Miners Report! (Part 1)

 This is the final unit of painted dwarfs from the collection I bought last summer. The models in the collection were all from the Battle for Skull Pass WFB 7th ed starter box and they were all painted.  And painted kind of strangely.  Clearly their original owner was a big fan of metallic paints as all of these models were coated in them. But this unit of Miners is probably the strangest unit as they're painted in a metallic purple color. 

Miners painted by an unknown person. 

I doubt there is any part of these models I won't paint over.  In fact I am looking forward to doing away with that attempt at blood that has been painted onto their pick-axes. At least, I think that is what it's supposed to be...?

Pickaxe for the Blood God!

While I was prepping those models for their inevitable revamp, I picked up a box of the current TOW edition of the miners and built most of the box in about a day.  This was because I was stuck in a hotel room and assembling these guys was a fine way to pass the time. That was back in the Spring, and now at the start of Fall, I tinkered with them again, finishing them off with extra bits such as backpacks, blasting charges, and additional equipment. Those guys are now primed and waiting for me to get started on their paint jobs. 

Lighting the way, like a champion. 

I had the idea to make a marker to indicate whether or not I have purchased blasting charges for a unit of Miners. This is represented by a wheelbarrow loaded up with TNT and a stack of blasting charges. I think I will make a few more of these for the Miner units I will likely end up with. 

The runes translate to 'acme'.

Then came time to construct the mine markers (as described in the Dwarf Mountin Hold Arcane Journal).  This first one was made from the current miners kit. 

It's tall and loaded with details. 

Contrasting that we have the markers from the Blood Pass 7th ed starter which  work nicely as well. 

This last one I made from  bits left over from the dwarf cannons I built recently. 

I also bought this 3-D printed terrain piece to go with these guys. It's a mine entrance. I thought it was perfectly suited and will look good when painted up and set up on the table. When it's paint job is done that is.

A shaft to protect. 

This thread will chroncile my work on these dwarf miners over time. Hopefully not a long time, but we'll see. 

Thunder Struck! (Part 2)

 It was a bit of a grind, but I finally got to a point where I can declare that these guys are DONE. 

I neglected to take stage-by-stage/ work-in-progress shots as I went along mainly because ai dabbled on these guys here and there since the previous post.  This dabbling took place randomly between work on some of the other miniatures that I completed during that time. 

Which leaves me with these snazzy glamor shots instead. I hope no one minds. If you want to know more about this scheme check out the Dwarf Warriors posts and the post that details the single test model I did also. 

The leadership. 

Oh, and check out those leaves! I ordered some leaves for scale modeling from Amazon. These are great for adding a touch of realism to models such as these. 

And I suppose that's all I can say about them at this time. I think they turned out well considering their original state that they were in when I got them. 

Another unit painted, more to go! 

The Restrained Slayers (Part 1)

While assessing my small (no pun intended -for once) selection of Warhammer Fantasy Dwarves (or "Dwarfs" as GW prefers) I noticed that the only Slayer models I have are the ones from the Battle of Skull Pass set, of which, I have acquired a hand-full. Specifically I have five of the tied up guys and two of the running guys that are holding double axes. 

This slayer was NOT painted by me. 

While reading through the Old World rules, the part regarding testing for restraint to prevent your unit from racing after an enemy unit whom you've just  beaten in combat, I couldn't help but imagine that these tied up slayers,  are,  literally, the models of restraint. Then I thought, "hey, they're slayer models right? Why not base them up and use them as such. 

Examples of restraint. 

They'll end up in the 2nd rank of this unit while the two guys I have running forward with this axes held high will be front rank models. 

Also NOT painted by me. 

I was able to find a musician and standard to go into the front rank, but I have yet to find a champion that I like, or one I like that falls within my budget.  That quest continues....

What a crazy crew! 

...I did pick up this guy, who I think will make a good addition to this force.  

 

We need to  bring these pants back into style. 

 I paid more money for that one model than all of the ones above. I think this is the lowest budget unit in my entire collection. And that's not a complaint! 

Restrained and holding the line.

Skull Pass Miner's Cart #1

My lil' pony being put to work. 

This is the pony driven miner's cart from the old Battle of Skull Pass boxed set, which was the Warhammer Fantasy Battle 7th edition starter box. This particular one was acquired second hand and the previous owner had a fixation on painting hair in metallic colors. On this model a gold paint was used on the pony's mane and tail. It somehow works,  but not enough for me to let it be. Watch as I am going to almost completely repaint this model. 

Originaly paint job, with new base by me. 

The first step was for me to mount it on the appropriate sized base. I added rocks and grit to the base to get it prepared for basing. 

I painted the base using Apple Barrel Teritorial Beige. It's been my go-to dirt color for close to two decades now. 

I wanted the cart itself to appear old, well-used and a bit rusty. Rhinox Hide was a perfect base coat for this idea. It was also a good base color for the straps and banding. The stuff on top the cart appear to be sitting on a wooden pallet. Rhinox Hide felt like it work as a base for this as well. 

What follows is the results of a tsunami of washes, drybruahing and blends to get this thing essentially done. A lot of which went into trying to make the cart itself look like aged metal without making it look like ogre scrap. 

The one thing I hate about this model is the sculpted grass touching the pony's raised hoof. I hope to hide it behind some grass tufts in the next step. 

...and I think I accomplished that. I may have went a bit nuts with the grass tufts on this base, but I felt that there was a lot space to fill on this base so I just went for it. 

All-in-all I'm pleased with this one. It has prompted me to consider how I am going to paint the one from my Skull Pass boxed set that is still on the sprue.  Maybe that one won't be as rusty, or maybe it's state of decay and wear and tear will be worse? 

I hope you got a kick out of this one. There are more Old World goodies coming to this blog soon. I gotta say, after spending the last few years painting 40k stuff exclusively it's a nice change to be painting Fantasy models again. 

Where's My Thane?

Of all the used dwarf models that came in the lot that I bought back in the summer, the only one missing a component was the Thane model; he was missing his axe.  His mighty axe. Gone. Lost in the warp. 

"Aye ain't 'armless, aye still got me teeth!"

The paint job on this one was refreshingly basic, so doing my thing over it shouldn't be too challenging I think. I'm tempted to keep that pink trim on his cloak, just for the humor of it. 

Gotta have solid stones to rock the pink frill.

Going through my bits, I found this hammer from the early '00s multi-part dwarf kit that I determined would do the trick. With minimal tinkering I was able to get it to fit, and I think it looks pretty tough. 

Heavy metal indeed!

Being the big-bad Thane that he is, I thought he needed a suitable base. Who needs a tactical rock when you got tactical slab! This came from the old citadel basing kit. I added a few skulls too in order to make it a bit more interesting. 

But is that enough skulls?

Here he is being test fit to the base. Yeah, I think he's going to look cool on this thing. I was surprised at how balanced he was on it, which will make gluing him to it a little easier. 

Surprisingly balanced.

I painted the base up first. I like to keep things detached at this stage in order to get a cleaner paint job. 

Painted rock and skulls. 

Painting this guy was pretty straightforward because he was more metallic colors than anything else. 

The green is my typical mix that I use for my dwarves: Caliban Green with a highlight of old Woodland Green.  As I paint more of these guys in this scheme the cool greens contrasting against the hot metallics seem to work better. Especially when a lot of them are all ranked up.

And yes, that purplish trim contrasts nicely against that cloak also. He's a Thane with a sense of style. 

Style. Pimp royale.

I used the existing color that was on the cloak as base for my greens and it works well giving the green an added sense of depth that I like.  I'm not sure but I think that existing  color was Kabalite Green or an older analog of it... just not too sure actually.

I needed more depth on his beard so I washed it with Nuln Oil and highlighted it again with White Scar.  After a few touch-ups, he was good and done. 

Hammer time! 

Here he is ranked up with the dwarf warriors that I painted a few months ago. I think he looks good and stands out prominently as a leader among his peers. 

A true leader indeed! 

Thunderer Struck! (Part 1)

 Here is the next unit of my recently acquired second-hand Warhammer Fantasy Dwarves to receive my attention. I have already updated their bases from 20mm to 25mm.

Rebased.

Like the previous unit, I intend to just paint over the existing paint job. Weirdly, this unit featured even more metallic colors than the previous lot including green metallic clothing and gold beards.  Color-wise it's surprisingly close to the scheme I'm using, just in metallic. 

Before. 

But unlike the Warriors unit, I felt these guys needed a bit more than just grass tufts. Rocks, random rocks scattered about seemed like a logical, and easy, thing to do. However I needed more small rocks and I wasn't about to pay $9.99 for a bag of them when my front yard looks like this: 

Lots o' rocks.

After a matter of minutes I had gathered up a few appropriate, and interesting enough, rocks to serve my basing ambitions. And I finally found a use for the empty container that came with the old Citadel Basing kit. 

"I gotta rock."

With a few strategic glued down rocks, I decided that the unit leader would look snazzy with an orc skull on his base. Then it was time to apply all the rest of the grit.  -Exciting stuff huh? 

The process for painting these guys is the same I used to paint the previous batch of Warrirors. The original painter painted the wooden stocks of the rifles in a bold burgundy color. I drybrushed on a layer of Screamer Pink and finished that with a wash of Carroburg Crimson to get a look that I liked. 

After.

And with that I have the first guy of this unit done. Well, 'done' to level that I'm satisfied with. I think I can knock out the rest of them in part 2.  

The Santa Dwarves Demise (Part 3)

Finally, I have finished this unit. But before I celebrate that,  let's get to know Bluebeaed.

 

And here is Bluebeard, the Champion who leads the former Santa Regiment. Adorned in garish color choices, most of which are metallic, and a crude attempt at portraying a bloody Warhammer.  Rather, this is how he was when I bought him, and clearly he is ready for a bloody good yule celebration. 

Before. 

Like the rest of his kin, I opted to paint right over this existing scheme. For the most part, this seemed to work out just fine. I made an exception for the Champion's bluebeard which, I must confess, kind of grew on me. I guess where I grew up reading 4-color comics I have always had a fondness for the blue/black hair style. I did tone it down by applying Nuln Oil over it to mute the metallic sheen of the beard. 

New colors applied. 

As I got to final steps I decided that I would honor the original painter's desire to have this guy wielding a bloody hammer. I used Blood For the Blood God technical paint to get the point across. 

Finished model 

Once I was satisfied with the highlights and touch-ups, it was time to flock their bases. As a call back to the original dwarf painted oh so many moons ago, I used static grass on the base in addition to the grass tufts that I have become so fond of in recent times.  Being so squat and stunty as they are, I wasn't too eager with the application of the tufts because I didn't want to obscure the models' too much. Therefore I took a more conservative approach and used them sparingly. A few of these models might not have any tufts at all! 

Hang tuft.

They rank up so much better on the 25mm bases vs. the old 20mm from the previous editions of WFB. They also seem to have a bigger presence as individual models as well, and the option to put a few additional things to their bases gives them more options for characterization that he 20mm bases simply didn't allow. 

Here's the command section. I think the standard bearer is my favorite of the whole bunch. 

So there you have it, my first painted unit of Warhammer Fantasy Dwarves.  Next up, probably another unit from the same deal, also from the Battle For Skull Pass set.