And so here we are, at last, the end of 2020. It's been a long and oftentimes sad and melancholic year, but I felt it important to focus on some of the positives that have come out of it all.
For me, one of those things is my recently completed Craftworld Eldar army. If you've been keeping up with all my posts, you'll know this is an army I've been working on as part of a big group project between all of my fellow writers, the Xenos on Crusade. When we started off, my ultimate goal was simply to have a painted Eldar collection; the project was something to give me the impetus to finally start collecting an army I'd always loved.
So with this final post, I'll be going over the final set of models I painted in November and December and giving my final thoughts on the army and where I'll be looking to take it in the future. The picture below is a spoiler for everything I've painted, so no more delaying, let's get into it!
To start things off, I managed to get a second Wraithlord painted in November. I wanted this one to stand apart from my previous model, Wraithlord Caerlion, who was equipped with two Wraithswords and Shuriken Cannons. To do that, I opted to only arm this model with two Brightlances, one of which is wielded as an actual gun, as opposed to being shoulder-mounted. In combination with reposing the legs to give the model a more stooped look, as though they're preparing to line up a shot on an enemy target, it's helped alter the model's silhouette and give it a more unique "personality" in the army.
In my head, I imagine the Eldar soul who inhabits this wraith construct to have been a Ranger or Pathfinder in a former life, and their mastery of ranged combat has carried on into this new one. There are a few more images below from additional angles, but suffice to say it's yet another model I'm proud to add to the collection.
As well as another mighty wraith construct, I decided it was about time I paint some actual foot soldiers to assist the Wraith Host. Fortunately, one of my friends generously gifted me two boxes of Dire Avengers for my birthday; it's almost as though they knew exactly what I needed!
I wanted to keep the high standard of painting I set for myself across all models in the army, so even though they're "only" troops choices, I'd be spending just as much time on these as every other model in the army (it ended up being much more!).
The Aspect Warriors of the Craftworlds all have a particular colour associated with them. In the case of the Dire Avengers, this is a rich blue complimented with white and yellow. Going into painting the models, I knew I wanted to keep the blue present as in the studio models. To my mind, the colour serves as an almost ritual for the Eldar, a homage to Asurmen and his teachings, and signals their role in the wider Craftworld army when in battle. I did, however, want to tie the Aspect to my Craftworld, so elected to paint the fabrics in the strong purple my other models have, as well as put a fleck of cyan in the Exarch's plume. I think this helps to unite the models to my wider force, but at the same time differentiate them from the "rank and file" my army will eventually possess.
An issue I did run into with the Dire Avengers was how dated the kit is. I'd grown used to the quality sculpts offered by the Wraithguard, so when it came to preparing and modelling the Avengers, I was a bit taken aback at how basic it all was. There's almost no customisability in posing available; the illusion of it is rapidly shattered once you realise that the arms all need to be paired up properly, and ultimately all end up in a similar shade of "cautiously holding a gun and looking to the right". The models required a fair bit of cleaning as well; as is typical of the older kits, the mould lines are much more pronounced across every piece, and the connections to sprue are in less than ideal places.
That isn't to say this is a terrible kit; quite the contrary, in fact! For models released with the 4th edition Eldar codex (yes, the one released over 14 years ago) they hold up surprisingly well with the rest of the range. It's a testament to the design team that despite such a wide gap in release dates, the models still gel together into one cohesive whole.
When it came to the Exarchs, I wanted to have them be clearly different from each other. I've always felt the power glaive and Shimmershield to be the "classic" armaments of a Dire Avenger Exarch, so I knew I wanted both to be armed with those. Despite the kit's limitations, I feel I've done a good job getting the models to stand apart with their posing. Goes to show what a small change in arm direction and chest rotation can do!
The back banners did present an issue when it came to painting them. They're a large, blank space perfect for some transfers or freehand work. Given I wanted to push myself and improve on my brush control, transfers were out of the question. It was time to freehand this mother trucker!
I started out by blocking in the purple at the banner's top and bottom, then edging it in white to clean up the join (and cover how wonky my linework still is). After that, it was a case of cracking out the sharpest tipped brush I owned, getting nice and stable at my painting desk, focussing so much my tongue stuck out and painting each individual rune in line by nervewracking line. Once I got into a rhythm, it became surprisingly easy; I noticed the second banner was much easier than the first. Another demonstration that practice does indeed, make perfect. For the central rune, I stared by dotting the triangle's points and where the other lines would end. It was then a case of just joining each dot as neatly as possible, then fleshing out the lines until I was happy. The process worked surprisingly well, and in all has given me a confidence boost going into future freehand work.
Closing Thoughts
When I think back to the beginning of this group project before Covid had come crashing into our lives and 9th edition still being a new thing, I couldn't have imagined quite how proud I'd be of this little army. I had a strong mental image of what I wanted the force to look like; bright, eye-popping colours with a lot of clean edge highlighting and freehand. The fact that the army I have sat in my display case matches that so well is still a shock to me.
I've still got plenty of ideas on expanding the army, however, and am eager to do so! I've still got a box of Howling Banshees and a Hemlock Wraithfighter to assemble, so there are already models ready for me to crack on with. I think for now though, I'm going to press pause on this. It's been fun, but towards the end of the year, I felt my excitement really waning, and painting ending up being more of a chore I had to force myself to do, as opposed to a hobby I love doing to relax. This is likely due to the combination of not being able to play any games with the army, and the Eldar as a whole receiving little support from GW, both in terms of the tabletop game and other sources, like Black Library novels. I'm hoping 2021 may bring an end to the drought of significant Eldar model releases, with some of the other Aspect Warriors getting their time in the sun. After all, I need more of the small shrines to complete my set of objectives!
If you've stuck with me through this whole project, I'd like to say thanks for reading. For me, this is a hobby diary of sorts, but it's always nice to see that people actually look at what I'm sending out into the ether.
I'll sign off this blog series, and the Eldar, not with a goodbye, but -
Until we meet again,
James
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