NOCF Fall Charity Raffles ending soon!

Howdy folks! Just a reminder that there's only two days remaining to pick up tickets for the fall session of charity raffles from the Nova Open Charitable Foundation, which includes a mess of Bark Eldar, I mean Exodite Aeldari!

 

For a mere $5 you can enter for a chance to win these pointy-eared gits, as well as all sorts of awesome other models!

The raffle launched on Monday, October 15, and runs until November 25, so there's just a few days left to get your tickets - the money goes to a number of fantastic causes! 

Here's the scoop:

• Tickets are available from novaopenfoundation.org

• We will ship to winners anywhere in the world (with a valid mailing address)

LINKS:

Home Page                 https://novaopenfoundation.org/

Links to the various raffles below!

Armies                         

·       2018 FALL ARMY: 40K Board Game, The Lost Patrol

·       2018 FALL ARMY: 40K Exodite Aeldari

·       2018 FALL ARMY: Dark Age Forsaken St. Isaac Army

·       2018 FALL ARMY: FOW Mid-War Italian Tank Company

·       2018 FALL ARMY: FOW Team Yankee – American Armored Cavalry Company

·       2018 FALL ARMY: Necromunda Underhive

Models

·       2018 FALL MODEL: 40K Nurgle Chaos Knight

·       2018 FALL MODEL: Banshee Anonymous Bust 1.0

·       2018 FALL MODEL: Banshee Anonymous Bust 2.0

·       2018 FALL MODEL: Ogre Bust

Cheers everyone!

NOCF Fall Charity Raffles are live! Featuring some familiar pointy-eared gits...

I've been a little remiss in my blogging this month (been a bit of a rough ride) but I wanted to help spread the word about another set of awesome charity raffles the folks from NOVA are putting on - Quite a few awesome armies and individual models, including a set of Exodite Aeldari that may look familiar!

 

For a mere $5 you can enter for a chance to win these pointy-eared gits, as well as all sorts of awesome other models!

The raffle launched on Monday, October 15, and run until November 25, so there's still plenty of time to get your tickets, and the money goes to a number of fantastic causes! 

Here's the scoop:

• Tickets are available from novaopenfoundation.org

• We will ship to winners anywhere in the world (with a valid mailing address)

LINKS:

Home Page                 https://novaopenfoundation.org/

Links to the various raffles below!

Armies                         

·       2018 FALL ARMY: 40K Board Game, The Lost Patrol

·       2018 FALL ARMY: 40K Exodite Aeldari

·       2018 FALL ARMY: Dark Age Forsaken St. Isaac Army

·       2018 FALL ARMY: FOW Mid-War Italian Tank Company

·       2018 FALL ARMY: FOW Team Yankee – American Armored Cavalry Company

·       2018 FALL ARMY: Necromunda Underhive

Models

·       2018 FALL MODEL: 40K Nurgle Chaos Knight

·       2018 FALL MODEL: Banshee Anonymous Bust 1.0

·       2018 FALL MODEL: Banshee Anonymous Bust 2.0

·       2018 FALL MODEL: Ogre Bust

Cheers everyone!

40k Exodite Eldar - Wraithblades complete and army complete!

After a loooong hiatus rife with technical difficulties uploading pics to my website galleries, I'm happy to report that the Exodites of the Tanelorn Wood are complete! Finished off the final unit of wraithblades (pics below), then schlepped the whole force down to the local GW shop for a family photo!

This was the first time I had them all out at the same time, and I gotta say I'm well pleased with how the colors flow across the army, it's cohesive and contrast-y without being too garish (or as least as subdued as purple, yellow and green can be)!

While I was about it I broke out the lightbox and re-shot the whole force for a final record before they wing their way to their next destination (more to come on that front).

HQ - Avatar, Spiritseer and Seer Council, all got the ghost-green treatment to help denote their mystic connections.

TROOPS - The Glade Guardians and the Rangers are more in the orange hues, in a somewhat ham-fisted attempt to make them autumnal. May have over-corrected into hunting-season blaze orange!

ELITES - The surprisingly-simple-to-convert Wraithguard and Wraithblades add some punch to the force, and the addition of an old-school Bonesinger to help keep 'em up and fighting can't hurt!

FAST ATTACK - The second-creepiest models in the force, the Wasp Assault Walkers are a natural counterpoint to the big-ass spider coming up in the next section!

HEAVY SUPPORT - The conversion that started this whole silly idea, the wraithlord is probably my favorite conversion of the bunch. That said, the Nightspinner is by far the creepiest!

Where would a project-complete post be without some spreadsheet porn? It always feels good to turn that last box green!

Next up, back on the Heresy train! With NOVA coming up in just a few short months, I need to finish off the force intended to travel out to D.C...

40k Exodite Eldar - The armies of the Tanelorn Wood grow!

After going hard for heresy for the last several months I needed a change of pace for a bit to recharge the ol' hobby mojo. The Exodites of the Tanelorn Wood were brought back out of the Closet of Doom and I set about polishing off the various primered and half-painted models from when I'd left off previously!

The force up to this point was lacking in the requisite number of Troops choices, so the first thing was to rectify that situation with a pair of Ranger squads. Rather simple but effective conversions, comprised of Wildwood Rangers and Dark Eldar warrior arms and weapons that have been de-spiked a fair bit.

Not entirely sure that blaze orange is particularly stealthy - Safety first when it's Mon-Keigh hunting season!

Pretty jazzed with how the Spiritseer of the force turned out - She incorporates a little bit of all the design elements from the rest of the force, and ended up with a great swirly sense of motion!

Next up was the Fast Attack section of the force, with a trio of counts-as Wasp Assault Walkers. Nothing wrong with six shuriken cannons dropping in from above to decimate soft targets - Tried to incorporate the same colors on the flies as the ones on the spider toting the Nightspinner, so gross!

While they're still pretty nobbly and disgusting, I had filled in the worst of the raw open wounds so they aren't quite as Nurgle-y but I sort of like the idea that the depths of the forest are corrupt, and the Exodites both battle and use the grotesque life on their planet.

All that remains at this point are the last five wraithguard armed with twin swords and the project will be complete!

Exodite Eldar - Wasp Assault Walkers Built!

Quick hit today, with the addition of a trio of new models for the Exodites - Counts-as Wasp Assault Walkers, using the Forge World rules.

The initial intent was to use the Stormcast Vanguard Palladors to do jungle-cat-based War Walkers, but I just couldn't figure out a good combo of bits to make the combo work. So, inspired by a fellow Exodite builder on Instagram I utilized the Blight Drones instead, which in the end I think will tie out with the giant spider quite well. I used some greenstuff to fill in the more egregious open sores to de-Nurgle them a little, and the end result is both creepy and fitting!

Once the first one was built, the following two just flew together (pun definitely intended)! Really looking forward to getting started on them, though a new project is also underway behind the scenes, following the successful sale of the Thousand Sons and Spireguard. Woohoo!

40k Exodite Eldar - Night Spinner painted!

So I'm reasonably arachnophobic - This project is NOT helping! Heh. After getting the Night Spinner built I wanted to get some paint on it so dived right in!

Sticking with the color scheme laid down on the force so far, the beast got a purple carapace to match the smaller beetles on the earlier models. It is a LOT of purple though, I'm thinking it needs some stripes or dots of a contrasting color to give it a bit more zing. That means doing google image searches of spiders which is not my cup of tea to say the least!

The wood and bone of the howdah contrast nicely with the gribby beast below, and hopefully sell the Night Spinner idea - The hallmark of a good counts-as army is that it's immediately apparent to one's opponent what each model is intended to represent.

Overall I'm pretty happy with how the howda turned out - I didn't want to just plonk a turret on top and call it good, so tried to get the "lashed in place" look with the wood and webbing. Really looking forward to getting on the table - This army may be the one that gets me to actually play a game of 8th edition!

40k Exodite Eldar - Rangers and Nightspinner built!

Not a whole lot of brush time of late with Real Life(tm) munching up more of my free time than I'd prefer, but nonetheless the work continues on the Exodites of the Tanelorn Wood.

The force needed a couple more troops choices, and I knew I wanted to do a squad or two of Rangers. A fairly straightforward kitbash, the legs, torsos and heads are from the Wildwood Rangers matched with de-spike-ified splinter rifles. Simple but effective!

On the other end of the spectrum, the far more complex Night Spinner has taken shape and as a professed arachnophobe this particular part of the project has been thoroughly uncomfortable for me. Hah! It was a toss-up between the Fire Prism and the Night Spinner for the "tank", and as I've been going with a beetles and bugs and assorted creepy-crawlies the opportunity to mix in the Arachnorok Spider was the more theme-y option it seemed.

I didn't necessarily just want to plonk a Night Spinner turret on the back of the spider and call it a day, the aesthetic called for a more overgrown look, and I tied to make it seem as though the craftworld-y weapons platform is lashed in place with more natural building materials. Overall I think it works without being too busy, but we'll see how it paints up! It's certainly already creeping me out...

40k Exodite Eldar - Avatar of the Tanelorn Wood painted!

Sometimes what makes sense in the mind's eye doesn't necessarily translate to the miniature and today's model is a case in point I'm afraid! The seed for the Exodite army I've been working on was centered around the idea that the Sylvaneth Treelord model would make a cool Avatar, and that jumpstarted the whole project. Finally got around to getting some paint on him and the irony is that for it being the model that got me into the project, it turns out to be the one I'm least happy with overall. Doh!

The main issue is one of colors, I knew that as the model was a vanilla build, I needed to rely on the paint scheme to drive home its Avatar-ness. That meant a fiery burning interior and the bloody hand - Simple enough! What I hadn't really taken into account was the fact that on the earlier models I'd gone with an autumnal color scheme which is also heavy on the yellow/orange/red spectrum which meant once it was all combined the model is just sort of a mooge of those colors. It turned out all right, but isn't particularly striking - for all of the colors it still feels a little monochrome.

That's not to say that I am completely displeased. I rather like how the ember-to-charcoal-to-wood transition worked on the model, and while it could be a little more refined I'm pretty happy with it as a first time try! The bloody hand turned out pretty decent as well, with a nice gory drippy feel to it.

The little green of the grass on the base helps the model pop a little, and I quite like the small leaf litter that ties together with the leaves on the model. Overall I'm only about 75% pleased with how it turned out. Workable but not particularly exciting - Part of me wants to start over with a new version and do a witchy green internal flame rather than the orange-y red. Probably a better way to go from a pure color theory standpoint!

On the other hand, I started laying in the base colors on the Wraithguard squad and am much more pleased with how they're coming along!

40k Exodite Eldar - Glade Guardians and Bonesinger painted!

In between alternately slicing open and gluing my fingers together while working on the wraithguard, I got some brush time in and finished up the first squad of Glade Guardians and a Bonesinger (Woodsinger?) to accompany the various wraith constructs the force will include.

Keeping the same scheme as the Wraithlord from earlier meant that the armor would be varying tones of brown and bone, which meant for quite a while during the process the models looked TERRIBLE. Gotta love that interim stage in the painting process where you can't help but think to yourself "Well, these look like garbage!". Persevered and got the oranges, reds and yellows in place and they started to look a bit more autumnal - I think they'll fit in nicely now!

Due to the fact that the force is going to include a ton of wraith constructs, I dug out an old Bonesinger that had been rattling around in the Closet of Doom for ages. From an aesthetics point of view he's not particularly converted other than the addition of some bugs (a common theme across the force). It was fun to finally paint a model that's been languishing for well over a decade!

Apparently they did a brief re-release of the model late last year, and included a set of rules for him for 8th. Perfect timing!

As alluded to above, I spent a little more time hacking apart the plastic kits and finished up the first full unit of Wraithguard (Branchwraiths?). Really pleased with how they've come along, and can't wait to get some paint on 'em. Now if only it wasn't currently snowing outside I could get them primed!

As the Kurnoth Hunters come three to a box, there was one leftover body, so I took the opportunity to test build the first of the Wraithblade models - I think I'm going to do a 5-strong unit with twin swords and a 5-strong unit with axes and shields. The running poses of the Hunter models lend themselves well to the melee style wraithblades, not to mention it opens up the pose a bit allowing for the cool hollow torso detail to be seen (well less so in this picture, but still). At this point I ran out of bits and have to wait a week or more for the next order to arrive, but all in all the army is shaping up nicely!

40k Exodite Eldar - Initial Wraithguard models built!

Some kits came in today that allowed me to get cracking on the first three test models for the Wraithguard units I have planned. I knew I wanted to build something that had similar design cues to the Wraithlord from earlier, which meant figuring out how meld similar Eldar bits onto the Kurnoth Hunter bodies. After a bit of dry fitting and trimming it all came together surprisingly well!

Started off by trimming down the "collar" from the Wraithguard kit, as I knew I wanted to continue the use of the Eldar heads mated onto the Sylvan bodies akin to the Wraithlord. Similarly, the neck was trimmed down a bit to accept the collar.

The D-Cannon was carefully trimmed away from the arm, leaving the hand and hose intact. I pulled a likely-looking candidate arm from the Hunters kit and trimmed out the sword.

I found a reasonably straight left arm to match up with the D-Cannon's other fist and then did a bunch of dryfitting until I was reasonably sure all the pieces would go together (with the addition of a little greenstuff here and there of course).

All the dry-fitting and pondering over the various bits paid off, and the initial test model ended up pretty much matching the vision I had in my head, and fit together surprisingly well - Better than I had expected, for sure!

After getting my eye in on the first model, the next two virtually flew together! I do have a bit of a conundrum however - The Kurnoth Hunter models come three to a box, while the Wraithguard are squads of five. That naturally means that I am more or less obligated to make fifteen of them, right? Considering doing five each of D-Cannon, D-Scythe, and twin Wraithblade-armed models...