Dwarf Zweihänder Greens - Part 3

With only a couple hours before sending the figures off to the mouldmaker for productionmoulding, I found myself with the choice to duplicate one of the bodies in the unitfiller set or make a set of 3 with 4 heads.

Or I could use the flambergé sword from one of the other figures and attempt a small conversion to create a minor variant...

Dwarf Core Infantry Command

For some reason I forgot to post these, although they were finished around the start of the year. They are the command figures for the core infantry, as always by John Pickford. These have been mastermoulded and productionmoulded and I should have castings ready in a couple weeks.

We've got three bodies: captain, standardbearer and musician and three heads that should be interchangeable with eachother as well as with those of the infantry set. The captain and standardbearer get some further options for customisation.

The captain has three weapon options - a sword, a pistol and a warhammer - and two different shields inspired by period iconography and the obligatory skull (it felt weird not having included one in any of the figures before as I hear skulls are the cool thing to do). His feathers will have more of a curve in the final castings:

The musican is a pretty traditional design, a drummer, 'nuff said.

The standardbearer has three different standard options, two of which reflect the design of the captain's shields. These should fit without much difficulty on the bodies of the first infantry set (WKD-01) if you like more variety and the halberds and pikes from that set should fit on the standardbearer's body, turning him into a pretty good captain or sergeant figure.

WK Dwarf sallet helmet conversions - Part 2

Following up on the previous post (and with John's consent), I have decided to follow through with the idea of converting the complete set of the action poses with sallet helmets and offering them as an additional choice for core infantry troopers. Since they are fairly uncomplicated conversions, these should be able to go straight into a productionmould, so it shouldn't take very long to get these released.

The last 3 went together a lot faster than the first one I did. Here 's a picture of all 4 of them:

WK Dwarf sallet helmet conversion

Someone was asking about the possibility to do a unit of WK dwarfs that are all wearing sallet helmets. The big obstacle to using all the available poses is that the WKD-03 set (action poses) have heads that are cast on to the bodies and 3 of the 4 are wearing floppy hats.

So I went to task to see how hard it would be to convert one with a spare sallet helmet. I took a pair of heavy duty metal cutters to the top of the head on the figure (just below the hat) and did the same with the beard peaking from under the helmet. This was followed by some more cutting with a hobby knife to remove the excess metal on the top of the head/bottom of the helmet and then a lot of filing to get a nice flat surface (head should be filed back to just under the nose). The bottom of the sallet helmet isn't completely flat, so a small gap remained on the front and the back, but a tiny amunt of greenstuff  quickly filled it. I think I spent about 20 minutes on this, most of which was filing away at the parts. It didn't even occur to me to get out my dremel, which may speed things up.

Anyway, I think the result looks pretty good and I'm now considering whether it might be a good idea to give the same treatment to the other 3 bodies and throw them in a mould for more variation.

Dwarf Army Group Shot

I've been asked several times for a group shot and I've always put it off. Well, now I had the dwarf figures out, so I thought it was the occasion to snap a few pictures.

All the currently painted dwarfs (all units are still being added to), a mix of mostly Marauder and WK dwarfs, with a few citadel ones and conversions sprinkled around:

And a closer look at the regiments:

 I will try to do some with the humans, halflings, ogres, orcs and goblins next time.

Dwarfs with Greatswords - Part 1

At long last I managed to slap some paint on some of the first mastercastings of the dwarf zweihänders and I may be biased, but I think they look bloody fantastic. It's almost a shame that some of the wonderful detail is hidden on their backs as it really helps to set them apart from the rank and file. These are clearly better paid soldiers, with access to the very best fineries and equipment.

I went for a more uniformed look to these as they are professional elite soldiers and may be subject to more strict uniform regulations. There is of course room for individuality even within the most strict corset (not that they're wearing those underneath that armour) (I hope). I think the bright colours I use throughout the army work especially well on these figures.

The Captain of the Regiment, one of my favourite dwarf figures ever:

Two of the "unitfiller" poses, standing at ease. Heads are interchangeable:

Dwarf Zweihänder Greens - Part 2

The good news is the second half of the Zweihänder set is ready and off to be mastermoulded. The bad news is most of the pictures I took of them before they left turned out pretty bad. Still, bad pictures are better than no pictures,  so I will shown them to you anyway, as I think the models are very good.

I'll start with my favourite of this bunch, he of the hat with many feathers. The flambergé type sword makes a nice change from the others and looks very good.

The next one mirrors the previous pose, though doesn't look quite as heroic. It takes all sorts.

The third and final rank and file figure is another body variant for the unitfiller pack, with two new heads.

The Zweihänder come with full command (their captain was included in the first batch). The standardbearer is carrying a small sword, which is resting casually on his shoulder (sharp side up of course).

We tend to associate bagpipes with the Scottish, but in truth they were pretty common in Western Europe during the landsknecht era.

Finally, something whimsical, which may or may not end up in the "Hors Série" range, a small duckling with a landsknecht hat, made by John as an in joke. It's really tiny, as can be seen from the picture.

Small well

Not much painting done, but I did manage to convert and paint this Lemax well I picked up at a discount. The scale isn't perfect, but stylewise it fits in well. I replaced the rope and handle, removed the buckets and added a small step.

With some figures and scenery:

Just the well:

Comparison with the stock model:

And just a view with the buildings from the previous updates and some figures:

An update at last. I haven't been painting a lot lately, the winter season is never a good one for me in that regard as I can't motivate myself to get on with it. At least I managed to finish this building that sat on my desk 95% complete. This is the second of two Ziterdes hardfoam buildings I got at Crisis. You may remember the first one here.

This second one is supposed to be a watermill but I chickened out and didn't add the wheel, mainly because I haven't built any water/river terrain yet and I want it all to match when I do. There were a couple small flaws to this building, but overall it's a light and sturdy piece that does look the part.

Before and after:

Goblin Command - Completed greens

And here are the completed goblin command figures: a modular captain, 2 modular musicians and two different standards to use with the rank and file models of WKG-01.

The champion comes with separate head and three different weapon options: sword, pistol or flambergé greatsword.

The first musician, the drummer, comes with separate head and is one of my favourite models of the range.

The second musician is a hornblower. No separate head for this one, but he does come with sword or pistol option.

Funds didn't allow a separate model for a standardbearer, but with these two standardhands, you can change any rank and file goblin from the WKG-01 sets into a standardbearer. The standardtops are representing a little goblin cherub (a parody on a well known renaissance theme) and a boar head.

The various bits in the command set:

Aside from the command models, we also have the first of a set of character figures, which can be used as either a general, a hero or another champion. Characters need names of course, so I give you Gob de Leon. He has the option for a bare head or a helmet.