Dwarves At Arms by Macrocosm Miniatures

I just wanted to give you all a little heads up about a Kickstarter that is currently running by Macrocosm Miniatures:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2076383099/dwarves-at-arms

The Kickstarter itself is for several ranges of multi-part Dwarves each based upon a real historical time period and all having a certain classic Citadel feel to them.  However the real gems for me personally are down in the add ons section:

Now these fine well fed fellows are going to being the basis of a Hobbit army which will see use in Dragon Rampant and King Of The Rings.  Again they've got a great old school vibe to them and so much character, I saw these up close at the Derby Worlds show and knew I had to have some (and at that price how could you not!).

Now it isn't only the shorter in stature miniatures which are getting the attention as there are now a range of Ogres dressed as peasantry available along with the Jotnar and I cannot emphasise how awesome these look:

They have that Scandinavian Troll feel but I don't think they'd be out of place in the Hobbit, perhaps harassing farmers after venturing out the the Trollshaws?

Start of a new project - Stargate

With the hobby table clear it was time to start on the next project so after looking through the vast mountain range of miniatures, which I somehow seem to have proliferated, I found just the thing I was in the mood for... Stargate.

This will be a nice self contained set of miniatures that will see little if any expansion beyond what I have here and as there isn't a huge amount to get through I should be able to get this done in a relatively decent amount of time.

Game wise I had originally created profiles for all of these based on the Doctor Who Miniature Game rule set, a game we enjoy and that would fit these very well however with the release of 7TV second edition I'm tempted to start from scratch and create profiles for them for use in that.

Before I get to that stage though I need to get these washed, cleaned up, sprayed and painted!

Gundabad Orc Characters

Just over a week ago I received my Hobbit Orc characters back from Mally's Minature Painting (http://mallysminiatures.blogspot.co.uk/), these were all done to a table top standard except for the custom Azog (converted by Shadow and Flame http://www.shadowandflame.co.uk/) who was given the full works.

I did spend a little time working on some of these myself just to push them a little further (nothing major just a bit of layering on the metal work, flesh and Dwarf skin leather, adding eyes to the Wargs and some of the characters etc) as well as painting and flocking the bases (I always ask for the bases to be unpainted so I can match them up to my collection).

Again I couldn't have been happier with the work Mally puts into his painting and I find that fortunately his painting style fits well with my own so all the miniatures sit well together on the table top.

Azog and his underlings 

Azog on his White Warg 

Bolg on his stretch Warg (not sure what they were thinking when they sculpted this one) 

Yazneg on Warg (one of my favourite sculpts) 

Fimbul on Warg

Azog 

 Bolg

The true Bolg (and probably my favourite sculpt from the Hobbit Orc range) 

Yazneg

Fimbul 

Narzug

Azog as seen in The Battle of Five Armies 

Deadzone Marauders

Just a quick update on my Deadzone Marauders which have all been built now.

This is a combination of miniatures from the first Deadzone Kickstarter along with a character from the second.  There were quite a few duplicates overall but luckily I had picked up the conversion set from the first KS (the metal parts you can see) so it was easy to add some variety to them but I also took out my trusty saw and knife and converted a few other miniatures in there, namely one of the captains; the Marauders dual wielding rifles; and the identical goblin snipers.  It was one of the snipers that received the most work as I wasn't overly taken by the comedic 'run away' pose they were in so one received a bit of a blow dry to put him into a ducking for cover pose while the other was chopped up and put into a running into position pose.

These are now ready to send off to the painter and I'm after something similar to the early WWII German uniform for them along with a dark flesh colour for their skin (like the Uruk-hai from LOTR) which I'm hoping will give them the look of a crack military unit.

Next up on the blog will be the Orc characters from the Hobbit which I've just had returned from the painter, just wait to you see Azog!

Phil

Fallen Dwarves vs Orcs - Dragon Rampant

On Friday evening I had the pleasure of having another game of Dragon Rampant, testing out my recently finished Fallen Dwarves against some filthy Orcs.  It was my opponents first game yet everything flowed smoothly, to keep it simple we stuck to the first scenario and left quests out for now.  I won this time round though I have a feeling the Orcs will be out for blood next time (!) at which point we may add in a quest or two before upping the points from 24 to 32 or 36 and probably playing on a 6x4.

Here are some highlights but apologies for the quality of the images, they were taken on my phone and as it was evening the lighting wasn't great.

 The battle lines are drawn

The Orcs prepare to attack the Dwarf line 

The Dwarves brace themselves in defence 

The armies march forth 

 The Trolls charge towards the Drakon Guard with reckless abandon

The Dwaves have some time to prepare and form a shield wall deflecting most of the damage and returning some in kind

 Having driven the Trolls off after several combats the Drakon Guard are put upon by crazed Orcs

and with no time to ready themselves are quickly decimated.  However they gave as good as they got and soon the Orc ramble had soon limped away themselves after suffering a severe beating

Meanwhile the Fallen Dwarf Lord Khahzim was showing everyone how it should be done, assisting in the destruction of the crazed Orcs and then taking on the Orc General in a glorious battle

Having seen off the Orc General (though getting quite bloodied in the process) it was time to focus on the last remaining Orcs, the Warg Riders.  They had been steadfast in the face of dwindling numbers and the loss of their General however faced with a fresh group of Dwarves ready for action they took the only sensible option and fled

Deadzone - Marauders

Just a quick update on what I'm up to at the moment, the Marauders from the Deadzone Kickstarters (first and second).

All the  bits laid out ready for cleaning

With the revamped rules out now, and playing wonderfully, I thought it was time to get some more factions game ready.  I'll be building these then sending them off for painting before moving on to my next project,

What I have built so far

Fallen Dwarves and Gundabad Orcs

I've finally finished my Fallen Dwarves having ben delayed by a backdrop falling on a set of miniatures and breaking all the spears, however one quick purchase and some great help from Anvil Industries and everything was set right.  I cannot express enough how lovely these miniatures are to work on, from the sculpts themselves by Miniatures of The North to the casting from Anvil Industries .  So here are the photos included updated shots of my first batch of miniatures:

And here's any army shot and my first attempt at a video so it's basic but does the job:

While I had the camera out I also took some photos of my Orc army which was painted by Mally's Miniature Painting (check out his blog here http://mallysminiatures.blogspot.co.uk/, though this army was painted to tabletop standard he can really paint and is due to paint the characters up for this army soon):

Again here's a quick video to give you the army shot:

Next up I'll be putting together the Marauder Faction for Deadzone (which will be making their way to Mally for painting) and then I'm not sure what I'll work on next though I still have some Enforcer to paint for Deadzone which I built just before/during the house move.

Unitl next time

Phil