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With building basically done for my Dogs of War, I tallied it up.

2019 Dogs of War Inventory

Lords
Borgio the Besieger
High Witch (~1st Morathi)

Heroes
Paymistress & Moneylender
Captain
2 Witches

Core
30 Ricco's Republican Guard
22 Leopold's Leopard Company
10 Vespero's Vendetta
8 Voland's Venators (~Empire Knights)
14 Braganza's Besiegers
13 Marksmen of Malice (DE Xbows)

Special
15 Lumpin Croop's Fighting Cocks (Chaos Familiars)
4 Golfag's Ogres (~old Nightmares)

Rare
Giants of Albion (~Keepers of Secrets)
Asarnil the Dragonlord (~Forest Dragon)

This is likely the "final" configuration for my Warhammer Fantasy Dogs of War. While the army has grown from the 2015 inventory, I don't intend to buy anything further for it, nor do I intend to sell anything. I'm just going to finish building and move on to painting, which is plenty enough work to be done!


Work in Progress

I have a couple larger models that I have started conversion, but are not yet complete:
* newer Winged Nightmare = Ogre Captain Golfag
* older Winged Nightmare = one of his Ogres

There is a 3rd, incomplete Keeper of Secrets model, which I don't really need, and probably should sell at some point; however, I still thing maybe I want it for a "dark" Captasus conversion.


Models to Buy

At some point, I ought to buy a metal HE Dragon Prince (for riding Asarnil), as I don't particularly like the WE Lord model that came with the Forest Dragon that I'm using.


And that's it folks. Done buying, except for maybe 1 model. Done building except for 2 (or 3) models.

The building of things has been on hiatus lately, and there's a reason for that.

In the discussion of "How many (40k) armies do you have?", I casually replied that had "far too many".

I've been sifting through my WFB Dogs of War, after my Imperial stuff for 40k and my WFB Empire army.

Dogs of War
In doing so, I found I was happiest with my Dogs of War army, because the amount I had was almost identical to the amount I owned, of which, the overwhelming majority being playable. My Dogs of War army has but one unplayable model (the 4th Nightmare), a handful more that need conversion work (the Keeper of Secrets and the Pikemen), and only couple "excess" models (a couple of Cannon). Everything that I have aligns with what I want to keep and play.

Imperial Guard
OTOH, my 40k Imperials have at least a full Platoon "extra" that I won't ever play, above and beyond the stuff that exists to give a wealth of unnecessary options. This despite the fact that the playability aspect is even higher, due to having significantly more completed models and fewer models needing repair/conversion (only the Shadowsword really stands out). That extra Platoon nags at me, and selling it would make me feel quite a bit better, so I think that's what I need to do, after I shuffle the models about so more squads can be posed uniquely. ... so I'm selling it, reducing the "to be painted pile" by 30-odd models.

Sisters of Battle & Inquisition
My Sisters are fully-built, although I have a Canoness en route. I'm looking forward to receiving her so that the entire Sisters army can be "done", just as the Inquisition portion is complete. The Lightning Claws are also en route, so I hope to have these fully assembled by next weekend.

Empire
And then, there's my WFB Empire army, which has just a huge host of multi-pose infantry to build. Dozens of models, literally an army worth. That build task just keeps getting back-burnered in favor of something shinier, so I think it's a sign that I should shift focus to another army that I can make better progress on.

For the moment, I will focus on re-aligning what I have against what I want, and then unloading the rest, or buying the one-off models and bitz I "need" to make each army "complete". In going through the armies, the small stuff (SoB, Inquistion, Escher, Spyrers) are much easier to assess for completeness and keeping.

This evening, I went through my Imperial Guard army, and reorganized things to match the formations. As a result, I'll be selling the 30-odd Tallarn Imperial Guardsmen that strictly duplicate other models and units, only existing as excess models for the sake of having them. Yes, it means that my Emperor's Shield Infantry Platoon has a squad of Remnants and a squad of Cadians replacing the last couple all-Tallarn squads, and I'm more likely to field them than not.

And you know what?

I feel really good about that!

Yes, it would have been better had I never purchased them in the first place; however, seeing the smaller, more compact Imperial Guard army that remains, where every model has its place and purpose? That makes me happy in the same way that I'm really happy with the Dogs of War and Sisters of Battle armies that I have. The Imperial Guard collection is "done".

In addition, my Imperial Guard army cases are full, but I've moved the high-density inserts into the Empire case, so I now have the slots I need for storing the Empire infantry models that I intend to build.

Double-plus good!

After a quick and easy bath in Castrol Super Clean to strip the paint and primer off, this is the result:


31 Tallarn Guardsmen back to bare metal, ready for eBay!

In the back of my mind, I'm wondering whether I can consolidate what is currently 3 transport cases of T3 Imperials (IG, =I=, SoB & Nec) down to 2, freeing up a case for another game system or whatever.
____

2/1 - Hm. To get down to there, I'd have to cut back another couple dozen minis. That's a bit more culling than I'm necessarily prepared to do, but it's not a bad idea based on what I actually play...
____

2/2 - I ID'd another half-dozen Guard minis that I wouldn't miss, so they'll be stripped and sold. It feels strange to see empty spots in the case.

I picked up my Canoness at the local GW and built her same day. There are an impressive number of bitz, including a bolt pistol, chainsword, book, and scroll that I didn't use - I figured she should have the fanciest weaponry available on the sprue.

In addition, having decided to pull another 8 Guardsmen from the pile, I went and made a trio of 40mm Objective markers.



Yes, there's a little space left in the the storage boxes, but I feel like the army is sufficiently "done" that I'm happy to just let it be.

I went back to my Mordheim Vampire Assassin, which I had originally intended as a DoW Wizard. Having far too many "Wizard" models, I had very recently rebased her for use in in my 40k =Inquisition= forces as a retinue model. However, as I've reworked my armies, I decided she would be of far better use as the basis for a DoW Moneylender.

Rather than arming her with a cutlass, per the original design, I converted up a super-thin longsword:


I think the slim blade suits the model better, without having the professionally-trained & duelling connotation of a fencing rapier or such. She's just a very rich woman who can afford a really fine sword.

Looking forward to seeing your DOW army progress. I tried years ago to do one but it fizzled and popped.

The vampire is a great mini and great choice for a paymaster.

Thanks! She's a gorgeous sculpt that I'm not sure I can do justice when I get around to painting her.

With how far along my Dogs of War army is, I need to take a group photo of them all together. There are maybe a handful of models to finish building & conversion, and then it'll be all ready for painting.

____

I ended up getting "count-as" Ogre Captain Golfag to a playable state, getting him standing on his 40mm base:


He is the largest and bulkiest of my Ogre models, as befits an Ogre Captain, but I need to make a head and clean up the back before he can be "done".
____

ETA - As I was putting him in the case, I decided my Forest Dragon could use some cleanup, so I started rehabbing it so it'd be fewer, more solid pieces. I permanently attached the neck and head, so he'll still sit in the case, but his wings and arms will remain separate. Though I gotta say, GW's generic plastic dragon wings are not satisfying to see. Maybe I'll steal some other wings for him. Or just have be more of an Asian dragon. Hm.

I finished gap-filling the seams with SGT, so my Dragon is "done":


Most of the pinning work was done before, but the head and neck had never been attached to the body. Now it's one big, sturdy piece, which will be better on the tabletop. The arms and wings plug in for play, remove for storage & transport.

In going through the other wings in my bitz box, there really aren't any good alternatives that don't require major customization (which would be just as well to remove them entirely. So my choices are to keep using the plastic wings, or completely remove the shoulders and sculpt new with GS.

As I can always carve away, but it's hard to restore that kind of surgery, I think I leave it to the plastic wings for the moment.

Also, Happy Chinese New Year!

Having pulled the 2nd batch of 8 Guardsmen and such from the pile, I stripped them along with a few other models, and now they're ready for sale:


Truth be told, I'm feeling quite good about the armies, to the point that it's about time to go back to working on Empire?

I finally got around to inventorying my multipose Empire Soldiers bitz to see what I can make, counting all of the legs and torsos and such. I had enough to build a whopping 83 additional State Troops, which I plan as follows:
+ 36 Handgunners,
+ 24 Halberdiers,
+ 12 Swordsmen, and
+ 11 Free Company.

I then started sorting the 5E Handgunner and Command bitz using one of my Plano boxes to help organize individual bits by type (e.g. Handgunner arms). I then grouped the various bitz for separate units (e.g. 1st Handgunner unit) so that I can build visually coherent units that will be easier for me to identify on the tabletop. In the case of the 4 identically-equipped Handgunner units, I've got a split combination of Torsos & Legs & Handguns: AAA, ABB, BAC, BBD, effectively turning them into 4 monopose models. I then built the 9 AA and 9 BB versions needed for the first couple units, along with reference BA and CC (Halberdier) models :


Once I get the Handgunners knocked out, things should be somewhat easier, as the weapon selection (Halberd, Sword & Shield, or 2 Weapons) will dominate the model design.

Are these the ones which came with the metal rifles and crossbows? I've got 3 sets of those arms and command group and I've no idea where they came from.

Should look good, I preferred the legs and torsos of these guys compared to there current incarnation. The puffs and frills make these much more characterful.

Look forward to see the wood elf dragon get some colour.

They are! Hybrid metal weapons and bits for a multipose plastic mini.

I'll have a picture up soon enough


Automatically Appended Next Post:
With that, I got the arms and bitz on the first couple Handgunners:


For the effort involved in cleaning and prepping the various joints, I really wish I had just bought (or ordered!) when my LHS still had metal Empire available on the pegs. All of the plastic needs to be scored to give the SGT something to grip, along with any metal that got filed smooth. Plus alignment, etc.

Truth be told, they do look nice, and would be great for a skirmish game. Like Mordheim, which is when I bought my first Empire Crossbowmen box, giving me an entire Warband with choices for Halberds, Swords, Shields and Crossbows, plus Command bitz! The OOTB customization and posing options are awesome for that kind of game, but total overkill for RnF models to be fielded in en masse. Which is why GW almost immediately switched Empire back to monopose plastics.

So they're something of a historical artifact of their time, when GW was transitioning from metal to plastic - a noble experiment.

I build two reference models of the "type B" Handgunner, along with a 3rd "type C" Handgunner:

That's a total of 5 RnF Handgunners for 3 of the 4 planned units.

I didn't get much done today, just clipping some Empire bitz from sprue and consolidating a bag of bitz; however, this reduced things down to:
* Plano organizer of bitz and reference models, organized by unit;
* 2 *identical* "Handgunner" boxes of 18 Empire Soldiers on sprue;
* 1 "Crossbowmen" box of all other Empire stuff on sprue.

When I had started my Empire project, I had 2 more bags and another box of stuff on sprues, and the "organization" was more haphazard.

Now, I have clarity on how to finish the Empire army. My WiP stuff is more organized, and I only need dig into the Plano organizer for what I'm actively working on.
____

2/11 - I received a metal Empire Warrior Priest with Great Hammer (Luthor Huss), stripped and cleaned it tonight. I also got 10 of 14 arms on Handgunners, so I could finish the 1st Handgunner unit in the next day or so

I finished the first 2 unit of Empire Handgunners tonight:


That gets half of my Handgunners completed, and the other 2 units are already started, so the army is getting there. Once the Handgunners are completed, I'll move on to Halberdiers, Swordsmen and Free Company, before re-arming regular Knights with lances to KotWW with hammers.
____

2/13 - I clipped more Soldier bitz, so I can build the next batches of Handgunners.

I finished the 3rd Handgunner unit over the weekend:


I should have all of the Handgunners done later this week!

I finished the last unit of Empire Handgunners:


Whew.

With that done, I'm clipping more bits for the next group of models

I think I'm living vicariously through your (and others) progress at the moment...

After much wait, I finally received a couple of resin Demon Gates for Journey: Wrath of Demons



The Kickstarter is basically dead in the water, but at least the delivered the Core game, and it's beautiful.

____

Empire-wise, I built a multipose Champion using Handgunner / Crossbow / Soldier bitz.



His detail is so good!

Based on a re-evaluation of my social media needs and desires, I am indefinitely suspending posting to this plog, effective immediately.

Best wishes to all who were following this.

So... it's been a month, and I've been in something of a funk due to various Life things happening to my extended family.

I've been less able to enjoy the collecting side of the wargaming hobby, as a lot of it makes me just want to further decrease the parts of my collection that hardly, if ever, get played.

I ended up pulling another 20-odd Guardsmen from the pile to put up for sale, basically shrinking down to the "minimum" Formations with "minimum" extras. It's good!

I guess it's time to get serious about shrinking the Eldar pile, too.
____

Surprisingly, the amount of obvious excess Eldar is less than I had expected, as a fair lot of it was just cluttered and unorganized. Getting it all together and sorted made it more sensible, and first pass showed a couple dozen I could easily do without. OTOH, I don't need 9,000-odd points of Eldar, so I'll keep cutting back and see where it ends up.

To all of you who were following me, wow, it's been a long time since I've had anything to say here, or really any social media.

Since my last post, I indeed sold off a pile of excess Eldar & Guardsmen and generally liquidated the unbuilt portion of the "closet of shame".


Volks' Five Star Stories models are available in the US, in plastic! I don't have to order from Japan, deal with ForEx and/or international shipping. As a result, I finally bought the SSI Kulvulkan "Bang Doll" that I've had on my wishlist for literally decades:


It's so beautiful!

Anyhow, I was doing my homework on buildup, and apparently, yes, it's a bit of a bear to assemble. I take this to mean "old school" plastic model building skills are required, like what I used to do decades ago before I got into Warhammer, before I got into Gundam, back when I was building 1/35 scale armor. No worries, I didn't expect it to "fall together" like a new Gundam kit. The OOTB color separation looks good, and the detail is fantastic.

Then, on Black Friday, I swung by Brookhurst Hobbies to check on their Gundam sale for my boys, and I ended up doubling down on a V.Siren "Neptune":



I've started building the Neptune, as "warmup" to get a feel for how Volks' IMS models build up. As it turns out, they're like building Kingdom Death plastics, but with bigger assemblies. This surprised me, but then, it didn't. These are passion art kits that were originally hand-sculpted as resin before being turned into plastic kits, trying to reproduce resin-style components and resin-style assembly. This results in a certain amount of insanity. For example, the Neptune hips have a 2-part clamshell core. To which, you add 2 more 2-part clamshells, and then a 3rd clamshell. All of which could have been done with 2 larger pieces guaranteeing perfect alignment and positioning, rather than gluing plastic bits together to simulate the process where you'd pin resin pieces. It would have been cheaper to produce, especially as there aren't any fore-aft undercuts that would have been visible under the armored skirting. LOL Still, it's an experience to build, and I'm enjoying it.

Anyhow, that's what I'm up to.
____

EDIT: At some point, I finished the Baneblade that I had intended to convert into a Shadowsword, so it's just a Baneblade with non-standard "pattern" so that it's reasonably playable as such.

Having sold the Craftworld Eldar that I'm never going to field, this is what's left:

2022 Eldar inventory

Eldrad Ulthuan
Asurmen
Jain Zar
Karandras
Fuegan
Baharroth
Maugan Ra

Avatar

2 Farseers
6 Warlocks

34 Guardians w/ 2 AGPs

2 War Walkers

2 Falcons
1 Fire Prism

Aspect Warriors
23 Dire Avengers
12 Fire Dragons
16 Howling Banshees
20 Striking Scorpions
15 Swooping Hawks
13 Warp Spiders
12 Dark Reapers

Ghost Warriors
15 Wraithguard
6 Wraithlords
1 Wraithknight

Outcasts
10 Ranger Pathfinders
24 Rangers

Harlequins
1 Great Harlequin
2 Solitaires
1 Shadowseer
3 Death Jesters
22 Harlequins

Dark Kin
1 Archon
10 Warriors

Fewer Aspects, no real changes to Ghost Warriors, Harlequins or Dark Eldar. At this point, it's never going to get any larger, so I'm putting a pin in things and calling them done.
____

Wissenlander Empire

My Empire forces will be themed around Wissenland troops & Nuln gunpowder.

Lords
General on Horseback / Luthor Huss

Heroes
Captain on Horseback (BSB)
Warrior Priest
Bound Witch (lv. 1)

Core
20 +4 Halberdiers [FC]
+12 Free Company (d)

5 Huntsmen

10 Handgunners +Hochland Longrifle (C)
10 Handgunners +Hochland Longrifle (C)
10 Handgunners +Repeater Handgun (C)
10 Handgunners +Repeater Handgun (C)

8 Knights Encarime (KotWW) [FC]
6 Empire Knights [FC]

Special
23 Greatswords [FC]

Great Cannon

Rare
Helblaster Volley Gun
Helblaster Volley Gun

The army skews toward gunpowder & Artillery, but the Wissenland theme helps clarify how to finish remaining WiP:
* build remaining multipose infantry as 4 Halberds and 12 Free Company
* convert 8 Knights to have 2 swords

I have a fair amount of BFG, and found a pile of Imperial & Chaos Cruiser bitz, so I built 2 more Orbital Defense stations.



They're pretty straightforward combinations of the Imperial Launch Bays, Imperial Lances, and Chaos Batteries with Imperial Conns. With the additional stations, I now have 5, more than enough to give any attacker pause.

Love the stations! Classic bit of kit bashing.

Thanks, I'm really happy with how seamless they fit in with the other Imperial stuff.

I knocked out a couple units of multipose Empire!


While they're nominally multiposed monoposes, the halberd heads themselves are mix-and-match.



To-do

As above, my ultimate plan is to add +8 Halberds and +14 Militia.

Once Empire infantry are squared away, I'll deal with the Cavalry.