Tale of OG Gamers - High Elves

[cunningmatt]

Thursday 2nd September

Ok so it's about time I started my Tale of OG Gamers blog, admittedly I planned to be all organised and start this yesterday so as to start on the official first day, sadly I forgot so as you can see at this early stage it's all going well!

My plan was to finally get round to making my High Elf force half desent. Sadly High Elves have always suffered throughout my painting and collecting history, all the way back to the 4th edition when they were ignored in favour of the Orcs & Goblins in the box set all the way up to know, where I painted a basic force with the intention of expanding to include all the exciting and fun options available to a High Elf general but instead got swayed by the powers of Chaos and ended up painting myself an army of Warriors and of Beastmen in the interim. So now was the time to swing the balance back in the High Elves favour. Additionally High Elves seemed like a good choice as their high points cost meant 200 points a month shouldn't be too hard (I know work is going to take over my life in October and November so anything I can do to help is good), plus what with the new Island of Blood box set and High Elf reinforcements next month there's never been a better time to sort out my High Elves - sorry sound like I'm writing High Elf propoganda for White Dwarf there!

In order to fit to the rules of Tale of OG Gamers I was going to paint up a seperate 2,000 point High Elf army, (legal at 600, 1,200 and 2,000 points) that could function on its own, but the intention was that I could join it up to my exisiting army which consists of about 3,000 points of High Elves to give me a mighty warhost to play a big fun game with some time (must organise some big fun games some time rather than just prattling on about them). I wasn't going to make a plan for exactly what this 2,000 point army consisted of, as I'm rubbish at sticking to them anyway (partiuclarly when the lure of new models comes into play) - the chances of my planning out my next 10 months of painting were remote in the extreme. However I wanted my new High Elf army to consist of the choices I was missing from my existing force, saying that provided it didn't make the combined army legal I wasn't rulling out and duplication of units - the only real restriction this gave me is that my new army couldn't have a Battle Standard Bearer, bit of bummer in 8th edition, but High Elves are probably the army most able to live without a Battle Standard Bearer (plus it would give me more points for magic - mooo hahahahahaha). The other wish list on what I wanted was that my exisiting army went from having extra core units in 7th edition to being 5% under the core restrictions in the 8th edition so if my 2,000 point army was a little core heavy that wouldn't be a problem.

My current High Elf army consists of the following (so this is the stuff I'll be avoiding):
Prince on Steed
Battle Standard Bearer
Archmage
Mage on Steed

15x Spearmen
15x Spearmen
12x Archers
12x Archers

12x Silver Helms (I know, I know they are about as much use as Jedward, but still they are painted!)
20x Swordmaster of Hoeth
20x White Lions
5x Shadow Warriors
1x Tiranoic Chariot

2x Repeater Bolt Throwers

So ideally I'm looking to add characters on monsters, hero on foot, Lothern Sea Guard, Phoniex Guard, Dragon Princes, White Lion Chariot, Ellyrian Reavers and Great Eagles to my army.

Fortunately the new of Island of Blood set contains a lot of this wish list, unfortunately I can't come to the club today (bloody work) so I'd have to wait until Monday before I could collect my set and start any painting. So the point of this long rambling diatribe is to disguise the fact I have done no painting and won't be able to start until a week into September... looking good so far then!

[fatolaf]

You'll be fine Matt, look forwards to your first batch...

[cunningmatt]

Wednesday 8th September

Welcome back to the blog which is about as disturbing to fathom as imagining what Anne Widdecombe MP will look like on this year's Strictly Come Dancing!

Now the astute amongst you will notice how last week I bumbled on in a vein effort to disguis the fact I hadn't actually done any painting, so one week on - and 27% of the way through September you will be pleased to know that nothing has changed. Let the ramble begin.

Last week I explained how my plan was to add to my current High Elf army with a new 2,000 point one including units that were missing from my original army whilst providing a new stand alone army - as if you possibly care. The good news is that this meant that colour schemes and basing options had already been dictated, so here's a quick guide to how my army should look:



I should point out, for extra clarification this chariot is from my old army, I'm not claiming I painted it in the last eight days - but it does show the colour scheme I'll be using namly traditional High Elf white and silver look, but my accent colours are light blue and yellow. Which coincidentally, I think (unless I was brainwashed into painting in some advertising) is the same colour scheme as that used by all time favourite shop (bar OG Games) of Shakeaway:

http://www.shakeaway.com/subsites/uk/homepage.htm

For those of you unfamiliar with Shakeaway, it is like a giant sweet shop but you go in and choose the sweet/chocolate bar/cake/fruit (if you're boring), which is then turned into a milkshake - amazing! I recommend you try out, there's one in Angel, and there are some lesser rival brands around but none are as good as the true Shakeaway experience. Oh and if you're not sure what flavour to try I'd suggest a "Jack" which is a caramelly concoction. Anyway I appear to have digressed away from painting, which apparently is the point of this blog though you'd be hard pushed to guess, and plugged another company on Ol's site - don't worry Ol they don't sell minatures!!

I'll talk you through the colours used to get the scheme shown above, when I've actually done some painting - I know you can barely contain yourself! For now I've had a thought about what units I want to paint up for my army, specifically the first 600 points, primarily the High Elves from the Island of Blood set, though the news about new Phoenix Guard (that's the second way I've spelt Phoneix through this blog, oh and there's the third, seriously where does that "e" go?) and Dragon Princes this week nearly caused a diversion!

Whilst I was going to paint a general this month, I know time will be tight next month (bloody work) so thought I should go for quantity this month, hence it has to be a core choice. This was obviously going to be the Lothern Sea Guard, because they're on the list of units I don't have for my exisiting army, they're in the Island of Blood set, and I'm thinking in a 600 point game a dual purpose unit that has missile weapons and is half decent (for Core) in close combat will be useful. 207 points gets you 14 Lothern Sea Guard with Full Command and shields (they don't come free - an extra point each don't you know!), so that is this month sorted (oh bar the small matter of painting them, details, schemtails).

Anyway to prove I have done something useful this week, I've put together this week's events through the medium of photography (be grateful it wasn't dance), so hopefully I'll give the impression I've been doing something!

This weekend, with no Island of Blood box set I was unable to paint any High Elves so with a marathon session on Sunday I finished off a large number of Beastmen models:

I'm not really supposed to talk Beastmen here, this is a High Elf post after all, so if you want to see more check out my other painting blog (shameless plug alert) here: http://ogforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=943.msg15596;topicseen#msg15596

On Monday I picked up my Island of Blood set - wooo:


I opened it...


Ok so that picture probably wasn't necessary, snipped up all the High Elf and Skaven bits:


Then swapped my Skaven with Lee for his High Elves, sadly no picture of this exists so instead we have an artist's impression of what that moment may have looked like, sadly the artist in question is about 4 years old.


Some plastic glue and basing later (this is actually sand PVA glued on, and then washed with PVA glue to seal the sand down works a treat - see painting tips in amongst the drivel) the Lothern Sea Guard and the Mage are assembled - there are 18 Sea Guard here, the 14 rank and file and 3 command group figures, plus I used a spear from a Spearmen frame to make the second standard bearer into the 18th trooper (there isn't a specific model for the standard, just a banner you can attach to the regular models instead of a spear). I planned to convert the second champion and musician to make the unit up to 20 but that looked too complicated for now.


Then they went onto my lovely balcony on a particularly grey day for a Chaos Black undercoat (is it me or is the can always nearly empty when you really need to undercoat something?). The most important thing about this picture is the shock news that "London Paramedics are called out every to deal with a drunk every 8 minutes" - must have been an OG Games event. Plus if you look very closely you'll see Malagor the Dark Omen and Ghorros Warhoof have snuck in this undercoating batch, dam the Beastmen get everywhere can I put them down long enough to get some High Elves done?


So we now have one assembled Mage (for a later date, we'll get round to him)!


And 18 Lothern Sea Guard, the first 14 of which will be this month's 200 points.


And you'll be pleased to know that's it for this week, well done if you made it this far. Hopefully next week I will talk about actual painting rather than the line up for Strictly Come Dancing, milkshake shops, models I painted two years ago and the strain our binge drinking culture puts on the NHS, who knows and frankly who cares?!

[fatolaf]

the shock news that "London Paramedics are called out every to deal with a drunk every 8 minutes" - must have been an OG Games event

Brilliant mate, very entertaining, especially the recreation of the Matt / Lee handover...

[maelzch]

really liking the effort going into this blog, don't think i've seen a more detailed decription of assebly and undercoat! 

[Mike]

That cant be lee.... NO BEARD!

IMPOSTER!!!

[cunningmatt]

really liking the effort going into this blog

Possibly less effort in the blog, more effort in the painting would be more productive but where would the fun be in that?

That cant be lee.... NO BEARD!

IMPOSTER!!!

Bless her the artist who did the artist's impression is only 4, she's not even allowed into the pub to the witness the event - all considering I think she did well, though I'll slap her and see if she can do a better picture for next week!

[cunningmatt]

Thursday 16th September

It's that time of the week again, time for the blog that's more predictable than Phil Mitchell burning down the Queen Vic after spilling alcohol everywhere – thank god matches aren't allowed at OG Games (not that I watch EastEnders you understand, I just had it on whilst I was ironing - hmmmm not sure which sounds sadder).

Anyway we start with shock accusations that the resident 4-year old artist, insulted by claims that last week's artistic representation of me swapping Island of Blood models with Lee wasn't a good enough likeness, has been Photoshopping her pictures - shocking claims indeed! And I think we can all agree that looking at the picture from last week again, we can see absolutely no Photoshopping has taken place.



It appears that we've digressed from painting of High Elves already, what a surprise?! So back to the Elven army in question, and after looking at other people's blogs in this series I realise that my army is lacking any theme or back story, apparently generic High Elves (sponsored by Shakeaway - the milkshake shop, seriously have you tried one yet? You really should, I know summer is over but seriously they are good) doesn't constitute a theme. Whilst I would write some epic piece of backstory for them I feel that without the literary grace of the Games Workshop team (and a large thesaurus) my efforts would appear like the Ladybird book of Warhammer "Once upon a time there were some High Elves, and they didn't much like the Dark Elves who were very naughty, so they put on white clothes and made lots of money doing Persil adverts" - see without a few random words that you are not quite sure of the meaning of, but too lazy to look up, it doesn't feel very Games Workshop.

So then inspiration struck, but rather then telling you straight out I'm going to pontificate for ages before getting to the rather lame point (if you've got this far in the blog you'll be used to it). Last Thursday it was the 25th anniversary of the start of on-air continuity for CBBC, by that I mean the start of the much loved Broom Cupboard on CBBC (if you are too young to remember the Broom Cupboard and only remember Studio A or Studio 9 as it then became, I hate you greatly and you should stop reading this blog immediately, you are banned hear me banned!). If you're feeling nostalgic why not look at this highlight of 25 years of the Broom Cupboard (see if you remember Edd the Duck, Wilson the Butler, Phillippa Forrester and Simon Parkin plus many, many more):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iA1qyUq1gsg

To the point, I know you're getting bored busy at work etc.  - no you're not you're desperately waiting for lunch! Sorry! Well some of you may, or may not know (that covers all options bar not caring) that I have a connection to children's television, no not that I'm a paedophile! Why does everyone of a certain age group (i.e. men old enough to go in pubs) presume that the only connection anyone can have to children must be paedophilia, if I mentioned I worked with a photocopier you wouldn't instantly presume I shove my dick in it would you? You would!?! Well then out of the two us I'm not the sick one! Any way I have a connection with children's television so I thought why don't I name each one of my units around a classic children's programme from my youth in tribute? And so we get to the point, my army will be themed around classic children's TV – except in name, not in modelling or anything complicated like that.

So to the Lothern Sea Guard, now the obvious nautical children's programme for their naming would be Captain Pugwash, but I never watched that as a child so it feels cheating to use it. The one nautical thing that does come to mind is a programme called The Smoggies, now to prove I'm not going mad here is a clip of the theme tune:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdCfCSfkLqQ

See I'm not mad, well... perhaps. The interesting thing about The Smoggies, and I use the word "interesting" in much the same way as the makers of Celebrity Come Dine with Me use the word "Celebrity" – namely incorrectly. The interesting thing about The Smoggies is that they are named after the show's protagonists rather than the heroes, mind you if you were called the Sun Tots you probably wouldn't shout about it for fear of getting the proverbial kicked out of you on the Night Bus. The basic theme of the show was that The Sun Tots (who were kind to the environment and apparently only had one hair stylist, but infinite quantities of hair dye) had a secret magic coral that made you forever young (and solar panel technology, despite only the ability to build things out of wood), where as The Smoggies who lived in a boat off the coast of Sun Tot Island polluted the planet whilst trying to steal the coral – for some reason the Sun Tots wouldn't share (little bastards).

Any how as that is the first children's nautical reference I can think off, my unit shall be named Smoggy's Sea Guard, I imagine they live permanently on a boat off the coast of Lothern, bitter about their aging (well you'd surely have a few wrinkles if you were a thousand years old?) and polluting the sea dumping Tippex in the ocean, the bye-product of all that white cloth dying. So there we have it a theme for the army.

That just leaves us time for this week in pictures, horray!!

On Friday disaster struck, I realised in my haste to put together my Lothern Sea Guard I had not properly joined the spear arms to the body in assembly in a couple of cases.



Turns out that I later read in the Island of Blood intro book...



...that apparently the frames in the Island of Blood set have labelled the arms that go with the appropriate bodies with a Letter etched on the frame. If only there had been some clue on this book to the fact I should have consulted it before assembly.



Also I had noticed my cunning conversion where I used a spare spear from the High Elf Spearmen frame had a flaw. The Lothern Sea Guard have gloves, but the Spearmen don't, well I can kind of live with that, his second arm is hidden by the shield, and to be honest he could have lost the glove on the battlefield, I mean I lose gloves on the Underground all the time so it's not impossible. But more importantly one arm now had a shoulder pad piece of armour, and the other didn't, so he looked a bit lopsided – oops!

So it was time to get green stuffing, I find it very useful to keep all my green stuff in a little bag otherwise you get odd yellow and blue stains round the house which are hard to explain.



And so the gaps were filled...



And a second shoulder pad was constructed...



Ok so it's a bit shit, but this plan was never going to fly was it. From a distance (about 5 miles) it works, so we'll hide him in the back rank and remove him as soon as a casualty occurs (even if it's not to that unit).

So this leaves a load of spare green stuff, no matter how sparing you are in making it up there's always some left over. I find it best to roll it into balls, then when you have people round for a dinner party who you don't really like you can hide it in the green peas and laugh at them choking, but maybe that's just me?



Then on Saturday given it was the anniversary of a day when a particular Daemons of Chaos player, who doesn't in any shape or form represent all Daemons of Chaos players, carried out a terrible army list against other people. Thusly I decided the best course of action would be to set fire to many copies of the Daemons of Chaos army book thereby sending a message to said Daemons of Chaos player that his action was unacceptable, but at the same time offending thousands more innocent Daemons of Chaos players causing them to create more terrible army lists.



Then after a quick word from Barrack Obama and some press coverage that caused riots in the Daemons of Chaos homelands, I realised this would be incredibly stupid so didn't do it.

And after all that I did a little bit of painting, namely the basecoating on the whole unit:



Here's a quick guide to the colours used, should you be mad enough to copy me.





Base: Khemri Brown
Leather: Scorched Brown
Robes and Shield: 1:1 Astronomican Grey : Skull White
Armour Edging: 1:1 Enchanted Blue : Ice Blue
Silver Metal: Chainmail
Spear and Bow: Khemri Brown
Dragon: Mechrite Red
Sea: 1:1:1 Chaos Black : Enchanted Blue : Dark Angels Green
Gold Metal: Tin Bitz
Hair: Vomit Brown or Dheneb Stone or Calthan Brown
Flesh: Dwarf Flesh
Pennants and Arrow Quivers: Iyanden Dark Sun
Seaweed: Dark Angels Green
Shells: Dheneb Stone

And with this, possibly the longest post ever (including discussions on children's TV, Photoshop scandals, paedophilia, pollution and mocking of current affairs events), I say goodbye for this week. Next week promises painting on the road, and mixing paints, very exciting, I'm sure you can wait!!

[maelzch]

This has become the most rambling and entertaining plog I've seen in a while! Keep it up!

[Mike]

I'm never getting the last 10 minutes of my life back am I?

Luckily they were an entertaining 10 minutes.