31 replies to this topic

[Valhaal]

'Allo and Greetings!

 

I have long been anxious to play dwarfs and have finally put down some money on an army. I've been playing Wargames for about 2 years now, and Fantasy for about a year (although very casually). Due to having my dwarf fix satiated in other games, I started out with Warriors of Chaos and recently moved over to Wood Elves. While I've kept my Wood Elves, I've tossed a lot of dough into starting up some Dwarfs! I've been in love with the demi-race for longer than I can remember, and regardless of lore or mythos attached to them I've always been drawn to them. To make a long story short, it was my attraction to the dwarven race that got me started in gaming and with my love affair for the fantasy genre in general! 

 

To start things off, I have converted a Lord with his personal Shieldbearers. I definitely took some inspiration (stole!) from a recent post on these very forums! It was a great idea, and I just couldn't help myself:

 

 

He's already had the painting started as of this morning, and my other Lords and Heroes are being worked on at the same time. Considering I just started building the entire army and want to break my cycle of unpainted Warhammer Fantasy pieces, I decided to waste no time. To give you an idea of what to expect in the coming weeks from this thread, my first army list (and one that is far from perfect) will be:

 

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2,500 points

 

Lord - Shield, Shieldbearers, x3 Runes of Warding, Rune of Might, Rune of Snorri, Rune of Parrying

 

Thane - Rune of Gromril, x2 Runes of Iron, Great Weapon, BSB

Grim Burloksson

Runesmith - x2 Runes of Spellbreaking, Great Weapon

Runesmith - Rune of Stone, x2 Runes of Spellbreaking, Rune of Furnace, Shield

 

x18 Quarrellers - Shields, Great Weapons, Musician, Standard, Veteran

x26 Longbeards - Great Weapons, Musician, Standard (Rune of Stoicism), Old Guard

 

Gyrocopter

Gyrocopter - Vanguard

Cannon - Rune of Forging

Cannon - Rune of Forging, Rune of Burning

 

x16 Irondrakes - Musician, Standard, Ironwarden

Organ Gun - Rune of Burning, Rune of Accuracy

-------------------------------------

 

I plan to include unit fillers, as this just furthers the beautiful nature of this great hobby and how it breeds creativity in positive ways. So if anyone has any cool ideas they've seen or thought about, I'm definitely open to hearing them! 

[Ozariig]

Good stuff!  Looking forward to seeing the finished product.

Welcome to the Brewery, have a drink on my tab!

[mousekiller]

Great conversions, and exactly the type of thing I would picture dwarfs doing... carrying a huge rock into battle to show how burly they are.

 

Cant wait to see some paint.

[Valhaal]

Thanks! I got some work done on what I have built for my Lords and Heroes this evening. The faces and beards are finished and I'm happy with the result! I'm still trying to decide on how to approach my Thane BSB.

 

Edited by Valhaal, 22 September 2014 - 12:54 AM.

[GreenDwarf]

Looking great so far!

 

Here a few unit fillers I have done that I quite like.  They can really help break up the blocks of short warriors and make things visually more interesting.  All that and they are a fun modelling challenge as well.

 

 

 

These I made as objectives but they sometimes double as unit fillers.

 

 

Anyways keep up the good work.

 

GD

[Gidrick]

I love the converted shield Lord, looking really good.

[Novgord V]

I actually like the monocrome look on the armor and shields.

I wouldn't add to much other colors

[Ozariig]

Those are stunning, Valhaal!  The start of a mighty throng.

[Valhaal]

@GreenDwarf - I really like the first unit filler and will definitely use a similar approach when I do my Bugman's Rangers unit. I might even try to have a dwarf body sticking out of a keg as if he had fallen in - and probably on purpose!

 

@Novgord V - It doesn't look bad, but it's not the approach I'll end up taking. I'm anxious to do the gold work to really see how it's all coming together, but that's the last step of painting, unfortunately.

 

Thanks for all the complements! I'm hoping to be done with all the cloth/material painting tonight, which will leave just the fire (smoldering rune, pipe, and furnace), the jewels, and the gold. I have a day off on Wednesday and I'd rather spend that day putting together a unit or two than finishing up these guys! It's a shame but I'm a pretty impatient painter, but that's something I'm trying to steer away from when it comes to my own stuff as the end results and extra few layers really pay off in the end.

 

Luckily I have an easy work day today and brought enough bits (I hope!) to get my Thane BSB up and running. I'm debating between a few ideas though, and am trying to decide if I want the standard or great weapon planted in the ground at his feet as he stares angrily at the opposition.

[Valhaal]

Thane work. You probably won't see this guy again until he's completed, though. But this'll give an idea of what I'm going for:

 

 

I'll be shaving off the hand on the banner so it'll be held by his left hand. I'll be tossing him on a pile of two or three high cork, with the layer of cork just below him  having the axe stuck in a pile of bloody snow.

 

Edit: Oh, and the hand you can barely see (his right) is the pointing finger hand from the Runelord(?) plastic kit.

Edited by Valhaal, 22 September 2014 - 04:48 PM.

[Reka Dvegrsson]

Loving the look of everything so far, good work!

 

Really intrigued to see how the Thane comes out, looks like he should be a really cool pose.

[Brogar Redaxe]

Really Nice work, super excited to see that Thane when he is done

 

also excited to see how your colour scheme looks on your units

[Theatralic]

A big start into the Forge good sir, loving it all. The Painting and those conversions, great Unit Fillers...me thinks that I need to steal some of those Ideas .

[Valhaal]

Thanks, all! I ended up having a impromptu board game night last night, so not much painting work got done. I did manage to finish up the Thane BSB, though, and I like the way he came out. I switched the idea for the great weapon stuck in a pile of bloody snow over to it stuck in an Orc skull that'll have bloody snow around it.

 

[Dourin]

That is one big BSB. Looking good so far, now to paint it!

[Valhaal]

Thanks! Yeah, he definitely is screaming for paint. I'm going to work on him tomorrow while I finish up the others. Thursday is Fantasy Night at my local gaming store, so I'm really hoping to be done with all my Lords and Heroes for it. Unfortunately my kindled interest in Dwarfs for Fantasy is tagged to the middle of a Warmachine League that I'm also apart of - and I'm playing the role of the experienced guy helping the new people learn to play, so I can't skimp out on that too much.

 

I'm still thinking about unit fillers for Irondrakes, but can't really come up with something. The best I have is either a few climbing over a rock preparing to fire, or standing atop a corpse of some kind. I'm wanting something that's 2 or three bases wide, so it needs to be slim. For the Longbeards I'm pretty set on a few being annoyingly interrupted by something and retaliating with axes and hammers to the face. Like they were playing cards or sitting by a fire? That's a bit too abstract for a battlefield, but something along those lines. Maybe one in a rocking chair being pulled by something because he couldn't be bothered to get up until it was actually time to hit something?

Edited by Valhaal, 23 September 2014 - 03:14 PM.

[Warbarge]

Awesome work Valhaal !

I would to know a couple of things. 

The type of foliage you used on these small trees (unit fillers) and what hands did you use to hold the shield/stone on the Lord model.

[Valhaal]

Those unit fillers aren't mine, unfortunately. Someone else was just showing off what could be done and used them as examples. They are great looking, though. If I had to wager a guess it might be something similar to this:

 

 

I'm sure you could get a similar effect with steel wool or shaped polyester fiberfill (basically stuffed animal stuff) that's been sprayed with hairspray to harden. And then paint either with a few shades of green.

 

As for the hands, I definitely know the answer to that one! Both came from the Ironshields/Irondrakes kit, one is just a shield arm and the other is a drumstick arm, and both just had the extra bits cut off.

[Valhaal]

Quick update teaser:

 

 

All my lords and heroes are pretty much finished, but I have to finish a final metal highlight once my Thane BSB catches up to that stage. After that it's just a quick basing of snow and grass-stuff and they're all ready to go.

[Essmir Ulv]

How did you do the red hot metall? Its look asome