Dwarf Project for Dragon Rampant

I had so much fun playing my first game of Dragon Rampant with my friend Mike at Historicon that after returning home I started thinking about painting a second army to go with my Dark Elves. While I have plenty of humans from various eras that I could use, I wanted another straight fantasy army.

Who doesn't like dwarves?  After looking around a bit, I settled on using the plastic Dwarf infantry sets that North Star makes for their Oathmark rules. They have three different infantry sets with varying amounts of armor. I bought the Heavy & Light Infantry boxes from Griffons Lair via Ebay.

After experimenting with assembling a unit of heavy foot, I bought the Infantry box from Badger Games. I also got some shield transfers, flags, a pack of 3 North Star metal dwarves (king, wizard, & musician), and a wizard and burglar set by Gripping Beast. How could I resist having Gandalf in my army? I am pretty disappointed that the top part of Gandalf's staff was already broken off. It looks too thin to pin back together, so there may not be a Gandalf after all.

So far I have:

Painted 10 of the heavy dwarves, they are waiting for their bases to be finished.

Assembled and 50% painted 12 archers.

Assembled 12 infantry and have painted the armor.

I like to have multiple groups at different stages so that there is always something to do. I haven't forgotten about the dark elves, I've finished touching up 8 of them and am doing the basing today.  I want to make sure I like how the bases look before doing any more.

Dark Elf Project - Fixing Up An Old Army

My new project is fixing up a very old (antique?) Dark Elf army. I bought them at a Games Workshop store in London in 1992, back when my gaming group played Warhammer 3rd edition. I painted them shortly thereafter and they have been in a box in the top of my closet since the late 90s.

When my friends started playing Dragon Rampant and fielding a variety of new and old armies, I got them out to see how many there were and what kind of shape they were in. There were 91 Dark Elves in the box, a few with chipped paint, a few missing (what happened to the mounted general and mounted wizard?), but otherwise in good shape. There were more than enough to make a large army for DR. I got to play a test game against my friend Mike's Orcs while we were at Historicon and had a lot of fun.

I'm adding a general and 2 wizards by Reaper you can see here.  I also got a Reaper troll and griffon rider at Historicon. I haven't decided how closely to try to match the original style for the new miniatures.

I do not want to do extensive repainting. Besides, my painting style has changed, and I like to think improved, in the last 30+ years. I plan on starting with a couple minis at a time to figure out how much I want to redo. There are a lot of colored metallics which I want to leave as is.  I haven't decided if I want to redo the eyes. They would look better, but it might be difficult to match the skintone, and it could start me down the slippery slope of "just one more thing". I am going to apply a matte finish to replace the current gloss finish.

I decided to rebase, getting rid of the old, accursed 20mm square plastic slottabases and switching to 25mm square plywood bases from Litko. Here is the first group I rebased. Painting will start this week. After I finish a few I will post some photos.

Historicon 2026 Purchases

I made the traditional road trip to Historicon this year. It is always one the highlights of the year and a chance to spend time with old friends. I didn't buy much this year. Partly because I bought a lot of stuff over the winter and spring for my Robin Hood project which is finished. And partly because my next project is refurbishing a 1990s Dark Elf army for use with Dragon Rampant, which doesn't require much in the way of new lead. I'll be posting on that soon.

Starting at the top left and moving clockwise:

(1) Army Painter field grass from Your Hobby Place.

(2) A Games Workshop elf mounted on a griffon. My friend Keith gave it to me, he bought a bunch of secondhand stuff recently and there were two of this model.  I want to convert it into a Dark Elf and repaint it.

(3) An Army Painter speedpaint marker from Rock Bottom Games. I thought I'd try one out to see how well they work.

(4) Two packs of Gamers Grass tufts from Things From the Basement.

(5) A Reaper Bones Troll King from Windsword. I'll be adding it to my Dark Elf army.

(6) Three free convention miniatures and a flag (provided by Brigade).

Upon closer examination, the assembly of the griffon left some large gaps. While I could fill them with greenstuff, I am considering trying to take it apart and start over. The wings are attached to the sides so I think I can separate the body halves. The original flight peg is broken off inside so I might have to do that anyway to get it out.