Converting Wracks/Grotesques

[mantisstalker]

So skimming through the board I can't tell if its just Tyranid converting or what, but hey ho converting is converting. Heads up this is about Dark Eldar so if you're all about the biomass it might not be for you.

Anyway Wracks and Grotesques are really cool but the fact they cost $11/$40 for a model which all look the same kind of kills the mood. Solution: I'm building my own. The Wracks are quite simple as I have a ton of badly made Catachans I use to use for conscripts which I'll convert. Plan on filing down the details on their heads so they look bald and featureless before further smoothing over the face with green stuff. I'm a little limited when it comes to parts as my family threw a lot of my bits out so I'm using genestealer arms to splice things up before further slaving the theme up. I'll post a pic of the 10 I've started on when the green stuff is dry.

As for Grotesques I was thinking of converting up my Tyranid warriors with the addition of extensive torture/liberal application of fish hooks. However I don't know what the scale of a actual Grotesque model is like so I was wondering if people thought the size would work? I do like the idea as I already have the models and like the theme that my haemonculi take pleasure in re-configuring a brain hardwired to be "feral" which also fits into the theme that my Wracks are "conscripted" from a genestealer cult due to their more enhanced body structure.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on the matter, especially on the subject of size. If anyone could provide a side by side picture of the two models that'd be amazing.
I'll have some pics up tomorrow!

[mantisstalker]

The promised pics~

Squad so far:


Acothyst:


Nid arm plebs:


Other plebs:


Heavy weapons guys:
Aren't uploading for some reason and I can't be bothered fixing the issue rn. You can see them in the squad pic.

The goal atm is to make the models more bulky, especially the ones with the nid arms which look a little flimsy. I'll probably do this by adding shoulder pads and perhaps additional limb grafts. After that they are going to be Wrack-ified some more though the use of "implants". I'm pretty happy with the unit so far with my only thought being that I might use less nid parts on the next one just to add diversity, or possibly have a unit of nids and no nids.

[blackrainbow]

If I recall correctly, the old ones were more along the line of what you're doing, so kudos there. On a personal note, I do really like the new models but very much agree, they are so similar that if someone said wrack and it was the other I wouldn't care. This happens so much with nids I've very down to let others share and just get a game in. I have the bits for both off ebay and decided to just build a combo (all my DE are pretty much on sprue and will stay that way for a decade at least) version that suits my modeling needs.

Keep playing around with your squad, modeling is a wonderful part of the hobby that needs more love. Keep us posted when you can, and get to it.

Now, about that promised biomass...

[mantisstalker]

Oh. armies like nids and necrons are really bad for all looking the same which was one reason why I wanted to give this a go. Otherwise I liked the idea that my army would hit an enemy and quickly churn out some wracks as fodder/shock troops which meant they probably wouldn't look as fancy as the standard wracks. That being said I am getting a squad of the finecast ones (second hand) but they'll be my homunculus's personal pets.
As for the biomass you'll have to absorb it from my cold dead troops :v

So I did a bit more work on the squad. Went a bit slower than I predicted but here's an update. Tried to steer the models into a more silent hill direction by removing a good deal of the nid parts and replacing them with implanted blades. The addition of the spikes was my favorite part though I was somewhat limited by the materials I had on hand. I used a power drill, paperclips and other work tools so if anyone tries to replicate the results I would recommend tools more suited to the hobby.






The plan is to get some zombie parts and try and add more mutations with a silent hill/the forest theme in mind. Fine chain or some sort of wire would be great but I'm not sure what to use, might give fishing line a try.

[mantisstalker]

So did some work after the holidays on a squad of groteques. Ended up going the warspear route just because the bodies do look really nice in comparison to the other wracks. Looked around but no one seems to do models to that scale. Ogres might be a good idea but I preferred theses ones since they lacked the, well, ogre look. I also know too many people that would make shrek jokes.




Just started painting again so I wanted to show that off giving an idea of the models scale.




These two need a little more work on them.

So the plan for this army is I want to get enough models to run the carnival of pain formation. Now when it comes to the different formations within it I'd like to give each a theme. The wracks I already have will be a part of the Scarlet Epicureans so I'll need another 10 for that. The issue is I want another type of wracks for the Covenite Fleshcorps and was thinking of having a bondage cult/pirate theme since they're all in raiders. However I'm not really sure how to do that so I'll have to work on it.

[mattblowers]

Funnily enough, been doing the exact same thing myself this holiday. Why I'm trading 'nids for Dark Eldar in the new year is beyond me, but I need to try something different. 5+ years of 'nids with nothing but nerfs is getting old. Time for a break. Here are my grotesques.

[mantisstalker]

Nice going :3 The warspear models are really nice hey? They fit the scale and body type really well with the added bonus of being fun and cheap to make. Just a little worried that I probs can't use them in a GW store, especially since I kept the Hordes 40mm bases on them.