Might Makes Right! - Cool New Bases!

So, a little over a week ago I placed an order with Jeff at Dragon Forge for a few of his "base blanks", primarily his new "150x100mm" base blanks so that I could base my Thundertusk on it. I know that the Thundertusk already comes with what seems like a perfectly serviceable base, but I've seen quite a few of them now that have warped thanks to the glue used to apply a texture to them. In my opinion there just isn't enough structural support under the base. Anyway, my order arrived last Thursday (just before I headed off to Lancaster, PA for the Fall In convention) and in it there were a few pleasant surprises : )

The 150x100blank with Thundertusk on top, you know, for scale ; )

The surprises were the first casts of a new line of bases from Dragon Forge. Jeff has brought his successful Slate Wasteland bases (popular with Space Wolves players) into the Warhammer realm. I suspect this line will be quite popular with Ogre Kingdoms players. Above you can see the 150x100mm base, just perfect for your big beasties. There are lots of slightly differing angles on the tops of the slate pieces, so I would recommend you pin your Thundertusk/Stonehorn to this base. Depending on where you place it on the base, you may also need to do a slight amount of putty work to getting it standing just right.

I wanted to put together a few new models so that you could see how everything fits on the bases. Here are two of the new Mournfang cavalry models, each sitting on one of the two unique 100x50mm bases.  Despite the different angles on these bases, there was absolutely no trouble gluing the paws of the Mournfangs to the bases. I think pinning is still a good idea though, just for peace of mind.

These are the two uniques 50x50mm bases Jeff has for the line, and these gave me the perfect excuse to assemble a plastic Hunter from the left over parts from my Thundertusk. The large, flat areas in the middle of the bases make it a very easy task to accomplish.

And now we get into the "meat" of the range, important for Ogre players considering this line. Above you can see "Set 1" of the 40x40mm bases, along with an Irongut I put together using a few of the left over pieces from the Mournfang box. Set 1 contains five individual bases, all with flat areas in the right places to mount the surprisingly small "footprint" of the basic Ogre model.

Finally, here is "Set 2" of the 40x40mm bases. Another five unique bases just begging to have some Leadbelchers, Yhetees, or even a Firebelly or two, standing on top of them.

All in all, I think these bases are a great addition to the Dragon Forge stable. They look great, they're well-sculpted and incredibly well cast (only minimal flash around the edges and no airbubbles at all), and they are very reasonable priced.

I'm not sure excatly when Jeff will have them on sale, but I expect it'll be very soon (in the next week or so). Keep an eye out on his site or "like" his page on Facebook.

Now I just need to put together a few more Ogres to fill them ; )

Cheers
Dave

Might Makes Right! - WIPs and Celebrity Dreadfleet!

Well, I've been working hard on the Thundertusk over the past week. It's a glorious model with so much character to it. It's proving to be a tougher road than the Ironblaster, and that's saying something. Not that there's anything that's too hard, there is just so much of it.

Until I started painting up the Thundertusk, I don't think I had an appreciation for the BIG monsters that GW has been releasing since 8th Edition dropped. The Arachnarok Spider, the War/Necrosphinx, and Zombie Dragon/Terrorgheist are cool, but as I don't play with either of those armies (or against them that often) I didn't really have a sense of just how cool they really are. Thanks to you Thundertusk, I now have a whole new appreciation.

Of course, although the instructions obviously recommend gluing it all together before you start painting, I did not. Above you can see the pieces I'm painting it in, lots of sub-assemblies to make it easier to get it all painted with out breaking anything. I'd also recommend that you not attach the head of the Thundertusk/Stonehorn before you paint it, and whatever you do, do not glue any of it down to a base until it is painted!

I'm also working (slowly) on a few other Ogres. The Firebelly is now underway, along with the female Maneater and the Ninja Maneater (which I've had assembled and primed for over five years.

So far, most of the work on the Firebelly has bee confined to his heavily muscled legs.

And now for something completely different. Although I have no intention of buying Dreadfleet, I have been convinced to join in on another Charity Project. Chris Borer and Dave Pauwels have come up with a wonderful way to raise a bit of money for a worthy cause AND highlight the artists who are running many awesome hobby classes/seminars at AdeptiCon 2012. The project is catchily titled "Celebrity Dreadfleet" and you can read more on the custom blog, here.

Strangely enough, however, I'm not running a class at AdeptiCon. I think I might have been press-ganged to make up the numbers. As you can guess from the pic above, I'll be trying my hand at The Black Kraken. Hopefully this will also give me a few styling cues and ideas for when I build my Ghark Ironskin on mechanical rhinox. : )

More news on this project (and other new bloggage) still to come.

Cheers
Dave

Might Makes Right! - Norse Maneater and Thundertusk

As you might have guessed, I'm a huge fan of the Ogres. When they were first released in 2005 I was all about converting them. With their background showing they didn't make much themselves, but made good use of the things that they found (mmmm, sounds like the Wombles if you ask me), it was easy to create models with great flavor.

Just recently, a friend of mine asked me if I could put together a Norse/Marauder style Maneater for his growing Ogre horde. I sat staring at a model I started converting five years ago, but had never got around to finishing. With a little prompting and a nice pic sent by Jim, I was able to re-purpose my original conversion and have a bit of fun with some greenstuff.

So, here's the finished piece, ready to be sent off today. Just so that he didn't appear to be "completely five years ago" I used tusks from the new Mournfang Cavalry models for the horns on his greenstuffed helmet : )

And as promised, I'm working on a Thundertusk. I used this guy in a game against Chaos Warriors on Tuesday night, standing next to my Tyrant and Ironguts, and he was great! If I'd remembered to Thunderstomp each turn he'd have been even better : )

The way this kit goes together is quite amazing. Unfortunately there were a few areas that required a bit of filling, so I used my Liquid Greenstuff. I can't say I'm too impressed with the results, so I might just go back to my usual Bondo™ Spot and Glazing Putty, I find is takes sanding a lot better and can fill larger gaps too. But enough of my thoughts on LGS, here's a review from a German site that seem reasonably favorable:

Bestienmeister's Review of Liquid Green Stuff

On a side note, there was chatter at the game on Tuesday night about having a few "frozen" models on the base for my Thundertusk. Do you guys have any thoughts about what or how I should incorporate that idea onto my basing for this big fella?

Cheers
Dave

Stuff for sale : )

Well, with another baby on the way, I figured it was finally time to sell off a whole bunch of stuff from "back in the day". I haven't used most of these models in an age, but I know that they'll make someone out there very happy. I could put them all up on eBay, but I figured I'd see if any of you guys were interested first. If you are interested, please send an email to tanithtaylor at gmail dot com. All prices listed below are in US dollars and include shipping within the US, international shipping will be extra.

First up is an Ultramarine Scout biker out on a recon mission. He's mounted on a blend of the Space Marine bike and the old Ork warbike. This Scout bike is also mounted on one of the earliest 40mm capsule bases to be assembled in the GW US Studio, I'm pretty sure it was my friend Ty that built the first one. Asking Price: SOLD!

I built this Adeptus Arbites squad with riot shields and power mauls for a Necromunda campaign back in '98 (I think). I must admit the paintjob is old and kind of tabletop quality, but they might still be of interest to some one. Asking Price: SOLD!

These Grey Knight alternatives were built for WD when the Dark Angel Veterans were released. The right arms are from the metal Grey Knights in power armor, the left arms are from the metal Grey Knight Terminators. The red on the robes is particularly rich. Asking Price: SOLD!

This Carnifex was built for WD. The conversion work was done by Ty and the paint job is mine. The quad-Devourer is still a great choice for a Carnifex ; ) The guardsmen on the base are painted like my Marcharian 24th PDF army, a little joke from "back in the day". Asking price: $100

The Dwarf Lord on Shield. A simple replacement of Alrik with the coolest Dwarf model GW has ever made, nuff said. Asking Price: SOLD!

A finally (for this batch at least) is the Wood Elf warband I painted up for a Black Gobbo special (I think). There is an obvious autumnal theme to the color scheme, and if I remember correctly it all comes to roughly 500 points. Asking Price: SOLD!

10 Glade Guard archers.

3 Glade Riders.

4 Dryads.

2 Treekin.

A Wardancer hero and a Sorceror (who I'm particularly fond of).

I look forward to hearing from you.

Cheers
Dave

Off with his head!

I know I said I'd be working on the Thundertusk, but I just wanted to get Bragg the Gutsman wrapped up and out of the way. This mini lived up to the name Finecast, and didn't cause me the same problems that the Firebelly did (if you want to see my rant you can look back a few posts). Painting was fairly simple on this guy, loads of metal and black clothing. I used Vallejo's Sombre Grey as the additional color for highlighting the black mask, belt, and boots, and I used Vallejo's Charred Brown (and later Pale Sand) as the additional colors for highlighting the black pants. These areas all received a Badab Black wash to knock back any extreme highlights.

I also didn't want to just leave you with Bragg, so here are some shots of my two Hunters and my two Sabretusks, all painted roughly six years ago.

Cheers
Dave

These Dragoons are heavy

Although it was a few weeks back that I first mentioned the British Dragoons I was working on, I've been beavering away to get them finished. Initially I showed you a few shots, in this post here, of my 3rd Dragoons. At the time I only had four more to finish to complete the unit. Well, as occasionally happens, I decided to stay on that painting roll and finish off my unit of the 4th Dragoons too.

So, my 3rd Dragoons are all from Front Rank, and are "at the charge". Now, I think the Front Rank miniatures are quite nice overall, I do think their heads are a bit too big. I always feel they're going to come loose and fall off, despite the riders being single piece casts.

Here's a shot of the "elements" that make these guys the "3rd Dragoons": blue facings (only the collars show on these models), gold lace (the collar lace matches the lace on the front of the jacket), and the III painted on the ends of the equipment roll seated on the back of the saddle. As an extra touch I added a gold detail to the edge of the blue saddle blankets.

And to keep things quite separate, my 4th Dragoons are all on standing horses with their swords shouldered.

The chap in the middle without a bicorne is the NCO, and to his left is the unit's standard bearer. I just have to track down the banners for the 3rd and 4th Dragoons and I'll be good to go.

The 4th Dragoons had green facings (again, only the collar shows), but their lace was silver. I used a series of greys to represent this, on the collar lace, jacket lace, and on the blue saddle blanket detail too. you will also notice an IV on the equipment roll behind the saddle.

I hope you like them : )

Next up, some work on a Thundertusk I think...

Cheers
Dave