This is the Dark Eldar Raven.  It was kind of a bone thrown by Forgeworld to the Dark Eldar players of Warhammer 40k for not having anything new sent their way ever since the release of 3rd edition up until last year.  Even with the newly revamped range of miniatures, this thing is still the Dark Eldar’s only flyer (as the Razorwing and Void Raven Bomber are classified as fast skimmers).  The problem is that this now looks horribly dated compared to the newer models.  I’ve been gearing up for another big Apocalypse game this month, so I thought I’d try my hand at redesigning it.

I tried to keep the thin inner wing that flares out at the ends as well as the elongated nose and curved tail.  Going by the current trend of taking previously scorpion-tail mounted weapons and making them underslung (reaver jetbikes), I put the long barreled splinter cannon underneath the nose.  Much of the design was borrowed from the Razorwing paper model I’d made earlier, though with drastic alterations.  So here’s my rendition of a fifth edition Raven Fighter in my army’s color scheme.  Let me know what you think.