Sunday 18 August 2013

The Bryan Ansell collection: Marauder Miniatures and Citadel Miniatures Dark Elves

Now, I'm in two minds when it comes to Dark Elves in general, and I don't really know why. I can't quite make up my mind as to whether I think they are just a bit meh, or if actually I think they're fantastic. Take these positives:

- I dont have an issue with the concept of there being a "dark" form of an elf (I imagine some people may take issue with this), in fact it's quite fun.
- I tend to associate them with the Melniboneans of Moorcock, which is a positive association for me, even though I know that in the 1980s Citadel Melniboneans eventually became absorbed into the High Elves range rather than Dark Elves.
- They tend to be painted in blue or palid colour schemes, which I like the look of.
- In general I like the sculpts (right from the first Perry preslotta ones), with few exceptions, and many of them demonstrate a good combination of being aloof and cruel.

So there you have it. No idea what my problem is but I tend to overlook these guys. Oddly enough I have the same attitude to their scifi brethren, the Dark Eldar. Ho hum.

Anyway, on to today's post which focusses on the Marauder Miniatures Dark Elves. Now these are nicely painted, although I'm afraid I dont know who painted them (if you do please leave a comment). Enjoy.

















Here's some scans of the original adverts that featured these figures (images from Orclord's Stuff of Legends site):





And as a bit of a bonus, here's a few Citadel Dark Elves from Bryan's collection:


The three figures on the left are from the Collectors' range and are the actual figures that appeared in the adverts of the time. The figure on the right may well have been from this range too since there are a couple of gaps in this range.

Here are the pics from the CCM wiki that illustrate these Collectors' Dark Elves:




The sharp-eyed among you will notice that the shapes of the bases are different in the two groups of figures. I have no idea why!

7 comments:

  1. Very, very nice painting indeed. This has been a lovely post and those dark elves look gorgeous. Thanks for sharing again, Steve!

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  2. The one thing that struck me back in the day with the mauader ads was how many different skin hues there were. It doesn't feel like it should work as units but they do.

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  3. I also have mixed feelings about Marauder Dark Elves, but I think I know why: some models are really great, whereas others simply suck, with noses far to big for elves!

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  4. I'm quite glad they're not that populair, because I'm almost done collecting the whole Marauder DE range. I'm not really into the Citadel range yet. I believe it all boils down to the paintjob. It can really make a difference on these models.

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  5. Mixed feelings there too.

    I like the analogy with Moorcock, for me Vadagh and Nadragh look almost the same with only a darker appearance and maybe a lightly more morbid look for the latter.
    I never quite understood why dark elves came with such colourful colour schemes which made them not dark at all. What works with chaos because of its very essence does not with dark elves for me.
    I agree with Jaeckel the nose on some of them is just ridiculous.
    Would like to try a more unified and darker colour scheme on some of them, especially the Marauder ones.

    Anyway, great photos and pictures Steve, thank you.

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  6. Funny to see the blu-tac on the shields, explains why all the original WD adverts that marauder ran tended to have shields facing to the front in unachievable positions.

    The hex bases were often sold with 'roleplaying' minis, such as the drow/dark elf you have pictured above, as well as the bugbear, kobold etc minis that were part of the AD&D/TSR range.

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  7. I was never a Dark Elves sort of person, but these 'blasts from the parest' minis have brought back many fond memories.

    Thank you.

    Tony

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