:: The Spear of Light :: Eldar in Sixth

[Horus Aximand]

Perfidious Eldar! These aliens had the stars in their grasp and now are left to sift the dust of the once fabulous realm. For all their intellect and mysticism they could not contain the beast within them, nor tame the wild monsters of the Shadow. Why should be pay them any heed?

Grundwald, Ordo Xenos

It's been about two years since I had a full gaming army and with the release of Sixth I've been feeling that itch. So, without further adieu and taking full advantage of today's sun, I present to you the first models of my Eldar army (current working name: Eat melta smelly mon-keighs!).

Farseer Elenaith

Reverse

It would appear the venerated Farseer is covered with dog hair and static grass. This will be fixed thusly.

Wave Serpent WIP


The turret for this Wave Serpent may or may not have been left at my FLGS and may or may not be recovered until Tuesday. Woops.

Like many of my projects, I always have a goal in mind. With this there are in fact two: build and paint a full 1500pts Eldar army (ideally before the return to university and drunken unconsciousness) and do so on a budget. I have set a rough ballpark of £100 and will assemble my army via eBay, trade and by digging through my mighty pile of ageing miniatures in my room. The above Farseer was a model I'm not 100% sure as to how I acquired. It's been around since the release of the current codex but was painted with a thick coat of green, black and bone. I'm assuming it was a friend's old model, who left the hobby about four or five years ago, so it was stripped in break fluid and press-ganged into the army. The Wave Serpent came from a friend, unpainted and missing its canopy and the gun covers for its shuriken cannons in exchange for some help and materials for basing his own new-born Eldar army.

Comments and criticisms are, as always, entirely welcome. I would like you to be thorough with me, as this is the first time I've ever truly painted anything other than space marines as well as my first attempt at purple and painting in general with the new range of paints. Next on the shopping list are three guardian jetbikes (and hopefully another four from eBay).

~Horus Aximand

[Memnon]

Very nice start, particularly the cloak design and the checkerboard pattern on the serpent!

Best of luck building this on a budget, it should be an interesting journey!

Keep it up

Memnon

[Horus Aximand]

Just a brief update to hopefully encourage some more comments :P

Jetbikes WIP


Hopefully I can get the riders done over the next two days and finish off the bases come Tuesday.

EDIT: I just noticed that the prows look rather washed out in these photos. They actually have the same gradient shading as the Wave Serpent. Hopefully the fully painted pictures will portray that better :S

[El_Wacko01]

Looking good, especially like how the purple works with the white. It'll sure be tough, but it looks like you can manage. Keep it up!

[avragehuman]

I'm a massive fan of this army, the purple and white look amazing together. Well done sir! Can't wait to see more.

[Bilmengar]

I second that. The Bikes look very cool with the different hood patterns

[Student]

The checked pattern looks cool. I really like how you've done it on the jetbike on the right hand side of that photo.

[Gropius]

Nice and clean paintjob. I like it. the colour gradient on the jetbikes looks good.

[ChrisMurray]

I really like the checked pattern your using throughout. I also like that you haven't gone over the top with it. You've kept it clean and simple and to a small portion of the vehicles. Keep it up.

[MichaelJames]

Nice work so far, unique choice of scheme. The cheque marks in particular are very neat - did you mask off or just freehand?

The only thing I'd change us your spot colour. The blue is too close to the purple (for me). An orange would work well I think. Keeping some gems blues work nicely with it, too.

Also, is there anything in particular you want? I've some old eldar to put on eBay, thought I'd offer them to you first.

[Horus Aximand]

@El_Wacko01: Thanks, I fully intend on!
@avragehuman: Well, hopefully you won't be disappointed.
@Bilmengar @Student @Gropius @ChrisMurray: Thankyou!
@MichaelJames: I sketch the design I want using a pencil and fill in the lines with paint. It takes a while and once its down I need to erase the pencil lines, but I think its worth it. I struggled coming up with a spot colour for the force, since I felt the white already drew the eye in enough. The blue is actually a lot brighter in reality (oooh, forum cliche!) than portrayed in the photos and so it stands out more against the purple (they're highlighted up to turquoise and white to give a green tint). I'm looking to get Fire Dragons (many of), War Walkers and D-Cannon Platforms currently. If you have any I would be happy to take them off of your hands!

Anyway, onto the updates!

Jetbikes Squad





These boyos are from the same squad. I forgot to assemble a shuriken cannon when I built the three, so the next one will form part of the seconds squad.


Wave Serpent (sans canopy and weapon covers)

[Serpent]

This is looking very promising indeed! The white looks clean and crisp, the purple looks full and still smooth.

Really liking the Jetbikes and the subtle way you worked your checkered pattern into the Farseer. It makes him stand out. (I assume this is why a few dogs wanted to cuddle with him...)

[Horus Aximand]

@Serpent: It's truly amazing - dog hairs get to places where no dog has been >.<

A brief update, but unfortunately it's a logistics post (boo! hiss!). I figured it could be an idea to keep a running track of my expenditures, and see if I can actually make the £100 budget I've set. Today I managed to acquire a warlock with singing spear from eBay and will be getting the bulk of my Fire Dragons (16 out of the 20 in the list) and rest of my jetbikes tomorrow from a couple of friends through trade. So with today's purchase:

Aximand's Eldar Budget: £21.00 /100.00
This includes the £18 for the three bikes and the £3 for the Warlock. Not too shabby so far.

Expect an update either late tomorrow or Wednesday morning with my latest additions. Once I've got these all together I'm looking to get my War Walkers and D-Cannon batteries.

Also, for all those who are interested I've put a few models up on eBay. If you're interested, check my For Sale thread in my signature!

[MichaelJames]

Ah, if you'd said a farseer, asurman,banshees ,scorpions or rangers I could have helped.

Good use of dark eldar heads!

[Horus Aximand]

Update time.

I managed to get 6/10 Fire Dragons from a friend, with the other four coming this weekend. Also, the warlock I acquired from eBay arrived through the post this morning, so I'm steadily getting there!


Warlock with Singing Spear


Fire Dragons.

Both the Fire Dragons and Warlock are (obviously) WIP. The Fire Dragons were interesting to paint, to say the least. Orange is a colour I've never really attempted. The middle three are the furthest along paintwise, with the very middle dragon finished apart from his base. You might notice he's a little brighter than the other two in regards to his armour. Turns out Firey Orange is slightly more brighter than the new Troll Slayer Orange, but it's barely noticeable from afar.

I've now to think how I will be incorporating the diamond pattern into these models somehow. And also think up a slightly different colour scheme for the second squad of Fire Dragons. I'm thinking black helmets with white faces, but I'm not 100% sure how this "rotation" of colours would look on the Exarch (who has white armour on orange body suits).

What're your thoughts, Warseer?

EDIT: Aximand's Eldar Budget: £46.00 /100.00 +£15 for 10 Fire Dragons and +£10 for a second Wave Serpent courtesy of eBay. It's gonna be a close call on the budget, but I reckon I can make it.

[Aryllon]

I reckon white armour on the Exarch will work, also really liking the use of diamond checkerboard on non-harlequin units. I was trying to find a way to visibly link my current craftworld project with my upcoming harlequin force, and also add some sort of pattern work to the helms on my wraithlords... I might just use your idea for inspiration!