Thanks guys
yeah I'm really pleased with how he turned out, and there's loads of potential for other Ynnari'd units too.
I'm glad you like the fluff pieces Alienscar
I really enjoy putting them together. It must be brilliant fun coming up with a Codex, and building up a background for a whole race using just these little snippets of info dotted around the book. I've always thought that was a really clever way of doing it
As for looking at bits in a different way I have no idea :S I was going to do a bit of a step-by-step on this one, but when the bits arrived I was so excited I didn't remember until I was halfway through :S
What I do is I sort of have a picture in my head of what I want the guy to vaguely look like. Some sort of tattered cloak, a blank helmet (always associated them with both psykers and wraith units), some sort of staff, mix of Craftworld and Dark Eldar bits, and not particularly dynamic (perhaps standing bolt upright like the Archon, or walking forwards).
From there I look for bits and pieces that best fit. I bought a load of little bits of ragged cloaks from the Vampire Counts range with the intention of making a cloak, but one of them ended up being the lower half of an arm so I decided he'd look cool with a ragged cloak draped over his arm. The Wrack legs are pretty much the only option there is for Eldar legs that aren't running or splayed wide, but it's lucky that they fit the idea of a prophet dressed in rags perfectly
I also try and keep the torso as an Eldar bit. I've tried branching out into Fantasy Elf stuff, but the whole 'broad shoulder pads, skinny waist and armour 6-pack' is so iconically Eldar that I've personally never liked anything I've come up with that doesn't have one. As it's an HQ (Farseer/Spiritseer), a Dire Avenger torso is a little step up from a Guardian one so that fit nicely. I did find that the shoulder pads looked a bit much, but the Vampire Counts bits had two halves of a hood that matched their curve nicely.
As for arms, I originally wanted him to be walking forwards, staff in hand, with his other hand open wide with its palm facing towards us. Psychologically, showing your palms to someone is a specifically non-threatening gesture (people do it to say hi, to calm someone down who's angry, or to show submission. We think it's a display that shows you have no weapons in your hands so you're not a threat). I used it on my Solitaire to try and make a bit of cognitive dissonance between the non-threatening gesture and the fact that it's a quasi-daemonic Eldar killing machine
it's also a pose that's frequently used to depict religious icons, especially Jesus, so I thought it would be fitting for a prophet.
I had the perfect arm for it (the Wrack pilot arm from a Venom), but unfortunately when I clipped the hand off to rotate it, it pinged off into the ether! A little bummed, I sifted through my bits from the Wrack kit for something similar and came across this arm which I thought was better! Pointing a little off to the side is always a kickass pose, especially if it's a little languid, and the hand had a cool skeletal look to it
so, in that went and done!
Ah, actually, a few little tips that have helped me with posing. I stick the legs onto the base first, and then get the body glued together but don't glue it in place yet. Then I get an array of cool arms that I could use, as well as the head I've chosen, and lay them out around it. Then, I physically enact the pose which the arms/legs are doing, and take note of what angle my body and head is at in relation to my legs. Then, I copy that for the model
it helps get your poses looking natural. Oh, and the head goes on last
Sorry for the wall of text! But thought you might find it useful
As for the feet, I do think you're right but it's a bit of a bugger to change now! I don't think it comes across, but I pictured it less as bare feet and more as boots that are designed to look skeletal. They're painted in the same bone colour as the armour plates, rather than the pale skin (probably doesn't show) of the Wrack arm.
Here's some pictures of the cloak
I didn't include them because they weren't particularly flattering :S the first one's picked out the seam between the two halves of cloak I stuck together which I swear is invisible to the naked eye (was really proud of that fact!), and has some little bubbles from the light Ushabti Bone wash I did which I noticed and subsequently corrected...