Craftworld Eldar by Give_me_a_d

[give_me_a_d]

As some of you may already know I have decided to enter the Tale of 40K Painters for the 09-10 year with a number of armies. This is the log for my Craftworld Eldar.

I have been inspired by Morthai and Dark Apostle in particular to pull the old Eldar out from under the bed, dust them off and get an army painted up.

So what can you expect over the coming year and the future? Well as you will see from the tasters quite a bit of first series aspect warriors as well as a few ancient 'Eldar Pirates', some more up to date stuff and hopefully a few conversions.

I should point out that although I have quite a bit of stuff with paint on it, none has been touched in at least 3 years and I'd like to think my painting has come on a bit since then. I will therefore be updating the paint scheme on the stuff that is painted, painting more so I can field units under the current dex and generally getting a bit more coherency to the whole thing.

Enough yabbering on to the models -

First is possibly one of the better painted Eldar models I have (I pic is a bit poor). This Farseer shows some of the colour scheme I'll be going with and also a bit of conversion work (although that needs some attention).


Next is a Dark Reaper that illustrates the general level of most of the stuff that is painted - generally basic colours with limited highlighting. Note the authentic dust on the base!


Next is a half painted Wraithguard. Although it possibly doesn't show too well there is some reasonably well done shading here on the legs and back and it is this that I'd like to develop. Also I like the white colour so this will be one of the main colours I use.


Finally we have a jetbike. I will actually be keeping to old metal jetbikes at least to start with as I think they are better than the plastics. The quality of painting on this guy isn't the best but otherwise this shows the colour scheme I think I will be largely going with.


As always C&C welcome.

[mattjgilbert]

Actually, I think the red on the front of the jetbike looks great. I has a real sense of texture to it.

[Melchiah]

I too think the jetbike looks good.
What colour are you building up from?

[give_me_a_d]

Some interest already! Great stuff.

The red on the jetbike front is Scab Red on a black undercoat, with some dodgy old Blood Red that was a bit off colour (darker than it should have been) used for highlights and then new Blood Red and finally a little Blazing Orange as a final highlight. In terms of the quality I was referring to the back end more than the front as the body of the bike is basically black with a scab red drybrush and its not so great. I'm not so keen on the use of transfers but I'm glad to see that I did a bit of work so it isn't just a plan white symbol. I have a few ideas to make the most of this base.

[Melchiah]

oh thought you were talking about the reds lol

[Sinisterfence]

there were metal jetbikes?!
I've also recently dug my old eldar out... managed to amass an extra 2 guardian squads, an extra warlock and farseer from previously failed conversion attempts I now have the skill to remedy... unfortunately I can only find the head, body and the left leg and arm from my old metal wraithlord

[give_me_a_d]

there were metal jetbikes?!

Yes indeed. I'll dig one out and snap a pic for you.

[give_me_a_d]

For Sinisterfence and anyone else who is interested I've taken a couple of pics of a metal jetbike.

These date from Rogue Trader days when there was just 'Eldar', no Guardians or Aspect Warriors. Originally the jetbikes were available with 2 different torsos. I don't have the second one that has a shuriken pistol in the left hand raised up by the shoulder. A little later they released a Harlequin version with the face canopy.

Components - Harlequin on the left and regular Eldar on the right


'Guardian' -


Harlequin -


I have about 9 of these guys, although not all with the complete complement of original components.

[minitrol]

OMG I am exceedingly jealous of these models.

Now how to begin my elaborate scheme to get them, (dashes away to get Sean Connery out of retirement)

I do like the freehand also BTW my helpful suggestion with free hand is to try using a soft graphite pencil to mark in guidelines, draw a line right down the centre and that can help you keep it balances as yo can see if you placed the weight too much o the left or right side.

Is the white serpent a transfer? Good on you if it is see too many people afraid to use them.

[give_me_a_d]

Thanks minitrol, (looks smug) the minis are a result of 20 something years of collecting and some foresight to order a load of bits before GW ditched their bits service. I have enough Harlequin riders to make 6 of them I think, so I will make them swappable with the guardian riders. I could then field the Harlequins as 'counts as' shinning spears.

Thats a really good suggestion about getting the balance when doing freehands. I'll definitely try it out.

The serpent is a transfer, and there is just a slight crease in it at the top but its not too bad.

Anyway the painting for this month will be a few Guardians. A metal weapons platform and crew which are now assembled but otherwise unstarted and some plastic guys I painted ages ago and will update. I'll be claiming half points for the updates so by the end of the Tale I'll have something like 1200 to 1500+ points actually finished. As I'm also doing a Lord of Change (250pts) for my daemons I'll be keeping to about 50pts here for August.

[give_me_a_d]

Here is what I will be painting this month along with updating one or two other Guardians. Why so few models? I'm painting up a Lord of Change for my Daemons and as I'm down for 300pts a month in the Tale I only need 50pts on top of the LOC. The Orks don't get a look in this month.

[give_me_a_d]

Painting has been a bit slow, although I've got the basic colours on my weapons team. The bad news is after trying what I planned for the update of the previously painted Guardians I have come to the conclusion that I won't be able to update them. This means I'll repaint them so I'll just do a single extra guardian this month.

The good news is that I've been busy getting Swooping Hawks and Warp Spiders ready for future painting as well as 2 Warwalkers. In planning what to paint I've realised you don't get a huge amount in 1000pts and I'm rather tempted, if it weren't for the 1000pts each of Daeomns and Orks, to up the total for the year. We'll see how it goes.

[give_me_a_d]

Maybe a bit of evidence of painting is what is needed to get a few replies?

This is the weapons platform which is basically finished now except for the base and a weapon. I've just about finished a bright lance and a scatter laser for it and I'm also doing a star cannon. The crew and additional guardian are about 50% done.



Also got some rangers undercoated for future entries.

C&C welcome

[Melchiah]

Looking good D'.

[give_me_a_d]

A small update. I've finished the weapons platform now, except the base, but haven't made all that much progress on the crew, as they are still needing highlighting and details done.



As ever C&C welcome

[Bouncl]

That looks very nice

I wish I could paint that well.

[give_me_a_d]

Before posting for this month in the Tale thread I thought I should post here first. So here we have the Guardian Weapons Team with crew and additional Guardian.





C&C welcome

[easternheretic]

Wow. The contrast between the red armour, black under garment and the white is very striking!

Looking very good.

Keep it up, I will be coming back often to this thread to see the updates!

Cheers

[give_me_a_d]

First off thanks easternheretic. The color scheme came about because of wanting to do Saim-Hann but not being keen on the bright red. Many of the other Eldar I've painted are based around black and grey in a loose Ulthwe style. The darker red with black/dark grey and white is the net result. I think it is suitable craftworld Eldar.

The next months worth of painting will be some Swooping Hawks so here we have the base models - 2 exarchs and 8 troopers.



I've been thinking about how to give them some height. As seems to be the style with jump troops some terrain to boost them up would seem to be appropriate. This is a bit problematic as my bases are slate and sand, at least so far and with these being metal models I'd want to drill and pin them to the bases with such a small connection. Obviously you can't drill slate so I've come up with these bits (the Dire Avenger icon thing and a generic resin bit from the 40K basing kit) to give them a boost. Any other suggestions appreciated.



Hopefully we'll see some progress on these this weekend.

[give_me_a_d]

I did a bit of work on the hawks last night so I now have 3 that are a bit taller than they were -





The pins are just visible from the back on the one with rocks and the one with the resin bit (in the middle). The one with the Dire Avenger icon isn't glued down yet so I can paint it easily.

C&C welcome.