Building a Dwarf Army Pt.4

As I mentioned in my previous ‘building a dwarf army post’ – my (revised) plan was to try and get this entire army done within the space of a month… and I almost did it.

At the end of the last post I shared a picture of all the core troops done… so all that was left was the various command models.

Well, here they are:

The two guys on the left are conversions (using the EM4 miniatures as the base model), and the two guys on the right are metal models from Black Tree Design (though both were originally holding hammers, so the spear guy is another conversion).

However, that does leave one more mini to go before I can call the army complete… and that’s this fella:

...and I’ve been putting off painting it as I’m not sure how to tackle the banner.

Some thoughts I had were to simply ‘quarter it’ and call it done (this is supposed to be a quickly painted project after all), or I could buy some decals (though that makes it more expensive), or I could try to sculpt something onto the banner itself (a large rune for example) in greenstuff (as that would probably be a bit easier for me to achieve than trying to freehand a design).

But I’m still not 100% sure about what to do yet – so I’ve put him to one side for now.

That being said, I’ve still been splashing a bit of paint around… as I want to paint up some orcs next. However, the plan for these is to take one sprue of the various orc and goblin kits that have a vaguely Tolkienesque look about them…

(Oathmark orcs and goblins, Wargames Atlantic goblins, and Warlord Games orcs)

...and see what kind of warband I can make with them.

This will also give me A LOT of spare heads when I’m done – so the plan is to see if I can use some of those to convert some of the EM4 orcs that I have as well.

But, as you can see, I’ve not assembled any of these yet, and what I’ve been doing instead is having a go at painting some of the existing (mostly metal) models that I have in my collection – to see if I can work out a colour scheme that I like (mainly for the skin tones).

So, with that in mind, here’s the first two tests on some old Ral Partha orcs…

...which don’t look too bad – but not 100% how I want them (though the guy on the left isn’t too far off).

I’m also considering using these ‘test models’ as a little warband in their own right for a couple of games of Deep Below (a Five Leagues from the Borderlands spin-off) – as I’m probably going to do a few more test models before I’m done… and it would be good to have something in mind for the models (other than them being just tests).

Anyway, as far as the dwarves go, they’re pretty much done (save for the banner bearer)… and it did take around a month to finish them (the first primer was applied on the 22nd September, and the last varnish went on on the 21st October) – and I even had days (almost a week at one point) where I didn’t do anything at all.

So, all in all, I think that’s pretty good going for someone like me :)

Building a Dwarf Army Pt.3

The last time I posted my progress on my small dwarf army, I explained how I was splitting the models up into a few different groups – so that I could paint all the models with blond beards first, then do a second batch of greybeards, and so on.

And while I haven’t had as much time to spend on these as when I first started the project… progress has been made:

So, as you can see in the above picture… I’ve finished all the grey-bearded models on the left, the brown-bearded models on the right, and I’ve also squeezed in a few ginger guys as well.

However, it would be a pretty short blog post if I left it there, so I thought I would show exactly how I’m painting these – with a few pictures showing all of the steps I’m using to get them done in a reasonably quick and easy manner… so here goes!

First the models are undercoated…

...and, as you can see, I’m using a brush on grey primer for this.

Next I paint all of the silver areas…

...and I’m not to careful with this – I just get it in on as quickly as possible.

After that I paint in the skin (note that unless otherwise stated, when two paint bottles are shown, I’m using one drop of each to get the desired colour)…

...and again, I’m only careful on the areas close to the metal… and I don’t worry too much if it gets on the beard etc.

Then I paint the beard itself…

...which, in this case is a ginger colour (and this is the only colour I change on the various minis).

And then I paint in any red(ish) cloth…

...which isn’t a lot on this guy.

Next it’s the green trim around the armour…

...as this complements the red quite nicely.

Then it’s time for a few browns…

...first for the boots, gloves, pouches, etc.

And then a darker colour for the wood and weapon handles:

(note that when there is a white rim on the bottles – these are the Model Colour range… not my main Game Colour paints)

Next is any gold trim etc…

...so the metal plates on the arms, dagger hilts, extra armour plates, and so on.

And finally I tidy up any areas where I might have made a bit of a mess…

...but, generally speaking, it’s usually just dotting the little metal studs.

Once that’s had a few minutes to dry I then apply a wash of 2 parts Fleshshade to one part Wash medium to the face and beard…

...though the beard wash changes depending on it’s colour.

Then the rest of the model gets covered in marine juice/sonic tonic…

...which, if you’re not familiar with, the Sonic Sledgehammer youtube channel has a video HERE.

And when that’s dry (and has also darkened everything down a bit), I add a few highlights with the same original colours – though this isn’t anything too crazy – just a bit of tidying up really...

 ...and, this is when I paint the base too (as you can see I was actually working on two models at the same time when taking these pic’s).

These are then left overnight before I varnish and base them…

...as I also use a brush on varnish – so I like to make sure the paint has had plenty of time to dry/set. Plus, as you can see, I’m just using some ‘geek gaming’ base-ready stuff on the bases – as I think that’s one of the quickest ways of getting them done.

So, that’s all I’m doing with these guys – but if I group them all together...

...they don’t look too bad at all (nothing to shout about – but perfectly good enough for gaming purposes).

And, while I still have a handful more to paint (mostly the ‘command’ types), I think I’m still on track for getting them all done within the space of a month.

So, with any luck, I’ll have them all done when I post the next update (fingers crossed).

Falling Block Traps

It’s been a while (or, at least, it seems that way) since I last released a regular ‘print & paste’ terrain video – because if I ignore the giveaway stuff, the 2D tiles & cards, and the dungeon box (as all of these are kinda their own separate thing)…

 ...I have to go back 4 months to find the last piece of scatter terrain… or five months if I’m just including ‘dungeon’ stuff.

So, it’s been good to get back to more dungeon related scatter terrain (as that seems to be the core content for the channel)… and coincidentally, it’s turned out to be not too dissimilar to the last one I did:

However, despite having an encounter in mind for these (just like the previous ‘traps’ episode), I’ve not included it in the video this time – as I haven’t got it to the table myself yet, and I don’t want to give away the solution just yet (though, to be fair, it’s not super complicated).

Anyway, as usual, you can find the (pay-what-you-want) pdf file over on DriveThruRPG… and I hope that you can get some good use out of them!