Eldar Space Pirates done & dusted.

As part of my preparations for BOYL this year I needed to come up with a gang/warband for a game of Shadow Wars Armageddon (aka Necromunda) at Warhammer World. I wanted to use something oldschool, but I wasn't too sure about which race to go with. Then I remembered my languishing Eldar contingent that I'd shelved for over year. They'd fit the bill nicely I thought :)

If you've not been following me for very long, or have completely forgotten what I did over a year ago, then take a look at these old links to see where it all began part 1, part 2, and part 3.

Ok, enough chit chat, roll on miniature porn!!!!!

Obligatory group shot, eighteen of the trouble makers in all.

Here's the first of the Eldar that I converted last year.

Here's a picture of their arses.

The original minis that they were converted from.

Artillery spotters converted into active members of the squad.

Bumb shot.

Carrying boom boxes into battle is the only way to kill & maim in style.....or so I've been told.

The next guys to get the chop treatment.

The guy on the right is about ready to torch his pal I think.

Leader & Harlequin....a bit out of focus, but you get the idea.

The rest of the ne'er-do-wells.

One of my favourite Eldar mini's in the range.

Burn baby burn!!!!!!!

And who can forget Las-cannon guy? A cool looking dude, just chillin.

 Ready to fuck someone up with his boom stick if the need arises. 

For a bit of the back story to the colour scheme I chose for these guys, I wanted to do something very different than the normal black armour, yellow helmet, black stripes shtick. I had recently been watching some nature doco's with my son and in it they showed a few of those poison dart frogs, and I thought viola! They've got some crazy, interesting and 80's style camo going on. So after the show I went online to find a suitable frog to steal his skin design from. These are the two that piqued my interest the most in my search:

Really deep blue base colour, black blotchy patterned markings of varying sizes, encased in a bright blue halo. Sexy beast!

This last one was really interesting too. I liked the deep red top half of it's body, which bled down into its blue abdomen.

After having a think about the practicality of trying to replicate one of these two two designs with a paint brush, I decided on a bit of a compromise. I would use the red head of the last one & the deep blue from the body of the first frog, but without camo. I realised that it wouldn't work in 28mm. You may not be aware of this little painting conundrum, but shrinking real life, effective camo down to our scale just works too damn well. It works so damn well that it just ends up hiding all of the nice physical elements of the sculpt. So I dropped the camo idea...even though it looks ace on the frog.

During my my painting journey my son commented that they were looking a lot like Spiderman. He was right, I knew I had to change some element about him lest I bear the derision of my friends for the rest of my natural life. That's how I came up with the bright green stripe pattern on their helmets. Not even remotely similar to that super hero I hope.....did I pull it off?


Ok, waffle ended :)