Craftworld Eldar Aspect Colours

[Culial]

Hello everybody!


So, I've recently been generously donated a sizeable collection of Eldar models when my partners brother moved house and discovered them while boxing-up the attic.
Mostly consisting of metal Aspect Warriors (am I using that right? Eldar have never been my forté) of at least the iteration previous to the current range. An absolute treasure-trove to be sure, with mostly beautiful sculpts (I'm looking at you pre-teen Rangers and 4'10" Farseer).


The models have been stripped, the fluff perused in a borrowed Codex & IA 11, Craftworld Mymeara selected (gotta love that ForgeWorld scheme!) and the paints ordered.
I've started looking over the model details (prior to cleaning up mould lines, pinning & some minor repairs) to work out colour placement and what-not and it occurred to me - Why do the different Aspects used colour schemes different to the main host? I can't seem to find any explanation, either in the Codex or on-line to explain it better than "because".
Can anyone out there shed any light on this?

[40kGamer]

Aspect warriors fluff is that their colour scheme is based upon their warrior shrine. Each craftworld may have multiple shrines and therefore multiple colour variations. It's a clever way of opening up the possible schemes to the hobbyist... and congrats on your recent acquisition. I personally prefer several of the old school aspect sculpts over the newer ones. :)

[Charon]

Aspect Shrines where not founded on the craftworlds but hail from the first Shrine of Ashuryan where Asurmen did teach the rites of war to his pupils. When the Shrine was destroyed by Aharas betrayal they scattered and founded shrines on the craftworlds.
They dont wear the craftworlds colors but their traditional colors. Also there may be more than one aspect shrines of Dire Avengers on a craftworld and none of another. Some are extremely small or hadly known (Slicing Orbs for example). The size of the shrine may vary. The Deadly Shadow Striking Scorpions from Alatioc ever only have 5 Members + 1 Exarch while the Fall of deadly Rain Stiking Scorpions is one of the biggest Shrines.

I painted mine in their "traditional" colors but with subtle tokens of their craftworld (Alaitoc). My swooping Hawks for example have deep blue helmets and a yellow mouthpiece while my Banshees have yellow sashs and a blue armbinding.

[Wolfshade]

While it certainly is true that each aspect has their "usual" colour scheme, the consequence of this is sometimes a force that does not look coherrent. In the DoW games they had a more army-wide colour scheme, which I preferred.

[Culial]

Wow, quick reply!


Thanks for explanation, really can't find anything in the Codex.
I'm still curious as to origins of the practice though?
The Shrines were founded after the Fall, right? So is it the colours of the founding Craftworld? The first Phoenix Lords' favourite crayon in kindergarten? I'm just looking for something to give me ideas on how to merge the Aspect colours with the Mymeara host, especially since they were isolated for so long.

Charon, that's great! Just the kind of thing I was after.
Could you by any chance let me know the source? I'd love to delve a little deeper, pick at a few loose threads...

[Charon]

Scattered through books and codices from 2nd edition to 7th.
Path of the Warrior is a good one. If I got it right, the first shrine was not on a craftworld and there where no aspects. Asurmen just teached the principles of the path and donning/removing their war mask.
His pupils developed their own styles, channeling a fragment of Khaines Aspects founding the aspect shrines on the craftworlds in the end.

A good source is http://www.lexicanum.com/ for example.

[marful]

Scattered through books and codices from 2nd edition to 7th.
Path of the Warrior is a good one. If I got it right, the first shrine was not on a craftworld and there where no aspects. Asurmen just teached the principles of the path and donning/removing their war mask.
His pupils developed their own styles, channeling a fragment of Khaines Aspects founding the aspect shrines on the craftworlds in the end.

A good source is http://www.lexicanum.com/ for example.
Yup, it was on a planet.

From the Lexicanum:


Asurmen's name means "The Hand of Asuryan" and it was he who led the Eldar race away from their doomed homeworlds at the time of the Fall of the Eldar. After the Fall, Asurmen and his followers landed on a barren world and renamed it Asur. There, he founded the first of the Aspect shrines, the Dire Avengers, which have become the most common of all the warrior Aspects.

...

The greatest of his students went on to found their own Aspect shrines and became Phoenix Lords themselves.

[edsoulman]

Wow, quick reply!


Thanks for explanation, really can't find anything in the Codex.
I'm still curious as to origins of the practice though?
The Shrines were founded after the Fall, right? So is it the colours of the founding Craftworld? The first Phoenix Lords' favourite crayon in kindergarten? I'm just looking for something to give me ideas on how to merge the Aspect colours with the Mymeara host, especially since they were isolated for so long.

Charon, that's great! Just the kind of thing I was after.
Could you by any chance let me know the source? I'd love to delve a little deeper, pick at a few loose threads...

In actuality, Mymeara only has one group of Aspect warriors, the Shadow Spectres. Since they had already left before the birth of she who thirsts.

But in reality, you're going to want some Warp spiders and stuff! Mymeara is also my paintscheme, and I've used plenty of different sources for inspiration, some (like the striking scorpions, Dire avengers, swooping hawks and shining spears) are easier, due to the fact they share colours with the Mymeara scheme. but then some like fire dragons are not so easy. Check out Blue Table Paintings YouTube channel, as the owner Shawn had a Mymeara army that had swooping hawks and striking scorpions that looked great with a Mymeara influenced theme.

[JMichael]

I never liked the different paint schemes and wanted a more uniform look to my army. I paint my Aspect Warriors in Craftworld colors, with the Exarch being a unique scheme.
Biel-Tan, though I like Green armor and white helmets. My Dire Avenger Exarch has reversed colors. Though my other Exarchs are different (Scorpion is dark red, and Reaper Exarch is black).
Its your army, you can paint them how ever you want!
My vehicles also have a custom scheme that I really dig.

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[eldargal]

I paint my Aspects in Craftworld colours also, with things like tabards referencing Aspect colours. Much more uniform that way.

[Charon]

Actually I like the colorful not-uniform-look. It makes Eldar different from IG and Space Marines and every armor is a piece of art rather than a uniform.
I also get my aspect colors different from shrine to shrine.

[daboarder]

see I;ve always liked it slightly the other way around

For example, a mate of mine has a black with blue edging eldar army, and he does his aspects in the shrine colours, but uses really dark shades for them, like midnight blue DA's, Deep red fire dragons etc....then all the tabards are balck with blue edging.

[Mr Mystery]

Typically where 40k is concerned there is simply no hard and fast rule.

Most Aspect Temples use their Shrine colours, but by no means all do so. Ultimately it's up to the player - something I've always appreciated about 40k's setting over historicals as there's no real need for uniform accuracy.

I like the concept DB's mate uses though. Seems a nice mix of the two.

[40kGamer]

Actually I like the colorful not-uniform-look. It makes Eldar different from IG and Space Marines and every armor is a piece of art rather than a uniform.
I also get my aspect colors different from shrine to shrine.

I'm also a fan of the 'not uniform' look but my favorite Eldar models to paint are Harlequins, so... :p

[-Tom-]

I aim to give things a hint of the aspect colour, among the more usual greys of the craftworld... e.g. Dire Avenger exarch with the same greys as the guardians on the armour, but then a blue chest plate piece where the guardians have green instead for me.

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[Culial]

Some great replies here, thank you all, it's really appreciated!

Ok, so base on the feedback I think I'll mix-and-match some of your approaches.
I'll keep the basic aspect colours as chosen by Asurmen, roll out the Mymeara black & white helmets across the force, keep to the cooler end of the spectrum where possible to try and keep a unified theme and pick out some Aspect-specific details in the Mymeara blue/green. Shrine differentiation shouldn't be a problem as I've no duplicate squads to worry about.

So, for example:
Howling Banshees - cool white rather than bone, black helm with white face plate, blue/green hair & tabards.
Swooping Hawks - Mymeara blue, black & white helmet, Mymeara green "feathers".

JMichael - how on earth did you manage those stripes on such an organic tank? Looks fantastic.
edsoulman - So would there not have been any other Aspects on board Mymeara? Hmmm...that might put a crimp in things. Marful's post would seem to back that up as Mymeara thought they were the only Eldar left.
Charon - I do rather like the diversity of the Aspect colour schemes, but want to try and avoid it looking like 5 different armies I've just randomly grabbed before heading to the FLGS. The bases will help, but then all of my armies are based the same anyway.

Any more thoughts?

[Mr Mystery]

Oh, and also, there's no set Aspect scheme either.

They have their preferred colours, but can be anything!

[Charon]

Charon - I do rather like the diversity of the Aspect colour schemes, but want to try and avoid it looking like 5 different armies I've just randomly grabbed before heading to the FLGS. The bases will help, but then all of my armies are based the same anyway.

Any more thoughts?

Learning colors can do a lot for you.
I had it quite simpe as I play Alaitoc so most of the aspect colors are somewhere in the army anyways.
Set yourself to a few colors and prepeat them.
So you get more consistency. The color I had problems with was red. As red models tend to jump into your eye when placed into a "blue" army. My solution was to paint hair, energy weapons and gems the same red.
Sadly I have onply pictures of my DE on my pc atm.

[Sainhann]

Like others here I also use Craftworld colors but not any of the standard Craftworlds.

One thing though if you decide to go this route look at which colors go well with each other.

Like using a Color Wheel.