Purplebeard's Dwarf & WHQ Log

[Purplebeard]

And a few more bits - firstly (because there is nowehere else to put them and the army will take forever to finish) 15mm DBR Scots Royalists:





And some more Dwarves, just brought in - Bugman's Rangers 3rd Edition:



And some C Series Northern Dwarves - I bought a load of these this week:




The plan is to get the base-coating and armour done on the Rangers, to experiment with the beard colour on the slayer, and to complete the slayers/warriors when I get some new brushes in within the next 2-3 weeks.

[LarryLimerick]

The Dwarves you have gotten done look great, as do the Scots Royalists!

[Purplebeard]

Hi all. Life has been busy recently, so I just have a little update for you.

I have tried the new orange beard colour scheme - I think it looks a bit rough on this Dragonslayer, but overall, I am happy with it and am going to mix the beard colours on the slayers. I'm going to keep an overall dominance of redheads, but with other colours too.



I've also done the basecoats on two Bolt Throwers. These are going to be based too - I prefer war machines on bases.



A treat now - I've assembled enough figures to make a unit of 24 Longbeards - except that they're going to be Purplebeards! The uni is made mostly of C-Series Northern Dwarves, plus a few Marauder Dwarves, and others. These were assembled from the '80s figures I bought the other week. The standard was converted from a Spearman with a brass wire flagpole.




Other good news is that I have half-painted the 3rd Ed Bugman's Rangers, and found the missing Bugman's musician (just for you, Welf). Sadly, I forgot to take the pictures (doh). I now have a lot of WIP minis on the go, so soon, I should hopefully be able to bring you the first 100 finished Dwarves!

Right, I am now off to eBay-land. My greedy eyes have spotted about six big dwarf collections that I have to have.

[Mr Feral]

Wow, you have such a collection of old-school goodness!

The Dwarves are looking but its the Quest that is most catching my attention, lucky you for having the chance to paint up the Lair of the Orc Lord miniatures. (I only have Gubbinz myself)

[Hammer49]

Great looking models!

[Purplebeard]

Thank you for the kind comments!

@Mr Feral - I have the other Catacombs of Terror figs half-painted atm. I'm hoping to get them finished in the next 2-3 weeks. I've stalled a little as I've also got a Battlemasters Ogre (for the Warriors) and I want to do a good job on him - the fear briefly got a hold on me when I realised just how large the exposed skin surfaces were, and that I would have to think up a new way to paint skin just for him! I've also got a couple of boxfiles full of old-school figures (yes, in addition to the Dwarves & DBR Scots) - 80s/90s Warhammer/GW figs - next will probably be some ME44 Uruk-Hai (from the 80s LOTR range) - I am going to use them as Hobgoblins.

@Hammer49 - Thank you. I looked at your figures - have faith in yourself, and make a choice! Out of the armies you have, I would recommend either DE or WE. I know, I should recommend Dwarves, but DE/WE are both more exciting/fun armies.

[Purplebeard]

Hello all. Since my paint brushes splayed and 'died', progress has been slow. New brushes did arrive, however, and I have repainted the Slayers from the earlier posts:







I have worked a bit on the red hair since the Dragon Slayer. I am not the biggest fan of the later slayers (especially the Giantslayer figures), so I am going to fill the unt with mostly the older Trollslayers. I think that the best one is the white-bearded Daemonslayer.

[Purplebeard]

I've also got the Bugman's Brewers 3rd Edition about 1/3 painted:



For the Dwarves, I now have a pretty decent collection - this is how the army is shaping up:

24x Bugman's Rangers 2nd Ed inc Cmd - Finished!
24x Bugman's Rangers 3nd Ed inc Cmd - c.1/3 painted
24x Clansmen inc Cmd - c.3/4 painted
24x Clansmen inc Cmd - not started
24x Slayers inc Cmd - 8 finished, the rest are 1/4 painted.
24x Longbeards inc Cmd - Black UCtd
2x Bolt Throwers - just started
8x Ironbreakers - unpainted
6x Shieldmaidens - unpainted

I've also got a lot of other random bits and characters, a few miners, crossbows, etc. Hopefully, the first 5 or 6 units will be finished within the next couple of months, then I can move on to the shieldmaidens and more fun stuff.

Now, I've been thinking about the Shieldmaidens. The old Norse/C Series ones are quite difficult to get (I usually find about 1-2 a week on eBay), so I have been thinking about mixing some other brands in - I am after a unit of 24 with converted command minis. I have found some old Asgard figures lying about the house - but I am not sure about them - what do you think?



The pic shows a C Series Shieldmaiden, Asgard fig in the middle, and Norse on the right.

I've also thought about possibly using Reaper Valkyries (their gorgeous 'Shieldmaiden' figures are in high-medieval style, so aren't really suitable, though I am going to get some of those as a later side-project at some point), or Tales of War Dwarf Warrior Women (these are closer to GW sculpting style). The idea would be to mix them with the Northern & Norse Dwarves to create one big unit. Links are below:

Reaper Valkyries:
http://www.reapermini.com/OnlineStor...s/latest/06211
http://www.reapermini.com/OnlineStor...sku-down/14476
Reaper Shieldmaidens:
http://www.reapermini.com/OnlineStor...sku-down/06115
Tales of War Dwarf Warrior Women:
http://www.taleofwar.com/shop/product.php?id_product=49

So what are your opinions? How should I go about the Shieldmaiden unit?

[LarryLimerick]

That unit of dwarves looks like it is coming along nicely good work!

[Purplebeard]

Thanks again. There won't be any progress for the next week or so, as I have a couple of exams, but after that, I'm hoping to finish off lots of these half-done things.

On a related note, I've set up a WHQ Group on the site, but I have been talking to Daemonslave, and he is trying to get a WHQ Forum set up in the Specialist Games area of the site. A Warhammer Quest Forum would be more flexible than a Group, so hopefully that will work out. I'll keep you all informed of what happens, and send out Group/Forum invites depending upon what happens.

[Hammer49]

Like the way you've done the trollslayers. Some of my favourite models in warhammer.

[Purplebeard]

I've been busy on a couple of commissions, so have not had too much time to do my own stuff. Nevertheless, here is the update - firstly, Catacombs of Terror!

The Liche King - a personal favourite

I'm pleased with the purple and green, but I don't think the red on the axes has worked that well - I will probably repaint these later on.

[Purplebeard]

A couple more random bits - firstly, Lucrezia Belladonna:

I might use Belladonna as a Vampiress for and Undead project in the future - I really like the sculpt. Also a WIP shot of more Warhammer Quest Warriors:

And a real oldie - LOTR ME44 Uruk-Hai from the 80s - maybe I'll use them as Hobgoblins or Black Orcs - I just like the figures.

[Purplebeard]

The best bit - DWARVES!

The first Clansman unit is finished, except for a banner and basing the standard bearer.

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Also a pair of bolt throwers:

[mrtn]

Very nice.

[Purplebeard]

Hi - I didn't quite manage to finish the update the other day - there are a few more bits left.

Battlemasters Ogre pictured with some other WHQ characters you have seen before. I am going to outline the yellow & red transfers with black at some point.

Also, some slightly better pics of older stuff, like a King, Queen, and various Dwarf characters. My favourite is the Santa Claus Dwarf.

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[Purplebeard]

Hello all. Just thought I'd post a brief 'update'.

Not much ahs been happening on the WHQ or Dwarf front, as I've just started unviersity again. However, there have been some acquisitions, and I am now the proud owner of 5x 80s Dwarven Cavalry (Gimli on pony). These are going to be put very high on my priorities list for painting. I've also managed to get the shieldmaiden unit to 14 figures - another 10 and I can get them painted.

Anyway, here are a couple of random fun pics - my box file of Dwarfish-ness (can you spot the cavalry and the 1 unpainted figure? ), and some presslotta Dwarves:

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If you like your Dwarves old, the 3rd one along at the to is a Fantasy Specials Palace Guard - he even predates Warhammer. The 4th one is a Bryan Ansell figure, and the broken 1 at the bottom is a Citadel AD&D one. I have about 100 painted, 50-odd part painted, and the box-file probably has another 150-200ish unpainted - so there is some way to go....

On a related note, I have started my Tale of Fantasy Painters (TOFP) Dwarves - another 2000pts of the same, and my submission for month 1 is ready (see the TOFP log).

[Purplebeard]

Hey everyone. I decided to take the step of showing the entirety of my Dwarven force (so far). This should help to put the project into perspective.

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As you can see, I've mixed up FA/FT, C-Series, 80s, and later Dwarves in an ecletic mish-mash. And I thikn they work together. I might get rid of the Essex Dwarven cavalry, and replace them with smaller ones if I can.

[lilloser2010]

Nice eclectic collection you have there.

Painting has bags of character to it as well. I like it.

LilLoser

[Purplebeard]

A few more pics:

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A few random bits.

Hopefully you can see that there are the Shieldmaidens and Bugman's 3rd Ed. Brewers on the go - the Shieldmaidens will be my month 2 submission for TOFP. The cavalry are going to be part of a 'counts as Empire' allies and counted as plain knights - they currently include some ME33 Gimlis, a Colin Dixon Dwarf on Pony, and FAC Dwarf Champion (they are going to be my month 3 TOFP submission).