I’m really liking the look of the Sky Knights for my Exodite army so far
Early blu-tacked test model here (apologies for the quality of the photos! Snapping bare metal is always a pain):


My all-Exodite army will be represented from the Craftworld Biel-tann list with judicious use of the 'counts as' rule for basically every model (I have thought it all through a lot and in detail and I prefer to do them this way). It'll lead to a few quirks here and there model to rules wise, but overall works really well and gives me the opportunity to come up with lots of nice conversions and imaginative unit ideas for a nearly all blank canvas, while still using the official balanced list .

The Sky Knights in game terms then count as Swooping Hawks (on larger bases than normal for necessary stability as well as nice unit posing, but hey - the rules allow it). The should therefore have a FF of 4+ with no ranged attack and I need something to represent that. The riders carry a pair of laser lances, but these are common elsewhere in the army with the Dragon Knights (count as Shining Spears, who will never use the skimmer ability allowed to them by the rules) as only a FF 5+ weapon (I rationalise the Sky Knights as fightfight experts and not able to close to use the close combat benefits of the lance, due to the practicalities of fighting midair on a flying dinosaur).

The original model shown below had what were either be grenade packs or some kind of shooty weapon strapped to the underside, I'm not sure which:

I considered using the weapons I’m using for my Chameleons, which are the ones from old plastic Exarches with all the Exarch cut off - they’re great for my Chameleons, because it's appropriate for them to have a big nasty looking gun, but it doesn’t look right below on the Sky Knights. I tried the most natural position under the Terradon's belly and it gets in the way of the flying stand and looks bad to boot:

I could have a pair of some kind of smaller guns under each wing. Photo below with example of where each would be:

What guns could I use for these though? Any suggestions? I'd like something small and sleek so it looks good, but I haven't come up with anything to use.

Or - as has occurred to me most of the way through writing this post, possibly making the question unnecessary - should I just claim the Sky Knights have different versions of the same basic look of weapon, which are better at shooting but no use in close combat? I could paint them differently and rename them 'Sky Lances' or something. Think I'm coming round to that idea and it works better in some ways... unless a great concept for weapon modelling occurs to me / is suggested here and part of me likes the idea of preserving the weapon distribution of the original model, even if I'm not using the same body part.

Glyn

P.S. if anyone wants to help me out/see a prettily painted Exodite army the sooner please sell/trade me some Harlequins. I'd be very grateful as I still need around 100 Harlequin heads for them (nearly all for head swaps so broken legs/swords irrelevant).

Looks like a cool upgrade ... I left mine stock ...  

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Legion 4 "Cry Havoc, and let slip the Dogs of War !" ... "People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf."

You could remove the lances and give them shuriken's? or just plain old lasblasters from the hawk models?
Not - of course - an option if you want the models to remain mint,

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The Warmaster Terradons are slightly bigger and nicer models than the original ones (though lacking the guns). It was actually a forced conversion here because when I ordered a load of Exodites just before they closed the bits service the mould for the Pterradon's body had died already. That said I really like the way they look and the fact their wings are easy to bend for varied positions in the unit

You could remove the lances and give them shuriken's? or just plain old lasblasters from the hawk models?
Not - of course - an option if you want the models to remain mint.

OR you could alter the look of these lances by attaching SOME SORT (epic guard long las?) of barrel to them? Might work...even plasticard maybe?

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MoK's Painting Blog
Now Showing:
Mok's Modular Modern Messy Guard Army

BTW I just got the E/W Mounted Bounty Hunters and they will make a good addition to the Exodites.  And I think the Lances are like the Jaffa' Staff Weapons on Stargate. So they are ranged weapons, IMO ...

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Legion 4 "Cry Havoc, and let slip the Dogs of War !" ... "People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf."

Thanks for the suggestions both!

Those do seem like decent proxies Legion 4, but I prefer the originals and will be making my Exodite army 100% from GW models - have plans for a 3k Exodite army, maybe 4k hopefully if I can pull off a particularly insane conversion

Well if you got enough G/W, than that's the way for you to go !  

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Legion 4 "Cry Havoc, and let slip the Dogs of War !" ... "People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf."