Dark Eldar leaders

The Archeon.  Dark Eldar.  Not "Drukarhi" and definately not Ynnari.

This is a Raging Heroes.

All of these were painted by Priate Viking Painting

And two loyal lieutenants.  Because the Dark Eldar are known for their loyalty.

Two people who take quite different approaches to the same challenges.

I did send the rest of the Dark Eldar army to a friend in Kent, but kept these three.

 

Pre-Codex RT era Space Elves

 

I'm one of those kids all of whose Player Characters were elves.  No matter what gaming system.

So these were my first 40K figures.  Not an "army", not in those days.  Army lists wouldn't appear until the first codices came out. 

These guys were RT BRB space pirates.  So, in keeping with the rules, here's a Space Elf pirate leader with a power fist and bolter.

There wouldn't be Dark Eldar for years.  So I suppose in a way these are proto Ynnari.

This is musician, twin linked keyboards.

This is the woodwind/brass section/choir guy.  WIth a view of the pipework on his back.

And a hand flamer and a sword. 

And this is the string fella, 

Twang

And there's a harliquinn dummer too !  We're getting the band back together.

And Space Elf banner bearers. 

Shuriken catapult with space marine style combat accessory.

An actual plasma gun.  Not a star cannon, you'll note, an actual plasma gun.

And a melta gun with a combat accessory.

It's almost as if the pirates nicked the armouries of the victims of their ravages.

Two weapon combos were very popular with the Space Elves.

No, the one on the left does not have a space marine backpack and shoulder blades and is totally not toting an MG42.

Mostly orginial with the exception of the one with a bolter.  You'll note the one in the centre has a power fist and hand flamer.  This is orginal.

Group shot.  These were probably bought and painted (in humbrol enamels) in 1989(ish).  So around 35 years old. 

Inquisitoral Conclave 2022

Well, following the maxim that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, this would appear to be a factionless warlock or seer of some kind with a retinue of equally disparate assorted Eldar.

The leader.  Impassive in his (her ?) wraith helm.  Looking stern with a witchblade.

There are two swordsmen/women with convential weapons and two swordsmen/women with chainblades.

This individual is possibly the pilot of their grav-tank.

Two more individuals with hafted weapons.

So these are people who at the climax of the final battle for Xyphonica, when it looked like the Imperial Guard were over extended, appeared at XVII Korps HQ and negotiated. 

 

The Eagle has Landed

 You may remember that the mission for the German Commandos in the book was to eliminate Churchill and that in the end, the man they were aiming at turned out to be a decoy. 

So as the Eldar can foresee what might happen, it doesn't seem too far fetched that they might employ decoys for their leaders.  

Of course, it might simply be the thirty year old Eldrad meeting his younger, plastic, self.  This episode of Dr Who has been brought to you by Keela Mensha Kaine.  

I think this shows that the new figure is an homage to the old Jes Goodwin Eldrad.  And that the original Eldrad Sculpt was outstanding and, IMHO, still doesn't look too bad today. 

Old Eldrad was the first ever figure I had pro-painted.  but that was a llooonnngggg time ago. 

 

The new Eldrad was painted by Raven's Nest Painting.

A new wave of dance and mime

 "I have come to dance the dance of death."  The tag line for the harlequin from DOW.  

 Fast skimmers.  Well, like light cavalry throughout history, they're good at the beginning of the battle, finding openings in the opposition formation and perhaps prising it open a little more for exploitation by actual battle winners.  

And at the end, when the enemy are scattered and disorganised, light cavalry are the ideal troop choice for preventing them rallying and re-consolidating.

And of course your army needs someone willing to carry the fight to the enemy, someone to go toe to ballet-shoed toe with the opposition.  

Landraider might well be the most stylish way to deliver this lot into the fight.  Perhaps not the most elegant, but certainly the most stylish.  

These jovial minstrels were all painted by Raven's Nest Painting.   So there's a modest build up of Eldar forces going on as well. 
 

Mechdar.

Quake in fear purple marines, all the twiddly bits in the eye of terror cannot save you now...

I'd mentioned my killy Eldar some time ago.  Karitas has met some of them, but most of them have just been biding their time in the webway.  So I thought I'd get them out and parade them for you.  Sorry about the exposure, but it was already dark outside and the dining room isn't the best place in the world for photographing miniatures.

Unfortunately, the dining table has shrunk and there was no room for the infantry models.  So here's the Mechdar:

The especially killy Void Dragon vehicles there, paired warp hunters (bye, bye, lumbering Imperial Knight...), paired night spinners (bye, bye, horde army) and triple helpings of pulsar hornets and shurikannon wasps.  Troop carrying capacity of zero, but I can live with that.

If I may, I'd like to draw your attention to the flanks, giving you the option of either trying to avoid the gaily coloured clans of Siam Hainn and thus wandering a little too close to the wonderously shooty Bel Tain.  You can go via Christmas, or by the summer holidays, but one of these is gonna get ya.

Yes, that is a Cobra.  And there's the Bel Tain one in the picture below, as well.  Titan Schmitan.  It's just behind the three 'prisms.  Yes, the Wild Riders of Siam Hainn have 1:3 Shurikannon.  Yes,  there is a twin farseer JBcouncil.

The screen of ML armed Vypers is just that, a screen.  With template weapons.  There are ten 'serpents and three Falcons there; that's 118 Eldar in your deployment zone in turn two (plus the 'spiders, 'hawks and rangers).  Mostly seers and Fire Dragons, it has to be said.

Yee-har, as they say.

Perfidious Eldar

So, I needed to recover a particular set of Scorpions from their hiding place (not in a wall in Chatham dockyards, this time). And Lo ! they were where I left them.  Good start !

So this is yer common or garden codex sized nest of Scorpions.  Unlike some of the other Scorpions I have, which are in their Craftworld colours, I thought; well, they are supposed to be sneakatious, so I'll do them camouflage.

These boys were done before we moved here, so prolly about 2004.  And like most of the Eldar, have ne'r seen a tabletop in anger.  But.  That may change this year, so I was having a butcher's to make sure that they don't look naf.

They look OK in the flesh, perhaps they need a light wash just to unify all of the colours, but perhaps that's just me wanting to wash everything with oil paints these days.

The patterns are supposed to be sort of camo, sort of ritual pattern on their armour.  I'd imagine that their psychoresponsive armour would actually change as they crossed terrain, bleeding into the background etc etc.  But unless you we're doing a diorama, that'd be quite hard to pull off.  I think I saw someone do it nicely on CMoN, with an assassin bifurcating an Orca.  Nice scene, but not something I'll be attempting any time soon.

And I really like the artwork from the first of the Path of the Eldar books by Gav Thorpe.  Incidentally, I think the books are good in that they illustrate nicely what I always understood the Eldar path to be.  Not sure I really like Gav's fiction (I struggled with the Horus Heresy book about the Raven Guard), but I generally concur with his ideas about the Grim Dark.

More shots, as the next time you see them will be as they pull their chainswords from torso, Mon Keigh !  Bwa ha hah a *cough* Ha ha har.

I'm not sure that even the Dark Kin would speak like that, really.  Part of the attraction of the Eldar is that they are all yoghurt knitting socalistic liberal mystics who get hung up over poetry and sculpture.  Then the masks go on and they all turn into psychopaths.

Whilst I was in the box, I pulled this guy out to show you.  I was going for sort of stag beetle with the armour.  and Mr T with the wings (If you're gonna wear wings on a battlefield, there's no point in hiding them).

This is not the guy who fought the centre of Karitas' space Loganstar to a stand still on his jack jones.  This is his brother.

I kind of imagine him flitting around midfield and picking off annoying ICs with the reaper launcher and his outrageous BS.  The wraithsword is just to bat off the assault marines whilst he does it.

Rightiho !  I'm off to Kuala Lumpar for a couple of weeks.  The blog'l still have stuff on Tuesdays and Fridays.  See you later.