Armies on Parade 2016 - Part 1

It's that time of the year again, and I now believe I have the plan for my board for 2016.
It will be a flat board this year, but I don't know if Games Workshop will sell single tiles this year or if I have to cut myself a tile from plywood.

On the board I will have the gate section from a Citadel Fortress and then I will make mountain walls going from each side of the gate and to the end of the board. What angle I will use will be decided when I see what else I want on the board and how I can get everything to fit.

Behind the walls there will be a few small scenarios. There will be a mine with two Grudge ponies going in and out of the mine. One will be on the way down with a cart that is either empty or carrying a little equipment, and one will be on the way up carrying a load of rocks of some sort.

There will also be a shaft going in to the thickest part of the mountain wall, and my unit of old metal Ironbreakers will either be on the way up or down from the shaft. These will probably only be visible if one looks at the board from behind.

On top of this section my Badyear Blimp will be placed. I think I know how to make it now. I will use styrofoam balls from Panduro and cut the ends off except from the one in front and in the back, so that it looks fairly blimpy.

Here is a picture of the original Goodyear Blimp. I am going for the sort of medieval version of this.

 This is sort of what the air balloons will look like. I found this pic on Google image search.

The plan is to use styrofoam balls and glue them together (not sure if I will use 3 or 4 yet, will have to see when the compartment underneath is done). The balls will then be coated with strips of plaster, both to add them together and to make a surface I can paint.
The balloon will be given an eye-catching color, and the compartment underneath will be dark wood (probably Dryad Bark).
Then I will make some sort of rudder and either add it to the balloon or to the wooden construction.

In front of the wall on ground level, there will be trees, and among them the Ranger unit will be placed. At the same side of the table, there will also be a small cave where one or two Goblins is hiding, spying on the Dwarfs. They will be hidden by some moss that will appear as bushes on the board so the Dwarfs can't see them.

Starting to look like something

I have managed some progress on the Dwarfs since my last update.
I am well underway with painting my Rangers. I have also started to paint up two Runelords and a Warden King.
As I see it, the Runelords and the Warden King have two layers of armor. I have chosen to paint what looks like chainmail or Gromril armor Stormhost Silver. This will be the color used for this item for all my Dwarfs to make a coherent look for the entire army.
Then they have another layer of armor on top of this, and this is painted Warplock Bronze. The reason for this is to both create a clear contrast to the silver and to the gold details and gemstones they have on their armor.
They also get capes of bright color. The Warden King has a bright red cape, and the Runelords bright green and clear blue. This will hopefully make them focal points on the board when they get there. This will be good both for the Armies on Parade and for future gaming as they are the leaders of the Dwarf community and should be seen on the battlefield.

The Rangers all get a uniformed look, where the only thing that is different is the shape of their beards and helmets and the color of their hair.
I have chosen to paint all chainmail Stormhost Silver, and their shirts and the edges of their armor is painted Elysian Green. They all have capes, and they are painted slightly darker in Castellan Green.
All boots and belts will be painted Mournfang Brown, as this is the standard color for leather in my armies. This will also later be applied to the bolt cogs they carry the crossbow ammunition in, to the cuffs of their arms and to the padding under the helmets.
For the garment they wear under their chainmails, I wanted the leather to look a bit tougher. So I went for Rhinox Hide for that. There will only be a small stripe between the chainmail and the boots that is visible, and to some extent the underside of the miniature where that can be seen, and this darker brown makes a nice contrast both to the boots and the color of the metal and chainmail.

Right now I'm in the process of painting the leather on to the Rangers, and the next step will be to paint the helmets. All helmets will be Warplock Bronze, and the helmets that have detailing will have this painted in Stormhost Silver. My unit Champions all wear the helmets with wings, and the wings will be painted Retributor Armour (gold).For the helmets with horns, the horns will be painted Stormhost Silver like the details. I strongly believe the Dwarfs use metal for their horns and not bone, as they are known for being really good at making metal artifacts.

When the Rangers are painted up, I will prime and paint the arms with the crossbows and glue them on before I wash the minis with the appropriate washes and drybrush the capes.

All bases will be made with Astrogranite texture paint, and the sides of the bases will be painted with Mechanicus Standard Gray as they match perfectly. This is the same way the bases for my Ironbreakers are done, and I plan to make a small scenario on the board with them.