Shadowflames Reinforcements, Part 1

The Shadowkin Stalkers

I'm adding a few more models to the Shadowflames. The snippet of fluff that inspired them mentioned the Shadowkin, which I've started to represent with the Mistweaver Saih and the Tenebrael Shard. But I also wanted some rank and file soldiery to represent these Ulgu aelfs. And that they are aelf has been confirmed, at least in my head-canon, by this other oblique mention in the new Blades of Khorne battletome.

I wanted something that brought together the design cues of the Silver Tower aelfs, namely the naked torso of the Tenebrael Shard and the mist of the Mistweaver Saih. The Tree-revenants were already perfect: naked torsos without legs and wielding vicious looking aelfish blades. All I had to do was adding the mist and the missing left arms.

For these, I got some Wyches arms as they're both the right size and wearing armour similar to that of the aelfs. However, I swapped some of the Wych weapons for bows from the old Khemri Skeletons. We all know the bow is the aelfs' favoured ranged weapon, don't we? This way, they can also count as WYSIWYG Shadow Warriors, whose special rules and background fit the idea of sneaky aelfs from the Realm of Shadows.

For the mist, I mounted the torsos on two lengths of wire armour, placed were the legs would be. I then covered them in greenstuff, modelling strands of it to join the 'legs', as if the lower half of the bodies had turned into mist.

The greenstuff also allowed me to hide the unsculpted part of the torsos and the joint with the left arms.

The heads are from the Bloodbowl Elven Union Team. I gave them all masks to link them with the Mistweaver Saih whose face is hidden as well. Once the neck was cut and the masks glued in place, the heads fitted surprisingly easily on the Tree-revenants' neck joint. All that was needed was a slight trimming of the plastic and a generous amount of plastic glue.

They won't be finished in time to join the Shadowflames for the finale of Spellbreakers at Realm's Edge, but you won't have to wait long to see them painted and read about their story.