Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

To go along with my Eldar Aspect Warrior army, I'm converting the old school metal wraithlords to match their aspects. First up is a Striking Scorpion that will have twin shuricats, a counts-as-Wraithsword scorpion claw, and scatterlaser held pistol-style. I'll add plating on the legs and shoulders, raise the neck a bit, and add the Scorpion rune to the head as well as some additional detail and cabling. Here's a pic - I'll take more as I go:

Hmm nice idea. i'll follow this.

yeah,
looks like a really good start, i like it.

Panic...

Wait, wasn´t there a Striking Scorpion Wraithlord at GD somewhere this year?

It´s a cool concept in any case, and I´ll look forward to seeing what you make of it.

Thanks for the comments, guys. I know the pic's not much to go on, but I wanted to give an idea of what I'm starting. Making the pose of the lord more dynamic is difficult given the fact it's metal and the joints are a tad on the small side, but hopefully it will come off nicely. He'll be in a "T-stance" with the right leg forward and bent at the knee (standing on some rubble to help maintain height) and the left leg extended to the rear. The pistol arm will be extended, firing, and the claw held out and to the side. I'll try and sketch some concept art to give you an idea of what I'm working towards.

That being said, anyone have any suggestions on how to make a scatterlaser pistol-sized? I've got a plastic one so the kitbashing will go easy, but I want to make it fit in the lord's hand, which I will be re-sculpting to add proper fingers. The model's old and kinda beat up which is why I don't mind sacrificing it to the kitbashing gawds, but that same wear & tear endeavours me to restore him to his former glory.

Next up will be a Dark Reaper Wraithlord with a Tempest Launcher-style Brightlance/EML!

Fluff wise it works since they are usually powered by the souls of dead aspects.

IMO, you'll do better to make the Scatter Laser mount to the forearm...

That may be true John, but I'd like to make the Lord comparable to the form of the Scorpion Exarch, which holds the pistol as opposed to having a forearm mount.

Also, in making it a forearm mount, I'd need to rotate the arm - requiring me to cut through the arm to do so - something I'd prefer not to do. It may be necessary if I can't sculpt fingers into a fist, though.

I've got some armor plates added to the shoulders and started working on fleshing out the rear of the head as well. I need to find a bit of rod for the neck, however, since I'll need to elevate it from the body a bit to make room for the added bulk on the shoulders and the tubes from the "mandiblasters". It'll also let me reposition the head, adding to the dynamism of the pose -I hope anyway.

yeah,
you get spare arms and hands in the plastic kit, maybe you can get one from a friend fellow gamer.
ask in the dakka swap shop or look around on bits services.

the plastic hand holding a gun pistol grip syle would be perfect and is right handed IIRC...

PAnic...

Disaster struck last night: I dropped the head and one of the shurikens popped off. Luckily, it was a clean break and a bit of superglue should fix it nicely. I've been distracted from this project at the moment with painting my son's marines from AoBR, but will get right back to the lord once I've got them highlighted.

Okay, so with the marines out of the way, I've been able to dedicate my free time to the Wraithlord - with permission from "she who must be obeyed", of course.

So I promised a sketch earlier to give an idea of what I'm trying to do. The drawing was made using Gimp and I'm not a good artist by any means, so please take it with a grain of salt:



Pretty explanatory in and of itself. The lord's in a "T-Stance", with the lead foot stepping on a recent victim, taking aim with his pistol while holding another victim in his claw. Please excuse any fingers you see and the blurriness of any pics. I cleaned them up in Gimp as best I could, but the camera I'm using isn't the best. Here's the base:



It's been painted now (pics on that later), lava style. I need some feedback on the gaunt's colors though. The WL will be a deep green with lighter green accents, the base is black, red, and orange-yellow, so I need a good contrasting color that will stand out against the black of the base, but not detract from the lord itself. Any suggestions? I've got the flash lines on the gaunt trimmed and the gaps filled with green stuff. Here's another angle:



Here's a shot of the claw I posted earlier, top view. I've taken out the long claw bit so that I can fit the gaunt in.



Another from the side:



Here's the gaunt victim, guts and gribbly bits showing:





And from the back. I had to make an armor plate out of brown stuff to cover the back, making it look like it's been torn apart by the claw.



Here's the gun. I added some bulk to the shoulders and added plating. The gun itself was a plastic scatterlaser that I chopped up and stuck back together with a bit of guitar wire.



The fingers of the hand had been worn or cut away prior to my purchase, so I drilled pins in the nubs and molded fingers from brown stuff. A bit of plasticard plates distinguish the finger joints.



A close up of the mostly finished head. I haven't decided whether to do the Scorpion rune on the forhead or do more plating. I'm leaning towards the rune, but any feedback or recommendations will be taken into consideration.



The rear of the head was filled with brown stuff and plasticard plates layered (trimmed individually ) to create the segmented style found on the Scorpion Exarch's helmet.



I raised the neck using a bit of guitar wire as a pin, then glued tiny bits of wire around it to create a "wire muscle" look, the twisted angles give it a sense of movement.



The rear leg, with plating and the little "ribbon" things found on all the eldar aspects:



And finally the front leg, bent at the knee with plating and ribbons.




Besides the assembly, I still need to string wire from the shurican pods to the body and mold the bead strings coming off the head vanes. Not sure how I'm going to do that short of using green stuff. I have to say that the Exacto knife set that my wife got me for my birthday has made this project possible. As soon as I get the gaunts painted, I'll start assembly and then paint the lord itself. I'll pin the lord to the base through the gaunt, giving it a sturdy foothold - pun intended.

So, bring on the comments!

Loving the tyranid entrails and pistol stylee Scatter Laser! awesome!

I'l have to keep an eager eye on this project

ARGH! Metal models are a pain to work with...

I've had to re-position the pose and stance from my original sketch as pinning the dainty eldarish legs proved to be inadequate (or my pinning skills more likely) to support the beefy weight of the torso and head, particularly after adding the back vanes to the neck area. The new pose is just as dynamic, maybe more so than the original concept sketch, more like he's taking a running leap off the gaunt on the base.

The head and torso got dropped by an observer and the neck is now a tad loose, allowing it to turn slightly, but too much stress could cause a break. I don't want to take it apart to fix it, but that may be an eventuality I cannot avoid.

The base and the nids have been painted to a fairly reasonable standard (IMHO), but I might re-highlight the flesh of the gaunts. The base is a lava flow: black & gray stone with red, orange, and yellow-orange in the cracks. I went with a mechrite red basecoat for the gaunt's skin and deneb stone for their claws and plates, then washed it with leviathan purple twice. The resulting cool red stands out nicely against the warmer base and the plates/claws were highlighted with a mixture of liche purple and skull white to provide instant eye-catching neon-ness against the black stone. Draws attention without stealing it from the lord.

The gaunt's gribblies were painted with a motley crew of colors, but mostly Reaper Master Series Moth Green mixed with Clear Yellow and a few parts with Tanned Flesh before given a wash of Thraka Green and Asurmen Blue mixed and diluted then highlighted with the base shades.

The lord himself I had planned to base coat with Scaly Green, but I'm reconsidering Dark Angel Green. I'm not sure I like the teal tone that the scaly has and don't know how well it would accent/mix with the warmer greens like Snot and Goblin. Then again, I could basecoat with orkhide and use scaly as a highlight tone... hmmm. Suggestions here would be nice!

I'll post pics of the changes ASAP.

make sure to put some dred locks on him

Yeah, working on those now too... still trying to figure out how I'm going to do it though. Green stuff rolled thin attached to GS beads? I might be able to use seed beads on thread, but they'd need to be very small.

So far most impressive. Keep up the work boyo!

This is pure unadulterated awesome!

I am in envy of you!

Can't wait to see the finished model, in all of its glory...

Thanks guys, I have to say that I've impressed myself in adapting this surprisingly modular-yet-static model to the display piece I hope it to be. It's been one big creativity fest trying things out and seeing what works. I did forget to mention one additional modification I made: I chopped the hips from the torso and used pins and greenstuff to extend it about 3/4 an inch. Gives him a bit more stature and allowed me to angle the shoulders and head more to my liking.

BTW, any advice on the dredlocks?

Time for more updates and more pics! As stated before, I've got the base and the nids painted up and I've set pins in the base for the lord's feet. This first shot's a bit blurry (stoopid camera!), but give an idea for the overall paint scheme for the lava base.



Close ups of the gaunt on the base:





Here's the gaunt that goes in the lord's claw. I like the way the entrails came out, but I couldn't figure out a good blood effect for him. I was thinking of something a little lighter yellow-green than the entrails themselves, but couldn't make it happen.





I've decided to go with runes for the Wraithlord's head - a giant Striking Scorpion rune. I had to use my xacto to model it with since I forgot my sculpting tool (a shaped chopstick) at home. I usually work on modelling while I'm on the job - I supervise a project in a call center - and frequently have to improvise tools when I forget them. Turned out nicely, I think.



Here's the lord on the base. I haven't greenstuffed and glued thefeet to the pins yet, so he leans a bit for the time being. When I straighten him up though, the posture is a bit better than pictured. You can see the pins in the shoulder joints for the arms from this angle, as well as where I've cut the hips from the torso and lengthened it with some pins and excessive greenstuff.





This is the shot from the rear. I've added the claw arm holding the gaunt in this shot, but it's not set with glue as you'll see below.



A close up of the gaunt getting mushed:



Now I've got a decision to make concerning the position of the arms and there's two options as I see them. The first is to have the claw lowered and the gun raised. This gives him a look of taking a few shots with the pistol and "mandiblaster" after crushing the gaunts. Here it is:




The second option is to reverse the position of the arms, having the gun arm lowered while the claw is raised. This pose is a bit more dynamic and make him look more like he's charging the enemy, using the gaunt as a spring board. Alas, I didn't take a pic of that pose as my camera was losing battery power and giving me trouble focusing. Here's a side shot of the gun in the lowered position (sans claw).



I favor the second pose over the first (as does my wife, whose opinion I value ), but felt I should post it to get some feedback. I know it's hard to make a judgement about something you can't see, but let me know what you think.

I still need to do the dredlocks coming off the backs of the head vanes. I had thought to run wire from the backs of the mandblasters goin to the body, but it looks too busy so I'm leaving them off.

yeah,
Looking good. do you only play against 'nids?
I think the dreads will seal the deal!
Looking forward to seeing this painted.

PaniC...

This is an Awesome project. I vote for the 2nd pose with the gun down and the claw up.
Can't wait to see this guy finished.

Very inspiring for me to get to work on my third Wraithlord. I'll probably go the Banshee route though.
...and start some time next year...if I'm lucky

Don't raise the claw. It is not worth such an honor as being raised up triumphantly. It's a mere gaunt who should be discarded like the pathetic bug that it is before you move on to bigger and better things.

Everything looks good to me except the dead gaunt on the base. It would be hard to do, especially now that you've painted it, but it's just not limp enough for a dead guy. I, personally, would either rebuild that gaunt, or replace him with a rock.

whilst i get the comment that it should appear limp, the tyranids are a mass on muscle and tendon tightly bunched in chitinous armour, it wouldn't necessarily be that limp but perhaps like a dead bug, rigid in dead.
Or it might not be dead, might be dying?

I vote for pose 1. I agree with Aduro, a mere tyranid gaunt isn't something to be proud of for an Eldar Wraithlord.

I vote for pose 1.
He look like he is trowing away gaunt and shooting on other tyranids.

BTW Great work!

@Aduro, Nooblord, & Bakemono: The idea is that the gaunt was caught in mid-jump and crushed in the claw while the lord is rushing forward for bigger and better baddies. Not so much triumph and more "oh, I forgot I was still holding this bit of gooey crunchiness in my haste to get to more..." He might even be waiting for the opportunity to chuck it at more of the oncoming hordes.

@MGS: I'm assuming that the nid hasn't had the time to go stiff yet, the lord's just crushed him and his gribblies are still leaking out, unlike the nid on the base which I'll assume was shot beforehand.

@RangerRob: I'm going to do a Dark Reaper Wraithlord equipped with Brightlance and Eldar Missile Launcher modelled as a Tempest-style double gun as my next big project, building off of what I've learned on this one. I'm kinda excited to start on that one. I've seen some plans for the Banshee Lord and like the idea, though. If I did one, I'd probably do a stylized Executioner to represent the Wraithsword as I've used the claw for this Scorpion Lord. It's a versatile and relatively easy conversion that has a lot of possibilities.

@Panic: Amazingly enough, I haven't played with my eldar army yet. I'm not going to field an unpainted force (my own personal obsessive-compulsiveness prevents me from fielding semi-painted or unpainted models, makes me feel embarrassed for some reason ) unless it's to play combat patrol to relearn the basics and hammer tactics down. So, no I don't play against nids. I did however, have a box of gaunts that I haven't messed with in a few years and couldn't find any good marienz to base with.

Without further ado, I present the 99% completed Striking Scorpion Wraithlord. Only 99% since I cleaned up the arm and leg joints with some GS and won't glue/GS him to the base until I've got him primed and the legs painted at the very least. Also, I think I might try to straighten the smaller gem on the "nose" as it looks a tad crooked. So anyway, on to pics:













I took him down to the FLGS and the guys there sere crazy over him. I'll probably get display rights once he's painted. Comments and questions appreciated!

EDIT: sorry, but I just realized that MGS was responding to Aduro's comments about the bug on the base being limp. I think I cleared it up anyway. Also, bug that gets held in the claw is and will remain removeable... he conveniently slips over the claw which makes it easy to remove for game play.

lets see some paint

Excellent work! I second the call for paint.

I'm having some difficulty with my pinning: the legs aren't sticking as well as I'd like. Any suggestions? I've bought some 2-part liquid epoxy but haven't tried it out yet.

As far as paint goes, I'm dithering between a cooler, deep green like Dark Angels and Scaly (which I'm favoring at the moment) or a warmer, lighter green like Goblin and Scorpion. Any ideas?

Wow! You managed to make that originally ugly model (especially compared to the new Wraithlord) look totally cool!