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
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?
