Eldar Ulthwe, the next Jawa-project

So, I finally decided upon my next major army project. I am putting the finishing touches up on a lingering commission this week, and am clearing the slate for a while so I can focus on my own stuff, sorta.

I will be painting a NMM GK terminator to be given away as a charity promotion at Templecon in February. That won't take a day though.

And of course, there is the 2012 "Heroes" project.  I have no clue what it is going to be yet!

Before that though, I want to try to pump out an Eldar army.  I have always wanted to, and at one point had a good start to an Iyanden army.  But as my interests grew, the Eldar faded to the back burner and beyond.

So why Ulthwe?  At Nova I was speaking with a fantastic painter and modeler named Dan and we started thinking about doing a team army project based on the Horus Heresy.  He was planning an Emperor's Children army, so I thought that doing the confrontation between Eldrad and Fulgrim!  My Eldar army was instantly born.  Plus, if the rumors are true, they should be getting some outstanding love next summer with a new book and an appearance in the next box set.  By the way, I will be trading away any chaos crap I get in the new box sets for your Eldar.  :)  Bottom line here, 2012 is going to be the year for the Eldar. It's a great time to start.

My army is going to be fairly diverse and fun. So, I don't plan to win a lot of games with it at first. Oh well! This is the age of artsy Jawaballs I guess.  I like a lot of the Eldar units, and plan on using as many as I can.  I like that the Ulthwe focus on their super guardians, but it would not Eldar without aspect units, so here we go with my first draft of a list:

Eldrad of course
Eldrads Warlock council (converted)

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Guardian jet bikes with warlock

2 squads of guardians converted from various high elf and eldar parts

Fire Dragons with serpent. (Gotta have the dragons!)

Pathfinders of course

Harlequins

2 wraith lords. I ordered the Forgeworld Wraithseer model. cant wait to paint it!

1 Falcon grav tank.  This is gona be the ride for the harlies.  I am going to paint it all decked out in harlequin stuff. It should be sick!

Wraithguard with lock in a serpent

As you can see there is quite a variety, chosen for artistic purposes. I plan on doing some sweet conversions for the guardians and warlocks.  Also, I plan on doing some sweet hand painting on the serps.  I love them for their large open spaces.  They are like blank canvases. Jetbikes are also great for this purpose.  I love the eldar because they have a lot of great imagry and use banners.  Lots of chances to make this army truly special.

As the army evolves, I will of course add to it. Especially when the new dex drops and new competitive Eldar lists pop up.  My considerable ego cant take yet another year of beat downs in the GT circuit, no matter how pretty the army is!  :)  I have to have an army that competes.

Now, to figure out how to paint these things, and that is where you come in.  I suck at web searching. I looked up "how to paint ulthwe" "painting ulthwe master class" and you name it.  You see, I need these to look special.  Black spray with grey highlights just wont work.  I plan on doing blended and shaded black, but i have no idea how!  I am not too worried about the bone color, though suggestions are welcome.

So, perhaps those of you who are adept at web searches, or more familiar with the forums can help! I need masterclass level tutorials for painting black.  I'm talking Golden demon level difficulty.  Honestly, a tutorial on bone color would not hurt either. Most of what I have found relies heavily on washes.  I prefer to use washes as an accent, not primary painting tool.  What do you guys think? Feel free to share links. In fact, we can make this a new resource for painting Ulthwe and or black.  Share your links and information, and I will edit them into the copy of this post.  Or email them to me. we can make this a work in progress!

So there you have it. The new Jawa army, a community project!  This is a chance for me to do something completely new, and for you to help!

Now to give my wife my wish list, and the Spikey Bits phone number. :)

Jawaballs