Eldar: From Rogue Trader To Today
After working on many Chaos and Imperial projects for the past couple years I decided it was finally time to update my Eldar army. I’ve been trying to do so for years, but kept bumping it for other projects. Even after the revision and new releases for Eldar two years ago, the project got bumped for my Dark Angels successor chapter and many Apocalypse related projects. I’ve actually had some current models since they were first released years ago, like the Avatar in 1994 and the Falcon in 1997, yet only managed to just finish painting them this year! My original Eldar army goes back to the army list in White Dwarf #127 and the original Aspect Warrior, Guardian and Avatar models that were released that year. I even have a few of the earlier Rogue Trader Eldar models that were meant to represent pirates and raiders, an idea that would be revisited in 1998 with the release of the Dark Eldar. Did you know that the earliest Eldar heavy weapons were mounted on tripods rather than hover platforms or that the original jetbikes were made of lead, had no fins and cost $7.50 US for a blister of one? My old lead Guardian models have lasguns instead of shuriken catapults. Oh, those crazy Rogue Trader days.
What made me an Eldar fan in the early days of their current look was the Warlocks. They are such beautiful models I just had to have a couple to paint for fun, so I bought a blister. When the GW store had a buy-2-get-1-free blister sale shortly thereafter I bought one of everything Eldar so I could use those beautiful Warlocks in games by having an army to go with them. Aspect Warriors were five to a blister for $7.50 back then. I painted and played with that early Eldar army for years till my Chaos Marines finally got their first Codex. Then my Eldar sat silent for many years. I didn’t care much for most of the sculpts in the next revision of the Eldar and mostly avoided them, but when the latest Eldar releases returned to Jes Goodwin’s fantastic original design concepts my interest in the Eldar was renewed. I’ve been painting new Eldar models and older ones that are still current quite a bit since finishing my Dark Angels back in the spring.
To date I’ve painted:
– 20 Guardians plus weapon platform
– 12 Striking Scorpions
– 6 new Fire Dragons and 7 original Fire Dragons
– 1 Wraithlord
– 1 Falcon
– 5 Dark Reapers
– 1 Maugan Ra
– 12 Guardian Jetbikes
– 1 Warlock on Jetbike conversion
– 1 Autarch on Jetbike
– 5 Wraithguard
– 1 Avatar
What’s left to finish:
– Seer Council of about a dozen Warlocks and Farseer models, including the special edition Bonesinger who will be my main Farseer (base coating has begun).
– 6 Vypers (one will be a touch-up to match my current color scheme)
– 2 Falcons, 2 Wave Serpents (base coating has begun)
– 6 Warwalkers (assembly and painting required)
– 8 Banshees (painting has begun)
– 6 Rangers
– 8 Warp Spiders
– 10 Harlequins
The Avatar model pictured above was just finished yesterday. In a way I’m glad it took me fourteen years to get to him, because I have a lot of tools and painting skills I didn’t have back when he was first released and probably got a better overall result than I would have in 1994. My custom craftworld rune shows on the bottom of his tabard and the yellow and turquoise hair and purple gems reflect my craftworld specific colors. The Falcon model shown below also features my craftworld’s main colors.
Although I’ve been jumping back and forth to and from other projects, I keep returning to my Eldar these days to ensure they get the update they deserve. Anything sculpted or designed by Jes Goodwin deserves to be painted and to be seen. His creations are just beautiful and the Eldar may be his finest work. I can only hope that my painting of them does them some justice.
Also in the queue to be painted, among other things: sixty Khorne Berserkers, fifty or more Thousand Sons, Forge World upgrade Khorne and Nurgle Marines and Chaos Baneblade variants.
