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.

For Sale: 15mm Dark Dwarves

 SOLD

I have a painted 15mm Dark Dwarf army for sale. The miniatures are a mixture of ranges from Grenadier and Splintered Light.  I was inspired by the ancient Assyrians when painting them.  There is a lot of red and bronze (or gilded) armor.  They are based for the 'Hordes of the Things' rules.

There are 73 foot, 7 mounted, 1 cannon, and a war rhino. The price is $184.

The assembled Dark Dwarf army

Front line: 7 stands of heavy infantry.  There are several conversions including a dwarf with a scorpion tail, one with a blob arm, and one with wings.

Second line (l-r): armored robot with controller, hero stand, general with a mutated lower body, wizard and familiar.

Cannon supported by 3 stands of handgunners and 2 stands of halberdiers

Two stands of boar riders and 1 stand of half-dwarf, half-spiders

4 stands of Dark Dwarf Mutants ready to break the enemy line

War rhino with 2 crew in a howdah.

For Sale: 15mm Orcs & Goblins

SOLD

I have a painted 15mm Orc & Goblin army for sale. The miniatures are a mixture of Ral Partha, Grenadier, Alternative Armies, and Games Workshop.

There are 130 foot, 17 mounted, 1 cannon, and 4 trolls. The price is $260.

The host assembled for battle

(l-r) Ord Shaman, Orc general riding a bear, Goblin hero)

3 bases of Orc archers

5 bases of Orc wolf-riders

3 bases of Ogres

2 bases of Gnolls

8 bases of Goblin infantry.  The less enthusiastic Goblins are being driven forward by Orcs with whips

4 bases of armored Goblins

3 bases of Goblin archers and a cannon

2 bases of Trolls

For Sale: 15mm Pirates

SOLD

I have a painted 15mm Pirate army for sale. The miniatures are mostly Peter Pig with a few others mixed in.  It is based for the 'Hordes of the Things' rules.

There are 61 foot and 2 cannon. The price is $110.

The assembled Pirate army.  Shiver me timbers!

A mass of pirates advancing in search of loot.  14 stands with a mix of weapons.  Several stands have muskets so can be classed as shooters as desired.

4 stands of heroes, general, etc.

Two cannons to provide fire support.

A stronghold or camp.  Long John Silver, with parrot on shoulder, has retrieved the buried treasure leaving 3 dead comrades behind (one is in the hole).

For Sale: 15mm Undead

SOLD 

I have a painted 15mm Undead army for sale. The miniatures are a mixture of Ral Partha, Grenadier, and Splintered Light.

There are 96 foot, 7 mounted and 2 giants. The price is $147.

The Undead horde approaches the lands of the living

3 bases of Ghouls

8 bases of skeleton infantry.  They are mounted on 40mm square bases, 6 per base.

3 bases of skeleton bowmen supported by 3 bases of demons.

2 bases of giant undead creatures.  For reference, the 2 small mummies on the right are 15mm tall

2 bases of skeleton cavalry

The evil necromancer who raised the horde of undead.  Apologies for the blurred picture.

15mm Fantasy: Hobbits & Elves

Hobbits $118 SOLD

The Hobbits are from Splintered Light Miniatures, except for Gandalf which is a Black Raven figure.  They are 15mm, but Hobbit-size.  The front rank of the foot are armed with spears, the second rank with bows.  The bank has 2 stands of militia and another stand of bows.  The mounted are riding dogs.  The Hero is on a dog and has another trusty dog alongside.  And of course Gandalf is included.  They have never been used and are 44 points in the Hordes of the Things rules.