On The Desk - Saim-Hann Wraithguard Part 1

It's about time I did some painting this year! I took a break over Christmas, spent some time catching up with books, films, family, friends, watched Star Wars a lot etc. The break turned out to be a little longer than I expected (Does anyone else find if they take a break from painting they find it hard to restart?) Back in the flow now though.

Just before Christmas I had a little Google Hangout session with Michael Bartels of Painting Buddha and a few other people from the community. It was just a casual chat about the hobby while doing some painting. I decided I wanted a quicker project to paint along with while chatting. Back when the 6^th edition Eldar Codex was released I bought a few models that I've never got round to painting. Amongst these was the redesigned Wraithguard box, a nice plastic kit that was a vast improvement on the old metal monopose models. I assembled them and then they disappeared into my box(es) of shame....until now!

I assembled them all as Wraithblades, the close combat version of Wraithguard as it was new and sparkly and inspired me more for posing. In the long term I'd like to paint each individual model as a different Craftworld, just to try them out. Let's start with one and see how it goes...

I decided on Saim-Hann first, I love the colour red and the colour scheme of black/white/red is a really striking one. Usually I've primed my Eldar white, the bright colours are a bit easier to work over a white prime. Recently I picked up some grey primer so I decided to try that out with a little white over the top for some zenithal lighting. (The picture is pretty poorly lit but hopefully gives you some idea of how it looks!)

You've got red on you. Sorry, I couldn't resist. As some might remember from my recent Warcolours review (link) I compared a few red paints from my collection and Reaper's came out on top. I basecoated the armour with Reaper's Blood Red 09003, it's a wonderful bright red that is perfect for Eldar.

For the lighting situation I decided I wanted the light source to be above, to the right, and slightly in front of the model. I wanted to use colder blues and purples in the shadows of the red to help improve the contrast and reinforce this lighting. I glazed a mix of the base coat with black and some GW Macragge Blue (this is quite a purple-y blue) The photo I've taken doesn't best show this so I've also included a rear shot which is in shade (the pic is taken quite recently so it contains some spoilers of things to come!).

At this point I got 'In The Zone' and continued to work on the contrast of the red, using Reaper Phoenix Red 09005 (which is actually closer to orange) Now you have to be really careful when you highlight red to avoid it looking pink or orange. I very carefully glazed this onto the highest points on the right side of the miniature (mostly the upper area of his chest, shoulder plater and arm) I also painted the helmet and loincloth (although the latter needs more work) with white and glazes of light grey, again considering the lighting. I base coated the back vane and sword hilts with black and painted the head and arm fins (as well as the chest symbol) with Scale 75 Necro Gold (It's possible that I mixed something with this but I can't remember!)

Now as you can see from one shot I've got a lot further with this model but I don't want to ramble for too long so we'll continue next week!