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Battle Focus, Bladestorm, Serpent Shields, Holo-Fields; these are just some of the many things that came to us via the release of the new Codex: Eldar two months ago, and as a long time Eldar player I was ecstatic reading to book and confident in taking my army out of storage. Given that the army had been in a box for about two years and with the NWG tournament, which focuses heavily on painting, coming up in only a few weeks, I decided that the army would get a whole do over paintwise. I also added a couple of new models to modernise it.

Over the next two months leading up to NWG on September 28th, I am going to be chronicling my Eldar army as it progresses and prepares for two days of battling enjoyment, and the yearly Anyone But Frank (ABF) challenge. For those that may not remember since last year, Frank is one of the players on this side of the pond well known for his dynamic and enthusiastic painting projects, which happened to be winning him the painting prize at NWG year in and year out. Last year somebody claimed that it would be great if 'Anybody But Frank' won this year, and so Frank and the organisers came up with the ABF challenge. The challenge consists of a pledge to paint a new army and the standards include conversions, themed basing, and display boards. Last year I rocked out with Draigowing Grey Knights and actually won the challenge, so this year me and my space elves are back to try and take two in a row.

So enough talking, let's get to the actual painting. I decided on a purple colour scheme (shocker right), since doing my Eldar was putting my CSM on hold, and let's face it, I LOVE painting purple for some reason. I went and found an online painter and came up with this.



What you don't see here is the complimentary colour to the purple which will be added via weapons which is a Snakebite Leather based bone colour. So in order to show it to you I've had to go ahead a finish a model ahead of the pack so SPOILER ALERT, here is the first finished model (minus basing). On that note, the basing theme will be Eldar runes, so they will all be in greys with more green flock for similar contrast to the Spirit Stones, and will have plenty of ruined bits added.



Of course this is now, but I actually started a few weeks ago while working on my original list (it has changed a bit since then; will be posting the list in progress next time). At that pointed I decided to not lag behind on progress this year and just lined everything up, sprayed, basecoated, washed, and highlighted, all at once, so here are some progress shots of the last few weeks to tide you over while I get back to work. Stay tuned for my updates.

So managed to get the Crimson Hunter done over the last few days while tottering away at the Walker and Spiders. It's typical of me to finish a unit I'm unsure about using first or second in the army. Anyway, hope you all like it. Enjoy.

I love the color purple and I love what you are doing with your Eldar Your flyer looks mighty good and you had fantastic taste with the spot colors. The white and tan wingtips look great.

And that flyer base, wow! I had a similar idea for my Night Scythe to spice it up a bit but I still haven't gathered up the courage to go through with it. You did, and I'm glad, it looks so damn good! keep it up!

Thanks so much for the wonderful comments mate, it means a lot. Should have more updates including the Warp Spiders up by tomorrow evening anyway, so hope you continue to enjoy.

So as promised I have an update for you all...just not the one I had intended

While painting my Warp Spiders the last few days I also got some more gaming in, and as such have gotten distracted again with list variations. I posted my most recent two in the army list forums earlier today, but one of them involved allied Dark Eldar, and with no Baron model available, my conversion hyper-drive was activated and I spent half of the day getting various bits and pieces together to make one.

Unlike most allies I run, I have no intention of these Dark Eldar ever being part of their own army, and since I am only allying in two units, I have decided to convert them all to fit into a regular Eldar army without standing out too much, but at the same time also being fairly distinct. For the Kabalites I have simply just added Dark Eldar heads and guns to Guardian bodies I had spare, and for the Venom they will be riding in I will be using some Venom and Raider bits to convert a Vyper, but for the Baron I was a bit more stuck. He would be riding with a Farseer and Jetlock Council, and didn't like the idea of 6 guys on Bikes followed by the Green Goblin. As such I spent some time reading his fluff and rules while looking through some Eldar models and the below model came to me.




Essentially based on his rules, I am modeled him as a mounted Spiritseer who would support the Council. I made sure to add enough to the model to represent all his various bits and pieces, so the Shuriken Catapults have been replaced with Splinter Cannons (to represent the Splinter Pods), I made a Hellglaive from two spears left over from the Scourges I used to make my Warp Spiders, I used some Guardian accessories on his belt to represent his pistol, two antennae at the back of the Bike to be the pylons that generate his Shadow Field and/or the Stealth Field, and what you can't see in the picks is the old school Space Marine Smoke Launcher mounted underneath the vehicle to represent the Phantasm Grenade Launcher. I also deemed that the Spiritseer helmet could always represent his Bones of the Seer special rule too, so he's got a quite a bit put into him. A Dark Elf Dreadlord torso finished him off to give him a more ornate look to the Warlocks, while also being very distinctly different to the Farseer.

I am hoping to get him painted soon (like everything else ), so stay tuned and those Spiders should be ready in no time.

Cool lookin' kitbash You really made him unique among the others of the squad and the glaive looks simple but very cool.

Now show us those purple spiders! Yeah, they better be purple!

Edit: And I completely forgot so far. Awesome avatar, that line always made me burst out laughing

Just finished them now so will have them up tomorrow for definite TheDraconicLord.

I love the head on that Baron! Purple is a great color for Eldar, I have mine done in Hormagaunt Purple, so a little less vibrant. Except the Aspect Warriors, I'm a fan of them keeping their traditional shrine colors. Look forward to seeing what you do with them, though!

Thanks for the comments again everyone.

So true to their nature, when you least expected them...Spiders ho!

I managed to get the pictures taken earlier than expected so I figured I put them up immediately instead of waiting until tomorrow. These aren't the greatest pictures as it is night time here, so with the flash and the high quality the highlights are a bit exaggerated in the photos; they blend much better to the naked eye. So we have a group shot, 3 solos, and a shot of the back of one so you can see what that's like.







I have some Dire Avengers finished up on my table waiting for basing, and I started work on the Baron also, as well as a 9th more elaborately converted Spider, just to ramp up the unit's conversion factor. So stay tuned. keep the comments rollin'.

Very nice looking army so far. Oh boy a new Codex? I haven't played against Eldar since 3rd, but I still cringe thinking about them.

Your force has a nice feel too it, carries a consistent theme and with the cool conversions, adds quite a lot of character. Looking forward to seeing it done.

Those....weren't the spiders I was expecting

And I'm glad, they look damn cool! I like the old model but your conversion is very good, you added those 6 rods to represent their "warp jump pack", very nice. And all of them look like they are on the move, man, very nicely done!

Nah, the rods were on the models already, you just don't normally see them because the massive Scourge wings cover them. I just added the Guardian antennae to the backpack to make it 8 pronged, just like a spider.

Well, I'll be damned, I never noticed them, every time I see a scourge model I only see the wings Nice touch adding the 2 extra rods, tho!

 TheDraconicLord wrote:
Well, I'll be damned, I never noticed them, every time I see a scourge model I only see the wings Nice touch adding the 2 extra rods, tho!

Yeah there's actually a few nice details on the backs of those models, but the wings block them all up.

So just a quick update to keep things moving while I finish up some units. I've got a Wave Serpent, some Wyches and the Baron on the table at the moment, as well as these guys below, my WIP Dire Avengers.



As you can see the basing is clearly not done yet, and they themselves need a lot of touch-ups to clean up the work and make them pop. I should easily have them done by tomorrow and have the Serpent nearly done also, so stay tuned for more updates very soon.

And they're done. The Avengers are all finished, basing and all. Sitting next to them on the desk is their all-but-finished ride; a WIP Wave Serpent. All it needs are touch-ups to the purple and it will be done, but most of that can't be seen in the photos anyway so I decided I wanted to include it in the update. I will of course have finished pics of it in a later post. But for now, enjoy some mohawks and lasers.







Due to some missing parts I was forced to kit bash a custom turret for this Serpent, so I've included a close-up so you can get a good look at that too.

I'm glad you decided to "ZOG OFF!" the usual schemes for all the aspect warriors The army won't look a "Taste the rainbow!" one and purple is always awesome! I feel the Dire Avengers could use a bit of a more extreme edge-highlight, but that's just me

Oh, and the turret looks damn nice! That kit-bash worked perfectly.

To tell you the truth I felt the same about the highlights. The one problem with the purple scheme is it focuses on building the purple up to pink in a unique looking way, but it doesn't always catch the highlight spots well unless they are very pronounced. What I have been doing on the vehicle to remedy that is going over the lines that run all over them with Druchii Purple once more when it is all done, as deeper shading makes the highlights stand out more, but I find that tougher to do on the much smaller infantry models.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
So I've worked on making those pink highlights pop a lot more in my latest units by adding a final fine shade, and it is a big improvement, however I have come to one conclusion; my camera hates my purple. I've noticed that the purple also picks up as very slurred and very grainy on the camera, probably because it can pick up detail a lot better than the naked eye could ever see, but in person the purple blends together perfectly, and I am very happy with it, so if it looks grainy, take my word for it, it's not

So today I got my allied detachment as a whole finished; 5 Wyches (sans flock), the Baron, and a Venom. All of these are converted and made to try and fit in with the rest of the army. Enjoy.

Loving those wych conversions! The scourge heads go really well there.

Loving the purple colour scheme. My own eldar (the painted ones anyway) are in a red bone scheme similar to Saim Hann.

Cheers for the comments rohansoldier.

Will be away for the weekend now, but will have the Farseer and my Jetbikes posted when I return, so stay tuned.

I absolutely hate the "Automatically appended" feature, it makes me miss awesome updates like this one!

The highlights really do "pop-up" more now! And it's fantastic how even the allies are under the same theme

Out of curiosity, how many scourge helmets do you still have?

I think just one.

Back to business tonight, and as I work on my Hornets I will keep my promise with an update; my Farseer and Jetbikes. Things are moving along now, with 1 month left to finish 20 Guardians, the Seer Council, 2 Serpents and the Hornets, as well as the display board. Time is certainly catching up on me, so wish me luck.

Well it's been some time, and though I've been busy, I've managed to keep up somewhat with my painting, albeit not to a rate I would like. For now however I have finished my Seer Council and almost finished the Guardians and Hornets (to come next time). I took the pics of these guys in a hurry last night when I finished them as I was tired, so apologies for the shoddy quality, but I wanted to get n update done since it's been so long. So here they are, the Jetlock Council of five.

Back knee-deep in painting again in order to get the army done for next week, however things are looking good. For now I just wanted to come on and present yet another update. My Hornets are done! This is the first ever ForgeWorld unit I've painted and I'm very pleased with them. Below is a shot of the two and a close-up of one of the pilots. More updates to come during the week so please stay tuned and subscribe.

I love the jackets the Seer Council members are wearing. It's so different, so unlike the Eldar! All of them look bad-ass!

And those Hornets, those most beautiful Hornets, That Paint scheme looks fantastic on them.

Keep up the great work!

Those Eldar look *Fabulous*!

Interesting style how did you fiddle with the jet bike riders

 Llamahead wrote:
Interesting style how did you fiddle with the jet bike riders

Sorry if I'm being daft, but what do you mean by fiddle with them?

So the tournament is less than a week away and the army is coming along strong. Still no losses so far, however still no illusions either; the tournament itself will be much tougher than my practice games. As for painting, I am confident that I will be finished in time, and in the next 2-3 updates you should see the finished result (fr now anyway ).

This past week i got my other two Wave Serpents finished as well as starting on my display board. As of now I need to finish and base my 20 Guardians and finished the board. Below are the two Serpents (they look near identical, but I swear there are two ; I've included a close-up of the turret and pilot of one of them also.






Also as I mentioned above, I started working on m display board. Of the 50 painting points for the tournament, the board is worth a potential 10 (3 for a standard board, 7 more if it is modeled). I won't go into much detail on the board yet, as that is for a later post, however I've added some WIP pictures below as a teaser. Stay tuned; the finished army is just around the corner.