Eldar Dire Avengers

There are only a few random vehicles that remain unpainted in the to do pile.  Unfortunately, I still have a very large amount of foot models that need to be painted.  To help with possible Serpent Spam I decided to work on some 5 man Avenger squads.  I have 20 of the plastic Dire Avengers which I bought when they were released.  Fortunately for me, that was before the massive price hike they underwent when the new Codex dropped.  At $7 an Avenger, that is just ridiculous.

I've also decided to work on some Rangers/Pathfinders.  I finally started to feel bad that I have so many Alaitoc models painted, but not a single Scout, the unit that defines my Craftworld. I have one finished and another two in the works.  I am also working on some weapon crewmen as well.  I'll get some preview pics up within the next couple days.

Left on the shelf are around 80 foot models, a few vehicles, an Avatar, and 5 OOP Wraithlords.

On the paint job front these guys were fairly straightforward.  They were predominately coated in Ultramarines Blue (Altdorf Guard), then heavily drybrushed with white, then glazed with blue.  After some black-lining it was finished.  I wanted a nice blue armor in traditional Dire Avenger style, but differentiated enough from my Guardians.  Their yellow was done in the same style as my Craftworld models for a nice tie-in.  Fairly standardized metal, wraithbone, and gems.  The most time consuming aspect was all the black-lining.  Nothing is more nerve-racking than black-lining between a color and white.  The margin of error is not forgiving.  

Eldar Alaitoc War Walker (Updated)

Ignoring the fact that the base looks super wonky, due to post production, I think this guy came out rather well.  This is my second completed War Walker, but the previous one was painted in an older scheme and style.  Fortunately, it should not take too much effort to update it to the standard of this one.  I have a 3rd one in the base-coating stage, which on these is the most time consuming.  This is the first model I've finished lately that is actually in my 1850 list.  The motivation was not looking like a scrub with a fully painted army minus my War Walkers.

Another difference with this is the choice of weapons.  These Brightlances aren't glued on and are rather modular.  I am planning to bit out some additional weapon holders for different arming options.  In reality I changed up to Brightlances over Scatter Lasers due to the rest of the army's composition.  With having 3 Wave Serpents spamming Str. 6/7 shots, having 6 more Scat-lasers seemed overkill.  The 6 Brightlances help bulk up my anti-tank and pull some pressure off the Fire Prisms.  

Eldar Alaitoc Lynx Super Heavy Tank

As you can see I finished the Lynx today.  I cannot convey how much I love this model.  It's a great mix between the big super heavies like the Cobras and Scorpions and the smaller Falcon chassis tanks.  I decided to go with the Pulsar over the Sonic Lance.  I have the lance barrel plus power pack for the back so if a swap in needed in the future it wont be too difficult.

The scheme is standard, but with some minor changes.  The front stripes are the same as my Scorpion II, but I decided to do some different back stripes.  I though that this model looks so much more different than anything else I have.  Well not hugely different, but when it comes to Eldar aesthetics any changes are big.  

Getting a flight base on this beast was a bit difficult.  In standard Forge World fashion they designed the thing to use a standard GW flight base.  Of course that is wildly impractical and wouldn't even work once, let alone multiple uses.  I used a similar technique that I did on my Scorpion, but used the GW flight base instead of making one out of hardboard.  So far so good.

Eldar Alaitoc Warp Hunter

I finally finished my Warp Hunter.  I did the vast majority of this model in the several days after I got it in the mail.  I got distracted with my other 8 other projects, but finally did the last bit late last night.  Sadly in the last week I only needed to highlight the engines and do the D-Canon barrel.   

As for the the painting of the tank, it's my standard Alaitoc scheme.  For the most part it was a bit easier than the other style tanks due to the lack of a turret.  Really the most difficult choice was the D-Cannon barrel.  I debated keeping it white, but that wouldn't really mesh with the other models in the army.  

Last night I also got hot and heavy on my Lynx.  It is coming along really well now and might see completion soon.

Eldar Alaitoc Falcon

I really wish Falcons were more viable these days, but their halcyon days of 4th edition are a distant memory.  Even with these drawbacks I would imagine a lot of Eldar players are like me and have at least one of these guys hanging around.  In the days of Wave Serpent spam and the much better mono-purpose Fire Prism, the Falcon is the least viable tank in the book.

Even with all that, I still felt the need to paint one up.  With the majority of my play army finished, grinding out the lesser used models are slowly becoming a higher priority.  It's painted in my standard tank scheme with the colors and stripe placement.  I didn't really feel the need nor desire to go above and beyond on this guy.

I have two Forgeworld projects on the table these days.  The Warp Hunter is very close to the finish line, whereas the Lynx is just in the preliminary base coat stage. 

Eldar Alaitoc Fire Prism (OOP)

I finally pushed through and finished my second Fire Prism.  Now this is the older OOP version and find nothing positive about it over the current style beyond providing some variation.  It's my standard Alaitoc scheme with nothing really new going on.

I did finally get my desktop back up and running with Photoshop and all that.  That combined with my new light box has really helped my picture production.

I have a Falcon that is just about finished.  There is also the gaggle of Jetbikes that need to be finished.  Maybe when some of that is cleared I start on the Dire Avengers.  I have 3 War Walkers that need to be started.

1-Click Paint Collections

This is not a typical post from here, it doesn’t have pictures.  I just saw that GW posted one-click paint collections and I quote “For every Warhammer 40k Army”.  There were some notable omissions for certain armies, but the two Eldar choices seem interesting to me. 

They only have two Eldar Craftworlds listed, Iyanden and Saim-Hann.  Seeing as Iyanden was the Craftworld heavily represented in new kits with the Codex release and the first of the Craftworld Supplements, it was a no brainer to have there.  The other choice is very telling though.  I am guessing that Saim-Hann will be the next Codex Supplement due to their presence as a collection.  I admit my reasoning is a bit flimsy, but hey who doesn’t love some speculation now and again?

The three oldest kits in the range are Warp Spiders (93), Windrider Jetbikes, and Vyper Jetbikes.  Two of those are very heavily represented in Saim-Hann and make sense for a miniature release alongside the Supplement.  At the very least Warp Spiders have very comparable colors to Saim-Hann and they are Fast Attack.

Though I would love to see my beloved Alaitoc getting some love, there just isn’t a whole lot to work with for an entire Codex Supplement.  I see Biel-Tan getting their own book and Alaitoc battling Ulthwe for their own.  Ulthwe is suffering from the power increase to Guardians with the new book.  I will gladly welcome new bikes even though I have 3 Vypers and 11 Windriders being used for various unit types.  These models were showing their age a long time ago and are desperate for an update.  Warp Spiders would be a nice bonus though.