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Hey there folks, I'm thinking of my Armies on Parade entry for next year and I want to have the battered remnants of an Eldar army returning to their Craftworld.

Has anyone got any ideas for how to model some Eldar civilians to greet them? So far I'm thinking of the Lhamaean holding open empty hands to greet a loved one, the plastic Farseer with all the Seer bits removed, and the Callidus assassin with all Imperial bits removed kneeling in grief. I was also thinking of using a Harlequin or 2 with a bit of conversion work.

It's important that they have fairly natural poses, so no jumping around, but they can have a variety of clothes (preferrably not armour) as Craftworld society can be fairly cosmopolitan.

Does anyone have any other suggestions or has this already been attempted?

High Elf Archers sans bows. Done

I think your main problem would be the miniatures themselves. Your examples are all great, you have to decide which line of clothes Eldar civilians have.

You could use some Vampire Fantasy miniatures with gothic clothes with head swaps here and there. Maybe use Guardian bodies where you reposition the legs using Green Stuff in the joints, although they sport armour. You can also use Elves from the Fantasy lines of various manufacturers.

Spellcrow makes some great bare-Eldar heads, which would work for your civilians as I don't think they wear helmets all the time.( http://www.spellcrow.com/space-elves-heads-p-286.html ).

Hopefully you'll post some pictures, I am Always a sucker for civilians in 40k and am curious what you can conjure up

Jes Goodwin did include a few images of Eldar civilians in his "the gothic and the eldritch" art book. The "forest dome, interior" and "titan crew" aren't wearing recognisable uniforms.

Harlequins would take some tweaking to get the poses but you've got the basics of clothing there (though you might need a bit of work on the back to get rid of the armour parts there).

Galef wrote:High Elf Archers sans bows. Done

Nice, thanks for the tip. I reckon one or two of them will see the board!

Low_K wrote:I think your main problem would be the miniatures themselves. Your examples are all great, you have to decide which line of clothes Eldar civilians have.

You could use some Vampire Fantasy miniatures with gothic clothes with head swaps here and there. Maybe use Guardian bodies where you reposition the legs using Green Stuff in the joints, although they sport armour. You can also use Elves from the Fantasy lines of various manufacturers.

Spellcrow makes some great bare-Eldar heads, which would work for your civilians as I don't think they wear helmets all the time.( http://www.spellcrow.com/space-elves-heads-p-286.html ).

Hopefully you'll post some pictures, I am Always a sucker for civilians in 40k and am curious what you can conjure up

I'm not too worried if they're not all uniform to be honest. Based on the Path books it seems that on a day-to-day basis on a Craftworld you could see everything from extravagant robes to simple skintight body suits, and everything in between.

I thought about Vampires too but either GW has deleted a load of their products or I'm just not using their site properly, but I couldn't find much that really did it for me.

The returning army will definitely be along the lines of what you described for the Guardians! I'm going to try repositioning them to give them a despondant/ injured/ despairing look as they've just come back from a horrific battle. I'm also planning Wraith units in various states of battle damage possibly with a bonesinger already starting repairs. I may include some aspect warriors but they'll be much more business-like returning to their shrines.

Thanks for the ideas guys and the photos will follow in good time !



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chromedog wrote:Jes Goodwin did include a few images of Eldar civilians in his "the gothic and the eldritch" art book. The "forest dome, interior" and "titan crew" aren't wearing recognisable uniforms.

Awesome thanks for those pictures! I think I'd seen them before but I'd totally forgotten about them!

AnomanderRake wrote:Harlequins would take some tweaking to get the poses but you've got the basics of clothing there (though you might need a bit of work on the back to get rid of the armour parts there).

I totally agree they're quite dynamic. It might still be possible to make someone kneeling or peering over a balcony or something like that.

I've thought about this before too. It might be closer to a semi-void suit, but a harlequin torso on high elf archer legs could look good.

Ugh these phone pics are terrible, sorry about that. But here's my first proof of concept for my armies on parade board.

The wounded Guardian returning home to her grieving friends. She needs a base coat to tie it all together but she'll be good! She has a bare arm with smashed up armour on her upper arm and chips all around her right shoulder.

The 2 civilians were made with harlequin parts, and they went together really easily!

Enjoy!

If you want to tie in a little extra grief, you could have the returning guardian handing a soulstone of a fallen warrior to a grieving loved one.

Just to ramp up the feels a bit.

I've got that idea planned out don't worry! Just need to go and buy a box of guardians as I'm planning on having 10 or so in the same vein, maybe 6-7 civilians, a wraithlord being repaired by a bonesinger and possibly a squad of wraithguard too.

The ideas I've got for the Guardians so far: similar to the one above but holding a helmet, dropping equipment/ leaving gun and helmet trailing behind, kneeling and weeping, handing back a soul stone... probably a few just walking normally with their guns cross their chests too.

Hey Dakka, the project advances slowly but surely, with a few more Guardians and a Wraithlord being repaired by a bonesinger.
I've tried to go with some little details to personalise them such as one who's taken a shot to the head and had to remove his helmet, and another who's run out of ammo but is otherwise apparently fine!




Enjoy, cnc is always welcome!

Love the bonesinger!

Guardians look like a ragged bunch, but that’s what you are going for. Think you could make one with their ‘cat resting on their shoulder? Seems a easier way for a tired soldier to carry it.

These are stunning! Really looking forward to the finished article especially like the Wraithlord being repaired by the Bonesinger

Thanks guys! I had a little play around with resting the gun over the shoulder and wasn't too happy with the result. I'm going to have another go, I just wasn't in the mood for cutting and GSing it the last time I tried it!

My main problem at the moment is finding enough open Guardian hands to look natural!

As suggested by Nevelon, here's a guardian handing over the soul stone of one of his fallen comrades, as well as and idea of what the scene might look like. Also a busted up weapons platform!

I tried getting a shuriken catapult resting over the shoulders but it doesn't really work very well with the shoulder pads and the vents over the back. I'll maybe try to go back to it if I include some aspect warriors, or maybe I'll find a way to make it happen by changing the grip on the gun.

That's totally cool...love emotional conversions! Subbed for sure!

Thanks Viktor! Coming from the maker of some truly epic conversions I take that as a real compliment!

Looks good really sets off the scene.

Perhaps if you're doing aspect warriors you could have a Banshee (or probably a Dire Avenger Exarch, given that they're plastic) resting their blade on their shoulder. Might work better than the bulky Shuriken Catapults.

Remember thought that aspect warriors are psychologically distinct to Guardians though. Guardians are citizen militia who are subject to the full gamut of normal emotions.

Aspect warriors are trained to don a 'war mask' to protect their minds from the horrors of war, which allows them to enter a dissociative state to the point that they're basically psychopaths. Until they re-enter normal society, they would be practically unable to feel grief or loss or fear.

What that would mean for modelling would be that they'd likely be the leader of the band, perhaps proud and distant, looking over the rest of the band.

I love this concept!

Remember for Armies on Parade you have to use GW bits so I'd avoid the suggestions around other companies' bits.

What about the high elf shadow warriors? I used a file and greenstuff to change their mail skirt into a robe, marry that with the hooded torso and gloved harlequin arms, you could be on a winner.

Dark Eldar wych torsos could be good, like harlequins they are mostly free of armour and both genders.

The dark elf sorceress legs and body could be good.

With a bit of greenstuff you could even turn the wracks into skirt-wearing male civilians?

 Ynneadwraith wrote:
Looks good really sets off the scene.

Perhaps if you're doing aspect warriors you could have a Banshee (or probably a Dire Avenger Exarch, given that they're plastic) resting their blade on their shoulder. Might work better than the bulky Shuriken Catapults.

Remember thought that aspect warriors are psychologically distinct to Guardians though. Guardians are citizen militia who are subject to the full gamut of normal emotions.

Aspect warriors are trained to don a 'war mask' to protect their minds from the horrors of war, which allows them to enter a dissociative state to the point that they're basically psychopaths. Until they re-enter normal society, they would be practically unable to feel grief or loss or fear.

What that would mean for modelling would be that they'd likely be the leader of the band, perhaps proud and distant, looking over the rest of the band.

This is true. An aspect warrior is not going to be phased until that mask comes off.

I’m not sure if there is a special de-masking transition ceremony back in the shrine (I’d assume there would be, but that’s just a guess). If you wanted to go for another sucker punch to the feels, you could have an aspect warrior, battered and covered in dried blood, with their helmet off and a “what have I become/done!” shock/horror moment. Which is why I’m guessing they do that sort of transition in a controlled environment. But if you do include any aspects in the scene, with their masks on, they should stand tall and proud, unfazed by the horrors of war. And probably not even sympathetic/relating to the civilians. The path of the warrior is there expressly to shield them from such things.

Another idea would be to have a squad of wraithguard being decommissioned. I recall one fluff piece about a seer gathering a soul to a stone to put in a WL, commenting that it had been called to war before. So in theory they are put back after battle. I could see a battered line of wraithgurds, standing in a line, while a seer (and maybe an assistant with a tray) goes down the line removing the spiritstones. Would make a good accompaniment to your bonesinger.

 master of asgard wrote:
Thanks Viktor! Coming from the maker of some truly epic conversions I take that as a real compliment!

This does highlight a small gap in GW's line. It would be pretty darn useful (particularly for scenarios - even more so for Kill Team size scenarios) to have a small plastic box of 5-8 civilians for most races (maybe skip Tyranids and Orks etc.).

I think another source for you could be Warlocks as they're really just mostly simple robes (remove the rune armour I suppose).

Seconded on the civilian range, just in case anyone at GW is watching

I definitely agree on the Aspect Warriors' psyche being totally different from the Guardians'. I'm thinking of having one without a helmet and having his war mask painted on underneath, because like Nevelon says, I think they'd have a special ceremony for removing the warrior psyche.

The only problem is that I really want one or two of each, not a whole squad. I'm thinking of converting Banshee(s), Fire Dragon(s) and a Dark Reaper from Guardian parts. I already have a squad of Dire Avengers from another project I never finished so one or two of them will get cut up!

I'm definitely considering the Wraithguard idea. I'd already thought to have them just leading off in single file, but I really like this idea of having their spirit stones being removed. I wonder if I could use my Spiritseer model in there somewhere... (I'd just have to rebase him)




The other consideration is making a suitably cool Autarch to oversee the homecoming

What do you think folks, does she work as a Howling Banshee?

More Aspect Warriors in the works, notably 3 Dire Avengers

Cool idea and models - thnx for sharing

Looks awesome loving how this is coming together. You've got a real knack for this.

Loving it!

I cannot wait to see the project completed!

~Mikey

Really nice theme, and lovely conversions, reckon you have the beginnings of something a bit special here

Thanks folks ! Check out my harlequin gallery for some older eldar conversions ☺️