Dwarfs of Karak-Mingol (Updated April 14th; artillery crew and more trays)

[Luigi]

Nice work!

  Thank you WuZhuiQiu 



Rejoice, for these days I'm being productive!

Two more dwarfs done. The first one is one more hammerer



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.

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.




It's a hard, sweaty job, but Cateno doesn't seem to mind.

[Luigi]

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




These two are definitely my favourite out of the 6:

the drummer boy is missing a drum, but compared to some of his friends missing arms and hands, he really can't complain.


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.

[Luigi]

Finally some update.


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).



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.

[mirjeki]

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.

[Luigi]

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

[Luigi]

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,


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.


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.



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

[voltan]

Excellent work, good to see you're still working on the dwarfs.

[Luigi]

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.

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

[Mason]

Nice additions since I last checked in.
You a have a lovely cohesive force coming along here.
 

[Luigi]

Nice additions since I last checked in.
You a have a lovely cohesive force coming along here.
 

Thank you!
Cohesive is definitely an adjective I like applied to my army.



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

[Luigi]

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.





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.

[Luigi]

I've been coming up with some ideas for banners and unit names.






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

[Luigi]

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

[Luigi]

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.

 
I built the frame directly into the movement tray.


Then I simply went through my bits and glued shields to it


Even on the sides


Let's see you charge into this



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.

[LouieN]

Nice trays