Ben’s Chaos Gnomes - Month 3

 When the ground began to thaw, Kazar ordered his axes to clear a field’s worth of timber, and that a mine be sunk in its place. The wood and the ore would help to resupply his troops, and rekindle the war engine.x However, there are some who have little appreciation for mining and forestry, and thus the industrial effort attracted the ire of an ancient elemental.

Before too much harm could come to the work, a pair of gnomish lords on great beasts appeared and in short order, they turned the elemental into kindling. Kazar met with them, and learned that they too had come for the pass, but had expected it cleared by now so that they might wage their wars on the other side of the mountains. After a long haggle, both lords had pledged their strength in the taking of the pass, but the terms of the agreement were not shared among the occupants of the tower. Whispers began about what consequences the parley would have, since the only gnome you can trust less than a stranger, is a stranger that shares your allegiance. Whatever was to come, it would have plenty of hammers and axes pledged to it.

+++++

Instead of making a new army this month as I had in January and February, I decided instead to bolster the combined force with some heavy hitters. First was a battery of four bolt throwers, manned by scale appropriate hobgrobles. I did not enjoy painting these as much as I’d hoped to, but a thing I’m learning this year is that you can paint toys like toys and not get in trouble. As long as I’m not unhappy with how they turned out, their paint job is alright by me.

This Sorcerer on Lamassu however was a hoot to do. I got to replace a lion’s face with a Muppet head, which is an automatic win in my book, and then I got to blend the rider to its steed, which was a second win if ever I had one. It occurs to me that this might be the army’s centerpiece model, with it being the most costly hero character my force can field, and that epiphany is fine by me. I’m proud of the conversion and the paintwork on this one, and so I’ll happily find room on my roster for the chonker 

Lastly, we have the Hero on Cockatrice, who is the king of “guys who barely fill out their bases.” To me, this epitomizes the army, where we try to manage the precarious balance of serious threat and little dog energy. In theory, the Chaos Dwarf list is very versatile, but to my understanding, the way I have built my roster is very goofy. My goal hadn’t been to build a “come and get me” brick, but when building with minis I’d gotten thanks to the rule of cool, that’s exactly what I did. Anyhow, I also like this hero and how top heavy he is; that poor Cockatrice is really putting in the work keeping its ride’s bulk from gracing the ground.

This Month’s Additions

Sorceror Lord on Lamassu - 528

Hero on Cockatrice - 254

Hobgoblin Bolt Thrower x4 - 168

Total: 950

With those additions, we now wield the current war host:

Chaos Gnome General - 165pts

10 Chaos Gnomes with Blunderbusses - 140pts

20 Chaos Gnome Warriors with full command - 348pts

5 Chaos Gnome Bull Centaurs with full command - 357pts

Chaos Gnome Sorcerer - 59pts

Chaos Gnome Hero - 104

Chaos Gnome Sorcerer Lord on Lamassu - 528

Chaos Gnome Hero on Cockatrice - 254

4 Hobgoblin Bolt Throwers - 168

Total: 2123pts

It’s likely not a legal list, but that is a huge chunk of dudes right there, with room to adjust for a 2k point game. Wild to think that three months into a six month challenge, I could be completely finished with this force (I’m not, but the end feels awful close.) I had a plan at the beginning of the challenge, and for the most part I stuck to it (despite my best efforts,) but now I’m faced with the fact that I only have 30 some-odd models to go until that’s a wrap.

That said, I did manage to pull out another 20 man unit of warriors from my bits bin, so hopefully I’ll be occupied until the end. My to do pile is now two more units of warriors, and maybe a unit of hobgoblin archers, so I can promise at least that much more to come. Who knows? I’ve still got to sort out the baggage train, so there’s still some opportunity for things to go off the rails :)

Anyhow, thanks for another lovely month! Keep up the good work, and see you in the next one!

Tom's Chaos Dwarfs - Month three. A marching 364 points

Greetings! It is March and marching needs feet. I painted many pairs of stomping feet.

Here's a quick guide, hastily cobbled together #nocropscreenshot

.

(OWAC Overlord Iannick - one of these will be winging it's way to you as tribute)

Begin:

Scales red, drybrush white/yellow on top

Drybrush yellow on top

Black

Turquoise

Green. Drybrush turquoise

Silver. Purple

Blue

Yellow

Orange

Red. Dark red

Dark red

Black. White lava base. Blue bag. Purple highlight  

Red 

Stones

Stones highlight

Green

Green again

Shoes. Green again

Eyes. Teeth

Orange lava. Orange and yellow highlight

Grass

Skin

Finished. Poor photo though! 

Hmm, so maybe there's a couple of these are out of painting order, but you get the idea! I've not photoed the same one throughout, which is a bit of a shame, but ho well... They could be neater as always, but overall I'm very happy with them. Most especially with the faded spike.
I think they look very good together.

Here's their group shot:

And their timestamp. Although I did manage to paint 9(!) more than I photo'd.

Maybe next week I might paint another warrior command so that I can split this unit in to one unit of 12, and one unit of 16...

And a quick pic of the command on their own, as befitting their rank:

Music maestro!

I liked painting the bull trumpet, but I didn't get on with the guys face. I might well add shields to the front rack (I think if I added them to everyone, they wouldn't rank up).

Do you have a flaaag?

He came together pretty well. I like his nose and snaggletooth.

Leaders gonna lead.

Green sword for that magical poison yo.

I was disappointed with how his beard came out - too heavy a drybrush. If I was to do it again, I'd brush the highlights on individually. However, he is finished.

EXTRAS!
Finally finished the Bull Centaurs with these two additions:

And here's the full herd in all their terrible glory!

I finally got round to adding shields to the centaurs. I started off painting a lava type thing on the red background, and then found the stash of decals I had luckily (super cheaply!) purchased from eBay a year ago. Out of all of them, I pumped for the one closest resembling a bull.
In hindsight I'd change my mind and go for maybe a blue background with a plain skull.
Nevermind - they are "finished, not perfect", and I've used the plain skull now for the regular troops.

FINISHED NOT PERFECT.
linky

The best advice I ever came across. Many thanks to the Oldhammer facebook community for posting about this, many years ago. I'm sorry, but I've forgotten the OP's name, but I'm sure it's been shared around long before I saw it :)

Last time I signed off with a wind reference...
The winds have blown right indeed.
Flying in on the Winds of Magic comes this fresh Chaos Dwarf Sorcerer on a terrifying Lamassu. Behold!

Here's a WIP pic I took midway which shows him off quite well :)

Here's his timestamp:

I love him!
I think the purple/red scheme worked out really well for the Lamassu.
I like the blue on the bobble on top of the Big Hat.
Both were painted really quite quickly, as the enthusiasm for them remained high during painting and I was able to do a longer sitting each time I set to.

If I were to change anything, I'd swap out his moustache ties for red ones (I also think I've left one out) , and I think that's about it! He's glued together using Gorilla two-part epoxy resin glue, and the head is pinned. The rider is pinned into the body like the Bull Taurus, but they're both not glued on as yet. Interchangeable yo, although to be honest, I'm not sure why I don't just glue them in. Ha!

As ever, the standards for everything were printed off here: linky

This brings my March(ing) efforts to a close - not least because I feel the ground shaking!

Ahem.

To recap:

March
364... 24 x Chaos Dwarf Warriors (inc standard, musician and champion)
EXTRA
Chaos Dwarf Sorcerer on Lamassu
2 x Chaos Dwarf Bull Centaurs (one of which is a standard bearer)

February: link
200... 5 x Chaos Dwarf Bull Centaurs
EXTRA
Chaos Dwarf Hero on Great Bull Taurus

January: link
160... Chaos Dwarf General
75... Chaos Dwarf Death Rocket

Total points so far...  799