My recent blog about White Dwarf 127 has obviously stirred fond memories for many people. To add a bit more background to the… err… background, I asked esteemed miniatures designer and all-round 40K demigod Jes Goodwin to answer a few questions about the eldar for me.

Here’s what he had to say:

Ok, I’ll do my best with the caveat that it was a long time ago and my account may vary from others 😉

Recently I posted about the seminal eldar article in White Dwarf 127, and the relaunch of the whole army and lore. You’ve been heavily involved in the background of the eldar over the years, as much as the imagery and actual sculpting. Which part of their development have you enjoyed working on the most?

So, WD127, as far as I can remember (see above) was a joint project between myself and Rick (Rick was always a very generous collaborator, we had worked together on the Skaven background and I think we worked well together) not sure how much Andy had to do with this article, not sure he was working for GW until a bit later, however, he was very much involved later on, particularly with the Phoenix Lords. What did I enjoy most? Short answer; all of it. But you didn’t come for the short answer. So, I had got into mythology when I was a kid, mostly the Norse myths, and as I got older I got fascinated by all the other mythologies, comparative mythology, faerie tales and the idea of archetypes in those stories. Reading stuff about Faerie had made me realise that Tolkien’s take on elves was a. not the only one and b. rather sanitised. I wanted our ‘space elves’ to be darker and rather more tragic. Rick renamed the range Eldar, but that was a bit of a red herring as they had little similarities other than those of the elf archetype. Btw, I had been allocated to the space elf range because I was ‘new boy’ and nobody thought they would sell as well as space soldiers or space dwarves. As the resident elf nut I jumped at the chance to prove we could do something cool with them. The idea of constructing a mythos and a pantheon of gods for the range was something I couldn’t pass up. I think I remember coming up with the names and characters for the gods, and Rick incorporated it into his narrative. His masterstroke was that they were all dead, except for a couple of exceptions, Khaela Mensha Khaine, god of war and murder (in the grim dark future etc…) and the Laughing God (I think the Harlequin range predates the Aspect Warriors). You added Ynnead at a later date as I recall, there’s a strand that was waiting to be pulled! Avatars and aspects were all features of various mythologies and I’d done some drawings of different eldar warriors with the idea that they could embody the aspects of war, and tried to arm and armour them for various roles in the game. The second take on those concepts are what appeared in 127. Banners were a big thing in the 80s (along with big hair) and I wanted to flex my graphic skills, and see if we could come up with a distinctive look for the eldar insignia. John Blanche and myself had done a lot of work on the space marine colours and symbols, and I wanted to get something with a contrast to the gothic feel of the Imperium. The bright colours and bold designs were meant to give them an ‘eastern’ feel, in opposition to the ‘western’ feel of the imperials. I’d studied runes and symbols at college and wanted to get that in too. I think what interested me was that you could give the miniatures more depth by giving them a compelling story and making them believable in cultural terms. I still think the most successful ranges are when the miniatures, art, colour schemes, playing style and background all ‘sing from the same hymn sheet’ as it were.

The Aspect Warriors and their Exarchs were introduced in that WD127 article but the Phoenix Lords didn’t appear until the first Codex: Eldar. What prompted the creation of these super-exarchs – the background, army list, the miniatures? All of the above?

The concept of the Phoenix Lords came during the period we started producing named characters. As I remember they came off the back of the chaos characters, Abbadon, Bile, Kharne, Ahriman etc. I’d developed those with Andy C, who was a major collaborator at the time (and 40k supremo by then) We wanted named characters for the Eldar and it seemed logical to do some uber versions of the exarchs.

The Phoenix Lords are twenty-three years old, which is a pretty good innings for a Citadel miniature! Lots has happened in the development of the eldar and the technology of miniatures production since then. If you had a chance to come back to the models again, what would you like to do?

23 years?, oh my, not too shabby then 😉 nearly all our miniatures were single piece metals at the time and they had to work in a rubber mould without shredding it when they were removed. I seem to remember that I was pushing my luck with more than one piece to a miniature, but I was trying to make them more 3D. Now that we can produce multi part plastics I would push the 3D further. I would probably re-proportion them (I like a big hat but those are some BIG hats) and maybe use some scenic elements on the bases to add height. Better hair for Jain, new poses, maybe some clean up for the detail (not sure Asurmen needed that mask) That’s if I got to do any resculpts, everything is digital now and I’m rubbish on the ‘puters.

Jain Zar is quite involved in the new Ynnead and aeldari storyline. Do you think we might see an Ynnari-inspired Jain Zar anytime? (Asking for a friend…)

Jain Zar is Jain Zar, not sure whether she would change her kit for anyone!

Bonus question – Can we have some Exodites? Please? Pretty please?

What, Space Elf Barbarians riding Dragon Dinosaurs, it would never catch on 😉

Huge thanks to Jes for taking the time to answer my questions. After our many years working together I’m fortunate enough to be able to call him a friend, but that doesn’t stop me from being a total fan-boy. I remember when I was invited to the Design Studio for my interview before I was offered a job. One of the highlights was a tour around the rooms and seeing Jes and the other sculptors at work was inspirational.* Dedicating one of my books to him was well overdue.

*I also got to see Jervis Johnson and Andy Chambers playtesting a forthcoming kit for 40K. It was called the Falcon grav-tank… Andy asked me my opinion and I said it would have to be treated very carefully as speed and maneuverability seemed contrary to most of the drawbacks of tanks in the game at that time. Six years later I gave them the options for crystal targeting matrix and star engines. I guess I had forgotten my earlier caution 😉

My new Phoenix Lords novel Jain Zar: The Storm of Silence is now available over at Black Library.

**To make sure you don’t miss out on any blog posts, you can keep up-to-date with everything Gav by signing up to my monthly newsletter. As a bonus, every other month I randomly pick a newsletter subscriber to receive a free signed copy of one of my books.**