Warhammer 40,000 2nd Edition Painting Challenge Month One
Right under the wire for December, these Swooping Hawks descend onto the Internet with screeching lasguns!
I chose this squad for a couple reasons: namely, that in my twenty-plus years of collecting and painting Eldar, I've never painted a Swooping Hawks squad before! The second reason is that I thought it would be good to start off the challenge with an Aspect Warrior squad, seeing as I'm adhering closely to the 'Eavy Metal Warhammer 40,000 Painting Guide from 1994, and Aspect Warrior color schemes are pretty standard. The third reason is simply that I really like jump pack troops. Ever since I was twelve and took part in a summer event at my local Games Workshop where some kid annihilated me with his Blood Angels Assault Squad.
The above picture is the four-step process that Mike McVey outlines in the painting guide. The hitch for me was that the guide called for Horizon Blue, which I don't own. Luckily in the Armies of the Imperium supplement for the second edition of Epic Space Marine has a color section in the middle of the rulebook, which details all the color recipes for the paints from the not-yet-released Epic Battles Paint Set, which included Horizon Blue. Turns out it's just Enchanted Blue with Space Wolf Grey mixed in. With that settled, I was able to go from the Enchanted Blue you see on the left, to the Horizon Blue you see on the rest of the examples.
You'll also notice that I painted my Exarch a different color scheme. This was also sort of the norm back then, as you can see in the below pic from the same page.
I don't know why that is, nor do I actually know how they achieved the above result, but I figured out how to reverse-engineer it as best I could. Actually, looking at it now, I bet you they used Ork Flesh for the end of the rifle instead of Woodland Green, which I used. That's okay, I don't own Ork Flesh yet.
You'll notice that I eschewed the traditional Goblin Green bases. I mentioned why in the second-to-last paragraph in my introductory post, so go read that before you charge me a heretic.
So I had a good time painting these guys, despite having to use a back-up painting lamp as I'm in-between my old one breaking and my new one being lost in the mail. I also underwent an inter-building apartment move and a full-season of Christmas retail, while working on these guys. Next month I'm back to two classes at my local technical institute, as well as work, so it's really a toss up whether I can finish ten Guardians (I still think I can do it).
It's always important when painting to be happy with your results, but look for ways to improve. I'd like to try black-lining a bit more, which is tricky, as it was recommended that you prime with white in all these painting guides. I also need to work on my paint consistency more. I've noticed I'm still getting some chunky and streaky results, and I think that's because I'm not thinning my paints enough. This is also tricky, as the old paints are thinner than the new ones, and I already use a wet palette.
As always, follow my progress on Instagram (I promise I'll post more WIPs from here on out). You can also follow along on Twitter, and Facebook, but more Work In Progress stuff will be on Instagram, and if you're reading my blog posts, you're already seeing as much as I post on Facebook. Also, follow the hashtag #40k2ndAC on Instagram and Twitter to see others' progress. Catch the full challenge on the host's website, and follow his progress as well.
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