Campaign's End - CampaignHammer fluff

Some Dwarf vs Undead fluff over on CampaignHammer.
We decided to end the campaign at the end of year 7.

The Undead faction battles to hold the city and keep it's outright win condition of five cities at the end of a year, while my Dwarves fight only for stubborness' sake. There's no way for me to win the overall campaign with three capital cities, but I'll pay back a grudge or two by trying to stop the undead.

Check it out.

Pirate Dwarves - Black Scorpion Miniatures

Must. Not. Click. Buy.

Love the stone hammer, and the tricorne!

I have enough to be painting, and no time to paint! But they're so awesome. I couldn't find what scale they are on BlackScorpionMiniatures.com, but they look 25 or 28mm.

In fact, all of their fantasy pirate range is gorgeous. This one makes me want to start playing undead!

long-cut undercoat

Buoyed by my previous success with army painter undercoat I picked up the barbarian skin colour of spray paint undercoat. I have a tonne of unpainted slayers, so figured I could short cut the paint time and make them skin coloured.

Unfortunately I was so busy concentrating on making sure they were fully coated -  trying to ensure each little slightly hidden armpit and crevasse has some undercoat - that I caked them in the spray paint.

My phone camera is a bit rubbish,
the colour is not the shade it appears to be.

Really, far far too much paint. It went on evenly, and didn't stipple, but I put so much on it obscured model details.

I now have two models in dettol to strip them of the paint - I hope! I'm not even sure it'll work on the spray paint, which is why I put in only two of the worst.
So much for shortcuts.

The skin coloured spray paint might still be a good shortcut if I'm much more careful next time, but I think that I'll not be able to spray enough on to ensure a proper skin coating. We'll see once the dettol strips the two models.

Miner Ranger List

Avatars of War Pathfinders are lovely looking models.

2000 Pts - Dwarfs Roster
1 Gyrocopter, 140 pts (Flyer)
1 Gyrocopter, 140 pts (Flyer)
1 Cannon, 125 pts - RoForging
1 Cannon, 130 pts - RoBurning, RoF

1 Thane (Battle Standard Bearer), 150 pts (Hand Weapon; Gromril Armor; Battle Standard Bearer)
  1 Runic Weapon (Rune of Striking x1)
  1 Runic Armor (Rune of Stone)
  1 Runic Talisman (Master Rune of Challenge; Rune of Brotherhood)

1 Josef Bugman, 155 pts (General; Crossbow; Gromril Armor; Shield; Scouts)
  1 Rune Axe (Rune of Cleaving; Rune of Fury)

25 Longbeard Rangers + FC, 375 pts
25 Rangers + FC, 300 pts
20 Miners FC, 245 pts 
10 Miners + standard, 120 pts 
10 Miners + standard, 120 pts 

Composition Report:
Points of Lords: 0 (0 - 500)
Points of Heroes: 305 (0 - 500)
Points of Core: 675 (500 - Unlimited)
Points of Special: 740 (0 - 1000)
Points of Rare: 280 (0 - 500)

Always wanted to try something like this, with a lot of the army either off the board during deployment (or being placed last as scouts). With the FAQ of scouts it means that they don't effect the 'who goes first' roll now too, which is nice.

The Gyro's are sacrificial to keep the heat off the cannon for a little while, or as backup to the rangers.

I love the fluff idea of a scouting BSB, especially with the Rune of Challenge. A lot of armies are immune to psych, but it might be useful.

The only thing it's missing is a 20 strong core unit for the Tower scenario. I should probably reduce the 25 Ranger warriors to 20.

three colours thunderer

Last night I finished the beards, highlighted three beards with Feugen Orange, and another three with Cassandra Yellow just to try and vary the beard tint. I think that the dip will darken the beards so much as to make it unnoticeable, but it's worth a try.

I also added some grass, which I realised was way ahead of when I should have added it. I still need to paint and dip the model + base before adding bits and bobs. 

I tried PVA glue and water mix on top of some of the grass tufts to try and make it look like they've been snowed on, and the they've hardened with the frost. I did it years ago and it worked because the PVA maintained a touch of the white tint, but this time it looks like it's clear. Maybe if I add some white paint to the mix...

When adding grass tufts, I picked a corner of the models base. The idea is that I can find an opposite corner on another models base so that when they stand together the grass patch 'joins' across their bases. Can't believe I never thought of that before.

and the brush hit the models

Skin and warplock bronze. I forgot how slow a painter I am. :(

Spray paint undercoat

I tried spray paint undercoat years ago and it turned out rubbish. It left a textured stippled effect on the models. I've not gone back, until yesterday. Army painter do a grey undercoat (which is the colour I've been using). As these Thunderers never see the light of day I figured it was worth a punt. Stippled Thunderers? Who cares!

They turned out great. This stuff is fantastic. I'll be using it again when my ebay order of 25 slayers arrives.

Display boards & NWG

I'm playing in NWG at the weekend. It's been a whole year since I played a game of warhammer. Time to get schooled I guess!

Having a display board is worth some extra points. I've never bothered with one before, but think I'll throw (given the time constraints) one together.

I tried a small cork board for size, 39cm x 59cm, see above. Everything is a bit crammed in there with the craters, but I couldn't resist. I can't decide if they look out of place. The idea would be the army is under fire.

Going to do a fast job of either spray painting the cork board grey to look like "stone", or find a cheap grass effect in the local shop I guess.

I have the GW double hill which slots into each other, and I have a bunch of trees I've based well enough (they're not done tbh), but there's just no room.

Argos do a bigger board, 60cm x 80cm, which is 1.9x2.6 foot. hefty enough but wouldn't look as cramped. Hrm.