Space Elves

I was a Warhammer/Oldhammer player and collector long before Rogue Trader 40,000 came out and to be honest I was never a fan of the fairy folk.  Not sure why, maybe I had too much of the greenskin aggression in me or tainted by a bit of the power of the warp.  Regardless I never found any elf models that really enticed me other than the old Melnibonéan range that evolved into the High Elf range.  Then 40K came out and the Space Elves were released putting the faey folk back on the radar. For those of you who aren't as grey or long in the tooth as me the initial Space Elves release of 12 miniatures would evolve into the Eldar and Dark Eldar ranges of today.

Design wise seem to be a sci-fi evolution of the Melnibonéan/High Elf/Silver Helm models with the command group being a direct take off of the "demon" faced Melnibonéan cavalry figures.  Take a look at Lancer 1 and Sword 2 and then Cmd Avele Swifteye below.

I enjoy the design, smoother lines without the bulk and hard edges of the Space Marines. As a wee lad I had a problem that I’m sure we all shared, very limited disposable income, which prevented me from indulging myself back when they were current releases.  I think I instead jumped into the RTB01.  But I digress, I managed to pick up an ebay lot of 8 on the cheap.  3 of which were weapons platform crewmen.  Initially I wasn't all that enthused by them but then inspiration struck.  "Why not use them as test figures for you color schemes?" I pondered to myself and this fellow was born.

Just playing around with some color selections.  I kind of like this one which is similar to one from Brian Ansell's collection as show over at Eldrich Epistles.  I'm still going to play around a bit and land on my first squad’s color scheme soon.  My intent being that each squad will have its own color scheme.  They are pirates/corsairs after all so I don't see the need to be uniform across the entire army!  Once I get these painted up I'll tackle a dreadnought or two from the earlier post.

Again More Used Bookstore Goodness!

Once again I hit pay dirt at Half Price Books!  First off if you live anywhere close to one of these stores it is a must stop!  They obviously have books and if you’re a fan of the Warhammer or 40K novels ranges you can always find a good variety and the occasional old/rare book.  The somewhat hidden gem is that they also carry RPG and games at most locations.  Some have better selections then others but it is always worth a look.  They also carry comics and graphic novels as well.  As their name implies, you typically get most items in the store for at least half of the original cover price unless it is some rare tome that they feel they can charge a premium.  And you find the occasional gem in the $1 bin.  I haunt the Columbus Ohio locations on a regular basis since you never know what you will run into and with 6 locations I’m bound to find something of interest.  Another great offering from HPB is when you sign up for their mailing list you get access to their occasional coupon sales, typically a week long run of percentages off single items starting at 30% early in the week and culminating in a 50% off on the Sunday of the sales week.  So with 50% off I had to indulge myself some. 

Here is a pic of my haul from three separate store visits since you can only use the coupon on one item per store.  I’ve always wanted to get into Munchkin, probably would have preferred the original version but all they carried was the Cthulhu version.  At a starting price of  $19.99, 20% off the regular retail price and not one of their standard half price items.  With the coupon making it a measly $10 I had to pick up a copy.  The same with the Cthulhu Yahtzee, ended up being $10 as well with the 50% off coupon and for $10 I thought it looked too cool to pass up.  And lastly, one of the Columbus locations has picked up some misc miniatures and as I perused them I noticed an intact and complete original version Snotling Pumpwagon for a paltry $15 which is good at full price but at $7.50 I couldn’t resist!  So the unusual game heavy haul from the used bookstore crawl.

Lastly, I mentioned previously that you do run into the occasional “rare” or “collector” tome at these stores.  In most cases I agree with their premium prices.  But I ran into a situation that I found a bit unusual.  Awhile back I picked up the starting book in Graham McNeil’s excellent Mars series; Priests, Lords, and Gods of Mars.  I found Priests of Mars and then subsequently found the last book Gods of Mars, but was having a devil of a time finding the middle installment Lords of Mars.  I’m not sure if that particular book had a low print run or what but I just didn’t seem to show up anywhere, not in the used books stores or online.  One finally turned up in a HPB and I stopped by to purchase it and was shocked that it was almost double the price of the original cover.  I questioned the rationale behind it being so high and got something along the lines of hard to find.  Well I’m a cheapskate first and foremost and a stubborn one at that.  I politely declined the offer and they offered it to me at about $5 over cover price, about $20 or so.  I again declined and moved on since at worst case I could still get an e-copy from Black Library if my patience didn’t hold out.  i stress patience since I knew that a wonderful 50% off coupon would eventually appear in my email sometime over the summer.  So months went by with the two tomes I did owned constantly whispering my name and begging me to read them.  I managed to hold out until last month when the coupon arrived.  We made the trip up to Columbus and I thought, “well if it is there I’ll pick it up with the 50% coupon that should make it close to what I should be paying for it.”  Not only did they still have it but it appears that they had come to their senses and it was marked at the normal half of the cover price so I picked it up for $3.50.  Sometimes it pays to wait!

Paint at Last

My apologies for lack of posting.  I’ve been struggling with Blogger and my internet connection and have been unable to get pictures to upload.  Not sure what the issue was but things just weren’t playing nicely with each other.  So here is a long delayed post about my dive back into painting with some Dark Future/Car Wars miniatures:

Well after weeks if not months of procrastination it has finally happened, paint at last!  Here is my very modest foray back into painting, it is just a start but better movement than nothing.  I have reached the very harsh reality that age is catching up with me, or at least my eyesight!  Wow it was a major pain trying to paint with my bifocals on.  I’ll have to try some alternatives to them, either a jewelers visor or maybe reading glasses.  I started off with the Dark Future/Car Wars vehicles. I figured it was a good way to get my feet wet without botching a job that I would regret.  If my skills are not up to snuff yet then worst case they get turned into rough Mad Max style road warrior vehicles.

This group shot doesn’t show much detail but gives you a rough look at how far I’ve progressed.

Poor lighting doesn't allow much interior detail but seats have basic brown and black detailing.  Even more discouraging is that once I put the windshield back in you really can’t see any of the interior detail!  As you can see form this shot, man what a letdown!

To be honest I’m not sure that in the future I will even bother with painting the interior as you can see from these two shots you cannot see much!  They are 95%+ done with some work to do on the metal highlights on weapons and then some weathering and muddling.  I went through my metallic paints and unfortunately not a one of them was usable so off to the hobbyshop I go to get some fresh updates.  Any suggestions on good paints is greatly appreciated.

Oldhammer 40K or Rogue Trader 40k or Old Trader or Roguehammer?

I'm not sure that there has been an official moniker placed on the older 40k mins as we have done with Oldhammer other than Rogue Trader 40k so that will be what I go with.  On the G+ Warhammer 40k Rogue Trader Style community Basher Smasher posed some old WD/Compendium pages awhile back that featured RT era Eldar Dreadnoughts/Wraithlords and it immediately renewed my interest in the old Space Elves.  

So off on a buying mission I went.  My goal was to keep it to under $10 each.  I hit ebay and was able to get, 5 RT era dreds, 2 what I will call 2nd ed dreds (they have the under slung hand weapons and the shoulder mounted heavy weapon, and 2 war walkers for a total of $82.99 across 5 different auctions.  That included shipping so a whopping average of $9.22 per min!  And one of the RT era mins was still in its blister, ah Chico would be proud.  So I was able to stick to my guns and keep within my spending goals. Now all I have to do is strip down the painted and glued mins.  Now off to located some foot troops.