More commission work: Carcharodons Astra Terminators and Eldar Rangers

by | Sep 11, 2016

I spent a lot of time on commission pieces this week, and the result was that I managed to finish off the squad of Terminators that I recently showed WIP on the blog and also complete some Eldar Rangers. 

Let's start with the Eldar miniatures: a five-man squad of Rangers...

I enjoyed painting these models, and they were a welcome respite from the rank-and-file Eldar troops. Although they share some attributes with the Dire Avengers that I fishiness during the summer, the Rangers also have just enough variation to mark them out as specialist recon troops. 

The downside to this little band is that they are one of the legacy Finecast moulds... I can still remember GW's hype when metal started to go plastic, and the fantastic promises model-makers were given as to better detail and better materials. That didn't quite pan out! These guys had absolutely tons of sprue vanes and some very invasive mould-inlets; they took an age to cut, file and then file with greenstuff. Oh well, at least most GW models are now in plastic!


I went with a similar palette to the Dire Avengers, and in particular I used bone coloured armour so that the models tied in with the Eldar tanks I've been painting for the same army. I decided to use a lighter blue for the camo-cloaks, and used a darker grey to mark out some patterns on the cloaks: nothing too extreme, but a muted scheme which I felt was inkeeping with the Eldar's war-ethos. 

In other news, I've also now touched up and finished off the Space Sharks Terminator squad that I finished a couple of weeks ago. 

 It was a lot of fun returning to this scheme, and I'm pleased with how the models worked out.

The largest change between these images and the lost ones I posted are that I've added some scraping and minor damage across the models. Using Rhinox Hide and a small sponge, I added small bits of battle damage across the models. It's not that easy to make out on these photos, but it's a characterful little technique which reinforces the Space Sharks' crusading nature.

I also added gloss varnish to the lightning claws. The show below shows the effect I achieved on the claws.

 
So what's next? I'm about to start work on an Eldar Fire Prism, and I'm also garnering bits for a Tyberos model to lead the above squad.