After a short break away from all things 40k, I'm back with a couple more Dark Eldar projects. I finally started painting my Cronos and on the conversion table is this in progress Drazhar. When I saw the new Shadowblade model I immediately started thinking up candidates for kitbashing. Drazhar won out this time as the pose of Shadowblade just screams "darting strike"(and the old Drazhar model just doesn't cut it next to the new DE).
This conversion has gone through a couple iterations already and still has some more work to be done. Initially, I wasn't sure what type of weapons I was going to use -- I thought I would go for mantis style scimitars but just wasn't quite feeling them. I think chopping the blades down a bit would help, but I would still need to reposition the left arm a good bit.
Then I decided to try some poses with an actual klaive.
I wasn't sold on this pose either, but I was becoming more open to the idea of not having to create true demi-klaives... I'm really not even sure what those would look like. The description of them states they can be clasped together to form a giant klaive or wielded separately, but all the pictures I've seen of this guy he's basically holding 2 swords that don't look like they fit together. Anyway, I'm fine with him holding 2 different weapons. He is the 'master of blades' after all. Plus, him being able to wield a 2-handed weapon with one hand is pretty badass.
I ended up changing the direction he was looking (closer to how the original Shadowblade model is facing) so I wouldn't have to hack his left arm off. This also allowed the klaive arm to be hoisted over his head, resulting in a pretty dynamic looking pose. It looks like he's baiting his enemy with the dagger coming at them only to be split in half moments later by the mighty klaive.
This is the general pose I'm going to go with. I still have to find a way to make the incubi trophy racks fit. I also have some shoulder pads and other decorative bits to try before I pin everything and pick a fitting round base. The cape / cloak was leftover from the new plastic Eldar farseer model, and everything else at this point comes from the Incubi box. But so far I'm really enjoying this conversion.