Hordes of the Things 15mm K'daai

 One of the smaller, and not materialized, projects this year was to build a Chaos Dwarf force in 15mm, using the HOTT rules.

Basically, the fantasy version of DBA, by the same authors.

Never the less, I did manage to finish a single unit for the project, in the form of these K'daai.

The models are small Oni demons from Clan Wars, and based on a 40x40mm square base as per the rules of the system, making it an element of 2 points.  Every army btw has a 12 point value in the game system, so this doesn't count through to heavily.  Never the less it will mean that the rest of the 15mm models, for those known in Chaos Dwarf ranges lovingly called "tjublings", will have to wait longer to get painted, and then a second force of some kind will have to be bought for some solo face-offs.

 

 

But it was a fun little in between project, and something that gradually will be added to over the coming years in the end.  

15mm HOT Dwarf Warriors with Polearms

Another full unit painted and based to go in my 'Vault' for trade, as I slowly but steadily progress to the heaps of material once bought never played to fund my Saint collection.

These models are produced by 15mm.co.uk and are of the more classic style of Dwarves like we see in The Hobbit or Dungeons of Dragons, meaning they are short and stocky humans with normal beards, instead of those jolly chubby hairball garden gnomes as seen for example in the Warhammer universe.

The models themselves are a good sculpt, and actually quit a joy to paint, as they are heavily armoured without going over the top and be armoured cans, definitly not the shabbiest of figures out there, but mind you they stand a good head taller then some other ranges like the Splintered Light ones, leaning more towards the 18mm mark then pure 15mm.

This week's painting: all about 15mm

Hey all,

As you could all read last week, I've finally started painting again, hooray to the world!!!  The first model was the cloud dragon I showed last weekend, but this week I kicked into gear and managed to paint up no less then TWO regiments and some characters in 15mm.

First of are these Khurassan Miniatures 15mm Yayoi Japanese slingers, 6 bases of the Light Foot for my finally started Fields of Glory army.  Many more of these japanese society (of about 300 BC to 300 AD) are about to come during the next weeks, as I got the command, archers and daggeraxe troops lying here, and the spears lying around 'somewhere' until they show up.  All in all about 600 points of the army, to be show cased once it is all done.

Second is a project that will end up straight in my 'Vault' though, I bought these Dark Dwarves from Splintered Light Miniatures about two years ago for the idea of playing HOTT and build a Chaos Dwarf-ish army in 15mm, but as the game and the clubbing crashed, I now have a heap of evil dwarves, good dwarves and greenskins riding around, so they all will get the painting treatment and then be sold off hopefully in small forces of the three said forces.

Never the less, both these cultists (second regiment comming one of the weeks) and sorceress are some pretty neat models, and where fun to paint.

The following week will probably be another heap of the small fellas, as I'm currently painting on a Goblin Horde regiment, some 'normal' dwarves are ready to be undercoated, and in between try my hand at the japanese commanders for a change of 'palette'.

Arm the brushes and go... go... GO...

HotT 15mm Earthshaker

One of the side projects for this year was to build and paint a play legal force of 15mm Chaos Dwarfs for Hordes of the Things.  Now, this isn`t a simple plan as it turned out, because most manufacturers only have a small selection of `evil dwarfs` to usually go side by side with their much larger regular Dwarf forces, and the babylonian style wouldn`t be found anyways.

So enter the technique I call `camouflage painting`.  Take models from regular dwarf forces, as this earthshaker is actually a normal dwarven cannon by Magister Miniatures / Chariot, and give it a paint scheme similar to my `regular` Warhammer Chaos Dwarfs, and my clubmember will think Dawi Zharr the moment I deploy.  Add lava style base and the cannon is ready for war!

Now to get off my ass and paint some infantry in that scale...


... which brings us to a sort of a monthly painting round up.  The past weeks have been mostly about getting my Hordes Circle of Orboros ready for the Journeyman League, and I`m currently covered in available points almost until december.  So they can go to the side a bit.

Brush Slave and Artisan, both on Chaos Dwarf Online, have both been covered, but as the next season of the BSL will be starting immediatly after this one, I`ll have to start planning a bit about which models to enter.

The rest of the painting has been all Chaos Dwarf, with first of all and currently working on, a Deathroller for the competition over at Merry Mayhem News, and to round out my `infantry blocks` for the upcomming Duo Tournament in November.

By then, we`ll be nearing the end of the year, and many goals will fall short, the more to paint then to buy will have failed spectacularly, and good ideas for next year will be starting to take fruit...

Cheerios!

15mm K`daai and Destroyer

One of the project I`m still wanting to complete this year is a 24 points force for use in Hordes of the Things, in scale 15mm.  The iniatial wood elf plan was exchanged for a force of my one true love, the Chaos Dwarfs, and since then I`ve been scouring and ordering from various manufacturers for suitable models in (evil) dwarven ranges.

Not a simple task, and the force will also host a substantial part of greenskin slaves to bulk out and because those models are far more frequent to find then suitable dwai zharr, but the first models I painted up and based today are the K`daai and their Destroyer equivalent, which will be used as a Behemoth and a set of monsters (the large troll etc entry in the HOTT book).

The K`daai, of which I based two on a single base, are fire genies from the Magister Militum range, while the Destroyer is a fire elemental from 15mm.co.uk, both aquired at past Salute.

With Bow and Blade: Council of Wizards

Okay, so I gave my 15mm HOTT force project to be a name, With Bow and Blade after some RP book I have lying around detailing the society and race of, you guessed it, the Wood Elves.

I painted up the second element of the force, the Wizard, which consists of a Maiden on a Unicorn, a Wizard by foot and their heroic bodyguard. After all, a single 15mm figure on a 4 by 4 cm base would look really empty, but I decided to stick to the basing conventions mentioned in the rulebook. Models are from Splintered Light, the maiden is sold seperatly whilst the other two come from the heroes pack.




My Magister Militum bases arrived today as well, I ordered enough of the black plastic bases to not only accomodate this force, but also the next project(s) like the Cathaginians. And after all, one can never have to much bases now does he.

And here is the force all based up (minus the stronghold, still not decided to go for a `Tree of Life` or for a `Stonehenge` style glade), I`ll post the picture of this one each time the force gets expanded more and more, but first I still have to finish about two rounds of LPL entries before I can get in full swing to this army.



Which brings me to conclude that I need a...

Change of Plans

Instead of painting hotspotch things, I guess that starting after the League I`m going to have to `prioritise` some projects.

I`m going to try to paint up each month at least one of the following EACH:

* 1 regiment of American Civil War in 28mm
* 1 regiment of Chaos Dwarfs
* About minimum 20 models in 15mm from whatever I`m working on that month

Only after each time those are done will I endeavour in other models

That`s a lot of painting to do each month I realise, but it will make a massacre of the Lead Painter`s Vow counter for sure and it should get my armies primed and ready in a decent amount of time.

In space, we love to hear you scream

So I was taken aside a few weeks ago by our ex-president of TSA, with the question if I had some `Aliens` for a guest rol in Tomorrow`s War, now that I went in 15mm overload modus.

`Of course!` I told him, I can bring along a dozen of beasties for it.



Now, they are ready, thirty vicious aliens, produced by Khurasan Models and based on a three per base level as to be able to field a squad or two... and not have a zillion very little (they top around 1cm in height) models I have to keep searching for on the table.

Humanoids detected... dinner is served gnagnagna

Though it *could* be he actually had aliens in mind of the `parasite evolves into top of the foodchain` kind...

Now to watch those four movies again... (okay, 1.5 movies and the rest is just horrible stuff if you ain`t in B-rate scifi movies... still, nothing can get worse then Cyber Cop 1 to 3).

Woodland Trolls

But I painted some more models yesterday, as a first `tester` to get used to the range and scale. From the Splintered Lights I bought, I did the first unit, a set of Woodland Trolls.

In HOTT, it doesn`t matter what kind of models you use, as long as you stick to minimum base size requirements and I`m going to class these as a Warband (2 points) to fight along what will become a wall of spearpoints supported by a mass of archers.



What I like about Hordes of The Things, is that being the fantasy version of the venerable DBA / DBM set you don`t have to bother with army lists and special rules. Battles are seemingly (I only read reports and such, haven`t played a game yet) won or lost by manoeuvring on the one hand, and the types and numbers of elements you select on the other.

An Orc archer is identical to an Elven archer, and you can face a legion of Roman Auxiliaries with a force of French Napoleonics under the rules perfectly well, just make sure you have an appropriate Stronghold along.

Of course, the core rules being free helps a tremendous lot as well, and in 15mm you`ll have an army, which is 24 `points` big and may not include more then half of `flashy stuff` of 3, 4 or 6 points (characters, monstrous cavalry. dragons, etc etc) so you have at least half of rank and file (still consisting of about 10 different troop types) to build a force.

Being played on as few as 2by2 foot table (for the TSA`ers, that is one tile) and lasting about an hour a game, you can really shuffle along a couple of games in an evening so anyone can have a go. And more then once...

And you can get suitable (and even larger in points value) forces for as less as 20 dollars (look at the Splintered Light army deals for example).

Me likeys...

Splintered Light 15mm Wood Elves for HOTT have arrived

And the road to redemption and into 15mm goes on, as yesterday my order for my very first Fantasy miniatures came in.
The models come from Splintered Light Miniatures, and I must say I`m very impressed by the quality of the sculpts. They do require a little flash clean up, mostly around swords and bows but I consider this only normal on such small miniatures. I`ve seen heroic 32s with a lot more work to be done on them...

So I sorted out the models I ordered (a small force deal, a maiden on unicorn and a set of Maiden Guard) and should be able to start building my force around this:

15mm HOTT Sylvanesti



Elven Maiden on Unicorn (Magician)
Hero with Command Group (Hero)
Heroic Characters (Paladin)
Elven Priestess (Cleric)
3 units of Elven Maiden Guard (Spears)
2 units of Swordsmen (Blades)
2 units of Spearmen (Spears)
1 unit of Wood Trolls (Warband)
5 units of Archers (Shooters)

Afterwards, I can expand on some units (more Wood Trolls for one) and add some extra things to it like their newest wood elf models they just released, Elk cavalry definitly is on the list, as is a Treeman and some Faun from the woodland range for a bit of variety in the looks of the force.

Their Blog is also on my blogroll (the fantasy one) so for those intrested, take a peek over there as well, as it features all the new projects being worked on.