Brawler Bash Approaches...

With the Brawler Bash right around the corner I've had to pull out all the stops to get the last few units finished!

Here is a quick pick of my new cannon.Really happy with how the converted crewmen came out.  Should look awesome once painted up.

Finally came up with a layout for the displayboard.  I'm going to keep it simple and include a couple of hills to make the units in the back show up a little easier.  Hoping to tackle it this weekend.

Cheap Display Base

I need a display base for the Dwarf army that I'm taking to the Brawler Bash. I picked up a cheap cork board with a black frame from a company called the Board Dudes along with some rubber feet with an adhesive backing.  A little nail polish remover and the printed white logo was easily removed.  Then I added the feet to the bottom of the board to ll make it easier to pick up.  Now it's time to make the magic happen.

Slayers

No respectable mining clan from Karak Kadrin would be caught dead without a horde of Slayers!  Here is the front rank to my Slayer horde.  These guys were a real pain in the but to get ranked up and unfortunately I don't have a lot of time for fancy conversions.  When painted up they will look so cool, especially with 20 of their friends behind them!

Aged wood

Just a quick post on how I did the wood on the mine shafts.  It was done completly with dry brushing and a few light washes. Here is the step by step. 

1. Charred Brown base coat.
2. 50%/50% Charred Brown/Earth heavy dry brush.
3. Earth dry brush laving some of the previous dry brush showing at the edges.
4. 50%/50% Earth/Bonewhite light dry brush leaving the previous dry brushes showing at the edges.
5. Bonewhite very light dry brush only hitting the center of the area and the edges of the beam.  
6. Multiple Devlan Mud washes at the edges where the wood meets the metal.

Miner goodness

Serious effort over the last few days and I finished with the 20 man unit of miners.  Not going to win a Golden Demon, but I'm really comfortable with how they turned out.  As these guys have much more skin showing I changed up the way I did the skin.  I base coated with Dwarf flesh and layered on Elf Flesh and Pale Flesh.  Rather than given them a heavy Devlan Mud wash I watered down the wah substantially, 3 to 1 water to wash. Where needed I gave it a second wash.  It a much more subltle shading that what I've previously used.  Also, I'm over the moon with how the wood beams came out.  I captured the aged look that I was going for.  Now I just have to clear coat them and stick magnest on their bases.  Here are the pix, enjoy.

Flame On

 Here is the first of the long over due updates.  I can promise you that I've been very busy as its now less than 2 weeks until the Brawler Bash.  

Flames figure prominently in my Army of Peak Pass.  It is especially true on the miners with all of their candles.  So I've had to figure out a quick way to do them.  So here is how I go about painting flames. 

Here is the color pallet I use for the large scale flames - like on a brazier.  The black and grey are used to paint any visible coals at the bottom of the brazier.  Look at a fire - lighter colors are at the center. So I paint from light to dark, with white being at the center, lowest part of the flame and blood red at the tip of the flame.  If I'm doing smaller scale flames like candles I will typically drop one of yellows and one of the oranges.

 

I love the Vallejo paints, but GW would also work.

Coals are painted black.  Flame painted a neutral color to cover up the black primer.

Coals drybrushed with gray followed by a light drybrush of white.  Flame given a basecoat of white.

Flame painted yellow, leave a little white showing.

Flame painted orange.  Again notice that the white and yellow are still showing.

Finally a little red is added to the tip.

Wish I had some orange ink, but I settled for what I had.

Flame is washed with Gryphonne Sepia

Here is what the flame looks like when done.

Another shot of the flame

Pix of the standard bearer.

In the end I like how it turned out given that it only took about 10 minutes to get the colors on when using a hair dryer between layers.  

I'm still here...

Updates coming tomorrow.  I've been very busy this past week painting up the Miners, which are now about 70% done.  I also realized that I actually needed to make a few other movement trays for some unique formations.

Quarrelers...

I'm on a roll.  Just have a few touch ups on the shields, varnish then base.  Then this unit is done!  Getting these guys to rank up was a pain in the arse!!!  This unit has really grown on me of late.  These look tough, but still have time to have a smoke and pop a brew!  Again, no standard yet.  I will probably do all the standards at the same time so I can tie them all together. 

More Hammerer goodness.

What is the saying about the last 20% takes 80% of the time.   It certainly is starting to feel like that. 


All I have left to do is to create a standard.  I'm leaning towards using a large hammer for the standard.  I finished the shields and I'm really happy how they came out.  I was shooting for the Boromir look.   I wanted a fairly large shield that was slung around the back of the model.  I created the shields by bashing together the regular hammerer shield, so I would have the mounting slot, with a regular dwarf shield.  For the command I used some larger shields for the base.  No idea where I got them from.  Painted the shields like I painted the armor then glued the shields on the models.  Finally  I used two coats of Vallejo gloss varnish followed by two coats of Vallejo matte varnish on the shield.  I am extremtly happy how they came out.  Now I just have to finish the Quarrelers, Miners and possibly some more Slayers.  I also still have a table full of terrain to finish.  No problem, I still have two weekends left!  Here are the final pix of the Hammerers.
  

 Champion.

Standard Bearer

Regular grunt.

Finally, if you play Warhammer Fantasy then you really need to listen to the Brohammer podcast!

Bases and Hammerers

I finally settled on the bases for the Dwarf army.  I would like to say that I'm original, but really I saw this base on the Army Painter website so I went with it.  Ultimatly, as long as I didn't end up with rock or snow on the base I would be happy.  I painted the base Codex Gray.  Then I flocked the base with Ash Grey Flock.  Then I added some Winter Tufts on various spots on about half the bases.   I may try leaving the top surface of the base black and see how the flock looks over it. With that settled I have a lot of base work ahead of me. 

The Hammerer unit is nearly complete.  All I have left to do is to add the shields.  They got the final shot of Dull Cote and then I went back over the gems with Vallejo brush on gloss varnish.  I'm really happy with the way the unit turned out.  The back rank and a half of models were from my existing army - which was painted to a lower, albeit quicker, standard.  As all the models used the same base colors so all the models blend together and your eyes really only focus on the front ranks. 

Prospector..

Here are some pix of the Prospector.  Almost finished, I just have to work on the base.

Army Building 101 (not List Building 101)

It occurred to me over the last few months the way I build armies is a bit different than most folks.  I guess it is because I fall into the proverbial "collector" bucket.  Over the years I've seen two main methods for army building.  One is the popular build a list, or use an Internet list, then buy only the models you need for the list.  Essentially you buy only what's effective.  Certainly it can be a cheaper option and it's also the method employed by most of the hardcore gamers.  Another method I've seen employed is to first come up with a great theme for the army and buy the models to build the theme, including any of the required bitz.  This method seems to be employed by the hobby or narrative gamers.

While I'm more of a hobby gamer I've chosen to use a different method over the years.  I actually don't have any idea of what army list I will use or what the theme will be when I start.  Those things will develop organically after I get painted models on the table.  To get started I typically will buy the entire range of models.  I will buy multiples of units that I think will be in use more, like Dwarf Warriors for example.  I will I will also buy more of what I can get a good deal on.  Battalions are particularly helpful for this.  Also, I don't necessarily buy everything all at once, it may take me a couple years to collect everything.  All of these purchases combined typically puts the army in the 4-5K range.   This first group of units will become the backbone of the army and I will get all of these assembled and painted before I play a single game with them.  Getting them on the table may take me 6 to 9 months.  To speed up the process I avoid conversions and employ the best army painter tricks I can come up with, or scour from the Internet.  This also gives me a chance to practice painting the army's color scheme.  Once painted I will start playing as many games with them as possible.  Through the gaming I will see what units work, what tactics don't.  Also a theme will start to emerge that I will develop. I then purchase additional units to take the army where I think it needs to go.  I will round out the theme with more extensive conversions and paint jobs on the new units.  I then just keep adding more units to keep the army fresh and growing.  They are essentially living armies, perpetually growing.  They are never actually complete. 

Since the start of 6th edition I've used this method because my Southern California gaming group played about 2-3 big (20-30k) times a year.  This meant I needed to have larger armies.  It also means that I have fewer larger armies rather than many smaller armies.  Currently I have a 12k Tomb Kings army, 6k Dwarf army and 12k Orcs & Goblins painted.  Side note - I've NEVER played Orcs and Goblins so I am stoked about getting the new book. 

Brawler Bash preparations permitting I hope to do a proper photo spread for each of my armies in the near future.

Crossbows... Check.

First let me say that these guys are a pain in the ass to rank up.  I may do an 8 or 12 wide unit just to make life easier.  Still have to add the shields and the paint the bases (should have done this first).  But I did manage to get all the beards painted.  I'm really liking how these guys are turning out.   Now I get to start on the miners in earnest!

The Seventh Day I Rest...

Not hardly.  I've been pushing hard and I've nearly finished the beards on the quarrels.  However, while I have a deadline looming I'm really trying to up my game and achieve more than a standard table job paint job. 

Here is a shot of the standard bearer - still need to finish the base.  Sorry for the crappy photo, it is easy to take it with my Blackberry.  I need to get a better camera set up.

I also got the first 2 dry brushes on the miner unit.  I'm going to hold off working on these guys anymore until I finish the quarrelers, which should be done by tomorrow.

The Army of Peak Pass

Brawler Bash is right around the corner and I've been very busy of late.  I'm still struggling on what to take.  I did start working on my army's fluff, the Army of Peak Pass.  Based out of Karak Kadrin, hence the ginger beards, this clan's mission is to keep the pass clear.  More on that later once it is fleshed out.  Right now let's get into what I've been painting.  First up is I finished clear coating the 14 Hammerers.  Now I just need to do their bases.

As I mentioned, I got the 24 quarrelers built and 5 additional miners.

Here is the first 3 steps that I use to paint all my Dwarfs.  After priming, I give the model a wash in Chaos Black to get everything nice and dark.  BTW - I LOVE using gloves when doing this kind of painting.

Next the model gets a heavy dry brush of Tin Bitz

Next up is a Brazzen Brass dry brush.

I've got the 24 quarrelers almost done.  I even broke down and painted in all of the eyes.  All I have left is the beards (which will take some time) and some other finishing touches like the beer!  When they are done I will take some up close pix.  This will have to do for now.

The miner units was a bit of a bear to get together and even hardener to reassemble if the models get jumbled.  I added some designations to their bases to know how they form the unit.

Since I have so much free time I figured I would assemble yet another cannon.  The ideas was to give the cannon an entrenched look on a 50mm base.  Then I will build a large decorative base for display that would have a slot for each of the 4 bases to fit into.  The cannon base came out ok, not sure I will use it.  The crew conversions are looking pretty good, though they are not entirely finished.

I've also working on my Empire table for Brawler Bash and I've just started planning my Khemri table for Mid West Rampage.  As a start I've ordered some of the Pegasus Hobbies palm trees to use as part of the forest. 

Since the first 4 KoW box sets were not quite enough undead I picked up and additional 3 starter sets.  Hard to turn your back on these sets, the price comes out to less than $.4 per model.  Thanks go to the SoCal Halfling that split the boxes with me.  This puts the army over 500 models. 
BTW - the wraith models are amazing. 

Finally, I've found another great podcast - Blunt Force Gamer.  I finished listening to their back catalog of 6 episodes.  One guy is doing 40K and the other is doing Fantasy.  They have a different take on it since they are both just getting into the their respective games.  I'm really looking forward to seeing where they take it.

That is all I have to say about that.