Wiggle Room for Eldar Aspect Warriors

[ElectricPaladin]

In your opinion, how much wiggle room does one have when painting aspect warriors, assuming that I want to create a more or less "correct" - perhaps a better word would be "fluffy - Eldar army?

Can I play around with the exact distributing or shades of the colors - dark angels green instead of black on dark reapers, for example - or add actual metallic silver to my shining spears, or add the colors and symbolism of my Craftworld to my aspect warriors' banners? Is this the sort of thing that one would see in the world of 40k, or would that choice take my army entirely outside the bounds of fluff?

Thanks in advance.

[Defenestratus]

In your opinion, how much wiggle room does one have when painting aspect warriors, assuming that I want to create a more or less "correct" - perhaps a better word would be "fluffy - Eldar army?

Can I play around with the exact distributing or shades of the colors - dark angels green instead of black on dark reapers, for example - or add actual metallic silver to my shining spears, or add the colors and symbolism of my Craftworld to my aspect warriors' banners? Is this the sort of thing that one would see in the world of 40k, or would that choice take my army entirely outside the bounds of fluff?

Thanks in advance.

Dude its your army, paint it however you want. Its all make believe remember. You're not going to violate laws by painting your toy soldiers different colors.

My Scorpions are black and red. Why? Because they look like predators.

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-pIsNW_1il7U/UOi6wtSdQrI/AAAAAAAAfG8/OPDnCjE0200/s640/KH1.JPG

[Xenith]

Check the eldar codex. The aspects vary in colour wildly, between each craftworld, and even between each temple on that craftworld.

Eg. Dark reapers. They are the colour of death, and as such are typically black, purple or midnight blue, but death is also bone/white, or they can be in craftworld colours.

The traditional aspect painted colours are just representative of one aspect temple on one particular craftworld.

[Houghten]

I checked the Eldar Codex and I can't find where it actually says that. As far as I can tell, wherever you go a Dire Avenger shrine is a Dire Avenger shrine, with the same rituals and visual cues.

That's not to say that there aren't deviant shrines, of course. There's no particular reason a given Exarch and his followers can't deviate from their patron Phoenix Lord's look. It just seems to be that, what with the dissociative identities the Eldar deliberately cultivate to follow their Paths, they lose a bit in imagination.

[Aspire to Glory]

Dude its your army, paint it however you want. Its all make believe remember. You're not going to violate laws by painting your toy soldiers different colors.

My Scorpions are black and red. Why? Because they look like predators.

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-pIsNW_1il7U/UOi6wtSdQrI/AAAAAAAAfG8/OPDnCjE0200/s640/KH1.JPG

Haha that's rad, man. Love it.

To OP: I agree. Do what you like. In fact, I think that the more that you personalize it, the more awesome it will be.

[Filthspew]

There are very few things you can not get away with.

Chaos Grey Knights spring to mind :D

I would say knock yourself out.

Its about having fun and enjoying the hobby, not being a slave to some paint scheme.

[spaceman91]

i have always had the opinion that your army should be what you want it to be. i always loved the d##ba#s that say you painted that wrong. my response is always them same, find me in the rules where is says that i have to paint it like that.

[eldargal]

All my Aspect Warriors are painted in my Craftworld colours, because that is how I roll. I don't actually like most of the Aspect schemes, so I ignore them. No reason why you shouldn't. Unlike Space Marine chapters there has never been anything which says 'these are the official colours' and even there is was there is nothing stopping you putting the aspect colours on the models in another way (sashes, weapons etc)


You only have to see the variations in how GW have painted Craftworld colours over teh years. Black and yellow for Ulthwe, then later bone and black. Different shades of red for Saim Hann, varying amounts of yellow to blue on Iyanden etc.

[Denzark]

If you can google the original W127 (UK) RT era aspect warrior schemes, you will see a massive colour variation. I can't be arsed to find it for you though sorry.

[Denzark]

I lie I could be arsed...


http://i797.photobucket.com/albums/yy257/denzark/eldar_lg.jpg

[ElectricPaladin]

I lie I could be arsed...

In point of fact, you arsed yourself.

Thanks!

[Nabterayl]

Could have sworn we've seen variant aspect warrior colors more recently than that, but I can't find where it was. I get the impression, though, that aspect warrior shrine iconography is rather like a major religion's - to an outsider, it looks like there is a lot of variation at least if you go from one end of the distribution curve to the other, but an initiate of the shrine would be able to say, "Oh, well, yeah they do things a little differently over in <wherever>, but that's obviously a <whatever> shrine."

[ElectricPaladin]

Could have sworn we've seen variant aspect warrior colors more recently than that, but I can't find where it was. I get the impression, though, that aspect warrior shrine iconography is rather like a major religion's - to an outsider, it looks like there is a lot of variation at least if you go from one end of the distribution curve to the other, but an initiate of the shrine would be able to say, "Oh, well, yeah they do things a little differently over in <wherever>, but that's obviously a <whatever> shrine."

That's exactly what I was hoping for.

I don't think I'm going to paint my aspect warriors in craftworld colors, because part of what's fun about the Eldar is the aspect shrines and the tradition and history associated with them, but I do like the idea of messing around with them, some.

[JMichael]

I paint my aspect warriors like my Craftworld, Biel-Tan with some variation (green primary with white secondary).
For example, the Dire Avengers are pretty much straight, while my Scorpions are a really dark green with dark gray helmets so they feel more dark and sinister (Scorpion Exarch is dark red).
I like the idea of my Exarchs being more individualized in their color scheme.

Dire Avengers
3536

Wave Serpent
3537

[ElectricPaladin]

I paint my aspect warriors like my Craftworld, Biel-Tan with some variation (green primary with white secondary).
For example, the Dire Avengers are pretty much straight, while my Scorpions are a really dark green with dark gray helmets so they feel more dark and sinister (Scorpion Exarch is dark red).
I like the idea of my Exarchs being more individualized in their color scheme.

Dire Avengers
3536

Wave Serpent
3537

Well done models, by the way.

Mine will hopefully look a lot like that. I'm doing Il-Kaithe, which is green with purple highlights and red gems. No white, though. White is a pain in the butt to paint.

[BigGrim]

Thus far, the only Aspect Warriors in my big Eldar force that are kinda Codex coloured are my Dire Avengers. My Scorpions are a dark, gritty bone and black colour scheme, while my Banshees are a light blue/white colour and my Fire Dragons are deep red and black. The joy of Eldar armies is you can paint them however you wish.

[Emerald Rose Widow]

You have as much wiggle room as you want, because they are your bloody miniatures. My brother for example, his dire avengers are red with white and black, and his scorpions are going to be a dark blue. Just do what you want and what feels good.

I personally would use the cannon aspect colours if I were to do eldar, but thats just because I like them that way. I also would do a beil-tan colour scheme cause they rock. It is all a matter of preferance.

[Lord of the Dead]

its been said already but there your models and it was your hard earned money that got the minis this far. paint them so they look great too you and you alone. if its fluff you want so their accurate create your own fluff. part of this hobby is to be creative! look at the conversion work that's been done on so many models already. if somebody tells you that you painted them wrong they're just jealous that you took the path they were to scared to walk down.

[ElectricPaladin]

The thing is, painting to the fluff is part of what I like. The Eldar is part of what drew me to the faction in the first place.

However, it sounds like I have a lot more freedom than I originally thought. I could, for example, say that Il-Kaithe's aspect shrine of the striking scorpions (or perhaps even one of Il-Kaithe's aspect shrines, since each Craftworld is enormous and probably contains many individual aspect shrines) of the Striking Scorpions was founded by Indithir the Crimson, who once emerged from battle with Chaos's minions so coated in gore that the green of his armor could not be discerned, and in honor of his glorious victory, the striking scorpions of this shrine paint their armor red instead of green. They're still striking scorpions. If an Ulthwé Eldar saw them, she might be confused for a minute, if she were ignorant of this particular bit of Eldar history, but she wouldn't be shocked when told of it.

In other words, aspect warriors are a decentralized tradition with nodes in every Craftworld. While someone painting, say, green Ultramarines would be running counter to the fluff, aspect warriors aren't as big a deal. There's variance based on Craftworld and on the shrine within the Craftworld.

How am I doing here?

[Nabterayl]

That's all true as far as I understand it. EG, I could have sworn we have recent textual authority for variant aspect color schemes (thought it was in IA11 but can't seem to find it). Am I off my rocker?

[eldargal]

I vaguely remember something of the sort but can't remember where.:(

[ElectricPaladin]

I've recently skimmed IA 11 (damnit, freaking Eldar Corsairs - stop being awesome) and didn't see anything about this, but now I'll have to read it more closely.

[BigGrim]

In Path of the Warrior, one of the Scorpion Aspect Shrines has a Swamp Environment while another has a Desert Environment. Given they are a stealthy Aspect, I fondly imagine that the Scorpions armour might be decorated in a style similar to their Shrines environment. That's part of the reason my Scorpions are a dark sandy, bone colour.

[JMichael]

Has anyone run into an issue with codex painted aspects and some tournament's '3 like colors' rule (where there must be 3 colors that are uniform throughout your army)?

[Anggul]

It's fine to do all sorts of styles. I think it's best to keep it themed to the aspect though, even if it isn't the 'generic' colours for them. Like the desert idea mentioned above. Sandy desert painted Striking Scorpions would be different, but would fit and would be awesome.

It's also said in most of the Eldar codices that they often incorporate the craftworld colours into their outfits in some way, whether it's just on the cloth or they actually extend it to their helmets or whatever.

I don't think it's a good idea to just paint them exactly the same as the general craftworld units though. It removes a lot of the uniqueness from them and makes them blend in with the Guardians, War Walkers, Grav-tanks and such when they're really meant to stand out.


Craftworld-painted Harlequins are my pet hate. Goodness knows why people do it, it goes completely against the point. :P

[Xenith]

I could have sworn we have recent textual authority for variant aspect color schemes (thought it was in IA11 but can't seem to find it). Am I off my rocker?

The WD that came out when the last eldar codex came out (UKWD 323).

http://forums.relicnews.com/showthread.php?203791-Xenith-s-Eldar-Fire-dragons-completed-21-Dec-08&p=3203467&viewfull=1#post3203467

Scroll down to the middle of the post #15, there's an image of an alternate Fire Dragon shrine that was printed in WD.