Dáin has sent for help - and a Chariot and Dwarves with Crossbows answer the call

So this week was another quite productive one. Besides some more stuff for the next DnD adventure, I finished miniatrues for Warhammer 40k and the Middle Earth SBG. And as you read in the title, I put together a chariot and some Crossbow wielding Dwarves for my Iron Hills Army.

Pict 226:  Iron Hills Chariot (WIP)

Pict 227: Iron Hills Dwarves with Crossbows (WIP)

First up I have to show the new Dwarves. The Chariot is a dream of a model - it looks amazing and goes together quite nicely; only the goat's horns don't connect that good and there was a gap to fill on all of the goat's brows. Even though I usually don't like to do so, I kept the Chariot in subassemblies to be able to get to all the surfaces. I'm going to use the Captain as the driver and the normal dwarf driver will be used as additional Crew for the Ballista.
The Dwarves carrying crossbows are really great as well. I like the underslung design of the Crossbows and the size of the bolts alone should be enough to take out some Orcs.

Pict 228: Gargoyles

Pict 229: Gargoyles

Pict 230: Fell Wargs

Wednesday afternoon, a friend came over to paint and I used this time to finish up two Gargoyles for my DnD collection. Since they were finished ratehr fast, I also continued work on the Azog's Hunters Army with six Fell Wargs.

Pict 231: Tyranid Ravenors

Pict 232: Tyranid Ravenors

After the Wargs were done, I had a fit of nostagia and painted up two Tyranid Ravenors. The Tyranids were my first Warhammer 40k army and my colourscheme has changed quite a bit over the years, but I kept them in line with the Kraken Scheme the main part of my army is painted righ now. The scheme borrows heavily from the main scheme of the 3rd edtion Tyranid Codex but I use less red. Since I only have the two of them right now, I will have to use them as a unit under strength in 40k, but they will also serve as Ankhegs in DnD.

The Poxwalkers done and finally some more DnD

With the Poxwalkers and more done, this week was quite good for the tally. Besides the progress with the Death Guard I finished up some Dungeons and Dragons miniatures for a game on friday.

Pict 218: Poxwalkers

First up are the remaining 18 Poxwalkers from the Dark Imperium box, halve of which are converted for mor variety. I went for bright colours with the oranges, greens and blues. Other than that the main work was done with different washes.

Pict: 219 Bugbear

Pict 220: Bugbear

Pict 221: Hellhounds

Pict 222: Hellhound

Next up are three more miniatures for DnD. The bugbear stood on my paintingtable for months only waiting for the final highlights. Thus he finished up pretty fast and I was then able to get to work on two Hellhounds. They come in a clear plastic, but I decided to just spray them white and then lay down progressivly darker tones from yellow to dark red.

Pict 223: Foetid Bloat-Drone (WIP)

Pict 224: Foetid Bloat-Drone(WIP)

Pict 225: Death Guard (WIP)

Lastly here are some miniatures I worked on during this last week. The Bloat-Drone is really getting there - only the highlights are missing. The Lord of Contagion and the Plaguecaster have their basecoats (almost) done and are awaiting the washes, while the Plaguemarines are only now getting the first layer of white armour.

With 21 miniatures added to the tally of painted models, I already painted more miniatures than I painted in 2015, so there's a first goal achived. I didn't finish up the Hunter Orcs in time for the tournament last weekend, but they performed well nonetheless. Right now they are rowed up on my table again...

Washes are drying on the Hunter Orcs; The Noxious Blightbringer is done

Just as you can read in the title, I got quite a bit of work done on the Hunter Orcs and I managed to finish the Blighbringer for my Death Guard.

Pict 215: Noxious Blightbringer

Pict 216: Noxious Blightbringer

As I suspected last week there was not to much to be done with the Noxious Blightbringer. I decided to try and weather the bronze with Hawk Turquoise for some verdigris which I quite like. Other than that I tried and mix the Blood for the Bloodgod and the Nugle's Rot on his tunic to get some really disguting effect. I do like it but I think, I will have to work on the blood effects to make them even better.

Pict 217: Hunter Orcs (WIP)

And here is anonther picuture of the Hunter Orcs. They are still not done, but they are getting there - the base colours are down and the washes are drying as I write. I hope to finish them until friday, but they should aready meet the requirements of the tournament.
Other than that I also continued with the Poxwalkers, but not so mutch as to warrant a picture. It's hard to paint two "hordes" but since the Walkers and the Orcs are very different it's not to bad.

Noxious Blightbringer WIP

So just a really quick update from me this week. I worked on the Hunter Orcs and started with the rest of the Poxwalkers. And then I had to get started with the Death Guard for real and got some paint on one of their characters.

Pict 213: Noxious Blightbringer (WIP)

Pict 214: Noxious Blightbringer (WIP)

And here he is! My version of a blightbringer without the incensors. I tried and get mutch work done with washes - the armour is Seraphim Sepia over Pallid Wych Flesh - and went for a Pre-Heresy insprired scheme. Tried to get some contrast with the Nurgling and the Plasmapistol. Up until now it's about an hours work - I'm curious how long it will take to highlight and weather him!

Rick and Morty Poxwalkers and progress with the Hunter Orcs

Time is quite short and thus the progress is quite slow. I have been chiping away at Hunter Orcs and primed the Death Guard. But see for yourself:

Pict 210: Poxwalker Rick & Morty

Pict 211: Poxwalker Rick & Morty

The only thing to get done are my version of Poxwalker Rick and Morty. Once they sat primed on my desk I couldn't help myself and had to get started on them. The skin was mainly achieved with washes. The rest of the models I got to use more technical paints than ever on a project before. The rust is a mix of Typhus Corrosion and a bight Blazing Orange, the puss is Nurgle's Rot and Blood for the Bloodgod makes for amazing splatter.
The bases are still drying - I will put on some dead grass and puddles of Nurgle's Rot and hope the contrast from base to mini is good. I might have to put on a wash of Nuln Oil first to darken it down.

Pict 212: Hunter Orc (WIP)

There was some progress with the Hunter Orcs. Right now the basecoats are almost done and after that they will all be getting a wash of Agrax Earthshade. I want to play them in the German LotR / Hobbit Championship at the end of the month and the tournament has a police to only allow painted miniatures - all unpainted ones will be removed and you have to play with the resulting disadvantage. Once the washes are down I should get away with how they look, but of course it would be nicer if they were all done in time.

And that's that - a bit of a shorter one than ususal but soon there'll be more free time again.

The Death Guard beginn their march (and a bucketload of Hunter Orcs)

This week I swapped the paintbrush for clippers and hobbyknives and built quite a bit: I started out with 24 Hunter Orcs, that were all converted, so that I now have 36 somewhat individual poses. After that I had to get started with the Death Guard from the Dark Imperium box. And after starting out with converting, I had to do a little bit of customization here as well.

Pict 204: Death Guard

First up are my Death Guard miniatures. I really love what GW put out here! The sculpts are amazing and rather easy to put together. I'm really looking forward to paiting them - they will be next after the Hunter Orcs in the painting queue. Only problem is: I still haven't quite decided on a colourscheme. I am partial to a somewhat Pre-Heresy scheme, but I want it to be a scheme that paints fast... What I know is that they will be heavily weathered - and I can't wait to test out some new techniques.

Pict 205: Lord of Contagion

Pict 206: Noxious Blightbringer, Malignant Plaguecaster

Pict 207: Poxwalkers

Pict 208: Poxwalker Rick & Morty

And here are some of the conversions I did for the Death Guard. The Lord of Contagion changed his amazing axe to a scythe - if he was part of the Deathshroud, he should retain his powerscythe. I used a bit from an old ForgeWorld flying Hive Tyrant - it's already nicely banged up!
The miniature of the Noxious Blightbringer I found overburdened and thus I decluttered him by cutting of all the incensors. Similarly I did'nt like the magic fume of the Malignant Plaguecaster - thus I scraped that of and got him a nice hand of a Space Marine Biker.
The poxwalkers I changed up a litte to get rid of the doubled miniatures. And as many others, I had to convert a Rick and matching Morty...

Pict 209: Hunter Orcs (WIP)

Lastly here is a picture of the Hunter Orcs I'm currently sitting on. After these 36 Orcs, I hope I will have all of the Hunter Orcs I need - I'm sure there will be some Warg riders but that's future talk. Right now it's this moutain... Right now I'm still optimistic but they will be quite the task! I have now worked two evenings on them and still I'm not done with the basic colours...

All the Hunter Orc Heroes (Tournament Army)

During the evenings this week, I continued the painting of the Hunter Orc Heroes. And with Yazneg and Bolg done, I finished all heroes of the army!

Pict 195: Hunter Orc Heroes

This first picutre shows all the Hunter Orc heroes I painted over the last weeks. I had to get the finished because I played them in a tournament on this sunday. They made for quite a funny all hero army with lots of might to throw around. Since we were going to play four scenarios that heavily depended on strong heroes, I was fancying my chances.
Sadly, I didn't even get to play the army. Since I never got to pick and choose whether I wanted to use my evil or my good army. I'll be looking forward to getting them on the table in the future!

Pict 196: Yazneg mounted

Pict 197: Yazneg mounted

Pict 198: Yazneg

Pict 199: Yazneg

The first miniature I painted this week was Yazneg of whom I showed a WIP last week. I really like the scuplt of the orc and the warg, but this particular one had quite a few air bubbles, esspecially on the underside of his bone-carapace. Those were not to big of a problem however - other than the bubbles that had formed on the paws Yazneg is using as gloves. Some of the claws on there were missing all together. I tried and fixed this with a little green stuff and the paint job and I'm pleased with the way the mini came together.

Pict 200: Bolg mounted

Pict 201: Bolg mounted

Pict 202: Bolg

Pict 203: Bolg

The only hero I was missing for the tournament was Bolg on his warg. The models are not my favourites (the warg is to long and its snout is to big), but the profile is really quite good in the game. Nevertheless I'd like to see an alternate sculpt by Forge World, but there is only slim hope for that. Also: looking at the pictures now, I'm not that satisfied with his blind eye. I might just make it a little smaller and put in some more shadow around it to differentiate it some more from the sorrounding skin.

Next up will be more Hunter Orcs - I'm planning to use them in the German Championship at the end of July. Other than that there's still the Keeper of the Dungeons who will fit with my Dol Guldur theme.
But I  will be distracted because this week also saw the arrival of the Dark Imperium box...