stages it was decided that they wanted a set of special character models that could be used at different points during the weekend. Some of the veterans at the store were asked if they would like to model and paint these characters, and I was lucky enough to be asked to do two of them; Chapter Master Lazerian, of the Imperial Fists chapter, and Gaius Walkenen, commander of the Dimmamar PDF... I may post pics of him at a later date.
As a base for the model, I used the gorgeous Captain Lysander model... it's one of those hero models that's just a joy to paint. To the basic kit I added a banner and power fist from the plastic terminator kit, and a ForgeWorld rhino door (with appropriate logo, obviously!).
Now, this was painted in the pre-foundation paints era, so approaching the yellow armour was something of a challenge for me (it's not an easy colour, I wanted it to look as good as possible). I tried a technique I found in GW's How To Paint Citadel Miniatures... basically, you water down the paint with ink instead of water. This allows you to thin the paint, while not losing any of the pigmentation. I started with Golden Yellow, mixed with red and yellow inks, before highlighting with first Golden Yellow/Yellow Ink, then Sunburst Yellow/Yellow Ink. Bleached Bone was added for the later highlight stages.
The marble effect on the shield is tricky, but with practice has become one of my signiature painting effects. I start with Fortress Grey, then paint over this in four or five stages, adding more Skull White with each layer, until the mix is almost pure Skull White... start with thick bands, leaving thinner stripes of Fortress Grey in between, then highlight each of those thicker segments of colour in increasingly narrow strips (if that makes sense?). Once that's done, I add very thin 'veins', running in roughly the same direction as the striping; these are a mixture of Fortress Grey and Enchanted Blue. Finally, a very thin glaze of Skull White is applied to the whole surface. There are probably much easier ways, but it works for me!
Enjoy the pics, any and all comments are welcome!
~MyBlueOblivion

Dark Elf showcase: Black Dragon

Hi guys!
Here we have another showcase article from Virus' extensive Dark Elf army, this time a converted Lord on Black Dragon.
When the latest edition of High Elf dragon kit hit the shelves, Virus couldn't help himself... he just had to have one. And, in typical FlashGitz style, he's converted the kit extensively. The pics here (the only legible ones from the batch we took - ~Blue) show the work done quite well, we think.
Every part of this comes from the original kit; that is to say, nothing extra was added to make it more 'Dark Elf'-ish. The pillar of rock that the beast is perched on was the first thing to get changed, with expert application of a hobby saw and some green stuff for filler. The dragon itself was then repositioned; every 1/2 inch or so the main body was cut, from neck to tail. The body was bent forward to the desired position, then the gaps were filled, again with green stuff.
The a standard cigarette lighter was used to heat the wings, allowing them to bent inward and into a more 'swooping' position; be very careful if you try to do this kind of thing at home. Fire's dangerous to start with, and plastic will melt very quickly if you get it too hot!
Virus used parts from the Dragon Mage and Lord segments of the kit to make his rider, cutting and changing axe to make it look more menacing. Then, he used spare bits to make the dead Swordmaster on the base... very grim indeed.
On the painting front, Virus decided to go with a dark blue colour, rather than the more traditional black/grey that GW tends to go with... nonetheless, the finished article is striking, and looks terrific on the tabletop. Virus doesn't use it very often, preferring to use a Lord either on a Cold One or a chariot, and instead only rolls out the dragon for larger games.
Hope you enjoy the pics... more coming soon!
~The FlashGitz