Sam's Corner: WIP: Ulthwe Eldar

Sam is beavering away at his usual corner. His collection looks to grow even further. Take it away Gamgee! 

Sam: I have started painting the pilot for my Wraithknight. Its been super fun so far as he comes alive with colors. I will be using him as the center from which will inspire the rest of the colors of the Ulthwe Wraithknight.

I decided to the wires and gems a similar color of glowing turquoise to simulate the psychic connection that powers the construct. Also painted his eyes in the same glowing tone of the psycho-connectors.

Side view of the wraithbone chair. I used a basecoat of Khemri Brown followed by a layer of Dheneb Stone. This was followed by a layer of Ushabti Bone.

I then mixed 70:30 ratio of White Scar with Ushabti Bone for the highlights. The recesses were then applied with a watered down wash of Sepia Wash.

The bluish glow of the tubes were painted using Sotek Green as a base. The a mix of Sotek Green and Temple Guard Blue. I layered on pure Temple Guard Blue on the inner/ center of the tubing and gems. Then I added white to the Temple Guard Blue for successive highlights.

Test fit again into the chest of the Wraithknight. I'll be priming the Wraithknight itself soon and also paint up the interior of the chest.

The List: I've come up with a list consisting of mostly Guardians at the core for the Ulthwe army. This would also fit their fluff of their armies being Guardian heavy. I did not give my Farseers any jetbikes as they are in the fluff too old to be zipping around on such steeds. I also did not include any Aspect Warriors at all as most of their Craftworld's people turn to the Path of the Seer.

Ulthwe Eldar Army List (1850 points)

HQ
1 Farseer XXXpts

1 Farseer XXXpts

3 Warlocks 1XXpts

TROOPS

10 Defender Guardians XXpts
Dedicated transport: 1 Wave Serpent (TL-Scatterlaser, Holofields) 145pts

10 Defender Guardians XXpts
Dedicated transport: 1 Wave Serpent (TL-Scatterlaser, Holofields) 145pts

10 Defender Guardians XXpts
Dedicated transport: 1 Wave Serpent (TL-Brightlance, Holofields) 145pts

8 Guardian Jetbikes 1XXpts
2 with Shuriken Cannons

HEAVY SUPPORT

3 Warwalkers 210pts
(3 Scatterlasers, 3 Brightlances)

1 Wraithlord 170pts
(1 Brightlance, 1 Missile Launcher)

1 Wraithknight 300pts
(Suncannon & Shimmershield, 1 Scatterlaser)

Total: 1846 points


I had to separate and place the Warlocks into each Guardian squad as a Seer Council of 2 Farseers and 3 Warlocks on foot would not survive too long in the open. This means my Farseers will be joining a Guardian squad each. However, if I do find my stash of Support Battery platforms I will definitely replace the Wraithlord with them. This means more Guardians as well :)

Hope to get them painted up a bit faster a their majority army color is black.

Have a great week ahead all!

Batrep: Eldar vs Tyranids

So finally after weeks of tweaking his list, Marshall was finally ready to bring his Tyranids out to play with me. I have on the other hand been working on the Eldar army from a modelling perspective. Still lots more to go but I am happy I am getting there. 

Tyranids (Marshall)

Hive Tyrant + Twin Linked Brainleech Devourer Worms + wings  [Warlord]
Hive Tyrant + Twin Linked Brainleech Devourer Worms + wings
Zoanthrope
Zoanthrope
Zoanthrope
Termagants with Fleshborers x19
Termagants with Fleshborers x19
Termagants with Fleshborers x19
Termagants with Fleshborers x19
Hive Crone
Hive Crone
Hive Crone
Biovore x3
Biovore x3
Tyrannofex with Electroshock Grubs

Psychic Powers:
Warlord - Horror, Onslaught
Hive Tyrant - Dominion, Paroxysm
Zoanthrope - Catalyse, Wrap blast
Zoanthrope- Dominion, Wrap blast
Zoanthrope - Dominion, Wrap blast

Warlord Trait:
Strategic with a -1 to my Reserve rolls 

Eldar (Ray)

Farseer: Mantle of the Laughing God, Runes of Witnessing, Witchblade, Jetbike [Warlord]
Farseer: Runes of Witnessing, Singing Spear, Jetbike
Fire Dragons x6: Wave Serpent - Holofields, Twin Linked Scatter Lasers, Shuriken Cannon
Guardians x10: Wave Serpent - Holofields, Twin Linked Scatter Lasers, Shuriken Cannon
Dire Avengers x10: Wave Serpent - Holofields, Twin Linked Scatter Lasers, Shuriken Cannon
Windrider Jetbike x3
Windrider Jetbike x3
Warp Spiders x8
Warp Spiders x8
Fire Prism: Holo Fields
War Walker x3: Bright Lance, Scatter Laser

Psychic Powers:
Warlord - Guide, Misfortune and Prescience
Farseer - Guide, Doom and Prescience

Warlord Traits:
Some silly one that allowed my Warlord and unit he is with to +1 for all run moves. I was mounted on a Jetbike with the Mantle of the Laughing God so this trait was useless.

We played on this new board that Ricco had just finished the night before and it looks awesome. Looked like a daemon world or a world on the brink of collapse after being consumed. Just perfect for our match!

Mission: The Relic
Looked like Farseer Thrandil had to quickly get in and out before the sun rose. The Shield of Directions was sitting right atop the Chaotic atoll and there were all sorts of Tyrannic beasts lying in wait. Mustering the warhost, it was time to snatch it before all was lost in the planet's dying throes. 

Deployment: Eldar centre field

Deployment: left field held with Spiders and the Avengers Serpent

Took the right ruins with my other unit of Spiders

I took the first turn and Marshall did not manage to steal the initiative. Night Fight was in play

Turn 1 Eldar: casted the powers to assist my shooting. Night Fight was in play so that limited my alpha strike. I was really worried about the left flank with 3 Crones flying in. After some shooting, I managed to steal 4 wounds off the Tyrannofex. 

Wounded big fella

At the end of my Turn 1, I did not manage to remove anything. =(

Turn 1 Tyranids: in flew the Crones. I'm glad I didn't move my Serpents up too aggressively which game me one more turn of shooting. Marshall went with a strong left flank which was a good strategy. 

Meanwhile the rest of his big ones pushed up the middle supported by the invisible Crone on the Chaos Shrine

Right side of my field looking precarious

Lost 2 HP to glancing hits from the Tyrant 

Crones everywhere!

Lost 2 of my War Walkers to Biovores and their floaty sacks which apparently can charge on the turn they are dropped

Turn 2 Eldar: Disembarked my Dire Avengers as I expected the Serpent to die the next turn. Also, the additional firepower was going to come in handy to take down one Crone or the Hive Tyrant. 

Advanced my Warp Spiders to try to bring this beast down. No luck. Marshall did not fail a single Grounding Check. 

My 1st Jetbike unit arrived. Advanced the rest of my force up slowly to try to contest the Relic

Combined fire managed to bring down the Hive Tyrant but left the Crones and the Warlord untouched

Turn 2 Tyranids: Marshall proceeded to vector strike all my Serpents. Lost 5 Guardians in the explosion. 

Another vector strike destroyed the Avenger Serpent leaving a wreck. The Vendetta was proxying for a Crone

Dakka dakka left me with 4 Avengers

Tyrannofex reduced this unit of Guardians to 3 men

Turn 3 Eldar: My effectiveness was cut in half in Turn 2. Losing 2 Wave Serpents was a massive blow to my plan. Also, Biovores really did me in. Marshall managed to kill off both units of Spiders. Sheesh! I tried my best to hex his Crones and targetted so many shots into the middle Crone. No luck. Marshall passed all his Grounding tests

Flying monsters can really wreak havoc! They are impossible to hit. I have just found the bane of my list. I need to call in the sky hunter

Turn 3 Tyranids: this time I lost 2 Farseers. I should have joined the jetbike units

Dragons moved up to threaten the Crone

Turn 4 Eldar: Finally managed to kill off one of the Crones (proxy) using combined fire. I had very little left to fight with so threw as much as I could into his Warlord, hoping to score the 1 VP there

Started to shoot into his Gants to try to contest the Relic

Marshall was truly swarming me

Turn 5 Tyranids: the Crone who left earlier re-enters the board. Marshall starts pulling the Relic back to his board edge

This lone Guardian did his best to run and gun

Rule question: can Eldar units charge after they Battlefocus?
Marshall said "no" as the unit would have ran in the shooting phase
I said "yes" as Battlefocus was an extra run
Let me know what you guys think?

Game end

We rolled for Turn 6 but YC rolled a 2 ending the game. Marshall had the Relic, Linebreaker and Slay the Warlord
I had First Blood and Linebreaker

Marshall wins!

A good game nonetheless. It does go to show that the Nids can fight with the right list. I play them too and hope that they work. This game is one such example with the Crones really leading the way. Ld10 and FMC really helps.

Hope you guys enjoyed it! 

X Wing: Swarm vs B's

Swarm those B's to death! 

Had the chance to play X Wing yesterday and boy it was fun. Roy and myself are practicing for the Singapore Championships which will give us a bye at the Nationals in the US. Also up for grabs are the acrylic measurement templates and alternative art cards.

We are still toying around with the builds and just trying to get used to flying. Bumping into each other seem to keep happening...I am a lousy pilot..

Thought I just share this with you guys. Happy gaming! 

Sam's Corner: Eldar WIP: Wraithknights

Sam has just completed some work on his Wraithknight. Look closer and you will spot something interesting within the cavities of this model.

Sam: Its been a while since I posted stuff. I did basecoat my Wraithknights sometime back. I just had time to put on some layers of paint onto the model. The Wraithknight above will be painted in the colors of the Iyanden Craftworld. Very slowly I might add haha! The model is huge! And i'm still getting used to the angles in painting it.

Another Craftworld...Another Wraithknight...
I mentioned before in a previous posts that I'll be re-organizing the majority of my Eldar miniatures to the Ulthwe Craftworld. I've also written up a fluffy list for it which I'll post later. Basically lots of Guardians and a new toy, The Wraithknight to look current ;)

Below is the WIP Wraithknight for my Ulthwe Craftworld. I'll also detail some lessons I learned from assembling the model.

I decided to glue the arms on in a pose that can take the twin Wraithcannons, Sword and Shield as well as the Suncannon and Scattershield. I think the arms can be magnetized without any issue, however, with the addition of the weapons, especially the Suncannon, it can be a bit heavy.

So I chose pinning as a way of attaching and switching the weapons. Above is the Suncannon I pinned.

Above are the corresponding holes for the pins in the arm of the Wraithknight. It fits snugly and holds together well.

For the Scattershield, there is part near the hand that has to be glued on the underside of the forearm. I wanted to still be able for him to wield the Wratihcannon though.

So I just glued the lower shield to the main piece indicated by the red arrow. This way, you will be able to attached the Scattershield onto the arm, without any glue or pinning required.

The pic above shows the front of the Scattershield, with lower portion glued together. This becomes one piece that you can snap onto the forearm pf the model.

Wraithknight Pilot
I had wanted to place a pilot as I was inspired by the fluff that the construct was powered by the psychically attuned minds of Eldar twins, one dead and one alive. To this end, I did some modifications to the chest cavity of the Wraithknight.

I cut away the round concave part that connects the body to the waist. I placed a standard 28mm model base to cover the hole. This acts as a base for the pilot. I attached a plastic gem to the back of the interior. Coincidentally, it fits into the same location as the Eldar symbol on the outer back of the Wraithknight.

I glued the chest piece to the upper headmount. It works well and slides into the main model really well without need of pinning or glue.

I glued the neck to the head. I did not glue the neck to the chest piece. This allows you to turn the head for added poseability.

I assembled the pilot using bits from a spare Eldar Vyper I bought about 10 years back. I added the Guardian body and new Dire Avenger head to the model.

Before gluing this piece in, you just have to ensure it is bent in position so it fits into the chest cavity.

I cut off some of the plastic cabling from the bottom of the chassis and glued it to the pilot's head area to simulate his communion with the construct and the spirit stone of his dead twin located just behind him.

I added a pin to the bottom of the 'seat'. This allows me to remove the pilot to paint up if needed.

The Eldar Wraithknight pilot enjoying his new home. Because the chest piece had to be able to slide out to reveal the pilot inside, I could not glue the shoulder pads onto the main chassis.

I kinda got around this by gluing the shoulder plates to the shoulders itself. It still looks good, and gives the model a slightly broader shoulder profile.

I forgot to take a picture of how I attached the body to the legs. Basically you cut off the rounded portion of the connector of the waist to the body. This is because the underside of the body is not longer concave but flat.

I also added an Eldar posing in the same manner as the Wraithknight at the base of the model. He will be painted in a ghostly, ethereal color scheme. This will be my representation of the ghostly appearance of the dead twin whose spirit is housed within the giant Wratih construct. A good theme for the base would be a dead or deserted crone world with some spirit stones scattered on the base. This represents the Wratihknight in the Hunt for Spirit Stones.

Eldar Spirit Stone Markers
Speaking of Spirit Stones, I have also made some markers for objectives to go with the army.

I basically just greenstuffed the interior of the base and pushed in the plastic gems into it. Added some plastic tree branches from my Wood Elves bitz.

I used the corner of the Wraithknight Scattershield which has some mysterious Eldar writing and pressed it onto the greenstuff base portion. If you look closely, you can see some Eldar script on the ground part :)

I'll probably prime the entire marker and paint the gems later. However, you can also attached the gems later after the base is primed and painted if you like the unpainted look of the gems.

I hope everyone has had a great week. Here's wishing all a Happy Valentine's Day and weekend.

I leave you with a quote from the novelist and playright Marge Kennedy. May you all have joyful and memorable quality time with your loved ones and family.

"The informality of family life is a blessed condition that allows us to become our best while looking our worst."- Margaret Kennedy