I want to let everyone know, I do more than bitch about 40k. I play, paint, and model go figure! So my summer project this year is Eldar. Last year it was Daemons, thanks to an epic deal I picked up from one local store. I try to spit out an army a year, so far I have a pretty good record. Eldar it is!
As I have said before I am pretty darn lazy. I try to find the fastest techniques with the best results to paint my armies. For my Eldar I am going to utilize my new favorite thing ever, GW Washes. Since they were released last year, I would say they have cut my painting time in half. They are so easy to use and produce such great results, I suggest everyone use them! In my journey to make painting as painless as possible, I came across the technique for my Eldar. Last year my local shop had a painting challenge. It was done during the fall and I used Orks as my army. Each month we would judge a block of models we decided to paint. Anyway, one of the judging periods I came across an Eldar army that looked great. The owner of it happened to be one of the owners of the local shop, (shout out to Anthony of Endgame) I asked him how he accomplished it in such little time.
It was shockingly simple, white primer, wash of your choice, and then detail. I knew that in my hands I could make it even faster. I am all about putting armies on the board. I hate seeing only primed models, but at the same time I am not a big stickler on how they look. As long as the paint job is consistant and has a theme, I am all good. I still had a problem that was plaguing me, what would the paint scheme be? I currently have eight, mostly finished armies. Even though each is a vastly different army, I want to make sure that I do not use the same colors for any of them. Originally I was going to do Craftworld Saim Hann, but they are just too played out for me. Still I wanted a red army. So this is what I settled on.
After going through three test models this is what I ended up with. It fills two colors I do not have, white and red. There is still detail to be done to this model, but I finally have my scheme!
The process is simple, in seven steps.
- Prime White
- Bleached Bone Weapon/Face
- Mechrite Red Helm/Gems
- Orgryn Flesh Weapon
- Devlan Mud Body
- Dry Brush Bleached Bone Weapon
- Dry Brush and Detail with Space Wolf Grey
I found that sticking to the order is the best way to keep things fast and effective. My one problem though with GW washes is they dry too slowly for my likening. I go heavy with them, which causes leakage into areas of a model, which causes havoc for other parts of figure. I will be making an assembly line for about twenty models at a time. That seems to give about the right drying time between models.
With my final test model in hand, I am off! I will try to update my progress on this little project from hell. When I get to tanks that might end up being another story, but we shall see.