Lenihan's Elven expeditionary force

So I thought I'd start a thread to chart my progress as I get ready for the oldhammer weekend in Nottingham. I'm taking part in the "Rumble in the Jungle", and bringing an expeditionary force of high elves and sea elves. As I see this as partly an opportunity to play with the toys of my childhood (ahhhh yes I am a nostalgia junkie) the nucleus of my force will be some of the models from my teenage years:

So there's some reaver knights, the old-style marauder Shadow Warriors, and a pair of great eagles.



So my current painting projects include more reaver knights


And I've also assembled a unit of sea elves - some of the crew of the ship bringing the expedition to the southlands - these are all marauder sea elf minis from the 80s, except for the musician who I think is a model from the elf attack chariot. The musician and standard bearer are crude conversions using bits and bobs from recent plastic sprues


I've got a couple of other things to bring, but this is what I'm working on right now. I will hopefully chart my progress in the weeks ahead.

Nothing wrong with those, the paint jobs are serviceable, I've seen much worse so I wouldn't worry about that. Only mention it because you have expressed concern before.

Love the sea elves and the chariot rider conversion to horn blower is inspired, he is very Astrix like in his pose!

Yay Sea Elves! Looking lovely.

Those would look great crushed bloody under the hammers of my dwarfs... ....luckily for you I wont be at the event...

seriously though those look like a great start to a force. I look forward to seeing them all prettied up for the big day!

Cheers,

Blue

Wouldn't expect your dwarves to make it in time, would take them far too long to get to Nottingham/the Southlands with their stunty legs.

lenihan":19yp5a4p said:

Wouldn't expect your dwarves to make it in time, would take them far too long to get to Nottingham/the Southlands with their stunty legs.

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Careful, or I'll bring mine!

lenihan":i1cgpjh6 said:

Wouldn't expect your dwarves to make it in time, would take them far too long to get to Nottingham/the Southlands with their stunty legs.

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Its the whole..."crossing the ocean" thing thats hard right now....sigh.

...Get'm Hetz!

hehe...

Cheers,

Blue

More work in progress, a bit further along this time - the sea elf bolt thrower:



Compared to the later bulkier high elf bolt throwers, this sea elf bolt thrower is just about lightweight enough for them to bring off the ship to accompany the expeditionary force. Eagle eyed sea elf enthusiasts (and there may be more than one!) will notice that the guy bringing the magazine to the bolt thrower is wearing "the wrong trousers" (or rather, not wearing trousers at all, but the typical high-elf style skirt). Sadly, he lost his legs in an unfortunate incident, so it's latter day GW plastic sets to the rescue once again, here providing him with legs from the most recent plastic high elf charioteers.

I've always thought the pointing officer was a bit of foreshadowing by Jes of his designs for 4th. There are a couple of spear armed high elves that also have the look. My sea elves have been on a back burner for a long time and may just get some attention after August.

Yes, I think you're right. Because in the end I'm hoping to vaguely merge my forces, I'm quite keen on figures like those that 'bridge the gap'. Although in some ways that one goes too far, its skirt-wearing makes it rather out of keeping with the rest of the sea elves apart from a couple of motifs - though the need to put a skirt onto one of the other crew members helps to fill that gap a little bit.

As for your plans to return to your own sea elves, there are interesting gaming possibilities there.. I sense some naval maneuvers may be in the works!

You know I commented on this thread already ... but I guess I must have pressed the wrong button or something 'cos my post is not here.

The force is looking good so far - the perfect force to go on such a mission. I have two of those bolt thrower models all painted up back from when Wood Elves could use them. Mine are crewed by Dark Elves in Wood elf colours!! If you need more tell me and I will bring them. They never get to see battle and I feel sorry for them.

Would be glad of the reinforcements, and would be keen to see it anyway! Though not sure about over-tooling the force with multiple bolt throwers. The way I see it, they're not expecting a fight, or not much of a fight anyway.

I like the way you think of the game - in an 'in game' fashion. You are of course right. Why would an opportunistic smash and grab expedition slow itself down with a large artillery train of bolt throwers?

lenihan":l5js9bno said:

Yes, I think you're right. Because in the end I'm hoping to vaguely merge my forces, I'm quite keen on figures like those that 'bridge the gap'. Although in some ways that one goes too far, its skirt-wearing makes it rather out of keeping with the rest of the sea elves apart from a couple of motifs - though the need to put a skirt onto one of the other crew members helps to fill that gap a little bit.

As for your plans to return to your own sea elves, there are interesting gaming possibilities there.. I sense some naval maneuvers may be in the works!

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Remember the sea elves are marauders line, the bolt thrower is Jes's work for citadel, there are others with the skirt that fit in well. I think the 4th ed plastic spears fit in very well with a third ed force and may end up using some.

If you want naval battles I have a dark elf force waiting to go. We could have a look at Gary Chalks rules. My dark elves would be using real ships though not giant skulls on rocks.

Erny":fnjmamxt said:

I think the 4th ed plastic spears fit in very well with a third ed force and may end up using some.

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I LOVE the 4th ed plastic spears. Unlike many of the plastic models (e.g. the 4th ed high elf archers) the fact that they all look the same actually comes across to me as something of an aesthetic plus point. There's something terracotta warrior-like about the rows of them standing firm.

I'm looking to retire and replace my 4th ed plastic archers with different models, but I'm going to make re-painting the 4th ed spearmen and bringing them back onto the battlefield one of my priorities after the oldhammer weekend.

I've painted my first character figure for the Rumble in the Jungle - it's Serellia of Zimendell from Dungeonquest. I reckon her reptile companion gives her a certain suitability for the Southlands; I see her true to the Dungeonquest persona as an independently minded travelling adventuress-mage, returning to the Southlands after many years and scrying for the ancient treasures that lie within the walls of the temples. Secretive and aloof, she has been sought out to accompany the expedition because of her expert knowledge of the region, though her true motives in finding the temples remain hidden.



Apologies for the awful picture and the black hair against the black blackground, I don't have the digital camera I used for the last few pictures at the moment, so this was taken with webcam. It's the only pic that wasn't horribly wobbly, and it's still grainy as anything! I just wanted to get it on here to chart my progress, I'll try and get clearer pics later.

Nice figure, off my radar but worth looking for. I like the idea of sea elves being accompanied by a adventuring sorceress, I look forward to seeing it in the lead.

Some more progress... painted another 7 reaver knights, making a regiment of 12 in total. Obviously need basing and a banner adding, but essentially done.


These are all 5th ed with the exception of the standard bearer, which is a 4th ed Marauder Reaver knight. So not much to placate the hardcore leadheads among you, but the Sea Elves should be done soon and will be of rather more Oldhammer interest!

Yeah, still without a proper camera, but the graininess of this webcam shot has a certain impressionistic retro charm of its own, no? Ok, maybe just my weird aesthetic

Well, I got my force finished for the Oldhammer weekend and the Rumble in the Jungle. Here's a pic of them at the start of the game, nicked from Padre. (More stolen photos on my blog)



What's next? Well, the weekend really gave me a taste for getting more sea elves; I now realise that I need some of the sea elf archer models to field a proper company, and I should think about getting more of the wardancer types to field a sea elf wardancer unit (in effect a boarding party).

All this will have to wait until I have money to splurge on ebay. However, in the meantime my current project is to paint up my purchase from Foundry at the weekend: they have a very interesting sea elf range (associated with their new God of Battles game, I'm led to understand), and I purchased a couple of blisters: sea elf priest and sea elf beastmaster, together with a blister of "ambassadors from the deep". I really like the idea of a sea elf beastmaster who can summon creatures from the ocean, and the models are fun and quirky. Here's a pic of what I bought:

All kinds of boss creatures! Lobster, crabs and hermit crabs, octopus, lamprey, jellyfish, and... er... a sea horse.

And a close up of the beastmaster and the priest.


In all honesty, I have no idea how I'm going to use these on the tabletop, but I'll need to think up some suitable adaptation of the wood elf beastmaster profile. I'm working on these now and I'll see if I manage to have them ready for this weekend's OGRE meet-up.

Finished the sea elf beastmaster and assorted sea gribblies in time for yesterdays OGRE meet-up. Sea elf company and sea elf bolthrower in the background. Photo courtesy of the evil Clan Snickit, whose forces are encroaching on the right.


Now I'm going to have a bit of a rest from sea elves while I get on with the start of my fimir warband.