More Alaitoc Warp Hunters: dreadnought and guardians

Warburton 40K, Eldar, , , , ,

It sometimes feels like I’m the only person in the world with LESS time to hobby as a result of coronavirus (working from home, kids at home, lucky enough not to lose my job; I’m busier than ever…) but I still managed to finish off a few more eldar including a dreadnought I actually started painting quite some time ago, and a few guardians.

The dreadnought was quite difficult to paint. My usual method of garish highlights toned down with glazes didn’t really work at larger scale so I repainted the blue a couple of times, eventually settling for distraction rather than actually doing a good job by using minimal highlights but using other elements like lots of gems (originally I left all the blisters just as blue) and symbols festooned all over to draw attention away from the average paintjob. It worked quite well in the end I think, and it is also period appropriate to have effectively a weird lanky hipster boi covered in emo tattoos.

Controversially, I also left it in gloss varnish, which I personally really like, but I am open to being convinced to add a matte coat. Let me know in the comments.

Less to say about the guardians. I followed my standard method and they turned out well, I think. I’m going for getting them finished as the prime objective rather than every highlight done perfectly but I think the standard achieved is completely acceptable and should look great as a whole army.

The mowhawk chap is of course one of the proto dire avengers from the Rogue Trader era. I didn’t paint a dire avenger rune on his loincloth so that he could be used in either the dire avenger squad or in a guardian squad as needs require.

Paint scheme is the same as for all the others, based around GW Enchanted Blue shaded with contrast paints and highlighted by adding white, and GW Flash Gitz Yellow shaded with contrast paints and highlighted with white.

29 thoughts on “More Alaitoc Warp Hunters: dreadnought and guardians”

  1. Excellent. Lovely to see sculpts from my childhood still being painted. An old friend had that dreadnought and it spent more time being glued back together than whole if I recall. A time when two part epoxy resin was used in preference to superglue as our parents thought it was safer…

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    • Thanks, Adam! The weapons are great, though a bit oversize (they are perfect on the Dire Avengers though). Glad you like them, I’m really enjoying painting these classic guys.

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  6. Despite my preference of dirty, scratched and disheveled I really appreciate what you’ve done here. I actually think the gloss works really, really well for these guys. PS I’m flat out with real life too but have managed to have two nights in a row for the hobby.

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      • Gorkamorka, which was not really a successful game in its own right has had one of the most enduring legacies of all GW specialist games. Ever since that was released orks have always had a Mad Max/junkyard aesthetic whereas before that they really didn’t. Whilst there were examples of people using historical armour weathering techniques on 40K models it wasn’t widespread until sometime (I’m sort of getting here) around the year 2000 when people started to want a more realistic look to their models, combined with Forgeworld releasing a number of books on how to do advanced weathering techniques and also other products like weathering powder.

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      • Everyone liked the models and vehicles, but I’m just assuming/guessing the game itself wasn’t a success because it wasn’t supported as long as other specialist games and there (sadly) is no hint whatsoever that it will be revived (whereas Necromunda and Epic and others were available longer and supported longer after they were no longer sold and there was constant talk they would be revived until they actually were). But just a guess. I never played it though I own the rules. Friends used the vehicle rules for Mad Max style Necromunda in the ash wastes games.

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      • I have mixed feelings about that. On the one hand it would be good, on the other I cannot honestly see myself liking what GW would do these days, and the current edition is perfect (or close enough anyway). The other advantage of playing dead editions of games is that they don’t change all the time….

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      • While the Vehicle models were cool, the Orks were a bit weedy for the most part (with the exception of some of the metal hero types), and quickly superceded by the much, MUCH better plastic Boyz. In my area it was just too similar to Necromunda being released too close to to the tail of Necromunda but with only two indistinguishable factions, so it didn’t sell well at all, as people wanted to keep playing Necro, not to replace it with a new version of same. In fact, I recall GW were giving copies of it away with a 1-year subscription not too long later. Awesome grot models, though!

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      • Yeah I have to admit I never really liked the plactic boyz for gorkamorka…maybe people just went for them because they were so different to the (imo superior but admittedly) slightly cartoony Kev Adams and Perry orks that had come before. All of the metals for gorkamorka were awesome though and fetch some eye-watering prices on eBay.

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  7. Awesome stuff, Warb – these models really bring me back to the day. Classic looking Eldar looking really good, right down to the helmet patterning from the RT book. The Dread looks great in gloss, and really, Eldar are one of the (few) factions that really benefit from the high-gloss look.
    I’ve just spent a couple of minutes staring at that Dread, and dammit, you’ve made me want to paint Eldar!

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    • Oh, and it turns out that WAH isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be. It’s actually a ton more more work than we were doing when we were going in. At least I don’t have to worry about being coughed and sneezed on by careless people, which I can guarantee would definately be a thing by now with Melbourne’s weather having just turned.

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  9. I think that the old dreadnoughts – despite some of the rigging issues I had building mine – are sorely underrated models, and yours has turned out fantastic. Were the designs on the head freehanded? Because they look brilliant.

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