Craftworld Adraxia

I've wanted to build an Eldar army for quite some time now but never really got round to it. However, with this past Christmas my awesome family got me plenty of Eldar kits to be getting on with, the start of a nice little force of power level 50. I've dabbled with Eldar before - mostly my brother's old models he gave me many moons ago, which were very limited to say the least. But now with my very own collection under my belt I can truly call the army my own.
Firstly a bit of a word about the colour scheme. I came up with this scheme several years ago, back when there were only the 'main' Eldar Craftworlds in the official books/lore. I was really happy with the scheme and thought it looked awesome. But, a few years later Games Workshop reveal some 'lesser' Craftworlds, including Iybraesil, which just happened to use the exact same scheme, right down to the red spot colour. I was pretty livid of course, and at once point considered changing my own Craftworld to Iybraesil, but I decided against it and kept my own Craftworld name and fluff to keep things decidedly my own.

Lady Khalandra Soulstorm

Khalandra is a farseer. I've always wanted a female farseer, ever since Dawn of War, but GW have never released an official one (to my knowledge). The Yvraine model was perfect for this. Sure the base is larger than the average farseer, but I don't think it would make much difference in friendly games. She is the leader of Craftworld Adraxia, and its most powerful psyker (naturally). I initially wanted to remove her headdress but thought she looked a bit bare without it, so I kept it as her ghosthelm and painted it a gradient orange colour to make her stand out.

General Khaladesh Sunblade

Khalandra's slightly younger twin brother, Khaladesh is the general to her armies and leads the force from the front lines. Naturally its the Visarch model, which is pretty cool, but I wanted to swap the head out to make him look more unique and characterful. I also glued a shuriken weapon his forearm. He will use the rules for Asurmen in-game, as he is a right badass and seems to fit the character I have in mind.

The Bladestorm Concordance

When Craftworld Adraxia was fractured it was mandated that all who would fight for its future would tread the Path of the Warrior and devote themselves entirely to its safety. As a result, every individual in the army is a member of an Aspect Temple, the most common of which are of course Dire Avengers. I painted their helmet plumes the same way as Khalandra's ghosthelm.

The Watcher

Craftworld Adraxia is guarded by sentinel walkers who maintain vigil over areas of great importance. These pilots are highly skilled in battle, running circles around the foe and attacking vital points or ambushing outlying enemy units with a barrage of missiles.



Ancient Irithyll

With Adraxia's tumultuous past it was only natural that it turn to the dead for reinforcements. Because of this the Craftworld boasts a large number of ghost warriors. Irithyll was a powerful war hero of Adraxia, and military advisor to the former queen. Though he is now but a shadow of his former self (literally) he has no qualms in rising up in his wraithlord armour and fighting in the name of his Craftworld for all eternity.

Wraithguard
Long-dead Adraxian warriors have their spirits captured in spirit stones so that they may once again rise in wraithbone constructs. Not much to say about these guys, I'm sure you all know what Wraithguard are.







I'm certainly more respectful of people who paint Eldar. I wanted to do them for myself as they are probably the biggest departure from orks (my main army) in the whole 40k game. I really struggled painting all the gemstones, as you can probably see. To be honest, the photos always bring out the worst in my models, as the high definition allows me to see things I can't with the naked eye. For that reason I'm not too fussed about them being well-painted. They look fine from a tabletop perspective and that's good enough for me; nobody is going to meticulously look over them or rate them.
The thing I'm most proud of is the broken wraithbone on the bases. The wraithlord and warwalker bases come with ready sculpted wraithbone detail, and rather than wait and buy new, blank bases for them I instead decided it would be cool to do all the other bases the same way. So, I whipped out the green stuff and got on it. It wasn't too hard, just flatten a thin layer of green stuff over the base, cut it to shape and then score cracks into it. Its a simple effect but I think it looks really nice, unique and flavourful. I will be adding grass and other vegetation to it.


Finally, I'm the kind of person who forgets rules mid-game. And with Eldar there's a greater chance of that with all the psychic powers I'll be flinging around. So to hopefully counteract that, I made some psychic power tokens.

So now, when I cast a power on a unit I can just put a token next to it to hopefully remind me. Chances are I'll still forget, but this will reduce the chances of that. The Fortune token is a spare shield from a wraithblade. The Will of Asuryan effigy is from the Dire Avengers kit. The Doom skull I got from the Citadel Skulls box, and the Guide token just uses a spare shuriken catapult and two guardian helms.

This is probably the fastest I've ever painted an army. Normally, when I start a new force it follows a formula... I build everything, then start painting them: I basecoat them, then give them a wash of some kind, and then... I get bored and they sit on my desk/shelf for the next few years gathering dust. This time, I don't know how or why, I just kept chugging and got them all done! And now I have a fully painted, 50 power Eldar army, and I gotta say it actually feels pretty good. This is my second completed army (after my orks, of which I have tons). So now, after ~18 years in the hobby I can finally say I have a second army! Hooray! Now to get some games in with it...