Skaven 2nd Wave

Look at this beasty. What a beaut. It's part of the frankly beautiful Skaven 2nd wave. It's enough to make you want to drop everything and declare for the horned rat. Almost.

Chaos Dwarf Earthshaker Cannon

After a ridiculous amount of searching, I have unearthed this fellow. An old Leviathan dwarf mortar, to serve as my earthshaker cannon. I think it will fit perfectly with my old 3rd edition chaos dwarves. The crewman is a tad tall, but I think I'll get away with it. Many of the Leviathan dwarf pieces would work well in a chaos dwarf army, and they are generally huge models. Now, I think a few oversize shells are in order...

First Game with the Dawi Zharr

Well, broke the seal on my chaos dwarves. A good friend of mine braved the ice and snow to bring his dwarven throng to battle against my new recruits. He's a veteran dwarf player and long time opponent who I usually cross swords with using my vampire counts army.

Let us say I was given a good seeing to.

I could say I'm not used to using war machines, or missile troops. I could say it's not usual that I have to worry about troops running away or not being able to get back up after being run through. These, however, would be excuses. I deployed poorly, and as such suffered a beating that will leave a quite a mark. The last things on the table were my high priest who, having fled following the destruction of his obsidian guard retinue by a flank charge from miners (f*cking miners), left the surrounded daemonsmith in his kolossus to his fate. Quite nice on a narrative level, but ooo, the thrashing. I lost 2000pts, my opponent 500. Yipes.

I was quite disappointed in the kolossus. Not great in close combat, average at range, it just isn't worth the points, which is awful as I love the idea of the thing. It makes for good porridge though. The annihilators were also a bit meh, though they barely got a chance to perform, being charging in the rear by miners in turn one. The eruption gun and deamoneater were both destroyed before being able to show their wares, but the sneaky gits, now they impressed. Involved in several combats, taking a good tally of dwarves, they held the centre admirably. I'll be taking them again.

For next time, I think I will reluctantly drop the kolossus and invest in some bull centaurs and perhaps some inferno golems. As far as first games go, it was certainly a teacher of hard lessons.

Next time Te Craig!

God I hate miners with a passion. I also hate miners with Anvil-powered charges in turn one to your posterior. (Though, it turns out my most sporting opponent informs me he made something of an error here, as miners cannot appear in turn one. Rematch, methinks.)

Building the Kolossus

Here's the test fit for my kolossus, I'm liking it (though yes, the legs are on back-to-front). Think I'll have to get one of the new 60x100 bases for it. I'll have the first Dawi Zharr test model on the bench soon. Gah, my poor neglected corpse cart...

Hobgoblins?

Bob Naismith is doing the goblinoids for the new chaos dwarf range. That is most splendid, I do like his style intensely. Here's the concept for the first hob(?)gobbo.

The Dawi Zharr march at last.

I'm finally starting my chaos dwarf army. I'm a madman, now I have three armies on the go. Egad! Here's the first two units, a kolossus and obsidian guard.

Even more Chaos Dwarves

More chaos dwarf concept work from Mantic. This looks more promising...

Salem Brownstone

I've just finished this, very good indeed. I loved the Aubrey Beardsley flavour to the artwork.

The Endless Queue for Brushwork

Painting has been a little slow of late, I'm stalled on my second corpse cart. Hopefully over the holidays I'll get back into it. After that I have some terrain, a desecrated grave and a watchtower, which I'm very much looking forward to doing. Once they are done, it's the test mini for my Fimir army, and some casualty markers for the vampire counts. THEN, ghouls. Lots and lots of ghouls. I got some Heresy ghouls recently, and they are lovely. I painted one as the test model, and he turned out great. Here's the model I'll be using for the ghast. He's an intimidating fellow, especially once you notice he has his nuts out.

More Chaos Dwarves

I went on a ramble after the last post. Now. These here. These are chaos dwarves. These. Are. Beautiful. I am filled with want.

Chaos Dwarves

Well, wellity wellity well. Here's something that has piqued my interest. Mantic are doing chaos dwarves. When I first heard this I was hysterically excited, but once I saw the images this was replaced with forlorn despondency. I know these are work in progress, but I no likee. They aren't big hat dwarves, which I haaaaate, but they just don't do it for me. The eyeball head guy has promise, but the others, meh. I hope that the actual releases will be better. Chaos dwarf week on the Mantic blog may hold more revelations. I yearn for someone to do new chaos dwarves that match the old Marauder and Citadel spikey stunties...

Gaming: BastardCon3

Here are some shots of the games from BastardCon3.

An ogre slave giant is flank charged by Empire knights.

 

Ironguts bear down on an unsupported steamtank. (The tank was subsequently destroyed.)

Empire spear-men advance along the road.

Gaming: The Road to Limerick.

These are the conditions I brave to make it to Bcon3. Boy, I sure do love my warhammer.

Work in Progress: Legions

Look at all this. Look at it. While I am delighted to have all these models, how the hell am I going to get them all painted, even with the wonder of the dip? I am a slave to the brush sir!

Work in Progress: Corpse Cart

I'm working on a second corpse cart, the new Games Workshop plastic one. It's a really nice model, but a bit of a b*tch to put together, especially the corpse pile onto the base of the cart. This here is the scenic base, where an unfortunate Talabheim crossbowman has met his fate.

The Hounds of Winter

Finally finished my dire wolves. By Odin's beard, that took an age. I started these furry b*stardos five years ago, and I've been dragging my feet ever since. I think it's because getting at the skin on the legs was such a pain. So, Huzzah for me, medals all round. Here they are.

The Order of Dust

Here's a recent shot of my grave guard, the Order of Dust. They've done me proud on many occasions, these lads. They're a mixture of 1980's Citadel and Grenadier figures.

More zombies

Zombie close-up from my thirty man unit.

Casualty Markers

I've done two casualty markers so far, for a zombie and grave guard unit.

Zombies!

I'm taking some decent photos of my Vampire Counts as they stand thus far. Here's some of my zombies:

 

Abandoned Ireland

It's not all about minis here in mumbletown, oh no sir. This book has me all aquiver, as I am rather partial to grandiose ruin. Looking forward to getting my greasy mitts on this one. Reminds me of Simon Marsdens books, which are also top dollar.

Abandoned Ireland

Dipping - Examples

Three figures from upcoming units, all done with the dip method, plus a little extra highlighting. I'm quite taken with dipping, the process is pleasing, I like seeing the results as the dip is painted on. The time it saves me is incredible, as my painting and gaming time is limited. (I have two children under five) So, I'm leaning toward using it more, as I think the loss in quality is minimal and is more than made up for by the time saved.

Scenery: Graveyard

This is one of my new terrain pieces, an ancient graveyard. The stones lift away to allow units to move through it. I've had the resin tombs for about fifteen years, but only got to painting them this year. Many of my figures waiting to be painted are nearly as old as I am.

Scenery: Bane Stone

This fellow, as the outhouse, is an ancient terrain piece given a new lease on life. The mushrooms originally had that John Blanche red with white spots thing going on. The poor mammal who gave his cranium for wargaming is perhaps a rabbit? Suffice to say the creature was not hunted down and slain for terrain components.

Scenery: Haunted Outhouse

This outhouse has been in my terrain set for decades. recently I took a notion to give it a facelift, complete with orc skull in a bucket. It's an old card-stock building that was given away with white dwarf around a thousand years ago. I'm very fond of it.

Talisman

I recently finished some talisman figures for a friend. They were great fun to paint, I have to say, and really helped me hone my glazing skills. The ghoul was a bit of a pain, I repainted his skin twice, but I think he turned out pretty well. This was the first time I used home-grown lichen  for basing, and I'm delighted with how it looks.

Dire Wolves

Okay, here's what I'm at right at the mo. Dire Wolves. Seeing as this is my place to ramble on as much as I bleedin' like, I'll go on about these guys a bit. I first started painting this unit FIVE YEARS AGO. I painted a test wolf. Very nice. Two years later I painted four more. Great. Last month I painted the movement tray. Super. Now I finally get it together to finish the last five. Getting them done and in the cabinet is akin to sprinting through treacle. (Have you ever had that dream?)

Anyhow, nearly there.

It's alive!

Okay, on to the curious obsessions. Wargames. Yep, it's all about the little metal and plastic fellows. More specifically warhammer. I've been a wargamer for many's a year, and I've been playing undead, or vampire counts as they are more recently known as, for over twenty years. Tragically, this has not translated into many painted armies, or even astute generalship. Still, one enjoys one's obscure hobby immensely. Here's the most recent of my efforts, an old 1980's model, a corpse cart.