Xenith's Xenos - Eldar, Necrons and Orks

[Xenith]

So before my previous battle, I really needed a 2nd and even 3rd HQ to fill out the points, I made up the Eldritch Omens autarch, thinking I would jsut glue with no magnets, however the kit was really easy to magnetise. I've only done the WJG and the gun arm, I dont see a reason to pick the blade over the spear, and the banshee mask >> mandiblasters. This lady is now primed and awaiting paint. 

[Xenith]

I've not updated this topic in a little while - I've managed to get the seer, 3x Spears and the Autarch painted up, making the last 2k point army I used fully painted and legal, whoop!

Here's a snap of the autarch. Contrasts make things so easy it's unreal. Annoying random hair on her boob-armour that must have got trapped in there when undercoating and I couldn't scrape it off. You can't see it on the model, just in this ultra zoom.

[Xenith]

I did a quick count of all the models I finished in 2022, and it's decent:

 

Eldar

Seer on bike*

Autarch*

5 Rangers*

Jetbike*

10 Howling Banshees

9 Swooping hawks*

3 Shining Spears*

2 Prisms*

Serpent

war walker*

2 vypers*

 

Tyranids

6 raveners*

Hive Tyrant

Mawloc

Carnifex

Tervigon

Exocrine

Tyrannocyte

10 Gants*

Parasite of Mortrex*

3 Venomthropes

Genestealer container

 

Necrons

Lokhust heavy destroyer*

 

*I think I forgot to share photos of them here. 

 

[Xenith]

Quick status update on my Eldar from Pile of Potential:

 

 

I have a long way to go...

 

Thankfully I have pretty much every Eldar model in existence, minus Forge World, so the total number won't be going up any time soon (unless I pick up the corsair kit...), but I'd like to make some decent progress on other units to shake up my competitive options. I'm going to try and aim to do another 1000pts of  Eldar for this year, which should be easy with contrasts. Priorities:

 

130pts - 10 metal rogue trader Dire Avengers - Avengers have been the star of every gae I've played, and are a bargain at 130pts for 10. I want at least another 2 units. 

130pts - 10 plastic dire avengers. 

200pts - 5x Wraithguard with D-Cannons - as I don't have any at all

100pts - 1x Wraithlord - I dont have a painted one. 

110pts - 2x Warwalkers to give me a full unit

280pts - The Avatar - this guy can't sit in a box for another year...

76pts - 4 more rogue trader Striking Scorpions to finish the unit

 

33 models and 1026pts total. 

Edited January 9, 2023 by Xenith

[Xenith]

2022 Xeno shots! 

 

These are all the aliens I painted last year:

 

Eldar are one of my loves of the hobby, the models are amazing, but I had so few painted. With the 9th ed eldar codex, I moved from my other armies onto them with the goal of getting my measly 1000pts painted up to at least 2k points, and generally try to get at least one unit of each aspect done. The prisms I would not call 100% finished, but I painted them to tabletop standard in the year, from the flat green they were before - they still need some orange and other detailing on them. Contrasts have really sped up the painting of these guys, it's bonkers. 

 

 

Simple crystal rune weapon done by layering aethermantic blue over white. 

 

Necrons - my 2022 goal was to get to 500pts worth of painted Necrons, but the universe, and GW had other ideas. I'm maybe 1/5 of the way there, but I'd at lest like to get a HQ and 7 more warriors painted to get to a small patrol, if not the full 500pts. 

 

[Xenith]

I found someone selling some NoS Webway gates, and I managed to snag some, they seem a lot of fun, and potentially quite powerful to be able to deploy directly into melee - Arks of Omen removing costs to put things into strategic reserve will also make this a viable tactic. These things are huuuge though, but hopefully fast to paint up. 

[Firedrake Cordova]

I'd imagine they'd look pretty decent with a base coat and recess wash in the panel joins and around the "eggs", looking at the how the GW studio did them (if you can spray them, then I can't imagine they'd take too long at all).  

Edited January 4 by Firedrake Cordova

[Xenith]

That's what I'm hoping - to do them like my 'wraithbone' weapons on the tanks, so spray wraithbone then shade mortarion grime, however the moels have a lot more detail than I originally thought, and have the weird ribbing type stuff that you see under grav tanks on the inside of the arcs. It'll probably all end up the same colour. 

[Firedrake Cordova]

Hmm ... I completely missed that from the image I saw!  I imagine a carefully applied coat of one of the darker Contrast paints would work, possibly with a careful light drybrush of something like Dawnstone just to bring out the texture (on the large sections running down the sides, not the recessed bits)?

[bluezenscorpion]

Xenith,

 

I like how the exarch turned out, and the turnaround is impressive! I keep seeing tutorials of painters using a grey primer, a dark wash in the recesses, dry brush on highlights then use contrast or speed paint. Do you do any undercoating?

 

-Blue

[Xenith]

On 3/1/2023 at 10:24 AM, Firedrake Cordova said:

Hmm ... I completely missed that from the image I saw!  I imagine a carefully applied coat of one of the darker Contrast paints would work, possibly with a careful light drybrush of something like Dawnstone just to bring out the texture (on the large sections running down the sides, not the recessed bits)?

 

Yea, the trick will be to stop the contrast pooling on the flatsquare shapes. The thing is a bugger so now it's dry I have to go back and smooth over some gaps and seams, get rid of the last few mould lines and then it's prime time! 

 

On 3/1/2023 at 8:27 PM, bluezenscorpion said:

Xenith,

 

I like how the exarch turned out, and the turnaround is impressive! I keep seeing tutorials of painters using a grey primer, a dark wash in the recesses, dry brush on highlights then use contrast or speed paint. Do you do any undercoating?

 

-Blue

Thanks! I've not been shading before using the contrasts, but I might give it a go sometime - the awfully names slap chop method is a black primer with a heavy zenithal drybrush of white over most of it, then contrasts - it should be ok, but I like my eldar and Xenos quite bright so prefer the white undercoat - I've been using grey seer, and not white scar straight onto the mini, then contrasts straight over the top of that! 

[Firedrake Cordova]

3 hours ago, Xenith said:

Yea, the trick will be to stop the contrast pooling on the flatsquare shapes.

 

I think the key is to not load the brush up too much, and just use them like they were a regular paint but with the consistency of an ink. I've used Black Templar instead of regular black paint on small areas due to how easily it flows off the brush (e.g. the engine intakes and lascannon muzzle cowlings on Aeronautica Imperialis aircraft) without making a mess.  

 

3 hours ago, Xenith said:

The thing is a bugger so now it's dry I have to go back and smooth over some gaps and seams, get rid of the last few mould lines and then it's prime time! 

Oof, that sounds like it's been a bit of a pain! Hope it goes well  

[Xenith]

Xeno updates!

 

In getting ready for a Call to arms, I've assembled some wraithguard and a spiritseer that I've had for far too long...

 

[Xenith]

I've managed to combine my Bad Moon topic with my main Xenos topic to get everything in one place, if you skipped to this part, check out the start of the topic which now has 1000% more ork! 

[Xenith]

I played my first gae of 10th ed and have posted a battle report in my blog, as well as unit performance assessment and thoughts on the tyranid rules as a whole:

 

 

[Xenith]

Progress on the Wraithguard!

 

 

All hail Striking Scorpion Green, this colour will speed up my acid eldar no end. 

[Xenith]

More work on the Wraithguard, I'm calling these guys finished for CTA, but I'll do the bases after the comp. 

 

[ZeroWolf]

Always loved the wraithguard, you did a great job with them.

[Xenith]

More Xenos for the mill!

 

After finishing my CTA vows, I've gone back and finished off the basing for my Wraithguard and Spiritseer so I can draw a line under them and move on to other stuff!

 

"NO, THE MON-KEIGH ARE OVER THERE YOU DEAD DOLTS!

 

Spiritseer closup

 

Wraithguard

 

I snipped the end off the wraithcannons (or were they the DScythes and magnetised the barrel ends so I can swap over at will - no one will actually notice. To make them a bit cooler, I also snipped the arc bits that go at the end of the guns, horizontal on wraithcannons and vertical on DSCythes, and added them to the new guns, so now they're kind of cruciform. 

 

I hope to make another 5 of these a some point, as well as a wraithlord to reinfoce my Eldar, however as I'm focussing on nids right now it might be a while! 

[Xenith]

Long overdue update from Hive Fleet Jabberwocky: Norn Emissary!

 

 

[Xenith]

Another model I finished in time for Christmas, the Red Gobbo on Bounca!

 

This was very quick work with contrasts apart from the metallics over a white scar undercoat. I attempted a zenithal undercoat to emulate slapchop (shudder) but it did very little. 

 

[Bouargh]

4 minutes ago, Xenith said:

Another model I finished in time for Christmas, the Red Gobbo on Bounca!

 

This was very quick work with contrasts apart from the metallics over a white scar undercoat. I attempted a zenithal undercoat to emulate slapchop (shudder) but it did very little. 

 

 

Absolutely gorgeous. The way the Xmas´ tree ornaments are resolved is so vivid taht you can almost hear the grot screaming a winter cantic (soulcake, soulcake...). Great work indeed.

[Xenith]

Thank you so much, that's high praise  They are two thin coats of contrast over retributor armour, in particular blood angels red, and waagh flesh.

[MithrilForge]

I thought I smelt something Ork in your plog  I love the Christmas model ( I actually prefer this one over the other red gobbo on the Chimney) The Mouth looks great, and yeah those baubles look swish... and who'da Thunk from such easy techniques too !!  

 

Cheers, M

 

 

[Xenith]

Thanks! I guess I should list the recipe for the colours then!

 

The model was primed with white scar, and any mistakes tidied up with white scar before moving onto the next area. This guy probably took 2 evenings in front of the tv, so maybe 4 hours inc drying time. 

 

Gobbo

Coat - baal red, one thick coat

boots - black templar, iron warriors for the nails

White (cuffs+beard) soulblight white shade right over the white scar

yellow stars - he first contrast yellow, forget the name - Iyanden Yellow

skin - build up coats of militarum green until youre happy, additional recess shade of the same. 

Medals - true metallics, leadbelcher and ret armour. Stripes are celestium blue and waagh flesh over white.

Dynamite stick - neat waagh flesh stripe over white, wyldwood fuse, iyanden yellow spark, smoke is soulblight white shade. 

 

Bounca

Skin - blood angels red

eyes - Iyanden yellow

metal - iron warriors with nuln wash

antlers - mortarion grime, 2 thick coats over white scar

gums - one coat volupus pink

teeth - repaint white after the pink, then  one coat mortaion grime, then mortarion grime recess shade. 

 

Gubbinz

String - Skeleton horde

baubels - retributor armour then waagh flesh and blood angels red contrasts

light string - black templar then waagh flesh over the top as a glaze, or 2x waagh flesh, lights are celestium blue, baal red, iyanden yellow over white scar. 

Snow - white scar with very thinned (with water) soulblight white wash. 

 

Edited January 4 by Xenith