AMotW: Eldar War Walker By Malaleche

This week brings with it the return of AMoTW, and I'm happy to feature the work of an artist new to CoolMiniorNot, Malaleche. Every painter worth his or her weight in gold is a sucker for precise freehand and smooth blending, and Malaleche's Eldar War Walker has those in fine form and more. I just wish there were additional detail shots included with the single frontal shot us voters judge the model from.

Aside from the lack of detail shots, this submission is beaming with an ethereal ambience that is perfectly fitting of an ancient alien race such as the eldar.

Malaleche painted the model in a manner similar to Thomas David's recent Golden Demon winner (http://www.coolminiornot.com/156016), though with contrast between dark and light. We can see how, when the painter restricts him or herself to painting with one colour they can still create a terrific piece of art simply by altering the way in which that colour is painted onto the figure (Will it be reflective? Or maybe very light without much depth and variation? Or just the opposite? The options are virtually endless.). This can be observed on Malaleche's excellent War Walker. See how the main body (from which the cockpit is attached) uses "overhead" lighting, with bolts of lightning breaking up the darkness. Then look at the two large weapons, one at each side of the miniature. Realistically, I would think that darker shades of blue would be in order for the Eldar weapons, but when you consider the other-worldly power of these guns, it wouldn't be completely ludicrous if they were "powering up" to fire and glowed accordingly. Either way, the guns are painted to a very, very high standard.

And there is no mistaking the outstanding, clean painting style that will no doubt be Malaleche's staple (even if this includes the use of an airbrush, it is still exceptional work).

Last, but not least is the base. Bases can be bare, over-the-top, small, large, complementary to the miniature or not, but one thing is for sure: if you want to be a success in miniature painting, basing is a technique that will be criticized by other painters, but is often ignored by the artist when creating the miniature. What Malaleche has done is simple, but effective. The base could be here on earth, or somewhere far, far away in the universe, perhaps on a desert planet. This goes to show that if you are creating a miniature, you don't need to go overboard on the base, just think of a setting and portray that setting as well as you can.

AMotW: Eldar War Walker By Malaleche receives 8.8/10.

Thanks for reading, I'm glad to be back writing here on CoolMini,

Ainu
http://www.coolminiornot.com/162882