Friday 8 January 2010

Elephants' Graveyard!

Dead Nellie has arrived, with her sisters!  I designed her because I wanted a dead African elephant marker for our Zama game (n.b. there are 2 Gripping Beast resin dead elephants with howdahs, at the back of the photo, for size comparison purposes).  This thread shows the progress of the green.  As far as possible I've tried to make it look like the small African Forest elephant (Loxodonta cyclotis) that we believe the Carthaginians utilised.  It is perhaps 40mm to the shoulder.


I'm going to use 10 Dead Nellies (and the 2 GB elephants) for our Zama game.  This is beacause I don't expect that the Carthaginian elephants will survive much more than 20 minutes into the game!  I intend to customise each one slightly, making them into little dioramas.
I'd like to offer a huge vote of thanks to Keith at Aventine, who very, very generously moulded her for me for free with the metal at cost.   As ever, Aventine's production quality is absolutely excellent; no flash and only one small vent to be trimmed away.  Aventine have said that if anyone wants one, to drop them a line and they will sell them at a modest price, with any profit on the minis going to a worthwhile charity.  If you want one, contact Keith via http://www.aventineminiatures.co.uk/contact.html
It's hugely exciting to see something that I have designed, cast professionally!

7 comments:

Game Master Rob Adams said...

I'll probably pick a few of these up. Great work!

BigRedBat said...

Thanks, ACG. Now I need to paint some up...

AJ (Allan) Wright said...

They did a great job at moulding them, particularly getting the tusks to cast. I hope they sell a ton of them!

BigRedBat said...

I hops so, too, Allan. But it is a somewhat specialised figure; a lot of gamers don't bother with casualty models. I think they add something to a game... especially when big distinctive creatures like elephants are concerned.

Game Master Rob Adams said...

Well I am working on a super secret project that involves the groups capturing trophies of their safari captures. This model would make a nice elephant trophy. Also in my Dark Africa games these work well! On another note it would be fun to place them down when I am able to defeat my buddies hordes of elephants be he playing Carthaginians or Greek or what have you. "Here's your dead unit" muahhahaha.

BigRedBat said...

Sounds good, ACG. It would look very nice with a model of a big game hunter standing on it!

I might do a dead Indian next year, (unless Aventine do one), because I'll want one to use with all the Indian elephants my various Macedonians will be fielding.

It would also make a good paperweight. ;-)

Wargame News and Terrain Blog said...

Sweet!! also a nice idea to use them as trophies markers!

Greets,