Eldritch Prince (WIP Eldar Corsair)

Last week MasterBuilder over at the Ammobunker Inq28 forums proposed a fun project with a very simple premise: pick a movie character and turn them into a 40k figure. I was already thinking about making myself an Eldar Pirate Prince / Corsair character, and this seemed like the perfect excuse!

After a bit of time googling, I had narrowed it down to King Thranduil from The Hobbit films, David Bowie in Labyrinth, and Prince Nuada from Hellboy 2. In the end, Prince Nuada won out, primarily because of his rather Elric-like features. And that's where I started looking for a decent base model; I wanted the figure to be a Citadel elf, but something less recognisable than the main Warhammer and 40k ranges.

Prince Nuada from Hellboy 2

Elric Kinslayer from Citadel's 1987 Eternal Champion range was the perfect starting point:

Photo from Collecting Citadel Miniatures Wiki

While Elric doesn't have much commonality with Nuada above, the relatively neutral pose gave me a lot of flexibility. Plus, it's a Jes Goodwin sculpt - do I need to say more?!

Step 1: I removed Elric's original sword and hand at the wrist (the sword on my model was slightly damaged), then filed down the protruding edges of the breastplate. Elric's original breastplate was too fantasy in design, so I sculpted him a new breastplate using one of the 1987 Space Elves / Eldar as a reference.

Elric's new breastplate - still more plates to be added.

Step 2: The next step was to start adding some of the layered armour plates that are characteristic of the Eldar. I sculpted a new belly plate and a pair of pectoral plates, again using the classic Eldar figure as a reference. Once the new armour plates had cured, I added a new pistol taken from a spare Eldar figure, and sculpted the extended tunic to visually tie in with Prince Nuada.

The shape of the pectoral plates isn't perfect, but once painted I hope it won't be that obvious.

 

Step 3: I wanted to evoke more of Prince Nuada, so I added a blade to the pistol as a nod to Nuada's extendable spear weapon from the film. Although cables have fallen out of favour with modern Eldar designs, they were all the rage in the late 1980s and early 1990s, so Elric got a cable from his pistol grip. At this point I also sculpted the waist sash - you can see below that I added a broad section of greenstuff across the figure's middle and created some folds with my sculpting tools. A second section was added falling from the centre. The join between these two areas will get covered up by a knot later.

I also added a couple of gems / blisters on the armour plates and a base plate for a bionic eye - all made from tiny little blobs of greenstuff that I either flattened or gently blended the edges in.

Starting to look a bit more sci-fi now!

Step 4: Finally, just a few additional minor details. I added a knot to the sash, again by smoothing over a small bit of greenstuff and adding some creases. His left pectoral got a second, smaller gem / blister, and the bionic eye got a lens (not too clear in the photograph). Finally, I added a small connector to the end of the cable / pistol grip.

One mean Eldar Corsair!

I think I'm calling the conversion work done on him - I'll sit on it for a few days and work out whether I want to change or add anything, but I think I'm fairly happy with the results!