Rank and file dwarf army

Recent quietness is simply that. Quiet. Work has been time consuming, as have a number of real life activities. While I've been working on projects, there isn't anything finished to share yet. But in the spirit of posting something so I don't forget ... I've started a dwarf army for Kings of War. The system appealed to me for a few reasons:

• I had a hankering for a rank and file army, and with no Warhammer Fantasy system available at the moment, this came to the fore.
• The rule set is well regarded for pick up and play - it's one rulebook for everything.
• The units' damage isn't measured by removing models, so every unit can be its own diorama! How exciting.
• Last point is worth reiterating again. Every unit can be a fun story.
  

This is the progress to-date of the unit bases (and spares) and the scenic bases they'll all sit on when not in play. It's going to be a ruined dwarf town. Here's my work in progress in reverse order and you may wish to scroll to the bottom and walk up to the latest.

Bottom left corner is my test piece that's usally a step or two ahead of the rest to try out ideas before committing them to the rest of the pieces.

Browns on the earth. There'll be a lot of static grass added later, but it still needs colour underneath that.

Zenithal priming just to help with tonal variation.

I love the Rubble City basing from Fenris Games, but wanted to add a little more detail on steps and around bases to make it feel integrated. Lot of cork, gravel and sand thrown on over PVA and superglue.

With the display bases done, onto the unit bases. Also a few spares made up.

There's a simply joy to priming everything and unifying the materials. Also helps to bind the finer textures together.

Keep adding PVA and sand until happy. With hindsight I went a little OTT here, so a lesson for future display boards.

Can't have too much PVA!

More texture with cork and gravel to hide the flagstone edges.

Texture and different surfaces is important, so I used a patterned roller to add flagstones.

Found some nice civilian fantasy village terrain pieces which will make an appearance on the board when everything's finished.

Balsa wood edging around the tiles to keep them in one piece. 123 blocks just to get nice neat edges. You can see me testing a couple of the unit base sizes to ensure they'll fit properly.

PVA the whole surface then glue the resin scenery on top and leave overnight to stick properly.

Basic foam squares of 24x24cm contstructed. Three will fit in a nice row on a double-width bookshelf.

Ogryn Slave Gang

 

 

 

 

 Well, they won't win beauty competitions any time soon but I really like these models. Another project that's been sat on the desk for months in a state of half-completion, and it was nice to see them finished. It's a slimmed down version of how I approached the Ogryn from my Golden Demon entry last year, and a much more tabletop level as a result - but it was fun.

 

 

 

 

Mugruk Da Watcha

 

 

 

I painted this as a secret Santa present and was quite pleased with the results. In particular, the textures were great fun, especially considering how flat and smooth the stone and wood surfaces started. The one major error I made was getting lost between deciding if it should be a centrepiece for a gaming table or a display piece, and it ended up as a compromise. If it were a display piece, the edges would have been much darker to draw the eye in, and if it were a gaming piece, the edging should have been better defined.

Dragon Huntress

 

 

 This was a figure I picked up way back in 2016 at Salute when coming back to the hobby. It's from the (now defunct?) JoeK range, which had some very cool ideas.

It's not a big model, but I just wanted to try and create fast shiny effects, and play around with skin tones on a dragon.

 Below are the reverse WIP shots through the process.

 

Gildenstone

I kitbashed this last year and in various stages its sat on my painting desk as a work in progress. This year I aim to be better at finishing projects, and not starting new ventures while leaving a trail of unfinished things behind me.

This was a fast paint that only took months because of my procrastination. They're a sniper, but not a fancy super-clean assassin like often seen in Warhammer. This is someone who gets dirty in warfare

It's an Imperial Guard commander body, Adeptus Mechanicus arms and gun, and a Necromunda Palanite Enforcer.

Inquisitor Erasmus

 

 

 

 

 

 

The star of the warband. I went all out on the face and it was a bit of a blow to my enthusiasm when fitting it inside the hood and realising you only see half of what was painted clearly. But it was proof that if I put the effort in, I can achieve good results. There's a few little nods to the Blanche-era with the red and gold Inquisitor symbol and check-pattern scarf.

Delighted with how this turned out. Again, so many things I could change and improve with time, but it captured what I wanted. The chromed effect could be much better, and so should the red leather robe etc. etc. but that's fine. Writing this a few months later, already the improvements and mistakes are evident to me and the challenge will be learning from those on the next piece.

Ogryn

 

 

 

The muscle of the retinue. Such a great kit and sculpt to build and paint. Wanted to do more with this guy, but happy with the result. I think some of painting on this is the best across the project, alongisde the Inquisitor's face, and you can tell it was my favourite of the three.

Liquids arent't really supposed to be in the gloves, but rule of cool was used to create something more interesting to look at. It also offered up much needed contrast and brightness to offset the heavily chipped armour. It did mean I'd painted myself into a corner for the chest piece, as keeping the same colour liquids in there would have been too much - so purple and pink was used to give a little contrast.

The metals came out well, but then I let myself down by rushing the cabling and OSL on the back as time was against me. I think this counted against me when being looked at in a cabinet by judges, frankly. Overall better planning and timing is needed to make this work - I simply don't have the ability (yet) to dash out a project like this in a couple of weeks and receive anything in competition.

Eryos Slagmyst

 

One of the Inquisitor's retinue. Was really happy with how shiny the metallics were, and the liquids. Less happy with reds, but hey - learning and time I can fix that next year ...

Painting the canister so brightly was fun, but in hindsight it dominates the other colours and shouldn't be a focal point - the liquid should be where the eye is drawn to on the rear, not the overall object.

The gloves are my quiet success on this project. I worked hard to create a smooth effect with a lot of glazing, based on the style of Albert Moreto Font (https://www.instagram.com/albert.moreto.font/)  and would like to try more of this, as it wasn't as terrifying or long to do as I thought it would be.

Happy new year

 It's 2023 somehow. Christmas with the family, then moving house ourselves for the last week took a lot out of us, but we're here and refreshed. After 18 months without one, I finally have a dedicated desk for painting again, not simply a small space to the side of my computer, which should make a difference to my output this year as it was comparatively slow in 2022.

I don't have resolutions or specific goals for this year, but I do have ambitions.

• Get back to my Eldar. A little of the wind was taken out my sails last January by the release of the fantastic new plastic range. I know that sounds daft, but after spending a couple of years building up a metal oldhammer army, watching all the new models arrive took a little of the shine off. But I'm a grown-up (apparently) and have stopped sulking, and going to throw myself back in.
• Clear the WIP pile. There's quite a few models sitting in a partially painted state, and rather than ignore them and keep opening new ones and pretending they're not there, I'll be painting everyone and getting the desk clear.
• Paint the HeroQuest models. Not the (admittedly nice) new HeroQuest models, but my original 80s ones. A few of the Orks and Fimir have been done to-date as speed paints, and I'll finish off the majority in the same style. We played a little over Christmas and it was still great fun.

Alongside my painting projects, I do have a few retro computing projects to tide me over, and there may be posts on those here too. Time to dust off the Amiga loving.

Happy new year to you.