dwarves or dwarfs?

I prefer dwarves for some reason, perhaps as it is an excuse to cheat at scrabble! Growing up in the 70's , stories I was told revolved around the Trickster and intrepid heroes of Native American Woods. Lots of animal spirits and tales regarding personal growth. One of the first books I read was King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, followed by Ivanhoe, Robin Hood, William Tell, etc.
Dungeons and Dragons was a pastime as well. I didn't go for the knights in gleaming armor, and I didn't go for the effeminate elves in their over cultivated forests. I liked the dwarves! Tough, strong, stubborn....note that my vision of dwarves do not use swords. Hammers and axes are tools of a working man, er dwarf! They do not use bows either, Crossbows are the way! Imagine getting your beard tangled in an arrow fletching held to your check...;)

I started this force a long time ago shortly after I first got married. As newly weds, I couldn't afford a huge metal army. Games workshop did release a kit that featured clansman made from plastic that could be armed with hand weapons, great weapons, or crossbows. I found a few suitable metal heroes, then kited out two regiments of dwarves to get to grips with the foe. The only missile weapon they had was the organ gun. To irritate my cousin, who liked the tree hugging wood elves, I painted a wood grain on the organ gun and the standard bearer's staff for my currently being redesigned army standard. My lads borrowed a few wood elf trees to make them!
For a long time they fellows were skirmishing in Mordenheim, or being loaned out to talisman or runequest games with an occasional heroquest one tossed in. One of my heroes is the dwarf fighter from a heroquest reprint.
Shortly after buying our home, my wife and kids surprised me with a lot of dwarf reinforcements.

a shot of my first army including the newer ironbreakers...they are really proud in all of that armor!

from left to right; the white dwarf, the general, a longbeard bearing the army standard...sans standard, and my heroic heroquest dwarf fighter.

a regiment of clansmen with hand weapons and sheilds

the clansmen with great weapons..

just an isolated pic showing off some of the many beards in this army

my ironbreakers with a lord in great armor and greater axe

the rangers with great axes and crossbows.

I looted all my plastic sets to get cloaks for the rangers

the longbeards all have white/grey beards and are equipped with great axes. they also have facesheilds and a few cloaked bodies not used for rangers were given purple cloaks to further showcase these wiser warriors.

dwarves with guns. they have an optional musician for just in case I want to include a full command.

a troll slayer, the new general, the old general and a runesmith.

after seeing the nonplussed visage of the newer lord model, my old general was demoted!

pipes and beer are scattered liberally throughout the regiments

the new artillery section with attendant engineer models and extra dwarves including the three pewter thunderer models from the Mordenheim band.

a back shot of the new plastic artillery crew.

the crossbowmen waiting to be finished. base colors of dark blue, grey, and metal have been applied.

I use a three color method so midtone and highlight needs to be done. the final bit will be the beard as random blocks of dwarves will be slotted into blonde, ginger, brown, and black haired lads. further differences in hair is done with even more highlights and washes till I think they look good.

the new army mostly ready to rumble.

 

These were painted up really quickly as Ironbreakers and new customizable plastics were included in the mix. They have fought my cousins wood elves and my own Bretonians. My first force has faced my wife's vampire count army a few times too. My daughters have high elves, wood elves, and Khemiri tomb kings, while my son has a beastie heavy dark elf force. I got a dwarven terrain piece from my wife last Christmas which is also now in the painting que.
these fellows mainly need for me to finish up the basing and my last missile unit. I will have to hurry on them too. I placed an order for the new zombicide kickstarter. While a good deal getting me the new stuff and the original game missed from the first kickstarter since I was overseas......I broke the groundrules established by my wife. She has added to the forces I must complete.

I can't sneak in new stuff, as she does know what I do have. The Napoleonic forces have been added( which isn't too bad as I really want to paint something other than blue and grey). She also added my battlefleet gothic ships into the que. This last will be a challenge. The BFG ships were further along than my dwarven army with only some ork and chaos ships not at my standard of finished. while making room for our first child, I bought some track shelves to store minis on.
The track shelves eventually collapsed waking our new child from down the hall as well as smashing all of my ships into pieces and parts. I loved that spaceship game, but I haven't played it nor looked at the carnage that still resides in that cardboard box of shame. Due to my indiscretion with kickstarter, I have been ordered to make the fleets ready for battle once again!

some terrain and a teaser

I survived the weekend. I had a very cold march and recon mission traipsing through snow covered Michigan woods in the very, Very wee hours of the morning. It was just above zero, and the wind was not cooperating. I also enjoyed another stroll through the woods performing land navigation. This is done with a map and compass(GPS is for cheating kids!). A true scout can orient themselves to a map, recognize terrain, and use the compass to steer a path. Being an old boot, I know my pace count at a walk and a jog. If I walk 60 paces, I've gone 100 meters. Thankfully, I do not need GPS as it will surely fail when I need it most!
I had to find several points in the land nav course. Because I was cold, hungry, and still sick...I did not waste anytime and finished quickly to await the rest of the platoon in a warm building. Said warm building had plenty of coffee! No doubt due to budget cuts, we stayed at an old decrepit barracks that had seen service as long as I. It seemed only a little younger than Civil War vintage, and the water had two temperatures available...C for cold and H for HELLA COLD!
Sunday evening I at last made it home to good food and a nice recuperating back rub from Household-6. My wife also had a nice pot of coffee and warm supper waiting! I do not complain about creature comforts to my 1st Sgt, as he is not as commiserating as my wife...he also will not rub your aching feet like my lovely wife will!

So, speaking of my wife....I am still deep in this years mission of painting six armies and straighten up my hobby area. With all the boxes my kids helped me remove from the shed, some damages were noted. Principle among the damages were the cardstock terrain that was once carefully stored in the shed.
Dave Graffham designed much of the cardstock in my collection. I began using it to speed up the process of my sewer and trench board. I wanted a fully modeled city that could be placed over the monstrosity. It would cost A Lot to do this in resin, MDF, or plastic kits. I would also still be crafting scratch builds even now to cover it. The board is 8'x4', and the city had to be able to host Mordenheim and other generic fantasy, Napoleonic, Civil War, WW2, Sci-Fi, and Steampunk. After viewing several designers, I felt Mr Graffham fit the bill perfectly. Most of his buildings cost less than $5 each, with layered PDF format each one can be drastic in difference from one another.
The following buildings are over a year old. Various glues were used from Elmer's white glue all, to glue sticks, and even scrapbooking glues. Some stored in cardboard boxes have curled from either climate or from the knack of corrugated cardboard absorption of moisture from anything in proximity. The Gluesticks did not hold up well to non-climate control in the shed either.

On the brightside, I edge my models now. The ones I put together with glue sticks are already scored, so all I have to do is edge them with markers and re-glue them with the proven glues that withstand temperature extremes. Some of the newer models have interiors, and some of the newer models are great in extra details like his  inventor house and the Mermaid Tavern. I will have fully covered my table by the end of this year. Since I am still tidying up, and unburying it, it will be a bit before I can show it off properly.

just an eclectic mix of Graffham structures taken from storage, I will be making a wharf section for my town as well as a shopping district. the structure in the lower right is a freebie one for those wanting to try it out. It is a coaching inn and I've built three with only the outer shape being the same.

a brick gatehouse, perfect for assassinations, snipers, crowd control....

a closeup of some of the structure details. You can even add exterior pipes which can lend to steampunk or modern convenience!

some details of a fisherman's shack and a tudor shop. I bought all of his tudor buildings in a bundle as I am very partial to their look.

the asylum...I can easily picture the tricksy French trying to waylay Sharpe and Mr Harper from the balconies...cuz you know you have to cheat against Mr Sharpe!

another gatehouse and the wonderful ruined chapel.

Another shot of the tudor shop...because I like it so!

some watch towers, these suffered some fading as they were in a clear plastic container located too close to a window in the shed....no excuse for lack of situational awareness for this old soldier!

two ruined houses warped from the cardboard box...but notice how each has a different look. these are the same kit with different layers applied

some minis to show scale and a teaser for tomorrow's post.
I really enjoy skirmish type wargaming, and the sewer board is going to be my opus for that type of gaming. PDF buildings have really sped up my progress for the board. the card buildings  are pretty durable too. I built some test pieces of elevated fortress walls and roads which handily hold the weight of my Cygnar war machines which are very stout lead pieces!

A Looong week

My kids spent last week getting infected with the flu. By the time Friday rolled around, all four were home sick, my wife was out-of-action, and I had to work Fri and Sat night with severe body aches. by time I crawled into bed Sunday morning( cuz walking was not an option) I managed to get one heck of a fever. I only vaguely remember watching the Daytona 500, and I think I slept through the walking dead....which is funny as a felt and sounded like one! my wife was felling better by then and kept me in bed and dosed up with Nyquil and other flu fixing meds till Tuesday morning.
I can taste food again, coffee is allowed again, my body doesn't hurt, and I'm not hacking up slime every few minutes leaving my chest feeling raw.
I wasn't able to do much hobby wise, in addition to spending my off days sick, I have to pack up gear for weekend military drill....I suspect I'll be ill come next Monday too!
I did not set up a good back drop, but instead shot some pics straight from my paint station. Shortly after returning from Afghanistan last fall, my wife and kids took me to Michigan Toy Soldier and Bronners (a nice Christmas store in Frankenmuth, Michigan). At the toy soldier store, I was allowed to pick up a few items. I really wanted the Wings of War WW1 edition, but the planes were separate. So I settled with some Victrix and Perry Napoleonics. I spent quite some time looking at the flats and other metal models there too. I may be a tough old infantryman, but it seems I have an allergy to superglue. I get a rash on my wrists every time I use a tube.
But allergy notwithstanding, I spied some neglected packets of Sash and Sabre on a lower shelf tucked away in a corner. I have for a long time wanted some more Imperial Guard Roughriders, but GW has instead made Mongolian, and Arabic flavored ones. I decided several years ago to make my own, and TMP members directed me to sabre and sash(or is it sash and sabre) figures for kepi and slouch hat heads.
I really do not like to hack apart figures for parts, but these metal fellows are great in that each pack gave five bodies and eight or more heads. Since I got the firing line, skirmishers, and charging infantry packets; this gave me plenty of heads for my still unfinished project and still allowed me to finish these 15 troops.

The firing line

skirmishers...I like some of the poses here like biting the cartridge and reaching into the cartridge box.

Bayonets fixed and war faces on

a solid start to a skirmish band in ACW.

I am uncertain how many poses are available, but with the separate heads it should be quite easy to insure that no two look alike.

an attempt to break from the blue and grey with some purple and yellow on a reaper speeding super hero.

Just some of the other stuff on my work list in various stages of NOT done!

The biker gang and the ships crew are closest to being finished next, and are needed for an upcoming game where they will be COBs....Civilians-on-the-battlefield. a friend of mine will be attacking a spaceport and I will be defending equipment and employees. My kids are also gearing up to once again try to stop Dr Dread and his villians...it will be more fun to have models they should protect from being smashed.

Since we are mostly recovered from being sick the games should occur soonish, But first I need to gear up and fortify myself for playing soldier in the Michigan Winter, and not relapsing into Flu or acquiring hypothermia!

As far as Sash and Sabre goes....Fantastic minis. I really like them and will be getting some more at the very least some rebels to counter the Yankees. these are 40's I think, but the heads mesh just fine with GW imperial guard. I'd like to get the cav models and see how they rate. I do like the detail on the heads, and they probably are available separately. I'll have to check it out. Another thing to investigate would be seeing if native American heads are available. The 2nd Michigan Sharpshooters were superb marksmen. They drilled regular in shooting, and company K was made up of Algonquin Indians from the Upper Peninsula. It would be nice to be able to skirmish with them.

That is all for this week, I still have to pack for the weekend and I have two days( or is it nights) of night shift to go!

Crimson Fists

I have been gaming 40k since the heady RT days. For the uninitiated, this entailed truly sandbox army lists that could take hours to craft, coupled with repeated referencing of the rules to clarify outcomes. Like jump pack assault troops with combat drugs, rad grenades and webbers....just to name a few options available. My favorite was taking the dual power fist marine, making him a basic level librarian(psyker) and giving him the power of hammer hand.
All sorts of stuff have been eliminated, revamped, improved, lost, found, etc. ... throughout all of the revisions through the years. Background material has also suffered the same fate( Don't get me started on the Dark Angels and the omission of Deathwing in the current cannon!) The Crimson Fists though have just gotten cooler in my eyes. Even in the beginning they were in dire straits with the Orks. the novel Rynns World really details the cannon of this illustrious chapter. Although the trait system from a few editions ago has been dropped, I still use it as a method to select forces for my version of the Crimson Fists.
The idea to start this force began in 2000 when I was explaining to a friend and new gamer of why in the future a sci-fi force would fight in heraldic colors rather than camouflage. The whole monastic, Templar brotherhood, pride of Chapter, years of training. The new scouts were announced/released and scout bikers were on the way as well, so I found myself explaining the tragedy of the Fists and how they are nowhere near the strength of other Chapters and still will not accelerate the new troop process.
Another friend challenged me to game it. I laid out a list with a Chaplain as HQ( many leaders of the CF were lost), a tact squad( gotta have at least one), a squad of scouts with bolters, a squad of scouts with sniper rifles,( scout squads for troop choices because battle brothers are rare), CCW scouts( troop choice again, but these fellas are designated as assault ), biker scouts( fast attack  and SCOUT), a squad of 5 assault marines with jump packs(battle brothers are rare but not that rare!)

Power fists....what else sez Crimson Fist more than a honking huge crimson power fist. these three are the first models painted for this force...the chaplain was first because I really liked the sculpt.

Two five man CCW scout squads. The white primered were bought from eBay and are the metal sculpts while the others are from the new at the time plastic box purchased from my FLS.

These are also still WIP. The bikers were ordered from GW and before the new plastic ones were released....I may add a second squad from the plastic. Behind the bikes are my plastic bolter scouts with a heavy that includes my only metal bolter scout who was also primed white with his fellow CCW scouts.

A better shot of my six man scout squad. I like the odd numbers in some of the squads as it conveys a force without a lot of replacements. 

My sniper section numbers seven, and includes two metal sniper scouts that thankfully were still in package and not primered white with their companion eBay fellows.

My Command Squad again! Just wanted to point out that the thunderhammer marine in the back and the veteran with fist and stormbolter were Games Day models, because I am that geek. It was nice to have a Games Day in Chicago...

My assault marines, and note the Sgt with the Powerfist

The razorback and a few objective markers.

The Rhino. I really wish I did the razorback in the same fashion, but at least I can field two razorbacks if I really want to.

My big hitter, and it has yet to carry a single termie...it is so much more fun to teleport them in. All of the scout sgts carry teleport homers! Crimson Fists are known for ambushes and asymmetrical warfare

The dreadnaught and terminators from Black Reach. The Heavy Flamer marine came from a white dwarf freebie and an unused termie arm from the also white primered terminators from the same fellow who primered all those scouts. Note I do not mind white primer, it's just that Crimson Fists are so much easier to do from a black undercoat.

The Tact squad from an older boxed game all nice and neat in block colors. I have three other squads now. One from Black Reach box and the other two from the newer plastic box sets. I also got Pedro Kantor and crafted up a squad of plastic Sternguard to back him up. A Chaplain Terminator and a squad of Devastators to give the Fists some more "punch".

My Marines usually fight against an undivided chaos force, tyranid swarm, and a tank heavy renegade guard with a baneblade. Still that is Four tact squads, two five man assault squads, and one five man devastator squad. Fifty-five battle brothers to form a company that should max out at one hundred. The rest of the company are the scouts filling in the gaps. A chaplain, one Company Commander, a complete command squad, five sternguard, two terminator squads... my battle company is complete.

Well not complete as it is on my to finish painting this year list! We'll see how the year unfolds. ;)

 

Wild West

During deployment, my only hobby vice was the blogosphere and downloading PDF. Fat Dragon Games had Rio Draco and Hotlz has Whitewash City. I viewed them often and frequent when nobody was awake to respond to phone or email...yeah, big time change! By time I got home, I already knew which buildings were getting built first. My wife and kids had already loaded me up with ink, card, and black foam core. They also got me a wonderful gift for making it back home.

Fourteen cowboys from Reaper. Some were on my wishlist, some were not.

Ten of the western figures came in the above min case....it is really mini too! I think it retails for about $30 USD. But, this is a gift, and I feel it'd be bad form to investigate!

As you can see in the above picture it is filled with eggshell foam inserts and easily holds more than the 10 figures it came with...such as the bartender, a cowboy with chaps, and another cowgirl and cowboy.

Here is the whole lot painted up and ready for gaming. To be fair, they are veterans already. The paint may still be drying on a few, but they have dueled in Blackwater Gulch, chased and been chased by zombies, fought superheroes/supervillians, and been in some Sci-Fi skirmish. Most of the games were selected by my kids. Since I do not own much in moderns( or western) we use a lot of proxy and imagination.

My favorite of the figs are these five. a Clint Eastwood man with no name type, a bartender, the grizzled cow punching hired hand, a rugged lass and a wild Bill type with rifle and fringed leather....but I like his leather gaiters more.

 

I tried to make sure they were all individuals, but I painted these four in same color dusters. My kids actually painted the block colors for shirts and pants on most of the figures. I only tidied up and provided shading and highlights. This bunch is well equipped with rifles, whip, sawn off shotguns, and plenty of pistols.

Very nice one piece models with really crisp details

A cowboy, a bounty hunter, Wild Bill, Doc Holiday( a marshal for our games), and the not Clint.

I painted these five without help from the kids. I really like these figures, and it really was a wonderful welcome home dad gift. There is enough for all of us to have fun...but more will be needed. Wargames Foundry, Black Water Gulch, and Brigade Games are on my hit list. unfortunately these models are a bit large compared with my Perry ACW, but they all work pretty good with the cardstock western buildings. I'll post them up another time though.

My first painted figures of the new year are theses fellas, and lady. Also by Reaper, these are the Nova Corp Troopers. Like the Cowboys, They have participated in several games while being painted.( over the past decade, I've only played with mostly/fully painted models, but my kids have no discrimination when selecting troops for battle)

As noted in an earlier post, I'm trying not to use blue and grey....but they look so grand in those colors! And it works for sci-fi high-tech cops too!

New Colorado Colonists do not like the new law forbidding whisky, and they really do not want to turn in their weapons either!

 

A fireflyish photo featuring the habdomes by Christopher Roe of Genet Models. They don't have interiors, but they do spruce up a table really well...