A long awaited race of beings in the 40K universe is finally coming close to being released. They are the Dark Eldar, and their coming has been long awaited. Here are some of the rumors which are surrounding their release within the year of 2010:
From various sources, it seems likely that Dark Eldar will be released in the middle of Autumn, around October/November. The codex and the first release set of plastics and metals is already completed, and further models are being produced at the moment.
There are going to be several weapons, including:
Splinter Rifle: 24″ SX, AP5, Rapid Fire, Poisoned.
Splinter Carbine: 18″ SX, AP5, Assault 3, Poisoned.
Splinter Cannon: 36″ SX, AP5, Assault 4, or Heavy 6 Poisoned.
Spllinter Pods – an underslung Hellion weapon which acts quite like the carbine.
Poisoned weapons are all 4+ to wound.
As for looks, well it’s still unclear, although it seems that the overall look will be something of an evolution of this and perhaps simila sketches:
It also seems that the whole army has been redone from the very outdated previous version, and that the release might well be a massive one, spanning over months.
Let’s hold these rumors hold true – we’d all be in for a big treat.
The info was found on various forums.
Screenshot of the brand paint conversion tool.
If, like me, you’ve been painting miniatures for a good few years, or if you just are curious, you’ve probably racked up a decent collection of various paints from different brands… Personally I have Citadel and Vallejo, and I’m very happy with both (though I dream of better packaging for Citadel).
Finding equivalent colours in different brands can be quite tough, and brand colour conversion charts are usually old, outdated, or just contain 2 brands, perhaps 3 or 4. Now I’ve come across one really good paint conversion chart seems to have popped up, created by an Aaron Spilling. It still does not contain all the brands we as wargamers are used to, but it’s growing, and the more popular ones are all there.
One great feature is that you can compare the paint names to RGB codes, as well as to FS595 colour codes, the RAL Classic system (European) and other such standard colour codes. If you like a colour scheme on the internet you can practically pick it off the picture using this conversion chart! You can even download it as a PDF.
Nice Eldar scheme by a 10 year-old student
As I mentioned before in my article about my miniatures painting project with children at the school where I work, in Sweden, we have been slowly but steadily gaining a decent number of interested students (about 7 – which is more than enough for just 1 person). They’re all in the age of about 9-10, which means that they can be quite tough to control. It is also showing a me a little bit about how they look at these miniatures.
Painted by a 9-10 yo student - colour experimentation is the game!
All the children are complete and utter beginners at painting miniatures, and thus the very act of splashing some paint onto a miniature, and covering the said miniatures with colour is for them very satisfying. They certainly cannot grasp the detailed ideas about shading and brushing and choosing colour schemes (green and bright orange seem to be popular).
Some little goblins - the one on the left is mine
Paintbrush handling is also something which I’m having a tough time with. They spectacularly mistreat their brushes. They do also, however, learn quickly to respect their brushes, which is really satisfying. I can say that I am seeing a particular progress among the ‘regulars’, even though we have had few session as of yet. This is because of the lovely weather we’ve been having: I’ve been trying to save these sessions for when it’s nasty outside, like today.
Somehow the child painting this didn't need to know aything about the necrons, and went for something quite similar to the 'official' GW necron scheme.
As you can see we’ve been painting a little bit of everything. at first I brought along some of my own miniatures – a few goblin archers from the Warhammer Fantasy starter, and some eldar firedragons alo went down well. I’ve not bought a decent lot of Lord of the Rings minis which will hopefully last for a while. Some children have also brought their own: Orks, Necrons, some Tyranids and the ubiquitous Space Marines.
Some tyranids a student brought with him. I had him paint them, and the results were not too bad.
Tyranid closeup
I’ve also been discovering new talent. The student who painted the green and blue eldar firedragon has a keen eye for colour combinations and keeping inside the line. You can vouch for creativity all you want, but when you’re trying to make miniatures coherent you always need to think about how the viewer will see the miniature. A golden skinned orc, while progressive, also looks rather weird. Then again, I’m somewhat of a traditionalist. The goblin archer on the left is, I like to think, also somewhat decent. If it isn’t, then they certainly have a bad teacher 
For the past few months I’ve been working at a school here in Sweden. I take care of children after school. This means thinking up activities for the kids. Last month I found out that several of the children have warhammer miniatures and some paint, and all of them seemed eager to start doing something with them at school; to paint them and learn the game. I was more than glad to help.
So this week, after coming back from a visit to my home country, I went to school with paints and some miniatures that I brought with me to Sweden. Children (including girls, happily!) have been showing a lot of interest in this newfound hobby, and I’m managing to have a group of 6 or 7 every time I hold a painting session (4 times this week). Unfortunately, since for now I’m on my own, I can only take limited groups, and am currently only allowing the older ones to paint – and even they are a tough bunch to manage, though I’ve already spotted a couple of talented ones from the lot. I’m now teaching a fellow assistant the basics (he’s an awesome artist, so I’m confident he’ll reach and overtake me in no time) so that we’ll be able to take slightly larger groups.
The headmaster has even told me to order models and paints – which is pretty awesome. I do have to stick to cheaper sources (ebay?) since there have been big budget cuts due to the recession (very big ones believe me). But still, I guess $50 ought to cover the basics, and we’ve got brushes, palettes, cups, turpentine and all the other basic accessories. This week I’ve been using my own paints and models (a handful of goblin archers from the fantasy starter set and some unpainted eldar from my 40k eldar army).
I’m really looking forward to taking this activity to the next level. I hope to be able to post some pictures of my pupils’ work sometime next week!! Can’t wait!
Do you people have any opinions as to which models are easier to handle for beginners?
By the way, don’t forget that the online army list competition is still open for entries!
