April 2015. Sometimes it's time to try something different. And this time it was more round and slowing shapes. So it would be Eldar. The frail Eldar would also be a good test for the higher resolution version of the 3D printer I use.

I decided on doing an Ulthwe army. It would be simple to paint - I mean how difficult can it be to spray them black ? Also there is an UK Ulthwe list.

That sounded like a plan, you know Custer had a plan.

Of course I planned to use transparent bases just as I do for the last 15 or so years. The Falcons would have to hover above ground. For whatever reason I decided to print those bases instead of cutting them from acrylic glas. You can read here about that trial. To make a long story short the clear resins available didn't live up to my wants. Somehow I was fixed on printed bases, so I decided to print opaque bases for the Falcons instead falling back to acrylic bases. Using printed bases for the Falcon cried for using printed bases for all models. If I would print the bases anyway I could print the miniatures on them instead of printing them separately. And if I printed the miniatures directly on the base, I could print some scenery as well. And if I printed scenery, i could print it in way that the bases could be arranged to form a miniature diorama.

The bases have different height levels. Infantry, Falgon/Firestorms, War Engines, Flyers.

There are three units of guardians.

This one defending a walled section. The two Farseer stands in the second row. The Eldar being in fighting stances.

The second formation with a Seer Council to the front left. The troops have basically relaxed poses. All Guardian formations contain to Heavy Weapon platforms.

The third Guardian formation again relaxed poses on the same grounds as the second formation, but with "flat" ground instead of tiles.

Rangers differ only slightly from Guardians. The armor is different around the breast, they do not have backpacks and they field a different weapon.

The biggest difference is that their armor adapts to the ground, so they are not black. That there are some Rangers without helmet, is just a detail and over time there might be some bare headed Guardians.

The bases of the Rangers are a bit more elaborated and there are only three or four Rangers to a base. Again one formation in fighting poses and one more relaxed or marching.

This is the "Rangers Gun". You can make out the bipod, telescopic sight and flash suppressor. What the knobs are for, I don't know, I can't remember where I did put the user manual. This isn't my finger by the way (way too small),

Falcons are the main stay of the Eldar armored forces.I made the big enough to hold some troops. I always found the GW Falcons too flat. I always had the impression that the 40k Falcon would be higher. I may have overdone it.
After having painted 10 Falcons, I realized that the Zig Zag pattern looked a rather Eldar unlike freestyle. So I did some test Falcons which had the pattern modeled on, so I just had to paint it like any other raised detail. That's the second right most one. Anyway I had already painted lots of others and somehow I feel the hand painted pattern has it's own charm.

When you look at the profile of the Firestorm you might not guess it, but it is probably the worst AA tank in the whole game. Probably one out of 8 shots hits. Again the second from the right is a variant with modeled pattern.

Scorpions, I like Scorpions, if the activate, if they roll less than 3 ones per Salvo between the two I usually use. They are very flat and look smaller than Falcon, despite being bigger. On the right you can see the underside of a base. Each base has two holes for magnets, which press fit. Except on two models, of course I grabbed one of those for the photograph.

Phoenix, Nightwing, Vampire flying thingie. At the moment I use them as whatever I need. They will probably end up at Phoenix, once I start to make more designs.