+ inload: Alaitoc Craftworld Dark Reapers +

+ inload: Reaping, Eldar style +

+ It's looking like the new Epic Legions is going to be delayed – sad face – but to find a silver lining, that means there's space for something a bit different. Enter the swift-striding Eldar, who were first to the front of the queue. +

+ An overview of Rogue Trader army number 2 – my Alaitoc Eldar project – is  found in this inload: [+noosphericinloadlink embedded+], and while it's been slow going, it is creeping along. +

+ The Guardians, detailed here [+noosphericinloadlink embedded+], were relatively involved conversions, but the Aspect Warriors have thus far been very minimal, because the aesthetics of the latest plastics hew fairly closely to the Rogue Trader-era originals. +

+ With a small squad size of three, I could have tackled a little more  involved conversion work, but to be honest I think that would have been making unnecessary work for myself. Both the original and modern sculpts are lovely, so beyond the helmets, I left the modern iteration unconverted. I have nodded to the monopose look (perhaps a deliberate choice, perhaps simply owing to scheduling and available casts) by angling heads and arms to evoke the 'ranked fire' look of the original squad, but couldn't resist including the cool reloading option. +

+ The helms are the only major change. The modern ones are quite distinctive, and very different from the cone-headed originals. While I don't actually dislike the new ones, I wanted to capture the pointed helm with the frowny-eyebrows look, so used Storm Guardian helms, and attached the rangefinder vanes (the big 'ears') that were carefully trimmed from the Dark Reaper helms. +

+ Conspicuously missing from the Guardian faceplates are the distinctive nose and teeth markings; I'll be painting these on. +

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+ The aim of the project is not so much to replicate the original army so much as create a modern spin on it – as with my Blood Angels [+noosphericinloadlink embedded+], I want to use the opportunity of modern materials and models to evoke the atmosphere of the period. One of the things that I really loved from Jes Goodwin, Andy Chambers and Rick Priestley's original lore was the warpaint. +

+ Beyond conversions, this was never explored in miniature form at the time, so I'm quite keen to include a couple of bare-headed Aspect Warriors in the force. With only three in the squad, however, I didn't feel the Dark Reapers were the place to start; besides which the facepaint itself is fairly predictable. I think I'd rather the impact of the three red helms.  +

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+ Dark Reaper Exarch +

+ With just three Dark Reapers needed, I was left with two bodies from the plastic kit. Perfect for converting the Exarch 'Skull-Taker' (not the daemon!):

+ Exarchs have changed quite a bit since Rogue Trader. Where nowadays they're effectively just squad leaders with access to special equipment, in their first appearance, they were relatively high level personalities with access to a range of special abilities and equipment, and like any independent personality, could work as an individual, rather than being tied to a squad. +

+ A snippet from WD138 – these four models make up a whopping third of the points of the initial 'block'. A five-strong Guardian squad, for comparison, is 70pts all-in. +

+ Skull-Taker here is a Dark Reaper Exarch, but unlike the modern version he's armed with a shuriken pistol and an Ancient Weapon (an Exarch-exclusive wargear option) 'Web of Skulls'; a sort of bolas. +

+ Being the default of the original model, the Web of Skulls was for more familiar than any other option for most players of a certain vintage, and was thus a must for inclusion in my conversion. While it can work in melee, I felt that the original pose was perhaps a bit static, and since one of the new bodies is in a moving pose, I opted to use this to help bring a bit of attention to Skull-Taker. +

+ My plan is to drill three wires into the hand and sculpt on small skulls to the ends of each. Head-size skulls would look far too clunky, and fortunately the lore suggests these are crystal skulls rather than literal head-innards! +

+ The new kit is interesting in including a hand clutching a skull; likely a nod to the original. Unfortunately for me, it was in the model's wrong hand, so I had to trim it away and attach it to the new arms; both taken from the new Guardian kit. The big skull is going to form the 'pommel' of the Web of Skulls. A real bolas, of course, doesn't have a pommel, but I'm keen to avoid the weapon looking like a bunch of flowers. A final flourish for this arm is to carve out the shoulder pad and replace it with the Exarch-specific one. A minor (and awkward to do!) touch, but every little helps. +

+ For the rest of the conversion, the pistol arm has had a cable trimmed from the Rogue Trader-era arms, just like my Guardian conversions. Rather than using a RT-era shuriken pistol, I've kept a modern shuriken pistol for a few reasons. Firstly, practicalities. The RT guns are hard to come by, and I'm struggling to equip even the Guardians with them. Secondly, the additional size will help to bring balance to the visuals. Finally, it seems appropriate for the long-ranged Dark Reapers to have a variant gun that has a comparatively long, fluted barrel. +

+ In an inversion of the heads for the standard warriors, I've trimmed the rangefinder vanes off the Exarch's helmet and attached it – though I'm in two minds as to whether to try a bare head here. For the moment, I'm erring on the side of keeping the helm. While I don't love it, I think paint might bring it to life (particularly the red faceplate). Besides, the change in pose is already going to make him less recognisable, so I want to keep as many details of the original as I can. +

+ Speaking of details, I'm going to try adding a necklace of skull-beads. It's a cool and distinctive feature of the original. +

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+ The name Skull-Taker is perhaps a little unfitting these days, so I'm open to any elfish-style translation ideas for his name; I'm currently playing around with Gaelic translations and ending up with Neach-gabhail claigeann (Scots Gaelic); Glacadóir cloigeann (Irish Gaelic) and the reconstructed proto-Celtic [+noosphericexloadlink embedded+] Krāsjano-tagat (or 'skull-thief'). All rather wordy! +

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