Giant Space Elf War RObot pt5

So. Nearly there.... only got highlights on the gemstones to do, and a bit of gloss varnishing on the shiny bits. And then I will learn to take decent photos and post some proper ones up!

Giant Space Elf War Robot pt4

Didn't get too much done this weekend, lots of RL stuff to do. Like Mother's Day and all that. If I missed that because I was playing with little plastic men, I would have been unpopular to say the least.
Anyway, I did get some stuff done; arms are now fully painted and glued in, the main engines are finished and on, and I did the pauldrons too. All that's left now are the 4 shieldy bits that go round the waist area, and the smaller waist level engines. Then its a coat of  matt varnish and some gloss on the gemstones.
I had a bit of a word with myself about the base too: I think it needs a bit more doing to it; it looks a bit... unfinished somehow. I think it needs to be kept simple to show off the Titan, but it's a bit TOO minimalist at the moment I reckon....

 

 

I did manage to build a couple of his little brothers too. The Wraithseer that I talked about in my last post, and another CC Wraithlord. I like the way they both turned out: but probably the Wraithlord is better posed than the seer. They should both look Ok painted though:

 

The two together:

 

Wraithseer:

 

 

CC Wraithlord:

He needs a bit of green stuff in his joint; I wonder if I can paint these in two weeks....

Time To Tussle with The Tau

So I have another game arranged. Hoorah!! I lost to the dastardly Tau last time, fair and square. I tried out a couple of new units, the Wraithguard and the Shadow Spectres. Mainly because I liked the models. I still like the models, but I had a couple of issues with the Wraithguard not really doing a great deal because they are slowwwwwwwww.....
I'm really taken with the idea of an all-ghost army, so I am going to see if I can get somewhere near that for my 41st Birthday game! And make sushi from the Fishboyz! (Are you listening Morkos? :-) ). So. I've got a wraithseer which isn't assembled yet, and another wraithlord that I chopped the legs up of this week, to see if I could get it to look a bit Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. We'll see.
I liked the scaring effect the Wraithguard had on my most worthy opponent last time, but I want them to MOVE a bit quicker!! I'm hoping that adding Fleet to them with the Wraithseer will make me happy. The cover save reduction power might come in mighty handy too with all the ruins floating about on our table. (They don't actually float you understand, I haven't finished my anti gravity invention yet).
So I have a legless Wraithlord (well, one in a lot of bits anyway), and an unbuilt Wraithseer to get ready in 2 weeks. Not a chance. This may be the first time in a while that I break my self imposed "no paint no play" rule. I reckon I can build them both in that time easy, but paint will be a stretch. Especially as I'm still finishing the Giant Space Elf War Robot off.
So I'm going to try and get the Wraithseer built. The standard pose is a bit static I reckon, so I had a scout round the web for inspiration. Or something to copy if I'm being absolutely honest. And I found this here:

http://www.lounge.belloflostsouls.net/showthread.php?18058-Eldar-Wraithseer-in-practice

It's by a guy called Defenestratus who seems to know his Eldar onions:

Cool pose. I am going to, erm, emulate it I think.

Reckon my list will probably end up something like:

Farseer
Wraithseer

Wraithguard (10)
DA's in a Serpent
Jetbikes (8)

Wraithlord (CC)
Wraithlord (Shooty)

Warp Spiders
Shadow Spectres

Or something like that. I'll probably change it all before then. Or not.


P.S. I got the Tim Divar pic off the internet, but couldn't track down the blog it came from: sorry!!

Rules Rumours Ruminations: Eldar pt2

Just seen these posted here:
http://www.belloflostsouls.net/2013/03/40k-rumors-eldar.html

-New Eldar "large tank" is being worked on (not the same as the new falcon variant)
This does interest me! Love the FW larger tanks, especially the Lynx (one of the coolest tank models GW ever made. Mark said. I agree.). If there was a cheaper option for stuff that looked that good, I'd be in for sure. Maybe it's one of these.... http://apocalypse40k.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/eldar-pegasus-super-heavy-flyer.html

-Guardian/Storm Guardian combo plastic box
 Ok..... Is that just a standard Guardian box with a Storm Guardian sprue thrown in? That costs more? Hope not....

-Guardian jetbikes/Shining Spear combo box
PLEASE let it be the new one in this pic (from http://www.40kforums.com/vb/showthread.php/5675-eldar-jetbike )
 

 

 

 

That really would be cool: I reckon you could make some pretty good jetseer councils from those babies!

Rules Rumours Ruminations: Eldar

These were posted on here:
http://www.belloflostsouls.net/2013/03/faeits-40k-rumor-tarot-eldar-tyranids.html
and came from here originally:
http://natfka.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/eldar-rumors-get-jump-start.html

- Autarchs take Paths. These represent completed paths they have walked and are tied to the various aspects. By taking a path you make the respective aspect warrior a troop choice (the exception are reapers who just become scoring)
This is a really interesting possibility. In my lists, I rarely look at Autarchs as HQ choices because I go for the Farseer plus Council option every time. I'm also looking at a Wraithseer as HQ2 of choice for the effects it can have on Wraithguard. BUT, I have always thought that models like Banshees and Scorpions should be scoring units, as they are essentially specialised troops. If you can take an HQ that allows this to happen, I'm in. Probably. Deep striking death dealing warp jumping Warp Spider scoring troop units? I'll take 5. Surely that won't happen, even Eldar powergamers might see that as a bit overpowered, surely...
I'm not sure it fits Eldar lore exactly either. The Autarch has completed several Paths (hence he's not an Exarch), so to keep internal lore logic true, he should be able to take several Paths and consequently make lots of currently Elite choices into Troop choices?....

- Overall point cost reduction (guardians see it the most, aspect warriors see it the least, but are instead a fair margin better with only a minor cost decrease for two of the schools).
Sounds good to me. I mean, I don't actiually think Guardians are overpriced: they allow me to take a Heavy Weapon for next to nothing after all, but even more point reduction might let me run an Eldar horde of sorts...

- new special rule that influence how howling banshees interact in combat. It's current iteration really makes them feel like glass cannons that are amazing at what they're designed to do.
Please let this one be true. I haven't taken my Ballerinas in a Ballerina Bus since the advent of 6th (only had a couple of games admittedly): my mathhammer makes me think that they would be shredded before they managed to reach anyone with their slinky swords. If that was adjusted in my favour, they would definintely get dusted off and sent out to chop Tau into sushi again.

-Seer councils have brotherhood of psykers (the farseers still cast their own abilities in addition, but two farseers together cast more than 2 farseers separately)
Yup, makes sense in-game and fluff-wise. I hope it applies to Wraithseers too...


- In general, Aspect Warriors are hyper focused and hyper successful if used properly
And that is different because...

- No new Aspects
Not needed. Love my Shadow Spectres!

- 2 new flyers
This is a bit of a funny one. Fluff wise (and in the Skywhatsit Apocalypse formation) all Eldar grav tanks are supposed to be able to fly anyway (they can fly around in outer space and everything). Now whilst I appreciate that tis may prove difficult to implement in-game, and I am very very eager for new models, new special flyers don't seem to fit somehow. They'd better look cool.

- Lots of units get access to skyfire
This does make sense in my most humble. I never understood pre-5th why you weren't allowed to pre-measure. Surely a super-techno race of anciently brilliant space elves would at least have a laser ranger finder that would tell them if something was or wasn't in range. Wouldn't they? It's a bit the same with super-techno tanks made of psychic bones. Surely they should be able to point up and track fast things?

- New tank (on falcon chasis)
Please can it have a D-Cannon? Oh wait. That's a Warp Hunter. Please can it have an AA super laser? Oh wait. That's a Firestorm. Hmmm.... What could it be?...

- Avatar is buffed a lot
How?!? A super-big long range power gun of doom perhaps? Deep Strike? Flying? He's pretty meaty already really. Could do with a bigger model though. Actually. Forge World strikes again.

- Two new special characters
Don't use them much: maybe I should start...

- Exarchs are all really good in duels in different ways
Quite right too.

- Farseers are still awesome psykers
They should me the BEST psykers...

- Warlocks improve deny the witch.
Nice. Except I usually play against psychically-blind Tau...

- Falcon/wave serpent point reduction
I'll take some more then please. Time to clean the airbrush again.

- Way to make some of the craftworld specific lists
I have my own craftworld!! In my mind I mean. I reckon you'd know from NASA by now if I actually did.

- Additional rules for allying with dark eldar
This I do like. I like the idea of them being mortal enemies of each other, except when there is anyone else involved. Then they can gang up on the inferior upstarts and beat the snot out of them. It's like what would happen with China and America if aliens invaded.

- Expanded fluff on the War in HeavenMore fluff is always good.

I'm pretty excited to be honest. Not least because there might be a few new models on the way. 'Bout time...

Giant Space Elf War Robot pt3

So, more progress on the Revenant this weekend. Nowhere near as much as I would have liked though. Airbrushes. What a splendid tool, and what an utter, utter pain in the arse.

No paint came out. Or when it did, it came out in lumps. So I did what I was supposed to do and stripped it down and washed it out. Twice. It still didn't work. And now there were air bubbles streaming up through the gravity feed pot. Aaaaaarrrrgh!!

Thanks to this site:
https://sites.google.com/site/donsairbrushtips/home
I managed to resolve the problem with nothing more than a spot of the missus' lip balm. Two lessons learned: thin your paint properly (otherwise it can dry on the needle) and if there are bubbles in your paintpot, it means that air is blowing back from the tip somehow: either the nozzle is blocked with paint, or, as in my case this weekend, the seal between the nozzle and the brush housing is not working. A bit of vaseline (or indeed cherry flavoured lip balm) on the threads fixes this a treat. All that did take a few hours though, and a trip to a chemist to get some of those tiny interdental brushes which are a lot cheaper than the airbrush cleaning kits I've seen for sale, and work very well.

Anyway. Here's where I'm at now. Lots of this is blu-tacked, and the paint on the newer parts isn't finished, but I am getting quite excited to see what this beast will finally look like. And I need to hurry up because I will have a Wraithseer to paint by the end of the week....

Airbrushed bits (finally)

 

 

Blu tacked side shot (those pulsars are really huge when you put them together...)

Blu tacked front shot: