Lead Adventure Forum
Miniatures Adventure => Fantasy Adventures => Topic started by: Luigi on October 15, 2020, 11:15:23 PM
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This will be a thread displaying the miniatures I paint (and have painted) over the years.
I've been collecting Dwarfs for almost 15 years and it took me just as many to come up with a colour scheme I was proud to share and put on display.
I also wrote a lot of lore on the Hold itself (Karak-Mingol) basing it withing the WHFB universe, I don't know if this is the right place, but if someone wants I'll gladly share the background I've come up with).
Well, let's get started with some pictures.
(https://i.imgur.com/YGYiGQm.jpg)
these are longbeards and they perfectly display the scheme I'm going for' green/blue with as little metal as possible.
Now, I know they are technically warriors, but due to the lore of the hold all, of the SkullPass models have been through so much that they've been promoted to longbeards.
(https://i.imgur.com/CTVt3Ox.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/lueK6gb.jpg)
this champion and musician also provide a better example of me avoiding any gold and any non-armor metal on the models.
(https://i.imgur.com/zpCpY9O.jpg)
The warrior with great axe sports an inverted colour scheme to distinguish it from the shield+weapon troops. For some reason he seems really happy about his job.
This is a fairly common theme in the army as well.
The slayer, poor guy, has suffered a stroke, as you can tell from his right eye. I also really dislike orange for reasons unknown, hence the green beard.
(https://i.imgur.com/Hm78k3U.jpg)
this miner instead shows my attempt at a monocoloured model, I've only used green; I'll probably try to add a few blue accents on the next members of his unit.
Pictures are fairly old, with some being even from the start of the pandemic, but this thread provides the perfect excuse to get back into painting :D
EDIT:
I'll add some lore and background to this first post, as things get added/modified I'll edit this post accordingly.
Thank you :D
No I don't have a blog featuring this hold; although it is a good idea and I think it's something I'l ldefinitely approach in the future, as sooon as my situation stabilizes and I get some more personal time to do things right.
I do, however, have most of the fluff written down, I might go and add it to this thread, perhaps editing the first post whenever things get updated/changed.
Actually Let me do it right now.
Over the years I've had people ask me what hold my dwarfs belonged to. I never thought too much about it untill running into this blog (https://bigsmallworlds.com/blog/) which is when something started moving in my head. a few Warhammer novels later and I had decided to create my own hold and base it where no other "official" dwarf hold existed; in Tilea. I always liked the warriors miniatures from BoSP but I've always only used them as longbeards, my excuse was always that they were a regiment of warriors that had fought and survived the now famous battle and thus were promoted to longbeards.
This formed the base of my background.
The following is what I've come up so far. Just like my collection, this is very much a work in progress. As ideas become more developed I'll add to it.
The dwarven hold of Karak-Mingol
(also known as Monte Trocchio by the tileans in the region)
In Khazalid the name KarakMingol loosesly translates to “tower mountain” this is also what the Tilean name Monte Trocchio means. The Tilean name for the hold is actually the name of a real mountain that I could to see from my window years ago, before moving to Canada.
Geography
The hold is located somewhere in the Apuccini mountains in Tilea. It’s in the southern-central region of the peninsula somewhere between the Island of sartosa and Karak-Borgo. The Apuccini are not a particularly impressive set of mountains and they never reach the mighty heights of more northern ranges. The climate here is much milder and forgiving, making the hold realtively easy to reach for travelers, merchants and enemies. This has pushed the dwarfs of Karak Mingol to develop one of the most extensive fleet of flying machines to patrol the area surrounding the hold.
While there are some veins of useful metals (copper/tin/lead/minor veins of iron) and some minor deposits of precious stone, the mountains offer little in what would be considered the foundation of a typical dwarven economy. This is reflected in the hold unique approach to commerce and banking, as well as its very unusual agricultural practices.
History
Karak Mingol is a relatively new hold, founded by some the dwarfs of Karak Grom, and its main clan Byrnik, that fought in the famous battle of Skull Pass. The fate of Karak Grom is a sad and unfortunately common one in these times of hardship and tribulation. How exactly these dwarfs ended up in Tilea and specifically here is not quite known, although their records seem to indicate a retreat from a massive Skaven invasion. The dwarfs migrated south over the course of a couple of centuries before finally stabilizing themselves where the hold is found today.
The colours of the hold are green and blue, a combination born out of the lost hold blue/gold and Clan Byrnik’s green/silver. The lack of any metal in its symbolism is probably due to the influence of Tilean culture. The Tileans are famous for “piangere miseria”, that is to lament and feign a state of perennial lack of any money as to ward any envy and attract others’ sympathy. In typical Tilean fashion. The richer the person the stronger and dramatic his lamentations will be. The dwarfs have always been wary of disclosing their true wealth to other races, so this curious habit was one they quickly understood and adopted.
More poetic dwarfs see the colours as a reflection of the deep azures of the Tilean skies and the green sides of the low mountains.
In real life terms this just means that I'll limit myself to a much more subtle palette of blue and green with little or no metal accents. I like the "comfy" look this gives the models and it also provides the added benefit of unifying the look of a whole army. A soft colour scheme, I found, is also easier on the eyes when playing the game and much more forgiving of less than stellar paint-job.
Economy
Karak Mingol is a bit of an oddity in the dwarven realm. The hold lacks access to many precious metals and its geography makes it nearly impossible to grow the typical dwarven crops. Because of this, KarakMingol had to turn to the only resource that never seems to diminish in Tilea; civil wars and mercenaries.
The ever-warring nature of the Tilean city-states means that the nearby humans are always in great need of both money to recruit mercenaries or weapons and equipment to arm soldiers. The dwarfs have thus learned to lend money to the Tileans, well knowing that when a clients somehow ends in power, another rival will soon rise, becoming a new customer.
The sale of armors, weapons and, most importantly, war machines, is also another important part of the hold’s economy. The dwarfs are exceptional engineer and weaponsmiths, their guns rarely misfire and are exceptionally accurate; their artillery is capable of massive destruction while still being reliable and (relatively) safe to use. Even their skill as engineer and architects means that often they’re hired by Tilean lords to erect buildings, build fortifications, design and plan cities; providing both money and prestige to the hold.
The same artillery sold to the Tileans (and built to the buyer's specifications) is frequently used as collateral when approving loans. This explains why Monte Trocchio often deploys cannons that aren't what you'd typically expect from dwarfs; someone couldn't fully repay the interests on their loan and so the dwarfs took back the cannons as payment.
(https://i.imgur.com/x1mkppo.jpg)
Someone couldn't pay their debt back, so KarakMingol reclaimed some artillery.
As far as agriculture goes, the rocky yet warm terrain of the Apuccini makes for the perfect place to grow olive trees and grapevines. Many, more traditional, dwarfs have often expressed disdain for such a thing as dwarven wine, but even they can’t deny that a dwarf can make better (which often just means stronger) wine than an elf.
And in a sense, both olive trees and grapevines are similar to the dwarfs themselves: they thrive in rocky and elevated terrain, they are slow growing but extremely resilient, require lots of constant attention but yield products of great value and can live for hundreds (if not thousands!) of years.
And while it might have started as a joke, a now typical product of Karak Mingol is durazmakk, a sort pasta of all shapes and forms created by integrating stone powder in the flour mix. Most Tilean dwarfs like to eat their durazmakk al dente.
Guilds
Mining guild: The hold’s very existence is due to the miner’s guild of Monte Trocchio. The miners that survived the gobri attack at Skull Pass were responsible for collapsing the greenskins lair and turning the tide of the battle. after rearranging themselves into their own mining guild they were tasked by their thane to find a suitable site for a new hold. No one is quite sure on how this particular spot in the Apuccini mountains was chosen. The legend of its foundation goes as follow: while consulting the map, the main prospector, still bleeding from the recent fight, had a drop of blood fall where the hold is located today. The prospector swore revenge on that particular mountain and the rest is history. Other dwarfs suggest, hardly containing a smile, that rather than blood that was wine that dripped from the prospector’s mouth.
Since the holds doesn’t have an abundance of metal, the guild focuses mostly on stone work and architecture; as well as providing the labour for the earthwork and terracing needed for the planting and cultivations of olives and grapes.
Engineering guild: When being initiated into the guild, the dwarfs of monte Trocchio are made to choose between one of the two “houses” that form the guild. The two houses are based on its members love or hate relationship towards gunpowder. To become a member of the house a dwarf has to build handgun or a crossbow and fire it in front of his mates. While there’s definitely a lot of rivalry between the two houses; over the years this has led to an ever-increasing standard of quality and craftsmanship in the weapons sported by both quarrelers and thunderers.
The guild has always adopted an open-door policy towards any engineer from other holds; because of this the guild is very open minded (by dwarf standards, at least). The fact that most of the time innovation comes from a client's absurd requests also helps a lot in somewhat loosening the Dwarven standards.
Technological ideas and innovation combined with the dwarfs’ skill in producing high quality artillery has in fact proven to be a driving factor in ensuring the wealth of Karak Mingol. The hold as a vast arsenal of cannons, bombards, mortar, catapults, bolt throwers; as well as more exotic pieces such as flame cannons and organ guns. The Engineering guild is also responsible for arming and maintain the large fleet of flying vehicles that crisscross the sky patrolling the area around MonteTrocchio.
Additionally, the guild provides the weapons and training to the many regiments of quarrelers and thunderers that make the standing army of Karak Mingol.
Additional bits of trivia.
*The very first cannon of the hold is the same the dwarfs used in the battle of Skull Pass. It’s called McDaddy the slayer of deamons after killing a massive deamon of Nurgle in a game in real life in which my opponent kept screaming "who's you daddy?/come to papa nurgle" everytime he'd move his Great Unclean One around.
*Twice a year the two houses of the Engineering guild have a competitions in which the members test their aiming skills and show off their craftsmanship in developing and building the finest crossbow/handgun. The competition consists of trying to hit moving targets (often captive goblins or skavens let loose from their cages) and it is divided in two rounds; one before and one after drinking copious amount of dwarven wine.
*Due to the lack of metal in the hold, the dwarfs of Monte Trocchio have special units that pick clean all fallen enemies of their weapons and armors. This equipment is then melted, and the metal used to craft weapons and armors of much higher quality.
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Some good looking dwarves there, have you thought about using a red for the slayers hair to give them a better contrast to the rest of the army? Though if you're happy with the green then it doesn't really matter. :)
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Some good looking dwarves there
thank you thank you :)
have you thought about using a red for the slayers hair to give them a better contrast to the rest of the army?
i do have some slayers I painted years ago with red or orange hair. Mine is a conscious decision of having no red/orange/yellow (as well as no gold/bronze) in the army.
but you're correct about the contrast. Maybe I can try with purple or bright white hair on the next slayers.
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I wasn't wrong, this forum does inspire me to pick up a brush and paint stuff.
(https://i.imgur.com/TbSAunW.jpg)
This is a dwarf miner.
I believe he was supposed to be a unit champion but I don't think I've ever used a champion without the steam drill.
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This week (this morning, really) sees two more addition to the miner regiment of Karak-Mingol.
In terms of fluff this unit belonged to the original army that founded the hold. The venerable age of its member reflected by the white/ grey in their beards.
(https://i.imgur.com/O1z0ZPK.jpg)
So far this is the only unit sporting a single colour (green) in their uniform as opposed to the usual blue/green scheme.
Eventually I'll paint a second unit in blue.
As you can tell from their facial expression
(https://i.imgur.com/QZ8Ga7s.jpg)
they're both pretty upset that I didn't paint their candle flames. But I have no yellow/orange/red paint whatsoever and they'll have to wait.
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Nice work! Do you have a blog with more background on this Dwarf hold?
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Thank you :D
No I don't have a blog featuring this hold; although it is a good idea and I think it's something I'l ldefinitely approach in the future, as sooon as my situation stabilizes and I get some more personal time to do things right.
I do, however, have most of the fluff written down, I might go and add it to this thread, perhaps editing the first post whenever things get updated/changed.
Actually Let me do it right now.
Over the years I've had people ask me what hold my dwarfs belonged to. I never thought too much about it untill running into this blog (https://bigsmallworlds.com/blog/) which is when something started moving in my head. a few Warhammer novels later and I had decided to create my own hold and base it where no other "official" dwarf hold existed; in Tilea. I always liked the warriors miniatures from BoSP but I've always only used them as longbeards, my excuse was always that they were a regiment of warriors that had fought and survived the now famous battle and thus were promoted to longbeards.
This formed the base of my background.
The following is what I've come up so far. Just like my collection, this is very much a work in progress. As ideas become more developed I'll add to it.
The dwarven hold of Karak-Mingol
(also known as Monte Trocchio by the tileans in the region)
In Khazalid the name KarakMingol loosesly translates to “tower mountain” this is also what the Tilean name Monte Trocchio means. The Tilean name for the hold is actually the name of a real mountain that I could to see from my window years ago, before moving to Canada.
Geography
The hold is located somewhere in the Apuccini mountains in Tilea. It’s in the southern-central region of the peninsula somewhere between the Island of sartosa and Karak-Borgo. The Apuccini are not a particularly impressive set of mountains and they never reach the mighty heights of more northern ranges. The climate here is much milder and forgiving, making the hold realtively easy to reach for travelers, merchants and enemies. This has pushed the dwarfs of Karak Mingol to develop one of the most extensive fleet of flying machines to patrol the area surrounding the hold.
While there are some veins of useful metals (copper/tin/lead/minor veins of iron) and some minor deposits of precious stone, the mountains offer little in what would be considered the foundation of a typical dwarven economy. This is reflected in the hold unique approach to commerce and banking, as well as its very unusual agricultural practices.
History
Karak Mingol is a relatively new hold, founded by some the dwarfs of Karak Grom, and its main clan Byrnik, that fought in the famous battle of Skull Pass. The fate of Karak Grom is a sad and unfortunately common one in these times of hardship and tribulation. How exactly these dwarfs ended up in Tilea and specifically here is not quite known, although their records seem to indicate a retreat from a massive Skaven invasion. The dwarfs migrated south over the course of a couple of centuries before finally stabilizing themselves where the hold is found today.
The colours of the hold are green and blue, a combination born out of the lost hold blue/gold and Clan Byrnik’s green/silver. The lack of any metal in its symbolism is probably due to the influence of Tilean culture. The Tileans are famous for “piangere miseria”, that is to lament and feign a state of perennial lack of any money as to ward any envy and attract others’ sympathy. In typical Tilean fashion. The richer the person the stronger and dramatic his lamentations will be. The dwarfs have always been wary of disclosing their true wealth to other races, so this curious habit was one they quickly understood and adopted.
More poetic dwarfs see the colours as a reflection of the deep azures of the Tilean skies and the green sides of the low mountains.
In real life terms this just means that I'll limit myself to a much more subtle palette of blue and green with little or no metal accents. I like the "comfy" look this gives the models and it also provides the added benefit of unifying the look of a whole army. A soft colour scheme, I found, is also easier on the eyes when playing the game and much more forgiving of less than stellar paint-job.
Economy
Karak Mingol is a bit of an oddity in the dwarven realm. The hold lacks access to many precious metals and its geography makes it nearly impossible to grow the typical dwarven crops. Because of this, KarakMingol had to turn to the only resource that never seems to diminish in Tilea; civil wars and mercenaries.
The ever-warring nature of the Tilean city-states means that the nearby humans are always in great need of both money to recruit mercenaries or weapons and equipment to arm soldiers. The dwarfs have thus learned to lend money to the Tileans, well knowing that when a clients somehow ends in power, another rival will soon rise, becoming a new customer.
The sale of armors, weapons and, most importantly, war machines, is also another important part of the hold’s economy. The dwarfs are exceptional engineer and weaponsmiths, their guns rarely misfire and are exceptionally accurate; their artillery is capable of massive destruction while still being reliable and (relatively) safe to use. Even their skill as engineer and architects means that often they’re hired by Tilean lords to erect buildings, build fortifications, design and plan cities; providing both money and prestige to the hold.
The same artillery sold to the Tileans (and built to the buyer's specifications) is frequently used as collateral when approving loans. This explains why Monte Trocchio often deploys cannons that aren't what you'd typically expect from dwarfs; someone couldn't fully repay the interests on their loan and so the dwarfs took back the cannons as payment.
(https://i.imgur.com/x1mkppo.jpg)
Someone couldn't pay their debt back, so KarakMingol reclaimed some artillery.
As far as agriculture goes, the rocky yet warm terrain of the Apuccini makes for the perfect place to grow olive trees and grapevines. Many, more traditional, dwarfs have often expressed disdain for such a thing as dwarven wine, but even they can’t deny that a dwarf can make better (which often just means stronger) wine than an elf.
And in a sense, both olive trees and grapevines are similar to the dwarfs themselves: they thrive in rocky and elevated terrain, they are slow growing but extremely resilient, require lots of constant attention but yield products of great value and can live for hundreds (if not thousands!) of years.
And while it might have started as a joke, a now typical product of Karak Mingol is durazmakk, a sort pasta of all shapes and forms created by integrating stone powder in the flour mix. Most Tilean dwarfs like to eat their durazmakk al dente.
Guilds
Mining guild: The hold’s very existence is due to the miner’s guild of Monte Trocchio. The miners that survived the gobri attack at Skull Pass were responsible for collapsing the greenskins lair and turning the tide of the battle. after rearranging themselves into their own mining guild they were tasked by their thane to find a suitable site for a new hold. No one is quite sure on how this particular spot in the Apuccini mountains was chosen. The legend of its foundation goes as follow: while consulting the map, the main prospector, still bleeding from the recent fight, had a drop of blood fall where the hold is located today. The prospector swore revenge on that particular mountain and the rest is history. Other dwarfs suggest, hardly containing a smile, that rather than blood that was wine that dripped from the prospector’s mouth.
Since the holds doesn’t have an abundance of metal, the guild focuses mostly on stone work and architecture; as well as providing the labour for the earthwork and terracing needed for the planting and cultivations of olives and grapes.
Engineering guild: When being initiated into the guild, the dwarfs of monte Trocchio are made to choose between one of the two “houses” that form the guild. The two houses are based on its members love or hate relationship towards gunpowder. To become a member of the house a dwarf has to build handgun or a crossbow and fire it in front of his mates. While there’s definitely a lot of rivalry between the two houses; over the years this has led to an ever-increasing standard of quality and craftsmanship in the weapons sported by both quarrelers and thunderers.
The guild has always adopted an open-door policy towards any engineer from other holds; because of this the guild is very open minded (by dwarf standards, at least). The fact that most of the time innovation comes from a client's absurd requests also helps a lot in somewhat loosening the Dwarven standards.
Technological ideas and innovation combined with the dwarfs’ skill in producing high quality artillery has in fact proven to be a driving factor in ensuring the wealth of Karak Mingol. The hold as a vast arsenal of cannons, bombards, mortar, catapults, bolt throwers; as well as more exotic pieces such as flame cannons and organ guns. The Engineering guild is also responsible for arming and maintain the large fleet of flying vehicles that crisscross the sky patrolling the area around MonteTrocchio.
Additionally, the guild provides the weapons and training to the many regiments of quarrelers and thunderers that make the standing army of Karak Mingol.
Additional bits of trivia.
*The very first cannon of the hold is the same the dwarfs used in the battle of Skull Pass. It’s called McDaddy the slayer of deamons after killing a massive deamon of Nurgle in a game in real life in which my opponent kept screaming "who's you daddy?/come to papa nurgle" everytime he'd move his Great Unclean One around.
*Twice a year the two houses of the Engineering guild have a competitions in which the members test their aiming skills and show off their craftsmanship in developing and building the finest crossbow/handgun. The competition consists of trying to hit moving targets (often captive goblins or skavens let loose from their cages) and it is divided in two rounds; one before and one after drinking copious amount of dwarven wine.
*Due to the lack of metal in the hold, the dwarfs of Monte Trocchio have special units that pick clean all fallen enemies of their weapons and armors. This equipment is then melted, and the metal used to craft weapons and armors of much higher quality.
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I've been painting quite a bit of miners, but they all look similar to those from earlier posts so I doubt that people would be interested.
I finished this
(https://i.imgur.com/qlQHevm.jpg?1)
an engineer/artillery crew, I'm particularly pleased with the helmet, I might try a few helmets painted with no metal whatsoever
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Nicely painted dwarves!
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Lovely classic dwarves!
I hadn't realised so much of those mins was beard lol
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Thank you guys, much appreciated.
And yeah, I also hadn't realized just how much of the miniature beards actually do take!
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Some WIP pictures this time.
I experimented a bit with the helmets.
(https://i.imgur.com/nKqH9aR.jpg?2)
I tried for "less metallic" helmets.
I like 2/3/4 better than 1. I think I'll keep most helmet from being completely in metal from now onward.
As far as metal/color combination go, 2 is ok, but I prefer how it looks on the engineer from the other day (with the rims in metal and the centre in green or blue).
I definitely like 3 and 4, I might alternate a few in each unit.
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It's been over a month since the last update, but I've finally managed to sit down for a bit and get some painting done.
(https://i.imgur.com/drqjXEO.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/yQ0bzoj.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/MDhuVBX.jpg)
And a final shot with the detail of the engineer
(https://i.imgur.com/A2fwH5g.jpg?2)
The more I proceed, the more I'm pleased with the colour scheme.
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Latest addition to my Tilean hold
(https://i.imgur.com/sQVJImw.jpg)
Rodomonte Collera, somethingSlayer of Karak Mingol.
Even before taking the slayer oath, Rodomonte was quick to anger and easily upset, which granted him his name (Collera) when working as a trainer and commander for the militia of a Tilean village. The name stuck and, after taking the oath, the sight of his bright blue crest instill fear and terror into the hearts of his enemies.
No one is quite sure why he took the oath, or why he painted his hair blue, but no one - dwarf or otherwise- has had the balls heart to ask him.
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Nice work!
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Nice work!
Thank you WuZhuiQiu :D :D
Rejoice, for these days I'm being productive!
Two more dwarfs done. The first one is one more hammerer
(https://i.imgur.com/udpfzlB.jpg)
Two things, I really dislike this sculpt, not so much for the way it looks (it's not particularly good but still serviceable) but for the fact that ALL of the hammerers from this generation of models have the exact same pose; furthermore, this pose makes it impossible to reach the left side of his face underneath the hammer.
Also, I've painted the hammer head in green. I really like this, this will also make sense once the unit is complete, as I have a name in mind for them already. The name is going to be a pun on their weapon that works both in English and Tilean.
10 points to Gryffindor whomever guesses it. Hint: it's a play on word with the title of a movie.
and here's the second dwarf. Ladies and gentleman, Cateno Manovella.
(https://i.imgur.com/d7U5nOx.jpg)
Cateno is one of the oldest veteran servicing the artillery of Karak Mingol. Over his many many years of services he's has operated more machines and delivered more hits to the enemy than there are hair in his beard. or so he says.
(https://i.imgur.com/EBYaAzK.jpg)
It's a hard, sweaty job, but Cateno doesn't seem to mind.
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Here's more progress on my Tilean dwarfs. all of these come from a batch of used miniatures o bought years ago and I just now started to strip and repaint.
i've been having a few issues with these; the problem is that they were all assembled with plastic glue so I can't take them apart and it's nearly impossible to paint behind weapons/shields and be precise with faces and eyes
(https://i.imgur.com/DepcugO.jpg?1)
These two are definitely my favourite out of the 6:
(https://i.imgur.com/6YHWHkJ.jpg)
the drummer boy is missing a drum, but compared to some of his friends missing arms and hands, he really can't complain.
(https://i.imgur.com/ADtJJeH.jpg)
Mastro Lindo is an old grizzled gunner, with many years under his belt. Under his careful eye it's very rare that a cannon misses or misfires.
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Finally some update.
(https://i.imgur.com/Eps3LJm.jpg)
I've done some more longbeards. I'm calling these guys finished (apart from base and assembly) I can't be bothered anymore and I think the original owner sprayed or dripped some plastic glues on their faces since I've had the hardest time with their eyes and features (some had holes instead of eyes that needed filling).
(https://i.imgur.com/A4ooHbH.jpg)
And here's the back. I am pleased with how the capes came out and grey is a good enough colour to match the main pairing
I've never liked this generation of plastic dwarfs as they always felt too... anonymous and undefined. But I'll admit that they fill their role ok. I'm still pleased with my colour scheme (green/blue and no metal) and I'll probably eventually phase out all metal helmets in favour of coloured ones.
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Love the colour scheme you've gone for on your dwarfs. It makes me want a dwarf army of my own! Very expressive faces there, some of those longbeards look proper shifty - I love it.
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Love the colour scheme you've gone for on your dwarfs. It makes me want a dwarf army of my own! Very expressive faces there, some of those longbeards look proper shifty - I love it.
Thank you mrjeki!
and yeah all I can think now it's this.
I've always been a fan of understated colour scheme and dwarfs seem to be quite fitting for that (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T55ArHjeR1c)
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It's been a while since I've updated this post, but that doesn't mean I have not been painting.
i'll put up a few pictures,
(https://i.imgur.com/akfnogx.jpg)
First this guy. I will put him and his tiny bolt thrower on a 40mm base. This way I can use it both as an unit filler for my crossbow dwarf (since it's really a puny warmachine) as well as a proper artillery piece in larger games. I'm particularly pleased with how the face came out. I wanted him to look resigned and annoyed with whatever is happening around him. I think it came out alright.
(https://i.imgur.com/LtwgLpT.jpg)
these two longbeards came out alright too. I initially wanted all longbeards to have the same anvil design on the shield, but I found myself painting other shields and I wasn't going to waste precious painting time.
(https://i.imgur.com/yqSO8HJ.jpg)
finally, a shot of the unit with a freehand banner. For the banner I used a 40k fist transfer that I just painted over. I ended up using it as some sort of pencil sketch I like how it looks. And am now more convinced than ever that this colour suits dwarf really nicely
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Excellent work, good to see you're still working on the dwarfs.
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Excellent work, good to see you're still working on the dwarfs.
Thank you Voltan. It's a slow process but it's encouraging seeing progress, no matter how minor it is.
Here's another update. I finally based this little guy.
(http://i.imgur.com/aFhwdVx.jpg) (https://imgur.com/aFhwdVx)
I went with a simple basing of sand and drybrushing so that I can easily repeat it across hundreds of miniatures. I also find the grey to be a good complementary colour to the green/blue scheme of the army
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Nice additions since I last checked in.
You a have a lovely cohesive force coming along here.
8) 8)
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Nice additions since I last checked in.
You a have a lovely cohesive force coming along here.
8) 8)
Thank you!
Cohesive is definitely an adjective I like applied to my army.
(https://i.imgur.com/g9rD3B1.jpg)
I also finished another couple of standard bearers.
I always try to keep them as neutral as possible as to be able to fit them in any unit. Even multiple standards in the same unit in the back ranks.
The guy on the right was also done in such a way to be a marker of some sort to remind myself which WMs are runed
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Warning: this topic has not been posted in for at least 120 days.
Unless you're sure you want to reply, please consider starting a new topic.
:'(
Yes I am sure, thank you for reminding me of my lack of consistency, LAF.
Anyways, I will soon be unpacking my hobby stuff and I should be able to start working on my dwarfs again. In the meanwhile, here's a picture of one of the last models I did before putting all my miniatures away.
(https://i.imgur.com/DRkHIGE.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/YKp6kOX.jpg?1)
definitely one of my favourite models.
He gave me the inspiration for doing non metal armour (except for chainmail, but I might experiment with that as well).
I'm planning an entire unit of ironbreakers with green armour. The only problem is; I still don't have a good and/or punny enough name for such a unit.
My friend suggested "The Grick", from green and brick. But I don't know. I'm still undecided
this particular guy will probably be the unit champion or perhaps a thane with shield.
If he does become a character, I'll also be needing a somewhat Tilean name for him as well.
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I've been coming up with some ideas for banners and unit names.
(https://i.imgur.com/FTP4Ek9.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/A5nGlos.jpg)
as you can tell they're very rudimentary and the fact that I can't draw for shit doesn't help. especially on such a small surface (3 x 4.5 cm, that's way smaller that I thought it was going to be)
I might color them up to get a better idea of what they would look like in the flesh. They're sized to be the actual dimensions.
having these done as a free hand is going to be probably the hardest thing I've done hobby-wise
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Minor progress is still progress.
Yesterday I started a couple of movement trays that are going to be a "shield marker" for units as well.
This way I don't actually have to glue shields on models (such as thunderers and quarrelers) that were never sculpted to be carrying a shield in the first place.
It's also going to give a much better visual representation of the dwarven shield wall one reads so much in the fluff.
and finally it'll let me use all those shields I have and I'll otherwise never use
(https://i.imgur.com/UxK9X1u.jpg)
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Something more useful and concrete this time.
I made some progress and this idea I had for movement trays.
i've always liked the idea of being able to field missile troops with or without shields.
However, I've never liked how the shields looked on them since placing regular shields on the back won't let you see them, and those small tiny, buckler style, shields that came in the box are not deserving of being called shields.
Also since dwarfs are meant to be able to deploy a formidable shield wall, I thought of building a literal wall made of shields.
(https://i.imgur.com/UxK9X1u.jpg)
I built the frame directly into the movement tray.
(https://i.imgur.com/ut5Gsn1.jpg)
Then I simply went through my bits and glued shields to it
(https://i.imgur.com/jfFyR0V.jpg)
Even on the sides
(https://i.imgur.com/sy54k2d.jpg)
Let's see you charge into this
(https://i.imgur.com/qSA9LCr.jpg)
three main issues I noticed with this first attempt.
1) the frame is a tiny bit too tall, I might go slightly shorter next time to have more shield and less frame visible
2) these shields are way too convex. The surface area for the glue to stick to is just too small for my liking. Using flat shields would work much, much better.
3) this uses a lot of shields. Which is not a bad thing since I have countless that would otherwise just sit collecting dust. It's something to keep in mind though. Also, the deeper you go the better it is; meaning that starting at rank 3 you end up using less shields than you would by sticking them on individual models.
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Nice trays
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It's a nice idea, and it reminds me of the shields along the sides of a Viking longboat! :)
If you want to save on shields, you can try press-moulding them using Oyumaru (or similar) for the mould, and a suitable cheap putty like Milliput for the casts. The other advantage is that whilst the putty is still not fully cured, you can gently flatten them a bit to make the less concave (but be gentle, and do it when they're partially cured!).
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if you put a few shields together, you can make a multi-shield mould too, which saves you casting and placing each one individually.
If nothing else was going to convince me, this absolutely would .
Why didn't I think of this?
And thank you guys!
My throng has been languishing for far too long
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I also created a quick list of the models I have and that are yet to be painted.
this is not a comprehensive list, as I went from memory and haven't checked my collection yet or put any of the vast majority of heroes (we're probably missing another 100 or so miniatures)
These are obviously "naked" units and lack any Runic upgrade. the cost of command has been included for those units I know for sure I have the models.
For artillery I'm counting 4 models a piece (war machine + 3 crews) even though many of them came with 4 or more crews. the extra crews (which I have yet to tally up) will end up as Engineers characters.
the Lord on shield bearers I wasn't unsure on whether to count as 1 or 3 miniatures, so I count them as 2.
The first observation is that I have way less miniatures than I thought. Which is a really good thing as the whole project looks a lot less daunting than I thought it was going to be.
the second thing that jumps to the eye is the fact that I sorted most them in groups of 10, for the most part. This is done intentionally as it's either how I obtained them (Thank you Battle for Skull Pass for providing years of dirt cheap dwarfs), or it's done to make painting easier as I'd be focusing on 2 ranks of 5 at the time.
The list will be updated over the next few days as I go through my collection and many boxes to see what I have and what I forgot I had
Less than 1000 miniatures is a much more approachable goal that I can actually see myself complete, wish me luck
Edit: I forgot to post the link to the list.
Here's the list (https://pileofpotential.com/Luigino?project=83630141)
If you sort them by ascending name you'll actuallty sort them by Core-special-Rare etc, since I numbered them accordingly
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Wow, that list is heavy as a dwarven list should be! Please keeep it up, I really like huge projects as yours, grats for the painting and the lore.
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Wow, that list is heavy as a dwarven list should be! Please keeep it up, I really like huge projects as yours, grats for the painting and the lore.
thank you thank you
Yeah it is a big project, But it's not as gargantuan as I had first thought ("Gargantuan". You know, I've always liked that word "gargantuan", I so rarely have the opportunity to use it in a sentence).
The lore actually turned out to be the part of the project I enjoy the most.
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New pictures.
Not really progress, but I did attach two shields to the hammerer command group and based a total od 6 miniatures.
(https://i.imgur.com/0YlTy5W.jpg?5)
The front
(https://i.imgur.com/JFqlb67.jpg?1)
The back
I also started playing around with an oathstone
(https://i.imgur.com/jKBzTQ9.jpg?1)
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New update.
I've finally finished all the hammerers I had primed and prepped.
I still have some 25-30 others hidden somewhere but they have to be found, stripped, and primed.
I absolutely LOATHE painting these models. I'm not sure why, but they're just a pain to paint.
for now I'm calling this unit finished, here they are.
The Green Maul
(https://i.imgur.com/fUGJ3IH.jpg)
I also touched up and based this crew member/engineer
(https://i.imgur.com/hEUZ6j7.jpg)
More interestingly, I've finally started working on my main army standard. I still don't have a model picked out for the BSB himself so, the Thane here is just for Scale
(https://i.imgur.com/s9wbpT7.jpg)
and here's with a quick paper mock-up
(https://i.imgur.com/rRXLkxj.jpg)
I might remove the cone/tip but I'm liking it more than I originally thought I would
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Now thats a banner to paint freehand on!
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Very minor update today,
In a rush to finish my last batch of half started miniatures before the birth of my firstborn, I went ahead and applied some finishing touches.
Mostly, this meant basing some miniatures and prepping the bases for a few others.
To make my bases I usually use a mix of grout, sand, filter medium, discarded flock and anything ese that's granular enough I can just scoop into an old jar.
For some reason, this time, the grout clumped up on a number of bases; and, after drybrushing, I was left with whitish globs.
I decided to try and paint details directly into the base to hide the clumps and to add a touch of colour I went with mushrooms.
(https://i.imgur.com/aRDfCq9.jpg?1)
yay or nay?
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Nothing wrong with the odd mushroom or two...
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So...
Turns out I have even less time than I think. Not that I mind, but things will considerably slow down for a while.
However I did manage to finish a few things in the past couple of months.
(http://i.imgur.com/7iPPmMv.jpg) (https://imgur.com/7iPPmMv)
First, these two guys.
I painted them years ago and just sat missing their left arm collecting dust. So I grabbed the left arm from the thunderers' kit (the one that looks like they're about to do something that'll get them called into HR) and did some quick and dirty block colouring + wash + highlight.
I don't particularly like them; the models AND my paint job, but they're now finished. And a mediocre paintjob is always better than unfinished models.
I also painted my very first non dwarf miniature of my hobby life.
(https://i.imgur.com/RSKZSsC.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/zE8fBZo.jpg)
I call him "Greendalf"
He's not really a miniature, seems to me more like some sort of (LOTR?) board game piece, I have no idea where he came from since I got it for free at a garage sale.
I do like him though and he scales really well, if I had an human army I'd absolutely use him as a wizard. Maybe he'll stand in as a Runesmith or a crew member in some of the artillery, who knows.
Finally this guy
(https://i.imgur.com/jzCl6h6.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/bQgc1LR.jpg)
he's a norman/viking dwarf and definitely one of the miniatures I enjoyed painting the most in the last while.
It's also my first attempt at doing coloured blades and it looks really nice. I might give him a shield at some point, and he'll probably be the champion in a unit of dwarfs armed with swords.
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They all look great! I like the colour palette you use on this force.
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They all look great! I like the colour palette you use on this force.
Thank you Pattus, that's very nice to hear!
It also appears that my green Gandalf isn't Gandalf at all, but rather one of the pieces from the board gane "The a-maze-ing labyrinth".
Surprisingly good sculpt for a kids' game; but I swear I was convinced it was the grey wizard himself.
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Another minor update, do you guys remember the big banner I was planning?
I actually started the pencil-sketch process and will try to paint it soon.
I am, however, a bit worried about the lettering and runes. Maybe a thin sharpie or liquid ink pen could work?
(https://i.imgur.com/r3LbYGJ.jpg)
I tried to base it off Italian city heraldry and came up with motto in Latin.
I was thinking of perhaps adding a crossed hammer and harquebus on one side and a crossed axe and crossbow [to keep with the motto] on the other (But I already have trouble drawing fairly easy geometrical shapes, free handing symmetrical weapons is going to be a nightmare)
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Another partial update:
I started painting the banner. This was the first time since middle school I put brush to paper. It’s also my first foray into free-handing.
This is what it looks so far.
(https://i.imgur.com/YwJmBtb.jpg)
For the back I’m going with a simple split scheme for now; I might go back later and add some details.
(https://i.imgur.com/iKCPcQN.jpg)
I sketched the whole banner (including lettering) on a large piece of cardstock (the backing of a note pad) and then slowly filled it in a la paint by numbers.
for reasons I’ve yet to comprehend I decided against priming; this turned out to be a terrible decision.
The cardstock is extremely absorbent and rough, this meant that every colour had to be applied over and over and over again before it stopped showing the brown of the paper underneath.
This isn’t too much of a problem for the grey area (the tower looks alright) but for the sky and the grass it was a nightmare.
I started with miniature paint but soon realized that it would basically act as very expensive primer so I switched to some cheap leftover acrylic in tiny plastic pot I’ve had for years and never used.
The roughness of the paper (made worse by wet paint) also made it extremely hard to do straight thin lines.
I was really worried about curling and warping, especially once I really started applying watered down layers for highlights.
It turned out this was not a problem at all, it is now pleasantly wavy, but I suspect that painting it on the main sheet and then cutting it after drying was a good call.
The lettering, which I attempted to do from the beginning turned out to be a problem as with every layer or two of colour I’d have to go back and re-do every single letter. So I’m just going to try and be careful at the very end.
Looking at it, I suspect that black letters wouldn’t be too readable and might opt for a bright grey instead.
The Runic inscription on the other hand, came out well and showed some staying power, albeit that too requires another passing of black to make it really pop
For the “hooks, I did not calculate the length correctly and they are now way too short; this is not a big deal as I can just cut some cardstock extensions, but still.
So far I’m very satisfied with how it’s coming along, but for my next paper banners I’ll definitely spray/prime the cardstock before I sketch anything. I’m hoping this let’s me have more vibrant colour with less layers and, to have an easier time with straight thin lines.
I’m not sure what to do with the circular window in terms of colour.
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Another update:
here's the first dry fit run of the banner
(https://i.imgur.com/mb96EuN.jpg)
I went for chains because I wanted to try yet another thing I had never done. They were a bit of a pain in the ass to work with and I think they might have ended up a tiny bit too long.
They do, however, make it really easy to remove the banner for transport and storage (or I want to swap out for a different banner)
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Another update.
I finished the lettering on the banner.
(https://i.imgur.com/jPv4gQn.jpg)
As you can see the spacing had to be done differently since writing with a brush isn't as easy as with a pen or pencil.
It looks more balanced though, I don't mind.
Left to do now is to add the other smaller banner on the side and to decorate the pole, I was thinking something along these lines.
(https://i.imgur.com/XEJREMu.jpg)
The decorations can be non- dwarven shields/weapons taken as trophy from winning games. Or dwarven shields from units that distinguish themselves somehow in a game.
The square legionnaire type shield at the bottom I just think looks cool and might be used for the dwarf actually acting as the SB.
For the smaller draping flag I'm unsure if I want to do a single colour, a gradient, or draw something on it, but something on that side would help in balancing the look of the banner.
I also have to decide on a miniature to be the thane that will hold the banner.
Since the banner Is that big, I had to settle on dwarfs without raised weapons or plumed helmets.
These two are perfect.
(https://i.imgur.com/AHW12jE.jpg)
Now, I'm very partial to the first guy's belly, but the plate armoured is both one of my favourite miniatures,
he also has a very noble and portrait like pose, which works well for such a role.
At the end though both are going to get stripped and repainted and I'll get to use them both.
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Thank you GMwang.
Before my Saturday shift, this morning I did a bit of work. Nothing fancy.
first I finished these two guys.
(https://i.imgur.com/PhvNvTq.jpg)
I have a dozen or so of painted bodies rattling in a box, so I grabbed some painted arms and glued them,
The guy on the left is not really meant to hold a shield (he's a quarrelers and his left arm is molded to hold a rifle with both hands) but the shield itself hides the iffy joint.
I'm not in love with them but I'd rather have 2 extra completed models than an ever increasing pile of half touched miniatures.
I also finished my shieldwall/movement tray
(https://i.imgur.com/b4u1tfL.jpg)
I tried something I had never tried before and took a more abstract approach to painting it, hence the XXXX pattern. It works... alright-ish. There's a couple f very details to finish off but I'm calling it done.
(https://i.imgur.com/B9JBJ4c.jpg)
As you can tell I didn't even bother with the inside of the shields.
(https://i.imgur.com/OWYsxdm.jpg)
And here's with some thunderers.
basically this allows me to have my shooting unit count as wielding a shield without actually having to glue a shield on them, it'll also help me remember the shieldwall rule. Plus I think it's a very dwarfy thing to do.
I love the concept though and will surely be making more. I have hundreds of shields coming in soon, so I'll probably be making a lot of these.
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A nice idea.
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Thank you Louie
I gathered all the painted bodied I had lying around and assigned each one of them whatever bits that would fit on them.
i really dislike this generation of plastic dwarfs and painting them is never fun. But I cannot stand having half done miniatures so I decided to work through these before moving forward with other models.
This is what I had on my work space as of this Monday
(https://i.imgur.com/uwm4f0W.jpg)
a quick priming
(https://i.imgur.com/RkMoXal.jpg)
and we should be good.
I finished 5 of them so far
(https://i.imgur.com/zHqxyj4.jpg)
they look ok, I'm just glad to be actually finishing models
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and here's the latest update
(https://i.imgur.com/4e9c2pU.jpg)
5 more random dwarfs.
The 2 thunderers on the right were painted while holding my 5 months old in one hand so the details on the rifle are a bit wonky.
I made a mistake with some bits ending up with with the wrong body so the guy on the right is holding 2 hammers and he looks just as confused as I am about it; but I'm calling them done.
slow progress, but still progress
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Keep up the good work sir
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Thank you Louie, encouragement is always very helpful in keeping up with a project.
I've painted a bit more in the past few days but failed to take pictures of any sort.
I'll have something uploaded in the next 24 hours.
In the meanwhile I've been trying to come up with clever/punny names for the various units
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The 2 thunderers on the right were painted while holding my 5 months old in one hand so the details on the rifle are a bit wonky.
Painting any minis at all with a 5 month old is impressive. I doff my cap.
The army is looking great so far. Love your commitment to the short lads and look forward to seeing more.
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Painting any minis at all with a 5 month old is impressive. I doff my cap.
The army is looking great so far. Love your commitment to the short lads and look forward to seeing more.
Thank you Old Hob, the hold is coming along nicely. Slowly but steadily.
it's been a bit more than the 24 hours promised but here's an update.
I finished 5 more random dwarfs: 2 musicians, 2 warriors and some sort of artillery crew member.
(https://i.imgur.com/QpRce5p.jpg)
I particularly like the eyes on number 2 and 3.
I also prepped 3 EM4 dwarfs, one of each type, to see how they'll paint up.
(https://i.imgur.com/wpYW0Sj.jpg)
(I have 147 more waiting to be rebased and cleaned up, something I'm not too keen on starting right away)
finally, I found this kinder egg toy in my bits box so I started working on a little treasure pile token.
(https://i.imgur.com/SOVq8Df.jpg)
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So, not much painting this week, but I did manage to still be somewhat productive.
I finished building 4 more shield wall movement trays for some of my thunderers (I reckon I'll probably be needing a around 18 or so once the whole army is done).
(https://i.imgur.com/VPWnr77.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/aIRibcB.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/tk1L5CR.jpg)
as some people suggested on this forum, I don't need "shields" to make shields. any random flat round piece works just as well.
(https://i.imgur.com/1oKd4qE.jpg)
I've used lots of empty and smooth shields as I plan on using the space to actually have the name of the various units written on them.
(https://i.imgur.com/rEGlqgG.jpg)
And this last one is for a friend of mine who's also my main opponent, he'll be finishing it off with elven shields for his dark elves.
I also started making another terrain piece/objective out of a kinder egg toy.
(https://i.imgur.com/TtrYd0B.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/90WGS8d.jpg)
and I made myself a priming stick with a piece of wood that came from who knows where and that had been taking up space for months.
(https://i.imgur.com/abPBknH.jpg)
Finally, I cleaned up my work/hobby space because it was an absolute disaster
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I love the painting style and themes here - your project is looking really lovely! In a Dwarfish type way of course. I like the shield wall idea too.
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I love the painting style and themes here - your project is looking really lovely! In a Dwarfish type way of course. I like the shield wall idea too.
Thank you Ragsta, I'm glad you like my style and colour choice. Definitely the single project I managed to stick to the longest.
So.. 2 weeks have passed and I don't have too much of an update. I mean I painted but it's not going to be one of those cool updates. I also forgot to take pictures so I'll have to come back and add them later.
First I finished the 20 shields with the winged hammers you can see in my last post for my hammerers. It's unbelievable how long doing tiny shields takes. I forgot to take a picture, like I did of another dwarf I finished, just a regular standard bearer for a unit of warriors.
I did however take pictures of the banner.
(https://i.imgur.com/dySMIxO.jpg)
The banner is a reference to a children song about a painter gnome (close enough to a dwarf for me) who falls in love with a mermaid that swims into the Po river and so he builds a paper boat to reach her. The boat then proceeds immediately to sink into the water; so maybe not the best luck for my dwarfs.
it's the first time I did free handing on something this small (that's a 20mmx40mm base, for reference), and while I'm really satisfied with the paper boat i am less than pleased with the lettering. I'm in the process of getting some small stencils made to try and sole this issue.
I also started painting the shield walls which are slowly getting to where I'd like them to be
I also decided to REALLY tackle part of my pile of shame. I fished out about 40 dwarfs from a batch of used miniatures I got years ago.
they're mostly thunderers and dwarfs with a shield.
There are three main problems that are really making me hate these.
1) they're already primed. And they're primed with a rather glossy black primer on which paint tends to bead and it makes me feel I'm fighting the paint at every step. they're also primed a bit too much with primer having pooled a bit in certain area.
This is not unsurmountable and since they'll most likely just end up as cannon fodder in the back ranks, I can definitely live with it. And from experience I know that after the first stage of block painting things start getting better
2) They're already based and the bases have already had lot of stuff glued on before being primed. Rather messily I'd add, with sand and dirt often encrusting the lower details of the models. The models are attached to the bases with plastic glue so I can't really remove them. Again, nothing too bad. Just an annoyance I have to put up with.
3) and this is the worst. The models are already assembled with plastic cement. Even worse they're assembled with extra details .Extra pouches, ammunition belts, buckler shields...
All things I avoid like the plague since they only slow down painting, the poses in which they're placed will make it an absolute nightmare to get details such as faces and boots.
Here you can see two progressive staged of my block painting.
(https://i.imgur.com/EuU1jZk.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/SMHp1bc.jpg)
This is definitely the part of the painting process I dislike the most, it doesn't look like any real progress is being made and every brushstroke actually seems to make the miniature look objectively worse.
The good thing is with so many miniatures all having the same colour scheme this is going to be quite an important jump in progress.
I'm hoping to be able to finish them in 3-4 weeks.
There's an upcoming tournament I'll be participating in late November and I'd like to field a list without any artillery, so I'm trying to get more miniatures to give myself more options.
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Here's another update. A big one this time.
While I did progress quite a bit on the batch painting from my previous post, this time is all about completed models. First of all this is my "army" as it currently stands. there are few things I'll re-tweak (we'll get to them later) but these models are otherwise finished and do not need any more painting.
First off
(https://i.imgur.com/a2L4y3L.jpg)
The dwarven hold of Karak Mingol.
This is all the models I have painted from late 2019 to today. I have probably 3 times as many painted from my earlier years, but they're waiting to be bathed in stripper and brought up to my new standard and then even more that are yet to be unboxed or primed.
(https://i.imgur.com/90wbIfB.jpg)
here we have, at the front, 2 units of longbeards. One is made of the BoSP models and one is made of 6.5th edition models with shields. They're going to be increased in size. Eventually bringing them both to 40+ units, the unit on the left is called "Il vecchio conio" and a freehand banner is in the works.
(https://i.imgur.com/QqVQbDs.jpg)
here's a unit of thunderers. They're sitting behind a barricade/shieldwall. I like fielding my shooting units with shields and there's no better way to do so than a literal shieldwall.
this is the first one I made and I have to admit I went a bit overboard with the green/blue alternate colours on the shields. Still, a cool little project I like and will be making many more of in the future.
The unit lacks a standard bearer for now just because I'm yet to fish one out of my unpainted pile, but he's coming. eventually. The musician has to sit in the back rank because the drum won't let him sit flush against the shields.
(https://i.imgur.com/uYFGlry.jpg)
another 10 thunderers, this time from BoSP (I have sooooo many models from multiple copies of that box).
The unit is named "Tuoni" and along two twin units named "Fulmini" and "Saette" they will all get a personalized shield wall with their name on it.
(https://i.imgur.com/GqVf6hk.jpg)
here's 6 (5) quarrelers. There are more (oh so many more) to come and technically the standard bearer was an artillery crew member with his clipboard of grudges. They too will be getting a shield wall.
(https://i.imgur.com/v4Q0VvQ.jpg)
this is a unit of warriors with great weapons. Not too fond of these models but they're serviceable enough. Like all my other melee unit this one will also get bigger as more models get stripped and painted.
you can also see the standard bearer I finished in my last update. He looks like he's holding a sign at a protest more than a standard and I think this is due to the fact that the banner is way too recangular and is lacking any "framing" elements at the top and/or sides.
the idea though is to put him in the middle of the unit and he does look a bit better as you can see here
(https://i.imgur.com/VeS08wf.jpg)
also the guy left of the bagpiper looks like he's having a REALLY good day.
(https://i.imgur.com/7sPpTHj.jpg)
this is a blurry picture of a smaller unit of warrior with great weapons. this too will probably double up in size once all is said and done. You can see that some of the models don't have a painted base or have a brown base. this is one thing that will need to be fixed, but I doubt it'll take much. something to do for those days one really cannot get himself to paint anything.
(https://i.imgur.com/Fojf9dE.jpg)
This is a unit of 9 miners. The champion is on my workspace completely done, except for the eyes.
You can see some unfinished bases and also that the flames are not painted. That's because I have no yellow, red, or orange paint of any kind. The ones I had dried out years ago and they're not colours I really use in my army so I never bothered replacing them. (I tried a couple flames playing around with white, browns and the flesh colour but.. meh)
(https://i.imgur.com/OaZyDah.jpg)
This is the unfinished BSB, the hero manning it is currently in an acetone bath and I'm having trouble with the left pennant, but you can still tell that it looks absolutely ridiculous inside a unit. Which is exactly what I wanted.
the motto, in Latin, says "comminus et eminus se defendit" I had not touched Latin since my years of high school in Italy 15+ years ago and it took me longer than I'd like to admit to translate the one I had thought of originally. (many thanks to my dear friend who's a professor of Linguistics and whose help has proven invaluable)
(https://i.imgur.com/NRTKvgI.jpg)
These guys here are my unit of hammerers, called "The green maul" they're 25 and will probably reach 50 once they're all painted. I decided to give them green hammerers and blue armours. one of their banners will read "Pacta sunt servanda" once I feel a bit more confident in my ability with lettering (or once I get some stencils)
(https://i.imgur.com/ss68rJF.jpg)
All of them have a shield with a winged hammer rom the warrior kit. This is such an obvious and simple "conversion" yet it's one I've always been very proud of. Mostly because these shields take longer than they have any right to take to finish.
(https://i.imgur.com/FpzoIxb.jpg)
this is my artillery, beside my beloved bolt thrower I'm not too fond of these models. But you can't call a throng a throng without firepower. I have a lot more warmachines coming.
The crew members are a random assortment of minis pulled from the pile and painted, so many don't necessarily match the machine they're supposed to go with.
(https://i.imgur.com/etPB5R9.jpg)
these are the heroes/character painted so far plus a miniature from the board game Labyrinth. I might use him as runesmith; or maybe as my next DnD character.
Considerations:
first, there are a few things I need to touch up; mainly in terms of bases. Not only some models have an unpainted base, I want to base all of my artillery, as well as paint the movement trays. Certain models; (mostly the GW warriors) were an early experiment with multibasing. and they work, sort of, but they'll need to be removed and rearranged to allow better deployment.
Second; the army as of now is not particularly impressive, especially considering these are maybe 15% of my total models.
But I'm really proud of how they turned out and it's nice to see them all deployed to remind me that while the final goal might not be close, I've already covered quite some ground.
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You definitely should be proud of that force, they look good and you’re making progress!
I think putting time in to complete the bases will be a good investment. Bases are easy to overlook, but they make a big difference for pulling the figures together into a unified force. I think cohesive basing provides a sense of context for a collection (some of the collections by folks on LAF, such at Knight Commander Tyr and Koyote, among others, really show that - the basing is almost like a character of its own). It doesn’t have to be that detailed to work, though, just consistent across the army.
I’m looking forward to seeing how your army develops (that other 85% still to paint is intriguing)!
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You definitely should be proud of that force, they look good and you’re making progress!
I think putting time in to complete the bases will be a good investment. Bases are easy to overlook, but they make a big difference for pulling the figures together into a unified force. I think cohesive basing provides a sense of context for a collection (some of the collections by folks on LAF, such at Knight Commander Tyr and Koyote, among others, really show that - the basing is almost like a character of its own). It doesn’t have to be that detailed to work, though, just consistent across the army.
I’m looking forward to seeing how your army develops (that other 85% still to paint is intriguing)!
Thank you Pattus, it was nice actually seeing all the miniatures out together.
I agree with the bases as it's one of those things that won't take too much time but will truly pay off.
As for the rest of the army... it's slowly coming. I've been mostly pulling and stripping miniatures at random, but with the upcoming tournament I might be a bit more targeted in my process.
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Looking great Luigi, and I'm pinching the idea of the priming board for the shields!
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Looks great and you can never have too many warmachines.
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Looks great and you can never have too many warmachines.
Thanks Voltan. I can definitely agree with that. I have plenty more incoming, both black powder ones and more traditional pieces.
Looking great Luigi, and I'm pinching the idea of the priming board for the shields!
Thank you! And yes please, it's such a simple yet effective idea. I'd love to see other people's take on it.
Another update for today, nothing too big.
I finished batch painting the 37 dwarfs from last time.
(https://i.imgur.com/jQEPmfz.jpg)
I then fished 3 out of them and focused on them till completion, finishing off a miner that had been waiting for far too long on without his eyes.
(https://i.imgur.com/SDLGLVQ.jpg)
Here they are, from the right...
(https://i.imgur.com/o5C91VP.jpg)
and from the left.
Whomever sold me these REALLY went heavy with the primer, some of the details, especially at the back are almost entirely obscured by te primer
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I didn't paint too much these few days but I did manage to finish a single miniature this morning in between dropping off my daughter at daycare and starting work.
(https://i.imgur.com/Pb7MkOw.jpg)
You can tell he's really worried about that mass of thickly and glossily primed miniatures he himself has just emerged that's lurking behind him.
lovely little sculpts. When I first started I used to dislike musicians and standard bearers models a I considered them "wasted" models as opposed to the actual troops you always need more bodies of.
It just never occurred to me that I could have multiple musicians in a unit or multiple standards.
Plus it's very refreshing for once not having to paint a weapon or a shield
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Another small update, only thing I've managed to paint is another thunderer.
Here he is, I really couldn't get the camera to focus and he's since bene placed into a unit in the cabinet and I don't really want to go take him out.
The background probably didn't help either.
(https://i.imgur.com/pV9f9aJ.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/ucMI3sN.jpg)
As you can see from the back, the previous owner had attached shields and what I assume is a bandolier of ammunitions.
I also had to clip the sight off of the rifle since the model was already glued and it prevented me from otherwise reaching the face.
I like how the double coloured helmet came out
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He looks great! I have liked the colour palette for your army since the beginning and it works on this figure, too. The colours on the gun barrel and other metal parts also look good.
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He looks great! I have liked the colour palette for your army since the beginning and it works on this figure, too. The colours on the gun barrel and other metal parts also look good.
Thank you Pattus! Then i'm sure you'll like what's coming next.
Another update, fairly big this time.
I have a tournament to attend to at the end of November. I technically have all the miniatures I need fully painted to field a rather nasty list, with multiple pieces of artillery. But where's the fun in that?
I decided to experiment with a list completely void of warmachines and that would allow me to play dwarfs in a way you would not expect.
So I spoke with the tournament organizer who like my idea so much he offered to 3D print the missing miniatures.
Here's the first (of many) flying contraption I'll have to paint in the next 2-3 weeks.
(https://i.imgur.com/Ob4EGt1.jpg)
I specifically requested the version with the balloon because I already have several gyrocopters and ornithopters with rotors and/or wings designs.
I've never worked with resin and I am extremely impressed with it.
Good thing I never had a 3D printer otherwise I'd be literally submerged in unpainted models.
I was so excited I started assembling it before any painting (which I never do).
this immediately fired backward after I realized that doing so prevented me from inserting the pilot in the cockpit since he wont fit through the ropes.
(https://i.imgur.com/EQVp8TO.jpg)
No one can convince me that he was not sculpted to be a commuter standing on the bus and holding onto one of those loops hanging from the ceiling.
Digging through my bits I found the solution though; a drinking dwarven pilot from Black Tree Design.
(https://i.imgur.com/Ifxe9ri.jpg)
He's so small he fits without issues, actually he was too small and needed a tiny cork booster seat to be able to see through the cockpit.
(https://i.imgur.com/8OCs1KB.jpg)
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Awesome, is it going to count as a gyrocopter or are you using some other rules for it?
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These will by gyrocopters, and I have a coupe of slightly larger ones with an elongated tail/platform that will be gyrobombers.
I'm planning a flying circus list with 6 gyrocopters and 2 bombers. It will lack any sort of serious punch and staying capabilities that dwarfs are renown for but for once I'll be able to move.
But for regular games and scenarios I'd be more than willing to look for alternative rules or even come up with some myself
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That’s lucky you had a suitable crew figure! The original and the replacement are both fun sculpts. I think I prefer the replacement, though. I suppose if a pilot is going to be under the influence, a balloon is probably the least hazardous contraption to be flying!
It sounds like it will be a super-characterful army for the tournament!
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That’s lucky you had a suitable crew figure! The original and the replacement are both fun sculpts. I think I prefer the replacement, though. I suppose if a pilot is going to be under the influence, a balloon is probably the least hazardous contraption to be flying!
It sounds like it will be a super-characterful army for the tournament!
thanks Pattus, I agree on the balloon and its relative safety! Hopefully this is reflected on the tabletop game wise
Sunday up(date)day,
I've made some progress on the first balloon.
I had started working in batches on all of them (a total of 8-10 flying machines) thinking I'll make fast work of them all.
I soon stopped when it turned out that batch painting models larger than infantry (which is realistically all I've ever painted before) is much more draining, so after having slapped the first base coat on one model i decided I was going to focus on one or two of them at the time till completion.
here's some pictures
(https://i.imgur.com/83HYxQY.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/CMcEVsd.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/AesqUte.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/0NdBdll.jpg)
the green is 90% done (missing a yellowish highlight here and there, the shields and the interior of the cockpit)
the blue is on the second layer.
It's slowly coming together.
I also assemmbled and modified the bases and stands.
As you can see here
(https://i.imgur.com/wbWXNVc.jpg)
The stand has too thin a peg and the model too wide an opening for it to be stable in any way.
So I took a few of these plastic beads and widened the hole with a drill bit.
(https://i.imgur.com/eS3QHI6.jpg)
a drop of thin plastic cement and and it makes for a much snugger fit
(https://i.imgur.com/0FhmcwI.jpg)
I also weighted down the bases when plastic and hollow
(https://i.imgur.com/GdyjPGD.jpg)
Or put a washer directly in between the base and the stand when MDF.
(https://i.imgur.com/x2VfGbm.jpg)
These models aren't really heavy (the resin is extremely light), but they do stick out quite a bit in height from the rest of the army and there's a real risk of brushing an arm or a sleeve against them when moving miniatures around, so a but of bottom weight isn't going to hurt.
I might finish the first one tonight if I get some time for painting, the model has finally entered the stage where I can actually see some progress and I think it's looking rather nice.
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A very quick update on my work break.
A couple of nights ago I finally finished the first Gyrocopter/Hot air balloon.
I think it came out rather well and am particularly satisfied with the painted wood-pattern, it was the first time I tried this technique and the results are excellent, if I say so myself.
I was worried about following the "grain" of the prints on the shields, but I think the model would have benefited with a vertical grain, so I'll try that on the next model.
Doing the ropes grey was also another thing I'm not too pleased with, and will probably switch to brown or brown+grey on the next on/
(https://i.imgur.com/dlMdrnU.jpg)
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That dwarf blimp has come out really well. Love the blue. It really pops on this one.
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I agree with Old Hob, that looks great! It’s a very interesting model, too, blending the dwarf style elements in a new way (or at least new to me, I haven’t really followed how the GW dwarves’ style shifted during the AoS years).
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It really is a great model, and well -painted.
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Nice work.
I've never been a fan of blue/green schemes, but you've really pulled it off.
Great PJs
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Wow! Thank you everyone, it's really nice getting this kind of feedback and it most certainly helps in staying motivated with the project; especially during the most tedious phases.
I actually started working on the other 6 almost right after.
(https://i.imgur.com/1paN6ut.jpg)
You can see them here right after the first or second base colour being applied. I learned from my mistake though and did not assemble them yet, and I'm focusing on anything that's not the basecoat one piece at the time.
(https://i.imgur.com/I9tLfCq.jpg)
this picture has actually made me realize that I'm making the same mistake on the gondola as the last time and am leaving the rotors and ropes unpainted. I will be addressing that in the next painting session. Tonight I should also probably start stripping my older gyros I painted years ago.
Like this one.
(https://i.imgur.com/3N6RbLu.jpg)
The picture makes it look worse than it is. the model is painted to a more than acceptable standard but it just doesn't match the rest of the army in terms of colour, what I will try and retain though is the screw flight stand as I think it's particularly fitting for such a model.
These are absolutely my favourite gyrocopters ever: they're tiny, easy to assemble and have a certain charm about them that it's harder to find in more modern sculpts.
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Quick update during my break:
(https://i.imgur.com/kqLXhQS.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/kgq3xIX.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/xylweT9.jpg)
The wooden portion of the gondola is done. I think. I might go back and do a lighter blue (celeste or azzurro) highlight here and there.
I like the vertical grain on the shields, but I might just invert the shields' colours on the other gondolas.
the browns are still just at the first layer, but they already do work better than grey.
I might push the green further with a yellow highlight, but honestly I like how it looks so far.
unfortunately lately I've been getting very little painting since both my daughter and wife were sick.
all is good now so I'm confident in being able to see some real progress this weekend.
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Another update. It's been a while.
I finally finished ALL the remaining gondolas for the resin gyrocopters.
It's been an extremely tedious work and having to paint the same model over and over with nothing in between wasn't very enjoyable.
The fact that they are also way more detailed than an average infantry miniature definitely took a lot of the enthusiasm away.
(https://i.imgur.com/jovrZ9q.jpg)
left side
(https://i.imgur.com/JeWYHY2.jpg)
right side
(https://i.imgur.com/57kQkQm.jpg)
front
(https://i.imgur.com/yGzPaPV.jpg)
rear
I am pleased though with how the wood came out, and although I can see a few mistakes or missed areas, I'm calling them done for the time being.
This should allow me to finish the balloons, rotors, tails and pilots on time for the tournament.
In the background you can also see the 30 or so thunderers and warriors I had started in September.
I have a newly found appreciation for infantry models now so once I'm done painting for the tournament it should be easy getting back into finishing actual units.
I also went through my pile of metal models looking for a replacement pilot
(https://i.imgur.com/nKXXaXC.jpg)
And I started stripping the 2 harlequin (BTD?) gyrocopters and the BSB model.
(https://i.imgur.com/eEcpp5p.jpg)
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Great progress! Painting the same thing over and over definitely can become a chore. Can’t argue with the results, though, that will be one impressive swarm of copters for the tournament! Now, just add a Bluetooth speaker playing Flight of the Valkries on a repeating loop and you’re all set!
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Thank you Pattus. I actually have been listening to Ride of the Valkyries (and the rest of Die Walküre) a dangerously high number of times while painting these guys, in ope of getting me motivated to keep going. I fear I mightend up dreaming in German on of these nights if I don't get finished soon.
Quick update before bed.
I actually painted a lot and made a lot of progress since last time I uploaded pictures, but just like last time I did not take any of the actual process.
In any case, the balloons are all finished
(https://i.imgur.com/0pw7x0x.jpg)
but it’s really hard to photograph them since they can’t really stand up on their own.
I also worked on the pilots.
(https://i.imgur.com/6yrF9pM.jpg)
these two are finished
(https://i.imgur.com/Du3k9GV.jpg)
You can see that I “cheated” with them, I only painted what’s actually visible once they’re in the cockpit .
I’m usually the type of person that spends time highlighting the sole of miniatures… but after having to work on these models (and nothing else) I really just want them to be finished.
(https://i.imgur.com/4hXSPPf.jpg)
I’ve now started working on the tail/carriage for the two gyrobombers and will be doing the rotors as well.
I’m hoping to have them finished tomorrow (or tuesday) as I should have some time to paint.
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All the resin copters are now finished: painted, assembled and based.
but this is not an update for that (that'll come tonight after work).
I stripped the metal gyros and started assembling them.
In the past I remember them constantly coming apart just by looking at them funny so I decide to try a more heavy handed approach.
(https://i.imgur.com/0b3AUJt.jpg)
I used a literal machine screw going through the base (and all those cents I brought over when moving to Canada 15 years ago are finally coming in handy).
The head of the screw was a bit thicker than the base so I had to indent a little alcove with a dremel.
(https://i.imgur.com/pxr3XWk.jpg)
this thing is not going anywhere.
(https://i.imgur.com/axc3yhm.jpg)
I then screwed directly into the gyrocopter (with a drop of glue).
(https://i.imgur.com/VsNz9Ic.jpg)
this was an orginal GW base which isn't hollow, so I had to grind a bit of space for the screw to sit flush
(https://i.imgur.com/zDIKZTE.jpg)
To increase the area of contact for the glue and screw I used one of those size markers found on hangers, hidden with some cork
(https://i.imgur.com/4iXgYeR.jpg)
screwing directly into the second one. This is slightly slanted, but that's not a bad thins as it'll look like the pilot is maneuvering some sort of spin.
(https://i.imgur.com/Kt3Gm8u.jpg)
I remember the rotor/blade attachment being a particular weak one so I just screwed them in with a tiny screw.
(https://i.imgur.com/wGGY5Y1.jpg)
I was very worried about ruining the models but the results came out satisfactory, I even used a tiny brass ring from a base guitar string to have one of them fit a longer screw.
I realized the metal pilot I used into the resin hot air balloon wasn't a spare but now he's stuck in there and one of these gyro's will be without pilot for now.
(https://i.imgur.com/KE4wyuT.jpg)
Look at him sitting snuggly and mocking my miscalculation.
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yup, they look sturdy now, just don't decide to take them apart again. :P
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yup, they look sturdy now, just don't decide to take them apart again. :P
Oh god Voltan, after this I don't want to see anything more complicated than an arm-chest attachment on a miniature.
Quick add, I found this phone picture from Tuesday, as I figured a late and small update is better than no update.
(https://i.imgur.com/KJRjnEG.jpg)
While this picture shows them mid-painting they are now fully highlighted, drybrushed and assembled.
The BSB is also much further along with just the final highlight and drybrush needing to be applied to his face .
I have a tournament in 2 days and am rushing to complete them.
I'm hoping to be able to post a completed picture of everything before the tournament
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Another day, another update.
I've finally finished the BSB here he is in all his glory.
I really like this model and considering he was originally just a nonGW (BTD?) ironbreaker champion I'd say he got promoted quite a bit.
(https://i.imgur.com/q6Dvj5l.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/Oe6sIii.jpg)
I am particularly pleased on how his eyes came out; he looks like he will not be easily impressed; which, along with his statuesque pose, is perfect for a battle standard Bearer.
(https://i.imgur.com/MY8PPx5.jpg)
Although now looking at him with the much magnified picture I realize he needs a bit more work on his eyes :'(
I also found another picture from last week of my recently completed airforce.
[img style="max-width:100%;" src="https://i.imgur.com/x7JsWLC.jpg"]
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Wow! That’s a great air force. They should add some mobility to your stunties on the battlefield.
I ageee about the standard bearer and how his eyes turned out, he looks great.
Good luck with the tournament!
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Loving the colour scheme your using.
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Thank you both!
And Pattus, luck wasn't on my side at the tournament (I ended up winning the "The dice are my enemy award lol) but i had not had this much fun with the game in a long, long time.
I wish I had taken more pictures, and I'm sure more will pop up once everyone starts uploading them to the event page.
In the meanwhile here's a shot of the army at the tournament
(https://i.imgur.com/mDLDUX0.jpg)
ETA: my opponent took better pictures of my army than I did :P
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It’s great to hear that you enjoyed the tournament. The dwarves may have died in vain, but I bet they looked glorious doing it!
I’m looking forward to seeing additional units as you add them to the war host.
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It’s great to hear that you enjoyed the tournament. The dwarves may have died in vain, but I bet they looked glorious doing it!
I’m looking forward to seeing additional units as you add them to the war host.
Thank you Pattus, they definitely got some comments, both for the look and for the originality of the list.
Here’s some more pictures from the tournament, specifically from my last game.
(https://i.imgur.com/fcL3yMd.jpg)
This is what my deployment looked like at the start (from his POV)
(https://i.imgur.com/phf253A.jpg)
This is turn 2, you can see the miners that have just popped out and my airforce surrounding the enemy.
before the game I was 100% convinced this would be an easy victory and this is the moment I thought I’d start to win .
Oh boy was I wrong .
(https://i.imgur.com/tp6lhri.jpg)
this is what it looked like by turn…5?
In the top right you can see 6 of 8 copters removed as casualties along with the miners.
The gyrocopter was defeated by the cannon crew triggering the miners running away off the table and cascading into a mass escape off the edge of the table.
hats off to my opponent who was a great sport and played really well, I have not had this much fun losing in a while.
and I truly believe that are absurd moments like these that really make the game.
here’s a few more details.
(https://i.imgur.com/lM2ipQP.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/7vr2wgd.jpg)
Details of my airforce
(https://i.imgur.com/UyHSZWV.jpg)
one of my gyros failing to defeat 7 thunderers even after charging them in the back before being charged and pulverized by 20 or so hammerers
(https://i.imgur.com/Y1hOFOy.jpg)
my army cowardly hiding strategically staying back letting the copters fly out to settle some grudge
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Congratulations Luigi. That was an awful lot of hard work, but the results are stunning.
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Thank you Old Hob,
I'm very satisfied with how it all turned out.
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The airships really to look marvelous.
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Much appreciate Louie!
A thing I've noticed is that this tournament has really galvanized me with the hobby. And I decided to channel this newly found enthusiasm to dive right in and do some batch painting of things I would normally just push to the side.
(https://i.imgur.com/RGz7bpf.jpg)
These are 7 random models fished from the pool of dwarfs I had started before focusing on the tournament list.
These are models that I would usually cherish in painting but the fact that they're already fully assembled and primed with something way too glossy makes them a bit too easy to be pushed aside.
They're slowly coming to life and, if anything, will just end up in the back ranks of better looking ones.
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Another day another update.
I have actually finished the 7 dwarfs above.
They came out a bit differently than usual and I blame bot their primer and me painting with my daughter on my lap.
I also tried starker and lighter highlights of green.
They came out well enough to blend into the ranks and files once placed in units.
I only took a single WIP picture, which I always seem to forget
(https://i.imgur.com/YhXOdzB.jpg)
and it's unfortunately too dark to make out much.
But for the final picture someone suggested I tried a background so I half-assedly did something with my work laptop and its tiny screen.
(https://i.imgur.com/KVc0D0O.jpg)
A little too busy
(https://i.imgur.com/ZuEGYZB.jpg)
Much better
I also finally took a picture of the BSB which I realized never had a proper picture taken.
(https://i.imgur.com/3zVQPrr.jpg)
This guy is really tall (well, not him, his banner) so much, in fact that it's hard to fit him into the frame
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The new recruits look nicely done to me. Achievement unlocked for painting these with your kiddo on your lap.
Man, that banner is MASSIVE!
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...Man, that banner is MASSIVE!
That's because dwarves spend so much time in the dark they have to squint when on the surface!
Still, it's very neat!
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The new recruits look nicely done to me. Achievement unlocked for painting these with your kiddo on your lap.
Man, that banner is MASSIVE!
thank you Old Hob. One of the reasons I started this project was because I wanted to be able to showcase an array of free-handed banners.
And I also figured that since dwarfs in Warhammer lack centerpiece models (even their gyrocopters are tiny) I decided I could go wild with it.
I'm most certainly pleased with the result, even though it's still missing something draping off the left.
That's because dwarves spend so much time in the dark they have to squint when on the surface!
Still, it's very neat!
I always said it's because my dwarfs are compensating for their very short... list of unsolved grudges, so their kind of coaxing and provoking enemies to come and start something.
here's another small update.
I finished 7 more thunderers from the current batch.
I just did a quick and dirty job on them. it turned out dirtier than I'd like and not as quick as I'd hoped. But all in all, they look good enough and especially if placed behind a shield wall, they won't look out of place with the rest.
(https://i.imgur.com/gCjMFpU.jpg)
I believe there's now only 5 or 6 thunderers left among those I already started before the tournament. I might even end up finishing them all before the end of the year.
(https://i.imgur.com/ZAV7pR6.jpg)
The previous owner had glued the buckler type shields to their back as well as pouches and ammo belts. He had used plastic cement so I was able to remove only a few before deciding that it wasn't worth the effort.
I really like simplicity in my miniatures and all those things always felt like unnecessary frills on what are mainly game pieces.
Still, I'll admit that once painted the bucklers don't look too bad and (what I assume to be) bandoleers do add a welcome break from otherwise plain armour
All in all I'm satisfied with it and I really don't want to pass a negative message: the project is proceeding rather well and I'm excited and quite optimistic for where it'll be in a year's time.
If I do not finish the next batch before NYE this might be the second last update of 2023; I'm absolutely planning on having a group shot of what the army looks like so far.
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Nice job on the new recruits! I expect a volley from a unit of thunderers will leave a mark on most opponents.
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Nice job on the new recruits! I expect a volley from a unit of thunderers will leave a mark on most opponents.
Thank you PM. I've always been very fond of Dwarf thunderers, the image of dwarfs with gunpowder weapons was what, to me, set Warhammer apart from other fantasy settings. And for years I would field a dwarf army without a unit of thunderers or two (or three!). In game terms though they never do as well as one would hope. Except against cold one riders, for some reason I always really well against them, but I digress...
And speaking of thunderers, today I sat down and actually finished something I had been postponing for months.
I finally completed the shieldwalls movement trays I had built a while ago.
First I just did a quick wood grain effect on the shields
(https://i.imgur.com/MJZQlg5.jpg)
In my previous attempt (visible on page 4) I ended up with too busy a paintjob so this time I opted for something more uniform.
They're also painted in a sequence as the idea is to field them next to each other.
The plain shields also made a perfect canvas for the units' names.
(https://i.imgur.com/vcdhicG.jpg)
TUONI (Thunders)
(https://i.imgur.com/SbKsDo3.jpg)
FULMINI (lightnings)
(https://i.imgur.com/q3oKDYw.jpg)
SAETTE ([lightning] bolts)
I hesitated so much with these because I was worried about doing the lettering, but today seeing them there collecting dust got me motivated to just grab a brush and write the names on them.
And they're not bad at all, if I say so myself. I might even go back and draw a couple of tiny bolts on the shields next to each name.
In Italian, "Tuoni, fulmini e saette" is an actual expression (albeit not used often, nowadays) found in novels and stories.
I also thought they'd make for good names for regiments of dwarf thunders whose guns are as loud as thunder, their shots as bright as lightning and their bullets as fast as lightning bolts.
I REALLY like the concept of a literal shieldwall for dwarfs and it's definitely something I'll be doing more of.
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Those trays are a very cunning idea! I can just imagine those little buggers running up fild and hastily constructing another Wall.
Cool!
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Thanks GS!
Hopefully in future games, those shieldwalls will prove half as useful as they look.
One final update for the year.
I have been surprisingly busy these past 10 days and didn't get to paint too much. In fact I got kind of stuck on these 11 guys.
(https://i.imgur.com/ZB8NX9K.jpg)
the good news is that they are really close to being finished, so I should be adding these guys pretty quickly, hopefully a day or two.
I did manage to finally base all the artillery pieces I have painted so far.
these were painted rather early in the project and as such they don't display much colour, this makes them get lost on a grey base; good lesson for future war machines; a coloured chassis is definitely a must.
(https://i.imgur.com/MDYtZKB.jpg)
But here's the real update: state of the union army as of the end of 2023
(https://i.imgur.com/n4p2KRq.jpg)
and a few close ups.
(https://i.imgur.com/amwPtPJ.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/RqPLqYu.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/OmhgEzP.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/a5U4QeO.jpg)
that's all for now.
happy new year everyone, if you do go out and celebrate don't be like him
(https://i.imgur.com/nXXriBf.jpg)
don't drink and fly.
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Thank you everyone.
First week of the year means first update of 2024.
I completed 12 more dwarfs, mostly thunderers and a couple of command figures. I'm starting to have more musicians and banners than I have units.
(https://i.imgur.com/vOs5fDy.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/3x2y0Ob.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/9LbdnKX.jpg)
I've also update my Pile Of Potential (https://pileofpotential.com/Luigino?project=83630141) with a more accurate account of what I have, what's painted and what's left to do.
According to that I'm 1/5 on my way to having painted ALL of my miniatures.
Hopefully by this time next year I'm at 1/4 done at least.
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New weekend, new update.
I had about warriors left from my last group of miniatures and while painting them I also decided to throw in a Thane and a cannon from the same batch of used miniatures.
I’m glad I did because it didn’t add too much time and it’s nice to get more dwarfs ready.
I went for a very quick job on these guys, and decided to opt for all coloured helmets..
(https://i.imgur.com/lz872Ql.jpg)
I think they came out well enough.
(https://i.imgur.com/pEmhkdg.jpg) (https://i.imgur.com/JAM956A.jpg)
The thane was a particularly speedy paintjob with lots of washes and quick highliths. He doesn’t have any flesh, which sped up painting quite a lot.
(https://i.imgur.com/nUFcNT4.jpg)
the cape is not my best work, but for something that will probably never be seen I couldn’t be bothered too much.
And here’s the cannon.
(https://i.imgur.com/1XXCQ2C.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/MU3zTbZ.jpg)
this is my first attempt at a coloured cannon. I really like how the blue chassis contrasts the metal barrel and the green detailing works nicely as well.
I did make a couple of mistake though; mainly I did the colour before doing the metal drybrushing meaning that I had to be very conservative in its application to avoid having to redo the blue and green sections. The primer was also black and smooth while I usually use beige, green, or brown and always something with a satin finish.
I still don’t know if an actually coloured barrel would work but this one looks miles better than the first one I did.
I also dived right in on the next few miniatures, I found that having some sort of continuity between jobs makes me more productive rather than treating them as separate events.
(https://i.imgur.com/q7zFoRs.jpg)
whoever I bought these guys from had already primed and cemented them, which results in a lot of weird poses and questionable choices for equipment, as well as a more tedious painting process for artillery models.
(https://i.imgur.com/EumjSOK.jpg)
It also means that some parts snapped and broke which will force me to do some impromptu kitbashing, which might actually be a good thing.
But rather than complain and leave them at the back of my que I decided to tackle them right away.
We’re exactly 2 weeks into the new year and we’re seeing some decent progress already.
I’m hoping to be able to keep it up
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Great update! I particularly like the Thane, the fur of his mantle is very well done. Makes me want to blow off the dust from my Dwarves army (but I must focus on the Orcs first :D)
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Thank you Philotep!
Very late update.
we're closing the month with an organ gun, its crew and a slayer who looks like he's had a stroke.
(https://i.imgur.com/E2gttRA.jpg)
The guy whose hand snapped just got a random shield I already had painted, and as you can tell I really didn't spend too much time or put too much effort into them.
(https://i.imgur.com/sQdqKfT.jpg)
The slayer has been doing his squats
(https://i.imgur.com/tZgkuNi.jpg)
The plastic organ gun/cannon kit was never my favourite but it's serviceable enough. Noting fancy here, just a series of green and blue washes and drybrushing for the chassis, and a boltgun drybrush over the black primer.
Not my finest job; partially because I really don't like these models, but I think they look more than decent on the battlefield.
Most importantly, models look much better finished and in the glass case among its comrades than lingering collecting dust unpainted on my desk.
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I think they turned out quite well! It’s definitely better to have them completed and in the battle line, rather than collecting dust on the painting table. Will you paint some that you’re more enthusiastic about next?
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I think they turned out quite well! It’s definitely better to have them completed and in the battle line, rather than collecting dust on the painting table. Will you paint some that you’re more enthusiastic about next?
Thanks PM.
Actually, looking back at them a few hours later I find myself liking them better than I did right after finishing them.
as per the second part of the question: yes.
I have officially started the process to do en-masse stripping of all the miniatures I painted before starting this project (we're talking the bulk of my collection, with over 300 dwarfs). So far I have stripped all the remaining BfSP warriors and thunderers (and I'm really looking forward to those), a coupe of metal warmachines (which will require some pinning and minor conversions) and a about 35 or so of metal crew members ranging from 4th to 7th edition. There's also other random dwarfs that ended up in the stripping bucket that I cannot recall (I think another of the plastic organ gun, a handful of miners and warriors, a few characters?).
Going back to these old models, some of which were the very first models I ever put paint on, has truly made me appreciate how far I've come.
All in all I'm probably looking at at least 3-4 months of work, so I'd better get started. I'll try to take pictures of the progress as well.
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Thanks PM.
Actually, looking back at them a few hours later I find myself liking them better than I did right after finishing them.
I generally feel the same way. If I can I try to get outside and take walk after a painting session, and then come back to look at them. Having some time to think about something else before you start judging them has really helped me to think clearer about what I like and what I should improve on :)
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I generally feel the same way. If I can I try to get outside and take walk after a painting session, and then come back to look at them. Having some time to think about something else before you start judging them has really helped me to think clearer about what I like and what I should improve on :)
Very true indeed. this afternoon they actually looked even better. Mostly because I spent hours scrubbing and stripping batches of old miniatures and had to go through years of very amateurish paintjobs, which really made me appreciate my current output.
Speaking of which, new update.
I finished stripping the first batch of old miniatures and ended up spilling them all over my desk
(https://i.imgur.com/8z6qVyQ.jpg)
Out of the stripping bucket, I noticed that the plastic miniatures came out 1 of 4 ways.
(https://i.imgur.com/nR1z9qW.jpg)
Some were primed and the primer stuck (like the first guy on the left). These were bought already painted from a friend of mine in 2006/7, you can tell that the paint came off perfectly but the primer stuck.
Others, like the next 2, were painted by me and my brother. These were painted without a primer and also with a mixed of acrylic and enamel paints.
most of it came off, but some of it seems to have stained the plastic.
These were actually painted multiple times over the year with me simply painting over a different colour.
I will be priming these guys as well: despite being soaked for days and having been scrubbed multiple times, they're not getting any cleaner.
Other miniatures (painted around 2010/2011), like that armless miner were primed by brushing black acrylic paint directly onto the miniature.
these came out the cleanest.
The last ones where bought a year or two ago already primed and painted. The paint came off and the primer mostly stuck, but it lost all of its glossy finish.
during the scrubbing process, some of the miniatures got damaged and their hands or weapons snapped. this happened to both plastic and metal miniatures.
Nothing that couldn't be fixed with a quick kitbash.
(https://i.imgur.com/aBtiqYh.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/ZZQtFb4.jpg)
here you can also see that the metal miniatures came out extremely clean, regardless of the type of primer it all sloughed off cleanly.
I then started sticking the miniatures to be re-primed on a piece of cardboard with hot glue
(https://i.imgur.com/yOdirKW.jpg)
Hopefully we'll be getting at least an hour of decent weather soon so I can get started.
Once all of them are primed I'm probably going to be very systematic in my approach; divvying them up into units and focusing on them in batches of 10-15.
I'm feeling fairly confident and rather optimistic, and hoping to have all of them finished by the end of march.
After that I have 4 more jars of miniatures bathing (mostly the rest of the metal crew members, a few warmachines, and a bunch of 7th edition warriors).
(https://i.imgur.com/VHz57ii.jpg).
And that's all for this first day of February
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Love recovering old minis. I find 99% isopropyl alcohol in an ultra-sonic cleaner does really well against painted plastic.
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Love recovering old minis. I find 99% isopropyl alcohol in an ultra-sonic cleaner does really well against painted plastic.
I'm yet to use an US cleaner.
Any one in particular you'd suggest?
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Nope. I'd spring for one which you can run for a set time (some of the small, cheap ones for jewelry have an annoying 3-minute only cycle). They're one of those products which is listed under 850 different Chinese brand names...while all being the same thing on Amazon. lol
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It’s been a while, hasn’t it?
And while I have not been online much this past month and a half I’ve been really busy with stripping my old dwarfs and painting them up to my current standard.
So much so, that I managed to tackle my backlog and complete a serious chunk of dwarfs.
I’m extremely pleased to announce that I finally completed ALL the thunderers and ALL the longbeards/warriors from the various “Battle for Skull Pass” sets I have accumulated throughout the years.
I also started adding an extra step or two of highlights to them, especially with the green and I’m fairly pleased with the results.
So let’s get started. Here we have 14 thunderers.
(https://i.imgur.com/XuvwXgJ.jpg)
And their respective command groups
(https://i.imgur.com/TmYFSsg.jpg)
note on the left the two standard bearers I converted from the warrior ones. It’s a very straightforward kitbash using some of the many guns that came with the quarrelers kit and that I would generally have no use for.
This will make it easier to give full command to future thunderers units I have planned and that came without banners.
Here's 4 more crew for artillery, nothing fancy but gunners and machinists are always useful to have.
(https://i.imgur.com/Uq8AYVR.jpg)
and here’s some longbeards.
(https://i.imgur.com/GNkkCoH.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/E6cDW44.jpg)
You’ll notice that some of their weapons have been swapped and some of their horns have been snipped. They were damaged during stripping and quickly fixed with a simple hand swap. As per the horns… I don’t know I like to think of it as battle damage.
This particular batch of miniatures has been particularly frustrating;
(https://i.imgur.com/ljhJmhZ.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/nbUAxV9.jpg)
about 6 of them are not from the starter set but are instead those miniatures that came free with White Dwarf 219/220. (https://i.imgur.com/KHik06f.jpg)
Now the sculpt is identical to the others but they’ve actually got much shallower and softer details making them very tedious to paint to the same standard as the others. I also have no clue how I got so many of them since I never bough a single issue of WD.
I’ve also started prepping 70 or so bases.
(https://i.imgur.com/rld9mqB.jpg)
This is it for now, almost 50 dwarfs in almost 50 days. That’s some really good output if I say so myself.
I probably won’t be painting actual miniatures for the next couple of weeks since I was going insane towards the end but will be still doing some hobby stuff, probably movement trays (I now need more shieldwalls for the thunderers) and possibly some more freehand banners.
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Great job! That’s excellent productivity, in my opinion, and the results look very good. I feel for you regarding stripping old figures- I find it tedious to clean off the old gunk and it’s frustrating when some get damaged in the process. Your repairs worked well, though.
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Yeah, this is coming along a treat...and I say that as someone who generally dislikes bright blue and bright green! (Must be something tainted in your blood, as my buddy also paints all of his armies in those two colours!)
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Cool color scheme. Love em!
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Thank you guys.
The more I get done for this project, the better it all looks.
That last wave will probably be the last large addition to the project in a while. It left me a bit burned out in terms of painting.
here they are finally based and trying out the new trays I made.
(https://i.imgur.com/JGtEnZC.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/7K9tIHq.jpg)
Not wanting to be totally unproductive, I decided to do some more stripping and priming as well as building some movement trays.
(https://i.imgur.com/t02FNLU.jpg)
Here's another batch of metal models stripped and ready to be primed. Mostly Artillery crew and a few 4th (5th?) ed. dwarf thunderers. Can't wait to get to this unit as they're definitely some of the favourite models in my collection.
While stripping a couple more figures got damaged and this time they were metal. rather frustrating, especially with tiny bits and details with miniscule contact points.
(https://i.imgur.com/foLqaAZ.jpg)
The miner's pickaxe on the right (FA0920b in this set (https://www.stunties.com/stunties/index.php?title=Black_Tree_Dwarven_Regiments#FA0919.2F920.2F921:_Miners) lost its tip, which I turned into a hammer with a couple of leftover plastic cut-offs. It turned out pretty well and I'm certain it will look natural once painted.
the guy on the left (last miniature in this kit (https://www.stunties.com/stunties/index.php?title=GW-Organ_Guns) had already lost the tip of his botefeux (?) and I thought about turning it into a spear or large shovel, but the breaking point is on a slant following his fist so I ended up using the cannon shield. it kind of looks like one of those stop signs used by construction crews to direct traffic, but it works well enough. Hopefully the glue will hold te tiny connection points well enough.
(https://i.imgur.com/7LELV72.jpg)
I also finished a total of 10 movement trays, a couple of large ones (10x5 and 9x5 models respectively) I also finished a few more shieldwall trays.
(https://i.imgur.com/jXhuc11.jpg)
I actually experimented with a fully enclosed style and am very pleased with it, going forward I might do all of them in this style.
I'm currently stripping the last of my plastics, which in itself feels like a huge accomplishment, and hope to be willingly painting by the end of the week. Maybe even have an handful of models finished and ready.
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I thought those enclosed ones were supposed to represent a shield-wall or something.
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I thought those enclosed ones were supposed to represent a shield-wall or something.
Oh they are. I just run out of shields for the last 2 which are now looking like small animal pens.
If that's what you're asking.
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Personally, I much prefer to see the little stunties all stuck up in a pig pen.
Oh, sorry. Too much orc in me, I think. They look great!
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Personally, I much prefer to see the little stunties all stuck up in a pig pen.
Oh, sorry. Too much orc in me, I think. They look great!
Thank you DWB, I won't lie that sometimes seeing them perform rather poorly in game I feel like closing them in a pen might actually be a fitting punishment.
New update!
First off,
I finally stripped ALL models, metal and plastic, that still had paint on. I then spent hours sorting through dwarfs and bits and organizing them into coesive units. This left me with a winebox containing my weight in dwarfs (I have way more metal models than I thought)
(https://i.imgur.com/xhnqSYe.jpg)
what's good about this is that now not only is it easier to complete whole sections of the backlog (instead of completing scattered models); but I don't feel too bad about painting "new" models while I still have old models to strip.
I then completed three more shieldwall trays. I found a solution for my dwindling shield reserve and bought an obscene amount of 1/2" plastic screw caps. any hardware store will have bags containing hundreds if not thousands of these for very low prices. They work perfectly as round shields for my walls.
I then finished an assortment of artillery crew figures.
2 bolt thrower loaders
(https://i.imgur.com/n2JqUXR.jpg)
I couldn't, for the life of me, manage a decent eye on the shouting guy so I just painted him as if he were squinting.
2 gunners
(https://i.imgur.com/mbTP7sS.jpg)
The guy on the right was damaged during stripping. the hand is a bit from a plastic kit while the sponge is just the end of a Qtip shaped and hardened with PVA glue. I'm actually surprised of how small the original sponge is.
I'm honestly impressed on the amount of characters old metal crew members have. For models that are nothing but palliative wound markers they're often much more interesting than the machine they're operating.
It's a shame that GW entirely changed the look of dwarfs with their plastic kits; nothing beats old GW metal dwarfs in terms of esthetics.
one of the bases had a hole in it and I tried plugging it with leftover bits that I'd otherwise never use.
it kind of works
(https://i.imgur.com/pxy5yZ7.jpg)
and finally 2 more "twin" models.
(https://i.imgur.com/tjMPWpB.jpg)
These are gunners for the skull pass cannon. But they're generic enough (a huge advantage if you ask me) to work well for any warmachine really, or even as engineer characters.
this is it for now. Friday my parental leave ended, and on Wednesday I'm starting a new job, which means this might be the last painting update of substance for a while.
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Hopefully you will be able to find at least some time in your new schedule for painting. I’ll be looking forward to updates, even if the figure count is smaller than in your past ones.
The new additions all look excellent! Nice job on the repairs, I wouldn’t notice they’re not stock parts in most cases.
I’m also a little envious of your well organized box of unpainted stuff - my unpainted stuff is mostly in complete chaos, which can get in the way of enjoying the hobby process.
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Thank you Pattus, I will vouch for organizing one's backlog. I think it really does make painting and assembling models that much easier. Also it led me to "discover" models I had forgotten I even had.
Like this conversion of lord on shieldbearer I did in my early days of warhammer and that I had completely removed erased from memory.
(https://i.imgur.com/MJbMY24.jpg)
Definitely looking forward to get to this guy.
I also realize I forgot to attach a picture of the shieldwalls in my last post
As you can see the screw caps are a perfect match and will fit seamlessly among "real" shields.
(https://i.imgur.com/RMm1Y5t.jpg)
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Going over Padrissimus' Tilean campaign yet another time an idea started forming into my mind.
So i dug through my bitsbox and pulled some of the junk and items I never had an use for.
(https://i.imgur.com/4Srr7wk.jpg)
that rubber spout is from an olive oil bottle and that blazer (?) button was found literally on the ground in the parking garage below City hall.
They were a prefect match, and with a couple of what I believe to be earrings studs, the mortar itself was basically done.
(https://i.imgur.com/68yOfQV.jpg)
I decided to spiff it up a bit and used the broken piece of stud from an old pair of jeans to fill the inside of the barrel
(https://i.imgur.com/RLDEGfB.jpg)
The frame itself is just balsa wood scraps and broken matches I had leftover from building movement trays. I used a triangular file to create two identical grooves
(https://i.imgur.com/1fvOApF.jpg)
Which I then topped off with thin matches.
(https://i.imgur.com/3v0GLQA.jpg)
Made a base with more balsa and started thickening the frame with more matches
(https://i.imgur.com/F2D5vEX.jpg)
A few years ago my brother gave me these thin decorative strips of wood he uses on furniture he makes. they fit perfectly here.
They actually have a slight texture but I suspect after priming it'll be basically gone. They'd still work as wood planks.
(https://i.imgur.com/qI6jX7R.jpg)
added some more and I'd say the frame itself is done.
(https://i.imgur.com/LEZFpEv.jpg)
I'm unsure if I want to cover the pins (here I tried with something boxy, but perhaps small dwarf faced bucklers would work better?) or leave them exposed.
(https://i.imgur.com/OQvZD7A.jpg)
At first I thought of just closing the back like I did the front and just assemble it after painting. Now though I wonder if I could instead leave it open and add some sort of gear and lever mechanism to give this thing a more "dwarf engineered" look.
It also came bigger than I had anticipated, not that it's a bad thing, it just means I'll have to build a crane for it to be loaded and prepped.
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quick and minor update.
I started "dwarfing up" the mortar
(https://i.imgur.com/nKFnOGh.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/6zWdqQf.jpg)
I added more of the strip to hide the beams from behind.
I decided against the gear mechanism at the end; I have neither the bits nor the patience, plus the space left this way is a perfect fit for a crew member.
(https://i.imgur.com/I1RMaXr.jpg)
The sides and the front will be kept empty for ease of painting but I'll add shields and runes to it to give it a more fortified look and perhaps a surface upon which write the machine's name.
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I like that a lot! The dwarf faces on the fittings add a lot of character. I’m looking forward to seeing this model painted and crewed.
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I haven’t gotten any painting done at all lately, but I have been particularly busy scratchbuilding. Seeing as my previous mortar is way too big for my dwarf to reload it by hand and, inspired by Padremack’s excellent campaign (https://bigsmallworlds.com/2018/11/29/granite-breaker), I decided to build a loading crane.
(https://i.imgur.com/d0NuGA0.jpg)
The body and loading arm is made of matches cut and glued together.
I also used thin decorative strips of wood to hide seams and imperfections.
I glued it to a base (off centre >:() to keep it from warping too much.
The swinging mechanisms is just a Qtip cut and glued to a groove that was filed off the arm. I added two beads on each side to better hide the pins used to reinforce the “crossbeam”.
(https://i.imgur.com/jptqvtq.jpg)
At the bottom I used small triangular steel cutoffs to give it a more stable look, a tiny shield was glued atop it to add more texture.
I also added plastic greebles on the top corners; but I’m not too sure of those, I might go back and remove them.
(https://i.imgur.com/UXOPfNx.jpg)
The spinning mechanism is made of a wheel, a metal “gear” a piece of Lego sprue for a lever and a screwcap, all drilled and rotating around an empty pen ink tube. The rope is just two teabag threads glued together.
(https://i.imgur.com/1t1mEs7.jpg)
I then stuck a tiny lever bit from the dwarf cannon on the outside.
The rope goes through a hole I drilled on the arm, to avoid having the rope bend at too steep an angle I used the ball ends from guitar strings.
All it is missing now is a plate for projectiles to rest on and perhaps a few more bits to dwarfing it up further.
All in all I’m actually really satisfied with how it came out.
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Fantastic, and way better than the rush-job I churned out for the campaign pictures! (Mortar looks great too.)
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Thank you Padrissimus.
your campaign truly has been a source of inspiration over the years for my own project.
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That’s a great scratch build - clearly fantasy engineering but also plausible for doing the job! Your siege mortar unit is going to look brilliant together on the battlefield.
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Great looking mortar, and the crane makes it even better!
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Really like the crane and mortar. Shows that for siege engines any bit and bob is fair game!
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Thank you guys!
That’s a great scratch build - clearly fantasy engineering but also plausible for doing the job! Your siege mortar unit is going to look brilliant together on the battlefield.
making it look like it could actually work was exactly what I was going for. I'm hitching to paint it.
Great looking mortar, and the crane makes it even better!
I'm almost tempted to make some rig or similar gear for all my warmachines now
Really like the crane and mortar. Shows that for siege engines any bit and bob is fair game!
agreed! These two builds have been a great way of "spending" bits I'd otherwise never use.
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Absolutely love the crane and mortar. Fantastic work on both. It's always a joy to see cool scratch builds like this :)
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A bit late SSS, but thank you! I appreciate the compliment.
In mid-April I started a new job with a much better schedule and with consistent hours.
To take advantage of this I soon started to paint during my lunch break.
I took a few things to the office: my wet palette, a handful of primed miniatures, a couple of brushes and just enough colours to block in some basecoats and maybe a first layer of highlights.
This turned out to be a great idea, as it gave me a clean 5 hours of painting per week and it forced me to focus on a single task at once. the problem was that beyond the initial stage it became necessary to rotate miniatures and paints out of the office and back home. \
I also got back into another old hobby (https://www.postcrossing.com/) of mine and as such the minis I started sat incomplete for most of the summer.
The other day though I ended up finally finishing up these guys
(https://i.imgur.com/uZ2akOI.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/WDsswUU.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/2MblaNI.jpg)
I mean... I'm not 100% done as they need basing but still. Good enough for now.
They're old harlequin sculpts that I bought from BTD over a decade ago. They're all crew members for various war-machines. The two guys holding rocks are supposed to be loading a mangonel, the guy on the far right is from a flamethrower cannon, and the others are from either cannons or ballistas.
They are on the tinier side of dwarf sculpts, as you can see from the 20mm bases, but I'm really fond of these sculpts. I have plenty more (BTD artillery often came with 4+ crews and I bought A LOT of artillery).
I kind of miss painting at work so I might try and resume it, perhaps focusing on much larger batches (20-30) of identical models. I also finally got an airbrush so I should be able to start priming large swathes of models despite the tropical weather we've been experiencing this summer.
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It wouldn't be a dwarf army worthy of its beer without artillery.
And the larger the army the more numerous its warmachines.
A few weeks ago my brother sent me pictures of a couple of metal toys he found in a thrift store.
(https://i.imgur.com/T2rvunx.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/z5ZADzy.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/yJ4o4O1.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/nNMS3e5.jpg)
He thought I could use them for my dwarfs; and he was absolutely right.
They are vintage(?) toy cannons that actually shoot small rubber projectiles via a spring loaded mechanism. And I was seriously considering leaving it just so I could actually shoot at my opponent's miniatures during a game.
Sadly, common sense took over and I decided to do without the spring.
The oil/grease from said spring had leaked out, so after a bath in Super Clean, they came out new and shiny.
(https://i.imgur.com/WwyBLbp.jpg)
You can tell they're rather massive. Very in theme for Warhammer artillery actually. I guess these will be "siege" pieces as well.
While imposing, they were still too.. austere. So, a quick ransacking of my bits box for shields, a few cut up matches and this was the result .
(https://i.imgur.com/BqibdD9.jpg)|
(https://i.imgur.com/FEaQf6x.jpg)
I then primed them (along with the scratch built mortar) and started painting them.
I've learned my lesson with the last cannon so this time I finished the barrel in its entirety before moving on the chassis.
And this is how they're as of last night, with a finished barrel and a first basecoat on the frame.
(https://i.imgur.com/sFO5f7o.jpg)
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Excellent! Those fit right in!
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They look great. They size up pretty well too!
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That artillery looks great. Really like the paintwork on the metal parts. What paint brand/color are you using?
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Gorgeous paint on those cannons - they look not plastic, which is pretty amazing.
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Thank you guys!
They were a lot of fun to customize and are turning out to be a lot of fun to paint.
I primed them with this (which is what I have used to prime everything for years.
(https://i.imgur.com/D8TU81J.jpg)
Sometimes in kaki (like the cannons) sometimes in dark green or dark brown. Whatever is available and cheapest.
This "camo" type of paint, regardless of brand, is really good because it leaves a very satin finish. It feels a bit gritty at first but it take paint really well and and it lets you control the flow of colour much better than other spray paints.
Recently though I have gotten an airbrush so I suspect I'll stop buying rattlecans going forward.
Then the actual painting was done witn these
(https://i.imgur.com/OZR1qXo.jpg)
The P3 black was a pot I bought in 2012 or something and had sat unopened in my drawer this whole time. And since I run out of my Vallejo black I decided to finally put it to use. P3 paints are actually nice, very pigmented. But after switching to dropper bottles, i find it really hard to go back to pots.
I did a couple of passing of black which dried smooth and thin, then I dry brushed increasingly lighter mixes of metal before going over the raised details with a black wash.
Honestly, I'm making it sound more complicated than it is. It's a simple metal drubrush over a black basecoat. I'm certain it can be replicated with any brand.
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The P3 black was a pot I bought in 2012 or something and had sat unopened in my drawer this whole time. And since I run out of my Vallejo black I decided to finally put it to use. P3 paints are actually nice, very pigmented. But after switching to dropper bottles, i find it really hard to go back to pots.
Lucky for you the P3 paints are being re-released via KS and will be in dropper bottles.
Grimm
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If you Facebook at alli suggest this group for you.
Grimm
https://www.facebook.com/groups/378409754868306/?ref=share&mibextid=NSMWBT
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Those cannons and dwarfs look really lovely. There's something very satisfying about taking toys and incorporating them into this hobby.
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Lucky for you the P3 paints are being re-released via KS and will be in dropper bottles.
Grimm
That's great news! It's always nice to have more options, especially for me since I don't like "marrying" any brand and will use anything that works well.
If you Facebook at alli suggest this group for you.
Grimm
I'll admit that I mostly avoid social media, but I do have a fake-ish FB account I use specifically to organize games and meet with other players. The group seems a bit too TOW focused but I'll definitely give it a try, it's always nice to see and share dwarfs.
thank you for the suggestion!
Those cannons and dwarfs look really lovely. There's something very satisfying about taking toys and incorporating them into this hobby.
Thank a lot! And yes, there's something special about "upgrading" a toy into a miniature.
They're actually much more painted now, with the metal mortar looking particularly good, but I keep forgetting to take pictures, I'll try to post updates before the end of the weekend.
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Just a very quick update. I haven't had much time to paint lately, only being able to do short 10-15 minutes sessions if at all.
(https://i.imgur.com/z2kFUaN.jpg)
The metal mortar on the right is probably the one closest to completion.
I have never painted such a large and flat surface and this being my first attempt at semi-vehicular panel painting I'm pretty pleased
(https://i.imgur.com/upiA20O.jpg)
The wooden scratch built mortar is also coming out alright, but the natural wooden grain of the matches has all but disappeared and needed a painted grain.
I did some dry brushing on the cannon chassis but you can barely tell, which means I'll have to go with another passing of a lighter blue
(https://i.imgur.com/XqP3hrn.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/HcHN6vK.jpg)
also the picture is rather grainy but I wonder if anyone here knows what this part of the cannon is called and what its function is
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They look great! I have no idea what part of the cannon that is... renaissance cupholder? elevation cranker? not helping, sorry!
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Good evening fellow LAFers.
I have not updated this thread in a long time.
In October I started the process to acquire my own place and between the searching, the purchase and the move I have had absolutely no time to dedicate to the hobby.
The new place is much smaller than where I was staying but it's mine, and that gives me a peace of mind that no amount of (rented) space ever could.
This will also mean that coming 2025 I'll have to be more methodical and organized in my painting.
But you're not here to read about me waxing philosophically about nothing, you're here to look at pictures of dwarfs.
Let's start with some individual shots of the toy artillery and the loading crane.
(https://i.imgur.com/2tCd133.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/uD8iAcp.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/szMw00O.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/5TtNnjG.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/n8HKark.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/vJzlzTo.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/aKj63BC.jpg)
These were completed some time in early October, along with a random engineer character that found its way on my painting table.
(https://i.imgur.com/6Vb0Dkz.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/QXkPnCR.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/U8nrcjI.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/sC23hUp.jpg)
Nothing fancy, a simple hero model with a simple paintjob. I believe this is a hero from 5th edition, probably acquired years ago in a traded lot of dwarfs.
And now, pictures of the whole painted army. Every time I do this, I remember that a grassy green mat is probably the worst thing to take pictures on, given my colour scheme; but every time I fail to do something about it: I really ought to get myself a grey or brown gaming mat.
(https://i.imgur.com/ZPdvCHL.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/f3FauW3.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/WocHauc.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/BwH5U1u.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/Uly40Si.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/awx66Hn.jpg)
When I first put them all down i was a bit taken a back by how little progress I seemed to have achieved since last year.
In reality the progress is fairly hidden. There's not much in terms of NEW units but I did paint over 60 dwarfs as well as 4 pieces of artillery. it's just that they were mostly phagocytized by pre-existing units. I did also finish basing all painted dwarfs and already have some semi-completed miniatures that will be painted up next.
Happy new year everyone, whishing you all a 2025 full of painting and fond hobby memories.
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That’s a very impressive dwarf war host! Some really substantial units there, and an interesting mix of exotic supporting ones. I’ll be watching for updates in the new year!
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Looks amazing! Nice work, and a happy new year :)
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Now that is an army, congrats!
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Thank you guys, it's nice being finally settled down and ready to paint again.
I've been itching for months to get some paint on models.
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Congrats on the army. It looks great
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Very quick and minor update.
This morning I took this to work.
(https://i.imgur.com/CDxqPj2.jpg)
What you're looking at is 147 dwarfs from EM4.
I really like the old-school vibes of this miniatures (and the ridiculously low price you can get them for) but they do need a bit of work.
(https://i.imgur.com/9ItngRG.jpg)
Out of the box bag they look like this, with flash and and a single mold line that encompasses the hole model. Most important they come with a large integrated base that's way too big for my goals (I need to put them on 20mm bases).
So during my lunch I decided to get some ready.
(https://i.imgur.com/YhbZaNT.jpg)
It's not hard work, but it is as annoying as it is necessary, and I figured that if i can squeeze even just 20 mins of this at the office, it's less time I have to "waste" at home and that I can actually dedicate to painting.
My only concern is that so much clipping could ruin my BANDAI Spirit cutters, so I'll probably grab a pair of cheap chinese clippers off one of the stores near the office and go to town on the bases.
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Yeah, I debated putting heavy work into "fixing" all the Battle Masters minis I did last year, but since they were a convention project I didn't bother. I was...tempted, lol. :D
I love saving, salvaging or fixing up underwhelming stuff and making it look more playable. Nice work. The assembled army is grand, even with my distaste in movement trays! lol
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My only concern is that so much clipping could ruin my BANDAI Spirit cutters, so I'll probably grab a pair of cheap chinese clippers off one of the stores near the office and go to town on the bases.
I found that a strong sharp Stanley knife blade sliced them from their bases quite easily. It is important that the blades are sharp or a few warriors lose a foot or two.
The effort is worth it though. https://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=145175.msg1877130#msg1877130 (https://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=145175.msg1877130#msg1877130)
(https://i.imgur.com/9Wvw4o0.jpg)
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How about a jeweler's saw? I have a lot of Oathmark and the like on those integrated bases and I hate it. Few saws with the jeweler's saw / hacksaw thing, and pop, good to go.
And I found it safer on my fingers than using the blades.
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I found that a strong sharp Stanley knife blade sliced them from their bases quite easily. It is important that the blades are sharp or a few warriors lose a foot or two.
The effort is worth it though. https://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=145175.msg1877130#msg1877130 (https://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=145175.msg1877130#msg1877130)
I remember that army! And it looks just as imposing as the first time. I thought you had just reduced the original base size, but looking better I see you actually replaced it altogether. I did bring a utility knife today so I'll definitely give it a try. Do you slice the soles directly off the base?
Yeah, I debated putting heavy work into "fixing" all the Battle Masters minis I did last year, but since they were a convention project I didn't bother. I was...tempted, lol. :D
I love saving, salvaging or fixing up underwhelming stuff and making it look more playable. Nice work. The assembled army is grand, even with my distaste in movement trays! lol
I've been following your project and I must say you do a great job blending those BM models into bases and units. I have to give a try to your system as soon as it's out.
How about a jeweler's saw? I have a lot of Oathmark and the like on those integrated bases and I hate it. Few saws with the jeweler's saw / hacksaw thing, and pop, good to go.
And I found it safer on my fingers than using the blades.
I'm actually tempted of using my hot wire foam cutter, I have the table version that I never get to use, so this would go a long way in justifying me keeping it in storage. I'll have to try on a piece of sprue first, the thickness is about the same, but i think it should work
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I would be reluctant to use a hot wire cutter on the EM 4 figures. The plastic isn’t foamed, so it might not burn off/ evaporate quickly enough for the wire to keep cutting effectively. It would be a drag to get bogged down part way through! Also, I’m not 100% sure that the plastic is styrene, it might be high density polyethylene like boardgame pieces. I’ve never used a wire cutter on HDPE, maybe it works, but a careful test could be in order!
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Yes, testing would be indeed in high order. I would also only do this outside and with a fan blowing fumes away.
Actually thinking about it the fumes and the risk of setting the plastic on fire is what worries me the most, perhaps I'll just stick to physical methods
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I remember that army! And it looks just as imposing as the first time. I thought you had just reduced the original base size, but looking better I see you actually replaced it altogether. I did bring a utility knife today so I'll definitely give it a try. Do you slice the soles directly off the base?
Yes I cut them directly from the base. Slicing is relatively easy with a sharp knife. I tried a razor saw and it worked but was slow the blade width lost part of the feet. Those ones became the bear riders.
I have not tried the hot wire cutterbut polystyrene fumes I think are toxic.
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Allegedly, the em4 figures are made from ABS Plastic... I recently bought a bun of the em4 Orcs, to augment my Orc army. I tried cutting arms off, to re-position them. I used Acetone (Nail Polish Remover, from Wal-Mart, in a 4 oz. bottle (https://www.walmart.com/ip/ONYX-Professional-100-Acetone-Nail-Polish-Remover-4-fl-oz/11047146?classType=REGULAR&athbdg=L1103&from=/search)), which dissolves genuine ABS Plastic handily, but I had limited success with this on my em4 figures. Because of this, I chose to leave the majority in the same poses as they came, as it was not worth the effort to change them: it should have melted the plastic where it was applied to, effectively welding them in place, as I positioned them, but it did not work particularly well.
Having said that, I did employ flexible sanding sticks to remove their mold lines, and that worked quite well. I used my pin vise to open some hands, to which I inserted brass spears: I will create banners and glue them to the tops of the spears, to use them as Unit Leader figures.
The em4 figures are superbly priced for what they are. They live up to the company's espoused goal of making affordable fantasy miniatures for the masses. They paint up well easily. I've got more than a few of them in my armies already. :D Cheers!
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When I remove puddle bases I just use my typical Xuron clippers, no problems. However...I can't do that with the Bones USA (Siocast stuff) which is a pain...they snap into pieces instantly.
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Thank you everyone for your suggestions.
Since using a hotwire cutter is exactly the type of thing 17 year old me would have done with extreme gusto, I decided against it. I just decided to remvoe the bases with a sharp blade and plastic snippers.
I also tried to get some painting done the past couple of evenings. My 20 months daughter, ever curious to what I was doing, sat next to me and joined my painting sessions.
She seemed to grasp the concept of transferring colour from a palette onto a model via a brush very quickly. After painting for a bit she decided that it was time to reorganize my paints.
(https://i.imgur.com/JOLkNRa.jpg)
I'll admit it's a bit of an unorthodox method but she insisted I took them out of the box and piled them on my working area.
On a side note, my new place is much too dark for any sort of continuous paiting. Any suggestion for a small lamp (I'll get two anyways) that is cheap, effective and easy to store/remove?
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Yesterday I got a package in the mail from Spain.
After travelling thousands of miles and surviving a postal strike the package was never brought to my place and was dropped off at nearest post station for...reasons.
Anyways, here's what I got.
(https://i.imgur.com/bDBPtFT.jpg)
That's 100 new dwarfs from Avatars of War. They had a 50% sale in mid December and I couldn't resist. Combine with free shipping and I ended up getting one of each selection from their plastic dwarf range.
I'm looking forward to (eventually) getting to paint them, especially the slayers I've already seen a bunch of bits in that kit that's giving me plenty of inspiration for kitbashing.
(https://i.imgur.com/qjsVzpj.jpg)
Also at work, I've also managed to get 5 more EM4 Dwarfs debased.
I ended up following dadlamassu's advice and just sliced them off the base, it took a bit of practice to find the best technique but I think I got it down.
I might be able to get them done sooner than I had originally thought.
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The painted Dwarf host looks formidably good, I do like your coooyr scheme and the wacky flyers add some spice!
Congrats on getting your own place!
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Thank you Ragsta!
I've got another update for you all.
I believe I have removed enough bases for now. as of last night I was left with this.
(https://i.imgur.com/XW8GngJ.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/kQx3wPh.jpg)
those are 18 Crossbowdwarfs; 29 Dwarfs with 2 handed axe and 33 dwarfs with spears.
Once I find/convert/suitable command figures I should have 2 large melee units and 2 smaller harassing units.
I also started building the AoW slayers. They're great models and I believe these are from the only plastic slayer kit ever produced by anyone. I'm not in love with the style (befetting of a grimmer, darker and more realistic WHFB) but they're good models that I'm looking forward to paint.
(https://i.imgur.com/wQvV2ss.jpg)
the only thing that I don't like is that their axes are comically oversized, ridiculously large even by GW standards. The guy in the middle is a quick kitbash i did using a GW standard pole and a GW axe blade. His weapon looks much more reasonable (and deadly) than whatever his colleagues are wielding. I might go back and replace their blades as well. I also have a feeling these are going to be a major PITA to rank up, so I'm planning on multibasing some of them, although that does mean I have to paint them before basing.
Did you guys know that GW gives out free miniatures every first Saturday of the month? Well, neither did I!
But a few months ago I got hold of 3 of these minis
(https://i.imgur.com/nF6ijTM.jpg)
While I dislike the head disappearing into the jacket and being way too small for its body, I did think it had some potential.
I found a (badly) stripped mantic head in my bits box and though that the resulting guy could work as a master engineer of sort.
(https://i.imgur.com/56TjpRA.jpg)
Except... GW miniatures have gotten huge; this is supposed to be a dwarf/squat but it towers over the other miniatures.
(https://i.imgur.com/k46w8MY.jpg)
Hell, even the AoW slayers, already slightly bigger than other dwarfs, only reaches up to its shoulder.
I will still paint it, since as a single character out of units I don't think it'll be that much of a problem.
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Alright folks, we continue with more slayer kitbashing and conversion.
The more I assemble the AoW slayers, the more I like them, but I really find their weapons way too big and cartoony. Not a problem at all, and finally I get to use all those bits I've had around for almost 20 years.
I did 2 more last night.
(https://i.imgur.com/ZIeXz4X.jpg)
The first one has had his right axeblade switched with one from a broken 2handed weapon; I just split the double edged blade in 2 and stuck it on the original handle.
The left hand is a piecemeal switch with an axe from the quarrelers box. The GW hands are slightly smaller, but you really can't tell once assembled.
and I gave the second slayer 2 pistols. I thought it'd look cool and it could help with adding some variance to a unit that is meant to be less organized than your regular dwarf troops.
(https://i.imgur.com/64SNzvc.jpg)
I also found this old tied up slayer in my bits, so I thought I'd add him to the unit. It's a nice little marker and a neat model. It also helps in raking these big boys up.
(https://i.imgur.com/hAer3mN.jpg)
I then prepared a few more weapons; I think I'll replace all (or almost all) of the AoW axes.
they're cool blades though and they make perfect replacement heads for 2 handed weapons so I can still get some use out of them.
(https://i.imgur.com/5jKd7Ix.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/C8Fw6TG.jpg)
I also started basing some of the spear dwarfs, experimenting with double basing.
these models are flat enough that painting them shouldn't be a problem.
(https://i.imgur.com/1ogS39g.jpg)
Also, at work during lunch, I based all of the ones with great axes. Seeing them all nicely ranked up is tempting me to just go ahead and finish all the EM4 dwarf I have.
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Sweet! I always enjoyed working on conversions based on the EM4 figures. It’s fun to see how a new weapon or adjusted pose adds some variety. I’m looking forward to seeing your guys as they progress and get some paint!
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Thank you PM.
I was actually inspired by your comment and played around with some more axe heads.
(https://i.imgur.com/xMUll8n.jpg)
These would make for perfect champions in their units. The spear dwarf actually looks like a promising base for a dwarf halberd/polearm unit. I might convert a few more just for fun.
I also assembled 4 more slayers.
(https://i.imgur.com/JrpW9tS.jpg)
including an additional standard bearer and a musician (I might leave one of them bald)
(https://i.imgur.com/fQsL3nS.jpg)
And 2 regular trollslayers.
I'm going to try to multibase 4 of them together. I'm usign PVA glue for now so that I can easily remove them for painting.
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I love the idea of making the Dwarf Spearmen into Halberdiers. Never occurred to me until your post. Thanks for that! Cheers!
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Good to see you here Luigi. Look forward to following your progress here.
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Hi TileaG, yeah this is also a great forum. Different vibes from our other one, but definitely worth the time.
SgtSlag, they do indeed make for a perfect and easy conversion. the only thing stopping me being the lack of bits for a full unit.
Minor update today.
(https://i.imgur.com/Pfge28X.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/EVdl3jK.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/Unp6R4C.jpg)
These are 147 EM4 Dwarfs with their integral base removed, with the mold lines mostly cleaned off, and glued to 20mm bases.
I actually run out of 20mm bases, so much so that most of the crossbow dwarfs had to be glued to 20x40 bases.
Next will be putting sand to the bases, get their shields ready and then priming. Hopefully by March I'm already in the process of painting them.
Looking at them all ranked up I'm both dreading and looking forward to paint them.
They'll look great all ranked up, and all these models will be an important chunk of my pile of shame. But I know it's going to get rather tedious painting them.
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I need to look for some halberd heads! A Dwarven Halberd Unit would be a lot of fun. Besides, it would give me an excuse to buy more em4 Dwarves... They're easy and fast to paint up, and the conversions would be fast and easy, as well. Not sure why I never thought of it before as it makes a lot of sense to have Dwarven Harberdiers!
Within the 2e BattleSystem rules I use for my fantasy games, the 2nd rank of Halberdiers can attack with the front line. They would make a truly fierce Unit of Dwarves! Off to search the Internet for 28mm Halberds I go... Cheers!
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Let me know if you find some!
Halberd and pike dwarfs are something I could definitely use more of.
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I found them at Essex, sold in packs of 8 (not 20, that is their model/product number: X20). I ordered 24 Halberds, which meant that I needed to order 24 em4 Dwarven Spearmen to be converted to Halberdiers!
Here are the links, if interested: Essex model # "X20" Halberds (https://www.essexminiatures.co.uk/collections/25mm-weapons-equipment-packs-war-machines-guns-all-periods/products/x20), sold in sets of 8, not 20; em4 Dwarven Spearmen (https://em4miniatures.com/en-us/products/dwarf-with-spear).
I checked the 2e BattleSystem rules to make sure they were worth the money, time, and effort... Regular Dwarves attack with a d6, but Halberdiers attack with a d8, and their 2nd Rank gets to attack as well. This definitely makes them a force to be feared. The same is true of Dwarven Spearmen, as far as the 2nd Rank attacking, but they use a d6, not a d8. Dwarven Axemen (Battle Axes) attack with a d8, but their 2nd Rank has to wait for someone in front of them to fall, before they can swing! I love me some heavy-hitting Dwarves who can reach out and kill some Orcs!
"No waiting to slaughter Orcs for those in the 2nd Rank with Spears or Halberds..." Give me a Blue Light Special on killing Orcs! YES! Cheers!
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I will likely cut the spear shafts off, above and below the hands, then drill out the hands, to slide in the halberds. This will make the halberds that much stronger, compared to attaching just the upper head portion of the halberd to the hand of the figures.
You got me to thinking with your comment that you could use more Dwarven Pikemen... I have a pack of brass spears/pikes, sitting on my workbench. I may employ those into some of the Dwarven Spearmen, as well. I have some hobgoblin Pikemen, already. With Pikemen, the 2nd and the 3rd Ranks can attack! That gives the Hobgoblins a serious advantage over the Dwarves.
Dag' nabbit! I should have ordered another 24 Dwarves! Shipping would have been affordable as it would have been one charge, but now it will be two. It sucks to be me. lol Cheers!
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I've actually downloaded a copy of Battlesystem myself because I was so very intrigued and it seems like a great ruleset.
But honestly I don't need much of an excuse to model dwarfs with polearms. Regardless of settings, I think long reaching weapons make the most sense for disciplined and well trained regiments of dwarfs.
as per your conversion, make sure to show us some pictures once done, i'm curious to see what they look like.
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2e BattleSystem is a kitchen-sink rules set: it covers every aspect of fantasy war gaming, including mining! I've been playing it since 1992, and I still love it. I even went through the PDF, doing a word search, to create my own Index, since TSR never bothered when they published it. It is not perfect, but it is good enough.
I love that it is open ended, with guidelines for creating new creatures, battle platforms, and monsters, even. Since I do play 2e AD&D RPG, I am able to draw battles from my RPG campaign, and that has been a blast.
There is an RPG book that details one of the original Artifacts in 2e BS terms, so if you make a model of the Artifact (a small Mech, really), you can bring it to the tabletop for play!
I also love that 2e BS is a bucket-o-dice game: I have bought a couple of Pound-o-Dice kits from Chessex, dividing them between myself and my family, so we all have plenty of dice! It is fun to roll 20-50 d6 for a single attack! 8)
I've run most types of games allowed over the years: siege warfare (no mining, yet), aerial units, siege engines and siege artillery. I don't play it often enough, but when I do play a game, I like to pull out all of the stops... My last game, two years ago, had around 1,200 figures on the table (https://photos.app.goo.gl/aT7aRwRG8nFTQiSZ7), and around 1,000 of them were from my collection. I managed to lure around 10 people into playing it, while I refereed. Around eight of the 10 players had never played it before. Everyone had a great time with it.
That battle was lifted from my RPG games, so several of the players in the BS game ran PC's in the RPG campaign -- they had a vested interest in the outcome of the game, which was open-ended, as I did not care which side won, but the results of the tabletop game would translate into the RPG setting. ;)
I've used the aforementioned brass spears with other em4 figures, to make banner bearers. I have not made the banners yet, but I've put the brass spears into their hands already. This is how I decided that it would work really well to cut off the spear shafts, drill out the hands, and insert the brass "Pikes" to convert them. I looked for them to take some photo's, but I can't find them... When I do, I will post some photos. Cheers!
PS:
Found them, sitting right next to me... Here is a line-up, with the banner holder on the left (https://photos.app.goo.gl/kQX1gneWbnY6fk8p6), and the original sitting on the right side of it, as you look at the photo. Cheers, Part Deux!
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Man that looks like an epic game, EXACTLY the type of experience I crave. Maybe I should start looking for players in the GTA.
The conversion is simple and effective, definitely something I'll attempt myself.
Also, did you prime your grey? I was thinking of doing the same but I was worried I'd miss spots since the colour is so similar to the plastic's.
Not that it would really matter tbh, to have a few minuscule spots missed.
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I normally use the least expensive, sandable, automotive gray spray primer. Recently saw a post on TMP that Ace Hardware (USA chain) sells a flat white primer, for less money per spray can. The gray auto primer is around $8/can, last time I bought some. Not crazy about satin finish, primer + paint spray cans, as it dries too smooth for my liking/painting. Cheers!
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Man that looks like an epic game, EXACTLY the type of experience I crave. Maybe I should start looking for players in the GTA.
Grand Theft Auto?
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Grand Theft Auto?
That was my thought as well
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GTA is Greater Toronto (and area?) - Toronto and the various surrounding smaller cities in its orbit. A similar term is used for Greater Vancouver over on the west coast. Of course a lot of people in the areas around Toronto and Vancouver don’t love being lumped in with the larger city, but navigating the minefields of intra-regional rivalries is just part of the charm.
No idea if Toronto (Greater or otherwise) would have active Battlesystem players, but if anywhere in Canada was likely to, that would be the place, at least demographically.
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Great to seen the old Grenadier dwarves. Is it true they changed the type of plastic? Is it the same as GW/Perry/renedra now?
The old ones I have are really hard to cut and they don't take liquid palstic cement. The ones you're showing also seem to have better detail than the originals.
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I tried using pure Acetone (Nail Polish Remover) to try to weld cut-off arms in new positions. It barely softened the plastic. If the current figures had been made of ABS Plastic, this should have worked marvelously, but it barely affected them, even after applying a generous amount of Acetone to the joint.
These em4 figures are amazingly affordable. For mass ranks, they are superb. As to what type of plastic they are made from, I do not know.
I ended up ordering another 48 of the Spearmen. I also ordered 40 brass wire spears, which I will cut down to make Dwarf-sized Pikes. I also ordered a bunch of Halberds. For all of these, I will cut off the molded spears, drill out the hand, then insert the brass Pikes, and the Halberds, securing them with UV cured resin.
I have received the brass Spears. I'm still waiting on the Halberds and the em4 Dwarves... I am really excited to get everything so that I can get it going. I like Dwarves. A lot. I am eager to expand my Dwarven army's roster.
When I get all the parts, I will post photos of my progress in my project. Cheers!
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Great to seen the old Grenadier dwarves. Is it true they changed the type of plastic? Is it the same as GW/Perry/renedra now?
The old ones I have are really hard to cut and they don't take liquid palstic cement. The ones you're showing also seem to have better detail than the originals.
I cannot say if the plastic has changed as i did not convert the older ones I have. The "new" ones were converted quite easily and both Revell Contacta and Humbrol polystyrene cement seem to have worked perfectly well.
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looks the same apart from maybe colour.
But the last batch I got compared to the original Fantasy Warriors boxed set ones, same material.
wonderfully easy to work with and detail level exactly the same.
Always great to see someone doing a project with them, they are a classic that deserves more attention.
So easy to modify, as the cost is so low as well overall.
But that GW thing scale wise, wow, as I had always considered the FW dwarfs quite large...
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The EM4 dwarfs and orcs definitely take liquid polystyrene cement just fine (I believe that may not have been the case in the past, but it must have been a fair while back). I've had no problem welding them together with GW and Oathmark bits (https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZCpgT9lVe7jsqVdcwWdsRivk9sDK-m7_qHZWLJXy3tyPILSwF4p4eKArN0bsbLah8Un4hdc6KWRhpSwVlHM3FzN6JIiNke6p6i1j_8LnxO0B-rLtUj6KWLMS3Vde7fVYzWezHtZAZdjp6-Pz7EWXqVX14JYvymF8gie939BSmYc3YyHPm8pQoaZpZ_A/s4032/Dwarf%20kitbashes.HEIC).
Great to see this project coming along! The old Grenadier dwarfs are such great figures: Lund and Copplestone are in select company as designers who worked out how to make dwarfs look genuinely formidable (it's to do with the long arms, I think) rather than comic.
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Thank you guys! Things are moving along. Slowly, but they're moving.
I have now started putting some sand on the bases. Pictures to follow, possibly this evening.
Great to seen the old Grenadier dwarves. Is it true they changed the type of plastic? Is it the same as GW/Perry/renedra now?
The old ones I have are really hard to cut and they don't take liquid plastic cement. The ones you're showing also seem to have better detail than the originals.
I'm unsure on what type of plastic they were before, but so far they've taken plastic cement without issue (to be more precise, they took Tamiya Airbrush cleaner with no issue). And judging from the comments of others I'd say they've been consistent for a while in their plastic composition.
The more I work with them the more I agree with those singing the praises of these models. You really can't beat the price and they look really nice. I actually used to have a lot of Lund's grenadier dwarfs (unfortunately stolen) and they were always among my favourite sculpts.
I'll keep the conversions to a minimum on these guys as I really just want to tackle my unpainted pile.
Grand Theft Auto?
So Pattus Magnus explained it well; it is technically the Greater Toronto Area but alas, you're not too wrong; given the rapid increase in vehicular theft that Toronto has witnessed in the past 3(?) years.
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Yesterday I finally finished sanding the last of based dwarfs.
(https://i.imgur.com/XAvnU5N.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/y59BswG.jpg)
I also found some TEHNOLOG dwarfs sitting in storage so decided to grab a handful of them as well.
(https://i.imgur.com/AQ3o3oy.jpg)
they're... ok. They'll make for good command figures and artillery crew. You can see I've been bitten by the kitbashing bug, and could't help myself from replacing blades and adding shields.
I told myself I'd focus solely on infantry, but I could't help myself and built a catapult and a cannon.
(https://i.imgur.com/s0RWs9P.jpg)
The catapult is mostly fine, I'll remove the tab on its spoon and replace the actual spring with a coiled rope or some other bit. But once painted and based; it'll fit right in.
The cannon was a bit too modern and void of details. So I started the process of dwarfing it up a bit.
We're getting somewhere but there's still something missing. I think the connectors between the two frame halves need beefing up somehow
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Very cool!
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Dwarf army - you cannot help but get slightly distracted making sure they have to much artillery.
They look ok but yes, unpainted they look a bit short and lacking in cast on bling bits, and the carriages look short overall, but your fixing the bling, and painted up surrounded by crew, should do the job nicely.
But you/they definitely want more artillery pieces.. two is a good start but, Dwarfs..
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Thank you guys, both for the comments and for the patience with this slow moving project.
a couple of weekends ago I met for a game with a friend of mine, and promptly got my ass handed to me.
The game was a lot of fun and my opponent, knowing I was kitbashing slayers, generously brought me a bag with tons of bits.
(https://i.imgur.com/kzSdSnW.jpg)
these two guys are both sporting what's supposed to be a "champion axe". The one on the left is the original from the AoW kit, possibly the most reasonably sized axe in the whole kit, the other one has had his right hand replaced with one from the dwarf warrior champion.
(https://i.imgur.com/8aWyATr.jpg)
The one on the left is holding some sort of knife/blade. and the one on the right has what I think is a Dark Elf bit.
(https://i.imgur.com/mJ0nOyA.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/9WNAdV3.jpg)
this slayer has an axe from a Mantic dwarf kit (the hand was actually gloved, but once the wrist was sliced off, it fit in perfectly.
he also has a mallet of some sort I made with two plastic bead, a drummer stick and some trinkets shaved off from other weapons.
(https://i.imgur.com/NXMdCog.jpg)
a couple more slayers with firearms
(https://i.imgur.com/OTkRgOW.jpg)
2 slayers with giant axes. There was no way to base these on 20mm and have them rank up, so I went straight for a 40mm base.
(https://i.imgur.com/IhFcPYz.jpg)
and two slayers with swords. they're also showing what they think of anyone complaining about dwarfs using anything other than an axe or hammer.
The kitbashing was a lot of fun and yielded great results, if I say so myself.
Out of all dwarf units, slayers are definitely the most likely to not have identical weapons, and even in many of the black library novels I've read slayers always end up using whatever weapon they can get hold of.
In this case, switching up weapons and hands also had the added benefits of making the miniatures actually rank up. This kit is notorious for being an absolute pain to rank up.
however, with the variety of weapons they now occupy less space and can be easily ranked up in different configurations.
(https://i.imgur.com/yN9PLS0.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/U6Wh6CE.jpg)
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Wow!
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The past 2 weeks have been particularly insane.
There was a serious risk of strike at work; our old courthouse shut down and finally moved into a brand new building; I had several interviews and tests for a possible career change; I was helping my brother clean up a new place to call home..
All this to say I've had very little time to dedicate to my beloved dwarfs.
I did however managed to prime ALL the assembled slayers and EM4 dwarfs. A friend of mine was very kind and helped me get them done with an airbrush.
I won't deny that I love how fast and convenient priming with an Airbrush is, but I can't shake the feeling that priming with what is essentially just acrylic paint makes me fear that the paint could just rub off.
I grabbed 20 crossbow dwarfs and started working on them in an assembly line, so far I painted the armour and started doing the bases.
(https://i.imgur.com/gHWBFZ5.jpg)
I also started painting some of the many shields I'll need for these guys
(https://i.imgur.com/zFAaCUC.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/S2RZKHY.jpg)
This is easy work that doesn't require too much attention, perfect to do while watching a movie or something.
I also worked some more on the Tehnolog cannon.
(https://i.imgur.com/yil8KqU.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/V6VEadG.jpg)
I made "boxes" with coffee stirrers and tried to mold some very stale greenstuff into something resembling soldering or forging to cover the gaps under the dragon head.
(https://i.imgur.com/vQjlqBe.jpg)
This is the first time i tried to work with greenstuff on a model and I figure this would be a good first project. I worked it a bit with the tip of a pin and smoothed it with a wet brush.
Both the greenstuff and the woodstrips aren't very precise work, they're actually very rough. But the goal here was just to hide the toy ness of the sculpt as much as possible. Once Based and painted I'm confident it'll work out well enough.
I then closed the mouth of the cannon with a runed shield.
(https://i.imgur.com/BbdJMBp.jpg).
Unfortunately it looks like the final week of March is going to be just as busy, so I suspect I won't be able to get much done.
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It's been almost two months, an update is most definitely due.
Over the second half of april I didn't complete a single model, but I did start on about 25 of them by doing a lot of much needed but otherwise boring basecoating.
then In may, over the weekend, I'd grab a couple of bases and focus on those models till completion.
These are the first models in at least a decade that I painted starting from a black primer, as I usually prime in beige, grey or even light green. These were also primed using acrylic paint with an airbrush and I noted that the primer didn't have too much tooth and would rub off on their helms. Nothing major, really, but it did mean that the highlights needed an extra step and that they needed more careful handling while painting.
this is what I painted 2 weekends ago.
(https://i.imgur.com/673eTqB.png?1)
(https://i.imgur.com/skILE5P.jpg)
I really like these models, there's something very satisfying in seeing rows of identical toy soldiers come to life. I will attach the shields to their back at the very end, once the whole unit is complete.
In the background you can see the other 18 or so models already basecoated.
this is what I painted last weekend.
(https://i.imgur.com/durBhdd.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/DRljKWQ.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/70oKuoA.jpg)
I decided that I should also finish all the other dwarfs that have been in various stages of completion for months, so I picked two artillery crews and finished them as well.
While painting the flame I realized that I have no red or orange colours, so that flame is a mix of brown, yellows and flesh tones.
and this is what I painted in the past 2 days
(https://i.imgur.com/voRbgFs.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/uAkBxgw.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/iFfWvle.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/Tif5XTe.jpg)
4 more crossbowdwarfs and 2 "twins" for the crew from the weekend.
And here they are, all ranked up and ready to shoot (and miss).
(https://i.imgur.com/bIxZXrq.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/AR9axbn.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/WttfTQZ.jpg)
The crew models are from Black tree design, but their artillery kits have been out of stock for years, so I'm not sure they're ever going to be made available again; which is a shame, as they have a lot of old school charm about them.
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Slow progress is better than no progress! The newly completed lads look quite good! I know what you mean about the satisfaction of painting a uniform army, I like those plastic dwarves for that reason. Just curious, will the artillery crew figures be used with the kit bashed models you painted a while ago, or are there some other guns for them?
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Progress is progress, and the colour scheme is excellent, really like how they are coming out, might need to steal that slightly ::)
The EM4s/Fantasy Warrior plastics are really showing themselves off nicely to.
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Slow progress is better than no progress! The newly completed lads look quite good! I know what you mean about the satisfaction of painting a uniform army, I like those plastic dwarves for that reason. Just curious, will the artillery crew figures be used with the kit bashed models you painted a while ago, or are there some other guns for them?
Thank you Pattus.
For the crew.. eh I tend to pick up crews fairly at random for warmachines, unless they're sculpted with type-specific implements (catapult ammunition, gunpowder barrels, cannonballs, giant bolts ecc.) and I always try to "rotate" them as to actually use all the models I spend hours painting.
But you bring up an interesting point, once all is said and done I might actually have a shortage of gunners, given all the extra artillery I've been adding to the army. Which means I'd need to acquire or convert more artillery crew... but I'll cross that bridge when I get there
Progress is progress, and the colour scheme is excellent, really like how they are coming out, might need to steal that slightly ::)
The EM4s/Fantasy Warrior plastics are really showing themselves off nicely to.
Thank you Tactalvanic, they are nice indeed, and they paint up so nicely and really look the part among the rest of the army.
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the new Gringo dwarves look like they'd fit in style wise with the EM4 plastics... size unseen of course...
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Thank you EvilGiraffe, I was not aware of Gringo miniatures and they have some very nice dwarfs .I've already added some to my wish list.
Alright, more updates!
Today I finished seven more miniatures.
We've got 4 more quarrelers, on single bases this time.
(https://i.imgur.com/iHeg8Fh.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/GrqPha6.jpg)
This brings the total to 14 Xbows dwarfs completed out of 50.
And 3 more crew members from Black Tree design.
(https://i.imgur.com/eMLznve.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/9PQn9l7.jpg)
The first are from the same sculptor and are still on their website (albeit chronically out of stock)
The third guy is from an obviously different sculptor and I couldn't for the life of me find it, even though I was CERTAIN I got it from them.
After much digging I found the set it came from, and it's a former Harlequin sculpt (which was sold by Black Tree Design before their latest company renaming).
The original set can be seen here (http://www.stunties.com/stunties/index.php?title=Harlequin_Fantasy_-_Dwarf_Bombard). And yes, I have the whole set somewhere and both the rest of the crew and the cannon itself will eventually find their way on my painting table.
(https://i.imgur.com/wcbNasD.png?1)
I like the barrel guy, for two reasons.
First, he's smoking a pipe resting it directly atop a barrel of gunpowder.
Second, while the barrel does have "GUNPOWDER" sculpted on it, it's subtle enough that it could easily pass for a barrel of wine, beer or an number of food items. I think this dwarf could eventually be the beginning of a baggage train, with plenty of non-combatant miniatures.
(https://i.imgur.com/gntWe19.jpg)
And here they are, all painted and lined up.
whit these we're at 21 miniatures completed in 19 days. After a month and a half of very slow progress, this is some pretty impressive catch-up if I say so myslef.
Finally, after shaking a dropper bottle to get a single, miniscule, drop of brown; the whole thing erupted, slowly releasing way more paint that I could use.
Not wanting to waste it I quickly grabbed some of the slayers and decided to get started on their skin, basecoating it with the spilt paint.
waste not, want not.
(https://i.imgur.com/gVDqRs3.jpg)
I guess I'm going to be adding slayers to my next painting batches.
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Finally, after shaking a dropper bottle to get a single, miniscule, drop of brown; the whole thing erupted, slowly releasing way more paint that I could use.
Which is why I hate the damned things. Give me a screw or flip cap any day... :D
Mike Demana
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Try acrylic paint pens with brush tips: shake the pen, pop the cap off, apply. When finished, put the cap back on, and grab the next colored pen. They make 'professional' miniature paints in paint pens, if you feel the need for them. Their convenience is amazing. Cheers!
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Finally, after shaking a dropper bottle to get a single, miniscule, drop of brown; the whole thing erupted, slowly releasing way more paint that I could use.
Not wanting to waste it I quickly grabbed some of the slayers and decided to get started on their skin, basecoating it with the spilt paint.
waste not, want not.
At some point I had the bright idea to add a safety pin to my brush tray -- if I'm picking up a paint I haven't used in a few days, I'll give it a little poke down the nozzle before shaking and squeezing. When I remember to use it, it's very effective at stopping the explosions.
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Over the weekend I finished 7 more quarrelers
(https://i.imgur.com/0KRwkZs.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/iozwONf.jpg)
And then today I finished 4 more random artillery crew
(https://i.imgur.com/5vnfiPk.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/ploifhU.jpg)
I'm particularly proud of the guy with the sword, although I now realized that if he's looking though the spyglass, there's no reason as to why he'd have the other eye open.
This brings me to 21 quarrelers and 11 Artillery crew.
32 miniatures in May, and the month is not even yet finished. I might actually finish another couple of figures over the weekend.
In any case, I have not been this productive in a long while.
And here they are, all together for two group photos.
(https://i.imgur.com/bAkvsx1.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/3rsiZqv.jpg)
At some point I had the bright idea to add a safety pin to my brush tray -- if I'm picking up a paint I haven't used in a few days, I'll give it a little poke down the nozzle before shaking and squeezing. When I remember to use it, it's very effective at stopping the explosions.
This is such an obvious solution... and I'm not sure why it had never occurred to me. I tried it today and yeah, it works wonders. Thank you!
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Nice work- I like that color scheme!
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Excellent additions to the army!
Regarding exploding dropper bottles, I discovered the hard way something to watch out for - metal agitator spheres. I don’t add agitators but Army Painter washes come with the spheres already in the bottles. I used the washes without problems until last week, when I turned one upside down and squeezed and the dropper popped out along with 80% of the paint. It turns out that a spherical agitator in an upside down circular dropper top makes a near-perfect seal… Harsh language followed. The moral of the story is, if there’s an agitator ball in a bottle, don’t turn it all the way over to squeeze drops out…
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Thank you guys! I have unfortunately had a slow start this month, but sat down the other night and tried to catch up on some more batch painting.
I did the bases, basecoated the beards and the painted the first coat of green on the remaining quarrelers.
(https://i.imgur.com/lhD6h5Z.jpg)
To help varying things up a bit I also did some more in depth painting on a handful of slayers and artillery crews.
(https://i.imgur.com/XpfhvQG.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/njLS3ip.jpg)
I wanted to experiment with a "sketchier" style of paint because I figured it'd work better on models with so much exposed flesh.
Here's a close up on a couple of different ones, showing two slightly different approach to flesh tones. I might probably just do a mix of the two throughout the unit.
(https://i.imgur.com/AywW98d.jpg) (https://i.imgur.com/13RW2s5.jpg)
These are great miniatures and I will most definitely be buying more in the future, but boy would these guys benefit from sub assembly painting. The beards and arms really get in the way of the rest of the body.
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I decided to paint some more yesterday but I really wasn't in the mood for miniature,s so I decided to finally start tackling some of the ideas I have for my paper banners.
I started with one for my slayers.
(https://i.imgur.com/vXAGCI2.jpg)
I don't know if this counts as free hand. I kind of cheated by creating the banner outline and writing on my computer (and duplicating it a bunch of times in case I messed up). The die is free handed though. So that must count for something.
I created it to be the same size as the plastic banners from the warriors or the quarrelers kit. This ended up slightly larger though, and I still found it extremely small. I really don't know how people manage actual portraits or freehand painting on shields and armour.
Alea Iacta Est is cheeky and self referential enough to work in any miniature wargame but I find it particularly fitting for slayers. Now all is left to do is to find plastic (or metal) rods of the appropriate thickness and complete the banner pole before attaching it to a slayer.
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The banner looks good to me. I don’t consider it cheating to start with a printed image and then paint it in, there’s a long history of paper banners being offered in WFB books and White Dwarf magazines. Heck, just using a printed banner straight up is legitimate, companies sell them! Most of us aren’t freehand geniuses, so let’s use all the tools we can to put good looking armies on the table!
I like the variation in flesh painting on your slayers, too. It seems appropriate considering that each warrior would have his own collection of scars.
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Love the slayers and the banner, and the xbow look fantastic for monopose figures. Mine are way duller than yours.
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Love the slayers and the banner, and the xbow look fantastic for monopose figures. Mine are way duller than yours.
I have been following Gary Gygax's 1e AD&D Monster Manual descriptions for painting my figures... He had a gift for skin colors, along with other color ideas, but some of his descriptions are bland, some are downright boring. I have been trying to see his vision, in my models. For the most part, I have really enjoyed it.
With Dwarves, however, he has them wearing drab, earthy colors. This is a limited palette, of course. Sadly, I agree with his take on their color and fashion choices. They are not exciting to look at, and that is kind of Gary's point. lol
Pick a vision for your Dwarves, and have fun with it. Cheers!
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Thank you guys!
Padre, I saw these same sculpts in the last battle report against the Skaven, I'd say that in such a colorful and varied Reman army, having a contingent of austerely dressed dwarfs makes a lot of sense.
Fellow LAFers I haven’t posted or updated this thread in a while.
It’s been a particularly crappy summer with plenty of bad news to keep me busy and away from painting. And I suspect it’ll be like this at least until mid September.
I wasn’t completely inactive though.
In July I painted 18 more quarrelers, but I only took pictures of the last 12.
(https://i.imgur.com/wzgyqMh.jpg)
This brings me to 41 out of 50 done; here they are in all their monopose glory.
(https://i.imgur.com/E7q2eXT.jpg)
In my gaming group with started discussing the idea of an escalation league, starting at 500 pts and increasing it by 250pts every couple of months.
I decided that this would be the perfect excuse to both finish the remaining quarrelers AND to focus on new miniatures, something different I have not touched in a while.
So I went through my unpainted stuff (and the fact that back in April 2024 I spent hours organizing my pile of shame paid off big time) and wrote up a quick list.
I’ll have a block of Avatars of Wars warriors with sword and board. I don’t think I’ve ever used warriors with shields in 8th edition, and this challenge is a great excuse to try them out .
Also these models are something I’m really looking forward to paint.
(https://i.imgur.com/46SHPf2.jpg)
assembling them was a bit of a pain and ranking them up is a b!@# but they look very cool.
I built 2 musicians and 2 standard bearers, thinking that I could use them in other units and replace them with other dwarfs to facilitate ranking up.
(https://i.imgur.com/YG5PnL2.jpg)
For the quarrelers I’ll have one of the metal crossbow fellows here be the champion;
(https://i.imgur.com/oMJQojN.jpg)
I’m undecided on using the other one from Lund (which shares a nearly identical sculpt) or use the preslotta GW dwarf on the left. I’ll probably end up painting both. I might as well get them done
I also kitbashed a standard bearer using the body of a warrior, the head and arms from the thunderers and the standard from the miners’ kit.
(https://i.imgur.com/uBW8RUE.jpg)
I actually had so much fun kitbashing that I ended creating an other standard bearer (or possibly an engineer character) with an empire handgun. I also found an old Harlequin dwarf with a sword, spiffed up his shield and decided to make him the general/thane. I also realized that I have something like 5 of the dwarf on the right… so I snipped his axe hand to replace his with a sword.
Finally, I decided to complete the bolt thrower I was playing around with last year; I used actual screws to put it together; which it sturdy but very asymmetrical. I tried to hide the unevenness with a couple of bits and by finally using the telescope? Monocle? Scope? (I call it cannocchiale regardless).
(https://i.imgur.com/bisCFEd.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/7UrzFdN.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/oYaoeUY.jpg)
That shield and that axe do most of the heavy lifting in making it appear less lopsided than it actually is.
And here’s the army shot for the challenge. Technically it’s to be painted by late September; but I’m not sure I’ll get them all done; I’m hoping to have at least the quarrelers + tray, the general and the artillery + crew painted.
(https://i.imgur.com/y7sIHBp.jpg)
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Another somewhat productive week.
I glued sand on all bases for the escalation league army, here shown in a particularly bad picture.
(https://i.imgur.com/KZLTREJ.jpg)
A couple of months ago I asked a friend if he had any bits he didn’t use that I could borrow. And he basically gave me ALL the bits from the Ogre Kingdom Stonehorn that aren’t strictly necessary for the base build.
One of the bits was that of an arm with birds legs perched on it, upon which once could assemble a vulture/condor.
It's supposed to look like this
(https://i.imgur.com/548WIGs.png)
I shaved the birds feet carefully and glued them to a kinder egg tree stump, assembled the vulture and painted it with leftover paint that spilled while finishing the quarrelers.
I’ll give it to my friend as a marker of some sort. My only regret is not having it based on a 40mm base so he could have used it as unit filler.
(https://i.imgur.com/oAU79uh.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/3GRQ5sc.jpg)
Still, it was fun to paint; and as my first ever non dwarf/non humanoid miniature ever painted; I think it came out alright.
In the background, ready to shoot it down you can see these guys.
(https://i.imgur.com/6M4hIOV.jpg)
These were the last 9 quarrelers from the EM4 batch; which brings the total to 50. I felt like I was getting sloppy but, despite liking identical miniatures, painting 50 of them does get a bit numbing.
I’ve also finished their movement tray; all I need now is to come up with a name for the unit to possibly paint over the shields,
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Great job all around, and I especially like the vulture, it came out looking quite sharp!
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I agree with above. You did a great job on the Vulture.
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Good kitbash, excellent reuse of kinder bit to.
PJ is very effective, +1 great job
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Thank you guys :)
I'm glad the vulture was a success, I'll probably be doing more fun tokens and similar in the future; to break up more routine painting
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Very quick update;
(https://i.imgur.com/FQ7rC2Y.jpg)
This guy came in a larger lot of dwarfs I picked up years ago. Badly damaged, with the left arm torn away and left arm broken above the elbow. I did a very rough conversion/salvaging job using a Frostgrave barbarian crossbow bit (kindly donated by Armchairgeneral) to turn him into a champion for my quarrelers.
The crossbow had the left hand sculpted on, so i had to do a bit of cutting and shaving, followed by a brushing of plastic glue to smooth out the shaving marks.
Again, it's a very rough job and the pose is a bit derpy, but converting and kitbashing is so much fun that I'm kind of glad the model was already damaged, forcing me adapt him into something else.
I don't know what to do with his left hand:
An axe or hammer - kind of lame and predictable
A shield - maybe? I'm not convinced it fits the crossbow look
A pointing hand or a fist - possibly the most fitting.
Hand holding a quarrel - this might work too.
I also have hands holding pipes or beer steins; I might give this a try.
I wish I had a hand holding a spyglass or some other tool, it'd make him very unique.
(https://i.imgur.com/ruFCk9o.jpg)
Also, I took some miniatures at work, then during lunch I went up the top of the stairwell on the last floor and primed them all. I wasn't very clever though, and I brought along my grey primer (which I usually use on metal models) so I cannot really see whether I missed any spot since it's the exact same colour as the original plastic :-[
I guess I'll find out once I start painting them. :-I
At the very least, this means that I can finally start working on the rest of the infantry for the escalation league.
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I think the stein would be great for a champion :)