Remember that big, angry boar rider? He's fully painted and ready for basing.

Our tribally painted rider is raring to go!

The boar also has warpaint. I didn't thin the warpaints much

to try and make it look like thick, hastily applied decoration-not a work of art.

The jawbone axe is the only part of the model I'm really pleased with, but I think it could use it bit more contrast. (It looks monochrome in the photo)

He rides away in search of a new foe.

There's one! Soupbeard McAwesome, human mercenary of The Empire, has left the ruined streets of Mordheim to go slay Orcs on my display shelf! You can see here that the drybrushing is really visible and feathery-my least favorite thing about the model. The wash also killed the contrast on the fur, which sucks. Regardless, he looks okay to me from tabletop distance, so into the army he goes!

See you all soon, I'll have some pictures from Bearcon to share with you all.

Take care!

Good news! I recovered the images from the ill-fated counterattack the dwarves attempted on the elf forward base. Here they are:

The dwarf force moves down the main road towards

the Elf wizards' tower, hoping to crush the remnants of

their attackers' army.

Moving just as fast towards the Dwarf force is the deadly elf

procession: a group of archers, skilled swordmasters, and the surviving

Elf wizard all keen on making up for their failure to capture the dwarfhold.

As you saw last post, an ambush also waited in the ruined structures by the sides of the road,

several Dwarven elite units hoping to flank the massive Elf advance. Luckily, (Or, as it turned out not) the Elf army takes the bait. Gundwarves exchange fire with graceful longbow troops, and the generals' bodyguard leaps from hiding to help the Bears with Beards kill the crew of the giant crossbow. Good on them! 

As the mighty Elf siege engine collapses under dwarf hammers, more warriors leap into melee to

take their revenge. Before long the fight is reduced to a stalemate, both sides taking heavy losses without anyone gaining much of an upper hand.

Suddenly, things go south. The elite dwarf bodyguard is forced to retreat off the road, pushed back by the frantic Elf assaults. The rest of the force is offscreen, starting to take very heavy losses. What ends the battle, however, is a surprise assault on the Dwarf General, Helga Hammersong. Elf war-lions sneak behind her, guided by wily handlers. Even as the dwarf army starts to despair in the main field of battle, their army is suddenly deprived of a leader. This means, in terms of the game's rules, that the battle is over. The Dwarves are routed.

So there you have it, a final decorative shot of the Elves and their war-lions all chasing after the desperately retreating dwarf flank. Two failed assaults in one day, an even amount of dishonor for both armies. This may be the start of a long, bloody war. I sure hope so!

As promised, I took my dwarf army to the local hobby shop, and

engaged in a pair of battles with my friends' elf force.

We played two battles in succession, and we didn't change the field's setup between battles,

(Except for moving our strongholds) though we did deploy from different sides each time we played.

The field of slaughter lies silent before the storm.

The armies weren't complete, unfortunately. My dwarf garrison used slips of paper to represent many units, and my elven foes used Roman infantrymen and riderless horses to represent their swordselves and warbeasts.

Dwarf forces rally to defend a tunnel entrance into their underground metropolis.

Poorly represented elves rank up in a loose formation,  prepared
to capture the mountainhome at all costs.

A unit of gundwarves hides behind a row of sturdy miners,
the two units attempting to flank the invaders.

Their plan is cut short by the swift advance of
the elves' giant crossbow, which obliterates the
whole group of gundwarves in one shot.

The surviving miners flee into a ruined town,
where I have been collecting some stronger units
in an attempt to capture this central position.

The elves also want this area, however, as their war lions and the elf wizard
general himself have gathered at the base of a hill next to the ruined town.

A unit of dwarf-led war bears (Marked "Bears with Beards" on their representative slip
of paper), coordinate a sudden attack with a solitary dwarf ambusher to kill the elf
general and win the battle in one decisive blow.

Well, that was fast. Here's a blurry shot of the dwarves posing with
their kill. Yay! This was so quick we decided to play a second game,
the dwarf counterattack on their elf aggressors.

The second battles' pictures were all victim to a glitch, unfortunately. I was only able to save one image-a poor shot, that would otherwise have been discarded, of some dwarf elite units waiting to spring an ambush on a procession of equally advanced elf war machines. The elves were ambushed as intended, (The whole game revolved around me trying to stop this huge advancing group of deadly units clumped together), but amid the carnage the elf army was able to sneak two of their war lions behind my general, killing her while the main area of battle continued to stalemate.Suffice to say the battle did not go well for the dwarves after that. I had some nice shots of my brave warriors desperately trying to retreat from the elves, but they were lost with the rest.

So there you have it. Two quick battles, one win, one loss. The game I'm using is hordes of the things, the rules of which can be found on wikipedia for free. It's a lot of fun but way too random to be played very seriously, and as you saw, often all too quick to play. I'll be seeing you all next week, with some tutorials on how to paint freehand.

Take care!

Hello all, here's a little update to show you what's been going on

with me.

First, a goblin standard bearer to inspire bravery and zealotry for the

malevolent minions of the menacing, mushroom-mad moon.

The lighting exaggerated the model's color contrast quite a bit, but

I still think I'm going to start highlighting these guys' robes with blue, not

grey. Ah, well. Live and learn.

Here's one of Grimaxe the Brvtals' savage boar riders,

basecoated and ready for washing/highlighting.

I like how he's turning out, but the tribal tattoos are a bit crude to my eye at the moment, even

for a savage orc. I'm also never doing an obsidian blade with matte paints again. Lighting killed the detail on the sword, but I can tell you that it looks sort of confused and melted in real life-not the crisp, sharp aesthetic you want for an obsidian sword. Ah, well. Live and learn.

Finally, here's a size comparison between the two of them.

Good thing they're allies, the little goblin would have a terrible time motivating his colleagues to fight just this one boar rider, let alone a group! Good thing is, goblins are expendable.

See you all tomorrow, when I should be bringing these guys to an actual battle and recording the carnage. Take care!

Hey everyone, be sure to check out Bearcon if

you're in the area, it's our local gaming convention

and it's free this year. I know I'll be playing a few games there.

Link to website: http://www2.potsdam.edu/bearcon/default.htm

My reaper miniatures from the company's very successful kickstarter

are going to arrive soon. Here's all I'm getting:

And I chose to trade in the Sophie miniature for one of these guys:

And here's how the model itself is looking:

Well, my dwarf army is going to get a lot of extra punch. I certainly hope

the shields are unattached so I can freehand some cheeses and mandrills

striking menacing poses on them.

Take care!

Here we are with the completed dwarfhold! All that remains is to add the

extra pieces, such as the caged goblin and minecarts.

Here it is in the display case at Misty Hollow, where it has found residence.

Of course, the glass walls and floor beg the question of where the tunnel is leading TO,

 but its otherwise an honor to have it displayed, and a convenient place to have it besides.

I also primed and painted a bit.

In addition to a few orcs you'll be seeing soon, I have begun the

painting of the dwarf general Helga Hammersong!

Here she is basecoated. I'm going to put a lot

of effort into making this one look nice, and I'll

keep you all updated with some progress pics.

Anyway, that's all I have to show you for now. Next week we'll

take a look at the two generals some more, and see how they're both coming along.

Take care!

Continued the dwarfhold as promised, by means of a rock-shaped mold plaster in various forms.

Here's the result. The pieces of stone have beautiful texture and detail, and I love the tactile feeling of a nice plaster cast, but they're prone to shattering (Bad mix ratios?) It makes me nervous how they'll behave when I stick them onto the piece itself. More mixing is still to come anyway though, so I can justify a few cracked rocks in the name of learning.

In addition, heres some army pics to top of this week's update.

First our orc warboss: Grimaxe the Brvtal!

I think he's coming along nicely.

I'm going to build a box around the base of his trophy stick, and 

try to make the guy getting run over less unrealistic (Nice life jacket, dead guy.) before I paint him. The base also needs work to make it blend and fit the scene. No globs of unsanded green stuff cluttering my generals' path, please!

I also snapped two shots of my dwarfs. Behold the mountainhomes' grand warriors!

All four of them!

Poor lighting makes them look both worse and better than they actually are. 

Beards are a lot of fun to paint, skin tones not so much.

Anyway, that's all this week. My opponent got sick for our scheduled game, so my little army has its combat prowess are yet untested. Ah well, more time to make them pretty! If you want me to show anything specific, leave a comment and I'll see to it.