Wraithlord... finished!

Well, at last some progress. While painting my Wave Serpents, I made a break and started painting something else, and the Wraithlord happened to be laying around. That's something very usual in my painting schedules: I simply don't respect them too much. Luckily, this time I've managed to finish this model before jumping to a different one. The fact that it has just taken me four days has helped, indeed.

The model had been assembled for over a year (yes, I know, shame on me). I made some minor conversions on it: cutted and replaced the leg to give an illusion of movement (as if it were actually walking or "advancing"), and also modelled some "lightnings" on the wraithsword (a personal signature in several of my models). I was strongly inspired by Jamie's miniature on Coolminiornot, as I stated in a post over a year ago.

For the paintjob I used the very same techniques I had applied on the rest of my army: stippling of different blues with bone as the contrast colour, and details in red (spirit stones). Additionally, I tried something different with the wraithsword (which has no actual effect in gaming terms): I didn't want something too striking as the sword was just a detail and not the focal point of the model, while at the same time I wanted to get something somehow eye-catching. So I decided for a turquoise colour (which is blue-ish after all, as most of the model) and painted some reflections on the blade. I think I've succeeded, and I'm really happy with the result.

It's not completely finished, the base needs a few more washes and a bit of grass, and I want to paint a couple of white stripes somewhere (my usual army markings), but who knows when will I do it...

Ok, enough chatting, it's time for some pics. A little Photoshop et voilà. Hope you like them!

Painting for dummies – easy OSL

While working my eldar vehicles, I had to make a decision when it came to paint the cockpit and the pilot. You know, it is a well detailed part of the model, but it will be rather obscured once its cover has been glued on place. Besides, being that cover made out of plastic (and not true glass, which is more transparent), the painting below won’t be really appreciable, and that is really a pity.

So instead of painting it “normally”, I decided to think of a quick and effective way to bring it out with a minimal effort, and I came with the idea of an easy OSL (Object Source Lighting) effect suppossed to be caused by the glow of the screen in front of the pilot. I painted it in less than five minutes and using only five colours (Chaos Black, Dark Angels Green, Snot Green, Scorpion Green and Skull White).

So here’s the recipe:

• Paint the whole cockpit Chaos Black
• Drybrush it all heavily with Dark Angels Green
• Drybrush it again with Snot Green, not so heavily and concentrating mainly on the areas in which the ligh coming from the screen would fall most (front of the face, chest and inner arms)
• Drybrush it lightly with Scorpion Green in the main focal areas of light impact (front of the face and hands)
• Paint the screen Snot Green
• Paint some lines (references or axis) and dots (objectives or enemies) in the screen with Scorpion Green
• Paint the center of the dots with a mixture of Scorpion Green and Skull White to bring them out

Et voila! The cockpit is done and ready for action. Fear the Serpent, mon-keigh!

Update - Tyranid Prime

Those last weeks I've been busy with lots of things at the same time: exams, job interviews, family... and regarding the hobby, I've been working on lots of projects (all at the same time): imperial guard commissions, my eldars (I have two serpents half-finished already hehe), Space Hulk, my GD project, Blood Bowl... and of course my tyranids.

Even though I'm not pleased with the last changes made to the army, I like my bugs too much to simply put them in the shelves and forget them. I've managed to design a 1.000 point list that will require minimum additions to my current army. This will allow me to keep playing small games with them while I finish the rest of my projects and feel like working more seriously with Tyranids again.

For the list I need:

- Two Hive Guards: great minis indeed, but a real pain to assemble. I will say it again: a real PAIN. The arms and legs didn't fit well in their holes and I had to pin most of them and use loads of greenstuff (greystuff in my case, as I'm using now super sculpey). That took me lots of hours, and even a phonecall to my local GW store just for the sake of complaining. Eventually I got both properly assembled, this afternoon I'll base them and tomorrow they'll be primed.

- One Trygon: no comments on this, simply a great mini with great rules and a relatively low price. Already assembled and primed, I have to paint it - I estimate between 6-8 hours.

- One Tyranid Prime: hah, there is no specific model for this bug. I suppose that GW wants us to get creative for the moment, and although I'm not too fond of self-made conversions - strange for a tyranid player, ins't it? - I picked the glove up and started thinking...

First, I wanted a close combat oriented leader, with a main role of "character killer", so twin boneswords were an obvious choice, and I decided to complement them with a pair of scything talons (because those are cool and came for free). I also decided to give him toxin sacks to maximize the chances of causing a wound (watch out Wraithlords out there!) and nothing else, so I could use it as a dangerous and at the same time cheap model.

Once the main options of the model were chosen, came the period of innovative design. I wanted it to stand out among other warriors, but didn't know very well how to do so if it was going to share most parts (arms, legs, torso...) with them. Then I read an article on the GW webpage and I found the solution. But that meant using lots of pieces and spending a considerable amount of money, unless...

... unless I could take advantage of some models I had laying here and there, and at the same time order some bits from one of those online stores that trade with GW kits (thanks Bits & Kits UK for that), and look for something special on e-bay. So I took my old Death Leaper - got it a couple of years ago, when the model appeared for the first time, and had only primed it - and chopped its arms and head, so I could use its legs and torso (with the plus of a cool looking stinging tail). Then I ordered a couple of scything talons and a head from the Ravener kit, because they are bigger and more vicious-looking than the ones in the Warrior kit, and the head has side mandibles and those look great too. And for extra armor, I gathered a couple of armor plates and toxin sack upgrades from my own bit box (full of different biomorphs after years of collecting nids).

And then I arrived to the most delicate point of my conversion: the boneswords. I had simply no idea of how to do them, and was thinking on doing something similar to this (thanks Bigred from BOLS) when while having a look on e-bay I found a perfect solution: a bet on some old plastic Tyranid Warriors from the Space Hulk set... that I won! I simply cut the hands with boneswords and attached them to the typical deathspitter set, adding to the arm with the weapon the back piece of its counterpart to make them more balanced. And tada! The model was finished!




I'll prime it tomorrow with the Hive Guards so I'll have it ready for painting... hope I'll manage to have it ready for gaming in no more than a couple of weeks!

YouTube rocks

Too funny not to post it XD

Thoughts and planning

New year, new focus, new codex. As a dedicated tyranid player, I’ve waiting eagerly the release of the new codex for the last months. Now I have it in my hands, and I’m completely puzzled!

This is definitely not a revision of the army but a completely new and different one, that will demand a different scope and of course a change in mentality for all the hive minds all over the world. Now the carnifex is not a good bargain, but the new trygon is, as well as the zoanthrophes. Warriors change completely, the tyrant is both a close combat monster and a point sucker; and how many new units are there in the book?

Woah, this is gonna need time to analyse properly (that’s not neccesarily bad) and of course, big changes in my army list (and that is bad). I’m not sure what I’m going to do with my five ‘fexes, and I’ll need one or two trygons, and a new carrying case, and probably convert some tervigons, and...

Man, too much work for an army I had already completed (assembled and mostly painted). It’s like starting with it again! That’s not fair, not fair at all. I feel really frustrated.

Mmmmm, frustrated. I don’t like frustration. I always try to change it into a different feeling. What about... challenge? Yeah, challenge will do this time. What about creating a cool new army? That sounds really good... but to tell the truth, I don’t feel like working more with the bugs right now; I’m not excessively motivated...

What about my old (and half-forgotten) eldars? I see a unit of guardians, a vyper and some dire avengers over here... mmm... I have an idea.

Alaitoc is back.

A new year starts

Well, 2010 already. I’ve neglected my blog for too long, for certain reasons that now have been overcome. Let’s make a short summary of the last year in terms of paintjobs finished, so to see my final score for 2009:

- 10 termagants: 10 points
- 16 warriors of Gondor: 16 points
- 2 Leman Russes (commission work): 20 points
- 1 Chimera (commission work): 10 points
- 4 Sentinels (commission work): 20 points
- 20 Imperial Guards (commission work): 20 points
- 1 space marine chaplain (well painted): 5 points
- 3 gnoblars*: 3 points
- 12 Blood Bowl players (lizardmen): 12 points

Plus the 36 points collected previously, this makes a total of...

152 points!

Well, an excellent number, with only one small problem: half of them are commission jobs... Anyway, it’s already a fact that my brushes and I are in good terms again after a lot of years.

Now, objective for 2010: beat this score!

* Presents for some friends, a little of a funny experiment for me. Nice minis to tell the truth :)