Aeronautica Imperialis Wrath of Angels Asuryani Planes - TO DONE

 

The Asuryani planes from the Aeronautica Imperialis Wrath of Angels box set have been completed. They were a lot of fun to paint in the end, even if they did cause me a bit of pause at the beginning.  I believe these are the first Eldar/Aeldari/Asuryani models I have painted from the 40K universe in some 29 years in the hobby.

I did lots of online research into the icons of the Asuryani; hopefully I have not put something entirely out of place on the planes. I chose to paint these in the general colors of the Saim-Hann Craftworld. I left off the various black lines striping Saim-Hann aircraft for this squadron and just we with some extra black on the flight leader.  I like how the planes came out, and I won't miss the lines even if they would have been more accurate.

The Nightwing Fighters look quite similar.  On all six planes, I put a single black teardrop on the right rear fuselage.  Otherwise the planes have the Saim-Hann icon and the flight leaders bear an infinity loop icon.

Here, I chose some fun alternate Saim-Hann iconography for the the wings of the flight leader in this squadron.  Again, I left off the black lines. The transfer sheet came with symbols for Nightwing fighters, so I put those on the right rear wings, with the craft world icon on the left rear.

So, six planes down and five to go.  I had a great time painting these Asuryani aircraft in the end and will look forward to painting the others in my collection in the future. These were painted mostly in Proacryl paints and I *will* have paint recipes up at some point.  I've been noting all the details as I've gone through the various aircraft; I just have to get them up on the blog.  

Later in the week, I'll post progress on the Astartes aircraft.  As predicted, they have been quick to paint since I knew in advance exactly what I planned to do with them. Not to mention the many, many years of painting other Dark Angels space marine stuff I have under my belt. Check back later int he week if your interested in how they come out.

That's it for now.

Cheers and Happy Gaming!

Aeronautica Imperialis Wrath of Angels WIP - part 2

 

Hello!  Today I bring progress on the Aeronautica Imperialis Wrath of Angels box set. The bases are complete (see below) and I've started in on the planes. By the end of this month, I hope to have this last box set completed as a bonus on the hobby season, before I go back to painting space marines and tiny titans.

The bases came out well, once again.  The painting recipe is working and I'm getting the consistency I want even with gaps between painting projects. This is a good thing, as I still have plenty of bases to paint in the collection.

The Asuryani planes got a solid air brushing with Vallejo Surface Primer Black and then Proacryl Burnt Red.  After that dried, I tried dry brushing Proacryl Bold Pyrrole Red over everything, with some focus on the edges.  This presented a nice highlight and some variation across the surface of the planes.  Next, I applied a shade over everything using a roughly 50:50 mix of GW Agrax Earthshade and custom medium (GW Lahmiam Medium would work).  This had two effects - warming things up a bit with a richer hue and shading all the recesses to add some definition. 

Asuryani Nightwing Fighters

The photos pretty much wash that effect out, unfortunately, but it did make a difference! Now I'm working on the details slowly.  The smooth surfaces and subtle, rounded textures make the detail painting a bit more fussy.  I painted in the spirit stones (yellow/green bubbles) , weapons, air intakes and engines so far.  I don't paint Xenos, so I may be doing these planes a serious disservice.  But in my defense, I've done a bunch or research through the books I have and online to get a sense of the Asuryani (Eldar, Aeldari, etc.) aesthetic.  In the end, I decided to go with the box art. 😂 In the end, I am only aiming for attractive playing pieces for the game board; not some new statement on finery of the Asuryani air crews.

Since I'm batch painting these planes, they are coming out in a satisfactorily uniform manner. I liked the black panels for the bomber flight leader.  I have six more Nightwings to paint, so I'm waiting to pick out a fighter flight leader/ace when I take on those planes. I think I'll be looking at transfers and the cockpit glass next for these planes.  They are otherwise coming along nicely.

 

The Astartes planes have been primed with a base coat laid down over top. I decided to stay with the 40K time period to match all the other planes and not paint these using colors from the Age of Darkness (Horus Heresy).  Since storm eagles land troops, they will be painted in the dark green of the Dark Angels, while the Xiphon Interceptors will be painted in the black of the 2nd company (Ravenwing). Those colors will lend me some variety on the painting table and hopefully won't be too confusing on the gaming table.  I expect that the chapter iconography will tie things together, so we'll see. I like the idea of the Ravenwing providing air cover for the other companies of the chapter as they launch their assaults.

And that's were I'm at, roughly halfway through the month.  The Asuryani have given me pause while I sorted out how I wanted to paint them, but the Dark Angels planes should go much more quickly.  I've painted loads of Astartes stuff and know exactly how I'm going to tackle their planes.  I'm pushing to complete this project in time to start "Squaduary" next month, so we'll see. That's it for now.

Best of luck with your projects.

Cheers and Happy Gaming!