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 Dwarves and a Space Marine?!

These past two weeks, I managed to finish my Iron Hills Dwarves in time for a tournement but also did a few more bits and bobs including my first Space Marine in a very long time!

Pict 1156: Iron Hills Dwarf Warriors

Pict 1157: Iron Hills Dwarf Warriors

Pict 1158: Iron Hills Dwarf Warriors

First up are the six Iron Hills Dwarf warriors, I needed for a 1000 points doubles event. We got to play the Iron Hills list twice, but lost both times – my Chariot only managed to drive over 5 orcs in total if I remeber correctly... Anyways, I'm very happy with these Dwarves. I find them to look better than the dwarves I painted, when I started the blog five years ago. This should not be surprising, but I might want to go back to the older ones and touch them up, esspecially their faces. Maybe in the runup to the next event?

Pict 1159: Uruk-Hai Captain (Helmet Conversion)

I also did some scuplting for a good friend I was going to see at the event and put a helmet on this Uruk-Hai captain. Always a good idea to wear one, if you ask me! And of course its a great way to make sure your miniature is different from everybody else's.

Pict 1160: Howling Griffon Badab War Veteran

Pict 1161: Howling Griffon Badab War Veteran

As far as I can tell, this Howling Griffon is the first Space Marine I painted in over four years! I recently was inspired by ArbitorIan's video on the Badab War and a collection of metal Space Marine Veterans primed and ready to go. I always liked the quartered livery of the Howling Griffons, but I also wanted to try and go for a more grimdark / blachitsu style of painting. Fortunately the Howling Griffons wore a darker night world camo variation on their stark yellow/red livery during the Badab War.

Usually I prefer bright and clean colours but I wanted to push my techniques and my horizon a bit. And so I got to experiment with oilwashes and sponging for the weathering. I have to say I'm very pleased with the outcome! I might have to print some decals for the chapter symbol, because I don't want to freehand a griffon on every shoulderpad...

Pict 1162: Múrin, Drár, Thrór, Thráin, Dáin, Thorin III

After my succes with the Iron Hills warriors, I got on with the Dwarf heroes I had started at the same time. For now they have their basecoats and washed done and are awaiting highlights.

600+ Points of Iron Hills Dwarfes all done!

This week, I wanted to focus on finishing some projects instead of starting a bunch of new ones like I did last week. To this end I finished my Iron Hills Dwarves for the Middle Earth SBG.

Pict 169: Iron Hills Banner Bearer

Pict 170: Iron Hills Banner Bearer

Pict 171: Iron Hills Banner Bearer

First up is the Iron Hills Banner Bearer. I doubt that he will see many battles, but it's a really nice model and it came with the Captain, a miniature I wanted to have. I had a little bit of a struggle again with the old Citadel gold paints - I'm thinking of getting the newer ones in hopes of a better mixture of pigment and medium. Other that that he painted up just like the rest of them.

Pict 172: Iron Hills Goat Rider Dismounts

Next up are the remaining dismounts for the Goat Rides. With these done I finally painted all of the Iron Hills Dwarves I currently own. With the Chariot up for sale and the  Dwaves with crossbows anounced at Warhammer Fest, I'm pretty sure that the army as it stands now will grow.

Pict 173: Iron Hills Army (600+ Points)

Lastly here is a picture of the Iron Hills Army so far. When adding up, the army clockes in at around 600 points - excluding the banner bearer for now because he doesn't really fit into the warbands. In tournament settings the effectivity highly depends on scenarios played, since it is really immobile. The main focus is the Ballista and it will mainly stay as far back as it can to get as many rounds of shooting as possible. The really mobile part of the force, the Goat Riders and Dáin, also have to stay back to protect the Ballista since they will die rather fast as a vanguard.
With this as a base I see several ways to develop the force. I might add that chariot and some more Goat Riders (maybe even the characters on goats?) and thus get a more mobile force. I could also go down the infantry road and just get more Dwarves - ideally with sword and shield or with crossbows. More Captains might be
We'll see what ForgeWorld releases and what I fancy then. First in line though might be the new 40k starter box

Two Armies, but only little progress with the painting

So this week I didn't really have much time to paint. So I only finished one of the Goat Riders before the tournament today...

Pict 144: Goblintown and Allies

Pict 145: Iron Hills Dwarves

So the first two pictures are the armies I took to the tournament. With eight players the tournament was on the smaller side but I still got to meet a few new players. I ended up with one minor vitory, a minor loss and a major loss and thus made fith place. I happy with the result, learned something and will return to the next one with more experience and will strive for more!

Pict 146: Iron Hills Goat Rider

And here is the one miniature I finished this week. As with the one last week the Goat is what really takes time and thus the other four are finished except for the Goats. I will try and finish them during the next week, but the priority is with some more critters and monsters for DnD, because I will host a game on saturday.

Pict 147: Fox (WIP)

And lastly: Here's a work in progress for one of the aforementioned critters. I started work on a fox, a badger, a bat and a frog to give the druid in the party some options to turn into animals. I want to paint some more goblinoids to drop onto the players as they explore an overtaken elven ruin.

The Army of the Iron Hills (and some of their Allies)

So this week I can finally present you the first stage of my Iron Hills army completed. With Dáin, a Ballista and 12 warriors I have about 400 points playable.

Pict 079: The Iron Hills Army (Start of March)

The only miniatures I had to finish this week for the completion of the army were Dáin Ironfoot, both on foot and mounted. This I achieved with the painting time in the evenings this week - the mounted model just in time on the friday because I had more games with the army lined up on saturday.

Pict 080: Dáin Ironfoot

Pict 081: Dáin Ironfoot

Pict 082: Dáin Ironfoot

Pict 083: Dáin Ironfoot

I'm rather happy that I finished Dáin - not only is he the leader of my army and the last miniature to complete the first 400 points. He is also the last miniature I had to paint to finish up all the miniatures I bought with my last order from Forge World - so now I'm ready for the next! It should early next week and I'm looking forward to start work on some Goatriders to build up my army to 500 points, ready to fight in tournaments!

Pict 084: Dáin Ironfoot mounted on Warboar

Pict 085: Dáin Ironfoot mounted on Warboar

Pict 086: Dáin Ironfoot mounted on Warboar

Pict 087: Dáin Ironfoot mounted on Warboar

As I said I played some games on saturday. We agreed on 500 points to get a grip on our armies for a tournament in late april. Since only 400 points of Iron Hills were painted, I had to ally in something. I toyed with the idea of using Thranduil, King of Mirkwood for a Battle of the five Armies theme (more on that later) but settled on Young Balin and Young Dwalin for a Battle of Azanulbizar army. Next up are a picture of my and my opponents army ready for battle.

Pict 088: Iron Hills Army with Young Balin and Young Dwalin

Pict 089: Army of Spiders with the Spiderqueen and Drûzhag

Since I planned to ally in Thranduil, I painted him up on wednesday and thursday evening. I really like the scuplt; my only complaint is the sword - even after several bending attempts under hot water, it still is a little bend away from the miniature. But fortunately that's only noticable when viewed directly from the top.

Pict 090: Thranduil. King of Mirkwood

Pict 091: Thranduil, King of Mirkwood

While tossing around ideas for forces that would ally with the Iron Hills, I not only had the young dwarfs in mind, but also the warriors that were present at the battle of Azanulbizar. Thus I bought a box of Grimhammers on a whim and already started to paint them.

Pict 092: Grimhammers (WIP)

I do like the poses and the fact that they are mostly metal because that means they paint up rather quickly. Everything you see on the picutre above was done on saturday evening and sunday morning. The basecoats are down and everything is washed. What's left to do is highlighting and picking out some details. I can see me do this on monday and tuesday evening, but we'll see what the next week brings (I might get distracted by the order from Forge World).

The Luna Wolves Legion Champion

So this week was rather good painting wise - I got to paint a little bit almost every evening and had a great tuesday afternoon paining session with a friend.

Pict 068: Luna Wolves Legion Champion

Pict 069: Luna Wolves Legion Champion

Pict 070: Luna Wolves Legion Champion

Pict 071: Luna Wolves Legion Champion

So here's the first thing I got done this week: my Luna Wolves Legion Champion. I just love the model and since he came in a pack with the Master of Signals I just had to have it. I do like the look of the blade that comes with the model but what's better than a giant chainsword? The hardest part of this miniature was to get the transfer into the space on the left shoulder pad. Once I get around to paint on the red markings onto all of the army I'll be sure to put some onto the heavy chainblade. I will only have to make sure that they don't look to much like White Scars.

Pict 072: Luna Wolves Tactical Marine

Pict 073: Luna Wolves Tactical Marine

Other than thae Legion Champion I also finished the second Tactical Marine. Pretty much the same as with the first one. I really like the faceplate on this one and standing together the white Marines do look rather nice. I very much look forward to having the Tactical Squad finished and taking a group photo.

Pict 074: Gor and Bestigor

Next up are the Gor and the Bestigor, that I had promised for the previous sunday. I added a little bit of blood onto the off hand weapon of the normal Gor - with the next batch I even might try and put some drops onto the base.

Pict 075: Bestigor and Gor (WIP)

Speaking of them: here is a picture of the next two Beastmen I just today got my hands on. I hope to finish the ten from the box, so that I can call this litte project done and move onto some more miniatures, that I want for my DnD game. The next project is already on its way from Forge World but more on that later.

Pict 076: Dáin (WIP 2)

Pict 077: Dáin on Warboar (WIP 2)

Pict 078: Luna Wolves Tactical Marine (WIP)

The last three pictures for today show what I am working on at the moment besides the Beastmen. I already showed Dáin last week and not to much was done on him. At least I finished all the basecoats and the washes and I also have drybrushed his furcoat. As I've said on the one hand I want to take my time with him, on the other hand I want to finish up all the miniatures from the last shipment from Forge World before the next arrives and Dáin would be the last two. With the Goatrider out this weekend I had to get myself some of them. As with my next DnD project they are on their way from Forge World but have not yet arrived. I may do an extra post once they arrive to show all the resin goodies I got for myself.
The last picture is just an other Luna Wolves Tactical Marine. He's just before the shading stage and if I'm lucky I might get to that today. In one of my last postings I complained about the many layers of light grey and white it takes to achive to Luna Wolves armour, but right now I'm rather enjoying the meditative exercise. Let's hope it stayes that way throughout the year!