Fuel for the fire

Well, I actually have managed to get some more models done, so have a few pictures. In addition, I managed to find my list of what I currently owned and how many I needed, but it needed updating, as I've said before - unfortunately, although I went through all of the models, I didn't find the time today to take pictures of them in massed ranks: still, I have to strip a lot fo the models anyway, so it would just look a little odd if I posted up pics of half of my stuff painted in my scheme and about three others - all in various stages and qualities: hopefully, I'll soon have them all done, but we'll see how it goes!

Without further ado, a list of what I have and how many more are needed:

Bows: Needed in total - 32, Have - 18 (~10 unpainted, ~4 painted but without cloaks), Needed - 14 more.

Two-handed Axes: Needed in total - 32 (30 with the command choices), Have - 25 (unknown unpainted), Needed - 5-7 more.
Shields: Needed in total - 40 (38 with the command choices), Have - 31 (unknown unpainted), Needed - 7-9 more.
Khazad Guard: Needed in total - 32 (30 with the command choices), Have - 18 (1 to be used as either a King's Champion or a Captain), Needed - 12-14 more.
Iron Guard: Needed in total - 32 (31 with the command choice), Have - 8 (all need to be stripped, debased, painted, re-based), Needed - 13-14 more.
Vault Wardens: Needed in total - 24, Have - 2, Needed - 22 more.
Characters: 2 Balins (1 undercoated), 1 Gimli (debating repainting), 1 Captain, 1 Banner Bearer, 1 Dain Ironfoot (needs stripping and repainting)- Unknown numbers of needed, but 1 Balin is surplus.

More excuses!

Well, back with a tiny thing for the Dwarfs - been too busy of late to actually do anything more than this, although I shall try to get an army shot/army list/models so far out of models total and thusly models needed, posted as soon as possible.

Business in trying to find a job, seeing my grandparents and their sister, doing Chaos Dwarf Radio (which I'm editing as I type) and a meeting to do a photoshoot/readthrough for a webseries that I'll be in the filming of over the next couple-few months.

Regardless, the progress so far was buying another 5 packs of Infantry Movement trays, opening them and putting them in the drawer with the rest of them. Not exciting, but necessary to get them - yet to spray/paint them though (shame on me, but I had to build the drawers that they've gone into! Better to have your stuff safely stored to be painted than to have things painted and damaged ;) ).

Apologies for the liberty-taking lack of pictures and coolness, but sometimes real life is a pain like that - the only painting that I got done, in fact, was a smattering of Easterlings (literally, less than a handful) and that was because they were right there to be painted.

Community WiP September challenge completed!

As some of you may know (most likely, most of you), The One Ring has started a new WiP Community thread, wherein, at the beginning of each month, you post a picture of 80pts of models (or one infantry/2 cavalry companies from WotR) and aim to show finished models at the end, with a few updates. Well, I posted my pictures, updated the next day and have just finished them off!

My list was:
* a Vault Warden Team @25pts
* 5 Khazad Guard @ 55pts
for a total of 80pts exactly!

I chose those guys because I could've done a company of Khazad Guard, but I wanted to use my Shadow Grey on something with shields and what has bigger shields than the Vault Wardens (the Black Guard nearly do, lol)? I tested it ou and I think that it looks great and helps to sell the idea of being linked to the shieldwarriors in the same way that Khazad Guard are linked to great-weapon warriors (I.E. the colour is the same, but a different shade, as well as similar armour/armament).

In terms of colour-scheme, I believe that I've already posted the Khazad Guard, but I may as well reiterate: sprayed black and the cloth areas painted Mechrite Red [note: this colour is a recent addition], then (in whichever order suits best) Dwarf Flesh for the skin, Burnished Gold on the scale armour/helm, Boltgun Metal on the axes and chain/ringmail, Blood Red on the cloth, Graveyard Earth for the bases and trousers (seen poking over the boots), Scorched Brown for belt and boots and a variety of colours for beards (in this case: Fortress Grey, Chaos Black, Kammando Khaki and Vermin Brown).

Next up, are the Vault Warden Team. these guys are done in pretty much the same way as the shieldwarriors, except they get Shadow Grey instead of Ultramarines Blue. Still, to walk you through it: undercoat black, then (in a suitable order), Boltgun Metal on armour (not helm), weapons and shield trim, Shadow Grey on the cloth/shield, Dwarf Flesh for the skin (inside the masks), Chestnut Ink (must be done after the Boltgun Metal ;) ) on the scale armour [note: ONLY scale armour), Burnished Gold for the helm, Desert Yellow on the rope, Scorched Brown for pouches, boots, belts and shieldstraps and, lastly, Graveyard Earth ont the gloves, trousers and bases.

Anyway, hope this is a nice break from repeated basic warriors, I'll try to keep it mixed up a little, but next month's entry might be the Easterlings ;)

Dwarf-sized update!

Apologies to all for not having posted for a while. I got a bit sidetracked with Chaos Dwarf Radio (which can be found here: http://www.chaos-dwarfs.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=8076 ) and, more recently, auditions, as well as a miniseries for Chaos Dwarf Radio based around Chaos Dwarfs in 8th edition.

I have completed a little work with my Dwarfs, but not anything to shot out about. The first thing to note is that I collected up my models (excepting those that needed stripping and those that were painted) and clipped of the flash from the metals (8 Khazad Guard, Balin and a Vault Warden Team) with the help of my girlfriend.

I proceeded to spray them, including the metals listed above, as well as 8 plastics (something like 4 warriors with bow, 1 with axe and 3 with shield). As part of the One Ring's community WiP challenge, I took a before picture of 80pts of Dwarfs (5 Khazad Guard and the Vault Warden Team), then began to paint them.

I nearly completed the lot of them, but I have to add more paint to the bases, tidy them up and get the beards painted and then they're done! Did them all in one evening (not even a long one, it was during one film and only because I was going really slowly, lol), but it got too dark and I took another picture of their current stage.

Apologies for the bad lighting/pics. Need to buy some batteries for my camera ;)

Scouting the frontier.

Well, I felt that my Dwarf blog and army had been somewhat neglected of late, so I decided to get cracking on it. I had 19 Dwarfs out to paint today and managed to do 16 of them (the other three will wait for a batch of like-armed Dwarfs).

The 19 that I had were my original 8 painted archers, 8 painted great-weapon warriors and three undercoated, newly-bought shield warriors. I updated the paint scheme of both of the full companies, but got nowhere with the shieldwarriors. I was unsure as to the paintscheme for the cloaks of the archers-turned-rangers, but went with Fortress Grey. Unfortunately, this meant having to change the grey beard, so I decided to rid myself of the black beards as well due to the fact that their sword-handles were black as well and I obviously had to change the Scorched Brown beards because the leather armour is Scorched Brown with 'Ardcoat (or gloss) varnish on it.

Regardless, I think that the results are quite cool and pretty much what I was hoping for. I chose greens and browns for mountain forests and the grey cloaks for the mountian-sides. The new beard colours include Calthan Brown, Skull White and Terracotta. My only problem now is that I have to sculpt cloaks on the other four, as well as all further rangers! Very time-consuming.

If anyone wants to trade rangers with bows for archers, then I'm happy to trade with you :D Are there any thoughts on the new colour scheme or simple ways of improving it? Anything that is very much a no-no for you? A little tip for anyone else: just start from scratch when changing colour scheme, otherwise little bits show through (as you may be able to see with the two-handers) and you keep missing parts, etc. very annoying, even if you do make something more akin to what you wanted.

So, I managed to change the archers' scheme almost entirely and repaint the Ultramarines Blue with Scab Red. Overall, quite productive and looking good to me. Very much pleased with how it'll make the overall army look, even if I have reversed upon my own work, lol.

Camo green for camoflauge!

Howdy, y'all! Sorry for the delay, but I've been entertaining my Dutch friend for the past two weeks and not got much done. However, since shipping him back off to the Netherlands, I have managed to work out the majoirty of the new scheme for my Dwarf Rangers, as well as complete another three great weapon warriors.

To keep you in suspense (or at least make you scroll more if you skip this part), here are the three great weapon warriors, all in the new Scab Red scheme. Going to take a while to change the Ultramarines Blue into Scab Red on the ones that I've already painted, but it should be worth it!

Now for the moment that you may or may not have been waiting for! The new ranger-scheme: The armour is Scorched Brown with a coat of 'Ardcoat Gloss Varnish for shiny lacquer-effect, the belt and boots are Vermin Brown, the trousers and sleeves (as well as base) are still Graveyard Earth, the bows and arrows are still Kommando Khaki, witht he fletching (arrow feathers) are still Liche Purple, the skin is clearly still Dwarf Flesh, the beards are from the usual choice, the helmet and arrow-tips are Boltgun Metal, the tunic/gambeson is Catachan Green and, lastly, the scabbards are Camo Green! As you can tell, these don't yet have cloaks sculpted on (although I'm considering a new method of sculpting them), so I've not confirmed my colour choice there... However, I'm thinking Fortress Grey, muddied with Graveyard Earth at the hem so they can blend with mountain-forest or the mountain itself... Any thoughts?

New cloak design: I'm thinking of creating a thin wire frame and bending it to shape, then adding the greenstuff on to that...

Apologies...

Hey all! Sorry for the month and a week's worth of delay, things got a little hectic (what with interviews, sorting out second stage interviews, auditions, script-readings and my girlfriend training for and starting her new job). Anyhow, I haven't really had all that much time for painting and the little bit that I did do, was actually for my Easterlings. To show my annoyance at a lack of progress and regularity (regarding updating you chldren :P ), I have a picture to explain:

STUPID LACK OF GETTING IT DONE! :D


Now, to be more serious, I DID get lucky and win a small lot of 9 Dwarfs on eBay. In that little package, I got 3 Dwarfs with Dwarf bow, 2 Dwarf Warriors with shields, Dain Ironfoot, 2 Khazad Guard and a Dwarf Warrior with Two-handed axe: all of them metal as well! So, I'm fairly pleased with that and there's not too much paint on them, so stripping them should be quick and easy. As a result of now owning the Dain model, I have ended up with a spare Balin. In my last update, I said how I was getting a box of Balin's Guard and I decided that the Balin I received would be converted into Dain (the models are based on the same armature), but I clearly no longer need to do that. I may convert him into Floi, so any thoughts on how to do so would be excellent. If not, I'm willing to trade him off (and will do so when I get my next company of Khazad Guard. For a pound, I upgrade one to Balin, trade him to someone that wants him and get a model that I need, without ending up with spare Khazad Guards. Makes perfect sense to me!).

Another thing is that I counted how many models I have, how many my 2,000 point list needs and then worked out how many more I need until I have enough (then I can get rid of any spares straight away). Annoyingly, when my girlfriend tidied the bedroom (whilst I was out for 11 hours to do a script reading), I ended up losing track of where I'd put it, heh (I'd like to point out that that's my doing and not hers! Yes, she reads this, but I want facts to be truthful :D ). Well, I know that I need quite a lot more of most things. I would prefer getting Dwarf Rangers with bows to Dwarf Warriors with Dwarf bows because then I don't need to sculpt cloaks on and, whilst my first came out great (on a Khazad Guard that became a King's Champion), the next lot didn't do so well, unfortunately. Regardless, I shall try to find the list and then post it up and try to get more painted and posted! Who knows, there may even be a (WotR) battle report against my girlfriend's Wood Elves soon (even if I am playing as both sides!).

Here's an amusing picture to help apologise for a lack of Dwarf pictures this time:


Thanks again for reading and hope to be typing to you sooner than last time!

Tiny update.

Well, this tiny little update is just to say that I used my £30 GW vouchers (was given them for my birthday a while ago) to buy Balin's Guard (8 Khazad Guard and Balin) and a blister of Vault Wardens (always get a tower shield Dwarf and Dwarf with pike). In the bundle, I received a free copy of the Black Library previews and a basic, but decent enough bookmark. The plan is to use the Khazad Guard as an instant extra company of them (you basically get Balin for a pound by doing it this way ;) ) and to either trade Balin off, sell him or convert him somehow. Any thoughts on what to convert him into? Any thoughts on how?

The Vault Wardens are obviously to start building up a Vault Warden formation and, until then, can be used as a shieldbearer (he certainly DOES have a shield ^^ ) and maybe a makeshift Mardin or just a captain of some kind... Maybe Floi Stonehand: put simply, anything as a stand in.

I have finished the first preview in the book and making use of the bookmark. That's about it, lol :D

A little later than expected...

I did begin painting the Dwarves that I said I would later that day, although I didn't complete them as lighting got rather poor. At the end of the evening, however, this is as far as I had got. As you can see, I still had the belts, boots, leggings, sleeves and beards left to paint, as well as tidying the models up and basing them, of course.

On to the finished results! I got around to completing all six of these guys last night, but didn't get around to taking pictures until today (after a trek out to the two local hobbyshops to get some more paints: why two? The first is closed today and next Wednesday and I wasn't aware of it). The beards are Desert Yellow, Iyanden Darksun and Vermin Brown (in the second picture, it's Iyanden Darksun, Vermin Brown and Desert Yellow ;) ). One of the great things about taking pictures and looking at them on the computer is that you get to see where you've made mistakes that need tidying up. Especially when you can;t see them in the poor lamplight that I finished them off in :D Still, it's just adding a little to the trim of a pair of shields and tidying the tabard of one, which I'll do when I get to painting more Dwarves.

I also decided to apply my Catachan Green test to the archers, which I think looks pretty nice and will certainly be more fitting (and wise for them to wear), particularly for when I finish converting them into rangers. Not sure how I want to redo the armour, just yet, but I'm thinking something like Vermin Brown with a Snakebite Leather Highlight or Scorched Brown with a Vermin Brown highlight (maybe leaving the metal showing on the studs to make it appear riveted).

I played a test game using a 350 point tournament doubles list (with my girlfriend) againstour Evil doubles armies. Each loss was heftily felt since we had 21 models between us, but we decimated the Evil armies (Easterlings and Dol Guldur). The most useless models were the Mordor Troll, the Castellan of Dol Guldur and Legolas. The best model of the game was this fellow. He managed to survive three three against one fights, two two on one fights and a few one on one fights, often killing someone each time! To boot, he didn't even die :D Any ideas on how to mark him out, without making him stand out like a character? I was thinking a blodied axe and maybe a battered shield or something?

To finish off, I also bought (or rather, ordered) a box of Balin's Guard (another 8 Khazad Guard and Balin, whom I will either convert or try to trade off) and a blister of Vault Wardens, so that I can expand my Khazad Guard formation and so that I can start building my Vault Wardens unit. Undecided if I should make it a single company or two: I don't really think I'm prepared to spend the money/trade the models necessary to get to three or more companies :D

Mines & Models

Hello all and welcome to my first blog entry for Mines & Models! Within this weblog, I am hoping to keep an up-to-date report of my progress on my Dwarf armies for both Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game and for the War of the Ring massed battles game. First up is the current situation and standing of my force.

To start with, I have two full companies of shieldwarriors, with a third that is three models short (happy to take three spare shieldwarriors off of anyone, if they'd like :D ), which is twenty-one overall. Of these, I have eight completed by me, eight completed by somebody else, which I plan to strip (sorry!) and repaint in my own scheme and the last five have some green painted on, which I will either paint over or strip and start again.


Just a quick close-up of a shieldwarrior. I have finally based some models, by which I mean, all of my completed WotR Dwarves have some snow on their base. The colour scheme here is Scorched
Brown for the boots and belt, Graveyard Earth for the base, trousers and sleeves, Ultramarines Blue for the tabard and shield, Boltgun Metal on the scalemail, axe, buckle and shield trim (and boss), Chestnut Ink on the scale armour, Dwarf Flesh on the skin and Burnished Gold on the helmet. Add a little Games Workshop basing snow to the base (usually, but not always, five splodges. One in front, on ebehind, one to each side and one in the middle somewhere.) and it's all done! Well, except for the beards ;)


Second are my Dwarf Archers. The picture of the company wasn't great, so I decided to just give you a close up of a couple of them. I have eight and all of them are completed. Now, the sharp-eyed amongst you may see a thin strip of green on the right hand model (the one with the grey beard). I'll explain that with the next picture, but I want to explain the paint scheme here: They are painted as above, but the blue is replaced with Scab Red, the bow and arrows are Kommando Khaki and the fletching is Liche Purple. However, I want to switch the Scab Red for Catachan Green.
Now you get to see what the slither of green was! Although you may have been able to see whilst reading the last part, anyhow :D
As you can see, I have attempted to sculpt a cloak onto the grey bearded archer. I have done this to four of the archers and plan to do it to the other four (hopefully a little more smoothly, although I may add a thin extra layer of greenstuff to this one to smooth it out), with my reasoning being: in WotR, for pure shooting value, the rangers are better. Add some cloaks, repaint the red in green and paint the scale mail as leather brigandine armour and they're instant rangers (much more useful to me). Also, I don't really fancy haveing rangers with great weapons from their actual boxed set, so it works out to be a win-win situation for me. Making the most of the warriors box, avoiding having models that I'd only want to trade, practicing my greenstuff work and having more unique looking rangers (that can still feasibly be used as archers!).


Enough blabbering about the archer/rangers :D We'll move onto my great weapon/two-handed weapon warriors. Two companies (or sixteen models) of these guys, eight of which are in my scheme, seven painted by the person that painted the shieldwarriors and one that is done in a small amount of green. These guys are done exactly the same as the shieldwarriors, but I think it may look better if they are done in Scab Red (so, painted in the current archers' scheme), which also helps to separate the shieldwarriors and two-handed weapon warriors formations. It would also help to tie them into their elite counterparts (also in red), which is something that I think I shall carry over to the other units. So, for example, the shieldwarriors' elites would be the Vault Wardens (which I don't yet have any of) and the rangers' elites would be... Ballista? MAYBE Iron Guard (because I have them, lol :D )... Still, I think you get the idea and point of what I'm going on about ;)

Just a quick close up of one of the two-handed weapon guys. Got a little space to use up, so I may as well say that I randomly choose the colours of the beards, but tend to keep it between Fortress Grey, Beastial Brown, Scorched Brown, Chaos Black, Iyanden Darksun, Vermin Brown and a few others, sometimes using some inks (from the old range, so not washes, although they'd likely work better), from a selection of Black Ink, Chestnut Ink and occassionally Brown Ink too.




Eight Iron Guard (or a single company), recently acquired in a trade-off for 16 Uruk-hai Scouts, which I shall miss, but never really had a use for :D Anyhow, I haven't yet decided how I would like to paint them, but if I choose for them to be the "elites" of my rangers, then a green is likely to be best (maybe Camo Green? It's lighter, which matches the difference between the two-handed weapon warriors and the Khazad Guard and isn't as garish as Goblin Green... Thoughts, please?). Regardless, these were painted when I got them and need to be updated, both to fit into my army and because they are somewhat chipped of paint (and, unfortunately for me to have to say, are better done than my current painting skills. Eleven years of gaming and I'm still not confident in my ability to use highlighting yet :D ).
So, currently, the idea for the scheme will be to paint them as I have all of the warriors, but giv ethem Camo Green tabards, paint the helmets like I have with the Khazad Guard (which are coming up next), except maybe leave the chainmail without any ink... Will that make them look too bland?

The next item on the list are my Khazad Guard. I have a single company of eight models and am planning to buy another box of Balin's Guard (or whatever it's called) to get another eight and a spare Balin model, which is much better value than buying them separately in blisters. Obviously, these guys need to be in more than one company, but their only defence is their defence, which is lower than my shieldwarriors, so I may need to screen them, but I definitely need more bodies, but I'm trying to decide how many are needed. Two companies are an absolute minimum, but for them to be effective three is necessary and for them to be effective after losses to shooting, I'm thinking four or five would better, but that gets ridiculously expensive. I think I would like four companies though, so any ideas here would be great :D Any comments on effectiveness and ideal numbers would be great too. The colour scheme for these guys is still fairly simple: Blood Red tabard, Scorched Brown boots and belt, Burnished Gold (over Chaos Black) armour, Dwarf Flesh skin and Boltgun Metal on axes and chainmail and Graveyard Earth for the base (with added snow!). I think that over 25% of these guys also have Fortress Grey beards, which was a concious decision because they are meant to be the most trusted and the bodyguards of the Dwarf lords, etc. so it only seems fitting that they would have served and survived for a long time. You may have noticed this guy, who has the first cape that I ever sculpted and he is to be used as a King's Champion (because I will have characters in the Khazad Guard) and, failing that, I figured he could be a cool Captain for the guard :D He has had the gold armour washed with Chestnut Ink and thr Blood Red is replaced with Liche Purple and his cloak is just plain Chaos Black. Stands out and looks hard (note the Grey Beard. Can't be the best without having the experience).

Lastly, we have my characters! From left to right: Balin, banner bearer, captain with shield and Gimli. As I mentioned earlier, I am likely to end up with a spare Balin soon and I am undecided as to whether I should convert him, paint him differently (and maybe a little minor conversion) and use him as Dain Ironfoot, use both as captains or trade him off... Any thoughts would be welcomed :D

As you can see, Balin has been painted in much the same way as the Khazad Guard, except he has a Scorched Brown cloak and his metal-shod boots are Boltgun metal. I didn't notice for a long time, but he is wearing a sort of battle crown and NOT a helmet, as I first thought, hence the top of his hair being Burnished Gold, instead of Chaos Black. However, that will be rectified soon enough (read: when I get some more Chaos Black, likely on Tuesday) and he shall be marvelous and resplendent. I also have noticed a chip in the paint on his beard, which will get tidied up and I've figured that I'd ask for suggestions on how to improve him or if I should use a different scheme: after all, the King's Champion has a black cloak and purple tabard, so Balin should look MORE impressive, with richer colours, rather than wearing the same as his guard. Ideas would be lovely, please :D

The banner bearer and the captain are both painted in the same way as the warriors (although it'll just be the shieldwarriors when I get around to it). The banner bearer needs his trousers neatening up and I'm thinking that I should change thechainmail on him back to just Boltgun Metal (so, undo the Chestnut Ink on it). I gave him an Ultramarines Blue cloak, just to help keep him tied in to the warriors because he hasn't got loads of tabarding to paint. Anyhow, the raven is done in black to make it stand out and the banner itself is done in grey to fit with the cavens of living inside mountains and to make it poignant compared to the Dwarves below it. It has purple trimming because purple is a regal colour and I figured that it would likely be the personal banner of one of the lords. To tie the captain into this design, his cloak is also Fortress Grey and has a Liche Purple trim (freehanded, if memory serves) to match. Maybe that's something to do with the characters too? Or reverse it so that they are Liche Purple with a Fortress Grey trim.

Finally, we come to the Dwarf that started it all: my Gimli from the Mines of Moria box set. He's Scab Red, with a Liche Purple trim, Chaos Black trousers and gloves, Vermin Brown belt and boots, Scorched Brown beard (and one of the axe-handles), Kommando Khaki backpack (and other axe-handle), Dwarf Flesh skin, Boltgun Metal for all of the metal and Chestnut Ink on the helmet (as well as Catachan Green for his bedroll!). He fits into my Fellowship fairly well and looks okay, but I would like him to stand out and look great and, preferably, have matching axes (I couldn't decide which colour I preferred because the Scorched Brown seemed fitting, but the Kommando Khaki helped to lighten the model).