Early Rogue Trader era Eldar Pirates.

 Keeping with my recent early Rogue Trader era theme, I have painted some early release Eldar. Now I never liked the Eldar at the time, too busy collecting Orks and Slann, but on later reflection I quite like them and see them nearly as iconic as the Crimson Fist Space Marines for the early era (1987/8) as the are photograph all through the rule book. 

I have organised them as per the Eldar army list in the Book of the Astronomican (1988), in squads of five miniatures. There were two basic types of squads. The first was the Serpent Squads, consisting of a squad leader with flamer and power sword, a trooper with a melta gun, and three troopers with shuriken catapults. The other type was the heavy/special weapon squad, the Dragon Squads, consisting of a leader with power glove and a plasma gun, a trooper with a heavy plasma gun, a trooper with a flamer, and two troopers with shuriken catapults. 

As for painting I chose the series of paint schemes found in both the Rogue Trader rule book, and in both the artwork and Eldar Dreadnought advert in White Dwarf #100. I really wanted to capture that old Eldar Pirate look, before the re-dux in 1990 with all of the Aspect Warriors, etc. I also want to paint each squad slightly differently, even if they are in the same Pirate group, just to break up a monotonous look. They were great fun to paint and I am happy with how they turned out. I might paint some more! 

Enjoy :) 

A Dragon Squad belonging to Yriel's Eldritch Raiders, copied from the rule book miniatures. 

Squad leader. 

Heavy weapon and flamer. 

Troopers.

A Serpent squad of Xian's Black Raiders. 

Squad Leader and melta gun trooper. 

Troopers. 

A Serpent Squad based on some of the miniatures painted for the early Eldar (Space Elves) adverts. I will use them as a squad of the Scarlet Command Pirate force. 

Squad leader and melta gunner. 

Trooper. 

Serpent Squad, based on some of the Eldar painted on p180-181 in the Rogue Trader rule book. These will end up as a Scarlet Command squad as well. 

Melta gunner and squad leader. 

Troopers. 

Eldar Pirates from Yriel's Eldritch Raiders and Xian's Black Raiders defend themselves from an attack by the Scarlet Command. 

The next update might be some more Rogue Trader stuff as I am in that vibe at the moment,

and I am in between projects.