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Elves look great. Particularly like the Wizard and the white robes look great to me and the ear dancer with the massive sword.

A kickstarter for compatible shields? That sounds like a great idea.

Absolutely love those Wardancers. The guy with the 2-hander, no shirt and the chainmail pants is one of the best in the range.

Beautiful oldhammer elves, and as usual your bases are fantastic. Enjoy the coming new year .

Nice job on the Elves!
Mohawk Elf is my favourite, even if he is wearing a chainmail onesie.

Those figures really take me back- I didn't know the background on the Jes Goodwin wizards. I have several of these, but none painted to this standard. And I think the 'David Bowie' wardancer came out very well.

Archer wrote:Elves look great. Particularly like the Wizard and the white robes look great to me and the ear dancer with the massive sword.

A kickstarter for compatible shields? That sounds like a great idea.

"Eardancer" may be the best typo I've ever read. That's what I'm going to call these guys from now on. There have been a couple of KS for shields, which delights me to no end, given how expensive the old plastic shields get on Ebay.

youwashock wrote:Absolutely love those Wardancers. The guy with the 2-hander, no shirt and the chainmail pants is one of the best in the range.

I like this guy a lot, as well as the other guy in this pose wielding an axe. Fun fact: I once based a Champions character on this model.

Theophony wrote:Beautiful oldhammer elves, and as usual your bases are fantastic. Enjoy the coming new year .

There's not much to the bases, just sand from the garden and some tufts. Those do all the heavy lifting.

aku-chan wrote:Nice job on the Elves!
Mohawk Elf is my favourite, even if he is wearing a chainmail onesie.

Imagine how much it must hurt to walk on chainmail boots for th entire battle.

Meer_Cat wrote:Those figures really take me back- I didn't know the background on the Jes Goodwin wizards. I have several of these, but none painted to this standard. And I think the 'David Bowie' wardancer came out very well.

Thanks. The model turned out well enough once I gave up on the facepaint.

So winter break began for everyone on Friday afternoon. I finally mailed off some Christmas presents, cleaned the bathroom, "played" a couple of "miniatures games" with my son (he lined up all my elves versus my undead army, we rolled high-low for combat and he won with almost n o casualties!), and found time to finish these guys:


I started buying Chaos Dwarfs to field along with my Warriors of Chaos/Beastmen army (back when everything Chaotic was part of the same list), and had enough for a single unit of thirty or so. That sat in their box, unpainted, for many a year until, in a fit of efficiency/madness, I sold them off as part of an attempt to rationalize the backlog. I regretted doing so immediately and deeply, and continue to do so to this day. A couple of months ago, a fellow on the Oldhammer Trading FB group was offering some for a reasonable price, so I snapped them up.

I thought at first that this model was topless, but on closer examination, he's wearing a Joel Schumacher breastplate. Ah, well, at least he has a magnificent beard.



The casting sculpting on these guys is very much of the era, so they are a little more rough than the elves I posted last week. They make up for it with funkiness, though. Check out his guy's Salvador Dali facial hair. Also, I painted his one visible eye, but of course it's almost impossible to see, even in person.



My son pointed out that this guy looks like a regular, non-corrupted dwarf, so I gave him a green beard. His lower lip is painted in AP Necrotic Flesh, as well.



Another suit of armor with the beard sticking out. It turns out these little tanks are pretty easy and fast to paint.



Then there's this guy. On the right, he's just a bunch of armor. On the left he has a furry arm and a goat leg, and he carries some sort of goblin skull staff as a weapon. That's more like it.



And finally, the best model in this lot. I guess he's supposed to be a berzerker, but he looks just like Sweetumsto me, so that's how I painted him. I tried to give him crazy eyes, but of course they look fairly normal.

Here's a group shot:


I put them on 20mm square bases because they are most likely to see action in Vanguard, assuming we ever get around to playing. I enjoyed these guys so much that I have another set based and primed. They'll have to wait until after New Year's, though. I hope everyone reading this has a Happy ( and Safe) New Year.

Nice little warband you've got there.

White robes on the wizard actually make me see it more as a priestess. Which kind of fits for wood elves.

Referencing something from the previous page about the commercialization of Christmas in Japan: There are not that many Christians in Japan, AFAIK? Would most Japanese have a different view of Christmas?

Ancient Chaos Dwarfs! Awesome as usual, Josh. Good stuff.

Burning the midnight paint to the last minute. Good job on dealing with the unpainted pile!

M.

Brilliant work. Quite a year from you. Love this batch. Sweetie especially.

Love, love, love the old Chaos Dwarfs. I plan to start my own Chaos Dwarf army next (if I ever get through the Necron grumble, grumble) but mine aren't the full of character ones you have here or even the big hat guys or yesteryear. Mine are the current forgeworld version and I think they lack a little Chaos.

Lovely oldhammer minis here. Those old Chaos Dwarves are SO much better than the later ones in my opinion. The big hats and OTT stuff really ruins the more modern designs, makes them look like walking wedding cakes.
Your paintjob on these guys is exactly as it should be for evil Dwarves.

Great looking chaos dwarves there josh , your knocking out these oldschool figs right and left. I have a couple of the chaos dwarves that have bazookas and platemail kicking around somewhere.

Red Harvest wrote:Nice little warband you've got there.

White robes on the wizard actually make me see it more as a priestess. Which kind of fits for wood elves.

Referencing something from the previous page about the commercialization of Christmas in Japan: There are not that many Christians in Japan, AFAIK? Would most Japanese have a different view of Christmas?

Thanks. I was kind of going for a Galadriel look on that elf. Re Xmas in Japan, I imagine all the trappings came over during the occupation, and the gaiety offered some relief from trying to survive postwar deprivation. Now, it's very much a family holiday if you have kids, a dating holiday if you don't.

bbb wrote:Ancient Chaos Dwarfs! Awesome as usual, Josh. Good stuff.

Thanks. I have always had a soft spot for these little guys.

Miguelsan wrote:Burning the midnight paint to the last minute. Good job on dealing with the unpainted pile!

M.

I got my 大掃除 done early, so no one complains when I do hobby stuff during the day.

Camkierhi wrote:Brilliant work. Quite a year from you. Love this batch. Sweetie especially.

Thanks. I didn't reach one model/day, but I think I made up for it with all the terrain.

Archer wrote:Love, love, love the old Chaos Dwarfs. I plan to start my own Chaos Dwarf army next (if I ever get through the Necron grumble, grumble) but mine aren't the full of character ones you have here or even the big hat guys or yesteryear. Mine are the current forgeworld version and I think they lack a little Chaos.

I think the best way to build an army of these guys is to start back in 1986 when they were still cheap. I spent almost $100 on the dozen-or-so I'm currently working on, and I just can't justify an army's-worth of models at that price.

Da Boss wrote:Lovely oldhammer minis here. Those old Chaos Dwarves are SO much better than the later ones in my opinion. The big hats and OTT stuff really ruins the more modern designs, makes them look like walking wedding cakes.
Your paintjob on these guys is exactly as it should be for evil Dwarves.

I never did like the big hats, they were just too cartoony.

Theophony wrote:Great looking chaos dwarves there josh , your knocking out these oldschool figs right and left. I have a couple of the chaos dwarves that have bazookas and platemail kicking around somewhere.

I have a set of bazookamen in the queue. I had two back during my selloff madness, but no one seems to be selling them, at least at prices I can afford...

It seems that all the cool kids are posting retrospectives in their P& Blogs, so I'm doing the same. First up, January:



January was a big sci-fi month. I cranked out a bunch of Battlezones while the family was away visiting relatives. I have a bunch more of those Broken models, I should get back to those.

February:



After the BZ the month before, I was still in DZ mode. I like the models, and I'm pretty sure it's a solid game, but I still can't seem to actually play. Maybe I'll break out the old AI deck and try solo during winter break.

March:


More Mantic stuff, plus a "commission" for a friend.

April:


I seem to have gone on a combined Frostgrave/Oldhammer kick in April, along with slogging through some goblins for Dungeon Saga.

May:
I don't seem to have tagged anything in May...

June:


I went on a little Samurai kick, probably after my son and I tried Ronin. He wanted more peasants, and I rarely object to getting new models....

July:


And then it's back to Frostgrave, with a few DS models thrown in. I'm still pleased with how those old Grenadier wizards came out.

August:


I had a week to myself in August, so I cranked out a bunch of resin terrian and most of a set of DS abyssals. The Ghost Archipelago crewmen were a request from my son, while the barbarians were painted by him.

September:


Some more crewmen, and some Bad Squiddo shieldmaidens.

October:


More Bad Squiddo, and some Ogres. I think I have two more packs of these Mantic Ogres, along with a few random Oldhammer ogres, and then I can call this army finished.

November:


My numbers seem to have dropped quite dramatically as the years wound down. The samurai/swordsmen were inspired by a painting challenge in the Feudal Japan Wargaming FB group. The shieldmaidens were me wanting to get that particular project finished.

December:


December was an oddly productive month. More Bad Squiddo, some barbarians to accompany them, and finally some Oldhammer models. My final tally is 220 modles, plus three sets of Osgiliath ruins, Great Cthulhu, two Japanese peasant farmhouses and a rice paddy, and a whole bunch of resin Frostgrave terrain. I know better than to set goals for hobby stuff, because then it's no longer a hobby, but I hope to have a productive 2019. Thanks to everyone for reading and commenting all year, it really helps inspire me.

Top notch year, Josh, and the oldhammer elves and chaos dwarfs round it off nicely

Continuing the theme from December:


These Chaos Dwarfs paint up really quickly, being mostly armor and beard. I'm trying for a bronze effect on the armor plates, and I'm generally pleased, but on this guy it blends in too well with the horns on the helmet.



For those models with shields, I'm trying a glowing/molten Chaos Dwarf rune theme, but I need a better yellow paint for the innermost stripe.



I originally painted this guy's cloak red with white trim, kind of like you'd see on a portrait of a European nobleman, but he ended up looking like Santa Claus. This turned out better, I think.



Apart from the curved sword and the spider on his helmet, this guy looks a lot like an Imperial Dwarf.



This guy is super plain, but I did his thigh-high boots.



I wasn't sure if this guy was wearing a hood or a helmet, so I painted it as a skull instead. The glowing red eye effect didn't work at all.

Finally, a group shot:


Working on these guys, I was reminded on perhaps the worst part of painting dwarfs of any type-- their stumpy little legs make it really hard to decorate the bases. I actually finished this set a couple of days ago, and have cleaned, assembled, based and primed the five Mantic Abssal Dwarf Immortals I got with their first KoW kickstarter, but managed to get distracted by Rangers of Shadow Deep, and am currently kitbashing a couple of rangers using the various Frostgrave kits I have lying around. My wife and son are away visiting her family, so I'll be catching up on movies and hobbying for a week-- hopefully I'll have something to share in a day or two. As always, comments and criticism are welcome and encouraged. Thanks, as always, for looking.

Lovely stuff, Josh, so much better than the later big-hats in my opinion.

Oooh...the little guy in the green cloak is such a classic figure. Like a mini Death Dealer. Love it.

Slinky wrote:Lovely stuff, Josh, so much better than the later big-hats in my opinion.

I never liked that generation of Chaos Dwarfs. I get that they were trying to give them a unified look, but the Babylonian/Assyrian thing just didn't work, IMO.

youwashock wrote:Oooh...the little guy in the green cloak is such a classic figure. Like a mini Death Dealer. Love it.

Thanks, he is a nifty model.

This time, I have a few Abyssal Dwarf Immortals from Mantic.






They came free with my rewards for the first Kings of War kickstarter. They're kind of boring models, sadly-- ornate but hard to read armor, identical weapons and shields, and only four different heads for five bodies-- the last guy has a head from the Dwarf Command sprue. One thing I like about these older KoW models with the integrated bases is that the models are designed to fit inside the footprint of their bases so they can rank up. Not so important for a skirmish gmae, but for rank and flank not having to assemble the unit like a jigsaw puzzle is a big plus.

Next up, I have a few models assembled for Rangers of Shadow Deep. I have tomorrow all to myself, so I hope to have at least a couple ready to show.

Are you going to dip your toes into Vanguard, Josh?

M.

 Miguelsan wrote:
Are you going to dip your toes into Vanguard, Josh?

M.

That's the plan. I like the rules, and I have a ton of painted models I can use. The problem is finding players.

Thanks for the great retrospective Josh. You did a lot last year, months of great paint jobs. It was also fun seeing those 3 grenideer wizards again. The chaos dwarfs are looking cool.

You had an excellent 2018 modelling, wonderful work, so much win.

Love these guys, tons of character.