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Hi guys, there has been so much good stuff coming out about The Chapel this week, so I thought I would finally break cover on what I’m planning for the more eldritch side of my warband. I’ve been diligently learning how to sculpt fur on my Exodite Avengers, but I’ve also had a chance to get the basic build done on the latest warband member – a Spiritseer.
I love the idea of Spiritseers and their role in communing with the Eldar dead, and this seems very appropriate given the ghostly theme running throughout The Chapel project. I love that they are viewed as necromancers among their own people, and that they naturally work well with wraith-type troops. Wraith troops are about the coolest thing about Eldar in my opinion – I just love the concept of towering Wraithbone constructs controlled by the spirits of the dead… I knew I had to have some in my warband, so the Spiritseer became a natural choice.
Thing is, where would Exodites get their hands on Wraithbone? What if they couldn’t? What if they happened to find an alternative material? What if it was some kind of psychically conductive wood? How would that look? Well… this is the kind of thought process that I had, and I began to examine the excellent Sylvaneth range with a view to merging it with the Eldar range. My Spiritseer is my first attempt at this fusion:
The idea is that she is old, even by the standards of the Eldar race, and she is ready to pass from the physical world – a process which involves entering a trance state while the body slowly transforms into Wraithwood so that the spirit can join the planetary gestalt. This process has been interrupted by a psychic disturbance that threatens her homeworld via the Webway… Caught between life and death, she must rise to the defence of her people, travelling the Webway with a small war party of the living and the dead in order to reach the source of the disturbance – the world that the Mon-Keigh call ‘Chapel’. Whether she can succeed remains to be seen…
Obviously there is plenty more work to do on her but I’m happy with the direction this is heading… I can’t wait to get stuck in to some of the bigger Wraith troops! What do you guys think of the concept? Win or bin?
Leadballoony - It's a lead thing 
Definite win! The two kits blend together surprisingly well. I love the concept and I can’t wait to see what you do with it :)
Thanks mate, I’m so relieved that it seems to be a hit! Putting it together was a nervous moment… It looked good in my head, but that isn’t a guarantee that the model would ‘work’.
Of course win, you could never do “bin” in my opinion. That all ryhmes actually haha. Very cool blend there mate. Well done. I’m digging the concept too.
Thanks man, it’s a relief to get the idea out of my head in into the world :-)
WIN!! Great idea mate.
;-) Cheers Mark… now THIS is the one who you need to be worrying about – her and the body guard I’m planning….
I’ll probably have to be careful of flamers though, what with her being mostly wood ;-)
Ah right! Flamers it is then ;)
:-)
Intriguing! Add a tabard or some robes, and you are well on the way. I think that the slightly more demonic left hand does not fit though. It might be better to replace it with a more standard eldar arm, possibly with a pistol for a bit of ranged support. (I think the Harlequin pistols are all left arms, and should be easy enough to blend with the more Eldar portions of her body.)
Thanks ‘packer – funnily enough, I did agonise about those exact items! :-) A couple of things helped me to make up my mind.
1: I wanted to get the ‘right’ amount of petrification and really get across the invasiveness of the process… I think that the asymmetry of the arms really works on that level – two normal arms would be ‘too normal’, while two wooden would look like a bad headswap imo
2: The pistol can either be holstered (to use with the right hand) or even left off entirely – apparently Spiritseers have a ranged attack with their staffs in 40k, but even so, I’m not too worried about her being list-perfect.
3: More clothing was considered, but then discounted to better show the extent of her transformation. I may yet add a leafy loincloth, but only if it doesn’t dilute the overall feel of the piece.
I really want to get across that she’s more than half dead, and that she’s bloody annoyed at having her death interrupted! I know that it’s a challenging aesthetic, but hopefully the next round of warband members will help to contextualise her better. Bear with me mate ;-)
I see what you are getting at. Maybe if you just made the arm a bit more smooth? Then it would seem like more of a natural thing than “magic spiky”? Either way, paint will surely help!
Good call – I may well trim back those talons! ;-)
Definitely Win! I love the idea of wraith troops as well, going to be very interested to see how her charges turn out.
Thanks mate, me too! I’m so stoked about the whole project! :-)
Win, mate. Most definitely win.
The different part blend very well and you managed to capture what describe in the text.
Wraith guard and the likes are a very cool concept straight out of the box and the Exodite twist is new. I really like the idea of the Eldar breathing (un)life into trees. I’ll bring a flamer and some axes too.
How do one go about sculpting fur?
Thanks man, glad the concept is working for you :-)
Yeah, axes and flamers might be my undoing! :-)
I found a youtube vid on doing shaggy fur, which suggested using the point of a hobby knife to pull a tear-shape line in the putty. The trick is to pull with the non-bladed edge apparently :-/
I gave it a go and it sort of worked, and it became more intuitive with more practice. I think/hope/pray it’ll look ok, but the big test is going to be when I prime my Avengers… I’ll keep you all posted :-/
I need to do some shabby fur for a couple of beasts that will run with my Horrors of the Undergrowth Warband.
Cool! I’ll post some pics in a few days – give you an idea of how my experiments turned out :-)
Can’t wait! I might have to do some experimenting myself.
So much win. Brilliant, creepy, weird and interesting!
Thanks Mikko – that’s four of my favourite things right there! :-)
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Damn, this is cool! You are coming with really interesting ideas here!!
Thanks mate, I was really keen to come up with something unique for this project! I haven’t seen anything quite like it on the interweb – there ate plenty of dino-riding exodites, and there is the superb green mechanicum of course, but there is nothing merging the two things as far as I am aware. I therefore claim the woody exodite concept as my own ;-)
Interesting idea… and the model works pretty darn well, I think.
Cheers mate, I’m really happy with how it’s going!
Very nice so far. What occurred to me looking closely at the images is perhaps having some Eldar “soulstone bumps” on the tree-bark-body, to help unify the two concepts further.
Thanks mate, and good shout, there’s more work to do for sure, and I’ve been mulling ways to put more Eldar in the wood, as well as ways to put more wood in the Eldar! (no IRO, not in THAT way!)
I had gotten as far as planning vines snaking across her torso, but the spirit stone idea is the perfect counterbalance to that – nice one Az, thanks mate! :-)
Not a problem. O’m looking forward to seeing how the modelling turns out, and then of course – paint!