The Abandoned Gatehouse

It's been ages since I painted anything for this project and when my lovely wife bought me a Lemax Halloween Gatehouse for my birthday, I knew I had to make this top of my list of things to rework into a wargaming model (you know, so I can still be entitled to get toys from her in the future). 

As with most Lemax buildings, this had great potential but needed a little TLC to bring it up to the standards and to remove some of the out of scale bits that tend to feature on them. I'll go into that a bit more below, but first the pictures of the finished gatehouse, which I tried to paint in order to match my earlier buildings in this project.

Some Empire dwarfs are exploring the abandoned gatehouse. Looks like it hasn't been visited in a long while and small scavengers abound, but then who lit those torches? Figures added for scale.

The gatehouse from different angles without figures:

Since it's been so long ago, some of the buildings this was painted to match:

And a comparison between the original model and the modified and repainted one below. I removed the oversized gravestones and skeletons. I did leave one of the skeletons under the arch as it was about the right size. I also got rid of the lighting system, since it couldn't be hidden. I used some plastic bits from a Warhammer fortified mansion to cover the large whole on the side where the switch box was situated. I should have removed the torches as well, since they're a bit big and there are big gobs of hot glue attaching them to the wall, but I didn't want to lose too many of the original building's features, so I kept them on. The building also has moulded on bits of green slime oozing in places. As I didn't quite see how to make that work, I decided to flock them and turn them into overgrown bits. I also used that in a few spots to hide some of the mouldlines that couldn't be removed, the lower body of the model being a type of porcelain.

New Releases - Witchhunters and Lord Commander, Queen of Hearts and White Knight

The following figures have now been added to the "Getting Some" page:

WKM-83: The Queen of Hearts (1) (sculpted by Shane Hoyle)

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WKM-84: The White Knight (1) (sculpted by Drew Williams)

WKM-92: Witchhunter/Daemonhunter retinue (sculpted by Mick Darpa)

WKM-93: Lord Commander of the Witchhunters (sculpted by Mick Darpa and FP)

WKM-94: Witchhunter Armoured Warhorse (sculpted by Mick Darpa and FP)

New Releases - Human Knights of the Great Bear, on foot

The following figures have now been added to the "Getting Some" page:

* WKM-21: Knights of the Order of the Great Bear command, on foot - £10 (bases not included)

* WKM-22: Knights of the Order of the Great Bear, on foot, with bearskins and great hammers - £13 (bases not included)

Dwarf Knights on Landgriffons released

It's been a long time coming, but the Landgriffon mounts for the Dwarf Knights, that I have previewed as greens, have just been released by The Assault Group in their webshop.

You can read the full announcement below, with more pics on the TAG site: http://theassaultgroup.co.uk/12624-2/ :

Added to our Dwarf Empire range of white metal miniatures today are the long awaited Land Griffon mounts for our dwarf Knightly Orders.

The original Dwarf knights we inherited from the White Knight’s Miniature Imperium are mounted on very small, sweet looking armoured ponies.

These Land Griffons are a much more serious mounts. Mixing fearsome bird beaks and claws, with the hind quarters of huge wild cats.

ABOUT THE LAND GRIFFONS
There are four variants of these fabulous beasts to mount our Dwarves on. We’ll add them randomly to the 13 codes of minis, making sure that no two similar mounts go together in the packs.

Land Griffons

Land Griffon Scale Shot

We’ve chosen to paint ours as Leib Knights, on Snowy Owls/Snow leopards, but there are also Imperial knight and Boar knight regalia for the models.

The possible combinations of birds (eagles, parrots, ravens) and  big cats (lions, tigers, jaguars etc) leads to multiple  mouthwatering painting possibilities.

Boar Regalia 

Imperial Regalia

Leib Knight Regalia

ABOUT THE KNIGHTS

The Knights are taken from our existing Dwarf Empire range.

Thirteen different packs of miniatures with two 28mm sized rider models in each pack.

Once again there is a huge variety of modeling possibilities, with four basic body types;

The three Knightly Orders; Imperial, Leib and Boar Knights, have five different heads and shields each…

…and are armed with two variants of lances for each of the Orders, or scythes or morningstars for Leib and Boars respectively.

There are also three Command groups representing the various Orders.

Full SKU and pack details
DEM075 Imperial Dwarf Knight with lance I, mounted on Land Griffons
DEM076 Imperial Dwarf Knight with lance II, mounted on Land Griffons
DEM077 Imperial Dwarf Knight Command, mounted on Land Griffons
DEM078 Dwarf Boar Knight with lance I, mounted on Land Griffons
DEM079 Dwarf Boar Knight with lance II, mounted on Land Griffons
DEM080 Dwarf Boar Knight with morningstar I, mounted on Land Griffons
DEM081 Dwarf Boar Knight with morningstar II, mounted on Land Griffons
DEM082 Dwarf Boar Knight Command, mounted on Land Griffons
DEM083 Dwarf Lieb Knight with lance I, mounted on Land Griffons
DEM084 Dwarf Lieb Knight with lance II, mounted on Land Griffons
DEM085 Dwarf Lieb Knight with scythe I, mounted on Land Griffons
DEM086 Dwarf Lieb Knight with scythe II, mounted on Land Griffons
DEM087 Dwarf Lieb Knight Command, mounted on Land Griffons
These packs retail at £20

There are also five Unit Builders, ten model sets, at discounted prices.

DEM-SB29 Imperial Dwarf Knights mounted on Land Griffons with lances unit builder
DEM-SB30 Dwarf Boar Knights mounted on Land Griffons with lances unit builder
DEM-SB31 Dwarf Boar Knights mounted on Land Griffons with morningstars unit builder
DEM-SB32 Dwarf Lieb Knights mounted on Land Griffons with lances unit builder
DEM-SB33 Dwarf Lieb Knights mounted on Land Griffons with scythes unit builder 
These sets retail £90

THE PAYBACK
Thanks for reading this far down the scroll, here is the payback.

We’re quite glad that we don’t have to push all these tricky pack choices through the ‘somewhat clunky’ Kickstarter system as we have done for the last few releases.

This also saves us money… and we can pass that saving on to you… so for a 10% discount on these products, use the DISCOUNT CODE given below before the end of the month (31/03/2018)

ThankgoodnessthisisntaKickstarter10

Lord Commander of the Witchhunters - Green

The most fierce and feared of all the witchhunters is their Lord Commander, sometimes referred to as the Witchhunter General. The model is a bit of a collaboration between two sculptors, as the basic horse blank and armoured body are the ones done by FP, that also serve as the basis for the mounted knights and the additional detail is sculpted over that by Mick Darpa who did the footknights and witchhunters.

A close up of just the rider, with his pet raven.

I initially wanted the horse to be a singlepiece casting, but when I checked with the mouldmaker, he was of the opinion that it would be too wide and wouldn't cast properly (which I guess is why these type of barded horses in metal are usually multipart). Not wanting to go the split in the middle route I tried to work out a way to keep the naked horse body one piece and the barding separate. As the thin barding pieces from the mounted knights presented their own challenges in moulding, I wanted more solid pieces, which meant reducing the bulk of the horse body. Fingers crossed that it will all work out as planned in moulding.

More Witchhunter Greens and an Update on the Human Footknights of the Great Bear

It's been a while since the last update, so first things first, the current state of affairs regarding the human bearknights on foot that were previewed some months ago. They have been mastermoulded and the mastercastings all came out perfect, so this weekend I will spend some time cleaning mouldlines off the masters to prepare them for production moulding. If all goes well, they may be available in greater quantities next month.

Meanwhile, I had Mick Darpa slaving away at the next set of figures which are three Witchhunter/Daemonhunters to complement the earlier Witchhunter/Vampirehunter set. I was so pleased with the first set, that I had to do a couple more and here they are.

The first character is a Daemonhunter holding up a freshly acquired trophy, the head of a large beastman champion that he has slain. The God of Death will look favourably on his servant.

The second is a female witchhunter in sensible armour (read: no breastshaped breastplates, fashionable thin waist or high heeled armoured boots). She's holding up a decree proclaiming the witchhunter's mission and powers, while casually resting a hand on a holstered pistol, implying "or else...". In my head, I call this one "We have a warrant!"

The last one is a specialised daemonhunter, going after those who would spread plague and disease in the realm. He is wearing a mask filled with herbs to keep away disease and carries a torch to burn the afflicted.

There you have it. I hope to be able to mould this soon, so you won't have to wait as long on the next update.

Dwarf Knights of the Great Bear - TAG Kickstarter

Some of you may remember the greens I posted almost a year ago for the Dwarf footknights of the order of the Great Bear. It seems like good timing that, shortly after I posted the greens for their human counterparts, I can now announce that the dwarf footknights will join the rest of my former dwarf range at The Assault Group, who are running a 4 day long kickstarter to release them right now:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/584137481/tag-28mm-dwarf-empire-bear-knight-miniatures/description

Brilliantly sculpted by the lovely John Pickford and gorgeously painted by Paul Sanderson.

I will let the pictures of the painted figures speak for themselves:

Knights of the Great Bear Greens - More pictures

I received some better looks at the figures from yesterday's post from the sculptor, so feast your eyes on these:

The Champion of the Order

The (first) 5 rank and file knights:

The Musician and Standard bearer

Knights of the Great Bear on foot - Greens

Mick Darpa has delivered another set of (in my opinon) characerful sculpts with an oldschool bent. This is another set of knights templar (on foot). These belong to the order of the Great Bear. They are wearing heavy fur cloaks, made from the skins of bears they killed themselves and wield impressive great hammers that strike fear in the hearts of their enemies just by looking at them.

The champion of the unit looks unimpressed by the enemy. He'll lift his hammer when they get close enough to smell their breaths... The bearhead adorning his helmet could also be painted differently to represent a particularly ugly direwolf if you prefer.

The musician goes into battle armed with a "small" warhammer, to keep his other hand free in case his needs to blow his horn.

The proud standard of the unit. No frills, just a carved bear's head to show what they are about.

The first 5 rank and file Great Bear templar. I will post more pictures from different angles when I get them. A second set of rank and file figures, with bare heads, will be converted from these after moulding.

New Human Character Greens - Graf's Wife and White Knight

While you've been introduced before to the Graf's lovely daughters, we were yet to encounter their stepmother, the Graf's new wife. Noone really knows where she came from, though she herself says she descends from a royal lineage and claims the title of "Queen of Hearts". Tensions have been running high between the Graf's daughters and their stepmother...

 Model sculpted by Shane Hoyle.

 Another mysterious character has been roaming the land off late. This ageing knight is clad in shiny white armour, with a helmet shaped after a horse's head and carries some frankly odd equipment. Upon mention of his presence in the Empire, it is said the Graf's new wife reacted with visible shock, suggesting perhaps that this White Knight may have traveled from the same place whence she came. If that is the case, it does not appear as if that news was a welcome one...