Corsair Night Spinners

Hello to one and all. Goodness, Corsair posts are like buses aren't they, you wait for ages and then three show up at once. Today a pair of genuinly horrifying weapons, the Eldar Night Spinners:

I remember when they first invented these horrible things back in the old epic scale Space Marine days. They were nasty then and I still think they are nasty now! For those who don't know: Night Spinners/Doom Weavers or whatever else they are called work by spinning a huge web of monofiliament wire - thinner and sharper than cheesewire - and blows it into the air. Eventually, over it's target it spreads and descends like a parachute cutting through anything in it's path and acting as a razor edged net trapping those imprisoned within. Very, very unpleasant and quite out of character for the normally very neat and precise Eldar! Perfect for the slightly more hardcore corsairs though...

As has become traditional for this army they look better in person than in pictures! The spinnarettes on the barrels of the guns are the business end of the weapon system and I knew I didn't just want them to be solid wraithbone. This had me scratching my head for a few minutes conjuring the "look" that I was picturing inside my mind. I figured that watching the weapon build to firing would be like watching candyfloss (cotton candy for those over the pond) be produced at the fairground. I pictured clear windows through which you see a cloud of whipping fibres coil together and spin around. Once there are enough of them they can be blown out of the end. To keep the turquoise spot colour consistant with the gems (and I am loving painting turquoise gemstones by the way) I painted the glass a dark shade of Stegadon Scale Green and used Thunderhawk Blue to indicate the twisting fibres within. A thin layer of wet effects left a nice glassy effect.

The finished effect is quite nice. I was worried that the bone weapons sticking out the top would unbalance the scheme but I needn't have worried. The pale tone minimises the impact of the gun and makes them seem lighter and thus not top heavy. Don't ask me why it works, it just did! Well, next on my workbench are a trio of rather lovely Wasp Assault Walkers so they'll be up probably middle of next week. Until then:

TTFN