For such an popular model in game, it sure wouldn’t kill GW to have a farseer on jetbike model! Guess we’ll we’ve have to improvise.
Hey guys, Caleb with White Metal Games here, with another fun conversion. This time, a farseer on jetbike! With the exception of the Chapterhouse Farseer on jetbike compatible kit, I don’t see a lot of options for these out there. So when a friend asked me to convert up something along these lines, I couldn’t resist the opportunity! This isn’t as in depth a tutorial as you might be used to, but I think you can get the gist from what I’ll outline below.
To start, I gathered up some bits. I wasn’t sure what I would need, and in the end I didn’t use everything featured below. But IMHO it helps to have more bits than you need to give you a few options with every conversion. I grabbed an assortment of both elf, eldar, dark elf and dark eldar bits, as well as a spare ( mostly assembled) jetbike from a previous eldar project.
I have some left over legs from a High Elf Lord on Flying Griffin. So I use a razor saw to remove the upper torso from the lower torso that would traditionally fit on the griffin (at the time, I was building a griffin for WFB by removing the elven rider)
I dry fit the upper body to the bike. Good fit, but kinda boring.
I also realize that the upper body doesn’t quite fit flush with the seat of the bike, so I use a hobby knife to cut away the extra plastic to make it fit better.
It’s hard to tell, but this is an Eldar Guardian head. The bit on the right is from a wave serpent I think? Anyway, long story short is I need a way to represent the ghost helm common to eldar seers, so I trim a bit of the helmet away to make it smooth so that this ‘flange’ bit will attach readily enough.
Earlier I mentioned that I was a bit bored by the plastic bike legs on the bike. Well, I just happened to have a set of pewter legs from a high elf model of some sort. Maybe a dragon rider from the 90’s . . . not sure really. I liked the legs better for a farseer so I dry fit them in place. With a little bending I was able to get them to fit on the pedals. However, the legs didnt’ really sit flush, and pewter isn’t easier to convert like plastic or resin.
In the same griffin kit I found a lance with banner (I think it’s the griffin from Isle of Blood?) NICE! But kinda big. Also, it’s a lance, not a spear. Gotta change that too.
I trim the spear off of it’s and and realize I have a perfectly good cloak now.
I use a little grey stuff and glue to get the cloak into place. This helps to convey a sense of movement in the bike.
Here you can see the grey bit I used to help support the cloak. At the time, I figured I could incorporate this into the cloak and make it appear to be flapping behind him. And although I do feel I accomplished this in the end, I think in retrospect this was a sloppy approach and it would have be better to have support the cloak with another sort of bit that wasn’t so bulky. In reality, however, very little time will ever be spent focusing on the underpart of the cloak when looking at the model on the table, so I don’t sweat it too bad.
I trim the lance down, but I still need a shaft for the lower half of the spear. I find an old chariot banner that will work well. I carefully remove the lower portion of the banner pole.
I use a little plastic glue to create new shaft. On the finished model, the join will be hidden inside the hand of the farseer himself.
Time to gussy up the canopy a bit. I find this old pewter swooping hawk pack that I think will make a great canopy decoration.
I have to bend it a little to get it to fit just right, but eventually, fit it does.
Now I’m back to the helmet and thinking about something to gussy it up some too. I consider using these antlers from a Grail Knight (WFB Bretonnian) but settle in the end on some more high elf chariot bits for the helmet.
Now the model is basically done. Just need to apply a little grey stuff to a few places to finish it up.
The spear and canopy were left unattached for the purpose of painting ease.
Below you can see the cloak once repaired. It’s a bit too bulky on the underside. But again, this was an oversight on my part, a learning curve, so you can expect mistakes like this from time to time.
We also added on a grenade pack to give a little more detail to the model. When painted, we’ll probably paint it with some OSL. to make it appear to have eldritch properties.
