Eldar Howling Banshee Exarch
I sculpted and possitioned the sash to speccifically cover one of the ugliest converted joints I have ever made in a model.
The bladed arms came from the Warp Spider Exarch.
Sculpting the mane on the helmet a serious test of my sculpting skills.The Eldar are a dying race, a people clinging to existence by their very finger tips and sheer force of will. This state of affairs precludes the Eldar from being able to raise a standing army, and instead all Eldar are trained in ways of war, with elite units training for select forms of war. For an Eldar army, the Howling banshees are the elite hand to hand combatants, the screaming demonic dealers of death that cleave through enemy squads.
The standard Howling Banshee models are dynamic and lend themselves well to the ideas behind the unit they represent. Unlike the Venerable Dreadnought model, I didn’t feel a need to correct anything with this conversion, merely go further. More dynamic, more fluid, and more deadly. I also wanted to give this Banshee their alternate weapon choice of twin mirror blades. I searched through the movies several movies for inspiration, specifically ‘X-men’ ‘Mortal Kombat’ and ‘Blade’, paying attention to the female fighters in the movies (according to the story, most Howling Banshees are female).
I found a scene in X-men that looked great. By chance I found the ideal base for the model, the legs of one of the new Eldar Harlequins. The lower part of the model has a very "jet li" look to it, with only a single trailing ribbon connecting the model to the ground. I bent the right leg outward and then twisted the ribbon. This turned the axis of the model outward.
I took a plastic Dark Eldar torso and shaved down the left shoulder. I rather like the asymmetrical armor designs for Eldar models. I attached the torso to the legs, but turned it to the right of the axis of the legs. This way, the model would be leading with its shoulder like the actress was in X-men.
Next, using the Warp Spider Exarch model, I cut the arms off just above the elbows. I grabbed the left arm off one of the old Howling Banshee model. Cutting the arm above the elbow, I used a segment of wire to attach the lower bladed arm to the upper armored arm. I then used a bit of model putty to fill in the gap and re-sculpt the elbow detail. I then glued the left arm to the torso. I took a plastic arm from the Dark Eldar sprue and cut it below the elbow. I attached the other bladed arm from the Warp Spider model to the plastic arm and then glued it to the torso..
The head was something more of a challenge. I needed to be able to add and control detail to it. Which meant I was going to need to sculpt, which meant I needed a base to work from? I used a plastic Dire Avenger head and shaved down the mouth and jaw and cut off the upper most portion of the helmet. I mounted the head on a stand so I could work on it. I scratched up portions of the head and attached a thin layer of modeling putty as a base. I then worked to sculpt the respirator and hair to the head. I set that aside to cure, and worked on sculpting the sash on the torso. I used the sash to cover up the joints at the waist and left shoulder.
After about 2 hours I returned to work on the head. By attaching additional putty to the layers of partially cured potty I began to build up the hair from the back of the helmet. This proved to be somewhat tricky as I wanted to make the hair swirling around the axis of the head but I needed to build up a support for it. It took me a while to build up the hair as I needed to go in small layers. With the final two layers I went to work sculpting waving lines to carry the concept of hair through to the model.