Dwarf Army Progress Shots...Almost There!!

Hi all,

As most of you probably know I have spent the past six months painting frantically for the second Old World Army Challenge.  It was, once again, a grueling effort but I did manage to finish and add a significant new contingent to my Puff and Slash Dwarf Army...which is my oldest army and one of the largest.

As I was finishing the challenge and and preparing to take some shots of the entire 1000 point force that I had managed to paint...I thought it would also be a good idea to combine them with all my other Empire Dwarf figures to show the current status of the entire army.

This proved to be a lot of fun and, though the set up and prep work took some time I think it was worth the effort.  Now this army is NOT complete...several of the units will be further expanded....several have a few partially painted figures....almost all units are still lacking banners...and there is one entire unit not represented at all in these pics.  Despite these deficiencies I find this kind of photography to be very inspiring and feel that it really gives me a feel for where the army as going as well as indicating what needs to be finished up.

For this photo shoot I used two of my modular terrain tiles and a number of the houses and walls that I scratch built in the last two years...as well as a portion of the Might Fortress.  I'm still having trouble with the backdrop situation, but for the time being I used a sheet of green foam board as my backdrop...less than ideal but sufficient for now.

Anyway...lets take a look...

Here is the Dwarf line of battle for the Grand Army of Salsburg.

2016 Year in Review...

Well...

I'm a bit late with this post but here goes....this is my attempt to summarize my hobby efforts for the past year and to look forward to what I hope to accomplish for 2017.

As with my previous review I'll address things in 3 broad categories:

• Gaming
• Painting
• 2017 goals

Gaming,
2016 was a great year for gaming in Blue's world...I played more games this year than I have in a very long time.  This included a bi-weekly gaming session with my local gaming partner during which we explored Space Hulk, Frostgrave, Dragon Rampant, and Rogue trader games.  I also played a fantastic game of RT with some of my other local gaming friends early in the year.

Organ Gun...Studio Shots

Welcome back!!

Thank you all for the kind response to the last post...you have certainly encouraged me to have more fun with scenic shots in the future.

Today I wanted to present to you the more formalized shots of the Organ gun and its crew.

This is the first war machine I have painted in many years (other than a swivel gun) and I had forgotten how much wood grain was involved!  I know many folks tend toward painting some of these old Bretonnian models as painted wood...and I was certainly tempted to do the same.  However my view of my Bret forces is that they are a hard fighting field army located on a land grant on the margins of the Empire...not those fancy parade armies you have back in the heart of Bretonnia...so I opted for unpainted wood.

I made a somewhat heretical decision with the wheels as well and went with these later edition spoked wheels rather than the solid ones this piece was originally sold with.  I've decided to keep my solid wheels for some of the heavier artillery...it seemed to me that this lighter piece could use the spoked wheels more "realistically"...and I like the way they look.

The crew are are a mixed bag.  Our shirtless friend Gaston is actually from the earlier Citadel Bombard release...but I had to use him.  The other two armored crew members are from the 3rd edition Bretonnian releases.

I was pretty conflicted on what to do about his shield.  My stash of Bretonnian shields is fairly small and reserved for my knights at this point.  So I opted for one of these 5th edition (??) Empire shields.  I've used a number of these on my mounted knights as well so it ties in on that level.

The gun and crew were really fantastic figures to work on.  My love of the Perry brothers sculpting increases with every one of their figures I paint.

Cheers for now!

Blue

Bretonnian Organ Gun...in Action!

Hello all,

Long time no see!

Well...I've finally had a stretch of painting time and will have a number of things to share with you over the coming week or so.  Last night I had the majority of the evening to myself as my lovely wife was dealing with the nibblers and various appointments.  So I gathered my newly painted minis together and started to set up my "photo studio."  My intention was to take my usual "documentary" images on blue gradient...but as often happens when I disappear into my hobby...I got distracted and ended up setting up a whole little scene and spent my evening happily taking pictures.  

The documentation pictures will just have to wait a bit...

My urge to actually make a more interesting scene probably stems from my lack of participation in the Lead Adventure League over on the LAF.  Long time readers will recall that this painting event used to be a major part of my hobby calendar every year.  I have now missed the last two iterations of the contest and the urge to take some creative pictures of my figures is getting to be irresistible.  

So here are some fun images of my newly completed 3rd ed Bretonnian organ gun and crew...well supported by some of my existing Bret army (5th ed models)...as they attempt to fight off a attack by a roaming warband of orcs and Goblins.

I'll start with some longer range shots to give you a feel for the whole set-up an then focus in on some of the more detailed photos that you can achieve with a rough set up like this.

Overview shot of set up...(click through for larger images)