Eldar have been sighted

"More bad tidings I presume," snapped Inquisitor Tylo Haariginer as the door to his solar creaked open, disrupting his meditations.

"Indeed m'lord.  Yet still, you claim that you have no affinity with the Warp? Extraordinary!" Levi "Bell" Jingst, Tylo's pet psyker considered himself something of a wit.  Others, however, considered Bells foolhardy in the extreme, especially when addressing men of power - while such individuals are rarely known for their sense of humour, all too often they're deservedly renowned for their vanity and hubris.

"Save your comedy for the Commissary Bells, Emperor knows they could do with a laugh... or failing that, someone to shoot.  What have you got for me?"

"I daresay the word 'Complications' sums up the situation nicely.  As you had anticipated, our recent exchange with the Kroot mercenaries was indeed observed."  Bells brought up a series of images onto the room's project, "As they say, an holopic says a thousand words..."

"By the Thone - Eldar!" erupted Tylo.  "What?  I don't understand.  Eldar don't cavort with Chaos...,"  Tylo peered closer to the images, "Who exactly are they?  I don't recognise them."

"That is unfortunate... what would the Ordo Xenos say.  Tut Tut!  Fortunately, some research on my part can fill those regrettable gaps in your knowledge... it's best you just let me explain."

"This first image clearly captures an Eldar Ranger, who was 20 meters due-South of us whilst we were otherwise engaged.  Evidently, it was well concealed and this image was captured some 30 minutes subsequent to our meeting."

"Next we have the first of a number Guardian squads - this particular squad is remarkable thanks to what is clearly some heavy ordnance."

"Now that is a concern," mumbled the Inquisitor under his breath. "What do you think it is?"

"My Lord, that weapon is the least of our concerns," interrupted Bells, "...when you consider this."

Suddenly confronted with a swarm of Eldar Scorpions, Tylo involuntarily reached for his sidearm.

Bells continued.  "You'll note the presence of an Exarch and this unprecedented variant..."

A sour mood descended upon the Inquisitor.  "Enough of this pantomime," demanded Tylo, rising from his chair, "show me the rest".

"Our servodrone was destroyed, but it did manage one last series of images.  The pick of the bunch is this fetching lass - let me introduce to you 'Unprecedented Variant Number Two'" announced Bells.

"A... Banshee? But?  Where?" Tylo was momentarily lost for words.  Clutching his now farrowed brow he was silent for a long while as he contemplated his next steps.

"We need more information," announced Tylo.  "Bells, make ready the Team, I want us back on site before dusk.  This changes everything."

----

I had a lot of fun painting these miniatures, the first batch of my somewhat ambitious (?) 'Paint the Eldar Army of my youth' project for 2018.  Over the course of about a month, I stripped, based, rebuilt/fixed, undercoated and slowly but surely painted up this particular batch of old skool metal Eldar miniatures.  During the process, various models didn't make the grade (for example, a Warp Spider squad) or lost their way (such as another three Rangers) but rather than dwelling on what wasn't working, I focused on the things that were and ran with it.

The inspiration colour scheme-wise was most definitely old skool GW/White Dwarf.  I  made life hard for myself, however: for the Guardians, as much as I wanted them looking old skool, I was a bit over the whole tiger-stripe look and therefore had to try something a little different.  The resulting 'red hot pepper' helmets were a great little experiment that I'll likely try to refine in the future.

The Scorpions were very much keeping with the traditional approach to those Aspects.  I found the older models more rewarding than the (relatively) newer ones, while I've still got my eye on the last of the metal Scorpions should the right deal surface.

Both the Banshee and Ranger were test models for both their colour schemes and how to approach the paint job.  I arrived at a way of doing them relatively painlessly and right now I've got some reinforcements being prepared for eventual release.  All such things, including work-in-progress photos and painting details (when I remember to record them), are detailed on my Trello board which you're more than welcome to visit.

Watch this space!