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Warhammer 40K Eldar War Walker


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Hi all,

It's been a while since my last WIP and I've done almost naff all in-between. I started this build yesterday while I had some 'quiet time'. I had to sell 90% of my stash a few months ago but on the positive side, this is the perfect opportunity to build a budget kit...


1. ...Which this isn't. There's a new Games Workshop store literally down the road from college. A while back, I needed some blue paint for a sculpture but came out with this £18.50 kit and no blue paint... Nice shop full of friendly people, shame their products are so expensive.


2. The kit is very nicely moulded, with fast and easy assembly in mind as the aim is to build a large army. There's not that much to this kit, so it looks set to be a quick WIP which suits the 'Half Term' holiday! The decal sheet is pretty good with a massive range of markings, some in pearlescent finish.


3. Even though this is all fantastical, there is literally a by the book way of going about this but you can paint your model/army however you want, which I will do... Whilst I was building/cleaning up sub assemblies yesterday, I lined up a few basic military style schemes:


Grey (XF-24 base with XF-66 shadows and XF-53 highlights)

Brown (XF-64 base with X-9 shadows and XF-52 highlights)

Olive (XF-51 base with XF-62 shadows and XF-49 highlights)


I'm going for the olive scheme as I'm fond of the look of Vietnam era Cobra and Huey's, battered olive drab with bits of wild colour here and there. Not too fond of the wacky 'race car' type paint schemes that are the norm with this stuff!


4. First off, the black parts. I mixed too much black paint (XF-1), so I had a little try at 'pre-shading'. Bit pointless as I'm supposed to be using the colours to do this...


5. Khaki Drab base (XF-51). The black 'pre-shade' actually seemed to work quite well but I kept on layering on more paint until it was barely noticeable... Now I will have to rely on the colours for effect!


6. Later yesterday night, I applied the Olive Drab shadows (XF-62) and Khaki highlights (XF-49). At the time, the effect seemed too stark, so I misted over the base and highlights with over-thinned Khaki. I might have gone a bit too far as the model looks quite dusty from a distance...


7. ...Close up, it looks O.K. I was a bit more sensible with regards to the cockpit and operator, the colour blends and highlights are much better to my eyes. This is my first attempt at painting these things, pre-shading and simulated lighting so it's a bit of a curve!


I also brush painted the black details with black (XF-1) and rubber black (XF-85), Tamiya flat paints brush surprisingly well when thinned a little. A gloss clear-coat was applied after the black paints had dried.


8. With the gloss clear-coat given almost 24hrs to flatten and cure, I'm back on it this evening. I've not had much success with Tamiya gloss clear but this time it worked really well. After some trials, I found that a slightly 'over-thinned' mixture first misted on then followed by a wet coat after an hour, yielded the best result.


9. I thought it best to add a little colour to one of the legs, so I did this while rotating around applying the decals. Looks like something psychedelic is happening... I'll probably opt for a semi-gloss finish as the Tamiya flat clear-coat is quite tricky to use...


This leg and the areas with the decals have been since been sealed with a gloss clear-coat. I'll leave the model for 48hrs so that the clear-coat can flatten and cure before moving onto the oil based stuff.


More to follow soon, thanks for looking.


(Images removed on request of new owner)

Edited by LeVi Tophatter
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Interesting choice - I always thought this was one of the weirder Eldar vehicles since it's a robot with a bloke in, rather than some mystical space chariot for ghosts like most of their stuff :)

It'll be interesting to see it in a military scheme. It ought to make quite good visual sense, what with the curvy shape (stealth) and all those lumps and bumps (ECM blisters). Are you going to use any of the decals?

Will

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Hi all,

Interesting choice - I always thought this was one of the weirder Eldar vehicles since it's a robot with a bloke in, rather than some mystical space chariot for ghosts like most of their stuff :)

It'll be interesting to see it in a military scheme. It ought to make quite good visual sense, what with the curvy shape (stealth) and all those lumps and bumps (ECM blisters). Are you going to use any of the decals?

Thanks Will. When I was in the store, the manager did mention that these things had 'the spirits of the fallen' operting them, which is nice... Personally, the Eldar stuff have the best aesthetics from all I've seen, I might get the pack of 3 small 'robots' with the swords next...
I've only used a few black decals, so the rest of the sheet isn't needed. PM me if you want it. BTW, your Terminators are really nice, the shading is excellent.

I like it, I agree with the expensive bit i rather fancied the bigger eldar walker but at £70 ish its rather hard to justify.

Thanks Charley. I was eyeing that one up too! It looks very fast and stealthy, I can imagine it in satin black, it's flaming massive though with a price tag to match (£90!). BTW, Kawasaki ZZR? In green... Lovely!

I was tempted to do something similar with a Tau Battlesuit, in a splinter vietnam paintjob. Got to agree with you about the stores though, brilliant staff, can tell they enjoy their job.

Thanks Breaker. When I was in the store, it was either this or the Tau anime style 'walker' (hence why I had the shade of browns). Vietnam splinter, great idea! You know, I was actually toying with the idea of doing the Vietnam era USMC 'Tiger Stripe' pattern for the operator and the top 'shield' of this model, chickened out though...

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Just a short update for today. I did some of this yesterday but couldn't post because the website was down.

10. Well, it looked pretty hippy and psychedelic while in progress but the reality is that its as hard edged an orderly as 'the man'. I like it a lot though, stops the model from being too drab... ^_^

Matt White (XF-2)
Gloss Yellow (X-7) over the white
Gloss Red (X-8), over the yellow, what a difference this makes!
Gloss Blue (X-4), over the red. Came out much darker as the blue paint is slightly translucent... <_<

11. Decals and a bit of dry-brushing done in-between the stripes. Not a lot at all, just some black 'unit' markings and some colour 'data stencils'. The decals worked very well with Micro Set/Sol.

12. On Wednesday, I did a little dry brushing with Humbrol enamel paint on this section of the model. For some reason, these enamels are not like I remembered them, the matt black was just an horrid oil sludge and this pot of grey has taken 2 days to touch dry, I had to put it in the oven to cure... They were thoroughly mixed and stirred as per the directions.
The model has been given a semi-gloss clear-coat today, I'm just waiting for it to cure before assembling the model. Should be done tomorrow!
More to follow soon, thanks for looking.
(Images removed on request of new owner)
Edited by LeVi Tophatter
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Hi all,
It's the final leg, so just a short update.

13. The semi-gloss clear-coat went on just as well as the other Tamiya paints, it did a good job of 'flattening' the different paints into a visual single layer. Some minor details such as the operators 'eyes' were brush-painted too.

14. As good as the Tamiya thin cement is, it takes ages to cure and it destroys painted surfaces... Call me OTT but I had to break out the 5min epoxy to join the to halves, after putting a brass pin through the joint. Peace of mind I suppose. ^_^

15. The fit of the screen is quite poor, so I contemplated leaving it off. Kind of looks better on, so out with the 5min epoxy again... I painted up most of the screen panels to give it that 'Hill Billy Armour' look. The weapons shoulder mounts were a snug push fit, the weapons can be positioned at any time if need be...

Well, it's over. I really dragged this WIP out a bit so apologies for boring anyone. Some more images of the finished model can be found here:
Thanks for your time and interest.
(Images removed on request of new owner)
Edited by LeVi Tophatter
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