progress is slow but steady...

I have assembled my unit of twenty Dwarfs with capes now, and decided they will be Rangers.
I did not like to give the musician a drum, so I found a weird looking horn in a Warriors box, and will use that instead. All of the Rangers will have crossbows that are loaded and ready to fire, the only exception here is the standard bearer and the musician, they will have an axe in their free hand, and the crossbow on their back.

Right now I am putting together the first unit of Thunderers for the army. This will be a unit with thirty Dwarfs (maximum allowed according to the new Age of Sigmar General's Handbook), and I plan to add a similar unit of Quarrellers in the future.
The Thunderers will also have a full command with a horn blower, a standard bearer and a champion. The horn blower is from the "Battle for Skull Pass" box, and he looks like no other horn blower I have seen before. I also added three regular Thunderers from the same set in to this unit. All the Thunderers from this box have the same pose, so putting three into a unit of thirty will hopefully blend them in. These three are unpainted, so I can paint them up from the start along with the rest of the unit.
So far I have glued together half the unit, and I hope to put together the remaining fifteen tonight or tomorrow.

When the Thunderer unit is glued together I will prime the units and single minis assembled so far, and start to paint them up. The plan is to paint the bodies, and then prime and paint the arms (and heads for the old Warrior unit) separately and glue it on before wash and highlights are applied.

Planning unit sizes

I was at Games Workshop yesterday, and got a peek at the new General's Handbook that is comming out in one and a half weeks time.
This book gives Age of Sigmar point values, and rules for unit sizes. I just had a quick look at the section for my Dwarfs, but the book covers the entire model range.

I found that the Warriors can be minimum ten strong and max forty. The Quarrelers and Thunderers are both minimum ten and max thirty.

So I will make my caped Dwarfs a twenty strong unit will full command. I'll see later today if I can use them as Rangers as I originally planned, or if they will be an elite Thunderer unit (elite will only count for the fluff, as there are no elite unit as such in the rules).
That leaves me twenty-eight Dwarfs already cut from their sprues (but still missing arms), and twenty-four Dwarfs on the sprues in the remaining two boxes (after I have removed eight caped ones to fill the caped unit).
But I also found some plastic Thunderers in the stash of inherited Dwarfs, so I will add them to the units I am building now.

I will have to see if I need one more box of Thunderers/Quarrelers to get enough weapons to make what I need, but I will arm the different units after I have selected the Ranger unit tonight, and then I'll see how the other units will be.

Games Workshop is running a campaign all over the world, where good fight against evil and the results from all fights in all of Europe will be added together to see how the fight has gone in the end. You can join either by playing games, or by painting units and showing them to the staff at your store, so I plan to get my Dwarf units painted up to boost the good side with painting-points.

Yesterday I assembled my second Runesmith, with a hammer and a rune so freshly forged the smoke is still streaming from it.

just a quick update

I still haven't found my box of Dwarf sprues, and I have really looked everywhere for it by now. I am sure it will pop up somewhere someday, as I know I haven't thrown it away. But luckily I discovered that one box of Thunderers/Quarrellers have the arms to make a unit of both. I feared that the crossbows used the same arms as the guns, but they come separate. This means that with one box and extra bodies, I can make thirty-two Dwarfs and not just sixteen. 

So I will try and count how many different bodies I have and decide how to arm them after that.

I will check how the old metal Thunderers look compared to the plastic ones, and if they can blend in to one unit, I will see how many units I can make. If they don't blend, then I will at least have one full unit of Thunderers in plastic, and split the rest between a Quarreller unit and a Ranger unit.

For the Rangers I will need to do something special as I would like the musician to have  a horn and not a drum, but I will see what I can manage. If arms can be swapped between Quarrellers and Warriors, then there are no problems but I suspect the Warriors are built like the Miners and if that is the case then I would need to do some chopping and then it depends on how the instrument is fixed to the arm. 

I will start to assemble the torsos tomorrow and see how  soon I can have some units ready for painting.

I have assembled the Runelord using the big beard, and the book and hammer. I think I will get one more to assemble with the head that is pictured on the box and the other arms (hammer and a freshly made rune). I also assembled the Warden King, but there were no optional parts on him.

They are both standing in a couple of pieces. The Dwarfs themselves are completely assembled, but they are not glued to the bases, and the Warden King base is in two pieces for easy painting. 

Started with the dwarfs

I have started with my dwarf army for Armies on Parade now. The entry will be a Dwarf hold getting ready for war. I will not use all my Dwarfs for this as I have lots, but I will build and paint enough to show that there is a considerable show of force and that they mean business. At the same time I will get a Dwarf army to use in Age of Sigmar after the parade is over.

A long time ago I started to cut out Dwarfs from sprues to make a unit where everyone wore capes, and this would be my Rangers, the rest of the Dwarfs on the sprues would be regular units of Thunderers or Quarrellers. I have gotten some doubts if the Rangers should have capes or not, as I will need to give them all axes on their backs and I'm not sure how this will look if they have capes. Trying to find this out, I found that I somehow have managed to misplace all the sprues with arms and equipment for these dwarfs. I have their bases, the torsos and heads, (sorted in two boxes one with and one without capes) but all the sprues have been placed in a box when I was moving everything out of my old hobby room, and now I can't find that box. I am sure it is buried deep in one of many cardboard boxes with either Lego or other Warhammer stuff, but I have not managed to find the box yet. I hope I find it this weekend.

Instead I found an old box of sixteen Warriors yesterday and have stared to assemble them. These Dwarfs are totally different from the warriors on sale now. They are just a little bit smaller than the current Dwarfs, but that is not really noticeable unless you mix them in to one mixed unit.
What makes them stand out is the way they are assembled, and how they are dressed and  armed.
These dwarfs are not assembled with a full cast body where you just add a front piece with head and beard like the usual warrior range, they are assembled more like orcs where the legs are one piece, the upper body is one piece, and then you place the head on an outstanding neck.
The regular Warriors have chainmail armor and some of them wear a cape, and that's it. These old ones have other clothes outside of their chainmails. There are a few different patterns of vests, one who look like it is made of sheepskin with the fur still on it (like it's made to be warm) and another that looks more like it is made to look nice (without the fur).
The heads look a lot different too, as they look a lot more well-groomed than the average Dwarf. They all look like they have been to the barber recently, even though I've read that a Dwarf never cuts his or her beard.
The difference in construction also makes the old Dwarfs look a lot thinner, as the traditional Dwarfs look rather bulky.

When it comes to the weapons they have axes and hammers that just look like an older design than the ones in the current boxes, sort of more bulky but this is very typical for the weapons made in that period. The crossbows have a traditional design, but instead of posing them ready to fire these crossbows are posed like they are being carried in to war by  marching unit.
The configuration I will be using is some quite long axes carried on one arm, and then I will use shields on the other arm. This will make them stand out quite a bit from my other Dwarfs.
I will only have one other type of Dwarfs using long axes and that is the Longbeards who will have axes to stand out from the Hammerers who are built from the same box (except I plan to only use old metal Hammerers in my army as I have lots of them). The Longbeards will have both hands on their axes though and I doubt they will have shields, but time will probably show...

I must make some fluff for the old Warriors, and that fluff will say that they are city Dwarfs who live above ground and trade with the humans in the area. They have taken to the human ways of hair and clothing. But facial hair and chainmail is a big part of the Dwarf identity, so they groom their facial hair and wear clothes outside their chainmails to blend in without forgetting where they come from.
So when the hold goes to war they are ready to fight just as hard as any other Dwarf in the clan.

Soon that time of the year...

I have to let the Chaos rest for a little while, but I still plan to assemble the remaining army relatively quick and paint it up.
There are only a few months before Armies on Parade is here again, so I need to get my army started. This year I am doing Dwarfs as last year didn't have any of them in the competition.
So I need to get my gameboard tile, the scenery to go on top it and the figures ready.
I am not sure yet exactly when the date of the competition is, but last year it was held in October.

I think I have talked about the plan before, but a quick recap can't be wrong...
I will use an old Warhammer castle gate as the gates to a Dwarf keep, then I will use some sort of building foam to make the mountain walls and some details.

Outside the walls I will have a forest (might be just one tree, we'll see how much room I get) and in the forest I will have a unit of Rangers.

I will check if I'm allowed to use old miniatures (I think I am as long as they are made by Games Workshop or Forgeworld), and decide what units to use when I see what I have.
There will be Quarrelers, Thunderers and Warriors for sure. If I am allowed to use old miniatures I will also have Hammerers, the old metal Ironbreakers, Thorek Ironbrow and probably also Lord Alrik and his Shieldberers.

There will also probably be a Gyrocopter, a Gyrobomber and my much talked about Bad Year Blimp.
I will also see if I manege to fit in a unit of miners and my Grudge Ponies and minecarts.