BROADSWORD MINIATURES

Thursday 22 May 2014

PEWTER MOON DWARVES

It's been ages since I posted any figures, but I haven't been idle. Amazingly I stuck long enough at a project to actually complete it (well, almost complete it). I was thinking about doing some new fantasy stuff, but in bite size chunks, so fell back on that great rule set, Hordes of the Things. Half the fun of these rules is planning your army, and trying to incorporate all the figures you want to use into 24 points. Inevitably I ended up painting  more than I needed, as well as some figures to use with the army when playing another ruleset.

Here we have then, the Pewter Moon Dwarves, implacable enemies of the Crimson King, they dwell in lighthouses and granite castles along the Northern coasts of Gonchovia. The dwarves hold the great alchemist and conjuror Professor Grunkasse in high esteem, possibly because his head is moon shaped (or does he wear a warmask to aid his spells?)

(picked this guy up in a dumpbin at a show. He was missing a hand so I added a plastic zombie hand an an old Rafm staff). 

Pride of the army are the Walrus knights, 6 HOTT knight elements in total.



(I've had these guys in mind for years now, so it's nice to finally realise the idea. Cheap EM-4 plastic dwarves off ebay riding Britains walrus also from ebay. The walrus medallions are GW shields with moon device on them and the flagpole moons are plastic beads.....from ebay. Each figure cost about £1.20 in total).

The footslogging infantry are 6 blade elements, with 2 extra to make a unit of 20 for other games



(again plastic EM-4 figures with Milliput cloaks)

A Hero Jasper Brummbar mounted on his faithful steed, and 2 Beast elements, the singing bears of Norrin

(Brummbar is a Reaper figure, and the singing bears are plastic ebay finds)

2 Behemoth elements in the form of  hairy Struppigs with howdahs. As well as the Pewter Moon, the howdahs bear the Sunchild device of their allies.


(plastic Star Wars beasts from a dump bin with EM-4 Dwarf crossbows in the scratch built howdahs)

To defend the army from frequent aerial attacks from the Owls of Lord Aluco (an ally of the Crimson King) the dwarves often field a unit of pikes (not for use with HOTT)



The whole army in array


There are more forces to follow for this campaign. Owl worshippers, Ice Gypsies and of course the Court of the Crimson King.

I really enjoyed banging these out, and spent little time on overshading, relying on loads of washes from GW and Army Painter (the latter are really good).If I missed a bit, or went over a boundary with the paint I just carried on regardless. In recent years I've been a bit pedantic with my brush, resulting in minimal amounts of painting being done and boredom with a project before completion. 

Apropos the last comment, I realised why my Thistlewood project ground to a halt. It was the bases which were dull and drab. So I'm going to redo them using Tetrion filler as above but washed green. This is how I (and all my gaming mates) used to do our bases in the early 1980's, so they are suitable old school in appearance.

I've recently linked up with a gaming buddy (Von Trinkenessen) from those days  (and we are planning a few games of Prehammer (we used to use WRG Renaissance rules for our fantasy games), so I am really looking forward to seeing his armies again after 30 years, and trouncing them.











19 comments:

  1. Love this army, and the whole post. Beautiful project with wonderful use of the imagination and the writing brims with enthusiasm for the hobby. Very inspirational!

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    1. Thanks Paul, I usually keep the story in my head and never formulate it into words, but I will endeavour to do some more background writing as we go along.

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  2. Love scratch built stuff, especially when it has a story to go with it!

    Your right about being too pedantic with painting slowing down output. For me, I've found that I enjoy painting more if I can get something painted, but with mistakes, instead of painting for ages, and it still doesn't end up looking like a Golden Daemon winner.

    Congratulations on getting an army painted!

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    1. Cheers, yes and to be honest half the mistakes or more can't actually be seen by anyone.... and if they can, well too bad.

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  3. Glorious pictures of an amazing and creative project- a joy to behold!
    I look forward to seeing them in action and the owl worshippers etc too.

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    1. Thanks Alan, I hope to start the bug eyed elves and their owls soon.

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  4. Wow!!!! Springinsfeld, this has got to be one of the coolest Dwarf armies I have ever seen!! Simply Brilliant and playful conversions and adaptions of other toys too! The Walrus Cavalry will be obsessing me for days, I know. I look forward to reading the battle exploits of this mighty army! And I am very curious to hear how the WRG Renaissance plays out as a fantasy set. Thanks for this post!

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  5. Many thanks Private W. The WRG rules worked really well recall, and they are about the only set I ever memorised. I really like the shooting chart calculating the distance, weapon and armour of the target and then gleefully plucking my opponents figures from the table....

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  6. Walrus cavalry for the win, you need a fjord themed battle field with Ice bergs and an elegant moon topped light house now.....

    How did you find those banthas in the bin? Just lucky? I'm collecting star wars minis for games with my son I'd love to get such dump finds.

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    1. Hi Erny, I hope to do some icebergs, and ice cracks for the snowy cloth. I often pick up useful figures in rummage boxes at Wargames shows, and there seem to be quite a few Star wars and superhero prepainted figures about at the moment. The shows I tend to go to are Colours in Newbury (not on this year) and Warfare at Reading.

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  7. WOW! This is seriously great. Like it all, from Walrus knights to the "ice" theme. Inspirational!
    /Hans

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    1. Many thanks Don, there will be more icy armies armies following.

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  8. Wow. I absolutely love it! A stunningly beautiful army. I love that it's all your own idea, you just let your imagination take you where you wanted to go. The Walrus cavalry are amazing. The back banners are a winning touch. Like a great old classic song, this army will be buzzing around in my head for a long time! Very inspiring. Too bad I have no time for hobby stuff right now.

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    1. Thanks Mouse, I guess you have a lot on your plate at the moment (understatement), but will be back to the painting table as soon as you can.

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  9. I'm afraid I missed these! Excellent and inspired work.

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  10. This army looks fantastic! So many wonderful conversions and an interesting theme.

    I really like the EM4 Dwarves with the cloaks you've sculpted, I remember when I first saw those miniatures I didn't think it would be worth using them. You've definitely proved me wrong on that count.

    I just wanted to pop by and let you know that I've nominated you for a Liebster award over at my blog Meandering Shade.

    It's up to you whether you'd like to carry it on or not. No harm, no foul :)

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  11. Thanks Jonathan, I'm glad you like them and appreciate your kind comments. Also I appreciate the Liebster nomination too. I might duck out on this as I have very limited time for painting. blogging and general hobby stuff, so every second counts. I usually type comments and do a bit of surfing at work so rarely put the pc on at home unless I want to write a blog post. I REALLY appreciate the nomination though!!

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  12. Walrus cavalry! Fantastic idea. Never played HOTT but if it helps people create stuff like this, I must try to get hold of a copy!

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