Corsairs, Exodites, Craftworlders and hopefully Kabalites soon

Yeah that's the one had this massive civilisation dedicated to him, but only one chap genuinely actually believed he existed. So, when he decided to descend from on high and rampage around as a celestial bull for a while he wound up as a tortoise and didn't have the power to turn back.

Yeah. Pratchett is awesome

A while ago I sort of had the idea that it would be a neat idea to do various animalistic-themed things for my exodite HQs. I've got my Stag-like Thaegr and Raodruin, and my avian Myrdolaith.

This guy started off as another Stag-like thing, but evolved into something slightly more Pantherinae.

Meet Sardroath, Beastborn, Sunstalker, Son of Kurnous. Counts-as Jetbike Autarch with Laser Lance.






The exodite worlds of Selesti are populated by many clans and tribes, all under the gaze of Raodruin the High Lord of Selesti. Many tribes perished when Nurgle reigned over their lands, and those that survived were changed irreparably. Each were afflicted with differing conditions as the whims of the Plaguefather manifested over their lands, and each of these afflictions has had a marked effect on their culture.

The Selestini of the Godwoods were protected from direct manifestation by the gnarled boughs of naturally occurring wraithbone that populate their forest. However, they were continually assaulted by legions of plaguebearers, and launched ambushes from their protected glades in response. Their warriors have long learnt the value of stealth and infiltration, as well as the protective power of the adherants of the Cult of Morai Heg.

The Selestini of the Sandspires fled upwards into the mountainous spires of sandstone that riddle their lands. The Blightlord sent his Plague Drones to harvest them, to which they responded with great flocks of feathered warriors to meet them in aerial combat. Over the years, reverence of these ancient aerial combatants has become more and more ingrained into the Sandspires culture. Avian modifications are widespread in the warriors of the Sandspires.

The Selestini of the Dreaming Wastes felt the fertile plains of their lands turn to corrosive acid beneath their very feet. Those who survived were forced to replace their legs with durable wraithbone in order to wade through the acidic swamps to take the battle to the enemy. Over time, these modifications became more and more extreme as they diverged from standard Eldar physiology. In the present day, warriors of the Dreaming Wastes ritually replace their lower limbs with great 4-legged constructs that afford them phenomenal speed and toughness.

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I've wanted to do a creepy skeletal-like alien exodite centaur for a while now finally got the pieces to do it it's a mishmash of three Spite Revenants (legs mainly, although the torso flipped on its side formed the basis of the front part of the centaur legs), and some Kurnoth Hunter shoulder pads.

Thinking about the mechanics of how it'd walk is really neat. With such big claws on the front hands it'd have to knuckle-walk like a gorilla at low speeds, but would change at speed to something more feline nice and alien and weird

The inspiration for this came from a quote from the ever-excellent https://ironsleet.com/ and this utterly spectaculr model:



I'm paraphrasing here, but the accompanying fluff stated 'cut off for 10,000 years...just how far from human would a Tech Priest go' which is something that's really stuck in my mind

I'd love to take that idea further with Eldar, but for now this dude is my effort so far!

Beastborn! Oh it's really attractive and creative! Would you please let me know which bits you used for the model?

Wow! Love that Beastborn!

And yes, those are Pratchett novels in the background of my pic. I have all his discworld books, most of them from first release with Kirby covers. Loved his work! RIP.

Insane, amazing insane...nice work!

Thanks guys! Glad he's gone down so well!

He's a mishmash of Tree Revenant bits mainly. Wish I'd got some WIP shots but I was sort of breaking new ground and wasn't quite sure what I was doing!

The front part of the 4-legged bit is the main wooded torso bit of a Tree Revenant, but flipped over so that the space for the elf-looking body is facing downwards (the Wild Rider torso actually sits in the hollow for the Tree Revenant's left arm). Then that's bulked out slightly with Kurnoth Hunter shoulder pads. The rear part is just plain old Tree Revenant legs cut off at the hip, with a Dryad head-crest thing sitting on top which is stuck to the front part of the body. Then, a set of Tree Revenant legs are cut at the joints and re-posed at the front (with some of the Spite Revenant claws for the freaky hands), and cut at the joints with an extra section stuck in to make them digitigrade at the back. Lastly, various twigs and whatnot are clipped off and used to make a sort of skeletal chest ribcage thing

Hope that makes some sort of sense!

Well, as the weather warms my other hobbies will begin to creep up again so the 40k updates might be slightly less prolific. However, there's a monthly painting competition over on DakkaDakka with a new theme each month. April's theme is 'Primal' so how could I resist?

Here's an early peek:



It's a digitigrade exodite Howling Banshee one of Myrdolaith's people

Very cool.

I've been spending a lot of time drooling over Inq28 stuff online lately, and while I absolutely love it, it's also rather humanicentric.

And now I'm curious what the other hobbies are. (I've got a bunch too.)

You and me both! INQ28 is fantastic, but you're absolutely right with it being human-centric.

One of the things I'm trying with my exodites is to give them a bit of the flavour of INQ28, such that I could cherry-pick some models from my main army to create a very varied small exodite warband that would fit very nicely into the INQ28 aesthetic

Thinking about it, Commorragh is an absolutely perfect place to set a similar INQ28-scale skirmish game (maybe using modified Inquisimunda rules). It's chock full of various different unsavoury characters, has tons of different factions already represented, plus a whole host of xenos mercenaries, haemonculus-creations, corsairs and other such things.

There's even parallels with Inquisitors. I'd imagine that Vect has various individuals in his employ to root out psykers hiding in the city

Now all we need is a snappy name for it

Perhaps just expand it to all xenos and call it XEN28 I'd love to see INQ28-style Tau (I'm getting ideas of KGB-style secret police in a communist-korea-style propaganda-filled dictatorship. Ooh! how about Gue-vesa dudes with little red stars a'la Hitler's Germany), or Kroot Mercenaries (there's a kicakss converted army of a Kroot Scavenger Kindred that would fit very nicely).

Ok. This needs to be a thing.

As for other hobbies it's pretty much just the one my primary passion is classic and retro cars, and I spend a good deal of my time (and money!) chopping them up and welding them back together I go by the name of BiTurbo228 on places like Jalopnik/Oppositelock and Club Triumph

How about yourself?

The dysjunction sent colossal tremours through the very bedrock of Commorragh. Towers crumbled as ripples cascaded through reality. Gaping tooth-lined chasms opened up beneath the ground, spewing forth great legions of daemons into the stricken city. Even Ynneadlidh, far far beneath the beseiged streets was in danger. Gnawing gnashing eyeless daemons flooded its pitch-black tunnels, skittering out from the cracks in the fabric of the realm. The haemonculi were no strangers to military forays, but never before in their history had they come close to anything approaching mobilisation.

Vast legions of wracks poured forth into the tunnels, their odd sidling gait belying the surgical precision with which they fought. Hulking beasts of foreign flesh rampaged through the myriad winding corridors, but still the daemonic horde pressed onwards. For the first time in milennia, the twisted denizens of low Commorragh felt the prickle of fear on the back of their necks. Half-formed experiments were unleashed, some wildly effective, others disappointingly incapable.

Malkarta hurriedly adjusted the final few synaptic bridges on her latest prototypes, their forms motionless aside from the steady undulation of their breathing. She nodded to the wych-clone beside her, who hesitated slightly before walking forth into the beast's embrace. Heavy muscles clamped tightly around her skull, and sinuous neural needles pierced the back of her neck painfully, worming their way into her motor cortices. Sharply, her senses bloomed across the creature, overlaying its primitive standby consciousness. She tested a brief arm movement and the creature mirrored it, a slight twitchiness marring the otherwise perfect maneuver. "Good enough," Malkarta barked, "hub-bound tunnel 8. Now.". The deep thrum of the fearsome creature's anti-grav mechanisms burst into life and the pair stalked out through the subterranean depths.








I've been wanting to do one of these for aaages ever since I saw this utterly stunning conversion that I've shamelessly cribbed



If I'm perfectly honest, I prefer the other guy's one but Wraith tails are pretty hard to come by :S still happy though!

Wow the design is awesome. I like it!

And what's that humanoid model sharing the head with Talos?

Thanks! On the original one i think it's an old-school haemonculus, but mine is a wych torso with the nub of a scourge neck and a pair of hellion legs that have been cut at the hip and re-angled

I've got a big backlog of how-to things to post up, one of which is a basic one for this one

I prefer your way to the old haemy. Thanks!

Gosh, darn! That looks good! I might have to steal this.

Thanks dude steal away! I know I did

Eeep! Damn you have been knocking things out the park while I have been away. Those Scourge banshees are awesome and man.....that talos thing......dude......pure awesome. Creepy and perfectly fitting for your army. Love it

Well... I've missed quite a bit.

I absolutely love you beastborn to start off with! (I truely have no idea how you created a Centaur body out of the Sylvaneth bits, so all I can say is wonderful job you now have me trying to think of new ways to use bits) Astounding work.

Your banshees are no less spectacular, again the Sylvaneth bits have almost become a trademark of your army Of which they do look fantastic (If you ever need wings to match them I highly recommend Morghast Wings as they have a simmilar look that you could use for them if tweaked enough)

Finally that pain engine is cool, as is your inspiration for it. For some reason I found the double splinter cannons near the head to be almost amusing, but certainly intimidating.

Overall fantastic work Ynnead! You never disappoint.

Thanks guys! And welcome back both of you!

The good thing about Sylvaneth bits is that a lot of the wood stuff is sort of just random shapes, which you can sort of rotate around to make whatever you like

Morghast wings would be cool how big are they?

I'm chuffed to bits with the Talos, and I'm thinking of ways to vary it up slightly to make a Cronos so I can have a Dark Artisan eventually

Ty.

The Morghast wings are roughly the same size as a Raider Sail. So for smaller infantry they aren't great (Unless you want massive wings which could look cool)

What is your plan to make the Cronos simmilar?

So Ynneadwraith, what did you do this evening? Did you paint your new exodite Banshees? Did you paint your new Talos? Did you paint anything at all?

Of course not. Don't be silly...

Morrathillian has become Morrathillienn



Morrathillienn of the House of Ulthanash, Reaper of the Outer Dark, Prince of the Khaine's Ravens.

I've been growing a little dissatisfied with my Corsair Prince model for a little while now. You only get one Corsair Prince, and the whole concept of an Eldar that's managed to forge a minor empire outside of the protection of a Craftworld or Commorragh is just an opportunity to make a really characterful model

I'd been content to leave it on the back burner until I saw this stunning model of an INQ28 Shipmaster finally sparked some inspiration



Looking at that model it struck me just how...Kabalite...Greyfax's torso looks. Plus, I finally had something to do with the Yvraine bits I had from the Triumvirate add in some Scourge wings, a Wrack pilot arm (nice and psyker-y, and also with enhanced musculature to explain S4) and a whole lot of cutting and reposing and hey presto!

There's a couple of little things I've noticed I need to touch up from these pics. First is the little skull on her collar needs to become a soulstone, and I've been wondering about adding Greyfax's skull pauldron thing...

Greyfax does look very Kabalish doesn't she... (So does Celestine come to think of it... I guess Sisters are cosplaying Dark Eldar?) Speaking of which the Sisters of Silence also make wonderful Kabalites if you think about it... The Sisters of which I may or may not use their blades for my Incubi....

Anyway I really like your Corsair Prince Looks very powerful although leaning back takes away some of that (I would think leaning forward would add more menace) her current pose makes me imagine she's thinking "Isn't that unsightly" (Love the pose on her btw )

although I'm not sure how I feel about the head but that is more personal preference on heads in general (I'm a fan of long luscious locks )

So you're right! I wonder if the same guy is designing them. Sisters of Silence would make neat looking Trueborns

Thanks dude! The pose was slightly constricted by what I could do with the legs, but I get what you mean. More arrogance than aggression (which I'm completely fine with for a Corsair Prince!).

If you like luscious locks then Tree Revenants are right up your street! I'd challenge anyone to find another model that's more L'Oreal saying that, the Dark Elf Corsair Shipmaster might be a strong contender...

I do have an update actually! Similar to Morrathillienn, I've been slightly dissatisfied with my Ynnari Autarch Idravain. I like the model, but it doesn't quite live up to the creepiness potential for Ynnari. So, I had another go at him...

In his wraithbone palace, the dead god waits dreaming - Khalfhirin, Prophet of Ynnead



Idravain thought back on the muddled centuries of his life. Way back when he was first alive, he recalled having been born amidst the terrible 500-year descent as Altansar was inexorably pulled into the depths of the Eye. His early life was a desperate and futile struggle against the colossal psychic gravity well was dragging them under. Mere moments after they were submerged, the assault began. Valiantly they fought, but the craftworld was swiftly reduced to lifelessness. Idravain had died there, among his kin. Aimlessly, the hulk drifted through that warped and twisted realm, and for millennia nothing stirred on the dead craftworld.



With bleary eyes, Idravain had woken. Unsteadily, he had pulled himself to his feet. Many of his kin had already risen. Approaching them he finally saw the horror of their visages. They may have been walking confused as living Eldar would, but they looked like revenants. Their mortal wounds had been restitched, but incompletely. Limbs were functional, but bones exposed themselves through torn flesh and pallid skin. It was only through the dreaming of their seers that they discovered what had occurred.



The nascent God of Death had cast a thinning veil over the craftworld, resurrecting its fallen people. However, as yet unborn her powers were incomplete. The Altansari were resurrected in soul, but not in body. In this risen state, they cowered behind the veil for centuries, or perhaps millennia, it was hard to tell. Time ebbs and flows like tides in the warp. They cowered there until their salvation came. Maugan Ra, son of Altansar, struck deep into the Eye and found his people. Blazing with soulfire, he led them back to the materium.



Until the birth of Ynnead, Idravain had cowered still. Like the rest of his kin, he feared greatly how the still-living Eldar would react to their condition. Now though, he wore his condition as a mark of pride. Many times he had fallen as he fought for Yvraine. Each time he had risen again. Each time a little less living. He saw these defects as a blessing from Ynnead, a clear sign of her favour. He bore them with honour, for all to see. He was chosen by Ynnead, and would fight until his purpose, whatever that might be, was complete.



The Eldar are a people for whom symbolism is not merely important, but an inescapable fact of life. Yvraine, first of her kind, Emissary of Ynnead, was accompanied on her quest at every step by the mighty Visarch. As the Ynnari set out to spread their faith among the stars, many cells found themselves gravitating to a similar model of prophet and guardian.

@Ynneadwraith This project log is amazing and has inspired me to start corsairs (after i have finished my ynnari). Your corsair prince is beautiful and a stroke of genius using greyfax, works really well.
Out of interest what sylvaneth kit did you use for the above models?

Well I'm not Ynnead but I beleive most of it is the Tree Revenant kit (he loves that kit) with a bit of Kuranoth Hunters (although far more sparing and to my knowledge only used for the Centaeldari)

I had a feeling it may of been that kit but was unsure. I have to say I'm very very tempted to use this idea for a very wacky corsair army. I feel If I'm starting corsairs I may as well go all in. Hopefully after my 5k ynnari I'll have enough bits that I won't have dupe up on Eldar kits