Even after close to a year doing this, I’ve never taken a picture of a grav tank that I was totally satisfied with, whether it was because of the angle, the lighting, the contrast, or just how the model looked or stood out from its background. Since I recently figured out that my Fire Prism and old Wave Serpent are showing up in google results and getting some attention, I decided it was time for me to push myself to do just a little better, starting with my Fire Prism project. This was unquestionably the most complicated build I’ve ever pulled off, and Evan Designs was fantastic to work with in getting a hold of the parts and the LEDs, so I picked up another order of bits from them to start on renovations.

First, like the Falcon I did as part of the Paint-What-You’ve-Got challenge, I decided it was time to re-base this. The rotation-magnet experiment on that one failed so I decided to stick with a pressure-fit solution for the base, but I decided that the base needed a facelift and a rebuild. It didn’t sit well on the old base, the fit was awkward and it tended to fall off or shift around anytime I hit the power switch. With a new battery pack, an old Kromlech base, and the lid from a Tim Hortons instant coffee jar (no joke) I put together something that feels a lot more stable, that comes together a lot easier, and that visually I’m just more satisfied with. Everything is stuck together via neodymium magnets, and I have powerful enough ones now that the base doesn’t come detached.

The next thing I wanted to do was add a little bit of extra glow to the side of the Fire Prism. The secondary thrusters weren’t built to glow with my original build, and I thought that adding a couple LEDs in here would really step the look of the model up when it was “on”, especially since it would provide some lighting beneath the model and onto the surrounding scenery, which the rear thrusters didn’t really do in any direction but…well…the rear. This works a lot better visually, especially in low-light shots where it just brings everything else together really nicely and shows off the model’s silhouette.

I didn’t change up much aside from that, but I’m still very happy with the end product, and with some of the other little minor tweaks I made to it. I’m also happier with how the model looks both in pictures and on the tabletop, and I think part of that is I’m finally getting some of the contrast settings on my phone figured out and…taking slightly better pictures, hopefully! This is still my army’s centerpiece and pride and joy, and not only do I feel better about it now but I feel encouraged about doing a potentially bigger overhaul on the Wave Serpent, and maybe a total rebuild.

Last, but not least – because it’s also another model I’m really fond of but I thought needed a few tweaks, I redid the Ghostglaive and the basing on my Wraithlord, Ishi’s Grace, and I’m decently happy with how all that turned out too. The glitter effect on the blade is a little different than the last one since, unfortunately, I couldn’t get glitter flakes from the same manufacturer as last time, but I think the purple-to-blue effect is still really nice and stands out well from the rest of the colors on the model. For now, that does it for maintenance on my running Craftworlds Eldar Crusade army, but I’m hoping to have a few new additions to it soon, hopefully in time for my one-year blogversary. More on that to come!

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

•