Jes Goodwin's Eldar Sketchbook

This last weekend was the "birthday" of my local GW, and they had this little baby available:

This may be my favorite GW book release since the 2nd edition Eldar book.

There aren't any Dark Eldar or Harlequins in the book, but most of the Craftworld units appear. The artwork runs from 1989 to 2013.

The notes themselves provide insights into how units were originally envisioned, such as a much beefier Hemlock load out, sporting a D-cannon in the place that eventually became the Mind Shock pod.

Not to mention the little inspirational touches that can be applied to your units for building background:

When flipping through the book the look and feel of the pages gives a sensation like you're flipping through his actual sketchbook, as if you could smudge the pencilling on the page.

In all it's a top notch product and I highly recommend it to anyone that has a chance to get one, and for most Eldar fans it will be an instant must have. I wouldn't be surprised to see it pop up on eBay for a king's ransom.

New Eldrad

The New Eldrad hit this weekend and I picked him up as part of the Masque of Death. The Harlequins were enough to bump me to 2000 pts rather than the 1750 they sit at now. In addition I'll need to do a major rework of them to make them a more fluff appropriate force to join my craftworld.

On to my initial thoughts of new Eldrad:

This is a beautiful model. All together it's a similar size to current Eldrad models, but with the scenic base will be considerably taller for most players.  There is a sense of movement that is conveyed by the model that makes it feel dynamic despite a very similar pose to the original. I opted for the casting hand and spun the hand at the wrist because I prefer that to the hi-I'm-Eldrad-nice-to-meet-you angle. They've also added in the faux beard that has become standard for Farseers, which overall updates it nicely in line with the other models in the range.

The reason I have it in pieces is because I'm planning to paint it in sections, from the ground up, because I don't want to miss areas or leave ugly angles to it. I'm trying to avoid the punishment that can occur from too many hard to reach areas, especially since this is the feature character for Ulthwe.

This model will be a big seller, as it's a great base for a feature Farseer for any craftworld, and with a couple quick cuts the staff can be replaced with an ornate witchblade and the model won't really reveal that the staff is intended to be there. All in all a fantastic mode that I can't wait to paint.

Shining Spears part 1

Way back in 5th edition, when I had pretty much moved on to complete null deployment As the only real way Eldar had a chance to put up a fight (refusing to engage before turn 5) I had managed to maintain a pretty admirable unit of 5 Shining Spears and an Autarch and Farseer. They were fast and versatile enough I could get a lot out of them with other supporting units like jetbike guardians.

With 6th edition power weapons dropped to AP2. I had previously used the unit to take on small, high-value targets, but they were effectively retired despite a points drop. When I moved to Australia the models broke, and since I was never fully happy with their paint scheme I was in no hurry to repair them.

In 7th we got new bikes, but not new spears. They did get new rules, which I have found intriguing, and ultimately it drove me on a path to take all the spear bits I had and combine the old and new kits in to a sleek hybrid unit. So far I'm happy with the results:

5 more to go, and a revised Autarch and I'll be looking to test their newest incarnation on the table top again.