Riders of the last Sunset

Let our enemies fear our approach

let them cower at the sound of our warcries

We will descend upon them with our god's wrath

We will spill their blood and crush their bones

We will turn this plain into an altar of the War God

and they will witness the might of the Asur one more time

before darkness falls and the sun sets on the ruins of our world

Hi guys!

It took me forever to put together this chariot, and I suspect it will take me even longer to paint it, but I am quite happy with the conversion as it conveys the ancient Iliad vibe I am trying to push with this project.

The idea is of course the one of a powerful elven champion riding on the plains of Ulthuan in the last battles of the Rhana Dandra. 

Khaine did not yet consumed his soul but he is urging his faithful auriga (charioteer) to plunge deep into the enemy lines looking for a chance to cast his spear against one of their heroes. That's all I thought at the moment, I will come out with a name and a proper background for him while I paint the model.

I have always been fascinated by chariots and their use as a weapon by the elves, something that always reminded me of an ancient and powerful bronze age-like culture which clings to their forefathers traditions and fight their enemies with skill and bravery rather than tricks or subterfuge.

Though I like them I never got to work on one as I always thought that, though the Tiranoc chariot kit has some great potential, the model itself has not aged well. Reins are too chunky, the crew is a bit too static and many bits look a bit clumsy compared to more modern kits. So I set up to convert my first (and probably only) chariot in a way that satisfied me, which involved a lot of repositioning, kitbashing and some green stuff work.

The reins are not attached to the horses for granting more freedom while painting and there are still a couple of details that I would like to touch up before basecoating but generally speaking the model is ready for painting.

Hopefully I will be able to post an update later this week.

As always thanks for looking!

Hagen

The Aeskhaine

Blood Run...

Anger Rises...

Death Wakes...

War Calls

Hi guys, I wanted to share my latest conversion for an Aeskhaine, the crazy and sad elves who fell under the Shadow of Khaine and were uncapable of pull themselves out... They followed Tyrion in his last battles for Ulthuan in ever growing number and were the bulk of his army during the final battle for the Isle of the Deads.

The idea of the Aeskhaine always seemed great to me, as it filled the absence of male followers of Khaine (the assassin do not count as they worship Khaine in his aspect of Night Hunter rather than war god, as do the rest of my Aestyron).

The model was inspired by some bits form the wold riders I ordered last week, which really pushed me to try a fairly ambitious conversion involving bits form white lions, doomfire warlocks, wild riders and tenebrael shard... It helsped to have a quite firm idea of what I was after in terms of result, but still I was surprised by how easily and nicely all the bits went together and I really believe my pitiful photographic skills do not make the model justice... Hopefully i will be able to snap some better pics of the painted mini once I get to finish it.

A always, thanks for watching, I hope to post more updates on this project soon!

Hagen

Ælrik finished!

There is the heat of rage, 

the pulsing rush of hate, 

the Bloody-Handed irresistible whisper,

Magic to make the sanest of us go mad

Hi guys!
As you may have noticed it took me quite a long time to finally come back to the hobby, many changes in life to adjust with etc... But I finally found the motivation to come back to my Aestyrions and possibly push a bit more to actually complete a small warband!
That's where I am with it at the moment...

Khaine's wrath

Hi guys!

Another update on Prince Aelrik.

He is done and ready for painting! As Gonfrask suggested, I added a voluminous cloak, and I must agree with him it does add to the model, enhancing the sense of speed and the noble aspect of the prince (besides it ties him to the rest of my cloaked spearmen).

I used the DE assassin cloak for the conversion and had to resculpt it slightly to fit it to the rest of the model, but it was worthy in the end!

The Black Handed Prince

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 Morning!

Just a quick update on my ongoing project, Prince Ælrik of Cothique, commander of my Aesrtyrion host.

Inspiration for this character came obiouvsly from the cover of the 7th ed HE book with a twist toward the greek vibe. As with the rest of the warband I am aiming at a Iliad feel for him, which to me, is one of the main inspirations for End Times Khaine (or should have been). Think of him as my Achilles, an invincible warrior torn apart by grief and hatred who willingly stepped into the Shadow of Khaine to avenge his lost but found out too late that the path he'd chosen led only to madness.

What I wanted to achieve with him was a simple and dynamic conversion, I wanted to suggest a sense of speed and elegance but keep him as threatening as an elven price should be.

Though apparently simple, the conversion has proven quite a challenge by now,  since I was pushing myself to get the best possible result without any use of Greenstuff. 

I almost did it, though some of the gaps will need filling and details like the reins and saddle will need to get sculpted as well, but most of the work on him is done and I hope that the small bits I need to add will not be an issue for my allergy (finger crossed)

The bits come from a variety of kits, mainly the Tiranoc chariot's horse (possibly the only decently sculpted horses in the High Elves range), legs and base from the High Elves prince kit, sword and head from the Phoenix Guard (with the usual eldar dire avenger's crest, this time I used the exarch one) and the torso from the ellyrian riders' champion form IoB.

I hope to be able to complete the details before the weekend and to start painting him next week.

This Aestyrion project is a really nice breath of fresh air in my hobby activity right now, it gives me the opportunity to assemble a small force with a very high tabletop standard quality without compromising my schedule on other projects. A good thing about AoS is that you don't need to paint your way through 100 rank&file models before being able to play a short battle, a change I really welcome! Now, if only they did not destroy my beloved Old World:(

Elves of the Rhana Dandra

Those were the last days

The Ancient Gods wore their masks and danced again, one last time

and to their silent music we moved carelessly to our doom

We welcomed darkness in our souls

and walked in the shadow of Khaine

until our hands turned red with the blood of our beloved ones

and our hearts became black and empty as the void beyond the world

But we were the sons of Aenarion

and before the end came for us we shone brighter than the stars

So that when the new cycle will begin 

our deeds will not be forgotten

while you and your race will fade into oblivion

Hey guys!

As promised, an update!

After my issues with GS became evident, I decided to go back to some of my old projects... Some of you might be familiar with my Aestyrion, I posted them on warseer last year.

When End Times Khaine came out I felt struck by some of the narrative in it. I mean, we all know it was not the best written fluff piece of all times, and many people disliked the huge change of direction they took with the elves, but I for one found it really interesting while wh elves never really captivated me before. The part of Tyrion betrayal, the Shadow of Khaine and the tragedy of the fall of their race inspired me to make an attempt to infuse these elements into some models.

The result was somehow surprising to me, through a very simple conversion I managed to obtain a quite distinctive style for high elves, bringing them closer to how I always envisioned them, an ellenic inspired culture with elements of ancient Greece and a hint to a quite "alien" origin that ties them to the Eldar in 40k.

Now I know most people dislike this vision of the elves and think of them as more anglo-saxon mythological creatures, but that is how I've always seen them and so was quite happy with the result in the first batch of conversions...

The experiment went on well, I managed to convert and paint around 6-10 of them (which are now lying in my old flat in Turin, sorry, no pictures of them with me) but then stopped when I lost motivation and started other projects... Since then AoS arrived and I now decided to give them a new purpose and make them into a small elven warband. Round bases always suited me better and I am planning to add a mounted hero to guide them, a couple more spearmen and a chariot.

The effect I was after with these models was a noble yet ferocious look, since during the End Times they followed Prince Tyrion they all walked in the Shadow of Khaine and committed murderous atrocities in the name of the bloody-handed god. A spartan theme seemed appropriate for them, I wanted to reflect the warlike aspect of elven culture but also give a hint to the sadness and melancholy of their souls. Therefore I chose a very limited palette of gold, red and black.

Gold/bronze make them look like ancient warrior statues and tie them to the greek feel I was after, red represents the blood they have spilled in the name of their warlike god while black indicates the Shadow of Khaine they all walked under.

All their shields bear the same colours, a white blazon, indicating their ancient family and their lost heritage, over a blood red field with a black patch at the bottom representing the all consuming shadow of Khaine. A Cynaith rune is carved there, with the meaning of Chill, Death, Silence, Loneliness and representing the suffering of their prince and their people and the shame they feel for what became of them before the end.

The conversion was actually really easy, Phoenix guards bodies with bits from the dragon princes, dark elves shields and helmet crests taken from the Eldar Dire Avengers... et Voilà!

I am currently working on their bases and I am making various experiments... I plan to use the new 32mm round bases and paint them in bright and pale colours to contrast with the quite rich palette of the elves.

So, what do you think of them?

EDIT: I managed to finish the base tonight... quite a simple job but I really like the result! It matches well the colours and gives the mini the high fantasy vibe I was after this time.

Still Alive!

Hi all,

I came back here to tell you I am not dead and to give an explanation to my long silence.

So, what happened that prevented me to post on my own blog for so long?

Well, as some of you might know, I developed a rather unfortunate allergy to epoxy putties. That means that, after having used them on an almost daily base for the lat ten years, I am now in the uncomfortable position of not being able to get too close to it, else my throat swells and I experience troubles breathing!
Now, you can probably imagine how I felt when I finally realised the cause of my distress and the consequences of this discovery... I kind of lost my motivation for a while.
The "Sons of Or" project I embarked on involves a great deal of sculpting and converting and I am now not able to go on with it until I find a solution to my allergic issue, so I decided to stop all work on it and take a break from sculpting.
That did not mean I  had to stop painting as well though, so I decided to dedicate myself to other unfinished projects I abandoned a while ago but which I never lost interest in.

There is my army of the Imperium for 40k (comprising Tempestus Scions, Admech and a small detachment of Adeptus Astartes), my Aestyrion warband for End Times and my Averland and bretonninan armies for warhammer fantasy (my all time favourite game and setting)

So, though I will need time and energies to figure out how to deal with this unexpected issue with epoxy putties, I will be back very soon posting my recent progresses here on my blog, since sharing them with you has been highly rewarding and motivative.

Bear with me, I'll be back soon!

Hagen