Finnish style elves?

[3 fingers]

Hope it’s ok to post link from another forum ?
I found this yesterday whilst googling something completely different .

https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/768891.page

Certainly interesting  I thought  and great modelling potential?  Winter/cold climate elves skirmishing against orcs/goblins ,dwarves , chaos marauders and beastmen or trolls .

[Elk101]

From a moderation perspective we don't normally like just links to other sites without at least a few images, or a summary, etc. but I can totally see why it's probably the best way for this one. It is interesting and definitely relevant and I can see why you wouldn't be keen to copy images over.

Definitely worth sharing, thanks.

[3 fingers]

I did have a quick glance through the rule section before I posted 

[Elk101]

Much appreciated, thank you.

[OpForOverlord]

If you've not already, check out the Kalevala for further inspiration. It's a collection of Finnish folk tales. Many of the images in the Dakka thread are depictions of scenes from the Kalevala.
While I haven't thought of doing elves specifically, I have built a shaman joiking and playing a skin drum. Gonna be a bard for Frostgrave, etc.
Also, I have plans for a warband based on the members of Korpiklaani. Tell me the bass player isn't one of Durin's folk.

[Dr Mathias]

Thanks for posting that link, I frequent Dakka but I would have totally missed that one. Beautiful images.

[Griefbringer]

Certainly interesting  I thought  and great modelling potential?  Winter/cold climate elves skirmishing against orcs/goblins ,dwarves , chaos marauders and beastmen or trolls

Are we talking about classic (Tolkien-style) elves etc. in winter gear, or actual elves etc. of the Finnish folklore? While there are elves and trolls in the Finnish folklore, they are nothing like the ones in Tolkien's works - and not really something that could be easily turned into a wargaming topic (at least without getting kitchy), not to mention finding suitable models might be tricky. The classic fantasy dwarf concept also does not to my knowledge appear in the Finnish folklore, but is based on the Viking legends.

If you are thinking of just doing classical fantasy forces in winter clothing with northern European (not particularly Finnish) influences skirmishing in snowy forests, there is quite a lot of things that you could do model-wise. I think it would be worth starting with taking a look at the Frostgrave range, which has lots of figures in winter gear. For something classically elvish, I would look at the recent plastic female soldiers set - the figures in this set are quite slender and wearing elegant Slavic-style clothing and a variety of headgear that would not look out of place for elves. On the other hand, the Frostgrave barbarians could work for some brutal human raiders in winter clothes - though I think they owe more to B-rate fantasy movies than to anything historical/folklorical. Viking/norse style dwarves should be easy to find from a number of manufacturers, as well as frost giants. As for beastmen, models with deer or moose heads would look very characterful for a northern fantasy force - though at the moment I cannot think of anybody working on suitable models.

If you want to draw inspiration from modern Finnish fantasy, I would recommend the works of comic artist Petri Hiltunen, who has drawn fantasy, historical and SF comics of various styles, a few of which draw from Finnish folklore. He has a quite distinctive but clear black and white drawing style. Another interesting source might be modern Finnish heavy metal bands - you might not be interested in their music, but their visual material may still be worth looking for fantasy, folklore, winter and nature elements (or kitchy dinosaurs for kids in the case of Hevisaurus).

One challenge of the winter theme is that credible looking snow, ice and frost effects are not exactly trivial to model - I have not even tried to do any winter terrain/bases/models. Snow behaves differently at different temperatures and wind conditions, and inconsistent styles of representing snow across the field may look odd to someone who has grown in a cold and snowy land. Actually, some of the best cold weather effects I have seen on miniatures or terrain are not those where the modeller has gone over the top with piles of snow all over the place - instead, they looked subtly like a cold and dry late autumn day, with condensed frost on surfaces and a few odd snowflakes blown by the wind into recesses in ground.

[Keith]

Some of the reference images in that link are wonderful and I really like this concept. Spending part of last week in Tampere probably helps :-)

[jamopower]

Great collection of material. As a Finn I appreciate this very much

[3 fingers]

Are we talking about classic (Tolkien-style) elves etc. in winter gear, or actual elves etc. of the Finnish folklore? While there are elves and trolls in the Finnish folklore, they are nothing like the ones in Tolkien's works - and not really something that could be easily turned into a wargaming topic (at least without getting kitchy), not to mention finding suitable models might be tricky. The classic fantasy dwarf concept also does not to my knowledge appear in the Finnish folklore, but is based on the Viking legends.

If you are thinking of just doing classical fantasy forces in winter clothing with northern European (not particularly Finnish) influences skirmishing in snowy forests, there is quite a lot of things that you could do model-wise. I think it would be worth starting with taking a look at the Frostgrave range, which has lots of figures in winter gear. For something classically elvish, I would look at the recent plastic female soldiers set - the figures in this set are quite slender and wearing elegant Slavic-style clothing and a variety of headgear that would not look out of place for elves. On the other hand, the Frostgrave barbarians could work for some brutal human raiders in winter clothes - though I think they owe more to B-rate fantasy movies than to anything historical/folklorical. Viking/norse style dwarves should be easy to find from a number of manufacturers, as well as frost giants. As for beastmen, models with deer or moose heads would look very characterful for a northern fantasy force - though at the moment I cannot think of anybody working on suitable models.

If you want to draw inspiration from modern Finnish fantasy, I would recommend the works of comic artist Petri Hiltunen, who has drawn fantasy, historical and SF comics of various styles, a few of which draw from Finnish folklore. He has a quite distinctive but clear black and white drawing style. Another interesting source might be modern Finnish heavy metal bands - you might not be interested in their music, but their visual material may still be worth looking for fantasy, folklore, winter and nature elements (or kitchy dinosaurs for kids in the case of Hevisaurus).

One challenge of the winter theme is that credible looking snow, ice and frost effects are not exactly trivial to model - I have not even tried to do any winter terrain/bases/models. Snow behaves differently at different temperatures and wind conditions, and inconsistent styles of representing snow across the field may look odd to someone who has grown in a cold and snowy land. Actually, some of the best cold weather effects I have seen on miniatures or terrain are not those where the modeller has gone over the top with piles of snow all over the place - instead, they looked subtly like a cold and dry late autumn day, with condensed frost on surfaces and a few odd snowflakes blown by the wind into recesses in ground.

I think the concept was Tolkien style elves, and yes if I did this ,the frostgrave barbarians would be my dark god type forces.

[Sir Barnaby Hammond-Rye]

The old Citadel Elves - pre-slotta - would have worked well for this, with their fur trimmed hats and cloaks.

[Ogrob]

I expect to see at least something in this style in the CMON Trudvang boardgame that'll be on kickstarter this year. There's only a few shots online of the miniatures included, but they are all very cool.

[3 fingers]

Out of interest how hard is it to remove the lady bumps off the frostgrave female soldiers.

[Loop]

Out of interest how hard is it to remove the lady bumps off the frostgrave female soldiers.

I had been wondering the same thing. I’ve held an Oathmark elf head up to female Frostgrave body and it should scale together really well. I must admit to feeling guilty that we’re finally getting decent, practically attired female miniatures and the first thing I’m considering is gender-swapping them...

Sidenote: I was originally hoping to use the bare heads from the Oathmark elves with Victrix celts to make for some feral wood elves but unfortunately the scale is too different (I don’t want pinhead elves).

[Ogrob]

Out of interest how hard is it to remove the lady bumps off the frostgrave female soldiers.

Should be fairly easy I think. Intriguing idea.