Wednesday, July 18, 2012

12.7.17 Wave Serpent [Updated 12.8.12]

Put another 4.5 hrs into the Wave Serpent up to 5 hrs right now.  Should finish it the next serious session I have.  Won't be tonight.  Shawn and I are rolling some bones to the tune of 1500 pts tonight.  I've never played a game with that few of points.

Last where we left off.

Painting the Wave Serpent was more difficult then I expected.  Guess Fire Prism wasn't difficult because I painted one before and know its knooks and crannies.  Wave Serpent not so much so.  I didn't put it together.  But I can tell you what I would like to do to the person that did put it together.  I want to stomp on their models til they are crying.  How dare they butcher this model.  The perceptive eye will catch the issues.

Surf Aqua is applied.  Figured this Wave Serpent will have the left side of the turret painted and next Wave Serpent will get right side.  Matching but not.  Added little more Surf Aqua to the panel above the pilot.

Shawn wanted a pick of one more panel painted.  He wasn't sure if he would like one addition panel painted each vehicle.  Great thing about these Eldar vehicles is that most panels are smaller than others.  You can paint more panels but it doesn't look like you did.

Forgot to put Surf Aqua on the Wave Serpents field emitters.  Thought about putting another blue on the antenna but Shawn is hesitant to more blue.  He likes the grey as the other half of his Craftworld colour.

Anyone catch what's wrong with this pic?

Turns out there's nothing wrong with the above pic.  While finishing a Wave Serpent I saw in the instructions that is exactly how they indicate to put it together.  Mea Culpa

Chaos Black for engine intake.  Also did sensor array and Buanna.  Started painting pilot as I went along.

Brassy Brass for the small metal bits on the top.  Blood Red for the Twin-linked Starcannon.  Painting that was more difficult than expected.  Should learn for next one.

The belly of the beast.  This gets a single coat of Brassy brass with no detail.

Here's the 1500 pts Necron List I'll be using tonight.

Orikan; C'Tan Writhing Worldscape; 2x 5 Necron Warriors; 2x 6 Canoptek Wraiths 1x 6 Whip Coils, 1x 5 Whip Coils; 10 Canoptek Scarabs; 2x 3 Canoptek Spyders.  1495 pts.

BatRep should land on Fri.

slainte mhath


  1. What was "butchered" about the model, and what was wrong in that picture? I've only been painting for a week or so, just want to see what the mistakes were?

  2. Welcome to painting, Anon 3:04pm!

    If you take a look at the pic you'll notice the Shuriken Cannon, Eldar Buanna, is upside down. For the love of Ynnead why?

    There are globs of super glue in some places that makes the model an eye sore. At least to me. The antenna was broken. Canopy is missing. Which I don't blame because it's difficult to paint inside the cockpit with the canopy in the way. How did you put the canopy on after its glued together? You can't unless you glue it in place. Its meant to flip up. The pilot isn't glued down. He must enjoy bouncing around. Would share more but I'm already past the point of whining.

    Enjoy painting. Take your time. Only thing that is pressuring you is the models. They can be very demanding sometimes.

  3. Actually, I've not gotten around to painting my Wave Serpent yet, I've made a few minor mistakes with my first models, Epoxy glue on Swooping hawks wings, bad idea! I had to re-do it with some super-glue.

    I very nearly put the cannon on upside down too, I let my girlfriend put the cannon onto the mechanical piece but she put it on upside down so I just took it out and put it back in the right way, It was pretty stiff at first and I think to most it's easy to do the wrong way.

    I found out the hard way to use very minimalistic amounts of glue, too much and it just goes everywhere but I've tried filing away all of the excess or accidents.

    For the canopy I've just left the "roof" unglued from the base for now and will glue the canopy on after I've painted the pilot, I can't see how it's meant to flip-up, I can't see that working once it's glued. The antenna thing is bad though, they do give you 2 of them when you only need one after all.

    As I say, I'm pretty new and I think at some point I will probably re-buy or re-paint the models I have because these ones were bought specifically for getting my head around it, So the hawks for example are inconsistent where I've tried different methods of painting.

    1. Samuel, great to hear about your forays into modelling and painting.

      Regarding how the canopy is connected to the skimmer. I was confused about this when I was doing mine some 15 years ago. You'll notice there's a dip in the pilots head rest. This is glued to the top of the seat. You'll also notice a little piece of plastic protruding on the underside of the top. This little piece of plastic ensures the arm of the canopy is seated correctly inside divet of the head rest.

      I have some posts coming of me putting together a Falcon and Wave Serpent. Will put up a pic of how they come together.

      Breaking it down.

      Step one: Put canopy in socket. You'll see how the arm is close to that plastic notch on the inside of the model.

      Step two: As you said, use sparingly amount of glue at corners of the cockpit.

      Step three: Press cockpit up into the model. Hold til you're sure the glue is done.

      Hopefully this helps.

      Welcome to the hobby, Samuel!

    2. Just went and took another look at the Serpent and I see what you mean exactly, Didn't realize this before-hand, Though I'd be a bit concerned that that tiny little bit of plastic is strong enough to be safe to use, and I still think it'll be too difficult for me to paint with the cockpit on, I think I will paint the cockpit and vehicle seperate and then glue it all together, if for whatever reason the cockpit window does break then I will just repair it whatever way seems best.

      I found this mainly because I've been looking around and reading a lot to try and improve my skills as much as possible instead of just being reckless, I know this is just a practice run, but I want to make as much progress as possible and I have to hand it to you, you're blog post has been one of the most helpful I have found, it amazes me how few resources there are that are easily available to beginners but yours really showed me how a more experienced painter would do some things.

      Guess you just keep learning with everything you do.

      Anyway, thanks for the posts, very useful.

    3. Samuel, great eye. A series of posts regading a wave serpent I'm painting and putting together will land tomorrow. I'm doing the exact same. Three pieces. Top of hull, bottom and cockpit. You'll probably see me assembling them in the same way.

      Thank you for the compliment. I agree. A lot of 40k info online is high brow and not easily digestible for greener players or those that don't play as often. That is one party I want this blog to cater to. You telling me that lets me know that I'm doing something right with this blog.

      There will be plenty of content landing here tomorrow. Hopefully some of it will be useful.

      Love your paint brush and it will love you.

    4. I'll be sure to check out your other stuff, It's nice to see things from another person's perspective written with some decent context of what they were thinking and doing instead of the unusually formal things I usually see concerning Wathammer 40k... so yeah I'll be sure to keep an eye out.


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