Sea Elf Privateers - Ballista

This started off with the idea of adding additional support to the Sea Elves I finally painted for last year's OWAC. As I was painting them, however, I started thinking about them a little differently.

Sea Elves, yes, but part of a small sub-faction. Whereas the rest of what was previously painted are troops from the merchant houses and their vessels, there are other Sea Elves on the fringes of that Marienburg society. These are privateers in direct service to the Marienburg's Directorate. Sometimes they "stray" into selective piracy. They're tolerated by the mainstream Sea Elf community, but only barely. To the Directorate, however, they are far more useful, if occasionally difficult to control

The figures are from Grenadier's Fantasy Warriors dark elf range, now produced by Mirliton. I like the crew, though the ballista is a bit questionable. I'm not sure I like the color I painted it, either.

I am considering trying to get a small regiment of the infantry and, as mentioned above, utilizing a regiment plus bolter & crew as one of my home-brewed "Regiments of Renown" or OMFG mercenary regiments.

I got this set last year but didn't get to paint it for the OWAC. I was inspired by the ruffled collars and tall boots looking like Blanche-esque nod to 16th/17th century fashion, and a social media comment by Trish Carden about some of her Marauder elf sculpts being inspired by the New Romantics aesthetic.

Solo Battle?

Set up a mostly random deployment for a possible attempt at a solo or solo-ish battle.

A Thousand Times More Virtuous Than You

Finished the last details and base on the happy-go-lucky sea elf prince who gave up his claim to the throne to his equally well meaning cousin, then sailed the seas of fate, promoting peace, carrying with him the healing boon of the white sword...

Re-purposed classic figure to fit into the sea elf force I painted for the Old World Army Challenge.

Sea Elf Standard & Pre-Orctober 2019

Sea Elf Standard. Poor color rendering on the photo -- still need to work on better lighting for photos. Sticking with the aquatic fauna theme for the moment.

My plan for (Half-) Orctober 2019: 24 old Grenadier half-orcs, plus a Citadel barbarian who will pass for one of the regiment, and a Reaper priestess that I didn't finish last year.

Anyone else really enjoy the new Dark Crystal series? I had a few initial reservations, but enjoyed the heck out of it.

A Few More Sea Elves

4 additional sea elves for those painted in in the Old World Army Challenge. I had a unit of 28, now I can split that into two units of 16. I do need to paint the some banners, though.

Little Details

It's been a while since I've done some tiny freehand. Painting this shield was my little moment of stress relief on an otherwise shitty day. I need more painting time in my life, to decompress.  Lateaddition to the sea elves I did for the Old World Army Challenge (most of whom still need their shields painted as well...)

Stuff! In the Mail! And a Game!

We're in the week between the end of my daughter's summer day camp, and the start of school. So we've made assorted arrangements to keep her occupied & supervised. Today was, as she called it "daddy & daughter day" -- I took a day off work to spend with her. Unfortunately, bad weather blew my initial plans (mostly outdoor activities) away. But I did have some indoor backup plans. We went out for most of the day and had fun, then came home around dinner.

She's been asking about the Temple of Elemental Evil boardgame, since I've had the box out. We played Dungeon! again a few weeks ago (with my wife as well) and I described it as "kind of like Dungeon! but with a lot more rules. Recommended age is 14+, my daughter's only 8, but she's really bright. A couple days ago she suggested we could play it today, and my wife told me she was talking about it last night & this morning, so who am I to disagree!

We played the first scenario from the campaign. I left out the background about murdered friends and switched the "Massacre Site" tile for the "Oubliette" tile. She played the ranger, I played the cleric. She took to it like a pro -- making me do the dangerous work & act as a tank, while using her archery to pick off all the monsters (and collect all the treasure.)

Her good tactical sense combined with her strong imagination and still being a great age for "pretend play" make me wonder if I should introduce her to some kid-friendly RPG-ing. I follow a few other parents running RPGs with their kids & friends on their blogs & social media. Maybe I should take the dive?

Today I got Stuff! In the Mail! that will supplement several of my ongoing projects. (Thank you Shadespyre!) Half orcs (and one will fit perfectly for a character for which I've been hunting for a figure lately!), high/sea elf, what appears to be a robo-clown (who I'm already generating backstory for) and a witch-hunter.

Also more of the old Citadel "armoured skeletons" which I can probably never have enough of. But this is especially good timing since I recently won an absolute bargain on some of the Black Tree knock-offs, who can serve as back rankers. Add in a few other stray skeleton figures, and I think I've now got a solid sized unit for this year's Deadcember tradition!

What's New? (July)

July's been a slow hobby month. Work continues to be busy, and we had a death in the family that's hit me pretty hard. Plus trying to fit in some summertime fun/events.

I'm currently blocking out colors on three command figures to supplement the recent OWAC Sea Elves as well as some hobbit scouts. Also starting on two hobbit characters -- one will represent a somewhat upper class mage, the other a wild nature based mage/shaman. 

As a reward to myself for finishing the OWAC, I added back to the "unpainted" side of the equation and bought a box of Oathmark humans. I've been wanting some more rough/irregular types to use as bandits or rural Wasteland militia or rebels, or even just  medium mercenary troops. They look good. The figures appear a little shorter than the older Citadel Empire plastics (a few shown for comparison). But they are still pretty bulky and it looks like the Citadel Soldiers of the Empire and Militia heads will look good on the bodies (and vise-versa). The Perry WotR plastics (not in pic) look thinner all around and I think the heads may, unfortunately, not be as good a mix.

One potential problem, I'm not sure these will fit well on 20mm square bases. So I'm considering two options -- either multi-basing, as I did with the plastic Skeletons, or just switching to 25mm square bases for these. The latter works in the context of one of the conventions among WAB (and other games) players, in which lighter troops are considered as fighter in less dense formations, thus wider bases. Depending on the rules system this could impact their fighting capabilities due to the "footprint" of the figures. Other games it may not make a difference.

I'm thinking some of the Perry Agincourt mounted knights, with some minor conversion work, may make good heavy cavalry counterparts for these infantry. Maybe a bit more like restless "younger sons" from Bretonnia, or mercenaries.

I'm also making a (very small) start on organizing my Althammer setting/campaign ideas. More on that later....

OWAC June Entry

My final entry in the Old World Army Challenge, more sea elf spear, and the old Elven Attack Chariot.

More words and photos at the OWAC page:   https://oldworldarmychallenge.blogspot.com/2019/07/zerotwentythrees-june-sea-elves-316-pts.html

OWAC May Entry

My May Entry is up at the Old World Army Challenge!

Start of May Sea Elves and Looking Ahead

I've just finished the first week of what will be about two weeks of a heavy work schedule. There will be much travelling coming up soon, too. May will be the make-or-break month for me in the OWAC. Since there are only two months left, I'm going to do the best to not fail.

My goal for May exceeds the 200 pt requirement quite a bit, but the figure count is still pretty reasonable and I've already started on the higher point value models:

• Sea Elf Witch
• 10 Spear elves
• 1 Champion (lv. 5) (for the spear unit) 
• 1 Standard bearer (also for the spear unit)

That will leave June's goal as:

• 10 Wardancers
• 1 Chariot

Looking further into the future, I also prepped the last few Mirliton half-orcs I need for the unit, now 24 strong. Because I enjoy painting these theme challenges, I may wait until October for them. Between those figures, and the recent Bones KS4 delivery, I've started thinking about how the painting challenges fill out part of the rest of the year, and what other figures I'm looking forward to painting.

• May: OWAC2 Sea Elves
• June: OWAC2 Sea ELves
• July:
• August:
• September:
• October: Half-orcs
• November:
• December: Undead

One of the top candidates for filling in those "empty" months is getting back to the (mostly) hobbits & (some) humans of the JTC, I've also still got more Marienburgers, giants, and assorted fantasy critters to paint. Or more undead. And that then there's that robot project that still hasn't launched. Not really going to plan everything out, I'll just paint whatever I feel like at the time. But the hobbits are on my mind...

Giants to Sea Elves

Richard aka "Orclord" of Stuff of Legends posted an updated photo of some of his giant collection on a few Oldhammer FB groups and it got me thinking about the fact that I've been meaning to do the same thing. End of "Big April" seems like a good time to do it. My own collection is not nearly as large, and I don't have any where good to photograph them all, but for what it's worth...

(click to enlarge)

FWIW, the unpainted giants I still need to work on are: the Mantic giant, the Otherworld giant, and three Reaper Bones giants.



Also, following up on a request for a close-ups of the victim who is about to become lunch for the Heresy giant:

Speaking of giants... not getting any more painted this April, but prepping the next giant(s). I'm debating a head-swap on the Mantic giant -- still undecided.

I've also started prepping minis for the last two months of the Old World Army Challenge. The next two months are going to be horribly busy at work, and I will be doing a bit of travel. So finding time for painting will be challenging.

Since this photo a couple days ago, I've got the separ unit, champion, and the rest of the chariot prepped & primed. Plus I sculpted a new top for the wand on the elf witch, and primed here as well. Just the wardancers to clean & prime now.

Here's the broken wand, with a bit of wire on top to give me something to sculpt on. The idea will be to give it an oyster shell, with the globe in the other hand being a pearl.

OWAC - March

My March entry for the OWAC is up. Read all about it...

https://oldworldarmychallenge.blogspot.com/2019/03/zerotwentythrees-march-sea-elves-212-pts.html

Old World Army Challenge - February

The February entries are rolling in: https://oldworldarmychallenge.blogspot.com/

I will eventually pull all of my OWAC sea elf entries together in a single page here on my own site. But if you'd like to read about my entries as they come in, what the OWAC is all about, and check out some of the other awesome projects, I encourage you to check out the link above.

A couple of pics:

January Challenge & More Shadow Prep

I've completed my first entry for the Old World Army Challenge! Here's a pic, but go to the OWAC site to read about it!

I've also been doing some more prep work for the first few Rangers of Shadow Deep scenarios. Looking forward to (hopefully) trying the game out soon.

Goodbye Deadcember, Hello OWAC2

Goodbye Deadcember, Hello OWAC.... maybe.

Deadcember

I've painted more for Deadcember than I had planned or expected to. I think that's partially owing to the simplicity of the figures and the rapid speed at which I can paint all of that bone.

The tally:

• Citadel Skeleton War Machines boxed set (mostly):
• 1 Chariotw/ 2 crew
• 3 Skeletal champions
• Screaming Skull catapult w/3 crew
• Additional Screaming Skull catapult w/3 crew
• 3 Grenadier skeleton ballistae, each w/2 crew
• 1 Skeletal Champion (old Citadel mini) for the artillery
• 1 Skeletal hero (Reaper mini)
• 8 plastic Citadel skeletons (for Mo' Death)
• 7 non-human skeletons of mixed manufacture (Citadel, Diehard, and whoever made the 40mm skeletons)

With just a few days left, and plans to continue prepping for the OWAC starting in January, I'm not sure there will be anymore undead forthcoming. But for an additional challenge, I've cleaned up a few more and will prime them as soon as I publish this blog post.

3 skeletons, 1 wight, and Morbius the liche (the last unpainted mini from the Skeleton War Machines box, above.)

Morbius has been a beast to strip the old paint from. This is him after vigorous scubbing and two baths in Simple Green, and two baths in Dawn Power Dissolver, which should be more than enough for most paint! I'm done, nothing came off after the last bath so he's going to get painted and I'll just hope that no detail is obscured.

OWAC2

I've already prepped the first month's worth of miniatures for the Old World Army Challenge, but have wanted to get started on the rest so all I have to do is paint when each round comes up. For the second month I plan on painting some war machines -- a bolter and chariot.

The chariot is one of the primary reasons I chose to paint the Sea Elves for the challenge (wood elves was another contender, but I don't think the chariot fits them as well even if it is in the Armies list.) I inherited the chariot from a friend back when we played 3rd ed. It was assembled but never painted. I'm not sure it was used much. I recall most chariots being a bit crappy in 3rd, and I think he had better options for his wood elf army. So there was a lot of cleaning of old glue, flash, and mould lines to be done. Oh the cleaning...

Is it heretical to use old minis as a writing instrument? Ah, lead... the tastiest of all miniatures casting materials. Between this chariot and the second Screaming Skull catapult painted this month I've been reminded, once again, of how crappy the casting quality could be in the "good ol' days." Some of the horses and chariot parts were horrible, massive mould lines and protruding chunks of lead in inconvenient spots (like the strange growth on a horse muzzle.) I'm not crazy about the mountain of lead filings in the house, either. (Don't worry, I take great care to contain and dispose of it.)

So after a tedious amount of work, the sea elf bolter is ready, and the chariot & horses are cleaned but not assembled/primed yet. I haven't even started on the chariot crew.

Old World Army Challenge 2

I am taking part in the 2018 Old World Army Challenge.

The OWAC involves participants painting 200 points of "Oldhammer" miniatures (3rd/4th ed. WFB) each month for six months, one of which is a mulligan, so we each end up with a 1000 point army at the end.

I've posted my first entry there. I'm not going to repeat it here -- follow the link to check it out. I'll be doing Sea Elves to go with my Marienburgers.

Half-Orctober Prep

I figure my desire to make a big push on painting up half-orcs will coincide with "Orctober" so I cleaned & primed the next unit, plus the old standard bearer I stripped. I'll also prep the Hobgoblin Despoilers, er, ahem, old Citadel "half-orcs" next, and then I should be set for some painting next month.

I think I mentioned in a previous post that I will end up with right around 1000 pts of half-orcs based on WFB3. This has got me thinking about other mini-projects. I've already been doing a few individual mercenary units, but I like the idea of these small 1k forces as well. It give me a nice variety to paint and could be fun if I start gaming again.

So I've already been thinking about getting in on the next Old World Army Challenge, which involves painting a 1k force over 6 months. I've got two potential options for that. One are some old wood elves, half of which are painted but I've been wanting to strip & repaint. The other are Sea Elf allies I've long planned for the Marienburgers. These are all unpainted or in need of stripping from previous owners (well, except for one test cavalry), the bulk of which are old 4th ed. plastics I picked up on the cheap many years ago.

Thinking about further 1k projects, I've got a couple of ideas. I have some of the old Tom Meier lizardmen/trogs that I stripped of their 1980s paint years ago, but just haven't got around to repainting more than a single figure. I've got a small unit of each, but now that they're available again from IWM, that could be a fun 1k project. It wouldn't necessarily fit into my Wasteland campaign ideas/theme, but I can totally rationalize after recently re-reading some of the Warhammer background... Marienburg and the Sea Elves are both involved in trade from the New World, so how about plans for some small games/skirmishes there? I've never been crazy about the Slann, so I can just go full lizard for my own use. Of course, that gets me thinking about more ideas... what else could I justify in the New World? Since I'm skipping the Slann, how about some fantasy Aztecs? Something else...?

On the other hand, I'm still trying to restrain myself on starting any new (or New World?) projects until I've caught up more on what I've already got -- like the Marienburgers, undead & undeadish, and especially the halflings/JTC.