Eldar Bright Avengers

Got some Space Elves painted, though just a few more done this time, there are another 6 to finish as well. These few allow me to have a complete squad with options. Once again the theme is the Craftworld Alaiborn (origins of the Alai Mercenary Corps (in my head)). These are the elite troops of the Dire (Bright) Avengers, with their vintage Aspect armour, using the 'pink' tones of the Alai paint scheme. The Dire Avengers are known as a noble and merciless warrior, and are the most tactically flexible of all the Aspect Warriors of the Eldar paths.

The three newly painted models, the Exarch in the middle with her twin Avenger Catapult.

Two new paint Dire Avengers.

The other side of each.

Hopefully what you can't see is that the new Exarch is a metal conversion that someone had started, I acquired her in a box of bits. Originally she is a Banshee body, a Avenger Head, Exarch sword arm and 2 plastic Shurikens I adapted. I did think about swapping out the sword arm, but I like the look. The conversion had a pistol, but I think the twin Avenger Shuriken Catapult looks much better.  I've re-pined the sword arm and 'filled' in the gaps around various parts of the model to clean up the ordinal trimming. Hopefully it looks like a 'original' variation now.

Joining 2 other Avengers and a Exarch on the left (with the same sword arm). 

  Original Exarch in the squad, for variation in the style. 

The Power of the Avatar

Once again, I'm back working on my retro Warhammer metal miniatures, though I've taken my sweet as time on this one, and I know its very different. Its probably been about a year in the painting, as I started it with just the 2 colours. Then I rather lost my way, when digging through a box of bits to find some other models, I found him. So the whole thing took off again last week, not a long time painting in the grand scheme of things, but I was also painting a mass of Guardians and some Hawk (almost done). In truth he has a few things that I'm not happy with, but I'm at that point I need to stop before it becomes a obsession. So this is my interpretation of the Avatar of Khaine of the Craftworld Alaiborn (origins of the Alai Mercenary Corps (in my head)).

I know, look at those glorious pink legs and green socks!

The red in between all the colours represents that his body is made of molten metal. But I'm planning on it being the colour of my Fire Dragons

The blue is the colour of the Craftworld Guardians.

Pink in the colour of the Dire Avenger Troops.

Then finally the green is from the Striking Scorpions.

The green and the blue is also the colour of my Alai Mercenary Corps, so will tie in with them nicely too.

Just the Howling Banshees that I'm yet to decide on.

Plus the starting of many troops that form that Craftworlds Guardian defence.

Space Elves or Eldar, Mercenaries or Corsairs

Back when I first played Warhammer 40k, in the days of that first edition, Rogue Trader. The Eldar or Space Elves as we knew them, where a bit more flexible in their equipment. Though the rules where mostly designed so that you could work with what models you had, and kit bashed from other scenes, models or imagination (Zoids tanks!). This means those early Space Elves had a bit more varied equipment, that was until the 'Fall of the Eldar' came about in around 1990. This meant the range got a more formal army, and then from what I saw in the much later 7th Edition it wasn't that flexible. That is apart from Corsairs, or as I will be using them Mercs. Looking at the Eldar rules for Corsairs in 8th it seems even more is possible, meaning I won't just have to keep to RT rules to enjoy their pointy little faces on the tabletop.  With that in mind, I've started painting a band of Mercs. The paint scheme has take its inspiration from the original 'Alai Mercenary Corps', mentioned in Rogue Trader and the White Dwarf Compendium.

As you can see, a very bold scheme. From which I can make use of my favourite colour at the moment Citadels Titillating Pink. Something I have lavished on a number of figures and now some more join those ranks:

So first we have my favourite of all the figures I painted, not that it started this way. I was rather apprehensive about painting a banner, as I've not done one before and the front was not as I expected. So I added a image to the back, and wow, I must say, I'm very happy. From the initial pencil sketch to this, I'm surprised at the impact it gives.

 

You can see from the images above my initial work and the size, based on the 2 pence coin. I did mistakenly paint the outline first, and had the challenge of adding the skin colour and background afterwards, but it has worked out very well.

 

This chap is the leader, though I think the easiest to paint. The sculpt on his face was very clean and tidy, meaning the detail came out well.

Then the group champion, he was more difficult, with his odd shaped head, due to the face mask, and some really large eyebrows. Not decide if that's a webber or Shuriken he's holding, as it has a very wide opening.

One of the Troopers, with a either a flamer, or multimeta, though I think he's Captain in the original images.

Then another trooper, with a Laspistol and Shuriken. This one was too had a very nice clean sculpt on the face making it much easier to define the features.

Finally the completed squad, just another 5 more to paint, and then some plans are a foot in relation to an old RT image with flying Elves.

All the bases have been painted in a 'sandy' brown, then a violet and brown wash with some gold flecks. Added a little sand that I've coloured with the violet wash, then some bit of plastic to look like crystals/rock formations.