Path of the Exodite

Eldar Nightwing Scratchbuild

2012-01-24T13:09:00.002-04:00

All you need is one Wave Serpent for the engines/cockpit, the weaponry and a couple of other falcon chassis bits. Combine with some plasticard and epoxy putty - in this case I used milliput - and you can have a pretty convincing Nightwing. Great for Apocalypse or a Corsair list.

Phantom Pulsar

2012-01-22T16:04:00.000-04:00

Getting this Phantom done up has been fun. I'm now getting closer to finishing with the pulsar painted. The gems/stones have been given a coat of floor polish to make them shine. Below you can see the whole Phantom start to come together.

Custom Phantom Titan Head

2012-01-20T13:23:00.000-04:00

One of the reasons I got my Phantom was because of it's second hand nature. Although it was never assembled, it lacked a complete top part of the head. I needed to come up with a way to fix this issue by making a head myself.

With this in mind, I wanted to take my scratchbuilding skills I've learned and come up with something that would blend in with the existing model, but have the shape and form of the smaller Revanant titan head. This way it would match up. So, I got out some plasticard, a plastic spoon, some epoxy putty and green stuff to make it happen.

Overall I'm quite pleased with the result. There are a couple flaws, and it doesn't quite match up with the inner head where the steersman sits, but other than that I'm happy with how good it looks on the model.

Manta Scratchbuild (1)

2012-01-19T00:52:00.004-04:00

Yeah...me and the local Tau player decided to go there. Hopefully it will be finished in time for the Apocalypse game...

Eldar Exodites (Guardians)

2012-01-18T17:07:00.001-04:00

So why build Guardians? Well, there are several formations in Apocalypse that make extensive use of them, and are rather quite good, despite actually requiring you taking guardians. Who knows, maybe they'll be a much better unit in the future too. These a just a first test for a few other units I'll be making.

Instead of a normal platform, these use a Cold One from the Dark Elf range to make the heavy weaponry mobile. It seemed more suitable considering the jetbikes I use also have the form of Eldar riding the very same lizards.

I'll be talking a lot about Apocalypse soon, as there will be a rather large game in my future, and I'm working very hard to get all my stuff to a decent standard before the game.

Phantom Titan - Painting

2012-01-04T14:25:00.001-04:00

Just some painting getting done on my Phantom. Still lots of work to do, but getting it done up to match my army colors. Still very much a work in progress.

The head is a custom job made to match up with the other parts of the army.

Warp Hunter

2012-01-01T15:17:00.001-04:00

Phantom Titan [1]

2011-11-06T17:13:00.002-04:00

Things are starting to ramp up around here. I have more time and energy now to work on my projects and I have started to get things ready for a very large apocalypse game - this is going to be fun. More on that in a future post.

Right now I've started to assemble a Phantom Titan that I managed to get for a very good deal. It was not without some flaws however but I think I have corrected most of them. I still need to get some weapons for this thing to make it blast things into vapors but so far so good.

The entire titan is glued together and pinned, with long 1/8" thick brass rods drilled into the structure of the titan that allows it to maintain the pose it has while still being very stable on it's 10 inch base, to which the feet are also anchored by glue and more brass rods. Multiple pieces of resin are attached using a single strong pin such as the hip joint and sections of the torso.

The pulse laser is magnetized so that I can replace it with the starcannon if I want to.

Dark Eldar Rapier - Painting [2]

2011-10-24T18:45:00.000-03:00

So I have started adding actual paint for this model instead of the floor polish paint mix. Cannonfodder had expressed concerns about the model - rest assured, the distortions and looking like it was "warping" was probably the light reflection from the very shiny polish and the transparency. It looks fine to my eyes now. It's also made of plastic, not cardboard so now that the final shape is in place it will stay that way for as long as the glue holds - bring on the flood! Here are a couple of pictures of what I have done so far, but I'm no where near finished yet. Just getting things started.

Dark Eldar Rapier - Painting [1]

2011-10-23T14:57:00.001-03:00

It's time to paint this Dark Eldar Superheavy flyer scratchbuild. With the work being completed for the most part I'm now moving onto the painting stage for this model. The paint is Hawk Turquoise which makes up the color of the rest of my Dark Eldar force. In this instance I have prepainted the surface of the model with floor polish as this helps to hide the gaps and other little issues that cropped up during the construction. The floor polish is acrylic, so it also helps the paint to bond afterwards and the next layer of paint is actually mixed further with floor polish to continue to help mask imperfections.

After this I will use another layer of thin paint to give it a normal appearance - and to take away the extra shine that it currently has from so many smooth coats mixed with floor polish. This is also why the initial paint seems to be of a poor quality as I'm not so concerned at this point with the pigmentation, just getting everything ready for that stage later. The canopies are currently being tinted in this process as well, the Dark Eldar pilots have yet to be added but that will come along later as painting progresses! I decided on an off yellow green color as yellow food coloring does not have a good way of mixing with the floor polish to do the tinting. In this process though I found that the color I created was suitably alien enough and I like the end result - those pictures to come later.

There are a few flaws I noticed since doing this that were not apparent until the paint went on so I'm going to go back and correct them.

For now please enjoy the pictures below as I get this model closer to being fully completed.

Dark Eldar Superheavy Scratchbuild [11]

2011-10-15T15:24:00.002-03:00

The Rapier now has a set of engines to send it screaming through the sky, and I have managed to get some pieces sanded and blended quite well - very near getting this thing to a state where I can start painting.

The fins are actually attached using sets of magnets - this allows them to be removed and reattached as needed as it will help the vehicle keep a smaller profile for storage. Also, there is less chance of something breaking this way because instead of snapping, it will just pop off the magnets, there is still some things that need to be filled in and made flush and the fins themselves need to be touched up.

As for the fins, they are similar to stock Dark Eldar flyers and underside of their vehicles in terms of angles. We also see the engines getting Eldar/Dark Eldar style engine vents and the front intakes are starting to take shape. It still looks a bit rough in places overall, but some of it is penciling that can be removed with an eraser - I'm using these as guidelines for etching and correctly positioning things.

Let's answer some questions that appeared in the last post.

Kris Belleau asked: "Awesome! I like the pulsars... but if they are of Dark Eldar origin, then wouldn't they look like dark lances?... ;) Is it going to be the same color scheme as the rest of your DE?"

The answer to this is, yes, they probably would look like dark lances in this case. I've been toying around with making a large Dark Eldar style weapon that would fit, so the pulsars are kinda standing in for the moment.

As for the color, yes, it will be painted up the same as my other Dark Eldar stuff.

Dark Eldar Superheavy Scratchbuild [10]

2011-10-06T21:09:00.002-03:00

The Rapier is coming along nicely now. I have attached the pieces together to form the whole aircraft body and nose now, and am working on repairing defects and making sure that everything ends up smooth. I still need to add on some engines and get things to a consistently good quality.

To answer Kris Belleau's questions from the previous post I thought they would be better addressed here rather than directly replying because they were good questions and sometimes not everyone reads the comments. You can see clearly in the pictures below the final shape of the craft and the wings.

As for the weapons I'm looking at using some pulsars I have left over, but I am also thinking about building some Haywire cannons like the one found on the Forgeworld Reaper - just to have some variations and options.

If I'm not able to use custom rules for this thing for some reason, my intention is to count it as an Eldar Vampire and call it a day. There is still plenty to be done, but the goal is in sight!

Dark Eldar Superheavy Scratchbuild [9]

2011-10-04T18:36:00.002-03:00

Working on the underside of the Rapier now, building up some of the bottom plating to define the lower areas of the hull. This section is made from plasticard and some bits from a Falcon, most notibly the center part where the engines join up and a couple of back areas where the doors normally go. These sections were bridged with plasticard and were placed together using plastic cement and bonded to the bottom middle section of the Rapier's hull.

Dark Eldar Superheavy [8]

2011-10-03T21:12:00.000-03:00

Just adding some more shaping to the front part of the vehicle, these concave shapes help define the center line cockpits as well as build up to the rest of the wings making the craft have those gentle Eldar curves. A smaller piece of plasticard is added between the two cockpits to make later blending easier.

Dark Eldar Superheavy [7]

2011-10-01T13:19:00.001-03:00

Work continues on the Dark Eldar Superheavy flyer. I've started coming up with ideas for the nose, and although I have later revised it, the basic construction principle is the same.

Starting with the basic shape on one layer of plasticard, building it up slowly using multiple layers and curving them into the shape that is desired. As with the other components extra bits of sprue and pieces of left over plasticard are recycled into building the inside structural work.

With the sprue bits in place plastic rods were also added to the front which would later on assist in the forward weapon mount.

Then there is the buildup to create the place where the cockpit will go. It it just more plasticard cemented to the other base layers. You can see that it covers over the plastic tubing.

Finally you can see I decided I didn't like the design as is, and I ended up revising the whole thing. The method is the same though, building everything up. Here you can see one of the cockpits added to the center of the design. There's quite a bit of work left to do.

Dark Eldar Superheavy [6]

2011-09-27T12:55:00.001-03:00

This time I'm working on building up some fins for this vehicle, which has been tentatively named Rapier.

The fins are made from plasticard and are in the basic stages on construction. Using a file I have started etching in the rear pattern into the plastic. While I may not end up using all of the fin designs, they may end up getting used in some form of Dark Eldar terrain in the future. Overall, progress is going well on this scratchbuild!

Dark Eldar Superheavy [5]

2011-09-24T00:37:00.001-03:00

The next step in the process is getting both wings together so that the back end of the vehicle will be complete.

Firstly, capping off the top of the central section that will hold the wings together so that it will adhere to the wings better. Here you can see it half open. The other half of the top is also glued on.

Then the wings are glued to this joining section along with some pins through the center to provide some extra stability. The top section then has an additional piece of plasticard placed on top to help hide the join and contribute to the overall curve and downward slope of the wings.

Dark Eldar Superheavy [4]

2011-09-21T20:09:00.002-03:00

The next step with making the wings is to add some additional layers and provide wing curvature. For the additional layers, spacers were added again to add to the existing curvature and the wing end was curved upwards as the rest of the wing will be pointed down once the model is completed. Braces are also taking shape, and the wing is formed! The gaps will need to be filled in and capped off later on in the process. The edges between the lamination will also be taken care of so they are evened up.

Two wings are built in total (which would seem to be obvious). Next thing is the middle section that is designed to join and angle both wings, and will form a part of the hull structure. As this piece is mostly structural, it doesn't need to be nearly as fancy as the others. It is basically a capped off piece of plasticard that is built up into a structure that will hold both wings together.

Dark Eldar Superheavy [3]

2011-09-20T18:17:00.002-03:00

Creating wings is part of the whole process, and I knew exactly what approach I wanted to try when I was working to scratchbuild this time around based on the experience I had gained in doing the other projects.

Being somewhat limited by the physical size of my raw material (which again, is "For Sale" style signs that are a very cheap source of plasticard) meant that I would at least have to build the model in three separate sections. This material is particularly great for lamination as it is thin and flexible, allowing for the creation of shapes that are curved that will hold the shape after completion from the lamination process. Laminating the sheets is fast; with a bit of contact cement they stick together and hold the shape they are set with once the cement is hardened.

I set out starting with one of the wings, using the shape I had come up with as the basis. I knew based on the curves I wanted to achieve that I would need to create an outer and inner wing structure for lamination. Tracing this shape from a template I then cut the plasticard out and began to work on the construction of one of the wings.

You can see the basic shape of a wing below.

Two of these shapes are needed in order to create the inner wing. Spacers made from bits of sprue and PVC piping are used to give rounded shapes and to bulk up the inner wing, while sections not needing the extra dimensionality will be laminated together to form a smooth even curve. Later on these sections will be reenforced to make the wing more rigid. You can see the wing begin to take shape below.

Dark Eldar Superheavy [2]

2011-09-19T18:51:00.001-03:00

So I wanted to continue on with my design ideas, trying to create something that was close in idea to a Vampire sized Dark Eldar flyer. Now, I wanted to move in on some of the elements that make up Dark Eldar distinct from Eldar. While both races tend to use curves in the designs, Eldar typically use convex curves and Dark Eldar tend to use concave. Dark Eldar also tend to be more forward facing and agressive, and while both Eldar and Dark Eldar both use negative space, the darker kin tend to use it very frequently.

I started out using the Vampire as a guide to how I wanted this project to go, making adjustments to the design that made it fall more in line with the Dark Eldar design above. Adding elements that already existed in other Dark Eldar models to get an idea on how it would work on a vehicle that size. Once I had a firm idea on what I was trying to accomplish, I decided to take the time to build a very basic cardboard cut out to put it in perspective and refine my ideas.

Note the image below is a very rough outline and I haven't bothered to put any detailing into it at all, and also it is in two dimensions, only one layer of cardboard thick. The final version will be far far nicer. Shown for comparison is a Void Raven bomber of my design, and a Dark Eldar Raider.

Dark Eldar Super Heavy

2011-09-18T11:20:00.000-03:00

So, what's in a Dark Eldar super heavy vehicle? Something that's obviously in line with the series of Eldar vehicles of that size, and yet still distinctly Dark Eldar. Some would argue that Dark Eldar do not need or would have no use for larger vehicles that would invariably slow down their raids into real space and otherwise present too obvious of a target.

Dark Eldar would have a need for larger vehicles, and even if not directly, then under the aid of Eldar corsairs. Even the Void Dragon Phoenix is available to both the Eldar and Dark Eldar. It stands to reason that they can get at least some support from the skies. Why wouldn't the more wealthy and powerful Archons have access to various technologies to allow them to complete even more daring excursions into real space?

I think with the recent amount of Forge World love the Dark Eldar have been getting, especially with the new Tantalus (which I really hate the name of, but that's another argument), it's quite obvious we will be seeing larger Dark Eldar vehicles in the future.

With that in mind, I decided I wanted to work on a Dark Eldar super heavy vehicle to use in Apocalypse. There is the ever obvious making just a larger raider/ravager, but somehow this idea seems a bit too obvious, and I didn't want to mirror the Falcon to Scorpion kind of transition in the Eldar. What I wanted to do was make my Dark Eldar in apocalypse a force that was based primarily in the air.

I got down to doing some sketching to get my ideas in place, we'll just see where this leads...

Dark Eldar Raiders

2011-07-31T14:25:00.003-03:00

Just some Dark Eldar Raiders that I'm working on.

Dark Eldar Razorwing Jetfighter - WIP

2011-01-29T23:22:00.000-04:00

Some pictures of a WIP Razorwing Jetfighter that I have scratch built. The weapons are pressure mounted, so they can be swapped out.

Dark Eldar on the Battlefield 2

2011-01-09T11:44:00.000-04:00

Here are some more pictures of my Dark Eldar in action, you can even see the Void Raven and a pair of WIP Razorwing fighters!

Razorwing Scratchbuild (4)

2011-01-04T22:35:00.000-04:00

At last I have the bits that I need in order to get this model complete. Just in time too!

One of the bits required is the Fire Prism turret. The reason I'm using this instead of one from a Vyper or a Falcon is because the Fire Prism has a low profile and it is in my opinion the most aerodynamic shape available without having to go to the method of making one from scratch.

Here the upper hull is trimmed and the inside is placed together. The bottom is sanded down so it creates a smooth bottom to attach to the model.

This is where the bend in the hull is needed from the previous step. It allows the trimmed Fire Prism turret to fit snugly in place to the Razorwing hull. The gaps will be filled in later during another step to create a smooth profile and connection to the plasticard hull. This same method was used for the Void Raven.

There is not much more to do now until the filling and shaping the rest of the model. Getting there!