How to Paint Biel Tan Aeldari

Learn the secrets of painting Aeldari of the Biel Tan Craftworld, in their signature white armor. This method is easy and straightforward, you won’t have nightmares about painting white.

I think every miniature painter wants to own a white army. I also think no one wants to paint a white army. And for a lot of valid reasons, as white can be quite a rough color to master.

But this technique, slightly more advanced than the one we used on our Vior’La Tau tutorial, is very straightforward and easy to achieve. And like almost all of our how to guides, it is designed with army painting in mind.

White

Our white begins on Army Painter’s Wolf Grey. We are using this blue-grey color mostly because it comes in a shaker can. Of course, you don’t have to spray it, but it is a great time saving tool when it comes to painting whole armies.

Next, we are airbrushing Celestra Grey over our model, leaving Wolf Grey in only the deepest recesses. Celestra Grey is a neutral color, so it will tone down the blue from the Wolf Grey.

Our final airbrush step is with Ulthuan Grey, an off white color. Highlight your Aledari guardian from a forty five degree angle, that will cover a lot of the model, but leave Celestra Grey in the shadowed parts.

Now, we can’t get away from painting white without actually using white. Biel Tan Aeldari are not grey afterall!

The key with white lies in balance, as you don’t want everything to be pure white. This is where most schemes fall short. Instead, we have our majority color in off-white, and use white only to edge outline, and bring out the crispness to our armor.

Green

The dark right green is the other main color for Biel Tan. I like to keep this as dark as possible, to match other deatails on the model and make sure the white armor truly contrasts and pops in the final look of the model.

Start on a base coat of Caliban Green, and highlight it with Warpstone Glow.

We will shade this with Nuln Oil, being very careful not to let it bleed over the white. This is the only real challenge of this Aeldari scheme, keeping our white clean throughout the process.

You can be heavy handed with the Nuln Oil if you want a darker tone of green, or go with one thin and even coat to keep some more of the vibrant Warpstone Glow.

Black

The weaponery is painted black. You can use any black color you fancy, but make sure you highlight it with Wolf Grey.

Even if there is not much of it showing through the armor, using the same tones across different sections of your models help form a cohesive look.

Again, you can shade with Nuln Oil after your highlight if you were a little bit heavy handed and the grey is coming off too strong.

Purple

I think the official color for Biel Tan gems and lenses is red, but since we painted red on a lot of our Aeldari already, we are doing something different.

Purple is my favorite accent color here, because it contrasts nicely with the green.

We are starting on a Naggaroth Night base coat, that is highlighted in Genestealer Purple. Next, you can ether add a dot of white, shade with Druchii Violet, or both.