Tuesday, July 3, 2012

First of many Eldar to paint: Eldar Fire Prism

Very proud of myself.  Didn't succumb the gentle, seductive arms of Morpheus.  Started a little bit later than I wanted on my first commission model.  Hell, getting an army out of painting an army for an awesome buddy of mine Shawn is one hell of a motivator.  Dylan, buddy from work, said he has faith in me.  As he said about my painting models "you're a machine."  Though not much of a machine lately.  Damn you pesky undesired naps.  I'll get you yet.  /shakes fist


Shawn's first, and best request, was to use this Reaper paint.  Have to say, Thank you, Shawn!  This stuff is awesome.  Takes a couple of coats to make sure its even.  Its a beautiful blue with a bit of a soft green to it.  Highly suggest it if you're looking for a blue that will stand out.  Please check it our for yourself.  The pics below don't do it justice.

Onto business.  Shawn put all his Eldar together.  Both a blessing and a curse.  He wants me to do his vehicles first.  First vehicle I decided was the Fire Prism.  I have the first version with metal pieces.  While working on this model I have to say I Love the new version of the Fire Prism.  I envy Shawn for putting this model together.  The new pieces are great!

Shawn has given me liberties with how to paint his Eldar.  Decided to paint his Eldar vehicles like I did mine.  Black lines between the panels.  Force a separation of the model to the eye.


As any decent modeller will eventually share.  We cheat.  No 0/3 brush with Chaos Black for me in this stage.  Later yes, not now.  Introducing, Tech Pen.  Which can be picked up at any crafts store /cough Blick /cough.  Pen works like a champ.  It does have problems though.  Which again any cheating modeller will tell you.  The ink doesn't like paint.  It takes a LONG time for it to dry, if ever.  So this is not an ink you want to put on a model where fingers are going to be touching it.  It will smear and you will have black smudges on your fingers and model.  Then you might as well glue a daemonette on it and say its chaos!



The Reaper Master Series Surf Aqua from above is applied to particular parts of the Fire Prism.  Shawn wants this as the main colour for his Craftworld Eldar.  Which you can go one of two ways with.  Bombard the eye with so much the colour they can't help but notice it.  Which may lead to people getting tired of the colour fast.  Or you can subtly use it.  Apply minimal amounts so it actually draws the eye.  Thus people have to look at the model longer to appreciate it.  I went for the latter.  Wasn't sure how to tie in the bi-sect Surf Aqua until I was marking the turret.  Would put the colour in the middle so it is part of a whole instead of making the model look cut in half.


Something I picked up from looking at the pictures of my Canoptek Spyder work.  I pull the camera to far out to get the detail I want.  Well remedied this on this pic.  Close up of two other blues.  We have Lightning Blue, olde GW paint, on the left panel.  Regal Blue for the panels surrounding the intake.  Figured I would keep the majourity of his Craftworld Eldar in Blue and Green.  Same side of the colour wheel.  Don't need anything contrasting for effect or wow'ing for the standard Craftworld.  That will come later for the special models and Aspect warriors.



The sensory array and Buanna are both Chaos Black just like my Falcons and Fire Prism.  Panel on right is Enchanted Blue.  Going to do the same with his vehicles as I did mine.  More and more panels are going to be painted different hues of blue.



For the charging crystal I'm going to do a base of Sunburst Yellow with stippling Blazing Orange in attempt to make it look like a sun or flame.  Turns out the paints had a different and possibly better idea.


Had to put three layers of Sunburst Yellow on the crystal to get the yellow I wanted.  I know silly.  Will cover that soon.  While that dries so I can stipple the Blazing Orange I drybrush Vallejo Brassy Brass for the belly of the skimmer.  Much like animals of flight.  The underside is meant to camouflage with the sky and dorsal side blend with the surface.  This Brassy Brass will receive a coat of Badab Black to tone it down and give it some depth.



The good new is he only has one Fire Prism for me to paint.  The bad news is he only has one Fire Prism for me to paint.  Didn't put a base of Skull White inside the prism before applying Sunburst Yellow.  Was disappointed with myself for not remembering that technique.  Would've saved myself two layers of yellow if I would've remembered to put one layer of white down.  You live, you learn, you get something.


Stippling of Blazing Orange.  Looks horrible!  Which is something I've learned during my 20+ years painting.  You can paint something atrocious and it didn't turn out anything like you intended  You settle with it and let it be.  Be in the moment.  Yet another player looks at it and thinks its awesome.  One mans trash....




Because the yellow and orange teamed up against me I decided to help them out further.  Stippled Sunburst Yellow over the Blazing Orange.  Which is great because my yellow was dying and needed to be resurrected.  I added 5 drops of water to the paint pot and shook it up.  Brought it right back to life.  A bit on the watery side.  Which worked great for purposes.

As I rule I've learned if you have some water paints /cough GW /cough that have dried up and are looking a bit like sludge.  Not cracked clay, sludge.  You can add 10 drops of water if the pot is greater than 50% full 5 drops if less than 50%.  One of our Dark Heresy gamers said he just added "water."  Didn't say how much just stated it as if everyone immediately understand how to restore sludge paints back to life.  This isn't probably the best way to do it.  No doubt someone knows of a better way than I do.  Will say this is serving me nicely so far.  Heard about using airbrush thinner for sludge acrylics.

Now it looks little more like the roiling surface of the sun.


Possibly a better view.



4 hours of work done for the night.  Still have some other things to do before going to bed and my big 5 day funfest.  This girl gets more attention next week.  Maybe even finish her up then.





slainte mhath

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