Expanding the dwarf army

My last battle really showed the lack of a big cannon. My army list contained only a gyrocopter as a warmachine. This was very effective against low toughness troops and warhounds. Swiftly striking at the soft spots of your enemy. The army list lacked a long rang big damage do-er. The first thing after painting the thunderers was getting a cannon.
The status now is that it is put together and the first layers of metal paint are present. The crew is also in progress as well all the cool accessories.
End of the week new battle with the dwarfs. Small battle it will be, but a good test for the cannon hopefully.

10 thunderers ready for battle

Yep, a full set of 10 thunderers at the ready. I painted already 2 of them for my Mordheim warband, but now the other 8 have got the same treatment. Together they look good and tie in with the color scheme beige and red for the rest of the army.
I already got me the command group so they will be up for painting soon.
Recently we played a good 8th edition WHFB with Dwarfs vs. Chaos warriors. Only a 1000 points but it was good fun, really starting to get to grips with all the rules now. Battle report is awaiting publication but I wanted to put these guys out here first.

BTB: Horde approaches

lot of projects going on on this blog, but is there being played anything Mordheimy? The answer to that question is yet. There was a game played a while ago that did not have a battle report over here. Luckily I found my notes that made me able to reconstruct a bit of that big battle. There was a lot at stake here because if the posessed were to win a castle had to be built before playing the next BTB battle. Let's see what happened.


Some normal weather out there in the cathayan borderlands. A group of dwarfs and halflings are banding together to get a messenger to a nearby town to warn the inhabitants of the chaos threat. The chaos horde was bellowing in the distance behind the walling of the derelict town the defenders were in.

The dwarfs and halflings shooters were up in a tower and a bodyguard was maneuvering the messanger to a spot were it could get a clear run towards the neighbouring town. The possessed split up along the wall in order to be able to stop the runner. The division made them weaker but definitely not to be underestimated. It seemed they even hired an ogre to support them in this fight.

A lot of maneuvering is taking place inside the city with the possessed trying to scale the walls. This was not that easy since one of the plaguebearers jumping a gap fell and hurt his kneecap badly suffering a wound from a 2 inch drop! What a wussy!
All of a sudden one of the buildings burst into flames! Just as this setting was to be one of the more boring ones this unexpected event happens! Luckily it was a building well out of the way of the defenders and especially not the tower all the shooters were in.

The halflings were snipering away with their arrows and doing a good job. The elder shoots Frogface out of action with a great quick shot with a dark venom arrow. What a nice shot!
They had to show their skill since of the sniper thunderers killed the Ogre on turn one already. This was after all fire of the other thunderers softened him up a bit.

In the small fights that follow within the city walls the slayer that just followed the dwarfs went down but one of the beardlings killed "The drummer" possessed.
It wasn't for long that the messenger had an almost clear run and went for it. One of the possessed " The butcher" managed to grab a hold but the messenger killed him instantly while jumping the wall and working the spurs un his horse to create a big distance between him and the chaos horde.

What a good fight it was. The result being no castle to be built yet and a lot of experience to be had since the warband ratings were way apart! Dwarfs and Halflings claiming the victory for once!

gyrocopter and ironbreakers + purity seal = bad

yes it is time for ye olde update. Finished painting the gyro and the 10 ironbreakers. Good looking bunch of lads. Luckily I shot pictures before the coat of purity seal. One way or the other there is now a snowy shine on the back of my ironbreakers and parts of the gyro. Maybe too thick a layer? Maybe because it was a high humitidy outside and it dried wrong, who can tell? It is not that bad, but up close it shwos. Maybe I'll retouch here and there to mask this effect. For here are the good pics.

Battle for the Kitchen

Last saturday I managed to play a 8th edtion warhammer battle against one of my youngest friends Chris. We played a 2000 points 'normal' battle using a scenario that Chris had written. Key in this scenario was the (rather original) rule that the only way to gain points was making your opponents units run off the table, destroying units did not grant you anything (but satisfaction) (Chris called this a 'mother friendly' scenario). Beside this he came up with a very nasty 'random event' table to be used every turn.

I was playing my a more or less standardized Chaos Warrior army. Chris' Orcs and Goblins had quite a lot of magic users and a very big spider...

The winds of magic did not bring the carnage Chris had hoped and my warriors managed to reach their opponents without much damage. My general accompanied by Dragon Ogres, a block of Chaos Ogres and unit of Nurgle Warriors cut through the green skins. Despite the rather one sided battle, the score remained in balance because of the 'drive not finish them off' rule.

On top of that, the 'random event' table summoned one very very nasty 'Random Daemon' which killed off my general... Luckily after that it went after a lone (and stupid) Troll on a left part of the battle field and did no farther intervene with the battle. After this I managed to drive two more units of Gobbo's of the table, resulting in a 3-1 win!

(Picture by Bart)

WIP: dwarf gyrocopter

After going through hell to get all the parts glued, the dwarf gyrocopter was sprayed black. I let the gyro rest for a couple of days to see if nothing came off. Everything was glued with huge amounts of superglue, but still it could come off.
This did not seem the case and I've started to paint the gyro and the rotor separately. For the progress pics i put the two together, but they are not yet glued in place.



Color scheme wise, I went for the beige and red I also used on my dwarf warriors. Whit the base coat on the gyro, the color scheme is starting to work out very well. I randomly selected patches that became red, and the tips of the rotor were to be red. The metal is painted boltgun, washed badab black and then highlighted boltgun and chain mail. I also painted the exhausts brass and some tubing and runes as well. The steamgun is also a big brass pipe in my scheme.

Project: Lewis chessmen as statues and a chess set.

For a long time I’m a fan of the Lewis chessmen. I’m not a chess fan but since seeing the figures the first time in Edinburgh they somehow got to me. Also seen the large collection in London and went back to Edinburgh to see them again there. So whenever in the neighborhood I took the opportunity to view them.

Since then I also bought some memorabilia in the museum shops like a key chain. The Lewis chessmen are always around somewhere. What particularly got to me is the funny expression the faces have and the cool poses that exist (especially the figure biting his shield!).

I won’t go into detail on their origin since books are written around the subject. Suffice to say they are chess pieces from the 12th/13th century carved from (whale)bone and have Scandinavian roots.



Now and then I was looking at a replica chess set of the Lewis chessmen, but somehow they are just overpriced and not that cool looking. This until … I found there are moulds for the Lewis chessmen! Cast your own, paint your own and go crazy! How cool is that! It fits nicely in the range of casting Hirst Arts bricks and build your own scenery.

Received the moulds and started casting away. It’s a bit different from casting bricks but not that different. The “miniatures” look great! They are a nice size and have good texture and detail.



The first set of casts are test pieces for me to see how to paint them. Originally the pieces are carved from bone or have an ivory look. Painting bone on a small scale is no prob, so on this scale it should pose no problems. Only difficulty here is the fact that you want a “black” and “white” set. The white is taken care of with the ivory/bone look. It seems that originally one side was painted with some red dye in the 12th century. I might do a test with first painting a piece ivory and then go over it with red. What also may be cool is to have a full white and red set with gloss varnish on them.



Final ideas are of course painting the pieces looking like grey stone. Should be not too difficult with the experience painting all the buildings :).

Aside from making a great chess set the pieces are awesome for statues in our scenery! The streets need some livening up with cool statues in stone, brass and other materials. They can act as cool gatekeepers for a temple like building and they are awesome as carved statues in a rock formation. Ideas enough for these new moulds!

My stash of plaster is depleting rapidly with casting these larger moulds so order a new 23 kg bag of the stuff. I should be good for a while. I got some interest in the chess pieces as well, so who knows, I might even build a small webshop for selling the buggers.