knotdragon
02-25-2010, 04:18 PM
Right I'm a little rusty when it comes to posting images etc so please bear with me if any of them don't work right.
The eldar have always been my first army since I was eleven years old and first began playing with little toy soldiers. As with all of you I decided that it wasn't something I needed to grow out of and as a result i've had a creative outlet that has become more and more valuable to me as the years have gone by.
I originally had an Alaitoc army since this was the army GW had painted up and did painting articles on so all I had to do was copy their work, which of course was beyond an eleven year old and even up to my late teens eluded me. Thankfully i've learned more and more and now I have the confidence to go my own way, designing my own paint schemes etc. It's a nice position to finally be in.
I settled on Ulthwe in the end since everything is dark and brooding with them, plus I love the fluff of the uber-interferers in mankind's and other's affairs.
Now, it takes me a very long time do anything in old entish, but thankfully I do get to spend that time thinking up of a unified paint scheme and theme for my army. So please bear with me as I briefly explain the rationale behind my army's appearance.
Firstly there are no metallic colours or NMM on my models. This is because I just don't see the eldar using anything other than crystal, wraithbone and other psycho sensitive plastics in the construction of their devices. Can you imagine an eldar steel worker? Me neither.
Secondly and most importantly eldar are psychic and this infuses all their technology. Now, since eldar are also subject to emotions many thousands of times stronger than a human's, I believe this will change the appearance of all their wargear. Thus we have the wild red of Saim-Hann, the puritanical white of Biel-Tan and the darkness of Ulthwe, a place of constant mourning that has the eye of terror in plain sight at all times, a reminder of all that fell and once was and a sign of the slow death the eldar face. This also explains the parity in aspect warrior colours, since these warriors work themselves into a trance like state of ritualised combat which is the same on every craftworld.
So to reiterate, IMO all eldar you see on the battlefield are coloured by their craftworld's particular outlook on life, while the aspects are coloured by their form of combat/training. My Ulthwe use almost nothing but black with a tiny amount of bone for contrast and crimson (red gore) for flexible areas here and there.
I'm meandering I know but hey, see the entish comment above...
For areas on my models that would need to be harder than most (for example jet engines, weapon cowling, blade edges etc.) I use gloss varnish to represent this type of wraithbone. I am afraid that using it too much would look pretty bad so i'm very sparing with it right now, a test model with all gloss armour plates and matt undersuit is certainly something i'll be trying in future.
Ok, so here is an example of a WIP wraithlord that gives you an idea of where i'm coming from:
http://i967.photobucket.com/albums/ae158/Brian_c_stack/Eldar/DSCF0296-1.jpg?t=1264630334
http://i967.photobucket.com/albums/ae158/Brian_c_stack/Eldar/DSCF0297-1.jpg?t=1264630206
As you can see from this (assuming it's worked that is...) i'm putting my faith in black. Also you can see that the base is a dark crimson too. This is another feature of my army - ever since I saw the original artwork on the box of the falcon grav tank kit i've wanted to paint an army that's set in a red desert much like Australia's Simpson Desert. Can't explain it very well, it's just the way I envisage them.
http://i967.photobucket.com/albums/ae158/Brian_c_stack/DSCN0155.jpg?t=1264972915
And here's my old vyper painted 5 years ago - great to see it up and out of it's box again these days :)
The eldar have always been my first army since I was eleven years old and first began playing with little toy soldiers. As with all of you I decided that it wasn't something I needed to grow out of and as a result i've had a creative outlet that has become more and more valuable to me as the years have gone by.
I originally had an Alaitoc army since this was the army GW had painted up and did painting articles on so all I had to do was copy their work, which of course was beyond an eleven year old and even up to my late teens eluded me. Thankfully i've learned more and more and now I have the confidence to go my own way, designing my own paint schemes etc. It's a nice position to finally be in.
I settled on Ulthwe in the end since everything is dark and brooding with them, plus I love the fluff of the uber-interferers in mankind's and other's affairs.
Now, it takes me a very long time do anything in old entish, but thankfully I do get to spend that time thinking up of a unified paint scheme and theme for my army. So please bear with me as I briefly explain the rationale behind my army's appearance.
Firstly there are no metallic colours or NMM on my models. This is because I just don't see the eldar using anything other than crystal, wraithbone and other psycho sensitive plastics in the construction of their devices. Can you imagine an eldar steel worker? Me neither.
Secondly and most importantly eldar are psychic and this infuses all their technology. Now, since eldar are also subject to emotions many thousands of times stronger than a human's, I believe this will change the appearance of all their wargear. Thus we have the wild red of Saim-Hann, the puritanical white of Biel-Tan and the darkness of Ulthwe, a place of constant mourning that has the eye of terror in plain sight at all times, a reminder of all that fell and once was and a sign of the slow death the eldar face. This also explains the parity in aspect warrior colours, since these warriors work themselves into a trance like state of ritualised combat which is the same on every craftworld.
So to reiterate, IMO all eldar you see on the battlefield are coloured by their craftworld's particular outlook on life, while the aspects are coloured by their form of combat/training. My Ulthwe use almost nothing but black with a tiny amount of bone for contrast and crimson (red gore) for flexible areas here and there.
I'm meandering I know but hey, see the entish comment above...
For areas on my models that would need to be harder than most (for example jet engines, weapon cowling, blade edges etc.) I use gloss varnish to represent this type of wraithbone. I am afraid that using it too much would look pretty bad so i'm very sparing with it right now, a test model with all gloss armour plates and matt undersuit is certainly something i'll be trying in future.
Ok, so here is an example of a WIP wraithlord that gives you an idea of where i'm coming from:
http://i967.photobucket.com/albums/ae158/Brian_c_stack/Eldar/DSCF0296-1.jpg?t=1264630334
http://i967.photobucket.com/albums/ae158/Brian_c_stack/Eldar/DSCF0297-1.jpg?t=1264630206
As you can see from this (assuming it's worked that is...) i'm putting my faith in black. Also you can see that the base is a dark crimson too. This is another feature of my army - ever since I saw the original artwork on the box of the falcon grav tank kit i've wanted to paint an army that's set in a red desert much like Australia's Simpson Desert. Can't explain it very well, it's just the way I envisage them.
http://i967.photobucket.com/albums/ae158/Brian_c_stack/DSCN0155.jpg?t=1264972915
And here's my old vyper painted 5 years ago - great to see it up and out of it's box again these days :)