New Brushes!

My amazing wife just gave me the thumbs up to order some Winsor Newton Series 7 Kolinsky Sable brushes! I can't wait! I've really been trying to push myself on each new model I paint so I really think these brushes will help a lot.

I've been seeing green a lot lately, with the new Orcs and Goblins announced for March I'm trying to paint up a bit of a Waagh! I'm also hoping to start working on Orks as well, would love to get my hands on some of those amazing Forgeworld Ork kits.

Completed Thunderers and Organ Gun WIP

Last night I was able to finish out the unit of 10 Thunderers and then began work on the organ gun and crew as well as a movement tray for them. Here are some photos.

Progress on Thunderers

I don't know why but I have not been very motivated to paint these past few days. I did complete 5 thunderers out of 10 for the unit a few days ago. Other than that I have not been doing any painting at all.

Once the thunderers are completed all that's left will be a gyrocopter, a cannon, an organ gun, a stone thrower and then 14 longbeards, with the stone thrower and the longbeards still to purchase. I can see the finish line now, it's just a matter of keeping up the pace on painting.

After the dwarves are finished I've decided to start a Vampire Counts army. With this one I'm going to try to paint in 500 point segments so I don't get overwhelmed the way I did with my dwarves when I purchased them all in one go.

King Orri Hornblower (photos)

I wanted to dedicate a whole post to a couple of photos of the recently completed King Orri Hornblower on the shield borne by his twin bodyguards Hari and Gari.

June was a great month for me in the painting department! I completed 10 Longbeards, all 17 Hammerers, Orri on his shield, and movement trays for the lot of them! My goals for July are to rebase and paint 10 thunderers (in progress, expect photos soon) and base and paint the organ gun and its crew. It seems that when I set my goals lower in any given month I get more completed. I've been painting every day for at least an hour, closer to two really so I am really hoping to have the majority of the army painted by the time the new semester begins in the fall.

In other hobby news I am in the process of selling of 4 armies that I bought the beginnings of and never really got started in. All of this is going to allow me to begin a new fantasy army this fall. I have it narrowed down to Skaven, Ogres, and Tomb Kings. My mind changes from one to the other many times a day!

Photos of the Army of Karak Hirn

After finally finishing up the matching movement trays for all the units I have painted so far I decided to break out the camera and get some group photos. First up is the army all together.
Next are King Orri Hornblower and his intractable bodyguard of Hammerers.
The fearless Ironbreakers who delve into the depths of the hold to root out the vile ratmen and goblins. They are accompanied by Thane Skjald the Older, the bearer of the hold's ancient battle standard.


The army is of course accompanied by clansdwarfs who have set aside their professions for a time to bulk out the core of the army.



Finally, the venerable Longbeards form a mainstay of the battle line. I'm still waiting on 14 more to finish out the unit.

Potential 8th Edition Army List

This list is based on the force composition rumors I've read about 8th edition. I was only able to briefly flip through the rulebook at my local store so I did not get to read too much about the new rules (not to mention the redshirt kept on pestering me with questions). I did however notice rules for a dwarf zeppelin that mounts 5 (!!!!!!) organ guns on board. I'm keeping my fingers crossed a model gets made by Forgeworld.

I put together a 2500 pt list (that seemed to be the number that the shop said would be most common). This list is more or less based on models that I currently have.
Lords
Dwarf Lord -> Goes with the Hammerers
Shieldbearers and Shield
Master Rune of Smiting
Rune of Fury
Rune of Cleaving
Rune of Stone
Heroes
Thane -> I'm thinking with the Ironbreakers, but maybe the Longbeards?
BSB
Great Weapon and Shield
Strollaz's Rune

Master Engineer -> will go with Grudge Thrower
Great Weapon
Brace of Pistols
Rune of Stone
Core
24 Warriors
Full Command
Shields and Great Weapons

24 Longbeards
Full Command
Shields and Great Weapons
Rune of Stoicism

10 Thunderers
Shields and Great Weapons
Special
19 Ironbreakers
Full Command
Rune of Battle

17 Hammerers
Shields
Full Command

Cannon
Rune of Reloading
Rune of Forging

Grudge Thrower
Rune of Accuracy
2x Rune of Penetration
Rare
Organ Gun
Gyrocopter (but I hate the model so much I'm even considering the Flame Cannon)

Any thoughts on the list? I'd like to hear how you would deploy the blocks. What units could do with more (or less) as far as models/upgrades go?

Thanks for reading and posting!

The Bodyguard of the King

When not working this month I've done a TON of painting! With a couple of hours work tonight I will have the last of 17 Hammerers finished up. I'll try to get some pictures of the unit on my next day off work. Don't know what I'll be painting next but I'm thinking about either the Gyrocopter or the King and his shieldbearers to make the Hammerers look complete. I'd love to buy some more of the classic metal Longbeards but alas there's no money until I get some of my mountain of unused models sold on EBAY.

Photos of finished Longbeards

As promised I was able to take some pictures of the completed Longbeards this morning. I know my painting is still a work in progress, but from about 3-4 feet away I'm pretty happy with these guys at a tabletop standard.

Progress on Longbeards

During a rare day off work today I was able to dedicate about 4 hours to painting! In this time I was able to finish off the last two of the classic metal Longbeards I bought months ago. I still need to buy and paint another 15 to finish off the unit but unless I hit the lottery that will have to wait... I do like the feeling of finishing out a part of a unit and being able to display it. I'll try to take some pictures tomorrow when the sun is out.

In addition to working on the dwarves I am also currently doing a long-overdue inventory of models that I have and will never get around to painting, let alone playing with. I'm hoping to clear out a lot of the clutter in my hobby area and possibly generate some cash for some more stunties!

The Camp Fire- Fluffing It

First collaborative post for the Trading Post blog network. Today's topic is the role of fluff in your army.

Personally, the background story of a force is what drives me to collect and paint my armies. I pick up and paint random models here and there, but for the armies that I actively collect and play with the fluff drives everything for me. Of course there are always going to be "uber-units" but I really try to stay away from them, unless they fit the theme of my army. If they do fit the theme then I will try to tone them down (unless I am playing against one or two people at the club). Generally though I can't get motivated to paint unless I am really excited about the background.

The two armies that I'm building up right now are my dwarves and my Space Wolves. For both of them I've tried to create the theme for the army and then build around that. My dwarves are based around the idea that the lord of Karak Hirn is leading some of the veterans from the throng into the lower levels to reclaim them from the grobi and rat-men that have overtaken them. Ironbreakers and longbeards feature prominently in the force, I have tried to minimize the number of gunpowder weapons in the list with the belief that all that smoke would really make tunnel fighting incredibly difficult. This theme is partly based around some of the neat artwork and stories in the army book, but mostly it's because I love the Ironbreaker models and the chance to keep adding more to my force is alluring. I'm still fleshing out the background for my wolves, I'm kind of leaning towards a force led by Logan and including lots of Wolf Guard and Long Fangs to represent the 13th company. As I said in the last post I love the wulfen models from the Eye of Terror campaign so any chance to use those is a plus.

As far as gaming goes I try to incorporate some story into the battle. It doesn't get me too excited to look at something and say "x points vs. y points, GO!". In my head I'll try to come up with some reason for why the two sides are fighting. As the battle goes on I'll try to remember particularly heroic (or cowardly) units and then add to them later on to represent their glories (maybe a shield from a Chaos Warrior on the base of an Ironbreaker champion).

Background for armies gets me excited about painting and playing and really keeps the hobby from getting too stagnant for me.

Some Work

Finals and end of semester projects are done, so I can finally get back down to painting. I was struck the other day by the feeling that I should paint up some of the old Wulfen models that I had from the Eye of Terror summer campaign. I was only able to find 4 out of the 5 though, bummer. So far I've got their armor and flesh all finished up and now I'm just working on the ornamentation on the armor and then all of their fur and fangs. Lots of time to paint right now with two weeks off of work to boot!

Ironbreakers and Thane BSB

Last night I sat down and pushed myself to finish out the last 3 Ironbreakers I need for the unit. You'll notice that there's only 19 in there, that last space is for a character, I don't know if I want to run the Runesmith in there or try to free up some points for a second thane, at the moment though I will be using the Runesmith in there.

I also took a couple of pictures of the thane BSB that will be running with the Longbeards. I know he's not actually carrying a standard but I'm hoping that won't be an issue in the future. I know it isn't at the club where I play so I'm hoping others will understand.

February Painting Points

To keep myself on track this year I'm trying out the painting for points system I found here. My monthly goal using this system is between 12 and 15 depending on how many papers I need to write for school and the amount of hours I work each week. In February I managed to paint 14 points worth of models, half of which are for my dwarves, the rest are for a Khador force for Warmachine I'm working on. I'm setting the same goal of 12 points for March. Ideally in March I'd like to paint 3 Ironbreakers to finish out that unit and then finish the 10 Longbeards that are on the way. We'll see how that goes.

Longbeards on the way

Ordered myself two boxes of the beautiful old metal longbeards the other day, I should have them in time for spring break. I have 25 painted up as my longbeards right now, but when I have the new metal ones painted I will phase them out and use them as warriors. When I get the 10 that are on the way finished up I will order the last 15. As of right now I have a full unit of 20 Ironbreakers, 25 Warriors and 1 Thane completed. Next up will be the new metal Longbeards and then the organ gun I think. I am also trying to figure out a decent conversion for the gyrocopter because I don't care for the Games Workshop version.

Thane BSB

With a snow day in effect in State College (self imposed of course) I knocked out my thane BSB in one day's worth of painting. Though the model doesn't actually have a banner ( I loved the sculpt too much to mess with it) it will be the BSB for the army. Will put up pictures when the sun comes out tomorrow. Tried some new techniques with this model that I am really happy with. It's really cool to look at the models I have finished just in the past 6 months and see how my skills have improved and where I still need more work!

Sorscha WIP and completed and Juggernaught WIP

First off are a few bad shots of Sorscha in progress, please pardon my awesome photo taking abilities

And now a handful of her completed, I hope some of the details come out.


Finally a couple of the warjack, after these were taken I decided I wasn't crazy about the way it was looking so I slapped a wash on there and am waiting for it to dry before I go back over it again.

A Warmachine Interlude

So in addition to having a Warhammer addiction I am also dipping my toes into Warmachine. I've had the Khador and Cryx faction boxes sitting around for a few years so I pulled out the Khador one today and decided to paint it up. So far I'm working on Sorscha and the Destroyer 'jack (I think it's the destroyer at least). Super excited about Sorscha, I think this is some of the best painting I've ever done. I'm going to go take some pics now and post them up ASAP. Woohoo!