I've Come for the Reaping (Part 1)

Eldar?

Yes, Eldar.

Or Aeldari, as GW's IP folks would now prefer us to call them.

You might have seen my recent tinkering with the Ynnari and wondered if it would lead to more. That answer is yes, but not for that specific reason. Recently Da Masta Cheef and I talked about having a follow up game to a game played ages ago that pitted the Space Wolves against his fearsome Exodites. He was cool to do it, however he had only a fraction of the force left from that time. I told him what I had for Eldar and asked him to make a list, and this is what he needed:

"Alrighty then: Will need (5) Fire Dragons including Exarch w/Fire Pike, (8) Swooping Hawks including Exarch, and (3) Dark Reapers, no Exarch.  Those will bring my horde up to a 1k, Non-Battleforged Battalion List."

And I had what he requested and what we see here in the next pic are the Eldar I have gathered to make up the difference. Well, the ones still in blister packs anyway...

From the archives.

These were gathered in that late '90s and early '00s during a time when GW US would do these massive blister pack grab-bag sales. You paid a set price and received a random assortment of blister packs. And thus, my Eldar and Imperial Guard armies would be born... Curiously, some of these packs ranged from all over the world, I have some with German pricing and some that looked like they were being sold elsewhere. This one below is particularly curious as it has a Goodwill price tag on it!

Goodwill sells miniatures?

Anyway, I mustered these troops and began tidying them up and assembling them. I am genuinely excited to be working on these guys, as without this push from Cheef,  I am not sure when I ever would have gotten to them. For now, I just want to get them "battle-ready" with the intent of finishing the units properly when I can or want to.

So I cracked these blisters open, cleaned up the flash, glued them to their bases, glued on the grit, and primed them up. After base coating the bases, I had to ponder a bit more seriously on just how I wanted to paint these Aspect Warriors, particularly the Dark Reapers.

Primed with base-coated bases. 

I decided that the color scheme I used on the Ynnari Dire Avenger was just too extreme of a paradigm shift for me to accept on the Dark Reapers. So I looked back into the past, way back in fact, to the Dark Reapers very first appearance (in color) to White Dwarf #127 which was published back in the golden age of 1990. This snippet (see below) is from the color guide in that issue. In hindsight, I don't think many people really ever went with these schemes. and I'm not about too now, but I think I want to blend the middle one and the right one together. I will make the helmet and loin cloth/apron-thing Ynnari colors and the armor a Dark Reaper grey/blueish color and keep the missile launcher black.

Color guide from WD #127.

And no, I won't be creating any banners for these, at least I don't think I will. This image was created in the early days of GW's banner-mania phase of the '90s, and that phase (thankfully) faded away with the onset of 3rd edition. Seriously, it got a bit silly with almost everyone having their own back banner!

I used, appropriately, Dark Reaper Citadel paint for the basecoat on the armor. Khorne Red was the base coat for the helmet. Bone was used on the face mask and the bone necklace and skulls of the Web of Skulls.

Base coats.

Following the steps for painting Ynnari in White Dwarf (May 2019), I added Evil Sunz Scarlet to the helmet. I washed the face mask and bones with Agrax Earthshade. I also settled on a bone color for stripes on the aprons.

Mid coats added.

Next I colored in the lenses on their helms. I wondered how Jess Goodwin didn't go cross eyed while sculpting these things as I struggled to paint them. Next I added Fire Dragon Bright as the highlight. I love how these turned out, far more so than the Dire Avenger; which I used Fiery Orange on in lieu of Fire Dragon Bright.

Fire Dragon Bright on the Helms.

I decided I wanted them to conform with the Dire Avenger, so a wash of Carrosburg Crimson was applied to the helmets. After that, details. I painted the soul gems, sashes and other details to the point that I felt I could stop. Like all the Eldar miniatures of this era, or any really, they are covered in bumps that can be painted as gems (or not) if one wishes. For the sake of expediency, I opted to just stick with the obvious ones that have the metal borders. I do reserve the right to go back and paint more, particularly on the weapons...

Done enough. 

 Here are some closer shots of these guys. I hope you enjoyed this. I did them fairly fast considering that my goal was just to get them battle-ready, I guess I just couldn't help myself?

I wonder what these guys talk about?

I kept the sashes blue, again to confirm with the Dire Avenger. It doesn't contrast well with these guys but on future Ynnari models this shouldn't be a problem.

"Hey, I bet I can hit that guy with these skulls..."

That's it for now. I made this a 'part 1' because I see a few minor details I want to revisit in the near future, so those will be dealt with in 'part 2' but for now, we can move on.

Next up, Fire Dragons!