Dwarfs of Monte Trocchio (August 28th - primed warriors and quick conversion)

[Luigi]

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.


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.


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.



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.


a couple more slayers with firearms


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.


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.

[Padrissimus]

Wow!

[Luigi]

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.



I also started painting some of the many shields I'll need for these guys


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.


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.


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.
.

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.

[Luigi]

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.




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.




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





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).





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.

[Pattus Magnus]

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?

[Tactalvanic]

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. 

[Luigi]

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.

[anevilgiraffe]

the new Gringo dwarves look like they'd fit in style wise with the EM4 plastics... size unseen of course...

[Luigi]

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. 




This brings the total to 14 Xbows dwarfs completed out of 50. 


And 3 more crew members from Black Tree design.






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. 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.




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.



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.



I guess I'm going to be adding slayers to my next painting batches.

[mikedemana]

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... 

Mike Demana

[SgtSlag]

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!

[Byrthnoth]

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.

[Luigi]

Over the weekend I finished 7 more quarrelers



And then today I finished 4 more random artillery crew


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.

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!

[Frugalmax]

Nice work- I like that color scheme!

[Pattus Magnus]

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…