Xenos on Crusade: James' Craftworld Eldar - Part 1

Hey there everyone,

Welcome to the first in a series of monthly posts where I'll go about detailing my progress on the latest in our groups series of hobby escapades - a Xenos centred Tale of Five Gamers

That's right! We're back with another Tale and this time it's all about the wonderful Other of the 41st millennium; those pesky, pesky Xenos.

Inspired by the impending release of 9th edition 40k and all the wonderful new rules it will bring we've each committed to collecting a new army of Xenos warriors. In my case, this means restarting an old love the Craftworld Eldar. 

We outlined the forces each of us will be bringing to the table in this post, but to summarise we'll be bringing armies from the Craftworlds, Drukhari, Necrons, Tyranids and Tau. Quite a collection if I do say so. Our goal is to each have 50PL ready by the end of August. For June however, the goal was to simply paint at least one unit of our fledgeling collection. 

So how did I do?

A Craftworld Returns

The stars themselves once lived and died at our command, yet you still dare to oppose our will. - Farseer Mirehn Bielann

This isn't the first time that I've decided to collect an army of the Craftworlders. Five or so years ago I owned quite a vast collection from the range; my core force of Aspect Warriors was supported by an entire Wraith Host as well as a full troupe of Harlequins. It was a wonderful army to see arrayed out on the table (even if the vast majority of it sat a shameful shade of plastic grey). However 7th edition sucked a lot of the enjoyment of 40k from the game for me. This lead to me selling off the entire force as it had sat unused in a box for 2 years. Little did I know that right around the corner was 8th edition and with it, the complete rejuvenation of 40k. 

I've been loving the game since returning. My current force of Adeptus Custodes have been a joy to paint and game with; however, I've always longed to return to collecting the Craftworlds. Our Crusade Tale has given me the perfect opportunity to do so. 

This is usually the part where I'd say how I began deliberating on where to start with my new collection, but Matt was very kind and helped make the decision for me. Apparently, I spent far too much time regretting selling off my previous Wraith Host; so he very generously gifted me a box of the Apocalpyse: Craftworlds Vanguard Detachment, the perfect way to begin a new army!

The box contains everything that I need to get started: a durable core of 15 Wraithguard/Wraithblades, 2 Wraithlords to provide some long-range firepower and finally a Spiritseer to guide their sight. In fact, the box is such good value that it provides me with my entire 50 PL force in one package; with my only purchase being a Farseer to add a bit more space magic into the army. 

So, with the models sorted I now needed to decide on a paint scheme, something I am utterly horrendous at. To help me work out what colours I wanted across the army I started looking over all the official GW colour schemes. Some trends started appearing, most notably:

• Your primary colour generally wants to be something bright and punchy. None of this drab and dreary Imperial nonsense. The Craftworlds are all about colour!

• Contrast across models is common. Every scheme has some form of direct contrast, mostly restricted to the gems and spot colours.

• Eldar models are all about the edge highlights. Smooth, sharp highlights and perfect colour transitions really make the models stand out.

This formed an effective frame for me to build a paint scheme around. I initially contemplated using one of the pre-established schemes. After all, I'm painting a Wraith Host and what Craftworld is better associated with that than Iyanden? However, I wanted to avoid going for a "traditional" paint scheme as I've already painted my Custodes in their standard colours. Looking through some of the less well-known factions I spotted the schemes for Craftworlds Mymeara and Iybraesil.

They both involve a nice Teal/Cyan primary colour paired with a lot of white and black spot colours. I really liked the look of this scheme but wanted to add a little twist to it to make it my own. As is typical of my painting I simply had to involve purple somewhere and, in this case, all of the sashes, additional robes and tabards offered a perfect opportunity for this. For a spot colour, I was torn between the standard high contrast look with a warm yellow/orange or keeping in theme with the rest of my scheme and using a deep emerald green. In the end, I settled on the emerald green to keep that alien feel to the models. With a scheme decided it was time to begin assembly!

The Dead Rise 

Gather the dead for war, let them join our ranks, lest we are forced to join theirs. - Farseer Kelmon

Going into painting I felt a good starting point would be the Wraithguard. They're a great sculpt, form the backbone of my army and consist mostly of smooth, curved surfaces. A perfect opportunity to work on my blends and "edge" highlighting. (in classic 'Eavy Metal style even the curves have edges now)

The kits were nice and simple to put together and, to make my life painting everything a bit easier, I broke the models down into a few subassemblies; this is something I'm trying to do a lot more of as it makes life so much easier. 

I ran into a few issues with the paint scheme, mostly on where to put certain colours and if I was oversaturating on black/white. After many, many back and forths I finally settled on something I'm very happy with. So with that being said here is the first of my noble Wraithguard, ready to stand in defence of the Craftworld. 

I'm ecstatic with the end result here. I had an image in my mind of what I wanted the scheme to look like and this matches it perfectly. I tried to give the white a subtle blue tone in some of the recesses to tie it together with the rest of the cooler colours. For the basing, I kept it nice and simple using some trusty sand and PVA glue. To make the colours of my Craftworld pop a bit more I went for warm brown earth and verdant grass. To me, it gives the image of the Craftworld standing in defence of a Maiden World, protecting it from the vile touch of the Imperium. I've included a few close-up pictures of the models below. 

To Skein the Future

He who sees his own doom can better avoid its path. He who sees the doom of others can deliver it. - Farseer Eldrad Ulthran

With the Wraithguard done that caps off my one unit for Month One of the Tale. For Month Two the objective is to complete 25PL of your army ready to begin the Crusade once 9th edition arrives at the end of the month. For me, this means painting another unit of Wraithguard as well as Spiritseer Irlinelle to guide them. I'm currently working on the Spiritseer at the moment so hopefully, I'll be able to get everything done in time for some games. I've been missing hanging out with my friends and rolling some dice, so I can't wait to jump in and also see all the lovely painted armies we've been working on. 

The background for my army is a bit blank at the moment, but I plan on using the events of my Crusade to forge the story of these heroes. I will, however, have a small piece of fluff on the origins of my Craftworld done for the next article to frame the events of the coming games against. After all, the Eldar are all about tragic backstories and spectacular falls from grace. 

If you'd like to see some updates as I go feel free to give me a follow on Instagram as I try and keep that updated with wips and other projects. 

That's all for now though. I'm really feeling the hype for 9th edition and can't wait to get stuck into reading all the new lore from the setting. It looks like the games going in a great direction so I'm looking forward to testing all the new rules and missions in earnest. 

Until next time,

James