Dwarf Battle Company Stuff

Today is just some battle company shot of dwarves =)

Here is my starting battle company for my "normal" dwarves. Boggle with his massive shield is the leader, Brynmor with his shovel is second in command and Bluey (the archer with red hair) is the third in command. Joining them are Rocky (two handed standing on a rock), Hornstriker (with the radioactive shield) and Loki Longshot with the bow.

These dwarves are great for a battle company, especially near the start as they have good defence and strength 3 bows. However, they are slow and miss out on cavalry, so some missions are harder than others.

Here's the battle company I made for my son, it's Thorin Oakenshield (the old Balin model, but I've added a piece of wood from the garden to his non-axe arm for a shield) and they're all wearing the colours that are indicated in the book (including Dwalin's blue beard!). It's not a proper out of the book battle company because they're rangers, but Thorin is a warrior and, of course, they have a hobbit =) My son likes the brighter colours and boy, the throwing axes are just nuts in battle companies! All of the heroes are given throwing axes and against some low defence armies in particular they can just be devastating given the low model count of battle companies.

I haven't unlocked any Iron Guard yet, but I've got the models ready to go! I plan on using the King's Champion model for any Iron Guard that become heroes in the making. Strength 4 with 2 attacks, defence 6 and throwing axes! Yes please! 

I've unlocked one Vault Warden team, we decided that they counted as two individuals, the spear guy worth 10 points and the shield guy worth 15 points (to keep the 25 total points). Defence 9 in battle companies is just nuts, and getting a spear in a dwarven battle company can be really useful. I'm not convinced of their use in battle companies yet, it's a lot of points for slow moving, low attack models, but they're strength 4 and high defence, so we'll wait and see how they go. 

The other guys I haven't got any of yet are the Khazad Guard. Automatically passing courage tests while the hero they're bodyguarding is alive when that hero is a dwarf hero with a shield is pretty fun, I reckon! Strength 4, defence 7 looks good too (particularly against pesky armies with strength 2 bows). Also, I love the models =) 

So those are some of the miniatures I'm hoping will hit the table with a bit more levelling up of my companies! Would love to hear any comments from more experienced players as to which options tend to work out better in the long run!

Dwarf Armies

So my son and I got out all my dwarf miniatures to see how many there were now that I've completed the King's Champion.

We arranged them according to type so that I could see them a bit more clearly (with some creative license thrown in to keep things at aleast a little interesting for a 7 year old).

There are:
Balin (who we call Etako).
Dain (who we often call Durin).
2 Dwarf Kings (We often use as captains).
Brynmor (Captain).
Boggle (Shieldbearer).
King's Champion.
14 Warriors with shield
10 Warriors with 2-H weapons
20 Warriors with bows
2 Warriors with banners
8 Rangers with throwing axes
8 Rangers with 2-H weapons
8 Rangers with bows
6 Iron Guards
5 Vault Warden teams
20 Khazad Guards

Click on the pics for bigger sizes as always!

Here are the Vault Wardens and Dain/Durin

Etako with some other Kings and the King's Champion

Some more of the previous, showing some of the line of Iron and Khazad Guard

The back section shows some of the shielded dwarves, warriors and rangers.

Continuing along you can see the main body of axes

Here on the other side are more shields and bows in the back row.

And lastly a sort of side shot to show off the new banners =)

So there you go, roughly 1700 points depending on some of the options for the Kings etc. I know there are bigger armies out there, but I quite like how you can just paint and paint for a while and then put them all together to look pretty cool =)

Next up I need to finish painting some goblin prowler conversions and then do the same for my goblin army!

WIP painting dwarves including khazad guard - first highlight

Firstly, hope you like the new page setup, decided to personalise it a little more with some fancy title fontage, easy to read from background colour, custom graphics and general prettification. Also a balrog.


The dwarves have still been getting some quality time here and there and I've just finished the first lot of highlights. Well, all except the beards, which are next on my list.

This consisted of doing some more purple and turquoise over the previously washed areas, chainmail paint over the washed boltgun metal, bronze on some of the khazad armour, gold on the heroes, dwarf flesh on the highlit skin areas, bestial brown lines on the leather and wood and probably something else I'm forgetting.


So yeah, it's been quite a lot of stuff, hence the lack of recent updates here on the blog. You can click the pics for larger views as always, here's one of the back rows:

And the kings, still not sure what to do with the one on the left's cloak edging. I was going to paint runes all over it, but I think it's just too small for me!

I'm pretty happy with how most of them are turning out, it's great to see them at this level of completion. Really they're way better than they need to be for just playing with, but I'm still going to do another highlight layer, wash some of the leather, touch up the beards, paint some runes on flat surfaces, eyes on those that have open eyes etc. Still, from here on it's really gravy, so it's a lot more fun to do =)


Anyway, time to stretch a little, then head out to do a little more shopping for the impending baby! Man, and I thought plastic and metal miniatures were expensive, our flesh and blood miniature is costing a fortune and it's not even here yet!

WIP painting dwarves including khazad guard - Washes

Well, the Lord of the Rings may be dark and scary and the Strategy Battle Game might have (mostly) clean cut rules, but my dwarves all look dirty and manky now!


That's right, they've had their washes done and always look a little dirty afterwards. Fortunately, they also regain a lot of their miniature detail!


You can now see their fingers, definition on the face, cracks between armour plates, different parts of hair etc.


I used Badab Black on all the armour, rocks and pillars, Devlan Mud on the boots and other brown bits, Leviathan Purple on the, duh, purple, Asurman Blue on the turquoise and Ogryn Flesh on the skin. The beards got miscellaneous brown, black and Sepia washes depending on my mood =)

You can really see how dulled down the metallics are, great if that's what you're going for (which I do with goblins) but not so much for my well polished and oiled dwarves, obviously they get a second paint coat next.

For comparisons, here are the three Kings before and after. The skin and beards are the most noticeable I think.

 So now it's almost back to the drawing board =) Second coats of paint go on now, but not in the recesses. I leave the washed areas in the deeper folds of beards, cloaks, armour and skin and paint the original colour on the higher areas. That gives me a nice two-layered effect.


Mostly that's even enough to make them look really good, but I usually then put a further highlight layer on that (and sometimes yet another on the special characters).


I'm only spending a few hours a day on it and, as you can see, there will be 35 more dwarves ready to go in another week or so (if I keep at it). If you were a keen painter, had the time and a back and neck that didn't ache as much as mine does, you could knock this whole process off much, MUCH more quickly, obviously.


At the same time as I paint I watch DVDs, at the moment the History Channel's series on Barbarians (borrowed from the library) interspersed with Star Trek Voyager (borrowed from my brother). It's a great way to pass the time when painting easy bits, like slapping on washes.


Still not sure what to do on the dwarf king trimming bits yet, but had better come up with something soon! 

WIP painting dwarves including khazad guard - beards and skin

Huzzah!

Finally finished the first layer of paint on all these dwarves. The Khazad Guard were easier, with face masks blocking, well, their faces. 


They actually look a bit like dwarves now. Yesterday and today I finished off the grey on the pants, the beards in a variety of colours, and the skin.


I used foundation paints for the grey and the skin to make it go over the black undercoat a little easier. I've gotta say, I remembered a few things from the last lot of batch painting I did at this stage.


I did the beards first before the skin, it's easy to slip with beards. They're so big that sometimes you lose a little concentration and some beard colour strays. Because I'm using foundation paints for the skin, it's no problem to do it secondly as it covers up everything.


Speaking of which, I water my foundation paints down A LOT. They really gunk up brushes if you don't water them down and rinse your brush really regularly. They'd be considered a huge pain if they weren't so awesomely good at covering up the black, which was always a problem for me when putting a skin tone on top.


Anyway, here are a couple of happy snaps.

If you click on the pics you might notice on the larger version that although the first coat is done, it's a bit sloppy in places. There are always slips of the brush or dogs barking nearby you that cause accidents to occur. Still, now I can neaten them up a bit and start the process of highlighting. 


I love this stage, because now it looks like I have a nice little squad of dwarves! It's absolutely amazing how much personality and finishedness you gain when that last bit of black undercoat is gone!


For anybody else out there who struggles with batch painting, this is the moment where it suddenly feels worthwhile!


Although I still haven't done the eyes yet. *shudder* I remember that from last time =(


The keen eyed followers of the blog may notice a little turquoise on some of the rank and file. An arm here, a shoulderpad there. I wanted to make sure that the army as a whole still blended together, so there's just a little showing. Will have to wait and see how it looks when they're all mixed in with my last batch of troops. I left all of their trousers grey, they look so bright at the moment, can't remember how many washes I did last time, but there's only one way to find out I guess.


Well, there are many ways, but barring a time machine or some sort of memory device I think I'll just go for one wash at a time until they look similar.


Thanks for all the kind words on the forums, hopefully they'll start looking better soon as more detail emerges =)

WIP painting dwarves including khazad guard - blues

Well, my lotr sbg dwarven ebay force now has a layer of turquoise also. Most of the warriors don't have any, they all had grey trousers in the original batch I painted. The Khazads and heroes all have turquoise as highlights (as do the dwarves on their shields). So now I'm not sure if I want to go back and repaint my warriors to change their trousers to turquoise as well. It's such a small amount, but adds quite a "pop".


Then again, it's nice to have even more difference between the warriors and the elite guards...


Decisions, decisions!


Here's what I'm talking about:

So on the left are some of my original batch. The trousers are grey, with brown washes added so that they don't just look like the ground. On the right are some of my Khazads (only a couple of them actually have visible pants). They have the blue on them.


I do like the blue, but not sure I can be bothered re-painting all my other dwarves =)


Anyway, here are the current mob all blued up (remember you can click for a bigger version)...

As you can see, the new camera takes, imho, a pretty good shot =) Can't wait to use it in battle, so to speak!


I guess I should go and do beards now, for some reason I don't like doing beards, but they'd look pretty silly with all black ones =)


Oh, and thanks for the nice comments on the forums, these are, so far, just all using paint straight out of the tub, though watered down a little. The purple is just Liche Purple, the blue is Hawk Turquoise, the brown is Scorched Brown, the metal is Boltgun Metal.


Any nice smooth shading effects you're seeing are just the natural lighting on them, not any paint shading. I won't do any of that until all of them have a full base-coat.

WIP painting dwarves including khazad guard - brown

Been pretty busy this last week, so haven't really done any painting, finished the brown layer off this morning.
Did some beards brown, will do others blonde, grey, red etc. so that's why some are beard painted and others aren't.
Looks like we'll probably fork out for a new camera soon, so hopefully that will mean better shots in the future!

And with the new camera =)

I don't know if you can actually tell from these size images, but the new camera is fantastic! It's roughly a bazillion times better =)

Anyway, slow but steady progress (made slower by all the cheap games on Steam at the moment!)

WIP painting dwarves including khazad guard - Purple

Had an afternoon off, so did the purple today, must be getting old, 'cos it's hard to sit and paint, sore shoulders and neck! Should organise to get a higher desk and chair, but instead I just paint one row at a time before having a bit of a break

I start up at the back right hand corner, since I use my left hand to pick up and put back the miniatures. That minimises any chance of bumping already painted ones.

The paint on the king cloaks is still a little wet, I took the photo just after doing them, so it's not shading you see, just wet paint!

Will probably do the brown next, but not today!

WIP painting dwarves including khazad guard - Metallics

Well, it took a couple of days doing a bit here and a bit there, but have done the metallic first coat now.


You may notice that it's a different order to last time. With the chainmail sections of armour I tend to do a sort of drybrushing, which always intrudes a little into adjacent areas. Last time I saved this until later in the process, not having done it before, and bits of metal got onto other bits.


I know this happens when batch painting, but want to minimise it without adding to the total time taken. I was also a little less careful than last time, knowing now that the badab black wash does a great job of separating out the armour plates. 

As before I've used Boltgun metal to paint the armour on my snazzy new collection of dwarven warriors, archers, khazad guard and kings. On top of the rank and file this will be topped with chainmail and highlighted with mithril on some plates, bronze on others. The kings will get chainmail, mithril and gold.


I find the chainmail armour the hardest, getting the link definition without blobbing into the little holes is tricky and I don't think I get it right very often. Fortunately from a gaming distance it's no problem!


Not sure what colour I'll do next. Probably purple or brown.


Will keep plugging away a little at a time before cracking and doing at least one by itself. =)

WIP painting dwarves including khazad guard

Well, I bid on a couple of ebay auctions and accidentally won all of them!
They're all metals and include:
12 dwarven warrior archers
6 dwarven warriors with shields
3 dwarven warriors with two handed axes
11 khazad guard
2 dwarven kings
Dain
a couple of Balins and four sprues of scenery.


I will be following pretty much the same order as last time, so far I have assembled them and spray painted them black as a base (though I didn't do a great job and will have to touch them up or just spend a bit more time on the metal bits that are showing (not an issue really if it's armour!)


My wife picked out some beads from a jewellry making shop that look a little like bits of columns or something, so I've popped them on a few bases, which I've done a Codex Grey drybrush (heavy) followed by a light Fortress Grey one. Can't really tell in the pictures, but the second brushing really helps!

The kings and heroes are standing on some bits of gravel I found outside, one of them is on a bit of balsa wood that I scratched up a bit. A few of the other dwarves are also randomly angled by putting one foot on a small pebble.


The neat thing is that once these are all done I'll be able to field 20 archers (2 volleys of strength 3 bows), have 10 2-handed warriors (after converting one previously to a banner), 20 khazad guard (I love those guys)  and some miscellaneous heroes to come up with stories for =)


Also I quite enjoy painting the shield guys, so more of those is always good!


If my brother and I ever decide to have a crack at war of the ring it'll be easier now with the selections I have.


And I think after these are painted up I may even have as many points of dwarves as goblins!


No ETA on finishing, what with Christmas, New Years and a baby due soon, but I'll update when I can

Khazad Guard

For the scenario we're playing later this week I need two heroes and their guards. So I painted Etako, and already had an old Gimli, but they had no bodyguards so...


Incoming Khazad Guard.


Based as all mine are, sprayed black then here they are with their first coat of paint.
Same as the other dwarves really. Liche Purple, a few bits here and there of Hawk Turquoise. Boltgun metal over all the metal bits, Tallarn Flesh on what little skin you can see. Codex Grey on the bases. Scorched brown on the leather and weapon hafts. The beards got a miscellaneous dose of Scorched Brown, Astronomicon Grey, Iyanden Darksun etc.

As you can see, there are four different poses that I have, two sets of twins. In order to distinguish them for each set I've painted them slightly differently.

So for one I've done inverted bronze and silver and also put gauntlets on one and flesh on the other.

And the backs...

This will also help in our scenario. The three with bronze chainmail and the inner bit of the helmet bronze can be the guards for Etako, the ones with bronze armour plates and bronze outer bit of the helmet can be the guards for Gimli.


Next lot of colouring and layering...

And from the back...

The steps I used were a mix between the batched dwarves and Etako. They got three layers on the purple one straight, one darker with wash, one lighter. The belt/strap was scorched brown/bestial brown/snakebite leather. The hairs were a mix of highlights and washes. The shiny metallics were boltgun/chainmail/mithril, with black washes in the lines between them. The boots and weapons were scorched brown, drybrush/edged bestial brown then devlan mud washed. The skin was tallarn flesh/wash/dwarven flesh highlights.


Here are some shots of Etako and his guard...

Sorry about the camera colourings, still, you get the idea at least!
But... I hear you ask... how different do they look from the batch dwarves?
I'm glad you asked...

So there you have it, a tough outer shell with a tougher inner shell =)
Now I have to decide whether I want the actual face-plate to be silver or bronze on the silver mailed ones.
One of my guard has bronze plating on his face. Why didn't I do it with two more? Well, the one I did the whole plate joins with the helmet. On the others a nose-guard comes down from the top ridge and the face-plate sort of sits underneath it. So I have the noseguard and ridges already bronze and for contrast I left the faceplate silver. Still making up my mind on that dire issue =)


Probably breaking from painting for a little bit and will be away all next week, so the Iron Guard will be on the back-burner for a while I'm sorry to say!