Hello chaps, I’ve managed a little progress on my Exodite warband this last week – all of the Wraithwood constructs are now finalised, based and primed, so the whole warband is ready to paint… exciting times! But before I go in to that, I just want to share a bit of fun with you all. I was visiting my parents over Easter, and had a request to do some painting for my Mum. She had picked up a couple of bargain hare sculptures – resin, but badly painted to look like bronze (i.e. they had a patchy matt brown coat of paint, with bits of pink resin showing through). A couple of hours with some Waplock Bronze, Agrax Earthshade and Nihilakh Oxide, followed by a drybrush up through bronze to Runelord Brass, and this is what we end up with:

I wish I had taken a before shot, but you’ll just have to trust me that it is a huge improvement. My mum was delighted, and I really enjoyed the process – it was genuinely nice to do something ‘useful’ with my hobby!

Anyway, back to the warband. Here are the Striking Scorpions – they had some re-posing work to get them looking more insectoid and dynamic, and I added a loincloth and refined the helmet shape a bit to look more like Eldar. I also textured the helmet to suggest wood, and they also got some hive type structures sculpted on to the shoulders, both to add bulk and to suggest a tertiary weapon system to represent Scorpion Mandiblasters, (an excellent suggestion from Lasgunpacker!). They still look a bit Xenomorph, (especially in their black basecoats), but I reckon they’ll be fine once painted:

Next we have my walker entry, a Wraithwood WarWalker. I think this is my favourite of the constructs so far – the base model is superb and took the Eldar doodabs quite nicely. I’ve added a loincloth and gun-banners, (‘packer’s suggestion again), and tendrils to hold the guns. I also textured the head to blend it all together a bit more closely:

I also finished up my Wraithguard, but I forgot to take a photo (duh!). For those that can’t remember, here’s the WiP. Since then, I have fixed the left leg so that he’s striding rather than trotting into battle, and I added a loincloth and textured up the head. I really like this guy – more so that the Scorpions above, so I might include him in the warband instead… He’s big enough to count for two regular Henchmen I think… We’ll see how I feel after painting.

So, that leaves the warband as follows:

• Leader & psyker – Spiritseer
• Champion – Dire Avenger Exarch
• Walker – WarWalker proxy
• Henchmen – 4x Dire Avengers & either 2x Scorpions or 1x Wraithguard…

That leaves me deliberately short by one member – I’ve had something very specific in mind for my final ‘character’ slot for quite a while, and I’ve been looking forward to introducing you to her! Keeping up the fantasy/40k cross over theme, I’ve added a lone Harlequin Shadowseer to the warband:

I don’t know if this conversion has been done before – I haven’t seen one, but then I haven’t been looking either. Regardless, as soon as I saw the superb Silver Tower Mistweaver mini I thought of splicing her with the Shadowseer… she went together like a dream, and I am delighted with the result – it’s a subtle conversion, but very effective in my opinion. She will add some much needed warp-power to my warband, and her psychological shenanigans should bring a unique flavour to the game :-)

Anyway, that’s it for now – it’s time to grab my hairy stick and give them all a bloody good tickle!! Until next time :-)

Hi guys, sorry it has been a while, I’ve been a bit slow this last week or so… slow, but not completely idle. I have mostly been cranking out yet more trees – pretty standard fare for the most part, although there is one piece that is a wee bit special… I’m pretty sure that you’ll like it, but you’ll have to wait and see until it’s finished ;-)

However, I do have a few more test wips for my warband that I want to share:

These two are henchmen bodyguards for my Spiritseer – they are basically Striking Scorpion proxies, and are intended to represent the spirits of long-dead warriors that are occupying small Wraithwood construct bodies in order to serve in un-life. Hmmm… I’m not really sure how I feel about these two… I’m going to play with the posing a bit, shorten the necks, and refine the head shape to look more like mini-wraithlords and less like daemons or xenomorphs! They may get mandibles, I’m also going to give them loincloths & nodules to bring them back into Eldar territory… I’m not sure if I like them or not at the moment – I think they are ok, but I’m aiming for excellence with this project, and ok isn’t going to cut it… I will reserve judgement until they are finished, but I’d love to hear your thoughts in the meantime.

I think I’m on firmer ground with this fella – he will fill my Walker slot, (fnarr), and he is coming along very nicely in my opinion. He’s basically a Warwalker proxy, but piloted by the dead rather than the living. I’m much happier with this build, and I particularly love the pose on this guy – he reminds me of an old ‘eavy metal pic of an Adeptus Titanicus Phantom, which makes me very happy :-)  Again, there is a bit to do – I’m planning a loincloth & nodules again, and the gun-arms will have vines holding them on to the chassis.

So that’s it for the time being – slow progress, but progress nonetheless! Let me know what you think guys – I don’t want to be ‘barking’ up the wrong tree ;-)

Hi guys, hope you’re all well? So, I was planning to do some painting over the weekend and finish Ostium Guide number two, but I didn’t feel very painterly… However, I did feel a bit builderly, so I got started on my warband for The Chapel. I thought I’d post the WIPs as they stand and get some feedback from you lovely peoples. Please be critical in your commenting – I want these to be awesome, so all comments and suggestions are welcome! I’ll talk you through the thinking with each as we go, and indicate what else is to be done.

In terms of background, I’m going for an Exodite Eldar warband – The Storm of Winter – mainly to push me out of my comfort zone and give myself a real challenge to paint stuff I wouldn’t normally do. The high-level concept is that The Chapel is psychically linked to my Exodite world via the webway, and that bad juju is leaking through the webway and corrupting the forest home of my Exodite clan. A task force is sent to investigate and save their world, they find stoopid meddling Mon-kieghs, carnage ensues, etc. etc.

Here is my first character – a warhost leader (name pending). He’s in charge of the martial aspect of my warband (as opposed to the spooky part), and is roughly intended as an Autarch/Exarch level character. Made up of Shadow Warrior and Dire Avenger bits, with a Black Guardian head and posed on a yummy Black Tree base (thanks Mark!). I intend to reposition the left arm slightly and sculpt on some short sleeves and tidy up the neck. I’m also considering sculpting on a hood or even a chain mail coif (thinking of the Necromonger Lord Marshal in the Chronicles of Riddick here)… thoughts?

These next guys fill four of the six Henchmen slots – Dire Avenger equivalents (which works well with the warhost leader as Exarch in any future 40k force). Again, made up of Shadow Warrior and Dire Avenger bits. I de-cluttered and simplified the arms to remove anything overly technical looking, so as to look a bit more primitive than a Craftworld Eldar. I intend to sculpt some short sleeves on them, and I’ve just noticed that one Shuriken Catapult escaped having the gems removed, but not much else planned. I am considering removing the detailing from the helmets… thoughts?

Finally, these two ladies are possible candidates for the remaining two henchmen slots. They are Banshee equivalents, and are intended as body guards for the warhost leader. I am less happy with these two compared to the others – they are made with the Sisters of Avalorn kit and Black Guardian arms, but the base kit has very specific posing and the arms are not very dynamic… The result just looks a bit off to me, and I’m tempted to sack this idea but thought I’d run it by you guys first:

And here’s a couple of group shots:

So that’s where we are so for – again, any thoughts, comments, ideas or suggestions would be much appreciated at this point, just lay it on me – I promise I won’t cry :-)   The next part of the build is going to get really weird, and will focus a bit more on the eldritch side of life… and unlife!