Crossbowmen #19 and #20

Shame on me, only one post in Octobrer, this has to change! So I've finally decided to join the third season of the Brush Slave League on the Chaos Dwarfs forum. For the first month, I was able to finish three quarellers, insufficient to get the maximum points with the rules, but enough to complete my second unit of quarellers. Yipee!

First some blurry pictures (sorry about that).


And now my third completed unit...

 OK... What next? Probably some dwarf warriors, this time equipped with spears and shields.

The Brush Slave League

I just wanted to thank Clam for organising the second edition of the Brush Slave League on Chaos Dwarf Online. I'm really happy to have entered this contest, first, because it gave me the opportunity to paint 25 dwarfs in 8 months, and second, because I won! On top of that, Clam has commissioned John Pickford for designing a very nice trophee, the Mad Painter... I'm looking forward to painting this model!

So here is a summary in 8 pictures of what I've painted for the Brush Slave League: dwarfs again and again, and except the ugly mutant, they've been all recruited for my crusader army :o)

Round 1: Brewer, Dimbo and Number 8

Round 2: The Jolly Wood Choppers

Round 3: Ménage à trois

Round 4 (cinema theme): The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Round 5: Three Marauders

Round 6: On my command!

Round 7: Who did shoot Snow White?

Round 8 (cavalry theme): Three Knights of the Red Beard Order

Thanks again Clam! And you painters, do not miss the third season this autumn: it's really fun and encourages you to paint even more minis!

Dwarf warrior #14: the Champion

Here is the last guy of my monthly trio painted for the Brush Slave League. Again a Marauder dwarf, but this time, the painting wasn't so easy: look at the blade of his axe, and try to figure out what kind of matter it is... Is it fur, is it metal? Hard to say :p

Anyway, I'm quite happy with the final result, and I think it could be a decent champion for my unit... I'll see if I can find a better candidate for the job among the next models.

The Bad and the Ugly

For the ugly guy of my trio, the choice was obvious: I had a mutant dwarf that has been waiting for brushes for about 20 years (and for a very simple reason: I'm not fond of this model).
As for the bad guy, I've selected a heavily armoured Chaos dwarf and played with copper and steel NMMs. As my friend Haekel pointed out, I should have made shadows deeper, and I should have added some gray-green reflections from the ground on the lower parts of the armour... too late for this model, but I'll try to take his remarks into account for my next dwarfs...

Crossbowman #13: The Good

This dwarf adventurer is the first part of the trio I've painted for the Brush Slave League. It was a theme round about cinema. Not so easy when you still want to paint some dwarfs for your army!

At first, I wanted to make a remake of Fahrenheit 451, a novel by Ray Bradbury, but also a movie by François Truffaut: the firemen would have been replaced by my fire thrower team, and the burnt books would have been 'played' by the walking book familiar.

Since I wasn't very happy with the dwarfs, I changed my project for the final confrontation of a famous western: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. Here is the Good:


And soon will come the Bad and the Ugly...

Dwarf warriors #8, 9 and 10

Here is my "ménage à trois", three dwarfs with similar poses I've painted for the third round of the Brush Slave League; the first two warriors are Citadel models (look, a lady dwarf!), and the last one is from the Maurauder Minatures range. I'm not totally happy with the result (should have spent more time on the blades for instance) but I hope it will do the job in a regiment... especially if I don't put them in the front rank!

Below, the fourth and third ranks of my fierce axemen...

 
I haven't decided yet if I finish the second half of this regiment, or if I start a new one (I still have to paint 10 additional crossbowmen to complete the mandatory shooting troops).

Dwarf warriors #3 and #4

As promised, the two other "jolly wood choppers" painted for the Brush Slave League.

Dwarf warrior #2

This is actually the first dwarf I've painted for my unit of warriors. Even if the chainmails are not very well sculpted, I like the general pose of the model, and I'm quite happy with the way the light shines on the helmet.


This guy is part of the little band I've painted for the second round of the Brush Slave League on Chaos Dwarfs forum. The other two axemen will follow soon.

Crossbowman number 9: Dimbo

Dimbo is the last guy of the trio I've painted for the Brush Slave League painting contest.


The tricky part of this model is the sallet: after many layers of greys, black, white, dark blue and dark red, I've finally found the places where to put the lights and shadows to get a convincing result (OK, more or less convincing). One week later, I was discovering an illustration which would have simplified my work a lot. It was published in the 3rd edition Warhammer Army Lists and it is signed by Dave Gallagher. As you can see, it clearly shows the back of my crossbowman... and his sallet!


I'll keep this picture in mind for my next NMM attempts...