Saturday 19 September 2015

Eldar Guardian Conversions - The Retarded

Eldar Guardians
Barbarus, master Haemonculus and flesh crafter, smiled his thin lipped smile, limping slowly towards the bank of cages in front of him. The room reeked of bile, sweat and the strange scents of exotic perfumes. Trails of pus leaked from cracks in the cage walls, slime coating the bars as thin wails of anguish emitted from within.
"Ahhh my pretties, the time is almost ripe for your special unveiling" he cackled, drawing a key from his filthy robe.
" Many hours have been spent crafting your new forms, and it is time to prove your worth to our illustrious master"
He limped from cage to cage as he crooned, inserting the key into rusty locks which squealed their protest as they moved, showering rust onto the filthy floor.
Barbarus stepped back and waited expectantly as the doors slowly swung outwards. Cavities of blackness were revealed, like decaying sockets in a skull. Slowly the sound of shuffling increased in volume as movement could be seen in the depths of each cage. Suddenly loud bangs erupted and showers of confetti streamed from within, balloons appeared and floated fitfully towards the low ceiling, bobbing there until they were caught in gusts of foul reeking wind, and sent spinning crazily to the extremeties of the room.
The shapes revealed within moved slowly forward, shuffling ungainly and squinting as they came into the light. Foul creatures they were, tubes and coils of wire erupted from bloated humps and deformed limbs trailed behind their mutilated bodies . Twisted and mutated beyond all recognition, they were sad parodies of their former selves. Artists, musicians, and craftsmen they once were, plucked ignominiously from their homes, stripped of their armour and forced to suffer horrendous tortures at the hands of their captors
"Aaahhh my guardians, are you ready?"

I have succumbed. My Eldar allied detatchment has begun to be formed. I recently saw a project over on the dark city where wraithknights were modified to have head dresses and exotic weapons, amd I was instantly smitten. The cogs in my head started turning and an idea was formed. I have bought a dodgy wraithknight from ebay which is currently sitting in a tub of dettol to remove the paint, and this will be repurposed for my carnival. However unless I want to run unbound (which I don't) I needed some troops to fill out the detachment. Last week I was having a game with Xacheriel and mentioned my idea. He suggested I convert up a load of guardians to accompany the knight, using the hobbit gremlins I had just aquired (I wanted the scenery to use in Malifaux). It was a great idea and as soon as I got home I set about converting them up. Below are the fruits of my labour. Pretty pleased with them tbh, they are suitably warped and creepy to fit into the theme I wanted (and they have inspired my first ever piece of fluff above). The talos limbs add some nice creepy brutal elements, and the wires, vials and tubes all add to that. Of course they don't look anything like Eldar guardians but who cares right? :). The beauty of this carnival project is that I can use any unit for whatever I want and no one is any the wiser. They could quite easily stand in for wracks or even be mixed in with my current warrior squads and nobody would bat an eye. Glorious! :D
Of course your feedback on these is much appreciated. What do you think of them? Do they work or look a little crap?
Ta ta for now
NafNaf out!


12 comments:

  1. These guys are so cool and so much fun. I think the hard part isn't that they don't look like Guardians (which is fine), but being able to differentiate them from the Dark Eldar on the table.

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    1. Thanks dude :). I appreciate the feedback as |I was not sure
      they worked or if it was just in my head.

      I know what you mean about the differentiation. There is a lot of flesh on these so hopefully when they are painted they should really stand out as different because of that. The main infantry has a base of red with lots of cloth for colour, so these should be able to be told apart as a different faction. The models are a little different too in both stature and style so hopefully this will add to the visual difference

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  2. I love them. I would suggest you get them the guardian rifles if possible. Lovely conversions like this are super awesome, but some events will require they are WYSIWYG, ie, they need to have the guardian gun somewhere on the model.

    Easy fix for this would be to sling it on their backs, or have them randomly pointing in the sky and such :)

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    1. Cool cheers Greg. The feedback I have so far on them is positive so I will be converting up some jetbikes with them as well now :)

      I think if an event demands wysiwyg I am pretty screwed anyway though. Got lollipops, balloons and all sorts in place of standard weapons, so not sure how far I should go to make a model fit into its profile. Maybe I will add some broken rifles to the bases, but will that be enough? Hmmm food for thought :)

      I will always email an event before hand to check my army is ok (the beauty of having a blog is I have photos of everything :) ) and if they refuse I always have my space wolves, although I will be kinda sad if an event does not allow heavily converted armies like mine

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    2. Based on the rule of cool, I doubt anyone would EVER have any issue playing their army. If they did, the bloggers would hunt them down and make them feel super bad for being assholes.

      Your army is one of the most beautifully unique I've ever seen. It's not only imaginative, but stunningly rendered, which makes it a standout in any event. I honestly think you'd make it to final judging for best army in a 200+ event.

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    3. Thankyou so much for that Greg :). I am very chuffed to hear so.

      I would love to take these out to an event, and have an aim of getting enough finished for the next blog wars in the summer 2016. I am actually pretty excited to have enough painted to game with. I am fairly close too which is nice

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    4. Just as a thought I could add little signs to each squad (maybe a base insert with a flag) saying 'I'm a guardian squad or I'm a warrior squad etc. That may work and help to appease the wysiwig criteria a little. Whaddaya think?

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    5. Well if you are just going for blog wars, just check what they require. It really comes down to who you are playing with, and where.

      Generally most people are cool, and as long as you say "hey these are guardians" and explain what their guns do, they will satisfied.

      Some places though, do require you show all the weapons, so someone can identify "oh that guy has a rocket launcher" or that guy is holding a grav cannon. etc. blog wars sounds like the kind of event that is just happy to have awesome models on the table more then anything else :)

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    6. Although blog wars is the goal, I would love to be able to take them to other events too (wish we had things like adeptcon, LVO ect here where I could go to narrative events). I totally know what you mean about the requirements, and have to accept that some events I may not be able to take them, or at least write a list where the more wacky elements are left at home

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    7. I've seen some crazy armies at these events. I'd still bring them everywhere. :)

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  3. You are an expert at making the creepy - just superb NafNaf. While I see what Greg is saying with the WYSIWYG, I think that is more to detract the chaff - no body would have a problem playing your army of clowns because it is so well done and creative - well I think many people would have issues after playing your creepers but that's a whole different problem.

    Your greenstuff hats are amazing by the way - great work on them

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  4. Cool cheers Joe :)

    The hats are a fun addition which I really like. Makes them a bit more creepy too I think :)

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