On The Painting Table... Chaos Giant (part 2)

In part one of this thread, I showed off a Reaper Miniatures River Troll model that I wanted to paint up as a Chaos Giant.

Here is the finished product. Only need to paint and flock the base and its ready to maraud the countryside.

Copplestone Castings new 10mm Dwarf range

Over a week ago, Mark Copplestone of Copplestone Castings announced in a news email that his excellent range of Middle-earth style 10mm miniatures  had expanded to include a new range of Dwarves. His 15mm range of Dwarves is really fantastic and the 10mm range is of similar design.

It took me all of about 2 seconds to decide to get some. I ordered two packs of the Dwarven Axes, Dwarven Warriors, and Dwarven Spears (and some other stuff).

 

So how do they stack up height wise against GW, Pendraken and Battle of Fire Armies dwarves? Here are a few photo's:

From left to right below are the Copplestone Dwarves' Warriors, Axes and Spears.

Below is a close up comparing the Copplestone Dwarves to GW Dwarves (left) and BOFA Dwarves (right). The Copplestone Dwarves stand about 9mm's tall and are larger than the BOFA mini's but close to the same height of the GW Warmaster range of Dwarves.

Another comparison shot showing the Copplestone Dwarves with the GW Dwarves.

One final shot showing the Copplestone Dwarves on a stand in order to give some comparison of what the miniatures would look like when based. Below the Copplestone Dwarves are flanked by GW Dwarves on the left and Pendraken Dwarves on the right.

The Copplestone Castings 10mm Heroes pack has a dwarf hero in it, and some command/standard bearers come in the dwarf packs as well. So you can easily make up Command stands as needed.

Final thoughts: these are really nice miniatures and come in great poses ready for battle. Given my current need to finish off my Beastmen army, I sadly won't be getting around to painting these lads for a little while yet. But I am looking forward to painting some up and adding them to my Dwarf Army when time permits.

On the Painting Table... Chaos Giant

Yet another of my work-in-progress projects...

I need to have a Chaos Giant ready for an upcoming game. The scenario being played has one as part of the Beastman army. So I had a look through the mound of as yet unpainted miniatures that I have and came across a nice Reaper Mini's River Troll.

Like all of Reaper's mini's, this is a very nice model. Based like a WM Giant should be, the creature has an ominous look as it leers at enemy units in front of it.

Its the right size of a WM Giant as well, as you can see here.

Now I have to figure out what colours to paint this brute.

On the Painting Table... Beastlord on a Tuskgor Chariot - part 1

My latest work-in-progress, a Tuskgor Chariot fit for a Beastlord.

The chariot consists of an Orcs and Goblin Characters set chariot with its wheels replace with a Chaos chariot's wheels. The boars are Armoured Boars from Pendraken and the Beastman Charioteer is from the Hounds of Khorne character that comes with the hounds in the pack. I've added parts from the Chaos Chariot to give the chariot a more nasty feel to it, something more befitting of a brutal Beastlord.

The actual Beastlord will be a Beastman Character from Eureka Miniatures which I am painting up separately to the chariot.

The Children of the Forest... Warmaster Beastmen, part 2

Whilst the Chaos Warhounds are away getting rebased, I thought I would show off my recent reinforcements to bolster the Beastmen army. These new additions come from the Arkham Horror board game series of models.

These beasties come on a thick base, but can easily be removed from that base. I used a pocket knife to cut under the base of the model, separating it from the base. I then found a suitable flat base and glued the models to these. Once dry, I sanded the bases, but I have yet to flock them.

I can't remember which models are which, but the ones below I believe are a Star Vampire (left) and a Shoggoth (right).

I have been fortunate enough to get a number of Harpy Units on eBay over the years also. Saved me a lot of painting and there are some excellent paint jobs done by those I bought them from. You can see these units below.

Here is a close-up of the four nasties in question, affectionately dubbed (from left to right) as Snotty, Slimy, Shouty and Trevor.

In the game, their stats will likely be Chaos Spawn for Snotty, Slimy and Shouty, whilst Trevor will probably use the Giant stats or some house-rule stats for the Jabberslythe.

These mini's are a pretty good fit for Chaos style nasties and add some variety to the monsters available to the Beastmen.

On the Painting Table... Battleboard Swamps

Time for an update on how the GW Battleboards are going. I wanted to paint in the areas of the board where all the skulls are located in the depressions and turn these into small swamps.

Initially I covered over the skulls by mixing glue with some water and poring a small amount into the depression. I then sprinkled sand over the area. I was careful to ensure that I only covered the skulls. When this all dried, I went through the painting process I posted about early on in this blog.

Now came the hard part. How can I make the swamps. Seeking advice from my local friendly GW and HobbyCo staff, a plan was hit upon. Use 'Ardcoat!

A word of advice, make sure you try this on something else before doing it on the battle-board.

Firstly I glued the tuffs of grass to the board in areas within the swamp. When dry, I added a few drops of blue ink and twice as many green ink to the 'Ardcoat in its bottle. I mixed this up and pored it into the depressions. When it dried, there were a few areas where the 'Ardcoat had cracked. A second coat over the swamp covered these cracks and gave extra depth to the swamp. Here's the result:

 

You get a nice reflective shine with the 'Ardcoat.

The varying depths of the depression, and the transparency of the 'Ardcoat work together really well to give the look of variable depth of a swamp. The green/blue ink colour mix to the 'Ardcoat also gives a great colour.

The Beastmen Cometh.... Warmaster Beastmen

It's been a while since I worked on my Warmaster Beastmen army. One of my many projects that was half way completed when I got distracted by something else. You know how it is.

Anyway, I have recently been inspired to get back to it in preparation for an upcoming game based on a scenario in an old White Dwarf Magazine. To motivate me to get back into the project, I thought I would post a few photos of the Beastmen hoard. Kick me into action to get some more units done before the game. Don't want to be short on units when it comes to facing off against the combined might of the Empire and Bretonnians.

Here's a shot of the hoard so far.

A close-up of the left flank.

The centre.

Right flank.

Close up of the Pendraken Mini's "Jim" as a Beastlord and a Minotaur Shaman.

Two other commanders, the Doombull and Warhoof.

Some of the Ungor Raider units. I haven't decided if I should rebase them to be four models per base rather than the three I currently have. A unit of Razorgor (mini's from Reaper Mini's) can be seen in the back.

Two units of Minotaur's and three of Centigors.

Currently I have five units of Gors. I've used Warmaster Khorne units as these not only look excellent but painted up the right way they look very much like the new GW Beastmen Gors.

The Warhounds were based the long way as per the original Warmaster rulebook. However, I'm thinking of rebasing them lengthways like the Battle of Five Armies wargs and other wolf units. If I base them three mini's to a stand, I will gain and extra unit, making a total of four units. Need to decide this soon before the game.

Another close-up of the Warhounds and Centigors.

 

So need to rebase some of these units and flock the bases. Also need to churn out a few units of Bestigor, a Gor Shaman or two, and a Beastlord mounted on a Tuskgor Chariot.

 

Time to get cracking!