And on the far shore a creature that raised its dripping mouth from the rimstone pool and stared into the light with eyes dead white and sightless as the eggs of spiders. It swung its head low over the water as if to take the scent of what it could not see. Crouching there pale and naked and translucent, its alabaster bones cast up in shadow on the rocks behind it. Its bowels, its beating heart. The brain that pulsed in a dull glass bell. It swung its head from side to side and then gave out a low moan and turned and lurched away and loped soundlessly into the dark.”

Cormac McCarthy – The Road


I’ve always loved this passage from The Road by Cormac McCarthy, and when making my Treeman Ancient – the big guy with the skull head – this was my main inspiration. It may not match exactly to the description of the beast but I wanted to get this mood across – the dark, the sightless eyes, the water.

And this sort of inspiration carries over to the other models in the group – the skull heads and antlers, for example. The sightless eyes on the Wild Rider’s horse.

This is a long-ass way of saying, I didn’t play the Witcher 3.

The base model for the Treeman is a Forgeworld Greater Spawn, with a head from an (OOP) Incarnate Elemental of Beasts. I used the body of the Elemental for my Daemon Prince conversion – although I made that model quite a lot later just because I had the body spare and didn’t want to waste it – honour every part of the animal (Garret Jacob Hobbs would be proud).


I’ve made this warband with a mind to Hinterlands, but I haven’t really checked points or costs. I was originally making these as Wood Elves before Age of Sigmar came out, so I had a few models in various states of completion to pick and choose from for my warband. I’ve tried to include some variety in sizes, and for the most part have tried to keep the poses static. Only the War Dancers have fluid poses which was something of a dilemma for me – I didn’t want them to look out of place, but how can you have static War Dancers?

The spearmen are based on plastic Dark Eldar Wracks. I used this basic idea for my Emplate model ages ago. The white gunk you see all over them is a special mica flake paste that looks a bit like leaves when painted. Oh and the blue gunk is sponge – to be painted as moss.


The Spirit Seer is based on a D&D figure – I don’t usually use 3rd party bits if I can help it, but this was really well suited. The head is from an old Amber Wizard.


The Wild Rider is my favourite of the group. Again I didn’t want much motion so I couldn’t use the stock model parts. It’s a Wrack torso fitted to a Death Korps of Krieg horse.

The final model of the group is a Spite-Revenant grown inside a Stormcast Eternal. This conversion looks pretty nuts in colour due to all the vegetation. I’ll save a closer look for when it is painted.

20 Comments on “Aelves of the Black Sloth Hell WIP

  1. Love the spite revenant guy, have a similar idea but the opposite; different torso coming from the tree. This stuff is glorious.

  2. I am really impressed with this group. I love that you have gone the route of using stationary models (most people are always clamoring for crazy motion in their models). And while they are mainly stationary, they are not boring of lacking in dynamics. They have a very purposeful look. I can imagine myself lost in some haunted wood to eventually realize that one of them is watching me, standing motionless in the distance. All of the models give of a wholly unknowable and unsettling vibe.

    • That’s the mood I was going for. I worry that the wardancers – especially the jumping one – don’t quite work, but it’s a dilemma because I really wanted to include them and they are really defined by their movement.

  3. Very nice!
    I had an idea of doing a Laird Baron styled mini project a while back, but I’m a lazy bastard.
    You conversion work is completely out of my realm anyways!

  4. Super!
    I very much like the horseman aswell. Looking forward to see them painted.
    Great idea with the Stomcast-Thing!

  5. Impressive as usual! My personal favourite must be the Wild Rider, such a great conversion. Yesterday a friend of mine with no clue on AoS28 at all just sent a picture of it to me via whatsapp asking me whether I knew the guy who did it:) After I explained him about this project he was so enthusiastic that he decided to join, all thanks to your conversion!
    Hagen

  6. Great stuff jake , this is a new favorite fantasy warband on a shortlist with mostly ex profundis work. Weirdly enough i just finished my own death rider conversion. Ex profundis is making the sort of fantasy i adore.

    • Hope you can be persuaded to try an AoS28 model at some point in the future. Your Tzeentch Realm of Chaos warband is one of my personal favourites and inspirations. Round-based fantasy before it was cool.

  7. These are so good, no words even express the excitement at the assembled group. Can’t wait for them to get paint!

  8. AoS28 is off to a stunning start.

    I love the gaunt, sinewy look of them, especially the spearmen. They look like starved beasts.

    I’ll second what others have already said about the wild rider, just perfect.

  9. Great stuff. I would echo the comments that despite not being filled with movement, they still have a dynamism and potential energy, if you will, that seeps out of them. Very nice indeed.

  10. Woooooooooooooooow! Amazing! So much inspiration! Think these are the best converted group of minis i have seen!

  11. I love this Wild Hunt kind of feel, I’m currently trying to channel a similar Wild Hunt aestethic into my Lord of the Rings wood elves so your work has served as some great inspiration. I look forward to seeing more of this force.

    • To be honest one thing I really wanted to do was distance these aelves from Tolkien, which is obviously pretty tricky to do!

  12. I have the painted photos of this warband as a screensaver, I love them so much!

    What was your source for the leafy vines?

    • Thanks. I think it was a Mig product, Jungle leaves or something similar.

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