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 ;-)