Spock Footage

Elves in space? Well I never.



Leofa has converted himself a rather fine Eldar army. I always wanted to paint an Eldar army, they're fine lookers, so I took the commission happily.

Then we agreed on the colours.

White! Why'd it have to be white?

Biel-Tan are in the news at the moment, with the new Aeldari releases. Oh yes, GW are AoSing the Eldar in terms of names. Heh. Suits me, I'm going to keep calling the pointy-eared space wizards Spock anyway. This first batch is a return to knocking out a uniform unit in a week for me, and I felt out of shape. But the Guardians are mustered, and here they are.

Three units of ten, each with a leader, or one mega-unit of thirty. I have zero idea what the new codex lets you do with Guardians, but they used to be in units of ten back in the day. As such, one has silver armour elements, one gold and one brass, and each unit has a different colour soulstone, red, blue or yellow.

These guys may or may not be Biel-Tan, I'm steering clear of the official markings for now. They do have white armour with green helmets, though, and usually black thorn patterns that might get worked in elsewhere. I wasn't looking forward all the white, it's a nasty colour to paint. Especially when you want the white gun platform pilot to be distinguishable from his white ride.

The gun turrets are totally scratch built. Warwalker and Wraithlord parts, I think.

There are three, each with an asymmetrical weapons pairing. Hover barca loungers, basically, I like the idea of them very much.

The underside has glowing hover jet effects painted on, and I've drybrushed a tiny amount of matching light source paint onto the bases. But you can't see any of it while the model's in use, so that's good.

If there was another block, I'd do their undersides orange. Then you could teleport between them at will.

Actually, it wasn't too hard in the end. The models are all primed with Corax White, then troopers washed with Seraphim Sepia and drybrushed Tyrant Skull and Praxeti White for a warm white finish. The guns got a black wash and a layer of Ulthuan Grey, then White Scar trim for a cooler look. It's also good practice in case I ever need to do Stormtroopers. The green was done with plain Green Ink for the gun units, and Warpstone Green for the footsoldiers.

Aren't you a little Spock to be a Stormtrooper?

Muddy bases, with a bit of water effect slopped on in places. And a finishing touch of shoulder gems, as the models are based on Dark Eldar from a previous edition, and don't have many gems in place. Eldar need to have soulstones on their armour somewhere, poor dears, or Slaanesh eats them when they die. Feeling their acute fear, I PVA'd some gems on, instantly putting all my hard work on the gun turret gems to shame. Bah.

Many more Spocks still to go. Another large unit of gunline troopers, then all the Aspects, then some heroes and bonuses to treat myself at the end.

Elsewhere, I'm keenly aware of my perilous position in the long slow Dungeon Saga race with Stylus. With the addition of a final batch of six, I have cleared the Warlord of Galahir hurdle.

I got tired of the same model, so I converted the weapon with an old child's toy. The spiked mace is totally outsized, and slowly bending back towards the floor after I reposed the arm with hot water, but I regret nothing.

I liked this model the most out of the orc sculpts, although the axe is actually being balanced on the shoulder rather than swung, I think. Doesn't look quite as dynamic as it would if the left hand was higher up, anyway. Still, I like it.

And I like their boss even more. Stylus did tartan, so I did something more Wayne English.

Here I shall lie, however. I am two chests, six barrels, a lectern, some heroes and almost an entire shitting set of undead away from completion. Whilst I shall doubtless get it done (skeletons are easy to paint), I don't have the energy, especially when there are shiny Spocks to spatter. Right now, I have painted at least one of every single model the Kickstarter came with, and I feel that's laurel enough to rest on.

Next week: Continued Spockery