Skål's Dire Avenging classic (248 points)

Rank & File month 

This month I decided to paint a classic Eldar miniature in my own style. The iconic cover from the 2nd edition Eldar codex is something that every old schooler will be familiar with. There have been numerous artist who have done their take on the Dire Avenger Exarch from the cover of that beautiful 2nd edition Eldar codex.

This codex filled so many players with dread (including myself). When this codex came out I was firmly entrenched into the Dark Angel's. When I started my Eldar project last OWAC I knew that I wanted to paint up my take on this glorious miniature.

I am pretty happy with the way the final paint job came out and I have another one set aside for me to convert up to truly match the cover.

Next up I have a mix of Rogue Trader and 2nd edition Dire Avengers. I really love the contrast between the white helmets, red plumes and the blue armor. This unit was a lot of fun to paint up and I know I want to do another one in the near future.

The next two months will be fun and full of painting deadlines. Congratulations to everyone who has made it this far. Hang in there, focus when you can on painting to take a mental break from the real world.

 How to Skål Swedish style.

Adrian's eldars - Iyanden is un-doomed (Wrap-up)

Wrap-up post!

 Another OWAC, another troop removed from the pile of shame.

It was a fun project. From painting to create the scenes and write some stories accompanying the updates. It was less stressful than the orc and goblins except for some odd months. However, this time having a job a constrained schedule felt a lot in the planned "extras". Maybe in a future coming back to Iyanden I can add the terrain from the Tyranid invasion or some scattered details from the craftwold gardens.

Painting yellow may seems a bit tedious sometimes but the experience of years collecting eldars and the mix of models I selected made the task a much easier.

I enjoyed the pirates a lot with the mixture of armour colors, one of my favourite units of this challenge. Also I can finally claim my small achievement, completed the unit of eldar exodites after so long. Some of the eldar scouts and wood elf wardancers were purchased in blisters, and the cold ones were the ones from their very first release!

The Doom of the Eldar has not been my personal doom, I finished another OWAC! It has been so much pleasure to paint it as to show them to you all. Hope I get my hand in some units and can continue this project in a future OWAC.

Oh, remember the last year when I lost a goblin for the last set of pictures and found it after the recap post? I have made the same mistake with my wraithlord bright lance. I had it in my hand the other day!! 

Commanders

1x Grand Farseer (general) Ylshor - 170

1x Phoenix Lord Maugan Ra - 179

 

Elites

1x Dark Reaper Exarch - 90

3x Dark Reapers - 201

1x Fire Dragon Exarch - 75

4x Fire Dragons - 112

1x Howling Banshee Exarch - 69

7x Howling Banshees - 189

 

Battleline

1x Dire Avenger Exarch - 56

9x Dire Avengers - 198

10x Guardians - 110

1x Grav Platform with plasma cannon - 55

1x Veteran Pirate captain - 31

9x Eldar pirates - 135

 

Fast Attack

1x Exiled veteran - 50

4x Exiled Knights - 152

 

Heavy Support

1x Eldar Wraithlord with its (missing) laser cannon - 190

58 miniatures and a grand total of 2062 points of eldars.

Thinking about my next project, I will probably return to fantasy and my (other) main army, the mighty dwarfs!

I cannot finish this post without a special thank to the Team Eldar for their support and their awesome entries (as well as everyone in the OWAC!). And the final gemstone count recap, made by the exarchs of the Aspect of Patience: 1532 gemstones.

 

See you in the next challenge.

Adrian's out.

Brendan's March Eldar (316 points)

 Swoop! There it is!

I know it isn't the original lyrics, but that is all I could think about as I was painting.  Sorry, not sorry? The plan for March was to work on 5 Swooping Hawks for the rank and file.  However I needed more than 5 models to reach this goal so I added in the 8 Dire Avengers my friend had unloved and unpainted in the mix. Better to be over the ten model limit than under it!

I like how they came out.  I wanted a nice light angelic look to them.  I tried to stay mostly white with some light blues to reflect their domination of the skies.  I kept the guns the same color as the rest of the army as well to tie them in with the my friend's existing Eldar.

I have a love/hate relationship with these wings.  I used an airbrush on them to try and blend the blue hues together and it was semi successful.  You can see a little overspray but I did my best to clean it up.

I really like the Exarch of the group.  He kind of reminds me of a peacock.  Now that I think about it, I should have done the wings to be peacock wings.  Well, maybe next time I paint Swooping Hawks I will do that!

I still needed to add more models to this month's challenge so I also painted up Dire Avengers.

While I like them, they don't quite pop as much as the Swooping Hawk. I was keeping their colors close to the basic line troops of my friend's Eldar.

Looking at their helmet crest I can't help but think that they have all been chosen by house Gryffindor...

March is in the bag.  Time to reward myself with some character models for April!

Swooping Hawks: (140 points)

Dire Avengers: (176) 

Adrian's Eldars - An Undying Lord and her knights (444 points)

Rank and File month #2 

The Shrine of the Thousand Blades was a perfect bastion to resist the tide. The Dire Avengers have been doing so for almost a day since the end of the battle in the forests. Their short range weaponry and unmatched skills in close quarter combat will make suffer the tyranids if they wanted to take their position. 

However, Taeroth knew that with the guardians falling back and no heavy weapon support, soon or later the swam would unleash one of their monstrosities.

And so they did.

The giant biomorph was a true titan. While the lesser creatures were cut whenever they tried to approach the temple, the shuriken munition did nothing against its mighty carapace.

The doom was before them, but they will resist and die.

[A laser canon struck the beast in the front and stunned it in the place, surrounded by fellow avengers died with its charge]

-I see my opponent through the veil of death, and it will taste the cold of the eternal dream.

The dead exarch Kelrye stopped the confused blows of the giant claws of the creature and hit with all the force its dreadnought confers her. The creature fell to the ground.

One final attempt to get up and continue with its rampage. But Kelrye punched the head, sticking her fist and ripping the head off.

-We will strike in the heart of the swarm and tear it apart.

Following their undiying mistress, the dire avengers countercharged the tide, disbanding the charge.

----------

Second moth finished. Wosh, February was a pain, those fewer days pay a heavy toll, especially when there are other deadlines mixed. In the end, I tried my best to paint something extra instead of the 10 miniatures. Maybe, an eleventh one. That will make the deal.

9x Dire Avengers - 198 points

1x Exarch - 56 points

For this squad, I made a little turquoise blue instead of the usual blue. I didn't want too much turquoise/green because I want to paint a unit or two of Swooping Hawks at some point in the future and I love the schemes well differentiated.

Taeroth, as well as other exarch of the army (wait and see...) had his scheme inverted with the contrast colours of the unit. That's makes some variation in the colours and the leader stands out a little bit.

The sword was painted in blues simply because I paint power swords in red, normal in blueish grays and psychic swords in purple. And then the Dire Avengers come with a Dire Sword, and the simple plan goes to rubbish. At least I am pleased with the result, it pops a little despite all the blues.

1x Eldar Dreadnought - 190 points

Lastly, Kelrye piloting the wraithlord. I painted her in the typical Iyanden yellow, but then, it was like a bit flat... I looked at the painted wraithlord of 2nd ed codex and came with the idea of runes in the body.
Also, a small yellow bits in her trophy, I tried to put some colour in the Kraken's red carapace like in the Advance Space Crusade alternative box art that Steve Beales and Lissane discovered/suggested for me. Thanks!

Ah, the moment you were really waiting for, not these painted miniature preambles: February ends with a total of 405 gemstones painted. Why on earth there are more gemstones in the backpack and the weapon of the wraithlord?!? We will not falther, there will be more gems to come!

#GoTeamEldar

Adrian's out.

Adrian's Doom of the Eldar - Introduction

The darkest hour of Iyanden is approaching… our enemy is unavoidable. The high command is planning the defence of the craftworld.

[The exarch rised the eyes from the holomap]

What will happen if the enemy tries to cut-off the main lines to the webway portal. We must secure a path for the reinforcements, if our allies come to help us...

[Farseer Kelmon pointed to the south west dome in the map]

The easiest point to defend will be at the entrance to the halls of the House Delgari, in the Forest of Sorrows. There, farseer Ylshor will deploy his troops in layers. The fleet will assist us and force a tyranid landing far from the city, at the glades and the other side of the Forest.

If the swarm override the troops near the glades, the shrines and the ghost warriors will come to halt their advance and give us time to regroup near the city.

The battle will be difficult, but our troops are prepared. They shall not falther, no matter how numberless are their foes. We will resist.

Hi again.

This is my second OWAC and I am glad to participate again in this exciting challenge. After last year orc horde I will try something different in this edition.

First of all, I will include a short story for the different units and advance both the paiting and a little piece of lore for my force in each round.

The second and more importan, bright colours for everyone! From the grim and dark tones of my orc army to bright and saturated colours of Iyanden. I am more used to the latter, so not a big deal in that regard.

Now, the upcoming units:

Holding the first defence line, a unit of 10x Guardian with lasguns (110 points) and a Plasma gun in a grav platform (59 points). Amazing and underrated sculpts, now that I have the entire unit.

A fierce unit of 9x Dire Avengers (198 points) and their Exarch with power sword (56 points)

When the enemy is up and close, they will be met by a unit of 7x Howling Banshees (189 points) and their Exarch (69 points).

If any bug is left, they will be roasted by 4x Fire Dragons (112 points) and an Exarch with the Firepike (75 points).

Fear not their behemoths, the heroine Kelrye piloting a mighty (temporarily headless) eldar wraith dreadnought (190 points) is watching.

A bit of spoilers ahead, the call for help does reach to their allies, and a unit of 9x pirates (135 points) commanded by the veteran captain Avele Swifteye (31 point) will show up.

For the wildcard month, the wildest allies emerge from the webway portal to help the defenders: a unit of 4x Exiled Dragon knights (152 points) commanded by Exiled veteran lord Calsaar Firebreath (50 points).

The army is commanded by farseer Ylshor (170 points)

But he’s not alone, because the Phoenix Lord Maugan Ra (179 points) himself and his retinue of 3x Dark Reapers (268 points) and an Exarch (90 points) came to the rescue in the direst moments of the battle.

The army has a total of 2074 points, which seems huge but in the end they are 59 miniatures. Much lesser than last year orc army which was barely 1000 points!. Will see if it is too much to handle or I can get everything in time!

Last, but not least, my offering to our beloved Overlord (this year finished in time! hurrah!)

The poor Eoan Fireheart who is about to be nomed...

See you in the first month. Adrian’s out.