# Armies on Parade 2013: Iyanden Corsair Warband



## stuff (Jan 16, 2010)

Hello! It's been a while..... But finally have a few weeks away from university etc. to start a new project. I've been feeling a bit uninspired by anything CSM wise for a while and the new eldar models coming out are awesome so I thought I would give them a go. 

I was runner up at my local parade day in 2011 and didn't have time to enter in 2012 and am determined to win this year. As I reckon there may be a couple of eldar entries, I thought I would attempt to make my army a bit more intriguing, hence the corsair theme! I also want to try painting some yellow for the first time, hence the Iyanden part of the theme. 

The army will likely consist of some guardians, a seer council, a couple of wraithlords and wraithblades (I know they probably a bit slow and lumbering fluff wise for a corsair army but the models are too cool to pass up on) and a couple of fliers and tanks etc.

I am open to ideas for the display board, but currently I am thinking of building some kind of eldar space port.

To make the army as captivating as possible, I am going to convert each guardian to an extent, making sure that not one of my models is the same. For the guardians I am using some dark elf corsair bits and probably a few bits from all over the shop. 

This is the first converted eldar corsair guardian I built today. It took quite a bit of chopping and filing to get the cloak to fit at all but I think the final result is pretty tidy!







So what does everyone think? Good concept?


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## Sangus Bane (Jun 17, 2009)

Stupid question maybe, but what is the cloak from? 

It's nothing too drastic yet the conversion seems really effective. Looking forward to more mini's.


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## Jacobite (Jan 26, 2007)

I'm not entirely all brushed up on my Eldar fluff but isn't Iyanden overwhelmingly Wraith powered? Seems a odd choice for a Corsair band.

That said I love the conversion! Simple effective classic. Any ideas on what colors you will paint the cloaks?


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## stuff (Jan 16, 2010)

Hello again!

@Sangus Bane - the cloak is from the Fantasy Dark Elf Corsairs kit.

@Jacobite - Yes, Iyanden do rely heavily on wraithguard etc, but there are some corsairs that stemmed from Iyanden, take Prince Yriel for example, he is High Admiral of the Iyanden Fleet and also High Admiral of the Eldrich Raiders Corsair Fleet. I am essentially using that as a theme, allowing me to incorporate some cool wraith units with guardians etc that look a bit more intriguing than the usual. The cloaks are going to be painted a turquoisy blue.


Nearly finished assembling 2 units of guardians. I haven't made the last two from each squad as I am not sure if I am going to include weapon platforms or proxy these guys as dire avengers, will see when I get a good look at the new codex. 

I understand that guardians don't have exarchs etc but I wanted each squad to have some form of leader so have given them close combat weapons from the dark elf corsair kit.

Converted Eldar Corsair Squad 1:

All have cloaks form the dark elf corsair kit, was quite a fiddle getting them to fit, but you can't really see any mess due to the positioning of the arms etc. The squad leader has a sword from the dark elf corsairs kit as well, had to do a bit of a weapon swap as all the sword arms are right arms, the pieces are pretty flimsy even with pinning so I am going to have to be pretty careful with that model.








Converted Eldar Corsair Squad 2:

The back of the torsos are form the Eldar Guardian Kit. The legs and the front of the torsos are from the dark elf corsair kit. The torso pieces really don't fit together nicely; I had to do a fair bit of greenstuff work to get the backs looking acceptable, but I think they turned out reasonably nicely in the end. I've put a pic in of the bacl of one of the guardians so you get an idea of what was involved.












And last but not least, the first 4 models of my seer council. I have to say, I love painting finecast models, the detail is fantastic, but the amount of tidying up they need and the fact that so often, really important parts of the model have rather bad imperfections just gets on ma goat! i.e. I really hope my farseers face doesn't look totally crap when I finish painting it, was missing like the whole left side.......



Just waiting on some army painter sprays before I get going with the painting. 

So, C & C please! What do people think?


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## stuff (Jan 16, 2010)

Hello again!

@Sangus Bane - the cloak is from the Fantasy Dark Elf Corsairs kit.

@Jacobite - Yes, Iyanden do rely heavily on wraithguard etc, but there are some corsairs that stemmed from Iyanden, take Prince Yriel for example, he is High Admiral of the Iyanden Fleet and also High Admiral of the Eldrich Raiders Corsair Fleet. I am essentially using that as a theme, allowing me to incorporate some cool wraith units with guardians etc that look a bit more intriguing than the usual. The cloaks are going to be painted a turquoisy blue.


Nearly finished assembling 2 units of guardians. I haven't made the last two from each squad as I am not sure if I am going to include weapon platforms or proxy these guys as dire avengers, will see when I get a good look at the new codex. 

I understand that guardians don't have exarchs etc but I wanted each squad to have some form of leader so have given them close combat weapons from the dark elf corsair kit.

*Converted Eldar Corsair Squad 1:*

All have cloaks form the dark elf corsair kit, was quite a fiddle getting them to fit, but you can't really see any mess due to the positioning of the arms etc. The squad leader has a sword from the dark elf corsairs kit as well, had to do a bit of a weapon swap as all the sword arms are right arms, the pieces are pretty flimsy even with pinning so I am going to have to be pretty careful with that model.








*Converted Eldar Corsair Squad 2:*

The back of the torsos are form the Eldar Guardian Kit. The legs and the front of the torsos are from the dark elf corsair kit. The torso pieces really don't fit together nicely; I had to do a fair bit of greenstuff work to get the backs looking acceptable, but I think they turned out reasonably nicely in the end. I've put a pic in of the bacl of one of the guardians so you get an idea of what was involved.












And last but not least, the first 4 models of my seer council. I have to say, I love painting finecast models, the detail is fantastic, but the amount of tidying up they need and the fact that so often, really important parts of the model have rather bad imperfections just gets on ma goat! i.e. I really hope my farseers face doesn't look totally crap when I finish painting it, was missing like the whole left side.......



Just waiting on some army painter sprays before I get going with the painting. 

So, C & C please! What do people think?


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## Jacobite (Jan 26, 2007)

stuff said:


> @Jacobite - Yes, Iyanden do rely heavily on wraithguard etc, but there are some corsairs that stemmed from Iyanden, take Prince Yriel for example, he is High Admiral of the Iyanden Fleet and also High Admiral of the Eldrich Raiders Corsair Fleet. I am essentially using that as a theme, allowing me to incorporate some cool wraith units with guardians etc that look a bit more intriguing than the usual. The cloaks are going to be painted a turquoisy blue.


Oh sweet, was just checking. Sounds grand, really like what you are doing with the cloaks and the small amounts of GS look great skillwise. Keep it up.


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## Loli (Mar 26, 2009)

Love it. , never fancied Eldar unless it was Corsair or Harlies. So I really like what your doing. 

Though my favourite part of this is that you list the parts you used for conversion etc.


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## stuff (Jan 16, 2010)

After a while (been in SE Asia and looking for a job for the rest of the summer - fortunately both were a success), I'm back on track with this!

So, I've got some of the painting started on these guys and nearly finished a crimson Hunter.

Here they are, displayed on my newly finished gaming board (needs a fair bit more scenery but that's the basics done!). The lighting is a bit shit in places, but I'll take some better pictures when they are all finished.





Painting wise, I use a white primer, followed by Daemonic Yellow spray paint from Army Painter. I then washed the models with Seraphim Sepia Shade from GW. The cloaks and helmets were painted Enchanted Blue, followed by a wash of Asuremen Blue, then worked back up to Enchanted Blue. The yellow is to be touched up and the weapons and details are untouched as well. Weapons platforms and a couple more guardians to be undercoated as well.





The Crimson Hunter was primed white, followed by Daemonic Yellow. The recesses were washed with Seraphim Sepia. Highlights were done with Skull White. The blue areas were marked out using masking tape, then sprayed with Crystal Blue from Army Painter. The recesses were then washed with Asurmen Blue and the highlights were done with Spacewolves Grey. Weapons and engines were painted black, then Boltgun Metal, followed by a heavy wash of Asuremen Blue. The freehand was done with Enchanted Blue and Spacewolves grey. 

I am also about to start work on a Wraithlord, converted to be carrying his brightlance like a sniper rifle. Also have some Wraithguard/Wraithblades in the pipeline.

Verdict?


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## stuff (Jan 16, 2010)

Quick update.

Quite a bit done:

-5x wraithblades built and undercoated
-stalking wraithlord with bright lance sniper rifle built and undercoated
-second wraithlord with bright lance sniper rifle built but not based
-fair bit of sketching/planning/ordering materials for the display board.

Here's a quick couple pics of one of the wraithlords. Really decent kit, easy to convert, only took a bit of greenstuff and cutting to reposition the knee joint and the sniper rifle/bright lance was really just cutting and gluing. Easy! Bottom photo shoes what I did with the knee, the double knee cap doesn't really make sense I guess, but it made the greenstuff work a lot easier...







In terms of the board, I am doing a sort of ruined city scape, with an Eldar Webway Nexus break through the ground and my Iyanden army advancing out of it. Will be able to make good use of the GW city buildings etc to add a bit of detail to the whole thing. Seem like a decent idea?


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## Djinn24 (Jan 12, 2008)

Sounds like it's going to be a great board you have going for you. The models are coming along nicely as well. Any idea on decals or emblems?


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## stuff (Jan 16, 2010)

@djinn - Yeah I'm unsure what I am going to do about decals and emblems etc, I might use some of the transfers from the new transfer sheet, any suggestions??

Another quick update.

Spent the evening (well night really, have a bar job for summer that I often don't finish til 5am so am now semi-nocturnal....) converting myself a Spiritseer to lead my Iyanden army. Still WIP, need to greenstuff his right arm.

1. I used a high elf mage from the island of blood box that I had for some hihg elves I haven't ever got round to painting. I chopped the torso etc from the legs and pinned the front half of a guardian torso in it's place.

2. I filled the gap between legs and torso by sculpting a sash like the farseer from the seer council box has round his waist.

3. The head is from the Hemlock Wraithfighter pilot. 

4. The left arm is from one of the guardian weapons platform crew.

5. The cloak is from the dark elf corsairs kit + some cutting + some greenstuff.

6. The spines are from something in the crimson hunter/bomber kit. Will maybe add some of the wee bumps the other wraith units have on them.

7. The shaft of the staff is from a high elf spearman. I put a pin through it to add the top details on. The crescent shaped piece is from one of the wraithguard weapons I think and the connector piece between the head and the crescent is from a high elf lothern sea guard spear. The head of the staff is a bit of movement tray tile cut to size and filed.







Still to do.....

1. Sculpt the right arm.
2. Add a spirit stone or something to the head of the staff? (may just do some freehand on it when painting instead...)

Fun conversion to do. What do people think? Any Suggestions for improvement?


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## Loli (Mar 26, 2009)

Wow, just wow


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## Hydraulix (May 5, 2013)

Down right sexy, 'Applause'


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## Djinn24 (Jan 12, 2008)

If done right decals can look awesome and would be the easiest. 

LOVE THE SPIRITSEER. Make me one please


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## Chimpsarse (Aug 29, 2013)

That spiritseer is superb


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## stuff (Jan 16, 2010)

Thank you very much for the compliments people!

Just a quick update. 

Most of the materials for the display board arrived today. With a lot of sawing, slicing and sanding, I have done the bulk of the work on the Eldar Webway Nexus/Portal. I have some water effect that I am going to attempt to make the portal itself from. Was thinking I could use some thin plasticard to make the overall shape of it, then pour the water effect into it but onto cling film or smething and then peel it off. I have Woodland Scenics' "Realistic Water", does anyone know if this drys solid?


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## Djinn24 (Jan 12, 2008)

It does, slowly. Also only use it in very thin layers as it shrinks.


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