Building and Painting a Wave Serpent

Ode to a Wave Serpent, oh how yea brings the flames of war upon the heads on my enemy so that I can see them melt at my feet.

Lol, CoolKidRoc here, so for many of you, you probably know that Eldar is currently my main army having started them last year I've gone through quite a few units, but my favorite has to be a Wave Serpent filled with those fiery dragons you see above. I usually run two squads and they've yet to fail me.

But this isn't about what I run it's about the easiest way to get your serpent built and painted, or vice versa.



Ok, so as usually excuse the bad pictures, I've not been able to scrounge up money on that new camera yet :P

But as you can see above is the waveserpent with the bottom put together, and the top together. I primered the bottom in white and the top pieces in black. For the bottom I then used chaos black to blacken the engines.



Here are all the individual parts that are not together when I start painting, you can see that the pilot is together and painted. It's very important to do this before you put it together if you want to actually get any details on the pilot.



So after painting the pilot I usually go back and start working on all the green that goes into my tanks. I used to start off with Dark Angels Green, but then I would just end up repainting most of it in Snot Green, so now I start off with Snot Green, and paint everything that will be green in Snot Green.



Here again is everything in Snot Green.



So with the first coat on, It's time to add the pilot and the windshield, make sure to be very picky with the amount of glue you put on otherwise it'll go to the windshield and it won't be able to open.



Here you can see the Pilot and the windshield, there is also that special Y shaped piece behind the pilots head. Make sure you have that there because it holds the windshield in place.



I usually place it where it needs to go, flip it over and make sure the windshield will open and close. Then glue around where the seat touches the hull of the wave serpent.



With the pilot and windshield in place you can glue the top and bottom together, just glue where they should touch and grab some rubber bands and let dry for a bit, usually about 5-10 minutes is fine but if I'm watching a good TV show I'll leave it there a while ;)



Ok so with the glue dry I start on making the green pop by dry brushing the entire hull in Goblin Green. Be generous, as it gives it a nice weathered look.



After that then highlight the raised areas with Scorpion Green.



With the greens done, I then start adding the Vines, I usually go thin almost like using a pen to trace out where I want the vines to go, and then I go back and thicken the vines aftwards. You can also see I've painted the Shield Generators white.



















After that it's all about adding the little details, the vine needles are pretty easy to do, and finding the runes you would like to paint red. With those done add some decals and you've got a Wave Serpent ready for the table.

-CKR