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