I thought I would be done with this template by now, but parts are getting very difficult.  The vanes on the front fins went through several revisions (mainly the little humps they connect to) before I found one that had a good balance between simplicity and looking the part.  Now the weapons for the upper turret, the underside weapons and antennae and the undercarriage detail are giving me hell.  I also have to take breaks on this to finish my articles and build various print & play games to review, so its going to be another week or two before this thing is finalized.

The paper version is on the right in both pics.  The model in the left is a plastic kit I assembled and painted that I’m using for reference.

So here’s the work I’ve got done on making a paper Eldar Wave Serpent today.  There is still a lot of work left, but the basic shape is done.  The engine intakes need to be adjusted to look properly round from all angles, then the paneling detail around the edges and the vents behind will be worked into the engines.  The troop compartment is done, as is about half of the underside.  I still have no clue how I’m going to go about making the weapons options for the turret.  Flat weapons wouldn’t work for something this large, though rounded tubes would make the bright lances look more like long barreled lascannons.  Oh well, I’ll figure something out.  I should have the intake vents and the engines finished tomorrow.  If all goes well, the kit will be online before I leave for the beach this weekend.

Just finished the armature for a larger version of the T-rex cake I’m doing as an entry to the NC State fair cake competition.  Going to deliver a flapping butterfly pop-up card a friend commissioned for his wife for their anniversary in the morning.

Oh, and I have an Eldar Wave serpent and some calipers out on my desk with corel pulled up.  Guess what’s going to be in paper soon?

I’ve had these finished for a while now, but broke them out last night for some photos.  T-Pain (Short for Talos Pain Engine) works amazingly well with my allied Wraithlord.  Larry here usually bites the dust after he and his wracks burninate a squad, but Anthanaz and T-Pain are amazing in 6th ed.  Need a bastion smashed?  Warlord wrecked?  Dominate a daemon prince?  They’re up for it.

I decided to add some craftworld allies to my Dark Eldar army.  Went for a white and red color scheme.  The little dragon skull is a pain to paint on everything.

I still need to do a bit of work on the wave serpent.  I plan on using it to shield my wraithlord and talos while they trudge across the board since it’s AV12 and hard to score a penetrating hit against.

Here’s my wraithlord, Athanaz.  Went with a single brightlance for the weaponry.  Its nice that the kit comes with multiple arm poses, but I really wish they would have done the same with the legs.  Had to chop them up into segments, drill a large hole in the lower thigh and upper shin to pin it together with a hollow metal tube that could be bent to the desired pose and greenstuff the joints back.  Hollowed out the front knee section and popped it back on.  That’s a whole lot of work for just a slight change to the pose, but it does make the model look more interesting.  The brightlance is held onto the handle grip by two metal pins so I can swap it out for the other weapon options.  If I want to use the wraithsword, I’ll just leave the brightlance on since I used some leftover talos bits to make an in-built executioner blade on the end.  The spiked forearm guards from the talos kit fit unnaturally perfect over the wraithlord’s shins.  They snapped on without glue and the cuts in the edge slide perfectly over the soulstones in the sides of the lower legs.

Another shot of Athanaz.  I used the metal spikes and blades bits from the talos kit in place of the back “wings”.  This gives it more of a corsair look that helps it fit in with my dark eldar forces.

My Dire Avengers.  I like how they look, but they’re less effective than kabalite warriors while costing several points more.  I built an exarch for them, but the bladestorm ability is overrated in my opinion.  Using just five dire avengers is the cheapest option for allied troops in terms of points, so I guess the serve their purpose even if they perform lousy in-game.

My farseer on jetbike.  I call him Ohno.  The jetbike is made from the front plate of a new style reaver, the main chassis and guns of a craftworld eldar jetbike, leftover blades from a dark eldar raider and the engine from an old style dark eldar reaver.  I used a 40mm base and a modified building buttress as a stand.  I never really spent too much time on basing, but I tried some new things with these guys.  The little green tuft things look ridiculous when they’re just in your hand, but make convincing shrubbery once applied to a textured base.

Here’s two figures I painted up for a friend at the local gaming shop.  Dude painted his Black Reach dread up so bad I told him I’d re-paint it free of charge just to help him out.  My thought was that if he had a nicely painted centerpiece to the army, he might try and take a bit more time painting the rest of it to match instead of just splotching white and red paint on his figures in a few areas.  He mentioned wanting to try out a chaplain, so the figure here was built from random leftover parts in my bits box.  Plague marine head modified to be a skull helm, Fantasy staff and backpack decorative bit made into a crozius.  I like to modify the backpacks on chaplains to have skulls for the exhaust vents.  You can see the freehand on his chapter symbol shoulder, but there’s also a neat looking painted skull that takes up his entire right shoulder as well.  All in all I’m pleased with how they came out.  

I still have to go back and make the jewels inserted into the left skyboard orange, but other than that, these two hellions are now done.  THe one on the right is riding the decorative skyboard from an earlier post.