Brennan's Wrap-up Post (1,203 points)

Hello!  Well this is the end of my third OWAC and I'm excited to get through this chunk of the old lead pile.  First I want to thank the Overlord and all the other folks who have supported the challenge.  It has been a difficult year, but this part has been as good as ever and I appreciate that.

On to the final pictures!  Worksite army photo below...

10 Iron Breakers with Musician and Standard: 240 pts

10 Crossbowmen: 130 pts

16 Longbeards with Musician and Standard: 270 pts

21 Warriors with Musician and Standard: 253 pts

2 Bolt Throwers: 120 pts

1 Dwarf Hero Heavy Armor and Double Handed Weapon: 109 pts
1 Runesmith w/ Heavy Armor (under his clothes ;)): 81

So this was fun.  I haven't done a heavily armored force for the OWAC yet and it had been a while since I had done this much armor anyway.  I tried to keep it bright but with one finger on reality.  I wanted a good bit of contrast from the orcs and gobs I have been working on.  I think fantasy, or sci-fi, works best when there is a hint of reality to keep the brain anchored.  Otherwise, you just descend into a computer generated realm of disbelief... 

Well this is me signing off for about 6 months!  Paint well and be excellent to each other...

Brennan's May Post (200 Points)

Hello!  This is exciting and sad all at the same time.  This month I painted the final two castings that I had planned for the challenge.

It's sad in two ways:
     1.  Its two figures, because I forgot to mix in the command figs over the other months like I usually do...
     2.  It's the last of the planned figures, and I'm not sure what else to add to this challenge

But!  It's exciting to be through this new contingent for my Dwarf Army.  In my wrap up post, I'll have the whole throng in one place for you review, but a focused spotlight on the figures that I did for this challenge.  That way you can let me know if they are separate enough looking 'brigade'.

Dwarf Hero Heavy Armor and Double Handed Weapon

I tried to have him mirror the Iron Breakers, but have a slightly different style.

Runesmith w/ Heavy Armor
Ended up very blue....  But I like him.

And the double shot!

1 Dwarf Hero Heavy Armor and Double Handed Weapon (109) and 1 Runesmith w/ Heavy Armor (81)

Brennan's April Post (253 points)

Oh this regiment!  I was tickled pink to have a go at it!  I have always wanted one, even when I younger and the RoR box sets like this were going away.  I was lucky enough to get the box and a set, I've added a few figs, in a bulk buy a couple of years ago. I thought they would be a great edition to the army challenge.

First the negative.  They are absolutely horrible to rank up.  I really like my figures facing the enemy head on and not looking to the side when in line.  To get these guys to do this was tough.  I got there.  I have to use the three fig unit bases with the tiny round piece.  I only had 2 of these so the use was very strategic.

Other than that I kept to the pallet I have been using all along, but I muted it a little.  These guys aren't elites, even if they are festooned with pistols...  So I wanted the unit to be a little toned down.

I also added a very similarly uniformed chap with a pistol in a dramatic pose.  I though it fit.

A few more pics...

And the command...

And some shields

So that's 21 warriors with musician and standard: 253pts!

Brennan's March Post - The Wooden Gun Line (250 Points)

Hello!

Well, it's March and I live near a US Covid hot spot so I'm trying to keep everybody far away from me!  So, I've painted up a wooden gun line and stopped taking the showers.  More on the paint below...

As these fellas aren't elite, I've gone for a simpler paint scheme, especially on the armor.  I kept the color scheme on the tabards to help pull the look of the whole force together.

I got a comment last time, positive, on the color of the skin.  I've always liked a browner tone for dwarves.  I'm not sure why, but it has an earthy feel that I think suits them.  I know lost of folks like the very light and ruddy skin tones, but I tend to save those for elves.  

First up are the bolt throwers.  In 4th ed we called them SAMs... because of a certain magic rune.  I like how in 3rd they are more like battalion guns, get lots of them and they have a moderate effect.

Next up at the 10 xbows.  Those 2 Marauder miniatures in the unit were fantastic to paint.  The older Citadel were fun too, but there was something really nice about the Marauder figs, maybe the extra details.

Well here we are:
120 for two bolt throwers
130 for 10 xbows
250 for the month!

Ummmm....  next up on the painting table?  Well, its work dependent.  With being at home, I might paint up two character models and make it easy, or I might take on Prince Ulthars...

Brennan's February Post (240 Points)

Hello!  I'm back again with the unit of Iron Breakers!

So, if I went for shiny metal on all of these figures then it really would have been a lot of the same color.  I decided to go for a blue steel look on the plate armor to break things up a bit.  I used a series of washes and dry-brushing to get the effect.  It's not perfect, but I think it gets the point across.  PBS had a good documentary on an electric blue suit of armor that provided the inspiration.  That and I wanted to keep the corn flower blue and forest green core colors that I'm doing for this section of the army.  The forest green was used for some armor trim and any random shirts or capes that snuck there way in...

For the banner, I wanted something stormy so I went with a lightning bolt.  I like lightning bolts for the dwarves.  if you have ever been up in the mountains during lightning storm, then you will know what that raw power feels like.  Seems fitting for what is, effectively, a unit of foot knights.

And now all of them together!

10 Iron Breakers with musician and standard: 240 pts

Mike's Mighty Dwarven Throng of Karak Blargh January (208 points)

Well for the first month I decided that I would once again get my biggest unit done first. For this moth I decided to finally paint one of my favorite boxed sets of dwarfs Prince Ulther and his Dragon Company. Sadly they didn't have special rules in 4th edition so they'll be fielded as warriors.

I did not follow the normal color scheme for the unit as I already have a unit painted in the red and gold, so I went with a blue and red scheme in stead. I also didn't include Ulther as I a painting him later as a hero.

So 208 pts this month and on to the shortest month of the challenge!

Brennan's January Post (240 Points)

Well, these have been different than the Slann I did last year!  The Slann were blue, with lots of earth tones and neat fabrics.  These dudes are all metal and hair.  I felt like I was painted the aged remains of a hair metal band....

Anyway, I'm trying to keep a couple of distinct colors as themes for this brigade, but you will forgive me if I refer to this collection of dwarf companies under one leader as a 'battle'...  It just seems proper.  In this case I chose to use a nice medium green and brighter light blue as contrasting colors.  I sprinkled in a few more tones as I worked through the figs, metal painted orange on a helmet as an example, to get some variety.  I wanted continuity but not a uniform.  These colors will repeat in a variety of ways throughout the battle.

What I like about the imperial style of Dwarves is that they have those nice surcoats on, which break up all the armor.  The problem with the Long Beards is that they have so much hair that it makes it hard to see the nicer designs on the surcoats, so I went for some nice taping on the edges.  It's much easier to see from the back.

I did the beards in a couple of different ways.  Sometimes I used just a multiple level dry brush and in other cases I used a couple rounds of inking with a dry brush.  Frankly, I think the results are similar, but I was hoping to get enough variety to create a slight visual variation to break-up the uniform aspect of the figures and the painting.

For January I did...

14 Long Beards with a Standard and a Musician which would be 240 points in 4th ed!

The astute may notice that I had planned to do 16 Long Beards but alas, when I did my count I failed to notice the two short beards that had snuck into the ranks....  They will just have to go somewhere else!

Brennan's Dwarves - Intro Post

Hello! 

Well I'm back again for another round.  I had a very hard time deciding what to paint this year.  I debated doing another round of Slann.  Which would be fun, but the two other painters local to me, were painting up 4th ed armies.  I thought about doing more with my Orcs and Gobbos, which is great army in 4th, but I also had other projects that were calling out for my attention.  That landed me on Dwarves.  I have a third ed dwarf army that I have played with off and on.  I really enjoy dwarves in third because they aren't as slow as they are in other additions, primarily due to encumbrance rules and how they affect other races.  However, in 4th dwarves reward players who use the special troops types, this is mainly because clansmen can't have heavy armor and are not required troops.  BUT they will feature heavily in my list because, I like the figs.

So, I'm going to be doing an army with a fair number of imperial dwarf figures from the Citadel range and Marauder dwarves that I hope match the theme well.  I'm not going to have many puff and pike dwarves, not because I don't like them, but I'm hoping that this army will have a consistent look, like a separate brigade in the army.  So there will be a consistent color scheme but, hopefully it won't look like a uniform.

We will just have to wait to see how that turns out!

10 Iron Breakers with musician and standard: 240 pts

10 Crossbowmen: 130

16 Longbeards with musician and standard: 270 pts

21 Warriors with musician and standard: 253 pts

2 Bolt throwers, with light armor for the crew: 120 pts

1 Dwarf Hero Heavy Armor and Double Handed Weapon (109) and 1 Runesmith w/ Heavy Armor (81)

All together now!  For 1,203 Points!

Tom's Dwarfs - Month Three (253 points)

March see's the arrival of a unit of 15 Warriors (three of which I submitted in January), so only counts as a unit of 12...

I love the imperial dwarf range, and whilst these models are not all of the same ilk, they fit together well enough. They're all armed with axes and there's another unit to paint up next month or so who are all armed with swords.

If I ever play a game with them, the weapons'll help differentiate between the two, and I could also seamlessly mix them into one big unit.

It's a blue and white colour scheme, in homage to Wayne England's classic paint - link. I feel a lot more comfortable with blue and white than I do with black and white. I think whenever I go to highlight black, it just doesn't look right - the grey highlight requires a much more accurate stroke, whereas the blue is far more forgiving!

Sometimes I feel that this colour scheme is like an 'easy out', as in it's not original, and can instantly  be referenced back to Wayne's army. This for me is no bad thing, as I already have a contingent of dwarfs not painted in blue and white, plus: the more I paint the blue and white, the more I like it :)

(For those who wish to know, I used P3 Cygnar Blue, shaded with the GW blue wash, and then highlighted in two or three stages to VGC Electric Blue. The white is P3 Menoth White Base, shaded with the GW Sepia wash, and then highlighted in two or three stages up to VMC Ivory. I love the Ivory - and, thinking about it, I've not used a pure white at all in my Dwarf Army to date. This Ivory is the brightest colour I've used).

Aaand how, here they are:

I really enjoyed the dwarf on the far left with all his symmetry. No real reason, he just finished up really easily!

For me, being super picky, in this picture above only the fully clad chainmail dude - second in from the right, fits into the unit I had planned. The others fit well enough though, they just don't look like they're crusading!

In contrast, I did not enjoy painting the unit Champion, Borax Bloodaxe (another Dwarf Lord of Legend). He's therefore not really finished as I would like, but I've left him as is so that he doesn't drain all my motivation! 

The dwarf on the far right has to be the smallest dwarf. He was super easy to paint though, being pretty much just metal armour and all.

I am pleased how the stripy banner pole came out. I was going to colour the stripe, but I think it looks good in white, so I've left it. The banner itself I think will come later on down the line, probably in the last month of the challenge. It'd be nice to paint all the banners together, and attach them as a finishing touch. I'm thinking a two tone banner, and then an 'army streamer'. The streamer could be exactly the same across all standards, and then the main banner specific to the unit...

And the group shot:

To go with these, I have painted this cannon:

The base is made from a square of plasticard, with some grey standard Milliput squished in on top - I like the bit of texture between the wheel and the tuft of grass on the left crated by the putty. I had some spare Milliput left over, so I rolled that into balls for the... cannonballs. 

I'm not a massive fan of painting war machines, but I feel this came out pretty good, and in retrospect it was easy enough to finish. I'm enthused to paint a few more! The cannon is by Alternative Armies, from their Flintloque range, but I think it is now OOP?

Here's the Cannon Crew:

That completes the 200 points for this month, now on to the EXTRAS!

First up, this pair of mantlets for protecting the war machines and crew. They're available from 

Foundry:

And a nice shot of them togevva:

I've also painted some more treasure. I don't think they could have enough treasure. Could they?

So, as a very recent development, my phone (aka my camera) has died and whilst I have painted up some extras, I've not got any photos of them - they'll have to wait until next month!

Anyhow - here's another cannon (still available from Alternative Armies) I did whilst riding the high of painting the first :)

I have really dragged my heels over painting the crew. I've two done, and the third sitting on the painting table. Sad times.

Actually, here's a picture of my painting setup in all it's formidable mess:

All the paints/tufts/glue/things fit into the cardboard box // sweety box and are pushed under the chair when visitors arrive. The light packs down and goes to the side of the chair and then the brushes and paintwater go on the windowsill - right next to the chair. Its super quick to tidy away and it remains the single most important thing to my productivity.

The ease of painting is not a thing to be underestimated with regards to poductivity.

I tend to try to do a little bit in the morning before work - it doesn't count if no-ones up, right?, and then maybe a little bit  (10-30min) after work. Mornings I try to do most days, and evenings maybe three times a week.

I work around 56hrs a week, with one day off, and love training a couple of things in the gym.  On the other hand, I don't have any childrens…

Next month most likely will see me paint Iannick's model - and I'll hopefully include some kind of stage by stage for it.

Goblobber crew are still just undercoated, so that's a thing that'll nag at me...

And, I'm half way through painting an EXTRAS regiment which I'm very excited about, so hopefully April's post will be chockablock :)

Till next time  Aaaidriieeeeennnnee!

January saw: 

130...Crossbowmen

54...Bolt Thrower

33...Warriors

link

February saw:

202...Slayers

link

March sees:

143...Warriors

110...Cannon