Paul's Dwarf Army January Rank and File First Unit 156 points completed

 I've been back in the hobby for a few years now after a long hiatus. Prior to this I was into army painting and have four completed 8th Edition armies. My painting techniques were batch painting with a limited colour palette and basic layering techniques. The individual models would not win any prizes but en masse on the tabletop they looked ok. On returning to the hobby I wasn't playing the game any more and I started to paint in a different way. Through online forums I met some amazing people and started painting for competitions. When I did the test model for this army I was just enjoying the process of painting the individual model. So I employed a lot of the techniques that I'd improved at and learnt such as glazing and NMM. These are great when you have plenty of time to spend on a model but I have come to realise that doing a whole army like this is going to be more difficult than I first realised. However, I've started so I'll finish and I have to admit I'm pleased with the way they are looking.

Below is the first unit for the army. 10 Thunderers with a full command unit of leader, musician and standard bearer. This comes to a total of 156 points.

Going forward I will need to adjust the way I approach the painting process. The yellow is built up on a black undercoat with four different colours being glazed over each other to build up colour and contrast. Whilst I think it looks great it is time consuming and I will need to think about the process going forward so that I am not struggling to hit the deadlines for future instalments. The other mistake I made was painting the armour and gold in NMM. I don't have any alternative now that I've painted the first unit and I think that it contrasts nicely with the yellow and black. I realised that as the painting process was dragging on that smooth blends weren't going to be an option if I want 1500 plus points painted in a reasonable time. So I'm hoping that layering so that contrast creates the illusion will cover up the lack of smooth transitions. Below are some more images of the regiment showing each of the models form three different angles. 

 

The next unit I'm attempting are 15 miners. These are mainly clad in mail coats so I'm going to get lots of practise with NMM chainmail. Wish me luck and see you next month.

John Bentleys Dwarf Thunderers (162 points)

 Thunderers Arriving with command

always fun to paint old school dwarfs

hope all of you were able to enjoy your month painting

Group Shot - Ready to rain lead

Champion

Musician

 

Standard Bearer

Even Kraggi lends a hand

Rock formation in the back was also painted this month 

Always glad to paint some happy little Dwarfs

Hope you all are still going strong and enjoying yourselves

Jaeckel's Dwarfs - Rank & File IV - Thunderers (156 points)

Once again, painting the fourth and last mandatory unit of the challenge has proven to be a difficult task. Blame the blue, a color I struggle with, and a "déjà-vu" feeling, as I had already painted most of these models at least once. Anyway... 

Lucerne was one of the Swiss Cantons I had not addressed yet. The omission is now rectified with this second regiment of thunderers, wearing the blue-and-white colors of their clan.

Coat of arms of the Canton of Lucerne (triangular painting in the Chapel Bridge, Lucerne)

 

Nothing particular to mention on the thunderers, all from the Marauder Miniatures range. I'm not particularly happy with the standard-bearer, but my painting mojo was too low to adorn the banner with runes or dwarf patterns of some sort. Anyway... the fourth regiment is done!

In terms of points, we have 156 points of thunderers, with musician and standard-bearer... which means that I still have to paint more than 300 points for the last month!

Back to brushes...

Jaeckel's dwarfs - Rank & file III - Thunderers (156 points)

As promised last time, this third month was dedicated to thunderers.

The dwarfs of the Red Claw clan are not fond of the fancy clothes worn in the Empire, and rather stick to leather gambesons and chainmails, the top of the fantasy being a coloured feather. Their attachment to the traditions and their native hold is symbolized by the mascot they bring to every battlefield: a fierce mountain bear, which also appears on the coats of arms of the clan.

Appenzell banner (1499)

 

My initial plan was to paint the standing bear of the Canton of Appenzell, but it didn't fit with the format of the banner. I've used instead the walking bear of the Canton of Bern as a reference. Below the original and the painted copy:

From a slightly different angle:

The musician is the other model slightly converted for this unit, by replacing the original sword by a handgun.

The other dwarfs are MM10, MM15 or MM16 Marauder Miniatures, plus Cyril the bear from the old Citadel Dwarf King's Court set.

 Second rank:

First rank:

And the full clan:

10 thunderers, with standard bearer and musician, make a total of 156 points. See you next month with a second unit of thunderers!

Paul's Border Princes -Month Three (428 pts)

Holy forking shirt balls... That's been quite a month hasn't it? After getting loads done in the first few days of March I then stalled completely until March 31st and got these finished pretty much on the stroke of midnight. I'm very jealous of everyone who seems to be getting loads of extra painting done as my all this pesky 'working from home' and 'home schooling' is seriously getting in the way of my hobby plans!

My force up until now has been pretty much exclusively missile based and I knew that I had to add some infantry, so it was the Battle Masters Halberdiers that were set marching for March! Ironmongery on a stick at the ready!

The character figure is a Lewis Collins sculpt and winner of the Oldhammer Sculpting Contest before he retired from private sculpting, it's now available from Ye Alchemist (although temporarily not accepting new orders until UK lock down is lifted) and has a wonderful Terry Pratchett/City Watch type feel to it. I really struggled to get decent pictures of him, apologies for the fingers and thumbs!

The other thing my Border Princes were lacking was Dorfs! Thundering loud Dorfs! Many of you will remember Blue in VTs Puff and Slash Imperial Dwarves from OWAC II and they served as part of the inspiration for including these Marauder Thunderers in my OWAC III force. I have to say I fell a bit in love with these sculpts, and sadly didn't leave myself enough time to do their faces and beards justice. Important lessons learned, as these will not be the last Dorfs I paint, that's for sure!

The Thunderers are also led by a Dwarf Hero. This is probably the mini I'm least happy with. He deserved a lot more care and attention and I may have to go back and tidy him up - not something I normally do with the OWAC I have to say, but I feel like he deserves a bit better. March was a bit of a killer though, and he might not be perfect but he is done, and that is more than he was last month.

The only extra OWAC painting I got done this month were some movement trays to make things a bit easier to manage, but they don't really count. The painting table is looking full for next month though!

We're at the halfway point so here is the army so far:

Month One

10 Human Archers -100 pts
10 Human Archers - 100 pts
9 Human Crossbowmen -90 pts

Total for the month = 290 pts

Month Two

Halfling Hero (Light Armour, Pistol,Handweapon) - 69 pts
Halfling Wizard - 56 pts
Halfling Halberdier Champion - 34 pts
Halfling Halberdier Musician - 13 pts
Halfling Hot-pot Catapult - 50 pts

Total for the month = 222 pts

Month Three

Human Hero (Light Armour, Flail) - 68 pts
11 Human Halberdiers inc. Standard Bearer (Light Armour, Shields, Halberd) - 120 pts
Dwarf Hero (Light Armour, Sword, Pistol) - 110 pts
10 Dwarf Thunderers (Light Armour, Hand Weapon, Handgun) - 130 pts

Total for the month = 428 pts

And here they all are together for the half way muster, plus the bonus Halfling Archers from month two, and the Road Marker scenery piece from month one.

Total so far = 940 pts

I'm quite chuffed with how these are coming along, but there is still a long way to go!

Wishing my fellow challengers well in these difficult times :)