Dark Elf War Altar WIP

A couple of months ago a saw this thread in the Oldhammer Forum and knew I have to make an altar for the joint effort dark elves. There is not a set for a war altar and as Willmark points out there are not that many models around that could be used as altar guards.

I did not want to copy what Willmark had done but tried to find an another angle of approach to the subject. In the end I was sort of forced to use the same two witch elf models Willmark used. To get some differences from his desing I´m using four altar guard who will carry an idol of some dark god and a banner bearer.

Here are the five altar guard. In the front a slighly conversed repeating bolt thrower loader. He may get a weapon to his right hand eventually. Tha other one is a Marauder dark elf warrior who´s shield hand has been drilled. In the back there are two witch elves who have had one of their daggers removed. The one to the right had her right hand repositioned so that she can hold the altar at the level as all the other do. The banner bearer is another bolt thrower loader. The bolt bundle he was holding has been replaced with a lance from a 5th edition cold one knight.

The idol is some sort of demon bust set on a crude plank panel. I´m going to add some ropes or chains to make it look like as if the idol had been tied down to the panel. Some bits and pieces will propably be added too. I imagine painting the idol bronzed with some blood stains or something. The idol is quite large but hey - these elves are religious fanatics. 

Following Willmark´s example I used the three man 20x50 bases for the altar guards. That way and by partly clipping some of the slotta tabs I was able to set the guards in pretty straight lines. The carrying poles need to be shortened a bit before base coating as they look a bit to long for my taste now. As per WFB: Armies book the artar guards don´t get shields but I might give the stardard bearer one to cover my crudeish conversion job.