Dwarfs of Karak-Mingol (Updated April 22nd; more scratchbuilt mortar WIP)

[Luigi]

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.


This is what my deployment looked like at the start (from his POV)


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 .



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.




Details of my airforce


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


my army cowardly hiding strategically staying back letting the copters fly out to settle some grudge

[Old Hob]

Congratulations Luigi. That was an awful lot of hard work, but the results are stunning.

[Luigi]

Thank you Old Hob,

I'm very satisfied with how it all turned out.

[LouieN]

The airships really to look marvelous. 

[Luigi]

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.



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.

[Luigi]

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


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.



A little too busy


Much better

I also finally took a picture of the BSB which I realized never had a proper picture taken.

This guy is really tall (well, not him, his banner) so much, in fact that it's hard to fit him into the frame

[Old Hob]

The new recruits look nicely done to me. Achievement unlocked for painting these with your kiddo on your lap.

Man, that banner is MASSIVE!

[AndrewBeasley]

...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!

[Luigi]

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.



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.



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.

[Pattus Magnus]

Nice job on the new recruits! I expect a volley from a unit of thunderers will leave a mark on most opponents.

[Luigi]

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


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.



TUONI (Thunders)


FULMINI (lightnings)


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.

[**GS**]

Those trays are a very cunning idea! I can just imagine those little buggers running up fild and hastily constructing another Wall.
Cool!

[Luigi]

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.


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.



But here's the real update: state of the union army as of the end of 2023


 and a few close ups.







that's all for now.

happy new year everyone, if you do go out and celebrate don't be like him


don't drink and fly.

[Luigi]

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.







I've also update my Pile Of Potential 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.

[Luigi]

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..


I think they came out well enough.



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.


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.




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.



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.


 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