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Back in 5th I had the start of a nice little DE army, but also a fair amount of High Elves and LOTR miniatures which won't see play again. Now, I plan to take my DE a bit further, but obviously due to monetary issues (GW price rises, recession, etc) I'm trying to do it on a budget. So, that means the High Elves will be becoming something a little more menacing. But I was wondering, what could count as what? Obviously the army will have some "Normal" DE models in, but the majority will be High Elves conversions. My question is, what would you allow the following units to count as with some conversion?

Spearmen/ Seaguard (High Elves - I really don't know for these. I want to say wyches or Kabalites, but the aesthetics don't really fit.)
Mage (Nope, nothing.)
Alith Anar (Ditto. Ideas?)
Griffon with Prince (Again, no idea.)
Shadow Warriors (Trueborn? Wyches?)
Ellyrian Reavers (Jetbikes or Hellions I think.)
Swordmasters (Incubi)
Wargs (LOTR, Kymerae I think.)
Beserker (Haemonculous, with some work.)
Uruk Hai (Wracks? Greenstuff will be useful for this.)
Minas Tireth Soldiers (Same camp as the Spearmen, may not fit at all due to scale, etc.)
The Fellowship of the Ring (No.)
Ye Olde Metal Tomb Spider (Chronos/ Talos? Again, will need some work.)

So, what would you suggest for counts-as in my incredibly tight-fisted approach to Dark Eldar? Obviously a lot of the units will need extensive work to make them fit, and all are GW models. Thanks in advance for any help provided.

LOTR figures won't be suitable for anything except children (the scale is smaller).

If it's all WYSIWYG on the correct bases, then frankly I would have no problem with it it.
I would probably reccomend getting a Dark Eldar battleforce and Dark Elves Battallion to aqquire a few for models / counts-as units and very useful bitz.

As for what you have:
Spearmen/ Seaguard (High Elves - I really don't know for these. I want to say wyches or Kabalites, but the aesthetics don't really fit.)
The aesthetic doesn't matter really, it's Dark Eldar, they're entire thing is avarice, indulgence, etc, if they think it looks cool, they'll do it.
Slap some splinter rifles on em and call them warriors or trueborn.

Mage (Nope, nothing.)
Archon / Vect conversion

Alith Anar (Ditto. Ideas?)
ooh, that's a cool model (shame about the face though...)
It seems a shame to cut up that awesome looking bow... I'd be tempted to say haemonculous, green stuff a mask or something like that over that face, and call it a hex rifle.
Haem also makes your wracks troops which is great.

Griffon with Prince (Again, no idea.)
You could use this as a Venom. Mount a couple of splinter cannons to the harness and put it on a skimmer base and there you go.

Shadow Warriors (Trueborn? Wyches?)
Like most high elf stuff, I think they look too armoured for wyches, but definately for the trueborn.

Ellyrian Reavers (Jetbikes or Hellions I think.)
Probably Jetbikes.
Though with the look, I might say go Eldar Jetbikes, and convert one of the other models into an Eldar HQ for allies, but leaving it as just Reavers is oribably fine too.

Swordmasters (Incubi)
Incubi seems sound.

Wargs (LOTR, Kymerae I think.)
They'd make decent Khymerae

Beserker (Haemonculous, with some work.)
I don't know what this is and cannot find it...

Uruk Hai (Wracks? Greenstuff will be useful for this.)
With those helmets... give em 2 hand weapons and call them Wracks

Minas Tireth Soldiers (Same camp as the Spearmen, may not fit at all due to scale, etc.)
I'm with you - no idea.

The Fellowship of the Ring (No.)
Yes! Wracks or something Everything can be wracks!

Ye Olde Metal Tomb Spider (Chronos/ Talos? Again, will need some work.)
Talos would be alright with a heavy whack of conversion, mounted on the right base.

Thanks for the replies.
Chromedog: Yes, I've found the LOTR stuff won't work for the most part. I'm going to try Uruk hai for Wracks however.

Ovion: No, not everything can be wracks. Wrack Frodo would be hilarious though. I may leave Alith as it is a nice model, and already turned a berserker into a fairly convincing Haemonculi.

You can have multiple haems.

And yes, just about any infantry can be wracks. Just greenstuff on some masks, ensure it has something whacky in each hand and away you go!

True, but I do like the Alith model... Tough choice...
I'll try the Uruks to Wracks conversion though.

To be honest, I'd rather play against an army of empty bases than against a high elf /Gondor army. But then again, atmosphere and background is important to me.

It ultimately depends how much Green Stuff and effort he puts into WYSIWYGing it.

If it's just models with little done, then yeah it's a bit of a cop out.
If he puts the effort in it could well end up looking good.

Ovion wrote:It ultimately depends how much Green Stuff and effort he puts into WYSIWYGing it.

The amount of greenstuff necessary would counter the intention of saving money.
Given how well designed the Dark Eldar range is, no amount of greenstuff on a Gondor warrior or High Elf will come near.
Saving money or waiting for the ebay killer deal would be better in the end IMHO.

Possibly, I can definitely see you point about that DE range and effort Kroothawk. As it turns out, a lot of models won't make it into the army (The aforementioned Gondorians and spearmen particularly), and I'll only go ahead with it if I think it looks good enough that I would want to play against it. A large part of the army will still be normal DE models though.

I can see Kroothawks opinion, but as a counter, it's still the Dark Eldar, they're a essentially a reasonably disparate race, with each kabal, cult and coven having the potential to be radically different.

Which is why in my eyes, the new models, the old models, converted eldar, converted skaven, etc, are perfectly reasonable, so long as you make the effort to make them WYSIWYG.