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Yeah my painting skills aren't the greatest in the world, the only real thing I have going for me is an almost OCD level of attention to detail. For the white i would liek to add some shading , but wasn't sure how to go about it as i don't trust my ability to blend well.

I start with a thin coat of codex gray, then do coats of white. The white is straight from the bullet, but next model I'll try to water it some. It could also be the lighting though, as the white is rather smooth on the latest piece (Farseer). Some of the earilier ones were a bit thick, before I figured out you should add some water to the bullet once the paint gets a little too thick lol.

As for the bases my plan was to use the flock as a starting point and for some I was going to strip portions away and do a bit of dirt. Others i was going to add some static tall grass or bushing. The thought behind it was that the Uaire-Nem craftworld has foliage onboard as their affinity with the Hawk temple has lead to an appreciation of trees and even birds themselves. Hence the turf like apperance of the grass since the folage on the craftworld in bio-engineered to not need natural sunlight.

Do you have any examples of basing that might look good with that type of backstory?

*Edited for lack of sleep typos

Sorry haven't posted up here in a while been really busy getting ready for a Con and of course life is a tad busy ;D.

The latest addition to the army and my current project is a Wraithlord in the image of a Swooping Hawk. With my army being obsessed with the swooping hawk aspect I figured it is only right that the fallen Exarchs have the ability to pilot a Swooping Hawk wraith construct. I know the idea is a little out there but it falls in line with the theme of my army even though the wings serve no in game purpose lol..

Project: Wraithhawk

Start: No picture for this, but two large paperclips, greenstuff, and magnets form the basic shape of the wings.

Step 1: Millput mixed with a small amount of greenstuff used to make a solid core for the wings. Wings are modeled on a previous wraith lord before i decide to move ahead on buying another one.



Step 2: A millput/greenstuff mix used to flesh out the bottom layer of the wings. Wings shaped more like the Autarch arch.




Step 3: Project seemed to be going good so I picked up a new Wraithlord. I don't have any pics of the conversion project of the Wraithlord himself since it went rather fast. The head and wings are magnetized and the stabilizing leg is pinned with a very strong floral pin. The bottom layer of feather plates are carved out. The Swooping Hawk pictured is the look I was going for.





Step 4: Decided to go with a spear since it seemed more fitting for a flying Wraithlord to skewer heavy armor while coming down on it's prey. The spear is made from grav tank bits and a left over witchblade from my Jetlock conversions (I'll post those later). the sighting cord is made from a paperclip, floral wire, and greenstuff and is mainly to give the model more of a Swooping Hawk feel.



Step 5: Wings got carved a bit further back to transition better to the second layer. Finished up the arms and magnetized the wrist to allow for all combination I may possibly use. The sighting cord had to be redone a little bit so it wasn't ready for these pics. Possible combos for the wraithhawk (at the moment) are:

Bright Lance (Looks the closest to a Lasblaster, ignore the not primed part on the side as that is where the mags went last minute)


Bright Lance + Eldar Missile Launcher (Best shooty lord combo imo)


Wraithspear and Bright Lance


Wraithspear (counts as Wraithsword)




Step 6: Added some paint to give me a feel how the end product would look (mainly procrastination on carving lol). Second layer of greenstuff/millput mix applied for the next feather plate layer. Sighting cord was also painted up and added for this round of pics, it's magnetized in the back of the bright lance and the elbow. Little bit better pictures this time do to better lighting.





Step 7: Second layer of feather plates carved out, at the cost of a nasty x-acto cut on my pointer finger lol. Progress heavily slowed from pain lol.




Step 8: The top layer of the wings is nearly finished I just need to let the current coat cure then I'll snap some pics.

Left to do: figure out how to make a jet pack in between the wings similar to the Swooping Hawks, put soul stones and other details on the wings, sand and repair a bunch of feather plates, paint it up.

Let me know what you think...

WOW! that's great!

I think it will be one of the greatest Wraithlord conversion I've seen for some times.

Just a question: how did you procced to carve the feathers out of dry milliput? Dremmel? Modeling knife?

Go on!

really cool concept, not seen it before.

Thanks guys, kind words mean a lot. The feather plates were all carved with an x-acto knife one by one. Yes, it was as time consuming and frustrating as it sounds. I didn't want to dremel it because I was kinda winging it as I went (no pun intended) and I was a bit afraid I could do a lot of damage at the slightest slip up.

In hind site I didn't do enough greenstuff in the mixture so the millput was a little too brittle in some places which lead to breakage. That will be patched up though.

Wow I didn't realize that you carved them one by one. good stuff. I would say just smooth the out a tab more as they look a little rough still, but all in all cool work!

Thanks Emp, that is planned as one of the last steps. First a bunch of them need to be repaired then I'll go through and sand each one to a finish.

Next step is complete, overcoat was put on the top of the wings. I cleaned up the notches a bit after these pics were taken. Not the happiest in the world with them, but they serve their purpose for the moment. Waiting for my greenstuff molds to fully cure atm then I'll start the process of putt the bumps/soul stones on the wings.

your wraithlord is awesome!!!!
well done.
your craftworld colours are very nice too.

Thanks rockabill the colors are actually symbolic of the craftworld's fluff.

The blue color use to be a bright turquoise, but as the Craftworld became obsessed with the art of killing from the skies the wraithbone became darker, hence the not all one shade of blue.

The white symbolizes the commitment of the Uaire-nem eldar to stave off their killer cravings after the harliquins visited them with a warning of their ways.

The Gold was meant as a taunt to the "Gold Toof Boyz" which were regularly plagued by the Uaire-Nem raids.

The Wraithhawk it's self I plan to mimic very closely with the Swooping Hawk colors I have done. The wings will have soul stones across the top portion and there will be ribbons of white tied to the bottom wing pieces.

Part 9 done: Plasma cores and soul stones have been put on the wings. The 4 large bumps on the high point of the wings will be red soul stones and all the other will be the gold bumps you see on all my other hawks. Ignore the greenstuff between the wings as I was just flattening out that area to clean it up a bit.




Here is shots with an Exarch and regular Swooping Hawk for comparison so far.




Next up is probably going be cleanup of the feather plates, so it may be a big before a new bit goes up. I wanted to put the Swooping Hawk jet backs between the wings, but I can't seem to replicate the look for the life of me. If anyone has any thoughts let me know. Here is a pic for what I wanted to go for.

Wraithbone is too heavy to fly, quit cheating.

I'd love to see a whole squad of winged wraithguard though.

well I don't know about whether a Wraithbone can fly but I will say that looks awesome

Heh i wouldn't think that wraithbone would be too heavy to fly. If the graviplate wings on a Swooping Hawk can lift a full sized Eldar weapons and all, then I would think wings the size of the Wraithlord it's self could lift the weight of a skinny wraithbone construct.

Anyhoo though there is no rules for though for the wings so they are just there for fluff/looks


Thanks Xappy glad you like it so far, lots of work to go but I'm seeing the light at the end of the tunnel now lol.

to heavy to fly??? WHO CARES!!!!!!!!! You're work looks sick!!!

thats right

Major set back today, opened up my modeling case today and my glue leaked. The spear hand is basically gap filled... wanted to punch a hole through the wall.

Sorry for the wait on an update, but here are the latest pics.

Step 10: I fixed up broken plate tips, and sanded then down to smooth out as much as I could. After all was done the while thing got a light coat of watered down wood glue. This was to take away some of the brittleness of the millput and gap fill some of the minor cracks/bumps.




Step 11: All primered up and ready for painting tonight. I got as close as I could to show a brutal amount of detail on the wings, so that is anyone tries to do something of this nature to learn from any of my mistakes. When you really look hard up close (like these pics) you can see flaws that the GW primer always has a fantastic way of showing you lol. From normal viewing range and probably after paint they should look great.






Next pics should be a completed model. The model itself is completely painted minus Craftworld emblem on the forehead, but I'll wait till the wings are done to post completed pics.

The wings came out great. I can't wait to see the final model.

great job man.
as soon as you finished it post it!!!

wow! those wings are seriously awesome! very well done my friend

The wraithhawk is AMAZING. No jokes. NOt just the wings but the repositioned legs also. What's it to count as?

Thanks for the kind words guys *blush*

I'm going to dig in deep tonight and try to have it finished by tomorrow. The model it's self is done, so I just have to do the wings.

@ Grimm - It's just a standard Wraithlord, just looks a little prettier and fits my custom army fluff well. I played a test match last night and it looks beautiful alongside 3 units of my hawks.

Cant wait to see the finished mini, great work btw.

I told you wraithbone was too heavy to fly.

But seriously one of the books should have rules for adding wings to things and the like if you want to make her a fast mover. Last time I think I saw something of the like it was ridiculous though like +50% base cost for fleet.

heh I'd totally pay 145 pts for a Wraithlord w/ Wraithsword and "Move as Jump" lol.

Here's hoping that in the next Eldar codex Wraithlords get some kinda invul. They just go down way too easy atm to Powerfists and Missiles.

I told you it was cheating. Yeah they should probably fix their survivability. There was a time when you could field something like 3 wraithlords and a squad of wraithguard and be near impossible to beat, I think they got overnerfed as part of the 'hotfix'. I remember even reading the white dwarf when that was possible and the guys we're like, "yeah it's not a bad list for 11 models". Hehe.

Those wings look ace!

Have you thought about adding feathers to the WL's wrist though? Might add to the look when he is wearing the wings.

@ Lasgunpacker - Huh no I actually hadn't thought of doing something like that . Even feathers hanging down from some place might look kinda cool. I'll have to keep that in mind for future expansion.


Must... get off internet... and finish painting...

Ok folks sorry for the delay on getting these pics posted, but life has a funny way of getting in the way

The Wraithhawk is all complete except for basing (which I'll put a lil more effort into then the rest of my stuff atm hehe). I may do a few little things here and there at a later date, but I can happily say it came out better then I would have thought lol.

Not the best at taking pics, but hopefully these give you an idea of the finished product.



Layering up the white


With spear, note the armor piece over his spear hand looks a lot better then in the pics.



The wing wetbrush is the same as I do on my jetbikes. The flash/lighting does it no justice.




The Swooping Hawks and Autarch join in to celebrate the maiden flight.



With Bright Lance equiped






All magnitized


Parts not shown: missile launcher that attaches to the side of the bright lance, additional right hand option for an open hand instead of fist.

Tanks for following this project for those whom have. I'll post pics once the basing is done

Dude,that looks so freaking pro.