I’ve spent the last week or so painting all the parts for my Guardian bikes in sub assemblies. There is not much to say about these. As usual with the Eldar, I am mostly mindlessly painting gems of which there are 21 on each bike and 6 per rider. I have enjoyed the ease of access to all parts by painting while disassembled like this, especially important as the rider is crouched so low over the bike which would make painting a nightmare if they were assembled.
Sticky Resin
While working my way through the parts I have found a few of the bits I cast have developed a persistent sticky quality, even after painting and varnishing with gloss varnish. Upon reading around, I believe this is the result of either poorly mixed or poorly measured resin. Probably the latter given I got quite lazy with the measurements towards the end and started pouring it by eye. I figured with such small amounts, eyeballing it would be doable and anyway, what’s the worst that can happen?.
Well now I know… sticky models. They are so sticky they will inevitably collect dust, bits of flock and who knows what else, and will be ruined fairly quickly meaning I’ll have to redo them. Not to mention I have no idea what will happen to the paint job and the varnish. It’s almost as though the stickyness is either oozing through the paint and varnish, or it’s reacting to make the paint and varnish itself sticky. So, lesson learned – always measure your resin with a digital scale!
Canopy Transfers
It is a sad truth for collectors of Alaitoc Eldar that the Craftworld symbol is aesthetically less interesting than basically every other Craftworld, with the only possible exception being Iyanden, in my view. I’m always particularly jealous of Saim Hain players with their awesome snake especially when it comes to Windriders and their even-more-awesome twin snakes. So I felt that I’d need to do something different with the Windrider canopies than just live with the sword icon, and tried out a few combinations of transfers before settling on this design.
I know the falcon design is strictly speaking meant for Falcon grav tanks, but I like how this combination incorporates both the Alaitoc symbol and a design that nods to the name of this unit which I have christened Falathlon’s Hunters. It seems fitting that a unit as distinctive as this should have their own personal “heraldry” as well as the Craftworld symbol.
In the background you can see the riders who are only waiting for some superglue as everything on them is painted. I’m particularly pleased to have a mixture of Reaver and Storm Guardian heads making up my Windriders.
Sorry about the rushed photography, by the way. Better photos will of course follow at the end.