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

Itsy Bitsy (Phase) Spider

I started this week's paiting of with the last Goat Rider and then I focused (again) on more DnD monsters. Other than that I painted one more Schicksalspfade miniature and started work on so many projects that I had to take a step back, pack a few things back into their respective boxes and focus.

Pict 160: Phase Spider

Pict 161: Phase Spider

Pict 162: Phase Spider

Pict 163: Phase Spider

Pict 164: Bugbear

Pict 165: Bugbear

First are the mentioned monsters. The four pictures of the spiders show two Phase Sipders made by WizKids in their Nolzur's Marvelous Miniatures line. As with the other miniatures from that line I painted during the last weeks there were some mold lines, but they were not that bad this time around - only the legs had to be scraped. Since the two spiders had the same pose, I cut one from the stoneslab they are sitting on and got her a nice log to drag around. The bugbear painted up rather nicely. I really enjoy the details in the face and am looking forward to painting the other bugbear (it's already in my table...).

Pict 166: Knight from Weiden

Pict 167: Knight from Weiden

Next up is the Schicksalspfade miniature I painted this week. The fully armoured Knight ment a lot of metals and thus he painted up rather quickly (no skin to paint!). I do look forward to getting to play the game sometime - I ordered some more miniatures to complete two warbands of six models and have four mercenaries to change up the lists a bit.

Pict 168: Iron Hills Goat Riders

And lastly here is the group shot of the Goat Riders I promised last week. Now that they are done the only Iron Hills Dwarfs missing right now are the dismounts and the banner bearer and they are coming along nicely! With the amazing chariot up for preorder this week the list of dwarfs that want to get painted might expand in the near future...

Focusing on Schicksalspfade but the Goats are not forgotten

So last week I didn't post an update since nothing really was done. Fortunately this week I got back into the swing of things and managed to paint quite a bit for the game Schicksalspfade. Other than that I finished three goats and with that only one Goatrider is missing the goat.

Pict 154: Garethian Explorer

Pict 155: Nostrian Mercenary

First up are the two heroes I painted or Schicksalspfade. The first one is an explorer from the realm of Gareth, the second a mercenary from the small kingdom of Nostria. I might still change a little bit with the explorer because right now there is almost no blue (the faction's colour) on him. Btu this way he looks good on any DnD table too. The mercenary was a joy to paint - her face really came out great!

Pict 156: Schicksalspfade Doors

Pict 157: Schicksalspfade Objective Markers

Secondly here are some more pieces for Schicksalspfade. The first picture are the doors that I showed some time ago as WIPs - they are now done, waiting to spruce up some dungeons. The objective markers are really nice as well. They are a bit more varied than I normally have them with Warhammer or the Hobbit SBG. The only nuissance was the gold colour on the coins. I hadn't used it in a while and thus the pigment and the medium had separated quite well...

Pict 158: Iron Hills Goat Rider

Pict 159: Iron Hills Goat Rider

And here is one of the finished Goatriders. Nothing really more to say on them - they are still amazing miniatures and I very much look forward to finishing the army. As soon as the army is complete I will make some nice pictures of the army but before that I will show the Goat Riders once they are all completet.

Finally: I bought a Behir do counter all the planned dragons in DnD. But since it is not yet fully assembled I wont show it just yet.

A Dwarf, Monsters, Animals and Schicksalspfade

This week was quite sucessfull with over ten miniatures painted or repainted. The main focus was the session of DnD I hosted on the saturday.

Pict 148: Male Dwarf Fighter (Barbarian)

Pict 149: Male Dwarf Fighter (Barbarian)

First up is a miniatrue for one of the heroes. One of my friends decided he wanted to play a dwarf barbarian and so I was on the lookout for a fitting miniature (Gimli as a stand-in is cool but not quite the same...). I imideatly liked the dwarven fighter by WizKids and with the agressive pose and the fur on his back he would be make for a nice barbarian. The moldlines were not as bad on this miniature as on some others in the WizKids unpainted line. The highlights on the blue cloth seem a bit harsh on the picture - in person they are more suttle.

Pict 150: Grells (Ral Partha) and Batswarm (Armalion)

Pict 151: Blood Hawk, Frog, Badger, Fox and Bat

Next up are some monsters and some animals I painted for the game. The monsters (two Grells by Ral Partha and a Batswam by Armalion) have not yet been pittet against the heroes. And the animals (a Blood Hawk from a Woodelf, a frog from the 5th edition Morgiana and the badger, fox and bat from WizKids) were also not needed, because the druid of the party is still learning the ropes and not quite ready to transform. Nonetheless now there are more options! The batswarm is mounted on a 40mm base, so that I can use him with my Moria Goblins in games of Middle Earth SBG.

Pict 152: Schicksalspfade Heroes

Pict 153: Schicksalspfade Heroes

And lastly I present you with four heroes for the game Schicksalspfade. I use them as heroes in the DnD game since I painted them some time ago when Schicksalspfade was released. I decided to rework them - new resinbase, eyes and better shading - now that they are in use. Getting the miniatures of their original bases was quite hard with the ones that have robes to the ground, beacuse the miniatures have a large bit of metal to keep them upright without pinning. I bought pretty much all of the rules availiable for Schicksalspfade and I hope to use the miniatures for their intended game once the opportunity strikes!

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.

There's progress with the Iron Hills and even more DnD

This week was not as productive as the last few, but I did make some progress with the Iron Hills Goat Riders.

Pict 136: Iron Hills Goat Rider

Pict 137: Iron Hills Goat Rider

Pict 138: Iron Hills Goat Rider

Firstly I'm showing the first completet Iron Hills Goat Rider. I have to say I love these miniatures! Everything is clearly defined and paints up really nicely. I only struggled with the horns because they took so many layers of paint from so many angles to get them where I was happy with them. I'm pleased how he came out overall and look forward to having six painted up and on the table.

Pict 139: Woodelf Sprites (Pixies)

Next up are two more of the Woodelf Sprites that are on my desk right now. As before, they will be used as AoS markers and will double as Pixies for DnD.

Pict 140: Iron Hills Goat Riders (WIP)

And here are the remaining five Goat Riders that I'm working on at the moment. The basecoats and washes are down, so I hope to finish them quickly. Not only because I need them painted on the coming sunday, but also to finish this part of the army. What's still missing then are the dismounts and the Warrior with the banner. Right now I don't think I'll be adding to the army but that might change as more options for the Warriors and more heroes are released.

Pict 141: Schicksalspfade Doors and Markers (WIP)

Pict 142: Crates

The last pictures show the second half of the Dungeons and Dragons order for this month. The pieces that were originally produced for the game Schicksalspfade will mostly get used for DnD but I might give the game a try since I do have two little gangs. I never got around to reading the rules and thus never played the game. As you can see I already started painting the doors - every time a layer of paint was drying on the Goats, I quickly blocked in some colours here.

Pict 143: Wizkids Unpainted

And lastly, here are some more DnD miniatures. I was really intrigued by the rather new Wizkids Unpainted range and decided to give them a try. Having recieved the miniatures, I do have to say the sculpts are good but there are very nasty moldlines, that will have to be removed and some gaps that will have to be filled before I can actually start to paint. The coat of Vallejo primer looks like a good base to work from and I'll probably wont prime over that. I still wait on some GW bases for the Displacer Beasts and the Phase Spiders. But I do look forward to start painting some more minions.

So much DnD, also Goblin Mercenary Conversions

 I had quite the productive week full of painting, converting, cleaning up and priming miniatures. The start of the week saw the arrival of a box full of DnD-miniatures and I just could not help myself and started painting some of them, even though I really should be working on the Dwarven cavallry for the tournament at the end of the month.

Pict 122: Owlbear and Cubs (Darksword Miniatures)

I searched quite long until I found a good owlbear miniature. So when I found this one made by Darksword Miniatures I was overjoyed esspecially because of the adorable cubs that came with it. The three were part of the order that came this week and as you can see, I simply had to paint them. I chose to paint them purple as the owlbears are shown in the Monster Manual - it showes that they are magical creatures - rather than using pictures of real bears and owls.

Pict 123: Goblin Mercenaries (Conversions)

Pict 124: Goblin Mercenaries (Conversions)

Next up are the Goblin Mercenaries I mentioned in the title. I wanted to convert some for my Azog's Legion to have them for the tournaments to come. I made a mold  of a Moria goblin's shield and after I had about 15 copies I cut them up and used them, to put armour on some Goblintown goblins. The goblin in front of the others standing a little higher will be the Captain to lead this warband.

Pict 125: Henry Goatleaf and Barliman Butterbur (eBob)

Next are the other two townspeople made by eBob. I really enjoyed painting the cloth; the folds are very well modelled. I had my difficulties with the hands and the faces but I think are alright now.

Pict 126: Gor and Bestigor

Pict 127: Woodelf Sprites (Boggles)

On the AoS front I finally painted another Gor and a Bestigor as well as two Woodelf sprites. The former were simply done as the ones before. With these two finished I have five and thus half are painted. The latter really are only markers, but I think I will use them in DnD games as Boggles to annoy the players with chaotic fey.

Pict 128: Mimic (Reaper Miniatures)

Pict 129: Mimic (Reaper Miniatures)

Pict 130: Gelatinous Cube (Reaper Bones)

Pict 131: Gelatinous Cube (Reaper Bones)

Speaking of DnD: I also completed two Reaper minis - a Mimic and a Gelatious Cube - two of the really iconic DnD monsters. With the Mimic I hope to keep my players on edge with every treasure chest they encounter, while the Cube will serve to trap and dissolve them. (Well, hopefully it wont be that bad, I still want to get a good story out of the game and prefer to not loose friends.)
The translucent cube was really something new for me and I'm not sure if it needs a litte more work.

Pict 132: New DnD Miniatures

Pict 133: Umber Hulk (DnD Collector's Series)

Pict 134: Eye Tyrant (DnD Collector's Series)

And with the last three photos I present you the other DnD miniatures that came in this last box. I loved the Eye Tyrant as soon as I saw a picture of it in 2012 when it was released. Now I finally own one! But it still needs some more work with the green stuff. The other miniatures of the DnD Collector's Series by Gale Force 9 are amazing as well and I hope to get to them once the Hobbit SBG armies are finished.
Also pictured are two Grells made by Ral Partha quite some time ago and a batswarm made for Armalion. I also got myself Lem the iconic Halfling Bard made by Reaper for Pathfinder. I really like the character the miniature radiates and do look forward to painting it.