First Painted Warrior

While I had converted this warrior long long ago, he finally got a paint job. In fact, at this stage he is the only one of my Dark Eldar models that now is. Why did I paint him these colors. Well blue is the colour on the codex and sickly purple for the face plate and gun due to an image of a dark eldar that was published in White Dwarf. Not the best of reasons for color choice, but i thought I would try it and see. Unfortunately, with the release of codex Space Marines at this time, I was kind of regreting the blue due to all of the Ultra Marine images I was seeing. I also am not keen on the way I painted the face plate and gun, since it makes him look a little Nurglish, even though the Dark Eldar would deal in toxins. Sadly for this warrior, I think he is going to remain alone with this paint scheme. At this stage, I am not sure what scheme I should adopt for my force, so I will put it on the back boiler for awhile, as I have plenty of other things to work on. But to any who might read this, I would appreciate any comments or thoughts.

Reaver Jet Bike Conversion (Final)

The force net struts have now been properly attached. With regard to the rear canopy, I did use greenstuff to make it look plated, but thought it looked so bad that I removed it all and just replaced it with the single plate that you can see in the picture. I also added a Guardian sensor spine to the canopy, although it is perhaps unnecessary. The blades at the under front now look quite busy. The splinter rifle sits between the two other blades, while the small Reaver blades sit between the larger blades and the front canopy. The picture taken from the front better shows the layout. It also better shows the work I did for the front of the model. I used a space marine shoulder pad (with detail filed off) to make a bit of a wind shield for the rider. I then used greenstuff to make the jet intake. As far as machines go, my greenstuff work is not to hot, so I was glad this was the only part that needed anything significant. I wanted the front of the craft to look a little like an Eldar head. The band of greenstuff looks a little like a visor or blindfold, while the grill looks a little like a screaming mouth. I actually wanted it to look a little like a Eldar Banshee mouthpiece, which is why I added the triangular bit at the bottom of the openning. I would imagine that while the Reaver can run almost silently when desired, it can also rapidly move emiting a screaming drone, so as to better terrorize their prey. If like the Talos, the jetbike is partly powered by a tortured soul, then the visage is not unappropriate. Greenstuff was also used to better attach the blades on the side of the front canopy. After all, I did not want them to look like they were only glued on. In general, I wanted all the blades to look like they are attached in a fragile manner. Although the blades are super sharp, I imagine that it is better for a blade to break off than for the bike to be really damaged. I like to imagine that a Reaver Rider who does not lose any of his blades while raiding would be sniggered about as being some kind of Craftworlder.

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This now completes all that I intended to do for the conversion. I must say that while it contains many attributes of my initial vision, it had diverged alot from what I initially intended. But that is part of what I like about converting, you never quite know how the jigsaw will turn out. Some parts are not as good as my mental vision, yet there are many aspects that are better than what I imagined. Also, my concepts about the model evolved as I was assembling it. Anyway, at least it can be seen what you can get by merging a Reaver Jet Bike sprue with a Guardian Heavy Weapon sprue.

Reaver Jetbike Rider (Part 2)

I thought I would take a moment to compare my new Reaver Rider to the original (since my new rider is now complete in his riding position). I had to make cuts at the knees and anckles to get the legs into the correct position (starting from normal guadian legs). The arms needed to be cut at the elbows to get them right. I have attached to handle bars of the Reaver Jetbike to the rider first. The rider is just like my warriors, with a spike on one knee. Due to the 'back-pack' of the amour, he does not look like he is leaning as far forward as he actually is. However, I am happy with the look. If you compare him to his standing version I showed previously, you can see that his suit was designed for this riding position. At the moment, he is completely assembled, except that his head is held on with bluetac (to make painting easier). The handle bars are made out of Guardian shuriken catapult magazines. I also used these magazines to make the foot rests on the bike. Being more upright and having guardian-like armour, he looks bigger than the leather clad Reaver rider, but I can live with that.

Reaver Jetbike Conversion (Part 7)

Had to set aside my hobby for a while, but now to continue the conversion. As can be seen, I have now added blades to the front section. Looks more like a vicious mini Wave Serpent now. Also noteable in this picture are the structures added to the tail section. These are made out of Dark Eldar splinter rifles, Eldar guardian bits, and the Reaver Jetbike's small front spikes. Currently they are being held on with bluetac. When they are properly attached, they will be a little more forward on the model. These structures are my Force Net Struts, tucked away while not in use. The projectors on the struts, as well as on the underside of the canopy, are what create the force net. But they can also be used as wicked mobile blades (which continues my multi-use theme for my conversions).

In this picture, I've put the struts down in position for creating the force net. If a victim does not get sliced with the front blades, they get scooped up in the net. For this first model, I will have the struts in the rest position (as in the first picture). This picture also better shows the cut out sections in the rear canopy. Perhaps I am getting carried away with putting holes in the model, but I want the jetbike to look fragile (which is the style I see for the Dark Eldar - fagile but deadly). The next step is some green stuffing.

Reaver Jet Bike Conversion (Part 6)

After procrastinating for a week about if I should replace the small tail blade with the large Raider blade, I decided to use the small Raider blade. I felt the large Raider blade was too vital for my eventual Raider conversion. Also, the large blade was a little too large even though I liked the shape of it better. Once again, I have cut out a section and drilled some holes in the blade so as to make it lighter, since it was not already hollow like the large Raider blade. I am satisfied with the look of it. Now to continue the conversion.

Reaver Jet Bike Conversion (Part 5)

Just thought I would take the time to show everything as it currently is. At least it is now starting to look like a complete vehicle. The model is slightly longer than a standard Reaver - about the size of the rear thruster longer. I could have made it shorter, but I wanted it that long for two reasons. Firstly, the underside of the rear section is where a captive would be trapped, caught and kept immobile in a 'force net'. So the rear section needs to be long enough to hold a normal man sized captive. Secondly, the silhouette of the jet bike from above or below looks a little like a spear, so I wanted the tail section to be long enough to support that impression. Although the Dark Eldar can not summon an aspect of Khaine to fight for them like the Craftworld Eldar can, I believe the gods of the Eldar and the Dark Eldar would still be the same, even if the Dark Eldar may favor different gods within the common pantheon. The Craftworld Shining Spears use their laser lances as the 'Spears of Khaine', while the Dark Eldar prefer to use the jetbike itself as the 'Spear' (It perhaps may not be supported in terms of Dark Eldar background material, but that was part of my assembly philosophy). The model needs alot more work, but it does not look too bad even at this stage.
I still feel like the rear blade is too small. I am holding a Raider blade in position so as to compare. If I put that there, then it would go against my desire for the model to be front heavy, it would also draw attention away from the attack blades at the front (more blades at the front are yet to be added), and it would steal an important piece from my Raiders when I construct them. However, if I did replace the small blade with the Raider blade, then it would make the model scream out - "I am Dark Eldar"

Reaver Jet Bike Conversion (Part 4)

I cut off the slanted part of the tip of the Bright Lance and replaced it with half of the final thruster, using a little greenstuff to improve the transition. I cut off the other end of the Lance close to the ridged undersection of the weapon, and glued it so that the centre axis of the barrel was in line of where the blades would normally attach to the Reaver section. I then cut in half what was left of the underside of the heavy weapon platform, and used greenstuff to attach the two pieces to just behind the seat. I also used greenstuff to attach part of the heavy weapon gun support. I held the canopy where it would be so as to best position these pieces (the canopy had a natural position where it happily sat on the barrel - what luck). Using greenstuff to attach the pieces allowed me to adjust the position of the pieces before the greenstuff set. After some rounding of edges and filling gaps and transitions with greenstuff, I ended up with what you can see above. I had not initially planed to use the gun support part, as even in the above picture, it is a little bulbous in that position. However, looking at it, it looked like a mechanical version of the painting - 'The Scream' (Well, to my warped imagination it did). So I thought it would look very appropriate being a part of a Dark Eldar jetbike. When it comes to painting it, I will try and highlight this as a distinctive feature.

Reaver Jet Bike Conversion (Part 3)

As can be seen from the picture, I've done some work on the 'rear' canopy. The canopy was too wide and flat for my liking, so I carefully cut it in half and glued it back together on the other edge. This gave me the shape I was looking for. I filled in the holes with green stuff since I had no use for holes along the spine of the canopy. Originally, I was not going to add a blade as in the above picture, but considering that the Raider has such a large rear structure (and even the battle fleet gothic Dark Eldar ship has a massive rear structure), I thought I should add something there to maintain a Dark Eldar 'look'. Taking one half of the small blades, I gave it the same treatment as for the large blades, and filed it down and cut out a section. Unfortunately, while the blade itself look quite nice, I am left with the feeling that it is just too small. Thinking again of the other Dark Eldar vessels, size does matter. Not only that, but the small blade makes the canopy look a little like the tail of a ordinary aeroplane. So now I am left torn between leaving it as it is or ripping this small blade off and putting something bigger there. The canopy needs much more work done to it (like using green stuff to put some plating back on), but for now I will leave the canopy as it is until I make some hard decision about this back blade.

Reaver Jet Bike Conversion (Part 2)

The 'heavy weapon platform' segments have been added to the Reaver main segment. I have also added the large blades and two of the thrusters. From above, the front now looks a little like an epic sized Falcon. But that's OK, as Eldar and Dark Eldar would be expected to have similar elements. With the large blades, I filed the supporting struts down so that they were only slightly thicker than the blades themselves (since I did not want chunky struts). Of course, this removed the detail. So I added detail back by cutting out sections and drilling a few holes. This gives a similar 'look' to the blades and rear fin of the Dark Eldar Raider model. The leading edges of the blade struts have also been rounded, while the trailing edges have been left square. The thrusters were not used as is. I cut off the front of each thruster at an angle (as I did not need the intakes), and carefully curved the edges of these cuts to give a natural look. They were then glued to round pieced of sprue (also cut at an angle), and glued to the Reaver main segment. I have not worried about pinning anything since the parts are light plastic, and when green stuff is added to fill gaps and smooth transitions, the bonds seem strong enough.

Reaver Jet Bike Conversion (Part 1)

Although I am looking forward to the Dark Eldar warriors and wyches being updated, I am in no rush for the jetbikes to be updated (except for the rider). After all, not only do they look good, but they are very versatile in how you assemble them. There are some things I wish were better. For example, the spars that hold the blades are a bit chunky, and the jetbike does appear to have primative elements better seen for Ork gear rather than Eldar gear.

Although I like the Dark Eldar jetbikes, I decided that I would convert them anyway (being the conversion nut that I am). I've seen the sneak peek of Jes Goodwin's design-in-development for a new Eldar jetbike. So I will make sure my conversion looks nothing like that. After all, I will just buy the new Games Workshop jetbike models when they eventually come out if thats what I want. Looking at the above model, I thought to myself "what if the backward pointing blades were actually the front". So from that initial idea, I would use the pieces to construct a different looking jetbike. Now, I do have an idea of what I want the finish conversion to look like. I want to make the jetbike front heavy, most of the 'weight' of the model being up with the blades. Rather than opt for a big thruster at the back like in the current Reaver model (and the potential new GW model), I would go for mobility thrusters instead. After all, all bikes can turbo these days, no matter if there is a thruster on the model or not. My conversion would have moveable thrusters like in a Harrier Jump Jet, although in my imagination, the thrusters would have greater movement and control than that of a Harrier. Manouverability is one thing that all Eldar jetbikes are actually superior in compared to the bikes of other races. Also, I wanted a 'net' area below the jetbike somewhere (to capture a slave), as we are talking about a Dark Eldar jetbike after all.

Now with those desires in mind, I chose parts to construct the jetbike with. Of course, I would use the entire Reaver kit in the construction, since that is what it would be in the end. Since I have been converting Dark Eldar warriors from Guardians, I have heavy weapon sprues spare, so I decided to use that as well. I decided to replace the smaller blade structure with the hover platform of the Eldar heavy weapon. In the picture, you can see that I have already cut out the front thruster. I will cut out the other two as well, along with the back panel of the platform (note that I intend to use the thrusters in the conversion, so they are being cut away carefully. You can also see that I am cutting out a section from the front panels to expose the bottom part of the platform. I am doing this to make it look lighter, since I feel a Dark Eldar vehicle should look light. The same panel will be cut out on the other side as well. I have also cut down the main Reaver segment to be what I want to use (no going back now!). You can probably see that I have filed the detail off of what would normally be the nose canopy. I unfortunately felt I had to do this, since on my conversion, it would become the rear. This would mean that the plating would have been overlapping in the wrong direction (No point in converting if your not going to do it properly). The Eldar Bright Lance is going to become what is 'under' the now rear canopy.

Reaver Jetbike Rider

Knowing that I wanted to have at least one unit of jetbikes in my Dark Eldar force, I knew that the rider could not be entirely the same as my warriors. He needed to be more aero-dynamic. As you can see from the bluetac assembled conversion, this Reaver Jetbike rider has a helmet not unlike my very first Eldar warrior, except that the helmet and spikes are swept back. You can probably also see that the intakes for the 'back-pack' of the enviro-suit are angled up. In fact the whole 'back-pack' looks to drop away. While this looks strange while the rider is standing, when he is leaning forward with his head held looking up, it all makes perfect sense. Of course, I could not make the back spikes the same as for the ground warriors, as they would not be streamline and they would interfere with the swept back helmet. So this rider has smaller spikes. They point downwards, but when the rider is leaning forward, the spikes will trust back like small pointy wings. Once again, I imagine that these would also serve as second-line weapons, except they would become two single hand weapons rather than a large two-handed weapon. This guy actually looks more nasty than the original Reaver rider. So far, this is the only Reaver jetbike rider I have made.

First Dark Warrior

This was my very first Dark Eldar conversion, which I showed on warseer some time ago. From him, I constructed a unit made in much the same way (although their helmets are all different). I really liked Jes Goodwin's Guardian design, so to make a conversion based on that was a no brainer. The helmet is a combination of the bottom half of a guadian head with the top half of a Dark Eldar head. The back spikes are tyranid gaunt arms, an idea I originally saw in White Dwarf long ago. The White Dwarf artical had them on the back as trophies, while I turned them into part of the enviro-suit. I drilled holes into them to make them look more industrial. In my imagination, they serve the same purpose as the protusions on the back of the guardians suits; but also serve as a second-line weapon, being able to be detached and combined to become a cruel two handed weapon (This is just my imagination - not a wish for gameplay effect). If that second-line weapon is lost, then the Dark Eldar must rely on pop-up spikes from the suit itself (So I see a Dark Eldar warrior as never truly being unarmed). Since I see any small spikes as being pop-up, I kept all other spikes on the model to a minimum, with just a large spike on one knee. I also reshaped the boot straps to be small spikes, and drilled holes in the blade of the gun to match the holes in the back spikes. The only other addition to the model was to use green stuff to make the shoulder pads pointed and upward curving. Considering the number of these guys to be made, I felt that was already more than enough converting. When Games Workshop finally releases new Dark Eldar warriors, hopefully I will not feel the need to retire these warrior conversions. If necessary, I will treat them as Craftworld Eldar who have joined the ranks of the Dark Eldar.

The Blog Beginning

After seeing some other blogs, I decided to start one of my own. At least I can put all my thoughts on a particular topic all in one place. This particular blog will be dedicated to the Eldar (and the Dark Eldar in particular). Originally I was attracted to the Eldar because I wanted an army that 'looked' futuristic. Craftworld Eldar appealed to me straight away, with it's powerfull pychers and anti-grav ships/bikes. I liked the concept of the Warp Spiders, with their ability to teleport via the warp to other locations. Problem is, only the Warp Spiders could do this. But the Dark Eldar could effectively have almost their whole army materialize, although via a webway portal instead. So both kinds of Eldar appeal to me. For Craftworld Eldar, the Saim Hann appeal to me most, as I like the look of jetbikes and vypers (as well as the speed). For Dark Eldar, a webway portal Kabal force is what appeals most. Also, a Dark Eldar army is simialr to a Saim Hann army in terms of speed. In the end, I decided to favour the Dark Eldar, since they are played the least. But I do have a small Saim Hann force.

For the time being, I intend to use this blog to show some example of the models I am working on. Initally, my models will be works in progress, and so is this blog.