Bugman's Dwarf Rangers wait for no Elf!

So there I was, happily working on my Wood Elf army project, when a bunch of rather rowdy Dwarves popped up on the paint station. Obviously, I could've told them to wait but they had free beer with them...well I hope it was free, I don't want to see the bill otherwise. I guess I'll find out when they're back from defending their brewery from a Goblin invasion... 

There's only one thing better than gold, and that's the golden glow of Bugman's XXXXX.

Warhammer The Old World Battlereport(s): Trial by Footslogging

Warhammer The Old World has been released just shy of AoS' tenth birthday (it was released in 2015). That means that, as an early adopter of that system, I haven't played a variant of the old 'square based' original rules for at least nine years. In practice it is a lot longer, my last long string of games was with the (then new) 3rd and 4th editions of Warhammer Fantasy Battles. I tried getting back into fantasy during 8th, but it was a bad experience. Having said that: I'm stoked to get playing with squares again . Not in the least because armies take less space to store on squares. By now I've had the chance to get two games in. Here's a dual battle report (sort of), with running commentary about the differences between Warhammer AoS and TOW a lazy, rule-ignoring greybeard like me experiences. Let's start of with a semi-spectacular snap first.

Important rules to live by: don't get charged in the flank, don't get charged in the rear and don't challenge a High Elf on Gryphon to one-on-one combat with a 'mere' Dwarven Thane. Also bring a  quill, bottle of ink and a book of grudges with lots of empty pages to any battle.

Square based and unfazed: my Dwarven army will stomp through The Old World again

My Dwarven army is finished and ready to stomp through The Old World again. To be fully honest I took them out for a spin already (most of them bare-based and some unpainted (heresy, I know)). But having them all lined up and fully painted is just a wonderful sight I wanted to share (and brag about, I'll be honest here ;). Without further ado, here's the lot:

Owning a fully painted army is a Warhammer dream well worth chasing.

Dwarf Gyrocopters join the throng

I believe that the odds of arriving late increase with your proximity to work or school. In the same vein: the less you have to paint to finish an army, the greater the chance it'll never get done (yes there's a Catch 22 there ;). With that in mind, I forced myself to finish the final two Gyrocopters I needed to complete my Dwarven throng. Well okay, I painted three, because for some odd reason I printed three of the things.

Hojotoho! Hojotoho!

Khazukan Kazakit-ha! (Old World Dwarves on the warpath!)

Wow! 2024 seems to fly by with no time to spare for blogging. Luckily I have found time to paint and - as is the prerogative of  wargamers - switch projects :). My Bretonnians have been (temporarily I'm sure) pushed aside in favor of quickly finishing a Dwarven army. I used (a few days from) a week of vacation to finish a bunch of Stunties. Here's the result.

The heart is bold that looks on gold. The Dwarves no more shall suffer wrong.

Small(ish) guns never tire: Dwarf flame cannon and cannon

Dwarves are a bit like Pringles, once you pop, you can't stop (painting them). I can't complain about it, as I'm really enjoying going over the models I have (ranging from antique eighties dwarves up to very modern ones. I recently completed two rather difficult semi-modern dwarven models: the last release (for now) of the Dwarf Flame Cannon and a plastic Dwarf Cannon from the old Battle for Skull Pass set. Here they are.

Ready. Aim. Fire!

High King Thorgrim Grudgebearer has some grudges to grumble about

My holiday is still in full swing, giving me lots of time to splash paint on poor, neglected miniatures. Yesterday I finally finished a model that was actively adding my name to its Book of Grudges. Let's hope that by ending High King Thorgrim Grudgebearer's half-painted status, I get to have my name crossed out again...

'It says here you four are obligated to sing hi-ho while carrying me into battle, so best start singing my thanes!'

No Regerts! Dwarf Slayers hop onto the table, tattooed and all...(and they bring some miners too)

Not that I want to brag, but I've managed plan a holiday's worth of days off (and survived the accompanying holidays as well). All the best to all of you and let's hope grandfather Nurgle tones it down for the coming year. With that out of the way, I'm currently (mostly) painting one offs and leftover armies cluttering up my paint station. This flow was interrupted when a friend gave me a box of spare left-over Dwarves. Rummaging through this kingly gift, I just had to paint these Slayers (and practice my tattoo painting skills in the process). Without further ado: Five Dwarf Slayers with No Regerts!

All that's needed to win battles is a bunch of insane dwarves wielding axes and sporting bright orange beards if you ask me.

Classic Warhammer Dwarf Mine ready to be fought over (SITCBH - part 3)

My Dwarf Mine, inspired by the classic one in White Dwarf 132, is finished. That makes me a rather early finisher in the SITCBH I entered with The Periodic Painting Table and The War Crow blogs. With still about five weeks on the clock #humblebrag ;). Perhaps I should make something else as well, I must say its quite a treat to build non-human stuff. Well before I get into that, let's start out with a picture of the finished piece accompanied by a bunch of gloriously happy Dwarves.

Why would we build a mine soundly lad, no member of the engineer's guild will show up in these parts...

Steady progress on the Dwarven Mine (SITCBH - part 2)

This weekend I made a steady bit of progress on my dwarven mine set. I added sand, a small railway and detailed the accompanying sheds. Without a lot of further ado. Here's a group shot that doesn't quite cover all the work that's been done. The pictures with the buildings as they are now can be found lower in this post.

My Dwarven mine is slowly coming together. 

Dwarven Mine blast off the Second International Townscape Challenge - Beyond Human (SITCBH)

Back in August Chris from the Periodic Painting Table and Stuart from The War Crow contacted me to join in the First International Townscape Challenge. It was a lot of fun and we all earned a few self-applied pats on the back at the end of it. Reason enough for a second edition. After a bit of a break we launched the Second International Townscape Challenge - Beyond Human (STICBH) this month. The 'Beyond Human' part of the challenge refers to the fact that we're going to be building a non-human piece of scenery in the style of the Townscape. For my part, I'm going to be building a Dwarven mine.

I think we have the beginning of an interesting new building here...

Die Hard Chaos General, Witch & some friends

With the Townscape complete, I finally have room on my desk to get back to painting miniatures. As a starting of point I decided to give a few special models extra attention before getting back to my usual army painting shtick. Front and center where two models from an order I placed with Die Hard Miniatures. Lets get started with my brand new Chaos General. 

A wonderful sculpt by Die Hard and, thanks to the latest General's Handbook, I can make an appropriate AoS warscroll for him.

Battle for the Comet

This Sunday Goblin Grot Spider Riders, Skaven and the Oger Ogor Mawtribes fought against Dark Elves, Fyreslayers, Dwarves and Bretonnians (*cough* Flesheater Courts *cough*). Seers foretold three precious comets would land in the (wisely) abandoned village of Schweifsternheim. Whoever could claim the precious rocks would gain untold power and riches. Reason enough for a good scrap.

 

With a deranged roar the packed Ghouls stormed a horde of Skaven Clanrats.

Oldhammer meets Age of Sigmar: Battle for Black Fire Pass

As most likely none of you missed, GW recently announced that its necromancers are hard at work resurrecting the Old World. They expect to take about two or three years to give us more clarity on what this will mean. Meanwhile as one of those madmen that like both the current AoS lore AND the Old World I've just decided to go have fun right now (as to what is planned: que sera sera). One of the things on my to-do list was fight a big battle over Black Fire Pass. Yesterday evening, I did just that.

And some call this a skirmish game...

Gob-Lobber restored and painted

On New Year's Day I was lucky enough to spot this Gob-Lobber being offered second hand at a reasonable price. Aside from my Mighty Fortress project, I've been working on and off at restoring this war machine to its full glory (or at least as full as I can manage). I like a lot of modern miniatures GW puts out, but as far as Dwarves go, nothing beats their late eighties and (very) early nineties work.

Who knew Dwarves could be that cruel?

Age of Sigmar terrain abandoned mine shafts for Grudge of Drong

I had a bit less hobby time this weekend as I hosted the first Age of Sigmar tournament my gaming club (Sword Brethren Eindhoven) organised. So no painted High Elves and the Bierlager is still in black undercoat as well. I did however spent my lazy Sunday finishing the build of the two abandoned mine shafts for the first scenario in Grudge of Drong. Here is number one.

It looks like the Dwarves/Duardin/Dispossessed abandoned this shaft halfway through their shift.

Scratch building the Grudge of Drong Bierlager

In between taking a brush to my High Elves and giving them a few test rides with the Age of Sigmar ruleset I've been working on the buildings needed for the Grudge of Drong campaign. This campaign is (I just read) notable for being the last to feature cardboard buildings to use with the scenario's. But why use cardboard when you can scratch build. Over the past few weeks I've been learning how not to use my new polystyrene cutting tools by attempting Das Bierlager (my guide to building the buildings is in German, it enhances the appeal of Dwarves immeasurably in my opinion). Here's a quick list of things I've learned the hard way about polystyrene cutting:

• Make sure the angle between two walls is 90 degrees before cutting the lot, 100+ degree angles lead to very strange geometry (unusable buildings unless you're a great old one).
• Put the texture on the walls before cutting the 90 degree corners, <1 mm polystyrene is not known as 'the strongest material in the world' for a reason.
• Don't glue with PVA glue, it dries way too slow, use transparant 'everything' glue (just as with foamboard).
• Don't push cocktail sticks in neatly cut polystyrene buildings, it makes the walls crack.
• Check your supply of 1mm cardboard, you may have just used all of it to make tiles for Armageddon buildings...

So there was a bit of a learning curve here. In the end my first building is standing (almost fully) primed and ready for paint. 

Front side of Das Bierlager, I wonder what the top floor is used for...

A handful of happy Dwarves

With my rather massive sets of builds for Shadow Wars, ambitions to make a new warband for the game and of course my work on getting everything I need to play elves in the correct terrain for Grudge  of Drong it was high time for a 'Squirrel!' moment. The arrival of a band of Dwarves from Ral Partha provided just that. I joined a Kickstarter campaign to have these guys made, especially as there are Dwarf wizards in the set (still in basecoat over here) and a Dwarf on Ski's (greybeards will know why this is extra special). So between a massive built and paint I will blog about soon and another massive built I will blog about much later I started working on a bunch of Dwarves. These are the first four.

Cheers! Now let's go kill some Greenskins.