Thunderbolt Mountain Elves

I've been on the look out for some elves to add to my growing fantasy/ early medieval setting.  Now that I think about it, this all started when I bought some Black Tree Design crusaders...then orcs/goblins...then more crusaders...then more orcs.   Now I have a large orc/goblin hoard, a large human/crusader army, cultists, skaven, beastmen, dwarves, and now elves.  Man this is a slippery slope!
But back to the topic.  I recently re-stumbled onto Thunderbolt Mountain and fell in love with their elves.  They look what I think elves should look like.  Almost human like but definitely not human.  They have an otherworldly look to them.  Well not too long ago I made the big jump and ordered some of them.  I wanted them to represent a young lord or two with their followers going on an adventure.
They are very well sculpted figures and have a crazy amount of detail.  The people at Thunderbolt Mountain are supper nice.  They gave me a free figure with my order as a thank you, which was an unexpected surprise!  When I noticed that there were two figures missing from my order they sent the missing figures and before the week was out I had them.  I only wish that they were making some more elves as I would definitely but them.  Now that I think about it, those orcs might be fun to paint too...

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Black Tree Design, Thunderbolt Mountain, Frostgrave/GW mix

Cultist

I've been eyeing the Frostgrave Cultist for a while now.  It's hard to find good fantasy cultists that are not all in robes.  While robed cultist have their uses, fighting skirmishes in a dungeon isn't one of them.  So when I saw the plastic set I knew it was only a matter of time before I owed a box...or two.

I have a plastic necromancer that I made out of a GW Empire wizard that need some protection.

 A skeleton and zombie.  These would've been the first two companions that a fledgling necromancer would have.  They would act like a moving shield for the necromancer.  The skeleton only moves when the enemy is near.  The zombie just soaks up arrows.

 These 3 cultists are armed with hand weapons and shields.  Cultists/GW/and Victix bits

The elf on the left has a sword and dagger...and a dagger, and a dagger, and a....

The center man has a spear and a small shield. The last man has a sword/dagger combo.

Finally the firepower.  The one on the left has GW militia arms, the center is armed with the cultist crossbow, and the last one is an elf armed with a GW militia bow.  I didn't like the way the cultist bow looked so I used these arms.

I don't own the Frostgrave rules and don't plan on getting them anytime soon.  I don't have time or any opponents in the area to game against.  I just put together figures that I thought would look cool.

I had a blast putting them together and look forward to putting the rest together after I get these painted.  Now I just need a color scheme and a good cult name...

What I've been up to

Not too long ago I received a large order from Black Tree Design for my early crusades/fantasy setting.

They are mostly 2nd Crusade spearmen and knights, Norman spearmen and knights, 100yr war swordmen, and a few dark age Saxons and Vikings thrown in to add variety.  I plan on giving every knight 1 -4 followers in the same livery.  I also ordered/converted 20 peasants, some armed some not.  After all, I need someone for my orcs/goblins to raid :)

However, not long after I took these pictures I lost my painting mojo.  I cleared my desk and grabbed 6 figures to paint which seemed to work.  Please excuse the blurry photos.

More goblins for the hoard

I've had these guys sitting on my desk for a while now waiting for their spot in the light.  These little guys are very fun to paint.  I wish the current goblins companies are making had as much character as these guys.

There are some more orcs and goblins waiting in the wings for me to get to them.  After I finish these guys I think I will be done with orcs and goblins for a bit....unless I see something I really want :)

Justin

Well, its been awhile....

Its been over a month since I've last posted and things have changed a lot in the Buck house.  The arrival of our newest member of the family will be coming soon....next Tuesday actually!  A lot of my spare time has been going into setting up her room and moving everything of mine out of there and into what I have designated my "FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE" (cue booming and echoing voice).  Then I had to move all of that into the small closet, that was already full, because we had company coming and they were going to stay in that room.  My fortress had been breached.  With the loss of my photo booth, aka baby's room, and my painting room, aka guest room, everything was put on hold for a bit...
...But all was not lost.  My obsession with shiny objects struck again.  With all the gladiator talk going on at LAF, I decided to finally take the plunge and get some that I've had my eyes on for a bit.  An order to Foundry, Brigade Games, and some eBay grabs, I am now the proud owner of way too many gladiators! :)  I have enough to make two lanistas, one for me and one for my dad.  Now we just needed an arena to fight on.  This is where the boxes of baby furniture come in, they were packed with white foam.  It was a gold mine!  I wanted to keep it all, but She Who Must Be Obeyed said I could only keep 2 bags of foam.  2 trash bags later, I have more than enough to last a bit, plus I know my dad has been stockpiling some too.  The arena had to be big enough so if we decided to have larger fights we could but also look goo for 1on1 fights too.  Enough talking, here are some picks, all WIP right now, but it is close to being done.

It is oval with 2 large doors on the long sides and 2 small doors on the short sides.  The inside wall and the top are covered in spackle.  All of this is on a foam core board.  I decided to us hexes as I plan on using Furts gladiator rules Blood on the Sand when he finishes fine tuning them and are for sale. Until then we would use Warhammer Historical Gladiators.  As of right now, the walls and top are painted, as are the doors and supports.  All that I need to do is paint the sand and frame the outside with wood and my arena will be done.  I was also thinking of making some columns and a trap door to brake up the large space. 

I also plan on finishing photographing the rest of our colonial troops (FFL and Sudanese), my Warhammer figures (Brets and Empire), and my Space Marine army.

Any c and c is welcome,

Justin

Oh look, something shiny and new

My goldfish like mind has struck again.  After looking at a few of my wargame mags, I decided that gaming Napoleonic wars in 28mm was a good idea.  My dad warned me against this and said we should do it in 15mm, which he already has.  But did I listen to this sound advice, heck no!  I was able to get my dad onboard when I showed him the new plastic French line.  I ordered a box of Napoleonic British line co from Victrix when they 1st came out and a little later I finally got a box of flank co to complete the units.  We decided to game during the Peninsula campaign.  Here is the start of my first British unit.  So far it is only the Grenadiers and part of the line co, there are 3 more stands to round out the unit.  They are based for both Republic to Empire (the large base) and Sharps Practice (the smaller bases).  Unfortunately this is as far as I have gotten with them as motivation and new shiny things distracted me.  The bases just need to be flocked to be done. 

On the painting table

Just a quick picture of what I'm currently painting.  18 ancient Germans.  Most are from Black Tree Miniatures with 2 Foundry Germans thrown in.  I've had these for a long time and they were originally for my ancient German army that never got off the ground.  Now I might use them as generic barbarians for my Greeks to fight.  I got inspired to dust them off and throw some paint on them after looking at what people were painting at the Lead Adventure Forum.