The Army of Melnibone: First spear unit assembled (22/10)

[Mason]

Don't discount the idea of the Sidhe from Celtos. The running dragons take to the addition of wings very well too. The certainly look the part!

I shall take a peek at the range, thanks.

As I already have a stash of the old Citadel figures they will form the bulk of the army.
I am including a few old Citadel Elves as well, but the majority will be from the EC range.

Regarding Dragons: I have an old Dragon that I intend to use as the basis for my Dragon Rider, but that will be one of the last things to done, so there will be plenty of time to be influenced by other examples.
 

I did a series of skirmish games set in the Young Kingdoms for a convention. A lot of pictures posted here:

http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=65268.0

I remember that thread and like the choices that you made for alternatives.
Those Clakars look great and I may well copy that conversion if I expand the project further.
They are very tempting....

There is a new comic interpretation out:

http://www.amazon.com/Michael-Moorcocks-Elric-Vol-Throne/dp/1782761241

That has been ordered and I am eagerly awaiting its arrival.
 

[Vermis]

Have you tried the multiverse forum?
You might get lucky and Moorcock himself will offer some thoughts

I imagine something along the lines of "Anything as long as the minis aren't from THE LORD OF THE RINGS NNGH I HATE YOU TOLKIEN AAARGH!"

Looking forward to the actual mini choices.

[Blackwolf]

Although I have not read the books in over 30 years; I look forward to this very much,Moorcock was of a time when I read indiscriminately,trying to absorb,well basically everything,the whole Eternal Champion thing struck a chord; and whilst I find him mostly unreadable now,my memory's of the books are very evocative.
I say again; I shall look forward to this

[Mason]

Thanks for the encouragement, fellas.
 

The figures that I have so far and an explanation of how they fit into the WFB 3rd Edition High Elf list....as you can see there are some gaps that need filling.
These figures are on their way except for a couple of command figures (musicians and standards) that I hope to get my hands on soon.
 



Top left, the Cavalry, which will be used as Silver Helms and will either be used as one large unit or two smaller ones.

Beneath them are a large unit of heavily armoured swordsmen that will also carry shield, and will form a unit of Warrior Kin.

At the bottom on the left are a group of Wardancers, which will probably be led by a Moonglum figure rather than the odd man out. Used as, unsurprisingly,....Wardancers!
 

In the centre at the top are two regiments of mixed weapon infantry, half with spears and half with bows.
The bow armed elves are Skarlocs wood elf archers, which I think fit the bill nicely.
The will be used as Merchant Companies.

Beneath them are some axe and mace armed chaps who will also carry shields and form another Kin Band.

Top right shows the crew of a chariot, which will be pulled by the Tygers.
I have yet to source a chariot that I want to convert.
I thought I had on of the old metal ones but cannot find it.....

Beneath the chariot crew is a mage that will be chopped and converted to incorperate an Eternal Champion character body and mounted on a barded warhorse.
This is mainly to give me a little variety in the building and painting process.
He is accompanied by a Unicorn which will have a female Sorceress as a companion.

Lastly, beneath the characters, are the Melnibonean Archers who will be Guard Archers.



There is also an Elric figure in the centre who will lead a Guard unit.
This will be of my own design as I am converting/sculpting a spearman which is nearly finished.
This will be sent off with some of my other greens to be cast up and will result in me having a totally unique unit to form the centre of the army.
 


Oh, and then there will be a Dragon Rider, but I am saving that for last.....

[Constable Bertrand]

Oooh more eye candy!

Let me get a chair and settle in.

Cheers
Bertie.

[ZeroTwentythree]

Very nice, sounds like it will be a great army.

[Yuber Okami]

Yes, very nice. Have you thought about adding a "Silent Guard" unit? They would be human slaves, but quite skilled anyway.

PS: Would you consider adding a Yyrkoon miniature as a hero?

[Vermis]

Nice-looking haul. This is going to be interesting.

[tin shed gamer]

What figure's are you looking for? I'll take a look.As it stands I' m pritty sure I've got fair few of these knocking around in my workshop,I've had a similar idea gathering dust for nearly twenty year's which means I'm bound to have a few duplicates as I've only a handful painted and only the one plastic figure in the lot (griff from the blood island set I did for the late jim Bowen)if you don't class those elves with the plastic spear hand's.I'm pritty sure theres 20-30 noldor floating around too,I was looking for a reason not  to tidy my workshop tomorrow anyway it might as well be for a trip through the lead pile.
Mark.

[Mason]

Let me get a chair and settle in.

You may as well get a chair, mate.
This is going to take a while.
 

Very nice, sounds like it will be a great army.

Nice-looking haul. This is going to be interesting.

Thanks, chaps.
I hope you are right.
 

Yes, very nice. Have you thought about adding a "Silent Guard" unit? They would be human slaves, but quite skilled anyway.

PS: Would you consider adding a Yyrkoon miniature as a hero?

I have a unit that I am making myself as Guards.
I will post a picture of the figure when it is finished.
It is about 95% done at the moment.
Yrkoon is in there somewhere.....

What figure's are you looking for? I'll take a look.As it stands I' m pritty sure I've got fair few of these knocking around in my workshop,I've had a similar idea gathering dust for nearly twenty year's which means I'm bound to have a few duplicates as I've only a handful painted and only the one plastic figure in the lot (griff from the blood island set I did for the late jim Bowen)if you don't class those elves with the plastic spear hand's.I'm pritty sure theres 20-30 noldor floating around too,I was looking for a reason not  to tidy my workshop tomorrow anyway it might as well be for a trip through the lead pile.
Mark.

At the moment I am only looking for a few more Melnibonean spearmen and classic elf standards and musicians from here:

http://www.solegends.com/citcat1988/cat1988p052-02.htm

and a handful of Skarlocs wood elf archers to flesh out the merchant companies, but they are easy enough to find on ebay.
It is the command figures that are not so easy to find.

Why would you want to tidy your workshop, though?
Every time I 'tidy' my cupboard I find something that I am not looking for and cannot ever find what I went there for in the first place.

Tidy?
No.
Organised chaos is far more use.
 

[tin shed gamer]

 I'll have a look I'm sure I've some of these in there.I know for a fact that I've some spare saddle detailing bags and standard's that went with the' two legged 'hero horse's,your more than welcome too.
Have you had a look at the Marauder(forgive the spelling mind went blank)elves they have some good bridging figures to mix in the styling is between high elf/ sea elf and the wood elves.?

[Mason]

Thanks, that would be most appreciated.
 

As for using other figures, in my opinion mixing too much may not work.
I am considering using these, with a little rework of the paint, as Seekers....























I originally used them as a Shadow Elf warband in Mordheim, but I consider Elves 'broken' in that system, so have no qualms abot reworking them.

The female Mage will be perfect to work with the Unicorn and the WQ Wardancer can lead that unit on the table.
Win-win all round, I reckon.
 

[abdul666lw]

There was a rich tread here almost 7 years ago (how time flies   ) about 'Warfare in the Young Kingdoms'.
Warning: Comics and book covers generally fail abysmally to reflect the written descriptions. For instance (it's Conan, not Elric, but the observation is quite general) In 'Black Colossus' the upper-class minority of Hyborian blood provides to units to the Khorajan host: 'knights' in full armour (one of the very few cases in Conan's setting where the description could be understood as Hundred Years War plate armour) and unarmoured spearmen from the impoverished / ruined families. Now in the comics the knights are protected only by a light helmet and a buckler, while the 'poor spearmen' are covered with mail   In 'Lair of the white worm' and 'The frost giant's daughter' Conan wears a full suit of mail (booty from the sack of Venarium?) : Frazetta's paintings have him in fur loincloth... One wonders if the artists bothered to *read* the texts they were supposed to illustrate. Now, back to Melniboné, sadly Moorcock 'descriptions' are as a rule almost uninformative.
For the colors we know that the Melnibonean Imperial Guard was clad in 'Chinese imperial' yellow, Cymoril's Leibstandarte in sky blue -in exile Melniboneans  turned less uniform and with 'barbarian' details (DE with cloaks of reptilian skin, for instance, would fit the bill). I don't have my Elric novels at hand, but I seem to remember that the defenders of Imrryr either wore bronze armour or were clad in yellow?



As for the drawing style 'The Ruby Throne' reminds me somewhat of Druillet's rendition of 'The Dreaming City'

- his science-fantasy vision of 'Salammbô' is equally striking and inspirational



The GW / Marauder implicit identification of Melniboneans with Dark Elves has firm cultural / ethical bases, opening many possibilities , e.g Grenadier 'Shadow Elves' now sold by Mirliton

(and possibly some 'Not-dark' Elves from various manufacturers?).

Minifigs 'Elvin Dragon Masters' of the Aureola Rococo range

came straight from a painting of Elric by Rosney Mathews:

They were 'true' 25mm, like other types of the range, but the interesting 'Knights of the Siver Rose and 'Sharadan Lords of Darkness' were already 'heroic' 28mm.

Now -probably not for Melniboneans, but possibly for one of their foes - what about Privateer Press Skorne? They look 'unusual pre-gunpowder fighters' enough and offer a diversity of warrior types.

Then, along the same lines, some Tékumel minis could well appear in a campaign set in the time of Elric:

[tin shed gamer]

I get where your coming from,I hope you don't mind ,I've added a picture to show what I ment by using bits of the Maurader figures.There sculpted by GW sculpters under a different brand name.so its pritty easy to make them fit.I always felt the original horse wasn't chunky enough for the head so I simpley cut the head off and glue.straight onto the cut no resculpting or gap filling,or even pinning.
I'll see what I can dig out and let you know asap.
Mark.

[DeafNala]

You have amassed quite a STUNNING Collection of FINE Old Minis there, Paul. I'm looking forward to their progress...HAVE FUN with it all!