Adesha – Iybraesil Eldar Wraithlord

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The Wraithlord towered above the Eldar warriors as they scanned the abandoned settlement.  Even ancient Balora the Farseer had been born on Iybraesil and did not remember the primaeval, vibrant worlds of her people that had been destroyed in the Fall.  These Crone worlds were all that remained of that unknown past.  

The embodied hero who loomed against the chaotic sky was another matter entirely.  Her wraithbone body creaked softly in the eerie silence.  Adesha remembered, had wept in horror and psychic shock as the fledgling craftworlders saw the birth of She Who Thirsts from space.  She had fought as one of the Goddess’s warriors for countless ages, had led her people in war, and now had been summoned again.  The ancient wraithbone body had been grown for her a long time ago.  A receptacle for her shade, drawn from Iybraesil’s Infinity circuit.  She could feel the hot blood of the infinity rune painted on the face of her helm.  It was one of the only things she could feel.

The ghost in the machine concentrated, drawing the strands of herself from within the lattice of the wraithbone core to form a point of awareness.  Adesha would speak.

*Do you sense enemies yet, Farseer?  My thoughts grow thin.  If I am not needed I would return to the Goddess.*  Communication was a burden.  Combat was not.

Balora cocked her head as the papery voice of the revenant hero entered her mind.  The Wraithlord sounded flat, as one would imagine the dead would sound.

*Soon, Adesha.*  She returned silently.  *Soon the enemy will come.*

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This is Adesha, the first of two Wraithlords I have planned for my Iybraesil Eldar warhost.  She’s armed for anti-tank as there’s no other anti-tank capability in my 500 point army, and I thought it would probably still be a good configuration later.

I’ve wanted a Wraithlord model for years and I finally got one.  It’s more difficult to make it dynamically posed than I expected.  I thought the arms and legs would be in two parts each but they’re only one, so the poses straight out of the box are a bit on the Frankenstein side.  I looked at a bunch of anime mecha pictures to get a good sense of how an elegant humanoid machine should look, and then I added the scythe from the Empire Wizard kit to the shoulder and it really balanced the pose.  I’ve been trying to use that piece for ages!

The painting was fun.  Again, I went for an organic, aged look, and if you’ve ever seen old chipped animal skulls (I grew up in the country) then you’ll agree it turned out pretty well.

Overall they’re a great-looking model.  It looks sort of spidery and almost Tyranid-like I think, but also like a mecha, which is cool.

Next up I’m painting my Domaru Butai for Infinity.  Should be fun.  You gotta love a cyberpunk samurai.

Iybraesil Farseer

Well, I finished my Farseer, and I have to say I’m really stoked at how well she came out.  I want my Iybraesil Eldar to look a bit different to most Eldar armies – more weathered and ancient-looking.  I also wanted to get across the organic nature of Eldar technology.  I think I managed it.

I also wanted to make the Farseer herself look eldritch and freaky, so I used bold and less realistic colours in places.  I was going to paint bloody runes on her body but the blood-smeared hair and the scar on her leg came out so nicely that I decided not to push my luck!  Sometimes I reckon you just have to abandon your plan if it no longer seems right.

I tried to mask the canopy with vegemite so I could do the freehand, but because I was using a lot of washes the vegemite just melted and uh . . . ended up being incorporated into the weathering.  I really wanted the wraithbone to look like ancient, pitted bone.  Basically it took a million washes in tan, brown and blue, and then at the end I dabbed little drops of very watery brown paint and blew on them so they ran backwards from the nose.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The last thing I did was grab a rough grade sand paper and just scrape it over the finished canopy.  It was a bit nerve-wracking scraping sandpaper over something you just spent three hours painting but it was worth it I think.

You might also notice that the photos are a lot better than usual.  That’s because I didn’t take them!  They’re by Rhebeka Stangret.

Japan Makes Me Cry

I’ve mentioned before that my favourite manga series of all time is Yukito Kishiro’s Battle Angel Alita (Gunnm in Japan).  When I was in high school I owned this resin garage kit:

The main thing I remember about this kit was that the fingers were frighteningly thin and brittle.

Unfortunately it’s vanished into the mists of time.  I remembered it a little while ago though and had (what I thought was) a great idea.  I’d get a resin garage kit, maybe 1/32 or 1/48 scale, of a shirtless anime guy in tight pants. Then I’d go nuts and make him into an Avatar for my Iybraesil Eldar. Anime dudes are skinny but muscular, like Eldar, and I thought the chances of finding one with leather pants was pretty good.  Hey, I’ve seen anime.

I should have known better.  If anyone reading this is into anime kits and can help me out it’d be much appreciated!  The only remotely appropriate design I found was a Devilman, 1/6 scale (18″ tall).  The Avatar is pretty boss, but he’s not bigger than a warlord titan.

Everything else was . . . well . . . type “resin model anime” into Google image search and see what happens.  Even with the safe search on moderate I felt like a predator.  I think the second or third picture was a naked pregnant girl.  The rest seemed to be Rei and/or Asuka from Evangelion in provocative poses, or school girls in underwear with massive guns or axes. All beautifully sculpted and masterfully painted, which kind of made it even worse.

Hence the title of this post.  I just wanted a sweet-looking, unique Eldar Avatar.

Why Japan? Why do you use your powers for evil?

Iybraesil Farseer Ready for Painting

I’ve been working on my Iybraesil Eldar a bit lately.  Here is my Farseer on her jetbike, undercoated with grey primer, a blue-black wash with windex and a quick spray of white undercoat to create the highlights.  I’ll be using the same watery technique as I did on my Rangers.  I’m really looking forward to painting the bloody warpaint and an image of Morai-Heg the blind crone goddess on the canopy.  Apologies for the rough photos, I lack patience.

I was originally going to use this Reaper devil lady I had lying around, with the scythe from the Empire wizard kit, but encountered several problems.

The scythe was too gothic (much better suited to Sisters of Battle), the model’s metal head was extremely difficult to remove without damaging the really thin arms, and I didn’t like her boots.  Overall it just didn’t look right.

So I green-stuffed the new Dark Elf Sorceress to some jetbike legs and shaved the thighs down. Now she’s completely under-equipped for battle in her armoured boots and bikini top, in the time-honoured tradition of fantasy heroines.

Meh.  Who needs pants when you have psychically attuned warpaint eh?

Counts-as Ideas

It can be really fun to think of counts-as armies and units for 40k.  There are so many great gems in the long-running background of the game that are crying out for imaginative modelling.  When I was younger I used to enjoy the wholesale invention of units and rules, but nowadays I prefer to work within the framework of the existing rules for a few reasons.

Firstly, it gives you more freedom to use your awesome counts-as force competitively or against someone you’ve never met without having to worry about balance or accusations of cheating.  Secondly, I find it hard to know when to stop modifying a system – at what point does it stop being Warhammer 40k and start being My Totally Awesome 40k-Derivative Sci-fi Wargame?  Counts-as solves all those problems, plus I find it fun to try to fit old or untreated ideas into the existing material.

So without further ado, here are a few counts-as ideas I’ve had.  Some are more original than others, and some are for units rather than armies.  I should probably add that they are all themed, not counts-as for the purposes of competitive play.  So there’s no Space Wolves as Ultramarines or anything like that.

Feel free to use any of these ideas or add your own, I know I’ll never get around to making any of them (probably):

Iybraesil Rangers ready for battle

I’ve finally finished off my last three Iybraesil Rangers.  They came out pretty well I think.

I read in some Rogue Trader-era background that Eldar warriors wear warpaint under their armour as part of their whole adopting the warrior aspect thing, so I thought I’d try painting the ranger’s rune in blood on one of the elf’s foreheads.  I think it looks neat, plus it’ll be good practice for my Farseer and warlocks whose rune-armour is going to be body-paint.

The completed squad.

Now to build the jetbikes.  But first . . . I have to finish painting Lord General Drake, my counts-as Straken.  I can’t have him still undercoated in the final apocalyptic battle of the campaign.  Plus my Infinity guys will be arriving soon too.

So many projects, so little hobby time.

Small games are good games

This is what I look like after an Apocalypse game (I love this picture, it has so many uses).

I played a surprise pick up game of 40k on Monday night. This is a rare thing for me as a grown up gamer – time is precious and so I normally just play against my two regular opponents or in planned tournaments. A friend of my girlfriend came over for dinner, and brought her boyfriend who is visiting from Brisbane. He rang me before-hand and asked if I wanted to play a 1000 point game while the girls hung out, and I said why not hey? He normally plays Warhammer Fantasy but has just started a Space Marine army.

Since he hadn’t played 40k much we played Annihilation with Pitched Battle on a 4×4 table. I suggested this on purpose, as he was shaky with rules, time was short, and I thought a full 6×4 table would have given my Guard too much of an advantage.

Iybraesil Rangers

This photo is a little dark . . . but it gives them the moonlight effect I wanted in a cheaty photoshop way!

Here are the first completed models for my Iybraesil Eldar warhost: a couple of Rangers.  I want to try to paint my new Eldar army in a completely different style from my Imperial Guard, not just in different colours, so in the spirit of painting outside the lines I really went to town on these guys with techniques, tools and wild colour theories I’ve never used before.  I even used flock/static grass for the first time.

The crackle effect failed miserably on the bloody trophies.

This is a great model.

First I undercoated them with grey primer, then washed them thickly all over with dark blue-black.  Then I held a can of white spray-paint above them and blasted straight down.  I wanted it to look like the Eldar are in moonlight on a spooky Crone World, not just highlight the raised areas like I usually do.

Next I blocked in the main colours with really thin washes so that the spray highlight showed through naturally and the effect was more like water-colour than solid paint.  Iybraesil’s colours are blue and white so that’s what I went with: blue armour and bone helmets and weapons.  I then picked out the details like straps, buttons and talismans with solid colours.  I deliberately avoided using any pure white or black at all on the models, hoping for a soft light effect.  Finally I washed the models again all over with blue-black mixed with a bit of windex, which left an unplanned grainy effect that I really like.

I tried non-metallic metal for the first time on this elf's captured kroot weapons. And no, you didn't see those bits of flash.

Overall I think they were a success, though as with any experimental process things will go wrong.  I tried out some crackle medium on one elf’s rifle strap trophy, hoping for a dried blood effect, but it didn’t do anything.  I think maybe the area was too small. Also, the subtle shades and highlights look a bit too subtle, especially in photos.  And last but not least, they have white pointy heads . . . and I seem to have stumbled upon the precise paint recipe for Smurf Skin Blue.  So that’s kind of funny.

I’m stoked with how these dudes turned out, and I’m really looking forward to painting my jetbikes now.  They just arrived as part of the final Maelstrom order I made before the announcement of Evil GW’s™ shipping embargo.

Heroes of Iybraesil

Farseer by Jes Goodwin, Rogue Trader era.

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Balora rose from her spirit-trance and floated softly from the Wave Serpent, towards the tiny knot of Eldar warriors gathered below.  

The Seers of the other peoples wove delicate rune-lattices from wraithbone to bear the protective wards that they wore in battle.  But the Ancient Mothers of Iybraesil knew that the most primal and eldritch of ways were ways of blood and sacrifice.  Balora’s slim body had been marked by the handmaidens with runes of blood, wept from the living branches of the Tree of Woe that sulked in the heart of Iybraesil.  These were her Runes of Witnessing and Warding, turning aside weapons and evil intent with equal efficacy.  Her staff was wound with dark blossoms from the same tree.  Her cruel witchblade lurked in it’s charm-shackled sheath on her back.

To one of the brute races the Farseer and the Autarch would have looked much the same – both slender, ethereal waifs, quick and terrifying.  To Skaia’s eyes though the Ancient Mother was old, her movements almost imperceptibly slower and more syrupy than the young warrior’s own.  She watched as Balora removed the pitted wraithbone ghosthelm that held the spirits of many Ancient Mothers of legend.  Tangled snakes of white hair tumbled over the old Eldar’s shoulders, glued with divinatory blood at the tips.  The Farseer turned her yellow eyes on Skaia, and the Autarch bowed her head, unwilling to look into the primeaval past within.  Balora’s voice coalesced in her mind.

*Autarch.  The Ancient Mothers have revealed to me the true name of this world.  The oldest among us has been here . . . before.  You will open your mind to the pathfinder Illia-Khai, and he will guide you.  There will be death, and I will follow in it’s wake, to claim what is ours from the corrupted ones.*

Skaia dropped to one knee and bowed, smiling to herself.  Her dagger hummed at her side, resonating with her own desire for war.  Her ancient scorpion armour shivered on her skin, as though coming to life.  It was only narrowly that Skaia had avoided the fate of the Exarch.

“Control yourself Autarch.”  The Farseer admonished gently, using her own thin voice for emphasis.  “Your Path is first to bring us to victory, not to bring the enemy to peace.”

*Yes, Ancient Mother.*  Skaia silently returned.  She would not forget her Path.  The will of the Goddess would be done. 

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I wrote this little bit to get myself in the mood for painting the first of my Eldar.  I’m really busy with everyday life at the moment (I’m trying to prepare a paper for my first academic conference in three weeks), and I’ve been spending a little more time than I’d like thinking and posting serious thoughts about the games industry, meta-gaming, etc.  Really, the actual hobby is the thing, so it’s time to get refocussed on that.

I guess I’m an RPGamer at heart, so I like to start with a character or two to get the inspiration going.  This story introduces the Farseer and Autarch of my Iybraesil Warhost.

Iybraesil Eldar: it begins

So, the first models just arrived to kick off my Iybraesil Eldar.  I got some rangers from eBay, and I have to mention how great the seller was. I’ve been scammed by sellers in the UK a few times when buying hobby stuff. This guy took ages to post the item and didn’t reply to my first message, so I was understandably getting worried.  But then he got back to me and said he’d had some computer trouble and would throw in a free gift to make amends. The rangers arrived a week or so later with a free striking scorpion! The most awesome thing about this is that I was planning to include a squad of Scorpions in my 500 points, and now I have an extra elf.  So there you go.  There are honest people out there.

I was a bit stuck on how I was going to base my army.  I want them to look like creepy, eldtritch night Eldar.  Not evil or sadistic like Dark Eldar, more a sort of bad faerie feel like WHFB Wood Elves and Dryads in their destructive aspect.  I think the bases will be an important part of getting this across, so I don’t just want to give them urban hive-city bases to match my table.  I want an evil forest look, to show that they are actually exploring a Crone World (I imagine quite a few Crone Worlds are creepy, corrupted forest planets).  I got some Dryad back branches because they have evil little spites on them and look crooked and mean.

Checking Google for “evil forest”pictures, I found something interesting.  I assumed that darker would be creepier, but most of the scariest images it seems to me are quite pale, or they have dark and light elements but are washed out.  Like these:

Apologies if this is your artwork - it shows up a fair bit on Google but I couldn't find the orginal anywhere.

OK so the hideous ghost in the foreground and the words "HAUNTED FOREST" probably help make this picture scary. But the trees do look a bit freaky.

I’m not sure why washed out, pale tones look scary when it comes to woodland scenes but they do. Maybe the lack of contrast reminds us of night time and wakes up animal instincts?  Or maybe Japanese horror movies and the Blair Witch Project have made us afraid of black and white! Whatever the reason, I think I’m going to go for pale branches and dark, almost black grass.  I’ll post pics when the first rangers are done.