Being GenX, I am absolutely knowledgeable on most things 80's including the more questionable aspects of spandex, parachute pants, and mullets...but checkered Van's and Chuck Taylor high tops are always in style! The 80's also marked Games Workshop miniatures and the splashy White Dwarf magazine which were filled with glorious 80's punk in tone and tenor. I had begun collecting many of the lines only switching to 40k fully in the 90's. Jes Goodwin designed a lot of the miniatures then but still has an out sized influence into the eldar...er alderadi...er space elf look! The models above were painted in the late 80's and were purchased with my first citadel paint sets. I bought the harlequin box set with the paints and a few blisters of Eldar troops. The single pose models were packed with jewelry and gems and all sorts of textures and details. Then the Eldar were just space pirates and the harlequins were a colorful elite unit available to them. There was even a land raider painted in a garish harlequin scheme as they were as much looters and thieves as a eldar corsair.
I am never painting harlequin checker boards again....maybe.
The Ramones, Sex Pistols, The Clash, all would have done well here, but sometimes 80's hard rock gets forgotten in the pop music, punk, new wave nostalgia....now buckle up!
Kicking in the door of the 80's studio, it is all about Killer Clowns from Outer Space...er Harlequins!
The Death Jesters are the heavy support and these three sport weapons ranging from an auto cannon to shuriken cannons.( it wasn't till later editions that weapons were faction specific-lots of looting in the wild west of rogue trader). these fellows are the grandpa of the new goth acrobat and loaded in skulls from the house of old school having 31 skulls among them.
If they do not have a skull, they have a glittering gem stone. Even dour heavy weapon troopers get bling when part of an Eldar army.
Mr Goodwin also designed the Aspect warriors including the Dark Reapers. heavy armor, bone embellishments and skulls for masks. they are very similar to the Death Jesters that proceeded them by a decade, but they only have 5 skulls as they are more modest than the flashy Death Jesters.
They too are packed with Gem stones. Some paint them just as blisters in the armor, but i painted a whole leg in harlequin checkers. All gem stones on an eldar model will be painted as a gem stone because Eldar just have to have bling!
The Phoenix Lord Maugan-Ra is the first Dark Reaper and just got an update that is more reaper-ish than this one. I like that this very model is an initial print in in metal a month after release and is very close in style to the Death Jesters now almost 20 years senior
9 skulls on the big man. The death jesters have more, but his are bigger and he is meaner!
loads of gemstones too!
and the tour of the 80's stops here...but I am a big squirrel and could not resist adding more to the desk and before I knew it...
I had to paint some more Harlequins as the white primer was not colorful enough for a harlequin.
The base of the purple is the contrast paint Luxion Purple highlighted with GW Xereus Purple and Vallejo blue violet the later is really lavender. The purple is very vibrant but reacts weird to photography. It matches the metallic purple from the viper, falcon, and jetbikes from my Eldar army and will be used on the craftworld troops when repainted
An avatar, high avatar, and solitaire. I will use the one in the middle as a troupe leader and the yellow boots avatar as a solitaire with different load out or trouper.
Harlequins have bling and bright colors.
Two warlocks flanking a mime...I think they are all mimes now.
Just color no fancy line work or checkers...maybe later.
and five Fire Dragons also Jes Goodwin designed.
Red gems are green on them cause orange and yellow swallowed the detail. sashes and cords are purple to match the craftworld.
Howling Banshees also hit the desk. They were just begging to have purple tabards
Fiery red hair too!
Striking Scorpions were pulled out because they used to be so tough and are still a favorite to one-two punch with the Banshees.
I used a blue on their face masks to pop up the green and yellow scheme and enhance the red eyes.
Dire Avengers with purple plumes to match the craftworld.
The helms were painted with the glacial blue contrast and gave them an exotic alien white porcelain look I like.
The phoenix Lord Asurmen. He has not seen battle since the years started with 19, but now he has his warpaint on. I am still thinking to paint his eyes black for more pop, but am unsure if will be too much.
This photo is where I became aware of the purple being photo shy...It is very smooth in real life, but looks eldar alien here!
The warlocks here also had their robes go wild in the photo..
so many gemstones...but these three finish the Farseer's Seer council.
A Ranger which was a test paint for the needing to be stripped rangers.
And now I am all done with Jes Goodwin and 80's inspired space elves and gemstones....
Nope! Two boxes of Eldar Corsairs for Kill Team were also on my desk because the squirrel god sent me into the pile of neglect to find and paint them.
A squad leader sniper and warriors with shuriken catapults. Corsairs are too nice for the dark eldar and too much of thieves and cutthroats for craftworld eldar. I gave them all different cloaks because they do as they wish.
The other leader and a blademaster with close combat corsairs.
A duelist, a healer, a warlock, and a sneaky warp spider jumping assassin.
a hunter flanked by special weapon gunners
I can field a team with any corsair troop types and even have varied leader load-outs
The new plastics mix well with the old models and Jes Goodwin still has an influence on the style of this army.
Took awhile to finish this bunch... only stopped last week adding models to table! It is why I won't join the squirrel challenge as my brain is already full squirrel for wargame miniatures. This is almost 50 years of miniature evolution in one project, so thank the squirrel god for that!
69 Eldar, Alderadi-elderadi-whoderaldi-Space Elf dude and dudettes- 345 points
The 80's studio- 20 points
for a total of 385 points.
skulls for scully mcskullface-45
Friday Minion - Holy smokes Batman, did you just toss a points bomb of not one, not two, but THREE whole (A)Eldar(i) armies? Where to start with these? Well, my first 40k force was Eldar, fond memories painting those badly with globbed on paint and goblin green bases, but they were cheesy as heck in game. I turned to the right path later, with hordes of Imperial Guard, and my poncy space-elves were neglected evermore.
I like your use of purple as a unifying colour here. I see what you mean about the design cues form the classic sculpts on the modern kill team corsairs, but for me those corsairs just don't have the charm of the classic Eldar sculpts.
Favourites here have to be those vintage Harlequins, whose sculpts still hold up 40-dd years later. Wonderful stuff.
