Bonefields - Characters

Following on from my earlier post on Macrocosm's upcoming Bonefields release, I've been beavering away on some more of the new range. First up is this fantastic goblin vampire. I don't recall ever seeing a goblin vampire before (gobpire? Vamplin?) but Alessio Cisbani has done a fantastic job on this evil wee spud. I'd love to see him do other types of goblin vampires.

I moved away from the traditional goblinoid green for his flesh to up the vampireosity, just adding some green glazes to his eyes and other facial recesses. I painted him in fancy lacquered red armour, but, as he IS a goblin after all, it's dirty and knackered looking. Two rusty swords complete to look for this diminutive blood-drinking nutter.

I've also completed two more goblin undead, a spearman and one of the goblin heavy infantry. As with the other goblin skeletons they paint up nice and easy. I have some of the more exotic goblin undead on the table at the moment, but that's for another post.

Next up we have the wizened little dwarf Necromancer. He's all feet and head this lad, and has a scuttling sneaky pose that's distinctly un-dwarfy.

Flanking our creepy wee necromancer we have two of the new undead dwarf slayers/berserkers. They still have their golden arm clasps, but those luxurious beards are gone forever. Truly a fate worse than death for a dwarf. They must be mad as hell.

I have another batch of Bonefields minis on the painting table at the moment. Once they are done it'll be time for some warband photos. There are some truly hilarious models in the pipeline, I can't wait to get to some of the more unusual undead, they'll be a lot of fun to get on the gaming table.

Kickstarter - Dwarves at Arms

With less than three days left to go on the Dwarves at Arms kickstarter, I figured it was time to give it a wee plug on the the Mumblings, especially as I've been doing the concept and and design for it!

It has been the most successful kickstarter yet run by Macrocosm, who have three previous successful kickstarter projects under their belt. People just love dwarves it seems, though there are several rather fantastic non-dwarf add ons available too, but more on those later, especially the hobby horse riding ogres.

The twist with this particular take on dwarves is that the range is split up into dwarves from several historical eras. So far we have Crusaders, Normans, English Civil War, Late Romans, Vikings and Samurai. Each of these have several packs available. World War One Russian dwarves and Spartan dwarves are coming up as stretch goals. You can see pack 1 for the Samurai Dwarves below, which were designed by yours truly.

So, as you can see there's a massive range for dwarf lovers out there. The add on section bears special mention too, where you can add (deep breath) Jotnar (trolls) for the vikings, several sets of ogres, archers, cavalry, command, spearmen etc, WW1 tanks, treemen, a MASSIVE range of halflings, both fantasy and WW1, Monty Python dwarves, dwarf cavalry of various types, dwarf berserkers, a siege tower (chaos dwarf players should really check this out) and art prints. Check out the size of the trolls:

Huge eh? It also bears mentioning the kickstarter is really good value. There are a couple of other models I want to draw your attention to, as they are buried in over forty add ons. Look at these guys:

Ogres on hobby horses. Now, you might take your gaming a bit more seriously than I, and you may be thinking "What the hell, are you f*cking kidding me?" but for me, these are one of the best things in the kickstarter bar the dwarves themselves. A set of Monty Phyton Holy Grail dwarves and some of these lads, and you have a fine, fine theme for a warband. It also tickles me to think of these guys taking down some super badass chaos knights while making clip-clop noises.

As to the dwarves themselves, they are mostly multipart with several head and arms options, sculpted by the mighty Alessio Cispani.  Here's some examples:

Pretty cool eh? I'm sure the Vikings fans among you recognise the seer there. So, if you bear any love for the dwarves (or halflings, ogres or trolls), you'd be doing yourself a disservice not looking at this kickstarter before it ends.

New Dwarves - Thwoppa Thwoppa!

So the new dwarves are getting toward the week two releases, most eminent of which are the gyrocopters. This is going to be the marmite release for the range, methinks. Here's the images, courtest of Plastic Krak.

 As you can see there are two variants, the smaller gyrocopter and the larger gyrobomber. My first impressions of the model was not positive. The bright colour scheme and the curved hull made the copter look very modern. However, once I saw the side view, the blades and detail, I warmed to them very quickly. I think painting them as metal or wood would make a huge difference to the look of the thing, but then, fantasy helicopter? It's always going to look a bit weird, and frankly it's one of the few remaining humorous models left in warhammer to remind us that this game once had it's tongue firmly planted in it's cheek.

The smaller copter looks like a wee angry bee, and I like it. The Da Vinci style mechanisms are lovely, and the pilot is super groovy with his flying googles and jacket. It would almost make a man want to play dwarves.

Below is the new runelord and iron breakers. They are really very nice indeed. I can see dwarf fans all over having a little cry over how handsome the new dwarves are. The thing about these new dwarves is that they are such a leap forward they make the existing dwarf range look like badly dressed cosplayers. A new warriors/thunders set is now badly needed.

Dwarves - Stunties Inbound in February

We're just into January, and the rumour mill for the dwarves is cranking into gear. According to the Bell of Lost Souls, the diminutive ones are inbound this February. Lots of new kits including giant tunnelling machines and massive cannons are listed in the releases for the new range. Mmm... tantalising. I wonder if any of it can be purloined for the use of the sons of Hashut?

Anyhow, here's the rundown from BoLS:

Have no fear, the stunties are on the march - headed your way in February.  Here is the rundown of new kits coming down the mountain.

Latest word speaks of:

Dwarfs - February (I'd bet on February 8th)

The Kits:

Plastic Tunneling Vehicle
Plastic infantry heavy armor unit kit (dual-build)
Plastic infantry light armor unit kit (dual-build)

Plastic War Altar
Plastic New VERY large gun/cannon
Plastic Beefier Gyrocopter

Clampack Lord

No finecast was mentioned at all.  If you look at what needs plastic kits in the existing Dwarf range, and look to the old-unit/new unit splits in the Dark Elves release for inspiration, it's not too hard to figure out what's coming.

These latest set descriptions dovetail almost exactly with Spanish rumors from early November.

Painting with RedCraig

Basecoating Fimm...

This weekend my long-time wargaming compadre RedCraig of Blog of Grudges fame called on me for a weekend of painting, drinking and more painting. In fact, I sit here in the wee hours of the morning with the RedCraig cursing quietly under his breath at the desk behind me as his desire to paint battles with his need for sleep. We've had a good innings today, Craig has gotten some hammers done, replete with flaming orange beards. Nice. Some dwarf war golems are rapidly taking shape, destined to become pretty excellent unit fillers. As for myself, three more fimm warriors are approaching done, but I'm way too tired to try freehand tattoos now...

Hammer time.

Perhaps tomorrow.

I'm also waiting on some water effects to arrive so I can finish the fimm movement tray after discovering during some tests that Vallejo still water is a little on the garbage side. I have high hopes for this Enviro Tex Lite stuff. Fingers crossed.