Old School Eldar

[swiftnick]

Chaps looking for some inspiration here. A couple of years ago a mate gave me a big box of 40K figures. Seeing as I have never played it and myself and GW went our seperate ways in about 1986. I had never really looked at them. This morning I dug them out with the intention of sticking them on Ebay. I found myself strangely taken with them. It seems to be quite a big army with all the figures being cast between 87 and 1990. So I really fancy painting them. The thing is I don't know the first thing about them. What colour would their clothes,weapons and skin be?? What version of 40K would this be? Has anybody got pics of painted figs from this Era?? Looking on the web I can only find relatively recent figures and they all look a bit dark.
Cheers Mike

[Booboo]

From the years, the era has to be RT (1st).. http://www.collecting-citadel-miniatures.com/wiki/index.php/Eldar%28Warhammer_40,000_Rogue_Trader%29_-_Collectors_Guide

As for inspiration

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/263104.page

http://www.sodemons.com/dhurst/40kelfpirate/IMG_0305x-02.jpg

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_1f9EWsezc9E/SzJVn2jPLGI/AAAAAAAAARc/2pImsIcYuvI/s640/Eldar.jpg

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_qosCgwI9ZNo/TOa58b928tI/AAAAAAAAAyI/pceCeWpYJmQ/s320/Mercs1.jpg

I love the RT era stuff.

[swiftnick]

Booboo thanks for that will check out all those links before I start painting. I have just cleaned up and based my first couple of units.
First some mohican chaps.


Then some coneheads


Or guardians and avengers

[swiftnick]

One man and his drogues

[Heldrak]

Here are the original Rogue Trader-era paint schemes (some of them quite bright):

http://solegends.com/citrt/rt04spaceelves.htm

http://solegends.com/citrt/rt401spaceelvesbota.htm

http://solegends.com/citrt/rt402eldarcommand.htm

http://solegends.com/citrt/rt403eldardreadnought.htm

http://solegends.com/citrt/rt403eldarwarbot.htm

http://solegends.com/citrt/rt403eldwarwalk.htm

http://solegends.com/citrt/rt404eldardcannon.htm

http://solegends.com/citrt/rt404eldarartillery.htm

http://solegends.com/citrt/harlequins.htm

Many of the figures you have persisted into 2nd edition 40K, when the tradition was to paint them in the colors of the "big name" craftworlds:

Alaitoc = Blue with yellow helmets, accents
Iyanden = Yellow with blue helmets, accents
Biel-tan = White with green helmets, accents, vine designs
Saim-hann = Red with white helmets, accents
Ulthwe = Black with yellow helmets, accents

[snitcythedog]

Looking at this, I might have to put mine up on Ebay.  I only have about a hundred and fifty of the rouge trader era Eldar that I do not play.  Going my separate way from GW back in 03.  Have fun painting, since they are nice.
Snitchy sends.

[Paleskin]

As long as you aren't going to use them in an official gw tournament,paint them any colour you fancy really!

Remember seeing a squad painted in jungle camo years ago,surprisingly effective!

[Heldrak]

BTW, the guys with the crested helmets are Dire Avengers, traditionally painted light blue with white helmets... 

[swiftnick]

Thanks for all that info. Its certainly given me a lot to look at. I'm hoping to get some undercoated today and I am thinking of trying out some washes.

[chromedog]

BTW, the guys with the crested helmets are Dire Avengers, traditionally painted light blue with white helmets... 

Under current rules they are.
When released they were not.
They were simply more veteran troopers (they were released prior to the 1990 creation of the eldar path system and various aspects).
They have ALSO been shown in codices as "Guardians".

[swiftnick]

I had forgotten about these for a while.

[Jonas]

Very nice, are the blue just washed? Looks very effective.

[rob_alderman]

As long as you aren't going to use them in an official gw tournament,paint them any colour you fancy really!

Remember seeing a squad painted in jungle camo years ago,surprisingly effective!

You can use any colour scheme you like at GW tournaments. The only rule is that they must be GW miniatures.

[chromedog]

And old or not, they are still very much GW models.

Even if the musicians and standard bearer models serve no real purpose in 40k anymore.

The aspect warriors (the 5 original 1990 aspects) are still aspect warriors.  Their gear might have changed on the exarch, but they are more or less still valid (Reaper exarch with web of skulls is a 'dead model' with no current representative, for example.  But the dire avengers, swooping hawks, banshees, scorpions, fire dragons and guardians are all still valid otherwise.

[Diakon]

Very nice. I love the purple on the dire avengers. Lovely job on the guardians too.