Post 400! And a Golden Daemon!

Good grief, somehow this is the 400th post. These things creep up on you don't they? First of all, thank you to all who read the mad ramblings of a bloke in Cardiff painting little plastic mans. Second of all, I thought I'd treat myself to an otherwise pointless but enjoyable model:

Yep, it's the only Golden Daemon I'm ever likely to see! This was the - can you believe - 2006 Golden Daemon model (I worked that one as well), the severed head is the Golden Daemon that decorated the lovely paint sets that were the first I ever owned:

To my delight he's on the modern ones too! My nostalgia circuitry was well and truly tickled. Anyway, I am using this as part of Project RPG as a Dwarf Barbarian, an apparently rather successful one. Oddly enough, this model has one brilliant element and one slightly dodgy one so lets focus on the good bit first:

The extremely nifty severed Golden Daemon head. the puddle of blood comes sculpted on so subtlety is right out the window on this one. There was only one colour that I could possibly paint this daemon: Gold, of course. I used the pseudo-NMM method I usually use on cloth in order to avoid him looking like a Simpson's character. I was especially taken by the black eye, it hasn't photographed terribly well but the sculpt is lovely.

Sadly the Dwarf wasn't quite as well sculpted (sadly at the time limited edition models were often ones that had either failed "gold testing" - i.e. they just ate moulds - or were training models and the like. These days things are much better) so I just did a fairly basic job on him and allowed the eye to find the daemon head instead. There isn't a huge amount to say about him that hasn't been said on other slayer models so I'll talk briefly about blood. The axe was layers of thin streaks of Blood For The Blood God with increasing amounts of black ink mixed in. For the base I also added a glaze of my older red & chestnut ink mix to the groundwork.

And there you go! Something fun for the 400th post. Here's to many, many more. Next time it will be more thunderbolt progress (they're really coming on now).

TTFN

No Mercy From Old Men

The Dwarfs are a kinda backward looking people. Their glory days were in the past, (although I really, really like the new fluff of the High King looking to reclaim it rather than decline) old techniques can't be replicated and past secrets are lost. The Dwarfs revere their ancestors and respect age above all else. Among humans this can be over conservative and cautious, humans decline in extreme old age. Dwarfs... well, they become hard as coffin nails.

These are the latest addition to the Stormborne host, 30 Longbeards make a real dent in anything they hit (WS5 and S4 rising to 5 on the charge is really no joke) and their mere presence stabilises a battleline. No one wants to look bad in front of the Elders. Readers with long memories will recall that I already have some longbeards. This is true. I did, but then GW brought out some properly lovely new models to represent them. Barely blinked before replacing them. But then I needed to do something with the former models. So hi ho, hi ho, it's off to Karak Timotai we go for a youthening:

Three more members and a greater range of beard colours later and I had a shiny new unit of basic Dwarf warriors. They've become the Wardens of the Outer Halls. The newer warrior box looks a bit more high status than the old ones so these are formal guards rather than a citizen militia. But enough of basic beard stuff, back to longbeards!

Modelling wise there's only one thing to mention about this superb kit. Compare and contrast the champion and the drummer. While building them I mused that there wasn't a whole lot of difference in the appearance of the Ironbreakers and the Longbeards (the kit does both). Given that I wanted Ironbreakers in my army I wanted a clear visual distinction. So I left the shoulder pads off everyone I could. Now it just looks like heavy scale armour rather than the gromril ultra armour that the Ironbreakers wear. Love the champion by the way, always, always like this sort of pose on Dwarfs. The "I've got all day, come get it" attitude. Painting wise, they were fairly straightforward - lots of armour - but my lord are the details fiddly. The shields especially needed about 8 layers of back and forth sharpening of the details. Expect to be working on them for a while if you take them on.

Scarily, I'm one very straightforward (if massive) unit of 50 warriors with great weapons and a few artillery pieces from finishing 5000 points of Stormbornes. I've decided that's where I'm stopping with the clan. The next dwarf project would be an Undgrin Ankhor force full of Irondrakes and Ironbreakers and a pair of flame cannons. But I really, really need to do something else before that. Too. Many. Dwarfs. Empire I think.

TTFN

A Feast for Crows

"We found her there, shaving the hair from her head using blood as a lather. Around her were the wreckage - both material and flesh - of what we presume was her trading caravan. Beyond that were the dozens of Orcs someone had slain. With an axe matching hers. The air was teeming with crows whose feast she had provided. She's never once spoken of the life before the massacre, indeed, only seems alive when howling fury at her foes. Frankly, sir, she scares the hell out of me..."

Stromni Skystride, Chief Ranger of Karak Hoch about Badhbh Crow-Feast.

There's a chance that this model is NSFW, if it is, find a better workplace ;)

Hello folks! Yes, were I Frankestein's Monster someone would be dancing around me hooting "He's.... ALIIIIVE!", sorry for the best part of a month's absence. Largely due to a) looking for work rather than putting paint on little mans, still ongoing, b) being on holiday, c) not realising that three weeks had managed to pass since last update. I have been painting but it is a huge 30 strong unit of Longbeards with lots and lots of fiddly details so is taking a while. As a bit of light relief I thought I'd paint this lovely Hasslefree miniatures trollslayer to add to my army as a Dragonslayer hero. Something to address first. Yep, she is very nekkid from the waist up. So are all the Trollslayers behind their beards:

But I was aware that for a variety of reasons nudity in female models is freighted with rather more "creepiness" than males. Mercifully, not only does Kev sculpt real, actual physiques on his women but there are also a variety of clothes options from this one all the way through to practical adventuring type gear. While some of his poses are a bit fanservice-ey (fair enough), most of them are non-sexualised women at war. Compare and contrast with the Brother Vinni stuff... With all this in mind I knew I wanted to dispel any titillation from the bared boobs and instead give the same impression that a half-naked male barbarian would give. I.E. badass who is so contemptuous of your abilities that he doesn't need armour. Nothing better than blood for that right?

As far as painting goes, most of what is there to talk about is skin. In this case, because Dwarf, she needed to be ruddy and weather-beaten. This, I achieve by shifting my usual skin method down a tone. Start from Bugman's Glow, Wash with Reikland Fleshtone. Then highlight with increasing mixes of Bugman's Glow, Cadian Fleshtone and finally a little Kislev Flesh mixed in for the top highlights. These are gradual transitions. I think I must have used about a dozen thin layers. Essentially each transition is in three stages pure colour; 2:1 mix; 1:1 mix; 1:2 mix; pure next colour.

Once the skin was finished, the hair was painted. Hasslefree's model has lovely sculpted stubble, just drybrush with wanted hair colour. Remember, slayer orange not the natural colour so stubble won't be orange! Trousers, weapon etc got their colours then it was blood and mud o'clock. I used blasts of air from the airbrush over a paint-loaded 3/0 brush to create the spatters. Be very careful and practice first on the palette. You generally don't want the first load you blow off the brush, too heavy. The second time is more subtle so unload the brush before you start. Streaks and rivulets were added with the brush depending from the larger splashes. For the blood, I used my usual mix of 3:1 red to chestnut ink and a splash of Lahmian medium. To this black ink is added in order to create the darker, blood for the bigger/older areas.

You can see the black-er blood on the edge of the axe. The mud was spattered with AK Fresh Mud the same way as the blood. It's subtle - too subtle for my lighting I'm afraid - but can be seen on the left arm in the picture above. This model was a joy to paint - as have been all the #Hasslefree models I've painted. Seriously, if you enjoy painting: check them out. Kev's been on a real roll lately and lots of the more recent figures are becoming must-haves for me. Oh and they totally have a range of squats...

As normal, while painting I was telling the model's story in my head. I pictured her as an unknown revenant of furious revenge. Her past life wiped out by traumatic slaughter and only violent death remaining. Her name - Badhbh (pronounced Bay-v) - is one of the three names of the goddesses that make up the Morrigan, the crow goddess of death in battle and rebirth of ancient celt legend. The "Crow-Feast" surname is a reference to this and also what she provides in any battle she steps into. "But Jeff," you begin, "Don't you already have a character slayer that you waxed rhapsodic about not so long ago?" Well yes, he's been simultaneously promoted to Daemon Slayer in the Stormbornes and also earmarked for a future Karak Kadrin army (I have another 70 slayers lying around... because reasons, I don't have a problem, honest...).

More soon (not least 30 Longbeards) but for now

TTFN

Rangers with Character (part two)

Head over to part one if you haven't already read it ;)

Welcome folks, to part two of rangers with character. This time, the real characters of the force, the Odd Squad:

These are the weirdos of the rangers, the ones who do more than just shoot crossbows and whack things with greataxes. Thieves, vagabonds, a pirate and a lunatic, good company! Lets start with the lunatic...

I have fallen in love with this model. It's a Reaper dwarf hunter and I suspect is very old, it comes on an integral metal base with a nifty animal cage. I had to remove it to fit him on a normal sized base though. There is just so much interest on this figure. From the mad rat-pelt cloak to the mangy moggy at his feet to the eye-patched face. He's a brilliant character. Painting wise, there was a few challenges, first was to make the rat cloak look "real" and allow the rats to stand out. This was fairly easy as I just adapted my stonework painting method for rats, vary the base colour a little and make sure that no two of the same exact colour are next to each other. I'd love to tell you what colours I used for them and the cat but I can't, like with most of my animal painting it was a dab of this and that mixed until it reached the colour shown on the reference photos. The loincloth thing might have been just a boring scrap of cloth but I figured he could have a map of the tunnels where he does his ratting easily to hand. A few quick lines and presto, mappo!

Next up we have a father and daughter pairing, thieves, both of them. Again, Reaper minis designed as a father and daughter, I even liked the name they gave them Copperthumb so stole it. These were some of the easiest to paint as I had pretty much no decisions to make! The clothing and cloaks needed to match their existing ranger compatriots and all that was left was skin and wood really! I've talked about the cloak weathering on the original Ranger post so I'll leave it there if you want to find it.

Then there is the pair of murderers, sorry, sentry eliminators on probation. Once again, Reaper dwarfs, the cloaked one is probably my least favourite sculpt of the bunch but even he carries a certain something, a sense of flashing blades and swirling cloak. The hidden face makes it quite sinister as well. Neither of these got any of the normal linen-cream contrast that I use against the Incubi Darkness main colour. wouldn't have worked on people whose job is secret murder in the dark. Instead they got black (most clearly seen on the more feminine of the two stab happy nitwits). There's an ugliness to these two that I think underscores their role nicely.

And finally, another old favourite that I've been hoping to find a place for for a while now. The arabian dwarf. In the fluff he's a pirate and trade envoy that went a bit native. Painting-wise he offered me a few rare opportunities for colour and opulent fabrics on a dwarf. First, I painted the waistcoat and shirt in the normal Stormbourne scheme to tie him to the rest of the army. I realised that the trousers would probably also have to be turquoise if the balance was to work. To differentiate them I first painted them as silk (i.e. much, much higher highlights than normal and in sharp folds) and then added the not-really-NMM gold band around the waistcoat to seperate the areas. That left the cummerbund sash. Up until now I had been thinking to paint it cream silk, keep the theme rolling. But I realised that he needed that spark of bright colour to pull him out of the herd, make him seem different. A quick glance at the colour wheel told me all I needed to know. Bright red-orange it is then. I'm glad I did, it really sets off the whole model. Gives him an individual flair.

And that's all! Hope you've enjoyed the companion fluff articles over on Beard Bunker, I've loved painting and creating these guys.

TTFN

Rangers with Character (part one)

As most people who read this blog will know, I've been burning the painting oil pretty bright (or at least as long as my wrists hold out on any given day) to get the last of the commission work finished. This hasn't left much (any) time for my own hobby lately, so I started a fun little Dwarf drying-time project over the last couple of weeks and this is the result:

They are a sort of Impossible Mission Force of Rangers for my Dwarf army. We do a lot of narrative role-play style gaming to achieve non-battlefield objectives in the campaign (intelligence gathering, item retrieval, occasional straight up sabotage) and I wanted a crew of individuals to serve as my normal RPG force. Enter Dwalin's Dirty Dozen, twelve - slightly unhinged - Dwarfs dedicated to getting the job done, no matter the cost and with a minimal amount of ethics... Over on the Beard Bunker there is a series of companion articles to these two posts (I'm splitting the article in two so as not to have a nine mile long post) detailing their in game effects and nifty backstories. Here, we'll talk painting and modelling.

In part one we'll focus on the more "ranger-ey" half of the dozen, the "odd squad" can wait till next time and where better to start than with their fearless leader Stromni Skystride:

Stromni is a Hasslefree miniatures dwarf (you'll see more of Kev's Dwarfs as the army continues to grow) who is just perfect as the grizzled, taciturn leader of a bunch of hard-bitten rangers. Handily he's also armed with a shield so I can keep him alive a smidgeon longer than some of the others. In painting Stromni (and indeed most of the other eleven) I wanted to follow the scheme already set out in the ranger regiment so that I could add most of these nifty models in to the existing unit (and replace Bugman making him once more a special character). The classic Stormbourne scheme of Incubi Darkness and linen-cream (Val Deck Tan washed with Seraphim Sepia and rehighlighted with Deck Tan) almost gets lost under all the other colours on the model, the Charadon Granite (I kept a pot specially) cloaks, leather armour and other camp goods rather crowd it out. You can see it on the shield though, and yep, I got a bit excited with the shield design. I'm still not as smooth with the freehand as I used to be (stiff wrists do not help) but the overall effect is nice and complex.

Next up is Stromni's number 2 and new champion of the regiment. He's a Reaper ranger from their Pathfinder range and he... is... perfect for a warhammer ranger champion. Ideal armament and the gear he has is sublime. Look at the little tea-kettle attached to his pack! I added a fondness for Cathayan tea to his backstory just because of it! Something I will say about this model is that not one strap, buckle, pouch etc is pointless. All the straps link up (even under cloaks where it is easy to forget), all the gear has a purpose, he works. You wouldn't believe how often I see sculpting where someone has just put a strap around a leg or a random pouch with no thought at all to what it is for, just to have an area of empty space broken up. Highly recommended.

This is the fire support of the unit, a ranger with a reconditioned repeater hand gun! He's the only conversion I had to do, all the rest were stories informed by finding cool minis I wanted to paint. In this case it was a relatively simple matter of cutting off the existing rifle and pinning the business end of an Empire repeater handgun in it's place. I contemplated trying to get the left hand under the gun but it would have taken a lot of sculpting, as it is the raised hand looks nice. A sort of "everything is fine at the moment, I don't have to fire the gun'o'doom" pose. I did extend his cloak, the sculpting on the cloaks really lets the plastics down at the moment. Very thin rolled ProCreate was cut to shape, draped over the areas I wanted the cloak to hang and blended in when it started to cure. Surprisingly easy, I may have to do some more cloakage.

Finally for part one, we have the snipers, more Reaper dwarfs armed only with crossbows to provide some quieter fire support. All of these are covered in leather armour so to speed things up I started with the Rhinox Hide that I've used for the dwarf's leather all over the model, highlighting with Mournfang Brown and shading with Agrax Eathshade. Anywhere where there was a strap or pouch surrounded by more leather colour I used a mildly contrasting leather colour, in this case pure Mournfang brown highlighted with a little bone, to subtly differentiate the different areas. While the camera hates subtle changes the lacing on the armour of the lady in the middle is where you can see it clearest. Oh and a hat tip to whoever sculpted the head on the dwarf on the right, that thing is ridiculously expressive. Love it.

That's all for part one, the odd squad coming for part two!

TTFN

Slayers Might Fly

Hi folks, been a bit quiet hasn't it? I've been on a family-visit-o-thon with Mrs PVP for the last week, slightly extended due to seriously atrocious weather (for Britain). As is my wont, I tend to warm up on a personal model after an extended break - its incredible how stiff even a week off can make me feel. Stupid wrist, grump - and what a model I had to work on:

Yep, for anyone who knows me, it is not even a small surprise that I laid my hands on the new Slayer the day he came out. I knew he was waiting for me at the shop when I got back from hols and figured a reletively simple colour scheme like him was the perfect choice to warm up. Before I natter about paint, I really, really need to talk about this model. Caution, probable hyperbole ahead ;)

Firstly, take a look at that sprue. At the cutting. Just drink it in. Seriously, this sort of thing just wasn't possible before CAD/Hybrid sculpting came in. The way the sculptor (I wish they signed these things on the sprues) has divided the parts in order to create undercuts on the finished model is genius. Look at the way the head seperates from the body. Then there is the hair. Oh my god the hair. The hair is an absolute masterstroke. I've never seen crested hair done better. When the inevitable plastic slayers come, if citadel don't do this for the units they have missed a massive trick. Oh, and even with such a simple model there are full instructions with the parts numbered in the order you assemble it. Take note Forgeworld y'slackers. One final note for the rumour mongers and doomsayers out there - people have been talking about cancelled armies for 2014 because of 2013's financials - look at the date. 2012. GW do not work on this years armies this year. This model has been ready for a minimum of 13 months. More like eighteen. Can we all calm down on excusing made up rumours as "GW cancelling things". If things are cancelled then they are not for this year. It's for 2015-16.

So, back to painting! I've talked about the basics of slayer painting (oddly over at the Beard Bunker for once) so I won't worry too much about the essence. I'll talk about what is different. Well, first, I've finally found a reliable black wash. It's Black Ink in Lahmian Medium. That's all. Not as good as Badab Black but as good as we're going to get in this dreary Nuln Oil coloured world. Nuln Oil has it's uses but for pure black: stick to ink. I also warmed the hair with ink having taken it a little too light. A glaze of chestnut ink brought it back nicely. Sadly all the wash and glaze layers while providing a lovely tone and contrast in real life don't pick up the shadows on camera. Sigh. There is a reason for "studio style" after all. I also took the time to paint the shadow of his shaved head on the sides. I followed a modified method from the old white dwarf article "Painting Faces Redux". Pdfs float about out there, I urge you to look it up. Great article. Mix Cadian Fleshtone at a 2:1:1 ratio with Val German Camo Brown-Black and Administratum Grey and then really, really dilute it. Two-three thin glazed layers make a lovely realistic 5 O'clock shadow. Rehighlight with the skin colours and you're there.

I wanted to minimise the stone dragon on the base. I think it pulls attention away from the Slayer in the studio scheme. Instead I thought I'd really go for the ancient forgotten stones of Karak Hoch (my hold in our Beard Bunker campaign). My usual go to of Skavenblight Dinge, Stormvermin Fur and Terminatus Stone made the base colour of the stonework. I then glazed it over with streaks of AK Winter Streaking Grim to get a general dirty green tint (stronger in real life, you can see it on the left better) and applied a few stipples of Tyrant Skull as lichen. Then some undergrowth to further age it. First a few clumps of moss tufts from Antenocetis Workshop. These are like the normal grass tufts but are trimmed to about 1mm. They make cracking moss. Also from Antenoceti, the ivy strands help to make it disappear behind undergrowth. Hopefully this means you see the Slayer first. Then notice an ivy covered lump, then identify the ivy covered lump as a nifty stone dragon. That's the theory anyway.

I can safely say that this is one of my favourite figures, I just love the design, the pose, the cleverness of the cutting and use of the material, the dynamic sense, everything. I almost rushed this one, so excited was I to be painting him. Plus he needed to match my existing Slayers. I strongly expect to paint him again at some point. Maybe as part of a duel, because I think I have finally found an opponant to one of my other favourite plastic models of recent years, this chap...

Image from Games Workshop purely for illustrative purposes.

So yep... that's gonna happen! I've not done a diorama before, could be fun! Anyway, I'm back to work now, finished the Slayer this morning so you can expect more pretty Eldar any day now. Until next time

TTFN

Dwarfs! Ponies! Important information on Comments!

Hi folks, this has been the most bouncy of butterfly brained weeks. Haven't been able to lock on to one single project all week. Just ricocheting from one to another. It happens sometimes. I did though paint this guy:

This cheery chappy is Braelin "Barelip" Stormborne. He's being added to the growing clan of dwarfs rocking around in Hochland in the Beard Bunker's campaign. He's the Clan Stormborne's main point of merchantile contact with the humans and has gone a touch native in his style of dress and mannerisms. Of course, the same mannerisms that make him seem clownish and harmless to some make him ideal as his secondary purpose. Intelligence gathering on the humans...

This model is one of the older (much, much older) dwarfs in my collection. Sadly it kinda shows in places! The sculpting is a little clunky, the casting is a touch gritty but he just oozes character. I especially like the little brass weighing scales. When you are dealing with older models like this it is worth keeping in mind that you are just not going to get the same results as you would with a more modern casting. The texture will prevent the finish being completely smooth. Don't try to make a silk purse out of a sows ear, just do the best you can! In this case that included using a few glazes of very thinned Carroburg Crimson to make that outsized nose look like it belongs to a heavy drinker. Braelin likes a wee nip from minute to minute...

Hunkhi the pony carries the load for Braelin. He's one of the Lord of the Rings "Bill the Pony" models. I wanted the pony to be able to rank up with other dwarfs in regiments I couldn't have him on a 25mm wide cavalry base. Instead I glued two 20mm bases together and filled the gap. My (not at all) resident Beard Bunker pony expert (Emma) assures me that this chap is a haflinger or haflinger/welsh cobb cross. As is normal for animal work and me it's references, references, references. The lovely golden honey brown starts from a solid basecoat of Skragg Brown highlighted with Deathclaw Brown. With that though we need to stop talking fun stuff and talk law:

Edit: Good news, most of the paragraph below is invalidated if you are in the UK as our own government are passing laws to protect us from this nonsense.

Those of you who have posted comments in the last day or so might have noticed I've moved onto a pre-moderation system for comments. I'm afraid this is essential for those of us living in the EU, at least for now. A recent EU Supreme Court ruling (currently being appealed) is laying responsibility for actionable statements (defamatory or libelous for example) at the feet of the owner of the site. Even if they delete the comment afterwards. Not the author of the comment, oh no, the owner of the site it was published on. This is clearly ridiculous and I expect the appeal to succeed as the big boys like European versions of facebook and youtube may be affected too and will fight this. Until then, I am not being liable for some toerag who writes "GW eats babies" (allegedly) or something so pre-moderation it is. Grump.

Anyway, until next time folks.

TTFN

The Anvil of Doom... and our 300th post!

Greetings one and all! When I posted the previous blog entry it suddenly occurred to me that a milestone, long impending, had actually arrived. The next post would be my 300th. Woohoo! And as for a subject... kinda had to be Dwarfs:

Yup, I decided it was time to give Dwalin Gravenrune an Anvil of Doom. He hasn't earned it yet - in the Beard Bunker narrative campaign - but it's there when he needs it! For those who don't know, the Anvils of Doom are Dwarven artifacts, magical foci that allow Runelords to craft their mightiest runic creations. But that isn't all, they can also allow the Runelord to crystallise raw magic out of the air, beat it into complex runic forms and then unleash the effects upon the enemy. With this artifact, even Dwarfs can cast magic.

Of course, I didn't want to bind the Dwalin model to the anvil permanently, so I sacrificed some aesthetics to leave him on his base. This'll help with some of the skirmish scenarios we do too as it'll allow me to move him from his post.

From above you can see that the anvil is stood upon three discs of stone, stepping up to form a dais. I envisioned these as being individual stone tiles, layed out in particular patterns - Stargate style - to focus and draw in the magical winds to best advantage. I used my usual system of varying the base colour slightly in between tiles/planks/whatever to give a hint of natural variance in colour. Use the same highlight colour for all of them and it binds the whole piece together regardless. The anvil itself was a source of much head scratching. I couldn't decide initially whether I wanted it blingtastic - totally a word - covered in gold, enamel, jewels... That could have worked, but I kept coming back to the core of what this thing is. It is a tool. It is a mechanism that allows a Runesmith to craft magical devices and bend the laws of reality. Somehow, it looks better painted an unassuming iron. To me anyway!

I'd managed to lose the shields for the guardians but there is a perfect design on one of the warrior shields. So donation here we go! Not a lot to say about these lads. Unusually for me they have painted woodwork on the hafts of their hammers but that was to get a little more of the army colour scheme on the models. Now, I just have to uncover enough of Karak Hoch (the imaginary, long abandoned hold that we are retaking at the heart of Hochland) to discover the Hearth and Hoard. There... an anvil awaits!

Mulder always fights in the shade. With his skin tone, you kinda have to!

So whoa, 300 posts of random ramblings about painting models. I am often struck by the weirdness of this situation. I've never once felt like a "pro-painter" or "expert" in my life. I'm not a Golden Demon winner, I've just painted models for a few decades. That so many people come here, to read my ramblings, look at pretty pictures of my work and join the conversation in the comments is genuinely humbling. I've learned a huge amount from these interactions and look forward to many many more. You are all people, clearly, of impeccible taste and quality, handsome too I'd wager.

Thanks folks, here's to the next hundred.

TTFN

Cedric the Wonder Halfling

I love narrative campaigns, they throw up the weirdest storylines and create characters that you would never have considered otherwise. Take this chap for example:

Behold! Cedric the Wonder Halfling!

In the campaign that we've just kicked off over on the Beard Bunker we combined elements of roleplaying with the wargaming and occasionally had our characters nipping off on missions that didn't require a full army to accomplish. In one of these missions (very early on) we were introduced to Cedric Sneakfoot, a halfling poacher and general naer-do-well who had fallen afowl of the law in Hochland and was being used as a dogsbody with threat of prison as a motivating factor. He was added to our little party as a local liason while we hunted for an artefact that my Dwarfs wanted back rather badly. Tom, who was playing Cedric, doesn't have a warhammer army so this was the best way for him to quickly get involved. Rather than going through the whole thing I shall summerise that Cedric started to get quite a reputation. He felled a goblin chief with his arrows and even leapt screaming onto the back of a grave guard which was threatening a mate of his. By the end of the mission, my Runesmith Dwalin Gravenrune was deeply impressed with the little guy and essentially blackmailed the authorities into signing Cedric over to him as a local liason and guide.

Cedric and Dwalin, bestest buds.

So fast forward through and the second mission had us investigating the ruins of a town when we were attacked by crazed fanatics. Once again Cedric was a sniper extroardinare and slew everything he aimed at with just the right amount of respectful pleading for us to get our rear ends in gear. Given that the dynamic of Cedric and Dwalin was somewhere between Jeeves & Worcester and Alfred & Batman we were having a great time with the pairing. I decided that Cedric would become a permanent part of my Dwarf army working as a slightly over cautious bodyguard to Dwalin. Rules wise we just made him a bow shooting stand and fire monkey with killing blow, he'll sod off after shooting and make himself scarce.

Given that Tom, and therefore the model of Cedric (which is a Reaper Miniatures Dicarus Darksword) live in darkest Devon. I needed to have one of my very own, a quick ebay search and a "warm up the painting muscles after a week away" session later and Cedric is reborn as Cedric Dwarf-friend with fancy new duds and a slightly brighter outlook on life.

This is the kind of thing I meant at the top of this post when I said "create characters that you would never have considered otherwise". There is no way on this earth that I would have thought that adding a tiny halfling dude with a shortbow to my Dwarf army was a good idea before these events. Now? I can't picture Dwalin without him. This sort of thing moves characters from a simple amalgamation of game changing statistics into living, breathing people whose agendas and lives you care about! No longer are you grumbling because your runesmith died and you don't get his nifty "no magic for you" ability. No, now you are reprising an Anakin "Noooooooo" because Dwalin the badass dwarf has been cruelly snatched from this world (only to be rescued and healed up by Cedric no doubt). It really brings the game to life in a way that the slightly more "Chess like" game style of stripping everything down to pure numbers doesn't.  Another example, these guys:

Just normal Quarreller Rangers. Not particularly well armoured (just light armour in fact) and toting crossbows and great weapons. Hitty, but fragile. Well, not in this campaign. These guys have been the absolute Daddy. Kicking ass and taking names wherever they went. Stromni's Wanderer's have become feared far beyond their points/ability calculation should warrent. And thats why I love the narrative element of this game of ours. I'm back to work here folks, and to prove it:

Titan 2 is underway! Until next time folks.

TTFN

Three thousand points of Dwarfs Done!

Greetings and jubilations to all! Why am in such a celebratory humour? Because 3000 points of Dwarfs are finished! The Beard Bunker challenge is complete. Lets take a look at the final few models:

The miners are deeply, deeply silly models but they do possess a charm all of their own and the rules are handy! The most interesting - for me anyway - parts of the painting are what I did not do rather than I what I did. For starters, you won't see a whole bunch of object source lighting (OSL) on these guys. I was in two minds about this. On the one hand, it would have been delicious to have every light source on these guys emitting light. The problem was that it would have made them look like they were in the dark, none of the rest of the army is painted this way. I decided in the end that daylight overrules candlelight and left them as just the flames.

Yes kids, its a steam powered jackhammer, silly... but cool.

The other ommission was one that I thought I would be using extensively, weathering. Miners end up filthy, absolutely covered in mud, dust, coal dirt and the like. I did a test model with a dramatic amount of dust and dirt and realised that the unit would look like mud golems. In the end I erred on the side of army cohesion and kept them fairly clean.

The last model to be painted was the Stormbourne host Army Battle Standard. A thane by the name of Vindalf Stormbourne, brother of Hafnir. As usual the camera has played its cruel tricks and made the lines look scrappier than they really are. The design of the standard marries a ships wheel, the axe of the Stormbournes carried by Hafnir, and a pair of crossed anchors with the three ancestor heads of the brothers that founded the Stormbourne naval legacy.

When I do a banner like this I frequently mock up a design either on paper or in this case on photoshop. In this instance I changed a few elements when painting but the essence of the thing is the same and saved a lot of head scratching.

Vindalf himself was a limited edition standard bearer from a very old army box. His helm is one of the most remarkable features of the model, being a beautiful boar capped, sapphire studded creation fit for a prince of a noble household.

The other feature I really like is the combover. It tells you so much about the character of the man in one instant. Vain, proud, stubborn, a little deluded. It fits the arrogant and hubris laden character of the Stormbourne family really nicely.

And so here is a beautiful thing. A completed workometer. Indeed, a completed 3000 point workometer. I don't mind saying that I am chuffed. Over on the Beard Bunker there is a photo of the completed army as part of the campaign set up. Back to work on Monday-ish (I usually need to warm up after a protracted break - these lads were finished Monday, I just based them today). So progress will be back to normal!

TTFN

Things that go Boom in the night

And the day really, yep it's cannon time over at the Beard Bunker! Come check it out.

A few Dwarfs more

Over at the Beard Bunker I've posted another stunty article. I share some piccies here as an appetite whetter (totally a word!)

Master Engineer Hwell the Guns

Engineering emplacement

Ironhawk (or the Steam Powered Budgie)