Eldar: Windrider Jetbikes

Ah, Jetbikes.  How I dislike your plain and dowdy sculpts.  But how effective thou art on the battlefield. Eldar Jetbikes are now widely viewed as one of the best Troops choices within Warhammer 40K, due to their mobility and their rending weapons.

I used the same colour scheme for the Jetbikes as for the Guardians (and the Rangers, too, I suppose!), going for a muted, almost Dark Eldar-esque dark green, with bone-coloured accoutrements (and Jetbike!)

Initially, I washed the carapaces of the Jetbikes in my Ultimate Essential Agrax Earthshade, but for once it didn't do the models any justice.  Rather than picking out details and adding depth to the model, across the flat surfaces it just gave an appearance of grubbiness and grime - not very Eldar-like!  And so, I opted for a clean, crisp finish instead.

Eldar: Guardians

Beyond the forces of the Imperium, and the foul servants of Chaos, I've also dabbled in some Xenos armies, and here's one of them: the Eldar of the Dras Camion Craftworld.

Ever since I was about twelve years old, I wanted to do an Eldar army with this colour scheme. One of my earliest attempts was to paint an Eldar Swooping Hawk, but unfortunately, I think I not only used enamel paint (rather than acrylic), but waaaaaaay to much of it, too - turning it into an amorphous blob.

Here's a heavy weapons platform, to give the Guardians a bit of much-needed OOMPH on the battlefield.

Eldar: Wraithguard

The Wraithguard models are absolutely MASSIVE.  It's a bit deceiving, because in spite of their height, they're still a bit spindly, but they tower over most other figures.

I painted them in a similar scheme to the rest of my homebrew Craftworld - green, purple and bone-coloured.

Eldar: Dire Avengers Pt.2

And here we have the completed Dire Avenger squad, with the Exarch leading the way.

As with the Exarch, these chaps were annoyingly spindly and fiddly to put together - especially their arms!

Hopefully though, the effort paid off.  I veered away from the traditional use of blues and yellows for the Dire Avengers, in favour of a blue/turquoise/purple theme that should complement the Craftworld's colour scheme of green/turquoise/purple/bone.

Eldar: Dire Avenger Exarch

Back to the filthy Xenos scum, now!  After having them sat in a box for aeons, I finally chose to paint my Dire Avengers - including their leader, this Exarch.

As with all Eldar, he was annoyingly spindly and tricky to put together, but I got there in the end.

I like his dynamic pose, but I'm not sure about his big, spoony head. Who am I to doubt such an ancient and distinguished race, though?

Eldar: Ranger

Here's another filthy Xeno! Purge the alien! This Eldar Ranger is one of a small squad of outriders for my Eldar army - designed to observe the enemy and infiltrate behind their lines.

Of course, he's made of bloody Finecast, isn't he?  So, already, his rifle is starting to warp and bend.  The Finecast resin is truly frustrating, and now surely obsolete, given GW's improved plastic casting methods.

I really like the Ranger models... I'm not sure how useful they will be these days, though, considering how many weapons ignore cover. Bah!