For A Few Eldar More

 Here are a few more of the excellent old Eldar guardian models. On the right is a really old guardian from the Rogue Trader days. He was missing his head, so I gave him one from a dark eldar that's quite similar to the original.

Beside him is an Eldar knight from the old Epic game. The knights are rather weird, gawky models, but this particular one is about the right size and shape to help out. If it became necessary, I'd count it as an additional guardian.

And here is the whole bunch. I do like their blue armour!

Next time, we're back in Mordheim...

When Eldar Guardians Were Good

 For many years - pretty much from the 3rd edition of Warhammer 40,000 to the 9th - eldar guardians were the unit you didn't take. They were basically a citizen levy of comparatively-basic eldar troops, who could be called up to defend their homes. They had poor stats, weak armour and short-ranged weapons (for some insane reason, the shuriken catapults they carried could shoot a pathetic 12 inches). Their only use was to form a human shield around a heavy weapon - which, given that eldar are meant to be rare and their lives valuable, doesn't make a lot of sense.

However, guardians have some nice miniatures. The old metal models are pretty decent, and have been since the days of Rogue Trader, when they had individual names like Smellibreth Strongwind (I made that one up). Some of my favourite guardians came slightly later, and wore bulkier armour and large helmets. They tend to be referred to as "proto-dire avengers" and were sculpted by the great Jes Goodwin.

I really like these guys: they get the balance between sleekness and bulk just right, and look like tough customers who might have a bit more experience than regular guardians. They're well-equipped, and their armour reminds me of the armour that the Sisters of Battle now have (without the corsets). I had some of these guys lying around and painted them up.

There aren't many proto-dire avenger sculpts. I happened to have one model who was missing an arm and a head, and so I gave him a dark eldar head and an arm (and staff) from a high elf mage. This was quite fiddly, but I like the way it came out. He looks as if he's signalling with it.

I painted these guys in the standard colours that I've used for Craftworld Zandros, using spot colours to tie them into the other "regular army" units. 

And here are three more, sporting amazing hats and hairstyles. I wonder how the guy with the mohican gets his helmet on?

Here they are as a unit. That's almost all the models ever released in this style, but I really like them, and they look cool together.

Dire Avenger and Dark Reaper Exarchs

 Last year, I "finished" a squad of Eldar dire avengers. I wasn't terribly happy with them, as I felt that they could do with a bit of tidying and weren't quite "enough". I went back and neatened the painting a little. I also painted the "fins" on the sides of their guns bright red, to make them a bit more interesting to look at. I added three more basic soldiers to the unit. 

And this gave me the opportunity to paint the exarch for the unit. In true Warhammer style, you can tell that he's in charge because he's pointing at something and has a bigger hat than anyone else. Just in case there was any doubt, I put him on a larger base. I originally thought this was a slightly boring model, but I really came to like the miniature in the course of painting it. It's very stylish, like the rest of the old metal Eldar, and the balance between sleekness and detail is just right.

Here's the exarch.

And here's the whole squad, ready to do battle in rooms with high ceilings.

I also finished off a 2nd edition dark reaper exarch that I had lying around. This guy is a space elf who dresses like the grim reaper and hits people with a bolas made of crystal skulls. Strange to thing that there are people who take 40k seriously. Anyhow, I used the old 2nd edition trick of reversing the colour scheme: his unit are black with bone details, but he's bone with black details. Another really nice miniature. I used a very thin chestnut ink glaze to make his armour a bit more interesting.

That means that I've finished a squad of all the aspect warriors in the 2nd edition codex, with the exception of the Shining Spears. (I'm not counting them, because there are no pictures of them in the codex, and the models were a later conversion kit for the jetbikes.) Result! 

I'm not sure what I'll paint next. There are certainly more Eldar to do, but I recently won an ebay auction for two really obscure models that I've wanted for years. I've just got to figure out how to get all the paint off - it sticks between their scales...

New year, new weird creature!

 And so we reach the start of another year. Here is the best miniature that I did in 2024:

In 2024, I did some of my favourite conversions and miniatures. I feel that I got steadily better and was able to put out things that I'd not really expected. I made more classic Eldar (including finishing the harlequins, which I'm pleased about), and had a lot of fun converting various weirdos for Stargrave and Silver Bayonet. I did two Mordheim gangs, which were fun projects. And yet...

I'm getting a bit tired. I am a member of the miniature-making and Oldhammer communities, I suppose, because I miniatures and some of them are old. But I don't feel part of any community, really. At times it feels as if I make another model, enjoy the process of doing so, and then put it away for good. It seems as though I'm just chucking stuff out there onto this blog and onto Instagram and then... that's it, really.

To be clear, I'm not holding myself out as either a great artist or someone who needs/wants/deserves any sort of "clout" in this hobby. I'm an acceptable painter and converter. But I'm starting to get the same feeling from this as I got from self-publishing three fantasy novels: nothing really changes. Blogs and communities don't organically grow anymore (if they ever did). A post that would have got one response two years ago still gets one response. Everything feels rather static.

The obvious answer is "join a gaming club, play some games", but I'm not sure about that. I've met enough powergamers and Space Marine fanboys to be put off playing against people I don't really know. There comes a point where the comedy genius of saying "Heresy!" all the time fades.

So I don't know what I'll do over the next year. I'd like to keep on making things, but I'd like to do something more. Whether that involves playing any games, I don't know. Perhaps I'll try to do some other form of art. We shall see.

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Anyhow, here's my first model of 2025. I found a load of bits that, with some clay and green stuff, fitted together (sort of!). The body and legs come from a Warmachine Cryx model, the head is a GW plastic squig, the knight is a Perry Miniatures medieval knight, and the tail is just green stuff. Together, they made a weird stumpy animal somewhere between a chicken and a deep-sea fish. 

An instagram commenter suggested that it looked quite like one of Brian Froud's creatures for Labyrinth, which made me think that it needed a whimsical paint job. I started with a red body for the steed and steel armour, with some brass bits, but this felt a bit too sinister and chaos-like, so I introduced some green and blue to the scheme. I also made a little carrot out of green stuff to dangle from the end of the lance. I imagine this is how the rider gets his weird steed to move.

All the Howling Banshees!

 Here are the rest of the Howling Banshees. I painted the exarch in the style of the old GW unit from the 1990s, by reversing a lot of the colours. I also added a couple more troopers. 

I'm a big fan of these models. I've got a couple more, but for now this will do, since it's a legal unit (actually, in 2rd edition 40k, it would be a legal unit with three models!). Right then, what's next?

Howling Banshees

 I've had a bunch of stripped Howling Banshees in the vast heap of shame for a while now. To be honest, I've been avoiding painting them: not because they're bad models, but because they require a level of accuracy that I find difficult, even when it is rewarding. And I can't really convert them at all. 

They're Jess Goodwin models and, as ever, I could say a lot about how excellent the sculpts are, especially given that they were made in the 1990s. For detail, elegance and a sense of movement they're up with the old harlequins. I painted them in a very similar style to the ones in the old Codex Eldar, adding a bit of blue detailing to their belt equipment to tie them in to the rest of Craftworld Zandros.

I really like these guys. I'm particularly keen on the subtle fade on their power swords. Some colours blend better than others, and this shade of blue - Vallejo Medium Blue - blends very nicely. I've still got the Exarch to do, along with a few other squad members. I'm not sure how big I really want the unit to be. 

Eldar War Walker

 Right then, back to "schedule"! I've been slowly building and painting an old metal Eldar war walker. These rather odd machines are basically walking artillery for the Eldar, like a souped-up version of the Imperial Guard's sentinel. They are strange, gangly and really quite hard to assemble.

This one came with a slightly broken right leg: the hoof had been cut off and the rear "claw" (it's quite hard to know how to describe these things) was missing entirely. I made a new one out of green stuff and plasticard.

A small nerdy point: this model is a mixture of parts from the first two incarnations of the war walker. The pilot is from the first release, as seen in the blue Citadel catalogue, but the guns are scatter lasers from the second version, as seen in the earliest Eldar codex. They are also some of the coolest weapons in the whole of Warhammer. Space elf rotary cannons. Yeah.

Anyhow, it got the standard Craftworld Zandros paint scheme (as made up by me), to match the other mechs and Guardians. 

Definitely a strange model, but one that I quite like at the end of the day - even if it was a pain to assemble!

Three More Eldar

 Just a few random Eldar this week. It was quite nice to paint paint light blue armour once again.

First up, here's a Guardian with a missile launcher. He's a very old model, from the Rogue Trader era before the aspect warriors were invented and before Guardian armour was worked out exactly. He looks quite bulky and mean - you'd never suspect that Guardians were absolute rubbish in the game. I'm not sure why I painted part of his gun bright yellow, but I really like the model.

The second model is a slightly later Guardian model, from around the time of the first Eldar codex. Unusually for the Eldar, he's wearing some sort of coat or cloak. He didn't come with any arms - you're supposed to stick plastic arms onto his metal body - but I thought that he needed proper sleeves. So, I gave him a pair of arms from the Stargrave Scavengers set. I think the sleeves and the pistol make him look a bit like a private eye. Maybe he's the bodyguard of an ambassador.

The third model is a conversion. Her legs are from a plastic High Elf and her upper body is from an Eldar Guardian. Her head was from Statuesque Miniatures, and the arm with the falcon comes from a Privateer Press Scyrah model. 

I made a little display case for her out of a plastic box. I used DAS clay to sculpt the ground and added rocks and flowers. I think it looks quite cool. 

I've got lots of projects on the go at the moment! 

All The Old Harlequins - Painted At Last!

Do you like Eldar harlequins, especially small metal ones? Then this is the post for you! A long time ago, I started repainting a few harlequins that I bought some time in the dark ages (one of them seemed to date back from me being 14 or so - that's three decades). Then, as my painting became more confident and I enjoyed painting them more, I got a few extra ones. And then I decided to collect the set. And here they are.

This is the first batch, which I started during the pandemic. My painting wasn't quite as good back then, and I might go back and tidy them up.

And here are some more...

 

All of these guys were damaged in some way and needed repairs. I think they're okay and work fine.

Here are some special characters, in the form of an avatar (whatever that is) and three death jesters, who look as if they are about to do the voodoo hoodoo that you don't dare do, people (yes, I did grow up in the 90s!).

This is the shadow seer, who is basically a wizard for the group.

This is a better shot of the avatar. I painted him very recently. I aimed for a black and white look inspired by Pierrot clowns, but hadn't factored in how difficult black and white are to paint. So I added some colour to him, including some shading on his guns.

And last of all is my favourite and the most recent. This is the high avatar, the leader of the entire unit. I spent ages on this model, as I wanted him to look particularly dramatic and insane. I am really pleased with the result. I think he might be the best thing that I've ever painted.

And that's that! All 32 of the old harlequin models, done and dusted. I've seen enough checks for now.

Even More Harlequins

 The end is nigh: I've only got a few more standard harlequins (if that's a thing) to do, and then I'm on to a leader with two pistols and the high avatar of the lot. I expect that I'll tidy up some of the first models that I painted: after all, I began this two years ago and, even if my painting hasn't improved in that time, I've at least started using some smaller brushes since then.

Anyhow, here are some more loonies. The face of the chap on the right was slightly miscast, but that probably makes him look all the more alarming.

The bloke on the left here is holding a bizarre weapon/gardening implement, which looks like some kind of spraying device. I reckon it's a web-shooter, as the body of it looks a bit like the webbers used by the Genestealer Cult. Still, it's suitably wacky. Also, he's got a face on his groin, just in case the harlequins weren't bizarre enough.

I also painted some more plastic genestealers this week, but then I put them next to the previous batch and realised that they were completely identical. So the new ones have been lost among the rampaging horde of not-quite Aliens. Instead, here's all four harlequins.

Another Bunch of Harlequins

 I've been painting some more harlequins. I find that they take quite a lot of concentration, both to actually paint on the fiddly checks and to figure out the colour schemes. Obviously they're supposed to be chaotic and jarring, but choosing quite how to do that is interesting. It's standard process to try to draw the eye to a model's head, but I don't think you can do that with models like this. I reckon that their outfits are a kind of dazzle camouflage, too bewildering to focus on.

Anyhow, they're a lot of fun to paint, and the models have loads of nice details even before you start adding your own. 

This guy - actually, I think this harlequin is female, although it's always hard to tell - has a plasma pistol (unusually, for these models) and a harlequin's kiss, a sort of punch-dagger-meets-food-blender weapon. 

This chap has a shuriken pistol, a chainsword and an outfit that a 1990s raver might consider a little excessive. Blow your whistles, craftworld!

This model is a Death Jester, a heavy weapons specialist. He's the third of a team of three. It was quite difficult to give him bits of colour while keeping to the sinister Venetian carnevale/Baron Samedi look of the Death Jesters.

And here's a picture of a whole bunch of harlequins, being bewildering. They're moving faster than the eye can see, which is why the picture is so blurry.

Another Harlequin and a Genestealer Patriarch

 

This week, I painted another harlequin. I've not done one for a while, and it was a real pleasure to be painting checks and doing bright colours again.

It occurs to me that I've collected most of the old metal harlequins from the original metal boxed set. Perhaps I should try to get the whole lot. I think that would be quite cool, and they're all excellent models.

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I decided to have a go at bulk-painting some old plastic Space Hulk genestealers. I seem to have absolutely loads of these miniatures. Like the old plastic termagants, they're monopose models. They're really good sculpts, with lots of detail, even if they are sticking their tongues out like so many of the goofier tyranids.

I used contrast paint for the purple and blue, over a standard white undercoat. I found it quite annoying, as the damn stuff refused to cover properly. I ended up highlighting the armour and skin (somewhat roughly). I'm not sure that the contrast paint did much that a heavy wash wouldn't have done.

I also dug out a very old Genestealer Patriarch model. The patriarch is a weirdly-coloured, bloated monstrosity worshipped by deranged cultists and hell-bent on dictatorial power who, whilst foul, is merely the slave of a much greater threat to humanity. So purely a fictional creation.

While some might have made the leader of the genestealers into a bigger, meaner genestealer (as GW did later with the broodlord), the patriarch is a fat, saggy-looking creature wearing the sort of gold chain favoured by town mayors and 1980s rappers. I have no idea why, but it works in a bizarre way. To emphasise his size, I put him on a slightly raised base. 

Here's the patriarch with his identical spawn: