The Last Exodite Dragon Knight - And The Whole Squad

Having made four Eldar Exodite dragon knights, I decided to make their leader. While most of the squad are riding small dinosaurs, like Jurassic Park's velociraptors, this chap would have something weirder and larger, perhaps a bit like oviraptor and other strudithomimids.

Some models are a pleasure to make and paint, and others... aren't. For some reason, this miniature just seemed to go on and on. By the time that I was trying to get his torso to stick to his legs for the fourth bloody time, I began to suspect that I was cursed: doomed, like the Ancient Mariner or one of those guys, to assemble the same bloody miniature forever.

Anyhow, at long last the wretched thing got finished. And, actually, I'm really pleased with him (for now, before he falls apart again). 

As with all the dragon riders, this chap was based on bits - mainly metal - that I bought from GW Mail Order many years ago. I stripped it all, dismantled it, and started again. 

The dragon's body comes from a steed of Slaanesh. The head is from an old Dark Elf hydra. The arms are from plastic genestealers, with a lot of the tyranid detail sanded off. They were drilled into place and I sculpted shoulders and scales from green stuff. 

I'm not sure where the rider's upper legs came from - some kind of plastic knight, perhaps. I sculpted some thigh pads out of green stuff. His lower legs were cut from an old swooping hawk. The upper body is all new to this miniature. 

The head and chest come from an Eldar jetbike pilot. The right arm and rifle are from the first (and awful) plastic Dark Eldar, trimmed and green stuffed to look more like an Eldar weapon. The left arm is from a modern Dark Eldar wytch. I made his sabre from a filed-down Grey Knight sword, which looked surprisingly like some of the older Eldar swords.

A pistol on the rider's thigh was from (surprisingly) a 40k beastman that I turned into a Mordheim fighter. I added some little bags from the bits box to help hold his wobbly body together. The base was decorated with an old High Elf doodah and some steps made from plasticard and blended in with DAS clay. I don't know why these guys are riding around steps, but there you go - the Eldar are mysterious.

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Phew! I'd forgotten what a slog it is to convert metal models. All that hacking and pinning! Still, I'm pleased with the results. The Eldar project has been a challenge, and my painting has improved because of it. This particular unit has been one of the highlights for me: partly because I'm pleased with the results, partly because the dragon riders unit is so characteristic of 2nd Edition 40k, but mainly because elves riding dinosaurs in space is cool. 

Here's the finished leader.

And here is the entire unit.

Right then, what next?!

Exodite Dragon Knight 4

 The fourth Exodite dragon knight was the most involved conversion so far. Again I dismantled and stripped my earlier conversion, and built it again. However, this time I made new legs and a few other improvements.

The dragon was unconverted, although its left foot had snapped off at the ankle and had to be pinned and tidied up with green stuff. 

The new legs came from a plastic Eldar Guardian. They had to be cut down and considerably repositioned to make them sit properly on the dragon. This was a right pain. I sculpted some stirrups, which helped hide some of the worst of my work.

The upper body came from an old metal scout, and the head was from the Dark Elf rider who I cut up to make the standard bearer a couple of weeks ago. This particular model had a sniper rifle slung over his back, which wouldn't fit. I cut away the butt of the rifle and most of its barrel.

Then came the difficult job of extending the coat with green stuff to cover the legs. Ugh. I also made some ruined steps for the base out of plasticard.

I added a weird sensor to the model's back, to sit in the place where the rifle had been. The sensor top was made from a random Eldar sensor from some gun crew, and the length of it was made out of an old Dark Eldar gun barrel. This is clearly the comms officer.

Painting this guy wasn't especially complex, but it just seemed to go on and on. I suppose there's a lot of detail on him.

Here are all four of the riders.

Incidentally, I see that I've got a couple of new followers. That's extremely rare on this blog, so thanks for following! I hope it's entertaining!

Dragon Knight 3

 And here's a third Exodite dragon knight! I slightly cheated here: this rider has dismounted in order to take a difficult shot, and to give me a rest from hacking up metal. The model is just an old metal Eldar scout (such good miniatures!) and the steed is another old Dark Elf Cold One. It didn't have a tail so I sculpted one out of green stuff, and I have to say that it's not bad. 

I added a bit of random scenery to the base, which seems to be a broken Eldar relic. For an ancient race, the Eldar don't seem to be able to make anything to last.

Here's the unit so far. 

The next model is going to require a lot of cutting. I'm bracing myself for this.

Another Exodite Dragon Rider

 I had a go at the second Exodite dinosaur rider. This guy was made from a Dark Elf cold one and a Dark Elf scout rider with an Eldar scout's head. It's all metal!

I reckon this guy is a subtle, stealthy standard bearer for the scout riders. After all, he may be carrying a glowing spear and riding a dinosaur that wears a suit of bright blue armour, but his banner is invisible...

Here are the two of them. I hope to make a unit of five of these guys, eventually.

Fire Dragon Exarch and the first Exodite Dragon Knight

New year, old models, same project! I'm sure it's not supposed to work like that, but what the heck. The first model I painted this year was the exarch with fire-pike for the Fire Dragon squad. You're probably sick of seeing me say this, but it's a Jes Goodwin model and it's really good. Quite how this chap is meant to wield his weapon, let alone get it into a grav-tank, I don't know, but this is 40k, after all.

And here is the entire squad.

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The first (and best!) Eldar codex includes rules for pirates, which are now represented by Corsairs, and Exodite Dragon Knights. These may be one of the greatest things to disappear from 40K, including the greatness that was zoats. The Exodites were planet-dwelling Eldar who rode about on dinosaurs, an idea that is fundamentally extremely cool.

Sadly, there were never any official miniatures for the Exodites in 40K. A long time ago, I got some Dark Elf cold one riders and hacked up some Eldar scouts to serve as riders. Given that all the models concerned were metal, this must have taken quite a lot of effort.

Anyhow, I stripped down and dismantled one of my earlier efforts, rebuilt him and gave him a new paint job. For reasons unknown, the rider was missing one hand, which I replaced with a hand from Frostgrave. Like all my scouts, he's wearing a green coat and blue armour. I painted the dinosaur drab green and gave it blue scales to make it look a bit more exciting. The base was made to suggest overgrown ruins.

He looks a bit uncomfortable, but then I would be if you stuck me on the back of a velociraptor. Here is the model next to the scout miniature from which he was converted.

This was something of a test miniature. I've got a couple more that I could redo, and I think I'll work on that next. Perhaps my subconscious is trying to collect one of each of the units in the old Eldar Codex.