Duke Donald's Eldar

[Duke Donald]

Hi All,

I'm a long-time fantasy player and never expanded to 40k even if I always liked the environment. With the advent of sixth edition rules, which look interesting to me, and after having read the Forgeworld Imperial Armour Volume 13, I decided I wanted to do some 40k stuff.

One additional appeal of 40k is that I'm primarily a modeller who enjoys converting extensively my minis but I still like to play reasonably competitive lists. The optimal size of units in fantasy has really become mental since 8th edition and I've become increasingly frustrated with my inability to build competitive armies of converted and painted minis within the limited amount of time I can devote to the hobby.

Anyway, for my initial foray in 40k, I've decided to go for Craftworld Eldar as I like their aesthetics. I chose an obscure Craftworld (Yme-Loc), as this will allow me to make up the fluff and I also like their colour scheme. I've put together a ranger/pathfinder as a test mini. C&C most welcome.

[Hendarion]

Are you from France? Because it is "one Eldar" and "many Eldar". Interesting Pathfinder though, reminds me a lot of Corsairs.

[Duke Donald]

@Hendarion
Thanks for the feedback; I guess the Corsair feel stems from the use of DE bits that I had lying around. Thanks also for pointing out the correct plural of Eldar. I live in between Switzerland and London and whilst I'm not a native English speaker. However, this mistake has probably more to do with me being completely new to everything 40k related than my command of the English language.

[Hendarion]

No problem and keep going

[Student]

Looks cool. It's probably just the angle but is he missing his nose? I like the glyph on the loin cloth.

[Duke Donald]

@ Hendarion
Thanks for the encouragement.

@Student
Thanks for the nice feedback, and you're right about her nose. While the photo isn't flattering and it didn't look that bad from other angles, but I slightly damaged her nose and I didn't really notice (or convinced myself I didn't). Following your comment, I fixed it and while it was fiddly I'm happy I did so. Here she is, post reconstructive surgery with her WIP mates.

[Student]

From the painted model I hadn't realised how much of the gun was your own work. I must be good green stuff work when it blends in so well with the plastic bits.

[Inquisitor Engel]

Nice dynamic poses!

[Sildani]

Very, very nice long rifles!

And welcome to Craftworld Yme-Loc! It's very nice here, you'll like it.

[self biased]

yeah, warseer is like the bizarro world for eldar craftworlds. there's a number of us that have chosen yme-loc

[Duke Donald]

@Student

From the painted model I hadn't realised how much of the gun was your own work. I must be good green stuff work when it blends in so well with the plastic bits.

Thanks! That's a nice compliment.

@Inquisitor Engel

Nice dynamic poses!

Thanks, but for this all the praise should go to GW; it's a pleasure to do conversion using the new plastic Dark Eldars range, These are excellent minis with a wide range of interesting poses and they can be combined seamlessly between kits. I started by sculpting five bodies myself, which weren't too bad, but when I had a look at my bitbox and saw the DE bodies, I realised I would be better off using those.

@Sildani

Very, very nice long rifles!

The sniper rifles take a while to build but it's actually a rather easy conversion. I'm happy to do a tutorial if there's a demand for it.

And welcome to Craftworld Yme-Loc! It's very nice here, you'll like it.

Thanks for the welcome to Yme-Loc; I really hesitated between Mymeara and Yme-Loc and I have to confess I'm not fully decided yet.

@self biased

yeah, warseer is like the bizarro world for eldar craftworlds. there's a number of us that have chosen yme-loc

Interesting, I thought I had gone for a rather obscure Craftworld!

I've had some free time and over the last two days and made good progress on the squad. There may still be some minor details to fix but they're essentially done. C&C welcome in particular suggestions for fixes and change before I start painting them.

[Maskedman5oh4]

Wowowow...

No wonder you don't want to convert an entire fantasy army- heck I am having a hard time just completely painting one of stock miniatures anymore...

The sculpting is great; really flowing with the style of Eldar.

[Hendarion]

Pretty interesting greens. Quite unusual for 40k (style and pose), but nice.

[Son of Russ]

This looks like a blog to follow! The greenstuff work is excellent and the look you've gone for is very, very cool!

[constant_ones]

Your green stuff work looks great!

[Duke Donald]

@constant_ones

Your green stuff work looks great!

Thanks for the nice comment, I'm improving on it, but it's only when I'm painting tehm that I really start noticing the imperfections.

@Son of Russ

This looks like a blog to follow! The greenstuff work is excellent and the look you've gone for is very, very cool!

Thanks for the feedback, I'll try to keep it up; I'm still excited about the army.

@Hendarion

Pretty interesting greens. Quite unusual for 40k (style and pose), but nice.

Thanks for the comments, I agree they look like a bit like "wood elves in space" rather than proper Eldar, but I'm quite happy with the general look.

21-07-2012, 19:40
@Maskedman5oh4

Wowowow...

No wonder you don't want to convert an entire fantasy army- heck I am having a hard time just completely painting one of stock miniatures anymore...

The sculpting is great; really flowing with the style of Eldar.

Thanks for the nice feedback! I often wonder myself whether it really is worth putting so much efforts into minis. I hope you'll find a bit more hobby time in the future.

I eventually decided to go for a DYI Craftworld, which will be called Tirn Aill. I have been experimenting a bit with various colour schemes. The guy on the right is the latest product of the experimentation. The paintjob is far from amazing partly because he's been repainted about twenty times and he also still needs a bit of work. However, I was wondering what you thought about the colour scheme.


I've also starting working on a test jetbike. The design is close to the "Jes Goodwing bike" that never made it into production. It also still requires more work and I'd be grateful for feedback, In particular I was wondering what you thought about the weapons. Do you feel I should make them look more like shuriken catapults?

[Student]

Nice work on the jetbike though the nose looks like it could be a bit smoother. The weapons look okay and are already quite similar shuriken catapults as they get wider towards the back. I don't think that they need changing. Are all the GW bits that you used on the bike from the dark eldar jetbike kit?

[Bilmengar]

Really nice. Nice looking poses, and I'm looking forward to what else you come up with

[Maskedman5oh4]

Jet bike to me is reminiscent of A New Hope and the speeder bikes through the forest...

[Duke Donald]

@Student
Thanks for the feedback. I agree the bike needed a bit more of work. I followed your advice and kept the DE weapons, which I think look far better than the shuriken cannons. All the GW bits are from the DE jetbikes.

@Bilmengar
Thanks a lot for the nice comment. I was quite pleased with the poses of the pathfinders myself. However, I made a few mistakes when I sculpted them. I was a bit sloppy when sculpting some bits and didn't add enough details on the legs and the cloaks. This makes them horribly difficult to paint to a decent standard. I have to say I'm a bit stuck with them at the moment.

@Maskedman5oh4
I also thought about the Star Wars jetbike, the resemblance was even more striking after I primed it white.

I've finished the jetbike. It took me ages. Essentially everything that could have gone wrong, duly did so and I made a series of really stupid mistakes. I then again spent ages finding a painting scheme I was reasonably happy with. I eventually went for something slightly unusual. I will probably repaint the wings but at the moment I'm done with it. I would also welcome C&C before changing anything.