BIG

Yeah not only is the size of your collection awe-inspiring, the fact you have so many painted models is breath-taking. I have thoroughly enjoyed following on with your adventures.

So I have been working on my Striking Scorpions. Was agonising over whether to just clean up the damaged paint or do a different scheme. Went with trying to improve what I had and ended up pretty much destroying the original paint. It once was a black and orange scheme (I figured the many years ago it was painted that I wanted to stay away from the traditional green Scorpion theme as the Craftworld's main colour is green). But I think since my painting skills have improve enough they won't just look like a Guardian with a sword. I will put up an original photo of the squad at some point so you can see if I have managed to improve them or whether I will regret to decision. I have also taken the opportunity to convert the Exarch to the 8th edition weapons of Scorpion Claw and Biting Blade.

Where did you get the model from? You have done an amazing job of her.

Love the X-men collection. Nightcrawler has always been one of my all time favourites. Really tempted to get a few of the heroes to paint, probably would never actually get around to the game.

Don't they these days have multiple option to have "normal" claws or blood claws or some other suitably creative name? I can never keep up with the shifts in rules and editions.

Needs an impractically large banner pole. Is this one of your latest metal acquisitions?

I have never actually used my Howling Banshees, I have always meant to, but especially against marines I always got nervous about that strength 3... I have managed to use the Reapers a few times and they have never disappointed. What I would really like to give a go is some Shining Spears (who will make their first appearance in my collection in this army). I too have never bothered with Dire Avengers, I have always gone with massed Guardians for that job, although I do wonder how the slightly improved range of the Dire Avengers Shuriken Catapult goes.

Seems I have more to show (or at least a tiny bit). The next addition to the Eldar army is a unit of Dark Reapers. Now I must confess that five of these models were painted many, many years ago (in excess of fifteen I would guess). So I needed to try my best to match another two to the rest of the unit as I am still all these years later quite taken with the paint scheme of these guys. The two "new" recruits are the two with no 'rocks' on their bases, they are on the far left and right in this picture. They aren't perfect reproductions, but they are close. Funny note, the new Reaper on the right I had the body, but no launcher, so with a bit of greenstuff I made a mould off the other launcher and then used a bit of polyester resin to cast a replacement for the missing one. It holds up to scrutiny pretty well, but up close the detail is a tiny bit 'soft'. Of all the variations of the Dark Reapers that have been available, I think these are definitely the ones I like the most. I just think they embody the sinister and dark aspect of the Dark Reapers backstory better than a lot of the other options. You can see how old these models are as I haven't washed the dust that they have accumulated off of them, it is very obvious in this photo from the back. My next squad for the Eldar is my all time most used Aspect, Striking Scorpions. I remember back in the day they would almost be the first unit I would include in an army (may have been that they for a long time were the only Aspect I owned). It got so bad for my regular Imperial Guard opponent he asked me to take a break from the Scorpions. I have yet to decide if I will do a total repaint, modify the existing scheme or just do some paint repair and call it a day. I may take a photo of where they are currently at and see what peoples opinion is. Thanks for reading.

It has been far, far too long since I popped through and made some rambling comments with some random pictures to accompany them. So I managed to motivate myself to wander in and time to throw some randomness around.... I have been plodding along with painting, nowhere near as much as I would have liked. But life has gotten very busy and I have been allowing computers to suck up too much of my free time. First up in the finished pile is some Dire Avengers for the Eldar army that is currently in progress. I have gone with a pretty traditional scheme of blue and white, although the Craftworld colours of green and purple have made themselves known just so you don't forget where these noble warriors hail from. I didn't have a suitable weapon (or shimmershield) for the Exarch, so a short rummage in the bits box and a few odd pieces of metal and I have a passable setup, probably not as useful as other Exarch options, but due to the short range of Shuriken weapons it is likely they will end up in combat eventually. I have another squad of Avengers in this army and I am debating reversing the colour scheme to differentiate the squads, but I am also wary since there is already so much colour in the army that it could be even more distracting and all that white could be horrible. Glad to have finished them, hope to have the Dark Reapers finished very soon (I did only need to paint 2 from bare metal and clean up the other 5 so hope to have another update soon). Onto something more random, my first attempt at a Battlemech. I call this Catapult 'The Bumblebee' I wanted to play around with painting it slightly differently to the standard base/shade/highlight, it looks a little rougher in the close ups than it does in the hand, but overall quite happy with the result. I tossed around painting the 2 lances that I have (from the starter box) in two different schemes. But I have always liked the idea of a Mechwarrior mercenary company after my love affair with Mech Commander so have settled on the idea to paint each mech as a unique scheme to show the Mercenary's are not really unified in their efforts. I started with very little plan for this model, apart from the initial thoughts of yelllow and he kind of developed from there. Not as much black as I was originally intending, but I figure there is enough to provide details. I figure that the ostentatious paint job doesn't matter as the victims of the Catapult rarely actually get a look at it before they are bombarded by a hail of missiles. Next up I think I will do the locust, but can't decide if I should do it green or brown... Thanks for reading.

How many points is the league going up to? Looks about as brutal as I remember Warhammer being.

Are the transparent wings part of the kit or did you make them yourself?

Lots of updates, you have been very busy. Really dig the yellow on the clan rats. Hard to do?

I think adding the variety has really added extra life to the group. Not sure I would bother revisiting the unaltered one, except perhaps a weapon swap may make for a nice change. An Ogre club could work?

That was my concern that it was going to be overly complex. I may hold off and stick with Kings of War to get my fantasy battle fix.

The colour schemes of Battletech are incredibly varied from what I can see, the game is so old there are so many variations that have been used that almost anything is possible from very traditional House schemes to pure camouflage patterns. I will break the 8 Mechs from the starter box into 2 even Lances and see if either of the lances have a "feel" for any particular house and go from there.