Wednesday 28 October 2015

And Now for Something Completely Different...

Eldritch Raiders! I've had these for almost a year, the genesis of my collection is as follows:
I've always loved the Book of the Astranomican for its flavour, army lists and a fantastically fun scenario; so when I saw some figures on the dreaded eBay for a decent price I splurged, some might say I went a little bit overboard but I ended up collecting 32 infantry representing approximately 1500 points that I could lay on the table, with absolutely no upgrades whatsoever which includes every character available with the exception of the cadre Pirate commander. 
What really struck a chord with me though is a very dear friend of mine named Lightfoot died unexpectedly in a motorcycle accident and the name of the shadowlord model was named Lightfoot that pretty much sealed the deal for me and I jumped in with both feet.
So with my Skaven finally done (an army
is never done I need a screaming bell and to paint up my greater daemon of the horned rat) 
I'm just getting around to the Pirates  now here's a photo of my progress so far on my test models: 
it's taken me five days to get 32 guys cleaned, assembled and based, with a ton of pinning, then primed and the initial body suit/mash armor base coated with tamiya spray TS-70.
These guys went through the most intricate paint stripping I've done and they came out looking brand new, honestly. The bases are actually cool IMHO and will simulate the surface of Mars. 
I was also sick and tired of doing bases the same way after doing my Skaven so this time I'll have virtually no vegetation whatsoever I might put some dead tufts in there just for some flavor but that's pretty much it.
I hope to have these initial 10 guys finished by the end of November that might be a bit of wishful thinking but I'm going to do my best. 
Id like to include some jet bikes and I would like to use a couple of the more modern viper jet bikes and use them as grav attack (hovererers) they fit the description to a T and are sculpted by Jes Goodwin who is my favourite sculptor of all time. 
Here's a color swatch for the entire army 
the top row is for power weapons it would start with tamiya paint olive drab followed by dark angels green from '95 followed by emerald green from '95 followed by scorpion green from '95 gonna try to do a lightning affect on all power swords and squad leader helmets in all my squads.
the second row is for the common ft trooper helmets; Japanese uniform Yellow followed by pale yellow both by Vallejo game color, I want to do tiger striping so if anyone has tips on a sound technique please comment below. 
the third row although you can see it's blobbed together cause I'm a complete fucking idiot is Vallejo black or I should say matte black, the middle is black Gray and at the end is the wondrous beautiful army painter uniform grey that would be used for weapons/any kind of underlay.
the third tier is the actual armor color it started out with tamiya olive drab followed by Vallejo game color medium gray followed by Vallejo game color French MIN grey; that was the plan anyway but I'm so in love with the green now it's such a lovely colour; from far away it appears to be black at mid range appears to be green gray and up close it's blatantly obvious that it's green you really have to take a second look So I may stick with it and highlight it up just using greens. 
the final row at the bottom is for any kind of metallics to use for chain blades any kind of hosing etc. On the left I used leadbelcher from modern GW ( boo hiss)  then Vallejo gunmetal metal and on the far right citadel Mithral silver from an old bottle circa 1995. 
I want for them to resemble the old Eldritch Raiders paint job but I want them to be their own thing, less neon and more militaristic. I also I cannot stand the name Eldritch Raiders so I'm going with void dragons. 
I have a special surprise once the project is done... Nah I'll tell you right now it's going to be a prefect holding loft the pirate cadres official flag I got it from the high elves skycutter. 
It is nicely molded front and back so no freehand (phew) 
In the future I plan to do a full dreadnought host but I think I may alter the color schemes cause quite frankly they deserve to really stand out. 
I got my mits on the assassin variant ghost warrior which I'm quite proud of.
Storyboard wise he will be my commander's bodyguard but game wise they're damned killers. 
I'm not using the dreadnoughts found in the pirate list I'll be using the ones found in the Redbook compilation I want a banshee and I want a war demon because quite frankly eldar dreadnoughts kick fucking ass they look cool and if your opponent doesn't make them a priority well then he could be up shit's creek.
I want to know what you guys think I don't know why I am doing a blog if I only get like a couple of comments am I doing something wrong? Not enough insight? I don't know. 
So if you're bothering to read it shoot me some ideas, what you like or don't as this is my first rogue trader army list, and I'm open to comments,
thanks have a nice day. 

14 comments:

  1. Great set of models. I'm looking forward to seeing the first ones fully painted. Banner is a good match style wise.

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    1. Yes it did surprise me when I saw the standard for the first time, it looked custom made for the Void Dragons

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  2. Bloody hell, now you got me completely sold ! I have those but have struggled to find the right colourscheme fo rthem so seing yours will surely be inspirationnal !
    Really looking forward to seeing this one take shape.

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    1. If I can give back a fraction of the inspiration you've given me I'll be happy.

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  3. Nice - looking forward to seeing those elder progress.... the colours look like they will work pretty well

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    1. Cheers C40K,
      I wanted them to look a bit less cartoony than those found in the book of the astronomican, not that there is anything wrong with them, hopefully the palette will come together and make them look dead hard not like a bunch of pansies.

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  4. Great stuff! And an odd bit of synchronicity - on my painting desk, among a bunch of 40mm AWI Continentals, are a wack of Rogue Trader Eldar waiting for attention. I've started inking them purple but now I'm not so sure...

    And sorry about your friend, 24 Cigs!

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    1. Thanks PW
      It was especially hard when he passed but his legacy will live on, the only Eldar shadowlord ever to grow 5 o'clock shadow.
      I say stick with your purple scheme, I was going to do a royal purple colour scheme blended up from a black undercoat but I just can't say no to tamiya olive drab. It looks so great in person; the kind of colour that makes you want to paint the next step; hopefully I'll have some progress soon!

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  5. Awesome! I've got a pile of these guys I need to get started on as well. Clever thinking to add on the high elf banner bit!

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  6. Thanks mr mouse
    The banner bit came about purely by accident but with a bit of converting I think I will be able to achieve something which looks stock, not converted.
    I urge you to read the book of the astronomican, the Eldar pirate list is quite good; small competitive and full of character. It should appeal to pretty much all players, except 40k racists. It's not their fault their ears are pointy

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  7. Fantastic! I love the colour scheme -- especially you're dedication to tiger stripe. Nothing says Eldar raiders like tiger stripe. Nothing except... LOTS OF DREADNOUGHTS. Bring them on. I can't wait to see how you do them up. I just hope there are lots of banners. Hopefully you can find more treasures like that skycutter flag. It'll be a beauty when it's all painted up.

    One thing you said intrigued me... that you had done a most elabourate stripping process. What technique did you use? I tried various techniques without much satisfaction, until I finally settled on "SuperClean" cleaner/degreaser from Canadian Tire.

    Anyway, as Bertie Wooster says, I shall watch your future progress with considerable interest.

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  8. Thanks Sully; im glad you like the colour scheme I was getting a bit nervous but if your calibre of artist endorses it then it has to be good.
    As for the stripping I submerge metal figs into DS super remover gel, just enough to cover the figures;it starts working right away and is excellent at breaking down the paint but doesn't lift it off of the figure (more below), it will not harm metal but it will melt plastic. Once satisfied (I've placed figs in for as little as 24 hours and left some for over 2 months), I then tweezers each figure out if the goop and put it in dettol which is very good at penetrating crevices (ha) and lifting paint and primers off of the miniature. I then use an electric toothbrush from dollarama and dish soap with warm water. The miniatures come out looking fresh out of a blister, no pick work removing paint from hard to reach areas, or any fussing about, they're ready for trimming and painting. I make sure to place them between sheets of paper towel and get every last drop of water off to prevent rot.
    It's the best method I've found, hope it helps.

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  9. That is hardcore. I once tried to convince Mrs. Oldhammer-in-Toronto to let me use our electric toothbrush (with an old head) to strip off miniatures, but the conversation ended prematurely.
    Is it long exposure to water that causes lead-rot? I've only seen one or two miniatures suffering from that awful disease, but it was pretty bad.

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    1. From what I've learned rot can be caused a number of ways but with pewter figures it is primarily from miniatures getting wet and staying wet.

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