Engines of Vaul

Eldar weaponry is almost exclusively crafted from a psycho-reactive substance known as Wraithbone. From the smallest Spirit stones to the massive Craftworlds, everything is psychically intertwined through this material. The Eldar equivalent of "engineers" are called Bonesingers and it is these skilled craftmen who fabricate the Eldar warmachines through ancient rituals devoted to Vaul: The Eldar god of craftmanship.

The Eldar vehicles are no exception. Though they often preform much the same battlefield role as Imperial or Ork tanks the Eldar vehicles are much more sophisticated. Where an Imperial soldier would regard his weaponry as a piece of equipment, the Eldar regard their warmachines as works of art.
Where Imperial and Ork armies rely on heavy armour for survivability the Eldar philosophy is focussed on speed and manouverability.
Most Eldar warmachines rely on sophisticated anti gravity technology to propel them through the air. Though most tanks are capable of flying through the air at a considerable attitude, they usuallly only skim a few metres above the ground making use of cover when possible. The powerfull anti grav engines also mean that the Eldar tanks can make special "Pop up" attacks. This tactic allows the Eldar tank to stay concealed behind cover, then use it's anti grav engines to lift it just high enough above the cover to shoot and then drop back down in concealement before the enemy is able to return fire. This more than makes up for the vehicle's lack of armour.

The smallest warmachines in the Eldar arsenal is the Jet Bike. This extremely fast small skimmer mounts two shruiken cannons as its main armament. It's extremely high speed and reasonable firepower means that Jet Bikes are the ideal shock troops. They are best used to outflank enemy forces and conduct small hit and run attacks before the main eldar army strikes.

The Vyper Jetbike is a slightly larger verrsion of the standard Jetbike. In addition to the rider the Vyper also has room for a gunner which operates a heavy weapon of varying description. The Vyper is often seen in a supporting role along with the regular jetbikes.

The Falcon is used in the combined role of Main Battle Tank and Troop Transport. Its armoured crew compartment allows it to carry a single squad of infantry and its turret mounted Pulse Laser is easily capable of dealing with most armoured targets. Though nowhere near as heavily armoured as a Leman Russ or a Land Raider, the Falcon is still quite capable of holding its own against these tanks as long as it is used correctly.

The Eldar Bonesingers have several different aesthetic schools. This mean that some of the Eldar vehicle designs vary somewhat in appearance though their preformance is unaltered. This is the case of some types of Falcon grav tanks. The hull is much more compact and the turret is sacrificed for a lower profile.
I've long been pondering what to do with my old plastic Falcons. The miniature isn't particularly attractive and compared to the newer Eldar designs it looks really out of place. I had toyed with the idea of splitting the hull to make it similar to the catamaran style design of the new stuff. However this was really labour intensive and lazy as I am I discarded the idea: It really wan't that great looking anyway. Then I saw some conversions done by Legion 4 on the EpiComs forum. At the rear part of the vehicle he'd installed an Eldarish looking turret which gave the tank an altogether different profile. I've niched the idea and use a spare antennae from the Forge World Falcon. To finish the models off I then painted the canopys on in a style which resembled the way it is designed on the rest of the new Eldar vehicles. The result will never be great but it is at least way better than how it looked before.

The Wave Serpent is a troop transport but a highly sophisticated one. Its large troop compartment can house two squads of infantry. However what really makes the Wave serpent unique is its defensive system. The front of the vehicle mounts a series of plates which generates a near impregnetrable disruptor field. This makes the wave serpent nearly immune to any shots from the front. In addition thhe Wave serpent can choose to "shoot" the disruptor field ahead of the vehicle to disrupt enemy formations before unloading it's cargo of Eldar warriors upon them.

The Fire Prism is technically an anti tank version of the Falcon. Based on the same hull the FirePrism mounts a large gem which acts as a focussing crystal for a high powered laser beam.

The Night Spinner is the main artillery piece of the Eldar army. Unlike the crude explosives fired by Imperial artillery the Nightspinner fires a unique type of ordinance. The turret mounted spinner array fires a spray of razor sharp ultra thin metal foil. This monofilament web slices through flesh and light armour with equal ease and forming a virtually impenetrable barrier where ever it lands.

The Tempest is a heavy battle tank of the Eldar. It's excellent speed and armour combined with the powerfull long range twin barreled Tempest Laser makes it an excellent armour and titan hunter.
This model has always been a particular favourite of mine so I got some back when I didnt really collect Eldar just for the looks. When I recently started to paint up the majority of my Eldar forces I decioded to repaint these models to fit more in line with the rest. The model suffered from the same basic problem as my Falcons so I decided to use the same canopy repaint technique to make them fit in better.

The Scorpion is believed to originate from the Tempest design. The Scorpion is larger but with less heavy armour. Though otherwise very similar to the Tempest the Scorpion appears to be the predominant school of design these days.

The Cobra is a variant of the Scorpion design but it's weapon outfit originally based on the now outdated Warp Hunter design. It replaces the twin pulse lassers with a powerfull D- cannon which is ideal for taking out large targets such as Titans. The D cannon rips a hole in the fabric of reality sucking anything caught in the hole into the Warp.

The Avenger is a relatively rare sight. Most commonly found in the armies of the Biel Tann Craftworld the tank is basically an upscaled version of the Nightspinnner.

The Stormserpent is a unique design and a relatively recent development in the otherwise very traditionalistic Eldar army. At first glance the Storm Serpent appear to be little more than a Super Heavy Grav Tank with a disproportionally small armament. In fact it is a flying Webway portal. The purpose of the Storm Serpent is to manouver into attack position while the Eldar army remain hidden in the Webway. When the moment is right the Webway portal is opened and the Eldar attack with supporting fire from the Stormserpent.