DreadTober 2026: Detailing the Dreadnought and finished Dark Reapers

Only a quick litte DreadTober update today and only minimal progress with the Dreadnought. I did, however, finish the Dark Reapers.

Pict 1747: Iyaden Dark Reapers of the Shrine of Far Off Death

I started out my current batch of highlighting with this little squad of Dark Reapers to finish something and thus boost morale. I went with a dark blue for the main colour to nod towards Iyanden’s colourscheme. Of course there are also the armour plates in front, but those are somewhat hidden. The models really fell into place once I finished the gemstones and the skull faces. I’m really quite happy with them. But three of them are the same pose and I am missing one of the three that were around during 2^nd edition. I’ll have to hunt that one down, as well as an Excarch and then paint some more.

Pict 1748: Iyanden Eldar Dreadnought (WIP)

The Dreadnought has had its oilwash and I also started with a few highlights. So far mainly on the blue areas and what little bronze there is on this miniature. The blue flames will have to be cleaned up a bit more once I get to the yellow armour. Still, I’m quite far ahead and can take my time to put in as much detail as I want. (In this case, I'm of the oppinion that the more detail, the better!)

DreadTober 2026 begins! Eldar Dreadnought

Where did September go? (And August for that matter!) Suddenly it’s October and of course that can mean only one thing: DreadTober! This year I have pledged to paint up my (first) Eldar Dreadnought. Of course it will be part of my second edition Iyanden collection.

Pict 1743: Iyanden Guardians and Avele Swifteye

But first, here are my Guardians and Commander Avele Swifteye finally completed. The highlights on the five missing Guardians have been done for quite some time, but I only recently got around to put the shrubbery onto the bases. I even dry brushed a little bit of Moot Green onto the flock to bring the highlights up and in line with the yellows.

Pict 1744: Iyanden Eldar Dreadnought (WIP)

This is the current stat of the Eldar Dreadnought. I’ll admit, the basecoats were already done leading up to this. But the at least the decals are genuine DreadTober additions. I am not to sure how much time I will have to hobby and to blog this month (seeing as I missed September completely…). But I should still be able to finish this miniature and keep up some updates.

Pict 1745: Iyanden Farseer (WIP)

At the same time that I worked on the Dreadnought, I also put the base colours and decals on the army’s leader. This classic Jes Goodwin sculpt is so much fun! I’m very much looking forward to painting in the transition from brown to bright red on these large lenses.

Pict 1746: Iyanden Dark Reapes and Dire Avengers (WIP)

I had already shown of the Dire Avengers in this picture, but the Dark Reapers are new. By now I have also decided on the names of the two Aspect shrines pictured here: The Dark Reaper Shrine of Far Off Death and the Dire Avenger Shrine of Clear Thought. All of these works in progress will be drenched in an oilwash over the next few days before receiving their highlights.

Finishing the first few Second Edition Eldar

While I did not have that much time to hobby, I managed to finish the paintjob on five Guardians and their leader for my second edition Warhammer 40k project. Five more Guardians are well on their way and I'm really looking forward to also put some greenery on all of their bases to complete them.

Pict 1740: Iyanden Guardians and Avele Swifteye

Pict 1741: Iyanden Guardians and Avele Swifteye

These five Guardians and Avele Swifteye to lead them are the first (almost) finished miniatures for my second edition Iyanden collection. The plastics do really paint up quite fast, since they do not have that much detail. I went with a more modern paintjob similar to my Blood Angels rather than the clean and meticulously blended style of the 90s. I do enjoy the messy edge highlights and scratches to paint in some additional detail.
I plan on giving them some really bright greenery on the bases. Both to set them on a verdant Maiden World and nod to the customary goblin green bases.

Pict 1742: Iyanden Guardians (WIP)

These five have all the detail work done and are only waiting for the yellow armour to recieve some layers and the highlights. After that it will be onto the next units. But before basecoating more Aspect Warriors, I might just try and squeeze in the time to highlight my Aeronautica fleet, since they follow pretty much the same steps that I'm doing on these 28mm Eldar. 

Basecoating the Core of the Iyanden Army

During the past two weeks I have worked on the second edition Eldar. The Guardians and one hero are really far along and the Dire Avengers are not far behind them.

Pict 1738: Iyanden Guardians and Hero (WIP)

The Guardians as well as the first hero to lead them (I plan on uising him as an Exarch for now) have had their base colours done. After a few decals, I also doused them with the oil wash. The hot weather meant the oil dried really quickly. They are ready for the highlights, but even with the wet pallet, I fear the paint would dry on my good brushes right now.

Pict 1739: Iyanden Dire Avengers (WIP)

Whilst I am waiting for colder weather to do the more delicate highlighting, I am putting the basecolours on more of the collection. The Dire Avengers are also coming along. They are almost ready for the oilwash. I only want to clean up a bit more around the red gems and especially around the eyes. That Exarch might just be my favourite model of the whole range. The pose and the proportions are just perfect.

A new project: 2nd Edition Iyanden Eldar

It has been some time since my last post and this time around, I did not manage to do much hobby in the interim. I did, however, start to collect, build and even prime a new project that will probably accompany me through the second half of the year. Following on from the Aeronatica miniatures, it will be a nice little army of Iyanden Eldar for the second edition of 40k.

Pict 1736: 2nd Edition Eldar (WIP)

So, here is the collection of old lead and some plastic so far. While the mono pose Guardians are not the most exciting, they should look good as a group. I'm still keeping a look out for some of those metal guardians as well. Still, most of these early Jes Goodwin Eldar hold up perfectly well. Jes really had the aesthetic down from the beginning. I was especially suprised with the Eldar Dreadnought (Wraith Lord). I was a bit conservative when building this one, but I could see some nice possibilities for poses. The next one will be converted!
That is already a lot of looking forward to expanding the collection. Of course, to be a true Craftworld Iyanden army, there will have to be at least a unit of Wraithguard. And with Baharroth already in the collection, why not go for that teen age dream of a full collection of Phoenix Lords? And once I have those, why not also get a small squad of each of the aspect warriors?

Pict 1737: Infinity's Lament (WIP)

I also managed to get my hands on one of the newest Eldar miniatures: The WH+ exclusive Inifinity's Lament. I might try and paint it up to test out my scheme in the bigger scale. I will have to find solutions for some details the planes are lacking such as the cloth of the cloak. I'm also not quite decided on the bases. But they will probably not be goblin green (I know - Heresy!).

Continuing the Iyanden Eldar

Continuing to catch up on a few more projects, I finished painting the plastic contingent of Aeronautica planes for my Iyanden Eldar. But of course there is even more stuff to this project! I also worked on some more bits for the Aeronautica Space Marines as well as some High Elves from Middle-earth.

Pict 1731: Aeronautica Imperialis Iyanden Eldar Phoenix Bombers, Nightwings

The remaining plastic aircraft painted up quite fast. Even with the main yellow colour requiring several passes of glaze for me to be happy with. Again, I am blown away by the detail the designers put into these small miniatures.

Pict 1732: Aeronautica Imperialis Iyanden Eldar Ground Assets and Vampires (WIP)

Pict 1733: Aeronautica Imperialis Iyanden Eldar Bases (WIP)

Speaking of aircraft – turnes out the Vampires are huge! They will be the capstone to the project alongside the official ground assets and targets. I also build two more targets from some Eldar bits and a push mold of the Webway Gate's base plate to have enough to play the missions from the Companion booklet.
Also, as you might have seen with the first few pictures, I started to work on the hexagonal bases for the Eldar. I'm not to sure of the colours (the brown parts are the basis for a red gradient) but we'll see how they turn out.

Pict 1734: Aeronautica Imperialis Blood Angels Ground Assets (WIP)

Once I have finished the Eldar, I will want to go back to the Space Marines. Sticking some additional Tacticals on these bases only occured to me after basecoating but I think they should paint up fine nonetheless. Besides these Ground Assets there are still three more Xiphons waiting for a coat of paint. I could build two more targets as well, but I think I will simply use the Forward Operating bases from last year.

Pict 1735: Glorfindel, High Elf Banner Bearer and Elrond (WIP)

Lastly there are even more High Elves for the Rivendell army: The plastic Elrond and his banner bearer as well as the beautiful ForgeWorld Glorfindel. I don't really need them to play the army since I already painted versions of both characters. And I'm really happy to paint these amazing miniatures now that I am really comfortable with the colour scheme and potential short cuts I did not know about at the start of the year.

Arwen Evenstar and more Aeronautica Eldar

Since my last post, I finished Arwen Evenstar to round out the Rivendell Knight army as well as some Highelf Warriors on foot. I even found the time to play some games! Aside from Middle-earth I also put in some more work with the Aeronautica Eldar Skyhost and finished the older aircraft.

Pict 1723: Arwen and Highelf Warriors

Pict 1724: Arwen on foot and mounted

Pict 1725: Arwen on foot and mounted

Pict 1726: Arwen on foot and mounted

I had a game lined up with the Rivendell Knight army and I wanted to have both Arwen's and Elrond's Wrath of Bruinen available to throw any opposition to the ground. I cut it a bit close but I managed to finish Arwen both mounted and on foot the evening before the game. (The varnish was actually done on the day!) Looking back through the blog, I have had Arwen on Asfaloth at least since late 2018. I'm pretty happy with both these models. Getting the face right was a bit tricky but worked out in the end. They are somewhat different – you can clearly tell they were sculpted by Gary Morley (on foot) and Juan Diaz (mounted) respectively.

Pict 1727: Highelf Warriors

Pict 1728: Highelf Warriors

These four were not quite done in time for the game, but thankfully none of my Knights needed any dismounts (any that died, did so with their horses). Nevertheless it is good to have some for future games as well as a proof of concept how the colours will work with the foot troops. Plenty more of these to come!

Pict 1729: Highelf Warrior (Conversion)

Speaking of: I bought a secondhand set of Finecast Elf Warriors with Spears to convert since there are no sculpts with Elven Blade and shield. The first one has been built and I'm a bit surprised how little Green Stuff was needed to change the weapon. However, the other poses might need a bit more cutting up.

Pict 1730: Aeronautica Imperialis Iyanden Eldar Hemlock Wraithfighters and Nightshade Interceptors

I also got around to finish the older, smaller planes for my Aeronautica Eldar. While they are the sculpts for the Phoenix Bomber and the Nightwing, they will be played as Hemlock Wraithfighters and Nightshade Interceptors / Crimson Hunters. Again, I'm really happy with the shade of yellow and look forward to finish the bigger aircraft.