aspect warriors – Twitchy Bristles

Crusade Upgrades!

Pictured: My “Crusade” Howling Banshees with updated runes, bases and power swords.

Recently with my ninth edition handbook I picked up one of the Crusade journal; a narrative-style campaign in 40K has been on my to-do list for a long time, and since I’m lucky enough to have a few friends locally interested in the same thing I’m giving it a whirl. I hope to post and chat about different games that I’ve played and show a few battle reports on the site, but before getting too carried away I also decided that some of my existing models needed a little more love before hitting the tabletop.

Pictured, my old Farseer model vs. Eldrad Ulthran, playing the part of my Crusade Farseer.

Not that I always play favorites, but if I did they’d be Jain Zar, my Banshees, my Wave Serpent, and my psykers, so those are some of the models I either redid from scratch or refitted. Guy from Midwinter Minis has an awesome tutorial (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gNfrCS263s) for using nail flakes and I tried to apply this to all of my power swords, which gave them a really nice new glimmering effect under natural light.

Pictured, my Wave Serpent post-upgrades with a higher base. Vanes make a big difference!

All in all I think I’m ready for this campaign now and ready for my Eldar to make a splash on the tabletop. Eldrad’s going to be getting a gallery of his own in the next while, too, and I have some other galleries (and battle reports) planned over the next while too. Still going to be slow going till the thesis is done but I’m pretty excited with where painting and playing are going from here!

Before, After, and Next Steps

Pictured, Guardian from 2018 vs. Storm Guardian from 2020.

Felt like I needed a win today, so I’m posting something fun. When I started painting Warhammer again back in 2018 I started with a handful of Guardians, Howling Banshees, and psykers, and after a couple of years I thought it would be neat to compare some of the first models I did with the models I’ve been painting more recently.

Pictured, Howling Banshee from 2018 vs. Howling Banshee from 2020.

I’m happy to say that I think I’ve made strides as far as my painting goes – the more recent colors pop better and I think I’m getting better at picking contrasting colors that look good together. More than that, though, using occasional resin bases, kitbashing, and my basing have all moved a little out of my original comfort zone and I’m excited to see what kind of improvements I’ll have made in another two years’ time.

Lastly, I want to add that because I’m working on a thesis right now and moving into “crunch” time I’m likely not going to be uploading much over the next month or so. Hoping to focus on that for a while and hopefully come back to painting refreshed – I have a few Eldar and Death Guard projects primed and ready to paint and a new “mystery” army I’m excited to build too.

Thanks for the support and views, and see you on the other side!

Jain Zar

I picked up Jain Zar recently from my FLGS, Noble Miniatures (who are awesome, by the way, check them out!), intending for it to be the new star model of my Howling Banshees and this kit did not disappoint. The model has fantastic size and presence to it, and despite minor frustrations initially trying to put it together painting it was a smooth, fun experience.

Even compared to my Oldhammer Wraithlord, Jain Zar has quite a bit of height!

I’m excited to see her on the tabletop once 9th Edition rolls out. I’m thrilled with how the paint job turned out, and even if it’s a small detail I feel like Nihilakh Oxide really pulled through for me again on the mask, giving her an even more “ghostly” feel. I might have to spend more money if new Eldar sculpts in the future keep turning out so good!

Jain Zar’s astonishing swiftness and mercurial temperament are echoed by her Howling Banshee daughters, and it was she who first perfected the Scream that Steals – the psychosonic barrage that emanates from her mask can not only stun foes but liquefy their brains in the process. That death-dealing war cry has been heard across the galaxy, and it has proven that even the immortal servants of the Dark Gods are not above fear.

Howling Banshees

Tallithea swallowed hard, caught between her desire to see the ceremony under way and her fear of doing so. The scream of the banshee was gaining strength inside her, rising in volume, demanding to be let free. She feared that if she did not don her war mask soon it would erupt anyway, with who could say what disastrous consequences?

Howling Banshees are my absolute all-time favorite Eldar unit. They were some of the first 40k models I ever owned and I’ve kept them as a mainstay of my army ever since. I’ve painted tons of oldhammer ones, and recently decided I was going to repaint a batch of my metal ones to see how much better I could do this time around.

They don’t take Overwatch, they can Advance and Charge with a bonus, and they get to fight first when Jain Zar is around. What’s not to love?

The results are everything I hoped for, and with their shiny new resin scenic bases they fit in brilliantly with the newly-released Jain Zar model. As much as I love my Oldhammer banshees, which I’ll probably post up here too sometime, I think this is going to be my Banshee A-Team for a good long time comin’.

Howling Banshees are swift and athletic Aspect Warriors who are famously deadly in melee. They embody the sudden wrath of Khaine, attacking with such swift certainty that the foe has no time to properly defend itself. Using a special war mask to enhance their battle cries, they rob the wits of the enemy moments before the kill.

Objective Markers

Jain Zar turned slowly, seeing row after row of cadaverous faces leering down at her from the stands – a crowd of the deceased, some little more than dead skin on skeletons, others with split skulls, gashed faces, slit throats, pierced breastbones and savaged ribcages. Her opponents. Her victims.

Since Howling Banshees were a big chunk of my Eldar work over the last while, I decided I wanted to have some nifty new objective markers done up for them – and this also gave me something to do with some old, 1-2 ed. Banshees that I wasn’t sure I’d ever get around to!

Pictured are markers one, two, and three, distinguished by the number of minis on them. I’m so clever sometimes.

I also used a miniature I got free a while back because they looked ancient and elven and fit the rest of the aesthetic here enough – and because thematically it fits with my army, since my Spiritseer wields Kurnous’ Bow instead of a regular shuriken pistol. These were super easy and quick to do, because Nihilakh Oxide is magical stuff.

Dire Avengers

Devotees of Asuryan himself, those who walk the path of the Dire Avenger become adept at both attack and defence. Their exarchs are masters of a swift and flexible warrior-stance that capitalises on everything it means to be Asuryani.

Dire Avengers were a change of pace for me! Up to this point my only Troops units for Eldar have been Guardians or Rangers, but when a friend gifted me a box of them last year I was thrilled to be able to work on them, and to add them to my regular Eldar lists.

Pictured is yet another Fire Emblem reference – the fam’s all here!

Most of these were just done straight from the box but I did a little kitbashing with a couple of them to make homages to Fire Emblem characters, since the friend who got me to the box is a huge Fire Emblem fan. I’m very happy in the end with how they turned out, kitbashes and all, and I’m excited to see how they do on the tabletop.