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theCrowe wrote: I was thinking it might be interesting to frame all the bio-grown wraithbone implanting in your exodites in a story about overcoming a gift of Nurgle.
I got a fever, and the only cure is MORE Wraithbone!
Just a thought. Your idea is cool as it is already though.
The more I've thought about this the better and better it sounds I'm officially adopting this as the backstory for my exodite forces
Selestini During their early years, the Selestini exodites were invaded by daemonic Plaguebearers. Although they were repelled at great cost, they left behind a terrible legacy. A gift from papa Nurgle ravaged their world, causing death and decay to everything it touched. The Selestini only conquered this plague by excising every ounce of infected tissue from their world and themselves, replaced with wraithbone equivalents. This event weighs heavily in their collective memories, and to this day any wound or infection is swiftly replaced with wraithbone.
Selesti is the name of an exodite world mentioned in passing I think in the Iyanden supplement, that it was protected from an ork waaagh by the manipulations of Sylandri Veilwalker. I thought I'd expand on that further
It would also explain why all the bases of my exodites are a barren gravelly sand. Most of their ecosystem was wiped out by the nurglite plague, and is taking thousands of years to recover.
Thanks again!
This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 2016/10/24 12:34:16
For a base foot print you are closer to the Wraithknight, but obviously the height of the Carnosaur is nowhere near the height of a Wraithknight.
For my Exodite force I used a Carnosaur as a counts as Fire Prism. Most people I played with didn't have an issue with that substitution.
Can you pop the dino off its base and add some cork to raise the model? That would give you a better vertical representation of a Wraithknight.
Yeah I've thought about using it as a Fire Prism, but something about the armour values and lack of ability in CC doesn't seem to say 'stonking great dinosaur' to me, although I will say that it's definitely closest in size to a Fire Prism.
Good idea for raising the base. I'll see if I can concoct a big rock out of something to have it perched on. Give it some more height.
The other thing would be the fact that none of my army lists have Wraithknights in them, and I don't actually like the concept of superheavies and GMCs in standard warhammer at all...
Does anyone know how big a Dark Elf War Hydra is? Is it roughly the same size?
Most welcome for wraithbone rationale. I assume you know about Isha and Grandfather Nurgle... How she whispers cures to the Eldar for all his deadly diseases. It'd be a nice story to incorporate if you were going all fluffy with the tale.
theCrowe wrote: Big yes on the walkers. Vote for cool from me.
Most welcome for wraithbone rationale. I assume you know about Isha and Grandfather Nurgle... How she whispers cures to the Eldar for all his deadly diseases. It'd be a nice story to incorporate if you were going all fluffy with the tale.
More genius ideas I did know about that, but hadn't connected it in
It was high priests of the temple of Isha that originally called for the exodus of Eldar to the maiden world of Selesti. Their new worlds were built in her honour, and all life upon them flourished.
However, the healthy splendour of these worlds was too much for Grandfather Nurgle to resist, and he unleashed one of his many gifts upon this world. Only by excising the infected tissue and replacing it with wraithbone could the Selestini hold back the inevitable doom of their world.
Their salvation came in the dreams of their seers. Isha, held captive by Nurgle, had heard her children's plight. She whispered the cure to her daughters, and saved their kingdoms. However, the scars of this event are still evident among the Selestini. To this day, any impurity or imperfection in their bodies is replaced with wraithbone, and great forests of petrified trees lie on barren soil. The gifts of the Lord of Decay reap a heavy toll.
I've also come up with a bit more fluff for a number of other exodite cultures, with a view to making a codex of sorts. What do you think?
Ybaric Cluster
Spoiler:
The worlds of the Ybaric Cluster are typical of the Imperium's view of the exodites: verdant jungles and forests permeated with glades and exodite structures.
The Ybaric Cluster exodites hail from worlds that were at the core of Eldar commerce in the pre-Fall Empire. This cultural trait has endured, and they maintain strong links with neigbouring exodite worlds, as well as craftworlds Iyanden and Biel-Tan. Through this, they can provide their warriors with superior arms and armour, and a greater quantity of spirit stones allowing them to range further in greater numbers.
They are some of the more active and and aggressive Exodite kingdoms and their warriors can often be found among other Exodite warhosts, loaned out in exchange for materials and favour by the lords of the Ybaric Cluster.
In the crunch, this will be represented by using Dire Avenger rules for their footsoldiers, and potential access to Grav-Tanks.
Teleth-ai
Spoiler:
The worlds of the Teleth-ai reach differ markedly from most exodite worlds. In place of lush forests and verdant glades, colossal conifers reach up through the snowy landscape and rocky wind-swept steppe reaches as far as the eye can see.
While most Exodite worlds are populated by reptilian dragons common on the ancient Eldar homeworlds, the Exodite worlds of the Teleth-ai Reach sport rather different fauna. In place of cold-blooded raptors, giant feline predators stalk the plains and are ridden into battle by their warriors. Similarly, preternaturally swift giant stags are ridden alongside them, providing ranged support while the lions tear into their foes.
This is purely because I really want to make a couple of models using the giant stags from wood elf Wild Riders as windriders, and lions of Chrace as Reaver Jetbikes. In the Iyanden codex, Teleth-ai was an exodite worlds that was invaded by the Imperium but they were repelled with the help of Iyanden.
Haranshemash
Spoiler:
Haranshemash is a world in mourning, their population decimated by the forces of chaos in one of the largest battles the eldar have fought in recent times. Overcome with nihilism, more and more of their population turn to the Cult of Ynnead, lingering close to their wayshrines listening to the feins susserus of the innumerable eldar souls contained within, and finding solace in the potent drug concoctions offered by the Walkers.
This existence is a perilous one, and wanders dangerously close to the sins of the old eldar empire. However, the Cult of Kurnous was all but annihilated during the battles and can no longer enforce the strictures of their faith. The Last Lord of Haranshemash, the sole remaining descendent of the Cult of Asuryan, struggles on to renew the faith of his people.
This is based on the description of Haranshemash in the Eldar codex, and thinking about what such a devastating conflict would do to an eldar population.
Carnac Wanderers (potential spoiler for the Carnac Campaign books)
Spoiler:
The Exodites of Carnac once owned a flourishing empire based around the maiden world of Carnac. When Necrons under Anrakyr the Traveller assaulted their planet they fought fiercely alongside the warhosts of craftworld Alaitoc. However, they fought in vain. The necron legions conquered their world and desecrated their world spirit.
The few survivors that escaped to Alaitoc did not not linger long. They exist as nomadic wanderers, travelling the length and breadth of the webway. Their hatred for the Yngir burns bright, and vengeance is all that they seek. Their cause is a popular one with the outcasts of Alaitoc, and many merge into warbands that roam the webway hunting for the ancient enemy.
In the crunch, I thought that the rules for Mandrakes would work really well for these guys. Stealth, Shrouded, Infiltrate, Move Through Cover. Give them force fields to represent the 5++ Mandrakes have, and modified Shardcarbines to represent their Baleblast.
Tirathain
Spoiler:
The culture of the Tirathaini exodites differs significantly from other exodite kingdoms. Where most exodites largely descended into techno-barbarism, the Tirathaini developed a powerful culture grounded in legends of the ancient culture of the Eldar homeworld. Their warhosts are arrayed in glittering splendour, Knight Walkers jousting their foes with bright lances and other powerful laser weaponry. Larger constructs still stride forward and engage their foes in close combat.
Located in the very galactic south, the Tirathaini are engaged in battle on two fronts. In the north, their worlds are colonised by the Imperium, and defended by the Ultramarines. More pressingly, the tendrils of hive fleet Hydra aproach from the galactic south. On the outermost worlds, battle has been joined with advanced vanguard organisms, and desperate preparations are being made for a full-scale conflict. Alongside Teleth-ai itself, Ishariel and Ursidhe-Ka are centres of Tirathaini power.
This is to allow people to do a more 'Brettonians, in spaaace' thing rather than a 'Wood Elves, in spaaace' thing. It's based on all of the background fluff about Exodite Knights, and all the 'feudal eldar' stuff that they talk about. The name Tirathain is an exodite world mentioned in the Tyranid 5th ed codex, but I'm not sure what happens to it in there. If it's eaten by the tyranids then that can go in their fluff too. The other names are named exodite worlds on the eldar galactic map thingy that are in the south of the Ultima Segmentum.
In the crunch, these guys would have access to a lot of War Walkers and Wraithlords to represent the various Knight Walkers they can field.
What do people think?
Also, at which point should this be moved to the 'project logs' bit of Dakka? Didn't spot that when I first started this thread...
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2016/10/26 09:56:29
Seeing as most of my army lists so far feature an Autarch with a Power Axe, Fusion Gun and Banshee Mask I thought I'd convert something up to be WYSIWYG.
I must admit I'm not the biggest fan of the Banshee Mask bit, but I can't think of a better way of doing it...
Wych running legs are the best bit ever though
Then I put together a proof-of-concept model for my Cult of Faolchu. They can either count as Scourges or Swooping Hawks, and because my Exodites are pretty much the same paint scheme as my Craftworlders I can use them for both armies
Lastly, I had a load of spare bits lying around so I thought I'd put together an alternative squad of Wardens to go with my more feudal-looking Hunter squad (really like how those turned out, but they don't fit with the rest of the army). These guys would be from the 'Tirathain' culture in the post above.
Automatically Appended Next Post: God-damnit, I've just had the coolest idea for my Corsairs which will have me have to re-do the whole lot of them :S or at least go back and change them.
Here's the idea:
Khaine's Ravens Eldar Corsair force that has a standing contract with the Haemonculi of the Dark City. Each new recruit has a pair of jet-black wings grafted to them, in the image of the black ravens of Morai-Heg. In Eldar myth, these Ravens were the eyes and ears of the Crone goddess.
During the Fall, Morai-Heg bid her ravens to fly with Khaine and peck at the eyes of Slaanesh during their titanic battle.
Khaine's Ravens take after these birds of legend, spying on the forces of the Ruinous Powers, and conducting surgical strikes to take out their leaders.
Looking at the prices of Scourge wings from the usual places I can tell this is going to be an expensive thought...
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2016/10/27 17:48:09
Enjoyed your introductions to the various exodite cultures. A nice range of styles and concepts. I had a notion for one of my own if you fancied another aspect to mull over. I have no idea about names of locations of planets but here's the plan. They're extrememely psychicly active back to nature nomads. Almost nothing is known of their cultural or social aspects as no evedence has ever been found on any of the worlds upon which they have been reported. These worlds tend to be pristeen garden worlds which appear curiously uninhabited but all attempts to colonise them meet with terrifying mind altering conscequences as warlocks and nature-seers spring from nowhere and ravage the colonists body mind and spirit before seeping back into the landscape without a trace, leaving maddened gibbering cretins in their wake. They're heavy on the purely psychic elements such as warlocks and seers of all kinds but are more like wandering shamans.
Crunch-wise- psy-characters and warlocks of course but also maybe warp spiders? apear from nowhere, do strange things with "PoWEr of tHe MinD" Just a notion, cherry pick at will.
Also, if you don't like the banshee mask bit then lets change it. It doesn't have to be a physical mask. Anything that causes paralysing fear of paralysis of any kind in fact will do. It could be anything from a blinding psychic blast to a cloud of bothersome spites.
The mini looks awesome though, even if the helm isn't very exoditey. I always imagine them to have more the tall pointy helms rather than the swooshy cresty ones.
Enjoyed your introductions to the various exodite cultures. A nice range of styles and concepts. I had a notion for one of my own if you fancied another aspect to mull over. I have no idea about names of locations of planets but here's the plan. They're extrememely psychicly active back to nature nomads. Almost nothing is known of their cultural or social aspects as no evedence has ever been found on any of the worlds upon which they have been reported. These worlds tend to be pristeen garden worlds which appear curiously uninhabited but all attempts to colonise them meet with terrifying mind altering conscequences as warlocks and nature-seers spring from nowhere and ravage the colonists body mind and spirit before seeping back into the landscape without a trace, leaving maddened gibbering cretins in their wake. They're heavy on the purely psychic elements such as warlocks and seers of all kinds but are more like wandering shamans.
Crunch-wise- psy-characters and warlocks of course but also maybe warp spiders? apear from nowhere, do strange things with "PoWEr of tHe MinD" Just a notion, cherry pick at will.
Also, if you don't like the banshee mask bit then lets change it. It doesn't have to be a physical mask. Anything that causes paralysing fear of paralysis of any kind in fact will do. It could be anything from a blinding psychic blast to a cloud of bothersome spites.
The mini looks awesome though, even if the helm isn't very exoditey. I always imagine them to have more the tall pointy helms rather than the swooshy cresty ones.
Thanks again!
Love the idea of Warp Spiders being some sort of unknown psychic tomfoolery, especially seeing as their weapons wound against initiative.
That culture reminds me of a Peter F Hamilton book called 'Fallen Dragon'.
Spoiler:
In it, humans have expanded across a decent proportion of the galaxy for FTL tech. The main character is a soldier for a big company, who use things called 'Skin Suits' which are sort of a semi-alive biological power-armour sort of thing. He has flashbacks to a disastrous mission he and his (former) team went on to a planet which was inhabited by the descendants of the biological engineers who originally made the Skin Suits decades ago. When they get there, they expect some advanced society but instead find a load of wattle-and-daub huts and a basic hunter-gatherer society, populated by heavily genetically engineered people (sort of half lots of different features of animals to fit in with their surroundings).
First contact with these people goes awry, and they end up shooting one of them (I think, can't remember). Next thing they know, one of them gets hit by a blowpipe dart which causes his Skin Suit (basically one huge bunch of muscles) to violently contract, pulping the guy inside.
They scramble to get the hell out of there, while darts get shot out of nowhere, causing their suits to go into spasm and kill them.
If I remember rightly, only the main guy gets out of there. Maybe him and another person...
Ah, the banshee-masked Autarch is for my Craftworlders, and I like it enough that it'll stay probably. I do have a spare DA Exarch head that I might swap out on a whim if I don't get used to it.
Automatically Appended Next Post: I've actually finished my Cult of Faolchu (all but one model which I've run out of wings for).
I must admit, I think the Scourge wings are my second favourite bit after the Wych running legs
Also, thanks a million to Drakheart for sending me some spare Fusion Gun bits. My Son of Asuryan looks so much better with the proper little fuel canister jobby, and I'm thinking of using one of the old 2nd ed. Eldar Fusion Guns to make a mold so I can cast some more I wonder if you can melt sprues to cast bits in plastic...
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2016/10/28 00:26:06
Thanks a million it's always encouraging to get some positive feedback
This weekend I decided that I really should be painting some of my growing mountain of primered conversions...
So here is the finished Cult of Ynnead
I still hold up my hand and say that I'm far from a stellar painter, but they look good enough from a distance with my fuzzy eyes (I really should get some glasses). Tried to make them look a little whited out and ghostly compared to the other, more colourful exodites they'll be fielded with.
Now I just need to do another squad of 5 and sort out two counts-as Venoms and I can field a Scalpel Squadron
Next up is the finished Cult of Kurnous. Really pleased how these guys have turned out
Lastly, I've fitted wings to my Corsair Prince, Baron and Void Dreamer, fitting in with their new incarnation as the Khaine's Ravens corsair band.
The army's slowly coming together
Automatically Appended Next Post: Oh, forgot. Balestrikes!
They're much more balanced on Scourge legs rather than Harlequin ones I used previously. Look the part too. I really much commend the GW design team on the Scourge models. Great looking things
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2016/10/30 18:25:47
Definitely don't use it as a wraithknight, simply by virtue of it being really small compared to a wraithknight. Maybe a wraithlord? Talos also works.
I love the dryad bits, they look even better on a painted mini.
This is really turning out to be an army I would be honored to play against
~Mikey
Thankyou! I'm flattered
I can't wait until I've got enough of them done to do an army shot I've got a bit of an idea brewing to make a set of 2'x2' gaming board tiles, some of them standard battlezone and some of them zone mortalis.
For the zone mortalis ones, think some corridors formed from closely knit petrified trees which blend into exodite structures and then back into forest
With the Carnosaur, I'd like to use it as a Talos but it's huge compared to one of those!
I suppose the primary function of a Talos in my army list is as a distraction carnifex, so it being bigger than it should be would probably be a good thing! Plus, I'm slightly dubious of this 'apocalypse lite' that 40k has become these days...
Inevitable_Faith wrote: Wow huge update. Everything looks awesome especially those three winged HQ options (I think they're HQ options? not very familiar with corsairs).
Thanks a million high praise coming from you. I really like your semi-oriental-looking Dark Eldar with the pinkish cherry blossoms and sort of Tokyo-neon look footsoldiers. Really stunning stuff
Not sure if that was the aim, but that's the vibe I got from them and it works really well
Inevitable_Faith wrote: Wow huge update. Everything looks awesome especially those three winged HQ options (I think they're HQ options? not very familiar with corsairs).
Thanks a million high praise coming from you. I really like your semi-oriental-looking Dark Eldar with the pinkish cherry blossoms and sort of Tokyo-neon look footsoldiers. Really stunning stuff
Not sure if that was the aim, but that's the vibe I got from them and it works really well
Thank you very much, you're making me blush here.
I was indeed going for an oriental feel with them and though I've never made the Tokyo-neon connection to the infantry myself I must say now that I look at them you're totally right, they do have that vibe going for them, and since this is the future I think that suits just fine. I've got a lot more stuff one the way for that force and I'm excited to get more progress in on them, I'm also very excited to see what you come up with next. You're force is so brilliantly converted and with well thought out names and fluff I'm enjoying watching it come together.
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I was indeed going for an oriental feel with them and though I've never made the Tokyo-neon connection to the infantry myself I must say now that I look at them you're totally right, they do have that vibe going for them, and since this is the future I think that suits just fine. I've got a lot more stuff one the way for that force and I'm excited to get more progress in on them, I'm also very excited to see what you come up with next. You're force is so brilliantly converted and with well thought out names and fluff I'm enjoying watching it come together.
You're making me blush too!
Hah I like that it was unintentional, but it really is a stunning look. Looking forward to more updates!
I think I've screwed the pooch painting my Daughter of Khaine though. I've got a fair amount of experience now painting bone colour armour, but the last time I painted metal was on the shoulder-pad of a Kroot Carnivore I painted on a whim nearly a decade ago...
Cue a terrible paint job on a unique converted model.
Drat.
So, options?
1. Make another (I've got some different ideas of what I can do to make her look more Avatar-like)
2. Anyone had any luck stripping paint from plastic models without melting them into goo?
I've stripped a few models before. In the past I've used nail polish remover, the trick here is you have to make sure you get Acetone free nail polish remover. I'm told the acetone will melt the model. One method I want to try is using Isopropyl alcohol, haven't tested it out before but I'm told it works well and won't harm plastic. Either way make sure you have a toothbrush on hand to brush away the paint after it's been softened. These will eat your glue by the way so you'll have to re-assemble your model after stripping.
Painting metal can be very hard, it's difficult to make the metallic paints appear to have any true depth. If I may I would share a couple things I've found help though:
1. I've leaned to thin my metallic paints more than I thin my other paints. This is especially true of leadbelcher (if you're using GW paints).
2. Washes and glazes are your friends. I find "tinting" the metal with a wash helps to add a bit of depth and will tone down the glaring shininess of it so it doesn't stand out against the rest of the paintjob too much. For bronze I'll use agrax earthshade and for silver you can use almost anything, currently I'm using carroburg crimson for my DE infantry and I used agrax earthshade on my raider and guns. If you want to stick to a more traditional metal look then a blue wash will work well.
3. Edge your metals and add shine to them using runefang steel. It's a really bright metal, quite transparent when only used in one layer and really brightens up your metal once you've washed it and gives it back that gleaming edge. I used it for both bronze and silver metals and how much I put on is dependant on how much shinier I want my metal to be brought back to. I find it seems like it doesn't make a difference as you apply it so be cautious, the effect is best once it dries so let it dry first before deciding if you want to add more.
I'm no pro painter myself but hopefully you find these useful.
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I'll have a go with the isopropyl alcohol stuff. I think one of my automotive electrical cleaners has that as an active ingredient.
I've tried previously with an acetone-free nail polish remover but I think the bottle was lying to me as it melted a lot of the detail off of it...
I had a lot of luck mixing up a thinned down abaddon black with a touch of glaze to make the metal pop while still looking dark. The issue came in the 'if a little is good, more must be better' thinking. Now it's a mess :S
I've thought up a slightly different paint scheme anyway, although I'll make sure to practice this beforehand...
Rather than having plain metal paints, I'll try and fill the recesses with white transitioning through yellow to red, looking like there's heat emanating from inside the armour (like an Avatar!).
Automatically Appended Next Post: This evening's activities Painted my Son of Asuryan. Not sure if he's too blingy tbh, but I'm warming to him. He is supposed to be an Exodite lord after all...
Also, I've been looking at pics of ravens in real life and they're not actually jet black. In reality, they're a very, very dark shade of almost blue-green with a glossy sheen to them.
So, I mixed up a wash from abaddon black, incubi darkness, water and a couple of drops of acrylic gloss.
It doesn't show particularly well in pictures, but it's worked really nicely much improved.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Well, I've changed the undersuit colour on my Son of Asuryan/counts-as Autarch to the darker Bestial Brown and it looks much better than the slightly yellowy Balor Brown haven't got a pic though...
I do, however, have the first two proof-of-concepts for my Exodite Guardians
What do you reckon?
This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 2016/11/02 00:22:41
All the new pics look real good. Sadly I can't see the blue-green sheen effect you're talking about in the second pic but I love the concept and I can imagine how it'd look. The model looks great all the same. The exodite guardians look fantastic, the wood elf ranger bits fit so well with the theme (I used them to make my not-striking-scorpions for my craftworld army). A whole squad like the two you did here would look great.
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Thanks a bunch guys encouragement really helps the motivation, although I wish I was half the painter that you guys are
It being my birthday today, I've got the day off! Used the morning to finish off the rest of my Guardians
Also took the opportunity to take the first shot of the army all together.
How does anyone paint up a full 1850pt army? It feels like I've been painting for yonks and all I've got is 10 counts-as Guardians, a support weapon, a warlock, 8 scorpions, 5 wracks and an autarch!
Still, it's a good start
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2016/11/02 14:55:40
The guardians look fantastic, really great conversion and execution. It's real satisfying to see the whole force all together, you've got a really stellar collection coming along.
Painting takes tons of time and practice like many great hobbies. Sometimes it can feel like it's taking forever to get your projects completed, that's how I feel about my DE force. To me though at the end of the day it's not about having them done fast it's about being happy with the work you've put into them.
And happy b-day dude! Hope you have a good one.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2016/11/02 15:32:34
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