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well, im stuck between ba and eldar atm. Ive just finished my tau and I allready have a 2000pt nid army, I want a painting and modeling challenge, and im keen to know peoples opinions on playabilty and codexes ect

for a challenge, probably eldar, BA are SMs, and Sma are easy to paint, build and convert.

It's possible to make painting space marines a challenge but you really have to go out of your way to make it one. They're all guys in power armor with bolters and chain swords. The biggest 'challenge' is one guy without a helmet in a squad. Not exactly top tier difficulty. Eldar are a totally different animal. Every aspect is different for starters.

You can kill the difficulty in painting that one guy in marines without a helmet, by just giving him a helmet though.

The Eldar use a fair amount of bright colours. But you are not forced to go with the set aspect colours or to even paint them differently from the rest of the army. In my opinion their difficulty comes from all the little extra details they have (I was finishing up a Wave Serpent for a painting comp, it had about 70ish gems on it ).

Just remember to try to avoid the Swooping Hawks and Shining Spears unless you really really like the models.

n0t_u wrote:Just remember to try to avoid the Swooping Hawks and Shining Spears unless you really really like the models.

If the OP is looking for a painting and modeling challenge the Hawks are brilliant modeling them really is a challenge and they are great fun to paint.

Eldar are (in every respect) a more challenging army than BA, there is more variety in painting, the models are all significantly different and they are less straight forward to play with.

If you want an army that feels almost like an RPG in terms of how much customising and how in-depth you can get with its background/choice of models then I'd go for an Inquisition army. You have inducted Space Marines or Guard; Plus Assassins and Church units like Acroflaggulents and Pentient Engines; Inquisitorial Stormtroopers, Rhinos and Chimeras. THEN you have the Ordos Militant of whatever of the three Ordos you choose (Sisters of Battle, Grey Knights or Deathwatch kill teams) and finally your retinue. Wow!

The Inquisitor and Retinue alone will take you a while to think up and make it really feel like 'you'; its that amazing. I'm still coming up with some fluff for the background of my Inquisitor.

Painting and modeling challenge? Look at the 'Ordo Hereticus Inqusitor' model and picture all the poses you could model that in. I'm personally hoping to get mine to look in a fearsome, condemning (towards the enemy) look and pose, apon a rusted metal-looking base. The rest of the retinue is just as challenging to choose a pose that would suit, since its so personal.

Hmmm I do like sisters adnd gk, but im not into fluff a great
deal, I realy want somethingi can make realy personal with out a huge amount of green stuff work lol, anyone have much expereance with the new ba models?

Probably Guard then. Since they are so varied.

I made up a collection of Guard regiments that my Inquisitor Lord draws his forces from. Since its easy to make stuff like that up, you can model IG any way you want. They're more flexible than BA and Eldar.

Not a fan of guard tbh, they have never appealed to me, im lean towards bright anti cammo scemes lol, gah I hate being indeciceve

Well mine are pretty bright, a straight Black/Yellow scheme.

Hmm...not much other options. Chaos?

Ive thought about chaos too, dunno I wouldnt mind a good shooty/mech/jump army but that doesnt kull the list much does it lol ok what about good/bad points of eldar and ba or any other armys that fit

Eldar are a finesse army - they focus on mobility. They've got a lot of powerful units, but they need to be used in concert together. They're not just like Marines where you can dump any unit anywhere and expect to do half decently. It's an army with a lot of tricks up its sleeve, like their incredibly durable tanks and support psychic powers. Also, many of their models are metal, which is a modeling challenge. Fortunately, these metal models are also fantastic sculpts.

Blood Angels are the same as regular Marines for the most part, but they're more mobile. Zoom forward, shoot badguys, punch people in the head, go home. Since they're a flavor of Marine you'll run into a lot of their armies.

Also, good for you for wanting to play "anti-camo"; it's refreshing to see somebody who doesn't just want to do an army of Oscar Mike sir-yes-sir semi-realistic Guard or Marines in favor of bright and cool colors. Not that there's anything wrong with the former!

Also, OP, could you please work on your spelling and grammar a little? It's kind of hard to understand some of your posts.

Eldar collectively will be a greater challenge. I run both BA and Eldar and if I had to choose between them I would pick Eldar for the following reasons.

- You have not seen fast until you play Eldar. Nothing comes close except Dark Eldar.
- Their units are more specialized which makes them a little more tricky to work with, but when used properly they are devastating.
- IMHO they are the best looking army on the the field.
- They are not as common as SM. SM vs SM can get a little boring.

Good luck!

Lol brother srm quick type on my mobile doesnt help with gramma ect, cheers for the encouragement btw, and mcyeatman I think you just made my mind up

The BA's are going to be easier to build, paint, convert and play. They've got more available bits and tons of choice, and lots of relatively flat empty spaces to paint on. The Eldar are going to require more effort to build, paint, convert and play well. Make of that what you will.

Sounds like the challenge im looking for, I painted up 1300pts of tau in preperation for the eldar, as in learning edge highlights and geting no brush strokes ect, ive just got a lil soft spot for the ba lol, after the eldar maybe

Eldar pwns now don't they. Start a thread to army lists and give me 1 so i can give you advice.

I have no idea on army lists lol, I dont even have a codex yet

How strange since we've gone the same way with our armies, starting Tau to Nids and I'd suggest Eldar. I just think they all have a very different feel with different lists but can have some similar elements.

Painting Eldar will force you to try new things. You may find it makes you a better painter.

Just don't take the easy route and do Ulthwé. Although there are some really good examples most people who do them just spray paint black and not do much else.

I did Beil-tan because it looked difficult and I needed to try and get my painting skills up. + You have a fluffy excuse to take lots of Aspect Warriors which all have different schemes too.

Daemons are actually quite fun to paint too.

dreadanant wrote:well, im stuck between ba and eldar atm. Ive just finished my tau and I allready have a 2000pt nid army, I want a painting and modeling challenge, and im keen to know peoples opinions on playabilty and codexes ect

Eldar are a beautiful army. Banshees, Dragons, Scorpions, Avengers, all have thier own unique color scheme. The army itself can have another scheme. Overall, it makes for a beautiful army.

I was thinking of doing my own scheme, while still having aspect warriors in there respective colours, cheers for the imput guys