Dwarf Warriors

After racing through the Oathmark goblins, I was keen to keep the momentum going. I wanted to speed paint more, but different models. Out of the drawer popped these dwarfs - I had assembled and primed them at the start of last year then done nothing with them. It was time to put that right. As with the dwarf rangers that were painted (shockingly) more than three years ago, I wanted to give them a Highland Warrior vibe, so leather armour and tartan robes was uppermost in my mind.

These are plastic dwarf warriors from the old Lord of the Rings range. I was never that sure about the figures in the past, but they paint up easily and look good in regiments like this. I was lucky enough to get some of the old metal command groups too, which I will be adding at a later stage. In fact, there's a lot more to add to this army, but I wanted to try my hand at basic warriors before moving on to the more exotic troops (if dwarfs can ever be considered exotic). Plenty more beards to come.......

And now a couple of comparison shots, one with their comrades in arms, and one with their foes.

X.VIII - Cold Warriors

As the snow gently falls outside, it's a reminder to once again visit a past project, in celebration of my decade of blogging. It was 2015 and quite an easy year to choose a highlight from, as I focussed on just two main projects. The first of these, at the start of the year, was painting a Wars of the Roses force to play Lion Rampant. I made really good progress and painted the whole lot in about three or four months. Billmen, archers and men at arms.

As pleased as I was with my historicals, it was fantasy once again that took the crown for best of the year, in the shape of a Khorne force based around the Age of Sigmar starter set, with a few classic metals from my collection added in for good measure.

I don't consider myself a particularly talented convertor, but I was really pleased with a couple of these figures. The ogre in the marauder unit was built from plastic bits, a rat ogre and an ogre kingdoms head. The khorgorath (daemon beast thingy) from the starter was a more complex job, adding an old metal bloodthirster head and a little basic greenstuff work. Compared to the work of other talented hobbyists, it is beginner level, but I was happy with the results. 

Oathmark Goblins Painted

The first unit of the year painted - these are the new plastic Oathmark goblins, plus a metal promotional figure as leader. My main aim when painting them was to do so speedily and to follow the same style and palette as my Mordor orcs. So these are mostly just a base coat and a glaze or wash to provide some easy shading. I wrote a more in depth tutorial on how to paint Mordor orcs, which I referred back to as a guide for these figures.

As stand alone figures they are good for adding bulk to your collection for a reasonable price. You can get a fairly good selection of poses and there are plenty of weapon options to choose from. As an addition to my existing Mordor collection I reckon they blend in pretty well. Stylistically, they are quite similar, and scale wise they are almost made for each other. The Oathmark figures are very detailed, if you look at the close up photo you can see that even the plastics in the background have very detailed chainmail and fine details in the faces. They are a little less dynamic than the GW figures, at least that's how I posed them, which is no bad thing in my book. As the photo below shows, they make very good Mordor orcs. Now we just have to see how well they do in battle.....

Happy

Happy New Year! Here's hoping that 2018 is a happy and productive hobby year.

For one reason and another, last year was not my best hobby year. In terms of painting, gaming and posting to the blog, it was poorer than many a previous year. I am happy to draw a line under it and look forward to the next twelve months.

Here's a little face to spread joy and happiness. Old timers will recognise this figure as a goblin doom diver from the early 1990's. He was one of my favourite figures from back when I started in the hobby. Whenever I see this figure, I am transported back to those happy days, those first faltering steps in the hobby. I have managed to collect a few orcs and goblins from that era in the past few weeks and will be starting the new year with a new project. Strap yourselves in, it's gonna be an exciting ride!