Hagen

They all look sweeeeeet, but please, better photo! I am especially intrigued about the mounted prince, I am planning a similar conversion and might need to borrow some ideas!

Hi guys! I finally managed to finish the conversion on my chariot! It took me forever and it involved a lot of kitbashing, repositioning and green stuffing, but in the end I am quite happy with the result. Again, the idea is to convey a Bronze Age feel with this piece, inspired by Achilles chariot in the Iliad. I will start painting it as soon as I can but it will probably take me ages to finish it knowing my average speed. Bits come from the HE chariot sprue, white lions, phoenix guards and WE glade riders (the horses). I always liked the concept of HE chariots but the original plastic kit did not age well, too many chunky and clumsy bits like the reins and the static poses of the crew. With this conversion I tried to update the kit by adding a bit more movement and action to the characters. New reins and harness were converted using thin plasticard strips and I did not attached them to the horses yet to grant me more freedom while painting. Let me know if you have any comment/suggestion. Hagen

Good evening, Quick update on something I have been working on today... The chariot is half assembled on my workbench, but today I received some bits frome the wild riders kit and an idea struck me, so I followed the inspiration! I was always intrigued by the small reference in ET Khaine to a faction called Aeskhaine, who fought alongside Tyrion in his last battle for the Isle of the Dead... These elves are the degenerate ones who succumbed to the Shadow of Khaine and became bloodthirsty killers with nothing else than slaughter in mind... Kind of korne elves if you want. But what I really liked was the fact that, despite having much in common with DE whitches, they kept an high elf aesthetic which made them really look like sad shadows of former noble creatures and I always wanted to transfer this into a model... I made a first try few months ago using the Dark Eldar Mandrakes to convert one, and although it worked fairly nicely, I just could not bring myself to work with resin minis, I really prefer plastic by a long way. So I parked the project until today, as I was going through the Wild riders bits I saw a lot of potential for an Aeskhaine Conversion. It was not that simple in the end, but it turned out nice I think... I used the upper torso, arms and hair of a wild rider, head is form the doomfire warlocks, legs of a white lion and gauntleted right arm from the Silver tower Tenebrael Shard... And a bit of GS to make the magic happen! Really satisfied on the result, which kind of reming me the old illustration of khaine that used to grace the banners of my fellow DE players back 10/15 years ago. See you next time, hopefully with a painted version of this guy or a fully assembled chariot! Hagen

Many thanks Steve! I do not know about an army (not in whfb fashion anyway) but I sure plan to expand my warband to something more playable... My plan at the moment is to add some spearmen to the unit to bring their number to ten (at least) and a chariot to give the band a small centrepiece. After that I already have an idea for a unit of Silver Helms and some Aeskhaine (elves who have succumbed to the Shadow of Khaine and lost their sanity and soul to the Destroyer)... I still don't know how to use them in game, maybe as DE Witches?

Thank you Klunc! I am planning to have some work done on a chariot if the bits I ordered arrive before the week end! Will make sure to post progresses here. Hagen

Good Morning, This update might not be too exciting, especially for those of you who already know my works from other forums and blogs, but I wanted to share better pictures of my spearmen and explain a bit more in detail the thoughts and process behind the minis: I started working on these conversions quite a long time ago, right after ET Khaine came out and I have spent a lot of time on each of them, though they are still painted at a tabletop level. They were designed to feel very simple and yet more in line with the artworks from the various HE books and the idea I always had of the Elves as an ancient race akin to the ancient mycenaean or doric greek with a twist toward the ancient aryans (no, not the ones you are thinking about ;) and the hindu. I like to think that the homeric poems, the Iliad in particular, were a great source of inspiration for the final war of Ulthuan and they certainly were for me while working on this project. I wanted each of my warriors to feel like an hero with a personal story and yet transmit a sense of cohesion. Alan Lee wonderful work on illustrating the Homeric poems was incredibly useful and gave me a lot of motivation and a clear result to aim at in terms of painting and general feel of the project (though my colours are much more saturated than his delicate watercolour masterpieces). The choice of their heraldry and colours was also very important. Each shield bears the emblem of the warrior in white over a red field, representing the blood spilled during the terrible wars of the Rhana Dandra. The white motifs were taken from the book Uniforms&Heraldries of the HE, chosen from the section dedicated to Cothique, the realm where Prince Tyrion and my general Ulrik both come from. The lower third of the shields is covered in black, the Shadow of Khaine, which threatens to devour the warrior's pride and transform him into a pitiful Aeskhaine. On this black field is engraved a single Cynath rune, representing the chill of death and the inevitable end that awaits their race and their gods. As I said I plan to make more of them and at least have a playable unit of ten. Let me know what you think. Hagen

The wrath do thou sing, O goddess, of Ullaron's son Ælrik that baneful wrath which brought countless woes upon the Asur, and sent forth to Mirai many valiant souls of warriors, and made themselves to be a spoil for beasts and all manner of birds; and thus the will of Khaine was being brought to fulfillment Good evening Ladies and Gents. After several months of very lazy hobby activity I stumbled across this wonderful website (thanks to the help of a fellow painter, cheers Elfhead) and I decided it was time to clean the dust off my brushes and get some models finally finished. Inspired by the very positive AoS vibes of this community I decided to start again on a project I really enjoyed for the past couple of years but to which I dedicated intermittent efforts during this period: my band of Aestyrions. When End Times Khaine arrived I got really excited for elves for the first time in more than a decade. The tragic story of Tyrion's betrayal and his sorrowful and savage followers who marched under the shadow of the all-consuming god of war Khaine filled me with inspiration and gave me the push to start what back then should have become an army for wh. I started by converting a few spearmen trying to give them a feel of tragicness and martial prowess which the HIgh Elves range always lacked IMHo. Of course since then many things changed, the Old World got obliterated, AoS showed up and my attention moved to other projects, but I was very fond of these first conversions I made and I went on from time to time updating them and converting new ones. Finally I decided the warband needed a leader and so I created Prince Ælrik of Cothique, nicknamed the Black Hand of Khaine. The concept was that of a tragic hero, an Achilles doomed by a cruel fate and bound to his beloved master and commander PrinceTyrion. When the royal descendant of Aenaryon finally drew the Sword of Khaine and became the avatar of the Blood Handed God, Ælrik and his warband fell under the shadow of Khaine and their bloody deeds against their former brothers became well known all across Ulthuan. Finally Prince Ælrik managed to pull himself out of the red madness that obnubilated his thoughts since the day of Tyrion's betrayal but when he found out about the atrocities he and his warriors have committed his heart broke and the noble prince changed forever. Becoming a renegade he abandoned his master and roamed across Ulthuan as a lone warrior, he and his few hardened followers becoming little more than mercenaries fighting on both sides of the war, waiting for the final moments of the Rhana Dandra when the gods themselves will descend to fight their last battle and Ælrik and his soldiers can take revenge on them for their once noble master's fall. The miniatures themselves are a mix of different kits, but I kept the conversions simple to achieve a cohesive look. Bodies and legs come from the Phoenix Guard, while the heads have been converted using the eldar Dire Avengers helm crests. Finally shields come from the Drak Elves spearmen kit (I purchased many of the plain resin ones). The idea was to give them a greek vibe, something close to the archetype of Homer's Ilyad. Each one should have looked like a hero on his one yet thay should feel like part of the same unit. A lot of thought has been put into the heraldry design, but you can find out more detailed explanations of the process (and WIP pics) on my presonal blog PINXIT: http://hagenpinxit.blogspot.co.uk/ That's it for now, I will leave you with some pics of my small warband, to which I hope to add a few more warriors in the close feature (and a chariot!) and hopefully they will become a playable force one day... They would be perfect for a Path to Glory campaign I reckon... A man can always dream! Cheers, Hagen

Hello Elfhead! Thanks for letting me know of this amazing community, somehow it passed under my radar! Your conversions on the princes are incredible, I am so glad to see you did not abandon this amazing project, which was one of my all time favourites back on warseer! Your painting technique also seem to have improved a lot since I last checked, your NMM is really impressive, I dare say one of the best of best I have seen around the web (and something I would never be able to replicate). The kraken cloak on the leftmost prince is a stunning conversion idea and very well executed indeed... I might shamelessly steal it form you! You are giving me now a lot of motivation to go back to my Aestyrions! If I will I will make sure to open a blog in here as it looks like a great space to share our visions of AoS! Hagen