ZeroTwentythree's Space Elves - Introduction

Cold September

 

Any free port, but especially one the size of the Void City, Carcosa, is bound to see its share of troublemakers and unwelcome guests. But when the crew of the Cold September disembark, a lava flow of tension creeps through the city. The erratic whims of the eldrich pirates are a danger to anyone in their vicinity. They have time and again worn out their welcome, yet the oligarchs of Carcosa have yet to banish them, even when others have been barred entry to the city for less serious (and frequent) offenses.

They do not wield great influence. They are a small band of unpredictable outlaws whose motives are completely alien, even among the other bands of self-serving pirates and petty potentates of the northern outer rim. They are not powerful. They have but a small fleet and are incapable of anything beyond small (yet efficient) raids. And to all observers, they owe allegiance to none but themselves.

Introduction

Hey.

I'm ZeroTwentythree. I'm back again. And I'm painting more elves. Space elves this time. Three Challenges, three elf projects. I'm not really an elf fetishist. Honest. So why a third year of elves? Not sure I can explain.

Er, maybe I can.

OWAC2: Sea Elves. I have a Marienburg army, and a whole alternative Warhammer setting/campaign centered around that. And I had this idea for a sea elf faction -- which makes a ton of sense. So I painted a bunch of Marienburgers, plus the primary antagonists (undead) and a bunch of smaller supporting factions... Except I never touched the sea elves. So joining the Old World Army Challenge in year two was a great motivation for me. And it worked! After (many, many) years of sitting on those elves, they're now painted. 95% painted. Solid.

 

 

OWACIII: I looked at a couple of options, and even further out on the periphery of the above setting/campaign, I had and idea to breathe life into some wood elves I had been hanging onto for... decades. Most were painted, but in dire need of new paint. I had a couple other options under consideration for OWAC3, but the wood elves seemed like a more focused force than the other options I was considering, and my plans were for a big contrast to their more colorful and regimented kin, so.... it kind of worked out. I even took it way beyond my original plan!

OWACIV: OK, so I painted some elves and then some more elves. Time to evaluate what else I've had waiting in the wings. Most of my remaining projects were either mostly done already, or not terribly "Old"hammer. But I had these five Space Elves from my youth. I mean, that's a solid foundation for an army, right? A chopped up & converted hero, a heavy weapon guy who's never been a valid option in any version of any Eldar armylists, and three musicians. Solid start to the next Old World Army Challenge now that it was being opened up to RT/40k!

Before I even bought the Rogue Trader book in my youth, I picked up a few packs of Space Elves because I really liked the figures. I pained them, some friends bought some plastic beekees and orc raiders and... I switched to Mantis Warriors Space Monkeys because they had a playable list and a cool WD article about the Badab War. Eldar, on the other hand had only a bunch of mismatched WD articles and a list that didn't quite match the figures available. My Eldar languished until late RT & 2nd ed, and even though I loved the aesthetic of the early Space Elves they only ever found a home as second class citizens --"Guardians" fighting alongside the far better... well, every other unit in the Eldar codex. They never seemed to enjoy the spotlight like they deserved.

Now I'm sounding like one of those long winded recipe web sites. The ones where you're just looking for what's cooking, not the author's life story. So enough with the background, here's the chicken piccata:

I started looking for old RT Eldar, got discouraged at first, but a couple of awesome fellow OWAC brothers got me hooked up. Add in a  few (occasionally drunk and misguided...) eBay purchases later and I'm set for OWAC4 and beyond.

With more elves. Space elves. OWAC4(0k).

Here's the rundown. Picture first, because I just wrote a bunch of words and you probably need to stop reading and see some pictures.

This is my tentative project based on the Chapter Approved: Book of the Astronomican pirate list. Two serpent squads, one upgraded viper squad, two dragon squads, the (4) minimum characters, two D-canon platforms, one each of the ghost warriors, and a war walker.

I will probably swap out the walker (which is the slightly different 2nd ed. variation) for a dreadnought or a spirit warrior depending on my whim at the time. Or maybe I will scratch build a (non deodorant container) grav-attack. Some of the other individual figures may also get switched up by the time they're ready to be painted.

I've painted one test figure so far. My inspiration is coming from several sources, but largely from the art of Pascale Blanché. I'm not going to stick to it religiously, but I think I'm going to

borrow heavily from his style and color palettes. For me, this year won't be a challenge of just getting figures painted, but a challenge to try new techniques & aesthetics.

The test figure turned out much better than I had hoped, so that's good news! She will also serve as my offering to the that great Warrior of the Wasteland, the Ayatollah of Rock & Roll-ah, the Benevolent OWAC Overlord.