First 8th Edition Eldar Battalion Detachment Nearly Completed...

Nearly done my first detachment that will net me 6 command points.  Farseer with singing spear, Spiritseer, Guardian squad with to be determined heavy weapon and 2 x 5 man Avenger squads.  The Avengers are nearly done, cleaning up and finishing a squad that I had started back when the 6th edition Eldar codex dropped.  Paint wise:

Blue:
-Layer of Alaitoc Blue over existing paint job
-Highlight of Hoath Blue.
-I may end up painting the face plates blue or clean up and highlight the black.

Guns:
-Plan to paint the brown strips with a layer of Ushabti Bone and Screaming Skull highlights to keep consistent with the defender squad catapults.
-Will keep the black bits black to help tie in with future wraithguns.  I'm going to try deep blue highlights on the black bits.

Yellow:
-I plan to go over yellow frills on helmit and sash with agrax wash, Yriel yellow with Dorn Yellow highlights.

Red:
Eyes and soul stones same as defender squads.

Once the Avengers are completed its time to paint up some wraith guard.  The goal is to get 2 regular 5 man wraith squads done.  Moving on from there I will either paint a wraith lord or 3rd wraithguard(blade) squad of some sort.

I'm hoping I can take single Warlock seer councils to act as my hq choice moving forward.  That way I can better up my command point totals with vanguard and spearhead detachments .  I'm also inclined to paint up the plastic Autarch with sword, hawk wings, fusion pistol, mandiblaster and wings as an additional HQ choice.  I have a feeling that the Autarch will provide an extra command point to a battleforged army due to the fluff. Plus I anticipate the Autarch being able to charge into combat: dish out some mortal wounds with the mandiblaster, jam a melta pistol in someones face, and fly out of combat with the wings.

Thats all for now.

First squad for 8th edition completed

First squad is done and time to move on to another unit.  Over all a bit sloppy and plenty of room for improvement, but table top worthy.  Not to sure on the base colour used.  Think next unit I will go with a less redish brown.  Guns are ok but I'm wondering if I should have gone black with blue highlights.  I really need to work on my edge highlighting, but that is what the next unit is for.

Colours used:

Guns/Wraithbone: karak stone base, agrax earthshade shade, ushabti bone highlight.
Base: stirland mud, eldar flesh dry brush, agrax wash.  Doombull brown for bottom ring.

8th Edition Iyanden Combat Patrol

I can't believe I've started painting again.  Man its been awhile.  8th edition has me fired up.  I put together 500 points of Iyanden (points likely to change with 8th) using a combat patrol detachment. Bring on the new edition!

Hobby wise, I've come up with a paint plan for my yellow.  Need to write it down here in case I need to come back to it down the road.

Yellow Armour:

1) Prime white
2) Prime yellow army builder spray
3) Outline model with agrax earthshade
4) Layer yellow with yriel yellow
5) Highlight with dorn yellow

Blue Bits:

1) 2 thin layer's of alaitoc blue
2) Edge highlight hoeth blue

Gun:

1) Heavy wash of agrax earthshade

Eyes and Gems are red but I need practice on these bits.  Not sure what method yet to employ.  Blue bits need some work on highlights and shading.  Also I need to figure out a good highlight for the guns that pull the colour away from yellow.  I like the heavy wash over the yellow primer as it looks like a nice organic brown (which is good for wraithbone I think).  Finally I plan to base models with Stirland texture paint.  Not sure on wash or highlights for base yet.

Iyanden Ynnari Warhost

Wow over a year from my last post... well what can I say it's been awhile.  So new Aeldari book equals a fresh look at my Iyanden army that one day will be complete.  Here is the list:

Ynnari Warhost:
HQ:
Single Warlock Council - Singing Spear

Troops:
2 x Guardian Squads

Elite:
5 Wraithguard - D-Scythes, Wave Serpent

Wraith Host Formation:
Spirit Seer
5 Wraith Axes
2 x Wraithguard - D-Guns
Wraithlord - 2 flamers, wraithsword
Wraithknight - Suncannon

Total Points: 1500

So the idea is to lead the charge with the guardian squads and my lone wolf warlock, to provide cover saves and trigger soul bursts.  Behind them are the two foot slogging wraith guard squads along with the wraithlord that will push forward with extra moves from the soul burst ability.  behind them is my wraithblades escorting my spirit seer.  The spirit seer will roll/reroll on the Ynnari warlord traits table. If I get to pick my powers I'm not sure what I would go for.

The Wraithknight will pop around filling in gaps as required and trying to stay in 18 inch range of the spirit seer to stay twin linked.  I equipped the wraithknight with a suncannon for the invul save as well as a better chance to deal with horde style armies.  I may switch to the sword though and try for first turn charges.  If I take santic powers on my warlock, I can try and kill him off with peril's.  That would give the wraith knight a potential charge range of 26-36 inches right out of the gate.

The wraith guard with d-scyths don't really benefit from being in the formation (unless the wraithguard units get battle focus - I don't think they do) so they are taken in the normal cad.  They push a flank and do their thing.  Though I don't want them out pacing the army too much so as to leave them out of the 7 inch soul bursting range.

The army is essentially built but for some bits and bobs for the guardians.  I can focus on a three colour min fairly easily I think.  Then again it may be another year before I look at 40k.

Seth says hi!

1850 Blood Angels Built (Live by the Sword, Die by the Sword)

So, I just can not get into the Eldar right now.  I tried.  Still will keep my promise to myself to finish the army this year.  I have been into the hobby though.  Been working on my Blood Angels.  I love the models.  Its a bit of relief really.  Don't care about power level, I'll wait until the next codex to be competitive.  I'm going to play models that I want to paint.  This is the list:

Lord of War:
Dante

HQ:
Priest - Angels Wing, Valour's Edge
Terminator Librarian - Level 2, Combi-Melta

Elite:
5 Sanguinary Guard - Inferno Pistol, Banner
5 Assault Terminators -Hammers, Banner, Land Raider Crusader, Multi-Melta
Furioso Dread - Drop Pod, HF, Frag Cannon

Troops:
2 x 10 Tactical Marines - Rhino, Melta Gun, Combi-Melta, HF

Fast:
5 Assault Marines - 2 Flamer Pistols, 2 Flamers, Jump Packs

Total Points: 1850

Its a big old brick of a list and I don't care.  Always wanted to run terminators and a land raider.  I was going to go with melta guns and a combi-melta on the assault squad but I decided to use up the left over blood angel bits from the tac marine boxes.  I still need to add some blood angel bling to the rhino's and land raider then its time to prime.

Not sure how to go about painting though.  I need to try out some paint schemes on a few test models. My friend will give me the use of his air brush to prime and put a dark red base coat down.  I also have a can of chaotic red army painter primer.  I think I will go with the air brush.  Its hard to beat for a smooth base coat.  I will likely go with a deeper red than mephiston for my base.  Not really interested in light red marines with orange highlights.  The darker red I go, the more in unison the new army will be with my Flesh Tearers.

It's a one trick pony list.  In deployment I put my land raider up front and center with the two rhinos behind.  Everything else is in reserve.  Turn one the drop pod comes down.  The land raider and rhinos move flat out right into the center of the other army.  Turn two, my rhino's and land raider are likely dead but I have 20 marines and 6 terminators on the other side of the board.  They shoot then then assault.  Turn 2 dante, priest and guard come down to pop a tank and the assault marines come down to burn a hoard.  Turn three I assault everything I can with what ever is left of my army.  Live by the sword, die by the sword.

The following are some photo's of the army being assembled:

2016 Back in the Groove (Iyanden Eldar Warhost Resolution)

Wow, its been quite some time since I last posted.  What can I say GW has had a wonky last year. Starting last year out I was fired up to run the new Blood Angel book that just hit the shelves.  It soon became clear that the BA were developed for a previous mindset/edition.  Rather than update the Angel's to the new system of army design GW sold us a load of lemons.

With the sour taste still in my mouth the new Eldar hit the shelves.  It was easy to forget the bad mojo of the BA's with a rule set of my first and true army arriving around the corner.  I had been working on an Iyanden army with the release of Eldar 6.0 and waited with baited breath for 7.0's version. What did I get?  A bi-polar opposite army design from my new BA's.  To add insult to injury I was considered a cheese fest beardy player by wanting to run my Iyanden army.

Needless to say my interest of 40k tanked at this point.  But I had the new fantasy rule set to look forward to being released in the summer of 2015.  And what did I get?  I half-assed attempt to reboot the fantasy franchise.  Don't get me wrong, I want to like fantasy.  But I'm a creature of habit and desire a proper rule set to play a game.  The simpler the rules the better but without some sort of basic structure to engage in a social contract with fellow gamers, Age of Sigmar fell flat on its face.  What I received was a bullshit marketing campaign force feeding me more garbage after suffering indigestion from my previous 40k experience.  I currently have more fun playing make believe with my kids than pushing sig-marines around a table top.

So I stopped playing.  This tanked my hobby drive.  At its core, I like building and painting models but without a fair game system in place I lost my mojo.  I've turned a corner for 2016 however.  I still have limited interest in buying anything new from GW but I have aquired a healthy colection of uncomplete models.  2016 is the year of cleaning up old projects and a return to the rule of cool.

That all said here is my 2016 hobby resolution: to complete to table top standard an 1850 Iyanden Craftworld Warhost.  Here is the list:

Guardian Battle Host:
- EML's for the Guardians.
-Farseer upgraded to Jetseer, Singing Spear and Spirit Stone

Wraith Host:
-Wraithcannon Wraith Knight
-Wraithlord with Glaive and Flamers
-2 x 5 Wraithguard with basic guns
-5 Wraithguard with D-Scythes and basic Wave Serpent

Wraith Construct:
-Hemlock

Total Points: 1850

I have the models and undertake to buy nothing new for the Eldar this year.  Screw GW.  But heck I still like them (feel like a battered hobbyist).  Come rain or shine I will play the hell out of this list. As far as the hobby goes I'm going to focus on finishing the above 1500 army to a three colour standard.  From there try and finish the whole 1850 shebang to the same standard.  We'll see where the hobby takes me after.