A return to the Empire - update (4/10) - Abandoned Gatehouse

[white knight]

DSA = Die Schwartze Auge, a german roleplay setting which also had a fantasy miniature line (complemented by the Armalion line). They are now available through Ral Partha Europe.

[white knight]

Got time to finish 4 more marauder dwarf crossbowmen. The one to the left is a conversion of the chainmail one (comparison pictures below). The two in the middle are conversions of dwarf spearmen (some recasts I got off ebay, not originals) with plastic crossbows. The one to the right is the third variant of the the ones with separate plug-in hands


The conversion next to the original. He got greenstuff shoes, puffy sleeves and a feather with gem broche for his hat, as well as a new moustache to set him apart from the original. I'm quite happy with this one, he looks different enough from the original and of the two I think I like my converted one best.


With the previous lot:


Individual shots.

[Thantsants]

Great stuff and nice conversion - I'm assuming  you cut off the pike where it meets the shoulder or is there a clever technique for removing parts that are more integral in the mini?

All in all a great looking little unit - faves are still the smoker and the drinker!

[white knight]

Actually, since these were recasts ( ), the metal was rather soft, so I could cut straight down between the pikeshaft and the arm with a little pressure.

[Thantsants]

Aha - so they have their uses! 

[white knight]

You might be able to do the same with the originals as the metal back then wasn't as hard as the current white metal. The way I cut mine was a horizontal cut just above the fingers and then a vertical cut down between the shaft and the arm.

The only problem I see with each figure having so much individual character is resisting temptation to field the unit in a single long row so they are all in the front. 

[white knight]

2 more. One more conversion of a speardwarf recast and one musician. Pictures are bad. 





Beginning to look like something that resembles a proper unit:

[Drunkendwarf]

Great looking unit. I like the old metal dwarfs, they have so much character.
Nice way to finish the bases.

DJ

[dijit]

Fantastic! I'm curious as to how you've done your bases, they look really good.

[JollyBob]

These are all superb.  I'm really jealous of how quickly you can turn stuff out when you set your mind to it. 

[white knight]

Fantastic! I'm curious as to how you've done your bases, they look really good.

I did the bases in the old school style, with a personal twist. They are just painted in pva glue, dipped in sand, left to dry, painted with a watered down goblin green and then drybrushed (rotten flesh I think). Then the sides are painted chestnut brown. Instead of limiting the sand to the top of the base, I went over the borders in random places (and occasionally leave a bare patch on the actual base surface too). It makes it a bit more interesting visually and also gets away from the boxy nature of the slotta bases and helps them blend into the table more (at least that was the idea). I came up with this years ago when I wanted to do something more interesting than the all green bases that were still predominant with GW back then and didn't have any fancy stuff like static grass to play with.

These are all superb.  I'm really jealous of how quickly you can turn stuff out when you set your mind to it. 

It helps to be sick at home with nothing else to do.
Unfortuanately, now I'm back to being sick at work. 

[dijit]

Thanks, it just looks a much nicer texture than I usually get with sand, but now looking at them again, I guess you're using a finer sand than I do. Still really nice looking bases.

[white knight]

Two more figures. I wanted to paint something else than dwarves, so I picked a GW halfling and a Foundry orc. The orc is one of the smaller "mercenary war orcs" and not one of the bigger "mercenary great orcs/ogres". I deliberately used no goblin green on the orc skin so it wouldn't look too similar to the base, but in the pictures it still does. Oh well, you'll just have to take my word for it that there is more contrast between the two in real life.

[phreedh]

I like that orc a lot and you did a very fine job on it mate!

[white knight]

The foundry landsknecht orcs are great, but they have a lot of bling on them, which doesn't speed up the painting time.