Introspective Retrospective 2023

 So, 2023 comes to an end. It's been a fairly drab one here in the UK, and hopefully 2024 will be an improvement. I've had a busy time making models this year, and here are the highlights.

For me, 2023's big project has been retro Eldar. I've painted a lot of models, including some great Jes Goodwin metal miniatures. I went for colours inspired by old, trippy science fiction, especially the pictures of Moebius, Chris Foss and Roger Dean.

Here are some vehicles.

Converted "Vitriol" skimmers

Converted jetbike squad

Wave Serpent

Another Wave Serpent

And some infantry:

Scouts

Fire Dragons

Swooping Hawks

Harlequins

And a couple of oddities, which aren't GW models but still work for the Eldar:

Not a Grynx

Not a Farseer

*

So, that's the Eldar. I also did some other models. I painted a rather stoned-looking dragon that I'd had knocking around for ages:

I also made a couple of gangs for Mordheim:

Heavily-converted Sisters of Sigmar

Marienberger mercenaries

But really, I save the silliest for last. I made a model of the Black Beast of Aaargh from Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Most of it was sculpted by me, except the head.

*

The final thing isn't a model at all. It's a book called Legion of Bones, the third in my fantasy trilogy Dark Renaissance. It's a tale of murder and intrigue, set against a massive uprising by a horde of undead. All three of my fantasy novels are available HERE  - trust me, I'm a much better writer than I am a painter.

So it's been quite a busy year. I'm pleased with the progress I've made in painting. Eldar are rather unforgiving models, and require a "clean" painting style that I find tricky. I've really enjoyed painting them, and making the kind of army that I would have really liked to own thirty years ago!

Here's my favourite model of this year, the leader of the converted Vitriol squad. I hope you have a very happy new year, and lots of enjoyment and success with your models in 2024. 

Cheers!

Toby.

The Last Viper/Venom/Vitriol Jetbike!

 I've finally finished my squad of not-Viper jetbikes for my Eldar! I've had this final model on sprues for at least two years, at the back of a cupboard. Since one of my new year's resolutions is to stop buying (so many) miniatures, I dug it out and got to work.

It got the same conversion job as the others, with the front lamp/sensor replaced with the barrel of a plastic shuriken cannon. I left off all the Dark Eldar-type additions, as well as the crew, to keep the lines as smooth as possible.

Then it was just a matter of painting it. I went for the same blue scheme as with the other two, fading at points into purple. However, for this machine I painted part of the canopy in a similar manner to the dreadnought that I did at the end of last year, modelled on Chris Foss' spaceship art. I reckon that this colour scheme might represent a unit leader or an ace.

The canopy itself got the same "reflected landscape" design as the other flyers. I deliberately left the edges of the canopy entirely yellow, instead of adding black stripes, so it would stand out a bit.

And, well, that's pretty much it! I really like these things. I'm very pleased with the conversion. Given that it's a different sort of machine, and given that Venoms and Vipers are both named after poisonous things, I think I'll christen these models of flyer the "Vitriol", which is an old word for acid. 

The brown mark on the canopy is a reflection, by the way.

And here's the entire squad. Neeeeeow!

Another Eldar Venom (or maybe Viper)

While a lot of this blog is "thing of the week", I do have some models that I gradually chip away at, painting a bit here and there, until they clutter up my desk. One of these is the second Eldar venom conversion. I originally got two venoms from Ebay, and decided to make them into "nice Eldar" versions, largely by taking off the skulls and spikey bits (which might well have snapped off anyhow - how anyone stores a Dark Eldar army is beyond me).

I gave the second venom the same conversion as the first: I cut off a headlight-type thing between the two prongs at the front and put the barrel of a shuriken cannon in its place, to create a nose-mounted gun. This took some fiddly lining up, but other than cutting a hooked blade off the underside, it's the only converting I did.

I painted the second venom in much the same way as the first. The main body was blue, which I shaded up and down with lighter blues (this was quite tricky). In places, I blended in purple as a spot colour.

The model came with its canopy glued down and slightly misted up, so I decided to paint over the "glass". I attempted the same mirrored lens effect that I did with the pilot of the first venom. As with last time, I quickly felt that I'd bitten off more than I could chew, but I persisted and the result isn't bad.

 

I'm pleased with both of these. Shading isn't my strong point, and I'm glad that it's come out ok. I spent quite a long time on this ship, which probably helps, and did most of the blending in single sittings, so I wouldn't forget where I'd got to. 

Eldar Fighter Skimmer Thing

 So, in an earlier post I mentioned the Eldar equivalent of a pickup truck...

You don't have to be an expert in Warhammer to realise that the 40k world is a bloody ugly place. Whether it's lumpy tanks, snarling demons, Gestapo-lite commissars, zombie-bondage-mutant things (that covers a fair chunk of Chaos, Sisters of Battle and Dark Eldar), or just skulls and more skulls piled on a big unimaginative heap of skulls, there's not a lot that could be called elegant in the 40k setting. The Tau and the Eldar are the two main exceptions.

I happened to find two partial Dark Eldar venom transports for sale on ebay. Once you take the crew, chains, spikes and guns off these things, they're actually very sleek and stylish. The curved body looks really cool. They remind me of the smooth, fishlike spaceships of 1970s science fiction art, like this picture by Chris Foss:

Back in the 90s, a company called Psygnosis made computer games for the Amiga. For their cover art, they used a lot of pictures by Roger Dean, who also drew album covers for the prog band Yes. While I am wary of prog to say the least, some of Dean's pictures have the sort of feeling I'd want for my Eldar.

I don't know if that makes any sense, but it's something about the blended pastel colours and the lack of intense detail (which is fortunate, as detail isn't my area). Anyway, with all that slightly pretentious stuff out of the way, here's what I did with the "broken" venoms.

First, I took off the little pods under the fusilage, which carry guns and hooked blades. This made the silhouette even more sleek. Then I needed to add a shuriken cannon somehow. Putting it under the ship looked clumsy, and mounting it on the top made the venom look like some kind of space pixie version of those Toyota pickups equipped with machine guns in third-world warzones.

So, I cut what looked like a headlamp from between the two "pincers" at the front of the ship, just before the cockpit. I sliced off the barrel from a shuriken cannon and pinned it into place there. It looks even more sleek than before, if you ask me, and doesn't interfere with the "line" of the ship. I assume that the workings and ammo for the gun are inside the fusilage, like a nose-mounted cannon on a fighter plane.

You've got to admit, it's a nice silhouette.

And that's all the converting I did. I then started painting it up in the blue that I've used for the rest of the army. I decided to add a new colour: I toyed with some kind of peach, but this was too tricky and so I went for purple instead. 

The pilot was the standard Dark Eldar one, with a smooth, featureless helmet. I thought it would look cool to put some kind of reflection on the helmet, like the reflections of the Arizona desert that Highway Patrol cops have in their sunglasses in films.

The canopy went on fine: I didn't glue it, although I might do later. It has a slightly naff heads-up targeter type thing, which I defy anyone to paint well. As it stands, the targeter just looks like a fancy symbol, which is fine by me.

I've got to admit, I'm pleased with this thing! Neeeeeowwwww!

I've got another of these to do, which ought to be a bit easier as it doesn't have a pilot. I'm sure I'll find some new way to make it awkward and difficult.