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I am looking for some ideas for conversions as well as ways to play Eldar Wraith constructs using Dark Eldar rules.
Theme ideas for fluff would be nice too.

So far I am thinking of using the idea of a Spiritseer going off the deep end and acting more like a Haemonculus than a Craftworld Seer.
I plan on converting a Talo & Cronos using Wraithlord parts mostly (I do have some Necron Wratih tails that I'll probably use as well)
These would go with my "Seer" Haemonculus to form a Dark Artisan formation.

I also think I'll use a Grotesquerie formation using WraithBlades as the base for the models.
After this I was going to field a CAD of Dark Eldar with Venom Spam, Scourges & Reavers, maybe a Succubus to go with 1 Grot unit.
Fluff-wise I do not want to be considered "Dark Eldar", but rather a Corsair-like Craftworld splinter group that has resorted to darker means of warfare.

I want to avoid using actual Eldar rules and do not own the Corsair rules, so those are out too.
I am posting this in Painting & Modeling as well as Tactics, but in this thread, let me hear some conversion ideas.

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Not entirely clear, are you wanting to dark eldar-ify wraith models or wraith-ify dark eldar models?

I guess Dark Eldar-ify Wraiths. Using Wraith models to represent Coven models, or at least the Wraith aesthetics.

Basically I want them to be Wratih Constructs like WratihLords and Wratihguard, but the Spiritseers that make them do not follow the "traditional" Eldar way of making them. They are willing to experiment, which most Eldar would find distasteful and lacking respect for the dead.
They have been kicked off their Craftworld (and so will not acknowledge which world they are originally from), but they do not live in Commoragh. Hence the core of my army will be corsair-like with plenty of skimmers.

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I've found the wraith kits to be wonderfully versatile. Lots of easy conversions for weapon swaps and new weapon things being added.

I'd suggest doing some weapon swaps with the similarly sized Dark Eldar units for the first step.

Secondly, lean toward the DE aesthetic of chains, whips and hooks being use as adornment. Replacing the Wraith loin cloths with the DE style would be fairly simple and quite striking.

Trophies, also, would be very un-eldar, like heads on spikes, flayed skins, that sort of *charming* decoration

For Wraithlords, I had briefly considered using the Morghasts.

The idea was that these were perverted Wraithlords who instead housed a Soulstone with an imprisoned Klaivex. They were kept under command because half of the stone was chipped away and locked within a torture box (think Rampage from Beast Wars and you get a good idea of what I'm going for). So they're kind of like the Eldar version of Helbrutes.

The only reason I stopped was because 1.) the idea was originally for an all-incubus army but I couldn't field incubi alone without going unbound and 2.) I later wanted to use the Morghasts as Daemon Princes, which would have gotten confusing in my own model collection.

As for the common wraith models, maybe combine parts with the Sylvaneth Spite-Revenants. Not for "tree" like aesthetic, but make it so that it looks like the Wraithbone is "bleeding" psychic energy, as if the construct is now unstable and phasing in and out of reality.

I know that for the Talos & Cronos I will be mounting some kind of torso onto a Necron Wraith tail. The torso really just depends on what I can find on eBay.

The rest of the bits will come form my bitz box, which has a collection of Wraithlord and Talos/Cronos bitz that I have acquired of the years.
The arms will be Wraithlord arms, the heads will be Wraithlord heads.
The Talos will have a ghost glaive and a twin linked gun somewhere. The Cronos will have the back veins and maybe some whip-like fore-arms.
And, of course, I have plenty of Dark Eldar spike and what-not.

For the Grotesques, I have a some Necron Lychguard legs and maybe some torsos (tying to avoid actually buying a Wraith guard kit) and I have some Wraith blade weapons that could count as Flesh gauntlets. I'm still not 100% sold on doing Grotesques at this point. It will really depend on what I can make without buying a new kit.

At the very least, though I want to make the Dark Artisan formation with a SpiritSeer Heamonculus, Wraith-Talos & Wraith-Cronos

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sounds like you already have a plan, then

PossumCraft wrote:
sounds like you already have a plan, then

Yeah, just trying to spring board some ideas and see if anything could be refined or if I'm not thinking of something blatantly obvious.

I just had a thought. Which unit would be best to represent WratihGuard: Grotesques, or Sslyth?

Initially I was thinking Grots since Wraithlord = Talos/Cronos, but now that I think about it, Sslyth might fit the bill a bit better since they have a gun.
I wasn't sold on the Grotesquerie, but I like the idea of 5 Ssylth + Succubus. Model-wise it would be simple to convert WraithGuard with a carbine and cc weapon.

I built a Cronos out of the pre-Wraithlord Eldar Dreadnought, one of my favorite Rogue Trader era sculpt.

Before:


After:



I went very simple there, though the big featureless cowl has lots of space for conversions if you wanted to do that. The right arm got damaged during paint stripping, so I replaced it with a spare Talos weapon, which, as you can see, is the right size for it. I replaced the original power plant with the spirit syphon piece as well, giving it a bit more WYSIWYG appeal.

Nice before and after. Thanks!

I think I'm gonna bits order some Wratihlord torsos and mount them on the Necron Wraith tails. I have some spare WL arms to use, plus other various bits. The Cronos will get those back antennae and the Talos will probably get some back spikes/blades.

Quick thought: bonesingers are usually who make wraith bodies, but it is just another path, so your crazy spiritseer could have done that in the past and started re-using those skills once he/she went off the deep end.

One thing you might want to incorporate: bonesinging is kind of like sculpting with your mind and generally reflects your state of mind, so it might benefit you to make it look like some of the Wraith peices are twisted, deformed, or sporting funky offshoots (path book had a sculpt go all spiky and twisted when the artist was upset - he did not wreck what he had made before, but the new stuff he was working on was deformed).

Another thing you could do is have the spiritstone (easy - just an ovular raised bump) visible on the model (wraith models usually have the spiritstone in a cavity in their head) and make it look damaged in some way, like the spiritseer was messing with it to get better/different behavior from the spirit inside.

Otherwise, sounds pretty interesting.

 Galef wrote:
I am looking for some ideas for conversions as well as ways to play Eldar Wraith constructs using Dark Eldar rules.

Here are two conversions I've done. I took an Eldar Spiritseer and a unit of Wraithknights and converted them to be Dark Eldar. The head of the Wraithknight is missing because I've not finished the conversion I intend for it.

I got a work-in-progess pic:



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Looking good.. liking the idea, I might have to borrow that for a unit myself.. what's the tail under them?

Thanx. The tails are Necron Canoptek Wraith tails, as is the "tentacle" arm of the Cronos.

I decided the chain swords would be a more Eldar way to represent chain flails for the Talos.
Aesthetically, they shouldn't look too much like Dark Eldar since their creator is an Eldar SpiritSeer gone mad, rather than a Haemonculus.

I concur, I might remove the blades on mine.. the tails look interesting, though, and I'll likely use them for my Wraithblades with the twin swords.

I have Eldar, Dark Eldar and FW Corsairs, so it's a diverse portfolio, so to speak.

The new AOS Spite-Revenants would make for neat possessed soulstone sculptures. I really want to see some of them incorporated into a Dark Eldar army.