PPPointyEars wrote:
I've never wonder about this until now: The red hair on the Howling Banshees: Is that part of the helmet or do all Eldar that walk that path have red hair/have their hair dyed? Or are most Eldar red-haired?
If so, should I paint my Storm Guardians' hair as red/reddish?
Couple things here:
* The "manes" are usually part of the helmet, though aspect armor comes in enough shapes for there to be exceptions.
* Red hair is not a mandatory part of the banshee color scheme. That's just how the two(?) squads of banshees that get used in all the pictures are painted. Similarly, not all avengers have white helmets, and not all dark reapers where black armor.
* So most aeldari models you see in
GW books actually do have red hair, but this doesn't seem to be a
thing in the lore. Gee Dubs decided Lelith would look good as a red-head when they redid the army in 5th edition, painted up the wych squads they used for photos to match, and now we all sort of have ginger eldar in the back of our minds when we think about them. Also, some of the lore (especially craftworlder lore) utilizes real-world celtic/Irish mythology, so I imagine this strengthens the aeldari-are-red-heads subliminal messaging a bit more.
But no. I've never seen any fluff that straight up declares aeldari are primarily red-headed. Most aeldari seem to have access to cosmetic technology that lets them change their hair color dramatically on the fly (see the main character's comb in
Path of the Seer). Red-headedness doesn't seem to be especially common among exodites who presumably have less access to advanced cosmetic technology.
* Storm Guardian plumes may or may not be their own hair. It's not really spelled out either way, but giving your enemy a big wavy handle connected to the nerve endings on your scalp is generally a bad idea. The plumes could very well be symbolic add-ons just like most plumes of real-world helmets. It's not that you couldn't fit your fiery locks inside your helmet; it's that you wanted to display a blood red plume that reminds you of a story about Khaine.
tldr; Paint stuff how you want. There are plenty of examples and exceptions in aeldari art and lore to justify whatever paint scheme you think looks cool.
