Pictures of the first finished Dwarfs

After promising pictures for a long time both on the blog and on a Facebook group, I really felt it was time to deliver. So here are a few pics of my finished unit of Dwarf Rangers, and some characters. The pictures are taken outside on my balcony table, as it was the only place I felt the light was good enough to show the colors.

To show off a single miniature from the unit, I took two pictures of the musician. The first is from the front and the second from the side showing off more of his horn.

Here is a picture of the unit of Dwarf Rangers. They are built from the Thunderer/Quarreller sprues, but to make them stand out as Rangers I have given everyone a two handed axe that they carry on their backs. The only exceptions are the few dwarfs carrying an axe already (musician and standard bearer), they carry a crossbow on their back instead.

The unit is painted in greens to be one with nature. Their armor and shirts are painted Elysian Green, and I used Castellan Green for their capes.
The chainmail is painted Stormhost Silver. This is a quite shiny metallic, and I think that is a good match for dwarf armor. All my dwarf chainmail will have this color, in contrast to the plated mail that for many dwarfs will be painted Warplock Bronze (same as the musician's horn). This so I can shof the details on both, as some Dwarfs wear chainmail with plates outside.
All leather (boots, belts, cuffs, etc) are painted Mournfang Brown. This is one of three brown colors used. The other two are Rhinox Hide for the garments that some dwarfs show under their chainmail. This is meant to be rougher, unprocessed leather. The final brown is the Doombull Brown that I have used for wooden parts like the crossbows.
I have gone for three hair colors for my Dwarfs: Blonde hair is Averland Sunset, brown hair is Skrag Brown and gray hair is Celestra Grey.
For the skin I have used Bugmans Glow, and the gold is Retributor Armour. I have also used some Leadbelcher for the metallic parts that aren't supposed to be processed too much.

While working on the Rangers, I also painted up two Runelords. One of them has the same cape as my Rangers, while the other is painted Caledor Sky. I see I need to do a little bit of cleanup on the details of the blue cape when I look at the picture.
The one on the far right here is a classic metal Dwarf Lord with great weapon. This is one of my many favorite dwarf figures as he looks like he is studying the battlefield. There are no special colors on this one, just the standard colors used throughout the army.

When I bought the dwarf on the left he was a special character named Grimm Burloksson, but with the new rules that came with Age of Sigmar he is now just known as a Cogsmith. To me he will always be Grimm (but maybe with another name to fit in to my backstory). Beside Grimm is the Warden King, formerly known as Belegar Ironhammer. Here I tried to use the new gemstone paints for the first time, and although I think it looks nice I am not sure I did it right...

This is the Dwarfs that are completely finished at the moment, alongside a unit of old metal Ironbreakers that has been done for a while. I also have a lot of painted figures that I either painted ages ago or that I inherited, but I would like to revisit them before I let them in to my army. Some of the ones I have painted have bases that doesn't fit in to my current plan. If possible I will remove the rocks from their bases, or alternatively cut the bases off and replace them with new ones.King Alrik with shieldbearers and a unit of miners are examples of figures that I need to give this kind of treatment. I also like to repaint the inherited Dwarfs as I would like to have painted my own army.

Hopefully it will not be too long before more Dwarfs can be shown here...

My thoughts for Armies on Parade 2017

Since I didn't get to participate in Armies on Parade 2016, I have started to think of the 2017 event that probably will take place in October 2017.
My plan (as stated earlier) is to participate with the Dwarfs that I didn't manage to finish in time for 2016.
I had planned to present the gates of a Dwarf hold with some mountains, but after seeing how the entries were for 2016 I am now thinking of making two "levels". I will make the top level as intended, but under it I will have another board with caves and tunnels of the hold.
I plan to make at least 3 storylines on the bottom level, one with some Night Goblins that have managed to breech the hold, and are being met by Irondrakes lined up to take care of them.
The second with Grudge Ponies going in and out of the mine on top level, and seeing others going down in to the mine shafts on the bottom level where miners will be at work.
Then the third will be small cave that is closed off and only visible from the front of the board, where Grombrindal dressed as a vampire hunter will take care of a vampire.

The idea with Grombrindal is just to add a little extra to the board, and it will be a very nice way to show off a lovely miniature that doesn't really fit in to a traditional dwarf army.

I plan to use four blocks of wood as support to keep the top level in place, and around these I will have the tunnels so that I get as much light as possible in to the lower level of the display. Then the blocks of wood will keep everything in place without being visible. If I do it this way then placing the miniatures on the bottom level should be quite easy and still it will give the feel of a cave.

There will be a hole in the top level where my mine shaft is, so that the Grude Ponies can pass up and down to the mines below. Originally I had just planned to make a little hole in the styrofoam up top and paint it black to indicate a mine, but now I will build the ramp down to the lower level and maybe I will put Grombrindal in a cave behind that ramp. This depends a bit on the strength of the material and how big I need to make the ramp. I plan to carve the details out and then protect it with a thin coat with plaster strips. This will both add stability and make painting a lot easier. Then I will add thin wooden strips for mineshaft support girders.
In this area I will place miners and time will show if they will be working or if they are preparing to go fight.

In the main cave I will place the Irondrakes and the Night Goblins, but how I will do this I have not yet decided. I think I need to play around with the design and see how much space I have and how things will look.

On top I will need to make some changes to the gate to be able to field two cannons on the top guarding the entrance. This is just using some plasticard to raise the stone blocks, and should be done quite easily.
Then I will see if I should add an observation balloon or two as well as the Badyear Blimp, or if the blimp will be enough. I don't know this until I have made the design and seen how much space I have available on the mountain slopes.No matter what I end up with I will make some observation balloons for the army, as I think it would fit my back story with the engineer that has made the blimp. He started with balloons but then got the idea to take the balloons to the next level and thereby creating the blimp. But I will need to have some Gyrocopters in the display as well, so time will show what there is room to place on the board.

Dwarfs progress report

It's finally been some progress to my production of Dwarfs. I have the Ranger unit of twenty Rangers all painted, washed and based, alongside four single miniatures.

I will post pictures as soon as I am home while there is daylight so I can get some nice pictures of the miniatures. I thought the washing should go real quick, but with six different washes it took some time to get it done. With the pictures I will also describe the colors and washes.

At the moment I am working on a unit of twenty Warriors with full command, they are getting along quite nicely, and they are the first time I have used bright blue on my dwarfs (I do have some Miners painted in really dark blue from earlier) and I like the look of it. A handful of them are wearing capes, and they are all painted purple with gray linings. 

These warriors will all be armed with double-handed axes, except for the three Dwarfs that are the command unit. The leader will have a big axe that he holds up in the air while the other hand is giving the command to move forward, the standard bearer and the musician will both have an axe in the hand where they are not holding the standard or the horn.

I might expand this unit to thirty or forty in the future, at the moment I'm thinking thirty is enough but time will tell where I end. After all, I will have several units of Warriors so the total amount of Warriors will be the same no matter the unit size.

I have started to re-think my Ironbreaker/Irondrakes decision as I think thirty Irondrakes might be too much. If I keep them in separate units it should be ok with Ironbreakers with different looks. So I might make one unit of twenty or two units of ten Irondrakes, and one unit of twenty Ironbreakers. They are not first in line to be finished, so I'll see where I stand when time comes to build them.

I have a unit of thirty Thunderers primed, as well as a unit of ten Longbeards and a unit of sixteen old-school Dwarfs. I have started to paint the old-school ones up a little, and they will be the next unit I work on after the ongoing Warrior unit is done.

Ï have also started on a White Dwarf subscribers only miniature, where Grombrindal (THE White Dwarf)  is dressed as a vampire hunter and standing on top of a coffin with a vampire in it, ready to hammer a stake in to its heart to kill it. This will not be a miniature that will be used in my normal dwarf army, but I will have it as a miniature on my shelves and I will use it for the 2017 Armies on Parade (more about that in a later post). This is a resin miniature, but so far I have not experienced the problems with getting the glue to stick as I usually experience with these miniatues.

At the moment I have started to prime it with Imperial Primer as there are so many small pieces I don't think using the usual spray will be the best choice this time.

The final miniature in the making at the moment is my first Gyrocopter. The Gyrocopter sets comes with the choice of buliding a regular Gyrocopter or a Gyrobomber, I will have a few of both in my army (as well as my blimp that also will carry bombs and an organ gun) but for this first build I am going for the regular Gyrocopter.

I am thinking of painting it a greyish blue as I think this will look good for a flying machine.

I have started to prime the cockpit, as this must be painted on the inside before assembly.

The pilot is glued together, and he will also be primed and painted before being glued in to the cockpit. 

For future Gyrocopter builds, I'm thinking of taking the sprues outside and priming them before cutting the parts off, as I think it will be a lot of job doing it the way I do now with manual primer all over.