Erebor Dwarves, Moria Goblins, Laser Rapiers

After a lot of time spent with Heresy miniatures, the next few events I plan to go to will take place in Middle-earth once again. To that end, I painted up some more Erebor Dwarf warriors and a Captain to round out that part of my collection. I also started another army that should play the part of the dwarves' enemies in the form of a whole bunch of Moria Goblins including a big Dragon! I did also finish the two Laser Rapier Destroyers for my Heresy Blood Angels.

Pict 1624: Erebor Dwarves issuing from their mountain holds

Pict 1625: Erebor Dwarf Warriors and Erebor Captain

I played a game with these guys lead by Thrór and Thráin at the start of July and started to paint the twelve Erebor Warriors and the Captain pretty much immediately after. I painted them in the same colours that I used a few years back, when I played an alliance themed after the Battle of Azanulbizar using both Erebor and Iron Hills dwarves. With the red coats and the snow bases, they do look a bit like a collection of Santas. But I'm quite happy with them as a quick little project to finish up my Erebor Dwarves.

Pict 1626: Moria Goblins (WIP)

I built a whole lot of metal Moria Goblins to get this army started. The first two test models are pretty simple with the base colours slapped on and an oil wash applied. I really like the effect so far. I don't think they need much more highlighting. I would like to give them big cave dweller eyes, but they could also work just with the oil wash leaning more towards the grim dark painting style.

Pict 1627: Magma Dragon (WIP)

The Dragon I will want to play with my Moria Goblins is this huge Magma Dragon that ForgeWorld produced for Warhammer Fantasy a while back. I just about managed to get him on the required 130mm base with some parts overhanging. I got the Dragon second hand and spent some time rebuilding it and filling in the gaps with putty. I then put on a light coat of white primer. I'm not quite sure about the colour scheme I'm going for quite yet. But the miniature itself looks like a great canvas with lots of nice texture to play around!

Pict 1628: Beechbone (WIP)

The next project in Middle-earth, however, will be the new Beechbone to add to my my Fangorn army. I might take the Ents to an upcoming tournament. That might just be the motivation to get him done in a timely manner.

Pict 1629: Blood Angels Rapier Laser Destroyers

Pict 1630: Blood Angels Rapier Laser Destroyers

Lastly, with the new edition of Heresy, of course I'm also thinking about the 31st millenium. I finished these Rapiers – while I started them in the previous edition, they do look like a good way to deal with AV 14 vehicles in 3.0. I also picked up a third set second hand to complete the unit. It still has to be stripped of its current colours and I plan to convert the two crew members a bit. However, before that I want to try and get at least one game in with the new rules!

Defending Dwarven Doors

These past two weeks, I only managed to paint up a few bits and bobs. But at least I managed to finish up a set of ten dwarf warriors!

Pict 1180: Thráin's Guard defending the Erebor Gates

Pict 1181: Erebor Dwarf Warriors

Here then are the next ten Erebor dwarf warriors. I decided to keep the colours consistent even if the Dwarves all wear different variations of coats and chest armour. The predominant red cloth could mark them out as part of Thráin's personal retinue.

Pict 1182: Dwarven Gates (Mines of Moria)

This set of doors comes from a Mines of Moria set, that I bought used years ago. Sadly the doors are glued shut (certainly one way to keep a Balrog from escaping...), but they painted up nice enough and make for a good prop for the scenic photo of the Dwarves.

Pict 1183: Legion Seeker Squad (Kitbash)

Lastly I once againg cought the Heresy bug with the all the hype for a new edition of the game. To start of, I raided my bitbox and assebled this Legion Seeker squad using parts of MK III, MK IV and MK V armour, special issue bolters and a scratch built nuncio vox. I imagine the Seekers ranging far afield and thus being allowed some idiosyncrasies with their armour. I plan to paint them up as Luna Wolves once again, but I want to try and incorporate some weathering techniques I used with my most recent Howling Griffons.

Painting Dwarves for a Tournament

These past two weeks saw not to much progress, but I managed to finish the first two Erebor dwarf warriors to fit into an army concept for a tournament that I played yesterday.

Pict 1177: Azanulbizar Tournament Army

For this tournamet, I wanted to go with an Azanulbizar theme - partly to spur myself on and paint some Erebor warriors, partly so I could use Thrór as my army's leader and thus free up Dáin to go on a rampage unpunished.

Pict 1178: Erebor Dwarf Warriors (Banner Conversion)

I bought these Erebor dwarves used and one of them was missing his axe – a great opportunity to give him a banner made from plastic card. While I added strips to give the banner some structure, there was still plenty of space for a freehand of the ornament that holds the Arkenstone in Thrór's throne. I'm quite happy with the way it turned out, even if it could be a little bigger to fill up the space some more.

Pict 1179: Erebor Dwarf Warriors (WIP)

I really enjoyed the colourscheme and went along with the next ten dwarves. They are, once again alomst all basecoated and ready to be washed. I really have to do a few week where all I do is highlight miniatures. At this stage, there are quite a few of them now!

Two more Dwarven Royals and a bunch of Spooky Scary Skeletons

Only a little update today – I only managed to finish painting two miniatures, the missing Dwaves from my last post and then put on the base colours on some more Age of Sigmar miniatures.

Pict 1172: The Battle of Azanulbizar

Pict 1173: Thrór and Thráin II

Pict 1174: Thrór and Thráin II

Thrór and Thráin II will be the leaders of my Erebor dwarves. I have already experimented with allying Thrór with the younger Dáin and his Iron Hills dwarves for a hard-hitting Azanulbizar army and I'm looking forward to using Thráin as well.
Next up will have to be some more Dwarf Warriors!

Pict 1175: Sepulchral Guard and Wight King (WIP)

I also started once again on some more Undead miniatures, this time the rest of the Sepulchral Guard as well as the Wight King that was released at the tail end of Warhammer Fantasy. Again, they use the same colours as the Ulfenwatch, but the Wight King recieved a black cloak to set him apart from the normal warriors.

Pict 1176: Glaivewraith Stalkers (WIP)

At the same time, I also put the base colours and washes on these Glaivewraith Stalkers here. They might technically be from a different faction within the Death army, but I thought they should also fit in with my colour scheme. The spectral tendrils I found somewhat difficult, but for now the plan is to keep them mainly black and maybe even give them a coat of gloss varnish. We will see, how that turns out!

Howling Griffons Sternguard and Dwarven Heroes

These past two weeks, I finished four of the dwarven heroes from my last post: Dáin Ironfoot, King under the Mountain, Thorin III 'Stonehelm', Múrin and Drár. While highlighting, I also wanted to do some work with broader strokes and got on with the Howling Griffons in the form of a Sternguard Veteran Squad.

Pict 1163: Howling Griffons Sternguard Veterans

Pict 1164: Howling Griffons Sternguard Veterans

Pict 1165: Howling Griffons Sternguard Veterans

After last post's successful experiment in painting Space Marines, I dug out this Sternguard Veteran Squad and continued the streak. Instead of the combi-weapon the squad usually comes with, I pulled in another normal Bolter Marine so that they can double as a Tactical Squad in smaller skirmish games such as Combat Patrol or Kill Team.

Pict 1166: Dáin, King under the Mountain and Thorin III 'Stonehelm'

Pict 1167: Dáin, King under the Mountain and Thorin III 'Stonehelm'

The first two dwarves to get finished, were Thorin III 'Stonehelm' and his ageing father Dáin Ironfoot, King under the Mountain. The two of them will allow me to field my Iron Hills in the War of the Ring era – we will see, what the War in the North supplement will bring. Thorin III had his arm slightly reposed to prevent him from unsafely flailing his pick about and painted up very fast in my usual Iron Hills scheme. Dáin on the other hand took a bit more work. I only took out my Battle of the Five Armies Dáin to compare them after I had already painted quite a bit of the new Dáin. I subsequently repainted some areas and I am way more happy with him now.

Pict 1168: Dáin Ironfoot, Lord of the Iron Hills

And while I was at it, I also updated the face of Dáin on foot and riding his pig since the original paintjob from five years ago didn't quite cut it upon closer inspection.

Pict 1169: Múrin and Drár

Pict 1170: Múrin and Drár

These two Dwarves were ported over from the original Khazad-dûm line into the Iron Hills and they do look it. Still nice sculpts of adventuring dwarves always on the move, but a bit generic. Nevertheless, I look forward to trying them out in a game!

Pict 1171: Thrór and Thráin II (WIP)

Thrór and Thráin II are not quite finished yet, but should not take much longer – and after that, onwards to some more Dwarf Warriors for all these heroes to lead!

More Dahshat and Dwarves

A quick update once again since I was mostly in 'build mode' rather than 'paint mode'. But I did get some basecolours onto more Dahshat mercenaries and some Middle-earth dwarves.

Pict 1076: Dahshat Mercenaries (WIP)

These two Authorized Bounty Hunters, two Brawlers and Zuyong Invincible are ready for the clean up stage and their highlights. I managed to get one game in with them and of course they did not perform how I wanted them to. I blame the unfinished paintjob (not at all my lacking tactical prowess).

Pict 1077: Iron Hills Dwarves (WIP)

After redoing the bases of my Erebor dwarves, I had the itch to paint the rest of my Middle-earth dwarves. Some, like the last remaining Iron Hills dwarves have waited for paint for some time but there are a few new additions with Dáin, King under the Mountain and Thorin III Stonehelm. As you can see, these miniatures were just started and I'm still figuring out the colours, especially on the very detailed hair and beards.

Dahshat Company, a Disaster and a very old Vampire

These past weeks I mainly painted some more Infinity miniatures for my Dahshat mercenaries. Seems I'm back on the Corvus Belli train! I also painted an Oldhammer Vampire matching my Cursed City undead.

Pict 1066: Dahshat Heavies

Pict 1067: Jannisary, Djanbazans and Zuyong Invincible

Pict 1068: Jannisary, Djanbazans and Zuyong Invincible

For the first time in forever, I was over at a friend's for a painting session. Since we both play Haqqislam, I started to work on these four infantry models and finished them over the last few evenings.

Pict 1069 - The Rui Shi Disaster

Pict 1070: Rui Shi

Pict 1071: Rui Shi

When I went to varnish these Infinity miniatures last week, disaster stuck when the Rui Shi took a dive down two flights of stairs and shattered into several pieces. After collecting most of the pieces I was quite disheartened especially since I already hated putting it together the first time. Well, now the remote is back together with only little battle damage and only one piece has gone missing.

Pict 1072: "Your wife has such a beautiful neck..." - Graf Orlok

Pict 1073: C18 Vampire Attacking

This lovely miniature is a Vampire from Citadel's 'C18 Night Horrors' Series, released in December 1986. Of course I watched the silent film Nosferatu in preparation and then painted him up rather quickly. I really enjoy his expressive face!

Pict 1074: Erebor Dwarves

I also updated the bases of my Erebor Dwarves to match them to my Iron Hills army. This way I can ally them thogether for a Battle of Azanulbizar theme. Whilst cleaning up the paintjob around the feet, I also took the opportunity to repaint the named heroes' faces. Lastly I also decided to paint up a separate base for my Iron Hills Chariot Captain to stand on, for any time I would ever need three Captains.

Pict 1075: Garden of Morr (WIP)

And here is an update on the rest of my Garden of Morr set. I managed to remove most of the sculpted roses from the all the walls and fences. The stonework has a basecolour and is ready for drybrushing. The detailwork will probably take longer than I expect, but I hope the work will pay of.

Grimhammers and a Dragon

Whelp... Sometimes (read: pretty much always) getting back into the swingg of things for me equals getting distraced by new and exciting projects. On the downside, I didn't get that much painting done on the Nazgûl but on the upside I now have a painted Grimhammer Captain. Other than that I also did some building and finished filling in the gaps of my Carmine Dagon and built her a base.

Pict 440: Grimhammers vs. Gundabad

Pict 441: Grimhammer Captain

Pict 442: Grimhammer Captain

Pict 443: Grimhammer Captain

I'm pretty happy with this Captain - I highlighted the scales of his skirt individually and that shows in contrast to the drybrushed warriors. The tattoo on his head is a little crooked but I like it as a first attempt. I don't think he'll see that much playtime since the profile is not that strong and it has to compete with Young Balin and Young Dwalin - both better and more characterful options. But I might need him for scenarioplay and simply for completion's sake.

Pict 444: Carmine Dragon + Base (WIP)

And to show a bit of my building progress here is a picture of the Carmine Dragon. I went with a selfconstucted base of 100 x 100 mm. The figure itself has a sculped basepiece that is just a bit to big for the screaming bell base and I didn't want to cut anything of. I'm really looking forward to getting some paint on this dragon but I might have to finish some other projects on my table first to make some space.

Thorin and Azog - Mortal Enemies

This week I continued the work on the Hunter Orc heroes but I got a little bit distracted with a certain young Dwarf prince.

Pict 182: Azog (WIP), Young Thorin

Pict 183: Young Thorin Oakenshield

Pict 184: Young Thorin Oakenshield

First up is said Dwarf Prince, the young Thorin Oakenshield. I don't think the sculpt is as great as the young Balin and young Dwalin, but it's still great. Since I took a bit of  a pause from painting at the beginning of the week I had some difficulties with his face - I'm still not quite satisfied with the eyes but I wont do them a fourth time. The comanding pose is a litte awkward, because usually you'd expect the miniature facing the enemy, but this Thorin doesn't even have to. The profile is vey similar to the other Thorins - obviously he can't take Orcrist but the ability to raise the strength of nearby Dwarves may change a combat phase. Especially when paired with Iron Hills Dwarves who will all go to strengh 5.

Pict 185: Azog (WIP)

Pict 186: Azog (WIP)

Once I finished Thorin, I had to get started on his foil - Azog the Defiler. I really like the miniature and think even tough it's made from finecast it still holds it's own against the ForgeWorld characters. Nevertheless I can't wait, what they have in store for us with the armoured version and the signal tower. Right now Azog is still quite WIP - the basecolours and the washes are on; next is the highlighting. I really want to do right by the sculpt - all those little details like the lines on the skin just wait to be picked out.

Next week I'll try to work on some more of the Hunter Orc herose to get them out of the way and start batchpainting the troops. But since I pre-ordered the new edition of 40k I might veer of the path...