It’s safe to say that this year has not gone entirely according to plan; so it was only befitting that during this time of Nurgle I would return from my absence of several years in the chaos wastes. After finally deciding that I wanted to shift my hobby focus back to the hallowed sanctuary that is the mighty Gamesworkshop, all that was then left to decide was what game to play again. With the very unceremonious departure of warhammer fantasy battle, there was only really one contender left to choose (and we all know 30k doesn’t count).
So with the decision made to re-enter the grim dark universe of the 41st millennium, I then had the dilemma of what army I should pick. The usual choices would have been space marines or custodies due to the low model count, but my past track record of painting power armour is pretty abysmal… This led to me wanting to stay away from painting space marines again or at least for a while, because in the immortal words of the greatest admiral and species in the Star wars galaxy ‘it’s a trap’. This then really only left me with a very short list of contenders, because there was no way in hell that I would ever have the patience or ability to paint a horde army. So goodbye Guard, GSC, Nids and Orks; then of course Tau are like the mistake of GW that most of us want to try and forget about. Which then leads perfectly into the factions of the space elves, thanks to a certain someone who shall remain nameless Dark Elder shall always be attached to the memory of forced child labour.
Which means it is probably very lucky that Craftworld Elder have always had a special place in my heart; mainly due to them being an army that I played extensively in both 4th and 5th editions of 40k. Also with the amount of excitement attached to the release of the new models and book at Gamesday for 5th edition, of which I may have profusely begged to have my birthday money early. It is safe to say that I was very smug sitting in the stands at the Birmingham arena with my haul of new eldar models, along with my first ever finalist pin in the young bloods category for Golden Demon.
They have always been an army that I have wanted to return to eventually if not for two things that have held me back over the years; the main one being the stigma that has attached itself to the army certainly since 6th edition. After several very vocal rants within our group down south, of which just led to the pipe dream idea of eventually returning to do an Eldar project being continuously pushed back. Secondly being confident in my painting itself and worried that I wouldn’t be able to do the models justice; but also the patience to actually paint an army and not just a handful of models. This is a problem I have always faced when collecting GW games; being able to paint a small number of models and then completely losing focus. I eventually managed to overcome this issue when collecting historicals, which did eventually lead me to experience the joy of playing with fully painted armies which were also painted to the best of my ability.
All of this thought process would ultimately lead to February 2020 being a date that would live in infamy, as the date that I decided on a bit of a whim to purchase some old rogue trader Eldar and Harlequin models. By some miracle or more likely divine intervention by the painting gods; I actually managed to finish these models starting a bit of a chain reaction. If we fast forward to now I am still continuing to finish models for the army; be it much slower than I would like due to the ball and chain of work. But I am still making slow and steady progress; I now more than likely will not meet my intended goal for the year. However I will put myself in a strong position to have a fully painted playable army for the beginning of next year! Along with the added bonus of finding a bit more confidence in myself with my painting, and being able to see a clear improvement from where I started back in February compared to what I’m doing now.
The aim this side of a Christmas has now altered to ensuring that the farseer on jet bike is finished, along with making a good start on the rest of the Dire Avenger unit. With the great aim of of attempting to get the bulk of the wave serpent finished before New Years, but we will have to see how this goes. Although it will be worth it when finally having a game against Erebus… sorry I mean Mr Wigg…
But that’s enough ranting; as a reward for making it this far here’s some pretty pictures!
