Guardians of Ulthwé - Finishing Part-Painted Models

This is exciting - I am running out of half-painted models!

I have two big concerns with my miniature collection. First, about two thirds of it is unpainted and/or unbuilt. This is a daunting prospect. Second, for a very long time about 30% of my models have been in a semi-painted state.

I get bored easily. I start a lot of projects, assembling, undercoating, and even base coating models before deciding I'd prefer to be working on something else and setting them aside for later.

Later is usually a very long time coming.

So, over the years I've amassed a collection of models at various stages of painting. In my quest to have all the miniatures I own painted, that pile has been a priority.

With this post, my half-painted pile has shrunk to just two units and a character!

I didn't realise how close I was until I had to go hunting for already undercoated models to paint. Rummaging around my boxes of miniatures, I eventually found my old Eldar guardians, sprayed purple as a base coat for my old Eldar colour scheme. 

I don't plan to field guardians in my army so, rather than painting them in my new colour scheme (and to give myself a break from painting blue), I decided to make them in Craftworld Ulthwé colours.

Three days later, said unit was fully painted. For me (an infamously slow painter), it was a goddamn record.

They're not as sharp as the newer plastics, but I think overall they're still some pretty fine models that don't look out of place among the more recent sculpts.

Painting black with an airbrush was a breeze.

I started with a mix of black and German Grey (Vallejo), highlighted with German Grey, then with Pale Greyblue (Vallejo). Doing everything with the airbrush made the transition from dark to light very smooth, but they looked a little bright for my taste so I gave them a heavy wash of Nuln Oil (GW) to bring back the black.

For three days' work these guys are a complete triumph. I'm really happy with the result and am more motivated than ever to finish off the part-painted models on my table. The only question is, do I work on the character that I'm not terribly fond of, or the twenty-five skeletons that will take me an absolute age?

While I work on an answer, happy painting!

Dire Avengers

I do seem to be painting a lot of blue lately.

Dire Avengers are the backbone of an Eldar aspect army and were some of the first Eldar models I ever owned. (I don't think I'm ever going to get used to calling them Aeldari or Asuryani.)

I put my Dire Avengers together a long time ago, undercoated them, and never got round to painting them. (Although I did base coat my exarch.) As I've been having a lot of success airbrushing blues I decided now was the time to change that (the unpaintedness of the Dire Avengers, not my recent success in painting blue - long may it last.)

I'm pretty happy with how they look (especially the simple but effective bases) but will definitely change a few things next time round.

I'm not a fan of the GW's Gemstone Paints for painting actual gemstones. While painting them the old-fashioned way is time consuming, I think the effect is much, much better and worth the extra effort. Gemstone Paints are better reserved for things like vehicle screens or other unusual items.

I'm also disappointed with the Ceramite White (GW) I used to paint the cloth and helmets. I thought it would save a little time (because white can be so annoying to get right) but it took about as many layers to get the coverage I wanted as starting with grey would have. It doesn't flow like the other paints in GW's Base range, either - much less smooth and generally not nice to use. Next time I'll just go with my normal white recipe.

While my Craftworld colours are bone and light blue, I want to keep my a more traditional palette for my aspect warriors. (It's well-established canon that the Eldar's motto is "Fear the Rainbow".) I'm looking forward to getting some other aspects on my table and maybe take a break from blue for a while.

It does get a little repetitive.

Until then, happy painting!