Heresy & Heroes

“The paths of our kin wind through time and space, and to divine them all is beyond even the most gifted or studied seer. Lightblade’s path though is a cause for bitter weeping and for songs of lament to be sung. He has moved beyond the light but not drifted into darkness. Until he discovers the truth within his heart, within his soul, he can never be Eldar. He has entrusted himself to Joshan Thor Terran, the one who moves amongst all. May Lightblade’s seachran melt away, like a cloud that has wept all of its tears.”

         – Lan’Tyl Dusksinger, Seer

=][=

The third member of my Inquisitorial Warband, Eshairr Lightblade, is now complete and this was one of those projects. It’s a really, really, really simple conversion but it has given me some real headaches along the way, both in terms of modelling and painting. I’m happy with the end result (by and large) but I’ll always see the annoyances whenever I look at it.

Only two kits were used for this miniature – the Harlequin Death Jester and the old Dire Avenger kit (when it was 10 plastic minis instead of five). Very simply, I chopped the head off the Death Jester, whittled out some room for a neck, added some green stuff to the ribcage (enough to leave some definition but no gaping holes), and filed off some details. The sword had the Dire Avenger rune trimmed from the blade, and the hands were resized a little to fit this kit (which is annoyingly slightly smaller than the Dire Avenger stuff). The head needed more work and was touch and go for a little while. The cheeks were even trimmed down to bring its dimensions more in line but eventually I got it to work. It was a pain in the backside to get it all right and I spent ages umming and ahhing about it – I just had to dive in and get it done.

There are bits of the paint job that I’m really happy with and bits I’m not. Spirit stones and sword blade – great. Trousers questionable and the skin is a little too blotchy for my liking but were I to use fluff as an excuse for that, I want this character to be a real Eldar outcast due to some mystery and curse – his soul absent from his personality, and so un-eldar. That can explain the skin, but the trousers are just a little dull and as for the purplish breastplate, that almost went very wrong so was a lengthy rescue job.

The coat though. The coat I am very happy with. As per usual (admit it, you regular readers were expecting it, right?) my photography isn’t the best, but the worn, brown leather look of this cloak is great, if I do say so myself. There are parts of it that actually look like real leather – as if you’d touch it and it would be soft. Very, very happy with that. I’m also rather partial to the basing too – it’s in line with the rest of the Warband and I did enjoy doing that rust.

Eshairr Lightblade is in itself the perfect name for this character. Eshairr means ‘outcast’ and Lightblade is a recall to those old Rogue Trader era Eldar names (that some authors still use to this day). Upon his former craftworld, he was kept away from the general populace for the seers saw an unnerving strangeness in him. He had none of the glamour of the Eldar, and he seemed to be a void of nothingness where other souls were light or dark. When Inquisitor Joshan offered him passage and the chance to answer the questions he had about himself, Lightblade agreed, and the craftworld breathed a sigh of relief to see their strangest son depart. He is not exactly a loyal follower of the Inquisitor, but he shows no sign of betrayal in his words or actions. He fulfils the role of assassin, bodyguard and whatever else the Thor Joshan needs him to do.

So that’s another one done. Onto the next member of this Ordo Xenos team, which will hopefully follow soon. Onwards!