Eldar seer council on bikes

No "hobbying" this weekend. Yup. I am more disappointed than any of you. My plan is to make a step by step guide on how I paint Imperial Fists using a sergeant. First tutorial type posting. I am also planning on trying to make a little "white box" to use when taking photos. Just a cardboard thing I plan on making white somehow.

What I have done is thinking. I do a lot of that stuff:) I have been thinking about making a jetbike seer council. I am far behind on my Eldar and don't expect to have anything playable for quite some time, so I am will just paint models up now and then and not care about lists or anything like that. Maybe I can have a little cache of Eldar for when any future codex hits :)

I have looked around the internet as much as I can to find any good ways to convert farseers and warlocks for jetbikes. I've found some cool looking examples out there, but I haven't found anything that really spoke to me, that really said "that is what you want, that is what is going to be *your* council!" Here's a few really nice examples I've found:

Meandering the dune sea

40k maunderings

moc065

Don't get me wrong, they are awesome, but they don't get me what I want. So what do I want?

* Jetbikes. Don't really plan much here. Maybe a flag or so. Maybe minor GW to make them stand out a bit.

* Farseer. I want a traditionally looking farseer, but I want her to fit on the bike. So robes and runes etc. Should look like it could be an official model. Either a nifty helmet or get an elf head from somewhere.

* Warlocks. Same theme here, but not as elaborate as the farseer.

So what could I do? Weapons seems like I can find in WHFB, but the huge problem is the robes. I can't find any good robed characters I could use that would fit. I don't want leather clothes and a cape/mantel. My thinking is trying to make them with green stuff, and then add some cool details either from other kits or green stuff. Problem is that I am a total noob with the stuff :( Anything I could kit bash would definitely be preferred. I would start with one of the standard riders or a shining spear.

I will put a magnet on the seat of the jetbikes so I can switch out drivers. Just have to solve the handle problem. Either that or remove the handles totally :) And now it strikes me that I could start with any model with good weapons, add the legs from a jetbiker, and have the robes cover the ugly seams. Hmm.

Going with an Alaitoc theme I want to base the bikes in a foundation blue (which I haven't decided) and then try to "stipple" it using an airbrush. Using a few different blue colors and one grey (black might make it look too camo). Paint up the underside in yellow/white, the seat in some other color, use the blue wash in a few places and a thinned out light blue on the edges. Tape off the front for some nice yellow patterns. Freehand/decals might be in it as well.

This is going to be more of a long term project, as the rest of my Eldar, but sometimes it is important to get out of painting the same stuff, and sometimes one has to try new stuff.

Any ideas is *more* than welcome at this point. But before that I have 12 marines and 3 vehicles to finish :)

Finished Meltagun and Sergeant

Here are pictures galore of my newly painted Meltagun Marine and his Sergeant. The banner is magnetized (gives me the option of painting a cooler banner in the future as well as stow it far better in its battle foam case), which I personally think is cool. I intend to give them a good coat of GW Purity Seal and then some 'Ard Coat on the eyes (hoping to make it shine a bit and generally look cool) but other than that they are done.

Notice the white 1 on the side to denote first squad. Also note that if you click to get the larger version you can see what I did to the meltagun. I decided that I wanted a bit more color so I painted it in foundation red and washed it liberally with badab black. Makes an awesome dark red! Maybe I should use that on my termies, together with white (1st company), to break up the yellow. I also plan on adding something dark brown to the wash to darken it more. I don't like a black wash on marines, and I don't like liberal washes on top of yellow (they tend to look kinda brownish and not like shadows on yellow).

Next should be the step by step of the other sergeant, and then termies, lysander, and five more assault marines. Then vehicles:) I should put something up on the side of my blog to show painted and queue!

Misc Imperial Fist WIPs

Time for some general progress. Here's the Sergeants shoulder guard. Looks pretty close to an AoBR one right? Me and my friend green stuff fixed that :) Sorry for the fuzzy shot.

My Sergeant has had his backpack magnetized and so has the banner. Easier to stow it and I can switch them around if I want to. I chose to go with red as that is a common second color for the Imperial Fists and I use that for the eagle on the chest and any fabric on the marines. This is Macharius Solar Orange plus a liberal amount of Baal Red. I am quite happy with the results. I think I will add some writing and probably a "1" for the Squad number. Maybe I should include Chapter (VI) and Company (5th), hmm.

Here's some WIPs of the sergeant and a Meltagun marine. AoBR comes with a flamer and I thought that it would be better to have a Meltagun instead. It should provide some extra potential killingpower if needed. Hopefully the Ass Cannon will clear any vehicles first though :) On the right side you can see my first attempt at some freehand. A simple "1" as a test. I think I need to fill it in with white again and clean it up a bit with black, but I think I might go with it. This way I have not just the arrow but also a number to show that the are the first squad. I might just go for painting on arrows on the second squad. Only time will tell:)

I will glue on the loincloth when I am done painting. Just too hard to get it good before painting everything that is behind, and the meltagun isn't glued on either (finally I was smart enough:)). If you look closely on the power sword you can see that I have used a blue wash on it. Thought that it could be a good base before I paint anything else on it. Still want some lightning on it!

I also have a secret project visible to the left :)