Dwarfs of Monte Trocchio (March 25th - primed minis, cannon kitbash, shields)

[Sleepy Snoozy Skeletons]

Absolutely love the crane and mortar. Fantastic work on both. It's always a joy to see cool scratch builds like this

[Luigi]

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 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






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.

[Luigi]

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.





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.



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 .

|


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.




 

[Pattus Magnus]

Excellent! Those fit right in!

[beefcake]

They look great. They size up pretty well too!

[DalyDR]

That artillery looks great.  Really like the paintwork on the metal parts.  What paint brand/color are you using?

[Burgundavia]

Gorgeous paint on those cannons - they look not plastic, which is pretty amazing.

[Luigi]

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.




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


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.

[Grimmnar]

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

[Grimmnar]

If you Facebook at alli suggest this group for you.

Grimm

https://www.facebook.com/groups/378409754868306/?ref=share&mibextid=NSMWBT

[Ragsta]

Those cannons and dwarfs look really lovely. There's something very satisfying about taking toys and incorporating them into this hobby.

[Luigi]

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.

[Luigi]

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.


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


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




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

[Frugalmax]

They look great! I have no idea what part of the cannon that is... renaissance cupholder? elevation cranker? not helping, sorry!

[Luigi]

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.








These were completed some time in early October, along with a random engineer character that found its way on my painting table.





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.







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.