Ion Age Retained Knights

Been a while and only a few spam casino comments to delete over all those months. Anyway, I painted something for myself at last so here it is. Three Alternative Armies Ion Age retained knights from their 28mm range.

Really enjoyed painting these and a great bit of old school goodness. I remember when these were first released back in the very early 90's. Liked them back then but never got any. Picked these and a bunch more up on Ebay a few years back and then of course discovered that Alternative were still around and that the range was still in production. Thankfully I still got a bargain so at least I didn't over pay for my Ebay finds.

I'd like to try and maintain focus on these for now. Got two more prepped and ready to start. If I can get some more done after that that would be fantastic but I am eyeing up other things in my lead pile so we'll see.

Crystal Elf Empire Sorceress

The blog isn't quite dead it's just my own painting projects that are slow to come to fruition at the best of times have been on hold for a little while. I started this Alternative Armies elf sorceress a few months back and the other weekend I finally had both the time and the inclination to actually get some hobby painting done as opposed to all the work painting.

I should point out that the models hands were originally both open and neither had a grasping thumb to hold the staff. I trimmed the thumb off and bent the fingers around using my desk top and brute force until they looked like they'd hold the staff, glued it in place and added a thumb with greenstuff.

This model rounds out my original set of 8 Crystal Elves so it feels like a finished project although I do have a box full of additional models that I'd love to get painted. Anyway, here's everything painted so far.

Crystal Elf Empire Garde

Finally got the third of my Crystal Elf Empire Garde painted up. Another spearman that was almost finished a couple of weeks back but time and inclination weren't on my side when it came to getting the last little bit done. A bit of spare time this weekend though was put to good use and I got it all finished up.

Just one more model to paint from this initial batch of elves, a sorceress that I've already started base coating. I've got plenty more elves I can add later too.

Crystal Elf Empire Garde officer

I've finally got around to painting something for myself again, another elf from Alternative Armies. This is a Garde officer to go with the spear armed elf from the previous post. It took far longer to get done than planned. I had hoped to have it done by about the end of December but as tends to happen each year around Christmas I crashed and burned and could not get into painting anything.

I made a slight alteration to the model as the sword blade is rather short, the tip being held in his hand in the original sculpt. It just didn't seem offensive enough for my liking so I took a spare metal spear shaft, flattened and shaped it and pinned it into his hand. A pretty simple conversion but I think it makes a big difference.

Crystal Elf Empire Garde Spearman

Another quick post of a single figure here. Hope these meagre posts aren't too dull (although the view count suggests they are). Anyway, I'm still very much keen on these Alternative Armies elves and this is a Garde spearman. Love the uniforms of these models. I ended up using quite a few different colours on this, the blue and yellow for the coat, green trim, red tassles and of course that bloody great pinky purple feather. All potentially could lead to a gawdy mess but I think keeping them quite muted has made it all work.

I've got a rather nice officer that I plan to do next, then there's another spearman variant but I might get sidetracked by a sorceress before that. More recently I acquired additional command models for these Garde so have a musician, standard bearer and a sergeant for sometime in the future. So much I want to paint and just not really the time to do it all. A familiar story I'm sure.

Crystal Elf Empire Duellist

A quick post here as I add another painted figure to my very slowly growing warband of Alternative Armies Crystal Elf Empire elves. This one is a swordsman, duellist type, a rather haughty looking noble. My first thoughts on a potential colour scheme weren't that different from what I ended up doing but the more I looked at the model the more I kept thinking 'Melnibonean' and 'Elric'. Eventually I couldn't see the model as anything but Elric so I changed my plans and went with the ghostly pale complexion and milk white hair of the albino.

Crystal Elf Empire dragoons

I've been slowly painting up a few more of my Alternative Armies Crystal Elf Empire models. Another two dismounted dragoons, one being an officer.

At some point it would be nice to get three mounted versions too but for now I'm more focused on infantry types. Anyone who's seen my earlier post where I reviewed the small batch of models I've got will know there's a couple of characters to be done and a triplet of garde infantry. I have acquired a few additional models since though so there are even more pieces vying for my painting time. Most notably some fantastic duellists that are currently not listed in AA's webstore and the Crown Prince Mordred himself. Wish I had more time!

Alternative Armies Crystal Elf Empire Dragoon

Just a quick post here. Wanted to show the first of my Alternative Armies Crystal Elf Empire models painted up. This is one of the dragoons and I'm quite chuffed with how it's turned out. Got another two to do. Being dragoons I'm tempted to get the mounted versions too but I should probably focus on getting the handful of models I already have painted.

https://www.alternative-armies.com/collections/crystal-elf-empire

Alternative Armies Crystal Elf Empire Miniatures Review

I recently acquired a handful of Crystal Elf Empire models from Alternative Armies and thought they deserved a little review. I remember these models being released in 1991 and being advertised and reviewed in Games Master International. Here's ye olde full page ad in GMI issue 15 from October 1991, the last issue of the magazine sadly.

These models stood out at the time because they had a Napoleonic influence to their design, not to be confused with AA's Flintloque range though which are fantasy Nappys. The Crystal Elves certainly stood out next to the competition and I rather liked them although I never bought any given my limited pocket money. Too many toys, not enough money. Completely forgot about them as time went by until a couple of  years ago when I re-collected all the old issues of GMI and saw the ads again. Thankfully Alternative Armies still have them in production and the range features more models than I was aware of.

Moving onto the models I've actually got here it's just a small selection that I'm going to make into a Frostgrave inspired warband. First up is a set of Garde Infantry.

Two spearmen (spearelves?) and an officer. I was actually pleasantly surprised by the size of them and how much heft they have. From the pictures I thought they might be quite slender and with older figure ranges there's always the possibility that they might be on the smaller side of 28mm. They're very much 28mm from foot to eye and are actually a bit bigger than some of the competition at the time. All very satisfying. Lovely clean sculpts, nice clear detail and the officer is just a fantastic looking figure. My only criticism is that his sword is a little short so I might try and rectify that before painting him. The faces are quite caricatured but I love that and it gives them a pompous arrogance that sits so well with the finery of their uniforms.

Next is a set of dismounted Dragoons.

Being dragoons they have mounted versions but I was keen to get the foot versions. Slightly more practical uniforms here than on the Garde Infantry, much more suited to skirmishing. Their helmets are a nice touch of finery though and the officer with sword and shield certainly looks the part. I really like the poses of these models. I'd be tempted to extend the length of their quivers a little though. I think casting limitations may have lead to the rather short length.

Finally there's an elf warrior and a sorceress.

I really like the elf warrior, the pose and clothing look great. He's a little less Napoleonic inspired I'd say but fits in really well. The face makes it for me though. There's a hint of cruelty there along with the arrogance which just screams Melnibonean. The sorceress also has that similar look to her face and is one of the models from the range that is a more traditional fantasy looking elf. There are some subtle patterns on her robes that will need careful painting to make the most of. She comes with a staff that I'd say is optional as she looks great as is. If fitting the staff though the hands aren't quite designed for it so I'd be inclined to cut the thumb off and add a new one with putty to make the hand actually grasp it properly.

And a few pics to show them alongside a few other models from the day to see how they size up.

Here's a 1980's Citadel elf and an early 90's Bretonnian foot knight.

A Citadel Empire hero from around 1992 and a Grenadier foot knight from the early 90's.

The whole Crystal Elf Empire range has 20 odd packs of models, just under half are the Napoleonic inspired types and the rest are more traditional fantasy elves which look like they mix together pretty well to be honest. What's rather useful is that you can also buy all the models individually so you can build up full units of identical models quite easily. Prices are pretty good in this day and age working out at £2 a figure for most infantry (the sorceress is £3) and cavalry are £3 or £4 each depending on the model. There are also discounts for multiple pack purchases. Well worth checking out.

https://www.alternative-armies.com/collections/crystal-elf-empire

Ion Age Retained Knight Noble

Quick and lazy post here, mostly copy/pasted from my Facebook page.

Found this part finished and stuffed in a tray of models recently. It's an Alternative Armies/Ion Age Retained Knight Noble in 28mm. I started it perhaps a couple of years ago, wasn't entirely happy with it and just put it to one side. Decided it was time to give him a new lease of life and get it finished off. I repainted a few things and retouched some scratches and chips.This model is a bit bigger than the regular knights and a fair lump of metal in comparison to a space marine of pretty much the same era (yeah, I know MK7 marine armour was in by then).

 I remember these models first being released in the very early 90's when they were sold as Free Company Crusaders. Loved the look of the armour but never got around to buying any until I bagged a bunch on Ebay a few years back.

At some point I'd like to paint up a full squad of these but I've got plans to paint more fantasy stuff so that will have to wait.