Today’s post is about iteration, how satisfying it can be to watch skills improve over time, and grav tanks. We here at the Craftworld Eldar Appreciation Society love grav tanks, yes we do.
It’s been thrown about in our little gaming group from time to time that I have a type when it comes to my hobby. I like my characters a little villainous (or if they’re straight up heroes, a little dumb), and I paint a lot of black-and-off-white. Over the years I’ve done black stormtroopers with white lights, white harlequins with black underclothes, black templars, and a whole craftworld eldar army in Ulthwe colours. That last one is the important one for this post, because I’ve actually worked on 3 Ulthwe armies so far. Sort of.
I’ve spent my last year or so, on and off, revisiting my eldar army. It started with a rebasing, given I’d begun the army (6 years or so ago) with the fastest basing I could think of: Crackle paint, rocks, and not much else. This changed, partly to reflect the army’s lore upon entering the Eridani Sector, but mainly because I was no longer happy with Bargain Basement BasingTM, into a more verdant, Alderaan inspired craggy affair. See below, on a mild spoiler of a freshly painted Warlock.
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| I sense a disturbance in the Skein... |
Job Done, Surely? Nope.
For a time that was enough, I used the army happily and could still continue to do so, they looked good. As I went through other projects, though, I began to notice two things: Firstly, I was getting a lot more precise when I wanted to be, and secondly I didn’t have an army on the go that really tested what I was capable of as a painter. My Templars, Night Lords and Imperial Guard are all fun and rewarding to paint and play, but they’re all being designed to similar briefs that boil down to volume over quality. I realised I was after something I could paint in a more traditional ‘Eavy Metal sort of style, something that would hopefully test me and look good in the process.
Re-enter, Craftworld Ulthwe, for the third (sort of) time of asking. I see it now, I do have a type.
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| Photography is a... skill I'm still getting better at, let's say. Tom's article from a month or so ago is invaluable, but more practice (and paper) is clearly required. |
I started with basic troops, and I’ve got to say, I’m very happy with the results. The comparison with my old guardians is below, but to summarise the main change is the black armour (along with some colour choices on the bone being swapped because I’m colourblind and didn’t realise they were... odd... at the time. Who knew Ulthuan grey was a cold grey?: Not me apparently). The old black was an all over basecoat of Abbadon Black, Corvus Black on the bodyglove, chunky high impact Mechanicus Standard Grey highlight on the plates, job done. It looked... fine... But I can do better. I did better.
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| Get absolutely, utterly iterated upon, cousin. |
New black: Abaddon Black, Corvus Black on the bodyglove, then a 4 stage layer of Corvus Black, Eshin Grey, Dawnstone (the real moneyshot time consuming stage) and Administratum Grey for a satisfyingly crisp neutral black. The rest of the miniature is all just executed better as well, with a few colour changes and more precision at every stage... But essentially, it’s the same thing. Black armour, boney bits, rubies, decorative gold.
Big Tank Doing Big Tank Things
I’ve since moved on and completed (barring a new base - heresy I know) the first Waveserpent in the “new” scheme. As before, it’s a big improvement. Here are two of the old ones:
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| Out with the old... These are several years apart themselves, never mind the one below: |
It’s the same recipes as the guardians, only this time I tried a tiny bit of volumetric highlighting on the curves of the tank itself before getting into the layering on the panels. It’s extremely subliminal, but also a very fast couple of stages, so I don’t mind the extra time spent. Plus it's another thing I can slowly get better at, which apparently I am all about.
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| ...And in with the new. Poor photos aside, I am a happy space elf. |
But Wait, Isn't This Just How Armies Normally Improve Over Time?
That’s the thing, traditionally that's not been my thing, but I think I’m all about self improvement now when it comes to this hobby, which is strange as the not-so-proud former owner of the army Charlie once referred to as “the closest one can get to playing Warhammer with counters.”* It is so satisfying to look at the miniatures I painted a couple of years ago in some cases, compare them to the new ones, and to see just how stark the difference is. It’s a source of motivation to continue and to paint what is essentially becoming a second self-sufficient Ulthwe army, in largely the same scheme with the same basing... Just done to a much higher standard.
I have a personal mental hangup about consistency, in that an entire project has to be painted to the same standard in the name of consistency, even going so far as to not change early design decisions that prove to be inefficient. Perhaps that's why this process is so compelling to me - it really is a second eldar army as opposed to dudes that will look noticeably different to my other miniatures on the tabletop, eventually I won’t have to “sub in” old miniatures at all, and they’ll live in Warhammer Valhalla where they only have to get deployed for Apocalypse... But equally there’s no barrier to entry on what I’m currently painting: Every unit, the moment it’s done, can be deployed and used in a game, since I’ve already got an entire eldar army that’s in a perfectly playable state already that they fit in with.
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| For posterity. |
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