Painting Aspect Warriors

[eldargal]

Do you paint your Eldar Aspect Warriors in the Aspect colours, or in Craftworld colours? I just ask because I used to do them in Aspect colours but over the past eighteen months or so as I repainted my entire 40k (haw) of Eldar I switched to Craftworld colours. It makes the army look nice and uniform, but I wonder if it isn't a bit too uniform now.:rolleyes:

[PedroKantor]

you have any picts? would love to see em...

[Majorcrash]

As a long time Eldar player I painted my guardians in craftworld colors but used my own color scheme for the aspects. Dire avengers are a primary black, banshees went with an off white and hawks I stayed with the more traditional white. My dragons I did q more soft metalic gold and bronze. I am currently adding some reapers and spiders but havent selected a color, any suggestions. Thinking of a off yellow with white highlights? I dont have any scorpions or spears realy dont like they way they work or the models are to expensive.

[Ryanironwolf]

I tend to mix the two as long as they aren't garish. I give them one colour from the aspect and one from their craftworld to try and tie them together but without removing their own individual schemes. The only radical departure was for my Scorpions which had the Alaitoc blue here and there but the armour is the colour of scorpion chitin, somewhat brownish. They came out great. still. I like to keep them tied together yet disparate as far as the aspects go.

basing in this case helps alot as with most armies.

[The AKH]

I do mine in Aspect colours, but with an accent colour that ties them in with the rest of my Craftworld troops... I use blue as an accent on my Guardians and tanks, so on the Aspect Warriors, if they've got tabards or streamers wrapped around their arms, I'll paint those blue. It's a subtle, but effective way of visually linking the units, without having them look too uniform.

[eldargal]

No pics, sorry, long story...

I've now painted all, um, I need to count my Aspect Warriors again. Anyway its hundreds, in my Craftworld colours of offwhite/bone and pink, so its a big thing to now be having doubts about.:(

MajorCrash, a friend has some Warp Spiders in her army painted white with yellow highlights, very pretty if you can get that crisp, pure white. Yellow with white would probably be nice, too.


you have any picts? would love to see em...

[lordbubonicus]

I'm in the process of repainting my Eldar at the moment, and I've decided to go with a compromise. The main colour scheme for army is black and yellow with bone weaponry. The guardians/wraithguard have black bodysuits and yellow chest armour, backpacks, head recesses(or whole head for the wraithguard), cloth, and flashes.

For the aspect warriors I'm replacing the yellow areas of armour with a colour appropriate for the aspect (but leaving the cloth and flashes in yellow). So Banshees get bone, Dragons will get orange, Spiders get red, Avengers get blue, Spears get white, Reapers get purple.

So the basic style and colour placement of the scheme remains the same, but the colours change. I hope that it gives the army a bit more uniformity than the standard aspect colours, but also maintains the separation that they gain from that approach. To date I've only repainted a few guardians, the wraithguard, some warlocks/spiritseers and a couple of Warp Spiders and Howling Banshees. The repaint is going to take me a while, and I'll have to wait to see how well this approach works until I've done a few squads.

Before anyone asks, I have no pictures.:-P

[thelonegrif]

i tend to keep my aspect warriors doctrine colors and dont do anything different from it originally i thought about keeping them all uniform but i decided since most armies out there will be uniform most of the time (especially space marines) so i decided against mixing or blending any other color into the doctrine color scheme the only thing i do is their ribbons in my craft worlds colors
lol i do have pictures lol
http://i795.photobucket.com/albums/yy235/ncgriffin_27/eldar/warpspyder.jpghttp://i795.photobucket.com/albums/yy235/ncgriffin_27/eldar/howlingbansheeex.jpghttp://i795.photobucket.com/albums/yy235/ncgriffin_27/eldar/direavengerex.jpghttp://i795.photobucket.com/albums/yy235/ncgriffin_27/eldar/Picture6.jpg

[Mystery.Shadow]

Always painted in the Craftworld Colors. Painting them the Aspect Colors makes it (IMHO) look like it's made up of several Armies rather than one Unified Army. And I always liked Armies to look like it's one unified group rather than a 'rag-tag' bunch of individual units.

[OCdt Mephiston]

I love the idea of the aspects being seperate from the Craftworld structure, with their own motivations and infrastructure. As result, the best I've seen aspect warriors done was with their transports and what not painted in their colours. ie, an orange falcon carrying around a squad of fire dragons, or a bone one with a bunch of banshees inside!

[Gotthammer]

I paint (those few I've done) some of my Aspects in non-craftworld colours, but not the traditional ones. For example my Scorpions look suspiciously like they'll have Marbo shouting to 'get to da choppa', and my Hawks are more grey than blue.

[isotope99]

I use a consistent colour pallette (blue purple & white) but draw more heavily on different aspects of that palette (no pun intended). This gives each squad a unique colour scheme but keeps the army consistent. I also use the same colour gems (scorpion green) to tie them together.

e.g. Banshees are white and purple to correspond to bone and red, scorpions are turquoise rather than green, my avatar is blue with purple fire ...

[Majorcrash]

eldargal No pics, sorry, long story...

I've now painted all, um, I need to count my Aspect Warriors again. Anyway its hundreds, in my Craftworld colours of offwhite/bone and pink,

did you say pink!!!!!!!!!!!! I think we have a closet Slannesh follower?

[Anggul]

I paint mine in aspect colours, but then on cloth, like the sashes and tabards etc., I put craftworld colours. Also, I was painting my Dire Avengers, and painted ice blue before painting on the white, so that it would be a smoother transition and look nicer. I then decided I actually really liked them with ice blue where most people would put white, and left them like that. =)

[Lordgimpet]

Personaly I tend to keep to shrine colours but mix my craftworld colours in to keep uniformity.
this is so that they can be clearly identified but still fit with the overall army scheme, not clash and look independant.
sometimes this can be harder that it sounds but can be overcome by adjusting the tone of the colour.
my Striking Scorpions lack almost any of my craftwould colours besides the odd sash here ant there
so I darken the green and treating the black on them as a neutral tone they fit better with my other units.

im currently working on my fire dragons at the moment and as my craftwould colours can go with the standard shrine colour i have a little more freedom.

that said I have seen some pretty amazing armies that just use a single colour scheme on all aspects
but i feel it just wont work with all schemes.

[pbagosy]

I was originally painting my Eldar army in the Yme-Loc craftworld colors, but while the orange and grey look great on tanks, they clash pretty heavily with nearly every aspect warrior. I wound up ditching the Yme-Loc scheme and created my own craftworld - Dealan'de, which (using the Gaelic origin of the Eldar language), is a contraction whose whole meaning essentially translates to "Awakening the Butterfly of Ynnead."

The basic concept of the craftworld is that they are completely militant and near suicidal, believing so strongly that when the last Eldar falls, Ynnead will awaken and make it all OK (of course, it couldn't hurt to use their noble sacrifice to take down as many enemies as possible). Since their entire existence is consumed with the pursuit of war, their entire army is aspect warriors, and they consider their overall objectives to be superior to the veneration of the aspects themselves.

Therefore, all of my aspect warriors are painted in the black with blue and bone white accents of the craftworld, and then highlighted here and there with the aspect colors. For instance, Banshees have the green loincloths, Avengers have blue shoulder pads, Reapers have purple guns, etc...

[Lane]

My Eldar army has been long neglected, took a 5 year break from playing 40k, but Aspect Warriors will be in shrine colors. Not only will it contrast with my existing ( Dark Angel and IG ) armies it will make a good visual reference to the units. It may even help in game play, never hurts to have a unit say "hey, look at me, I'm a unit of Scorpions, ignore that Storm Guardian unit over there"

[Lane]

I also plan on integrating Aspect Shrine colors into my Warlocks, probably helmets and details with robes in Craftworld colors.

Only a psycher who has followed the path of the warrior can focus their powers in a destructive way. My plan is to visibly tie their warlock power to the Shrine they served in.

Conceal: Striking Scorpion, Warp Spider

Embolden: Dire Avenger, Swooping Hawk, Shining Spear

Destructor: Fire Dragon, Dark reaper

Enhance: Howling Banshee

Once I find the model again I also plan on converting the High Elf Everqueen mini into a Farseer. Mainly add a helmet that resembles a Banshee mask and a wraithbone breastplate. Her spear/ staff is already close to an Eldar weapon.

[Freefall945]

I've had success keeping the Aspect colors separate from my army's core theme, which is primary Skull White, secondary Shadow Grey, tertiary Black. As I look at them now, however, I notice the aspect warriors, as a caste, are reasonably unified in their palette - regal blues, mech-rite red, divergences here and there.

I'm sure I'm only repeating what everyone else already knows, but it's important for aspect warriors to stand apart from the guardian-core (that includes vehicles) of one's army but nonetheless seem complimentary. They must both Stand Out and Belong. You can find that balance by borrowing in one of your craftworld's colors to all your aspect warriors, by giving your aspect warriors a collective aesthetic spine of their own to compliment the rest of the army, and/or by giving your army a visually consistent basing scheme (though that one's a given).

Pink is a rather... potent color, however. I wonder if a pink arm band on otherwise traditional warp spiders, or pink helms on blue dire avengers, would look good, or gimmicky. You may have been wise to fold them into your larger scheme on that point alone - Pink is a vigorous, and dominant color. It has a tendency to want to be the key to any scheme it is involved in, or to wreck the whole paint job in spite if it does not have its way.

[Kirsten]

If you are having second thoughts, maybe add one extra colour to each aspect? Different coloured weapons, knee pads, helmet, whatever. Just find one detail, paint it differently, and see if that makes a difference :)

[eldargal]

Well, I counted up all my Aspect Warriors and the total came to 738, so, no way I'm painting all those again.:P But I am happy with them, I did leave a few hints of Aspect Shrine colours on weaponry and whatnot so I think that will do.
Also, can I just say how amazing it is that Eldar from accross five editions can still look good and coherent with a decent, unifying paintjob? I love Jes Goodwin (platonically).

[Kirsten]

I love Jes Goodwin (platonically).

hmm, little too quick to add the addendum there? guilty conscience? ;)

[eldargal]

Well, you know, he might be married or something.:rolleyes:


hmm, little too quick to add the addendum there? guilty conscience? ;)

[Kirsten]

Well, you know, he might be married or something.:rolleyes:

pff, details :p

[Lerra]

My favorite Eldar armies have been painted the ways yours is, Eldargal - with a unifying paint scheme but little bits painted with aspect shrine colors.

One of the neatest parts of 40k is putting a huge army on the table and seeing it really come together as an army, not just as separate units. That's tricky to do as Eldar, but I think you've found one of the better solutions.

[DrLove42]

I also plan on integrating Aspect Shrine colors into my Warlocks, probably helmets and details with robes in Craftworld colors.

Only a psycher who has followed the path of the warrior can focus their powers in a destructive way. My plan is to visibly tie their warlock power to the Shrine they served in.

Conceal: Striking Scorpion, Warp Spider

Embolden: Dire Avenger, Swooping Hawk, Shining Spear

Destructor: Fire Dragon, Dark reaper

Enhance: Howling Banshee



That is a brilliant idea. It's fluffy, its a nice paint idea and its good for game play for determining who has what powers.

[eldargal]

Thanks, I'm glad I'm not the only one who likes it that way.:)


My favorite Eldar armies have been painted the ways yours is, Eldargal - with a unifying paint scheme but little bits painted with aspect shrine colors.

One of the neatest parts of 40k is putting a huge army on the table and seeing it really come together as an army, not just as separate units. That's tricky to do as Eldar, but I think you've found one of the better solutions.

I like the way you think.

pff, details :p