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IT IZ TIME! to post and old project that I finally got to and mean to finish.
Project consists of:
A Dawi army (best army in all the land)
And a carry case that doubles up as a diorama that can be displayed but also transported with all models secured.
Case progress here (https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/0/803914.page#11321138)
Narrative:
(I have never read any official end-time lore, but played a lot of Vermintide-1 and referencing the setting from that game)
Following the end times where everything is destroyed small band of Dwarfs discovered some old outpost and made it their keep. The outpost is wholly underground and hidden from the surface. Over time through covert efforts they seek out small groups, dawi refugee, broken war-bands, and remnants from the broken clans to gather all to the outpost. The outpost slowly grew into a proper fort and was named KARAK GARAZ-NGOL, in Khazalid meaning a (Stronghold Fearless Mushroom).
The Dawi hide from the surface, and carefully mine out new living quarters and explore the underground with caution. Must preserve women and children and grow in strength before their existence is inevitably uncovered. They hope to rebuild the clans to stand against the evils and such.

The narrative derives from the models I had on hand. An Ebay purchase, few old, mostly random dwarf models that got grouped into "clans" some as small as 5 members. The narrative allowed me to paint small groups in different color schemes, making the painting process more fun.

I am enjoying adding none GW dwarf models into the KARAK GARAZ-NGOL army as long as the scale is "close-enough" For example, all of the Reaper Dwarfs https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/0/780044.page#10564016 are part of the KARAK GARAZ-NGOL project

Humble beginnings.
Ebay box is more of a graveyard lot than anything else.



These 4 lads where a gift from an old friend. Tiz is me old paint job.


Metal slayers got a wash of woodstain but did not have the effect I wanted, they just look bad. Think these will need to go into acetone.


Also a gift from a friend. The legend him self! Off to acetone.


Decided to paint strait on top of the old paint-job, and ignore horrible assembly with weird gaps.


First I try to figure out the color scheme and finish one unit from the group. Then batch paint the rest based on the first unit's color scheme.


The goal is readability and speed. Because the models, especially the old ones, are in such a poor condition. That I decided not even bother with stripping, re gluing, re painting. And forgo the GreenStuff work to fill in the plastic details that are worn, the gaps, the joints, is just way too much work for not much effect. But I did not want to throw them away ether. I rely on paint to hide all the problems with the older units, when viewed at an arm length it works.
Warrior "clans" are grouped by shield emblem. These are flying hammers.

Bases for all models will be the very last step for the whole army because I have not decided what to do for the ground.
Need good color for the ground, need bases to relate to the carrying case diorama environment, need it to be easy to do, cheap, and work with many different bases states ie: some are empty black some are rock solid baking-soda and superglue crusts. Same plan for bases, instead of debasing everything will try to just layer someone on top of all to save time. well see how it goes.

There will be few old pictures in the mix. I used to wash models in wood-strain back then, so many are dirty and glossy, but for this guy it actually works lolz
Simple slayer conversion.


Some old images of the models that I do not have anymore.
2 Boar riders conversion using D&D model. Inspired by Heroes M&M 6



Excavation giant conversion using D&D model. You can see the wood-stain wash in its full glory here.

Wanted to try using toys to sculpt over, to save on sculpting time of armature, proportions, anatomy ets.
First attempt.




Attempt 2
Inspired by Heroes M&M6

Clan KAzadSar (I no longer have these lads)
Clan Based about great weapons and nifty/simple conversion.

Cutting of the axe-head and extending it with piece of plasticard.

Playing with the light.
Case construction (https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/0/803914.page#11332183)










Automatically Appended Next Post:

Nice looking Dawi, I love those older dwarf warriors, I had a good throng myself back in the day. Nice colour scheme!

Thanks Olthannon
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Rest of the Dawrf Warriors:
Red clan


Each group will have a "leader" in this case Thane with flame weapon.



I have only played 2 games of AoS ever. In one of the games against the orks; This little guy was the last survivor from a unit of 10, he stopped an ork boar chariot charge and held it pinned for 2 turns. As a reward he got a medal and Bugmans pass/keychain for free beer on Tuesdays.


Do not recall what mini line these shield maidens came from.

Purple clan with bronze weapons.



Red and Silver clan


Red and White clan

I tried something fancy with this guy but the readability and contrast failed. I went with light white to pink inside the scales, it did not look very good, and after a wash the contrast was lost. This guy needs to be retouched.

Thunderers




Don't know where this guy is from, but he is part of this unit now.


Gave this group canisters



Second group, these guys got barrel suppressors





These I did not paint. Bought them off ebay long time ago.




Quarrelers
Forest clan




Ranger clan




Iron clan

Some nice squat and surly dwarfs Mothsniper. They're such fun little models to paint up.

Lots of great conversions, the excavation ettin and the bear lord in particular. And that carrying case, magnificent!

How many dwarfs so far, and how many planned?

Beautiful and colourful dwarves! You really make those old models look so modern!

Wow! What a great project Mothsniper! They must be a great sight to behold on the battlefield, let alone in your fancy carry case. So many great colour schemes, the blue/green in the first unit is probably my favourite.

Super impressive collection of little guys.

Thanks guys!

Oh about few hundred dawi in all.
44 Thunderers
28 Quarelers
160 Warriors and Miners
3 Organ guns

What is left is maybe about 20 warriors 3 cannons and crew, and a squad of slayers.
And (start collecting) boxes of the Fyreslaers and Kharadron.

Here is an odd dwarf model that I picked up from Ali last year.

Dwarf engineer

Impressive work on this throng mate. You've done a great job bringing these models back to life.

We need an update with the full army together after so long! I want to see what 200+ dwarfs with a dozen different paint schemes looks like combined as a mighty army!

Thanks Freytag93, when all is done I will shoot a video and post a link.

Progress, slow, but steady.
Last of the warriors are done




Also, looked into the box to see what I have left to do:
Four GW crews with cannons, one SciBor (chaos) dwarf crew without canon, Reaper crew without the canon, one Grenadier / EM4 crew without cannon.

Eight miners, and eleven slayers

Ungrim, two rune smiths, and conversion prep pieces for bear/boar riders and steam golems.

Great updates Mothsniper! I love your banners.

Glad you like em. Here is more.
Found 3 magnetized squads that If forgot to take pictures of.
Last of the thunderers and the warriors (great weapons)

The Painting challenge aids with the progress. https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/810605.page



This was my wood-stain wash finish stage. I though it looked very cool.





11 slayers and a rune priest or smith



Will Acetone these lads, had to break off the bases. (lesson learned from previous acetone baths where I left the bases on, and then had to use a wire brush to scrub out melted black plastic pieces from the Pewter details.

Good to see you back Mothsniper.

Cheers,

CB

 Captain Brown wrote:
Good to see you back Mothsniper.
Cheers,
CB

Thank you sir. Glad to be back at it.
Progress:

Acetone, Awesome cleaner was dirty black after the acetone, models are 95% clean.



Primed and washed in thin Yellow first.



Washes of pink and purple for the skin.







Making good use of the time

Looks a nice spot to spend the day painting minis. They look better already!

 gobert wrote:
Looks a nice spot to spend the day painting minis. They look better already!

Indeed
____________________________________________________________________________
Progress:

The lad with the missing axe gets whatever was in the bit box.
Also, trying the triangle cutoffs (wood block) paint handles. Pretty good.



Gathered drying lavenders from the backyard, wanted to see if this material will work for the bases.



Done! Presenting, the Malachite Slayers!















Just for lolz

Very nice mothsniper
Wasn't sure about the axe conversion at first but looking at it painted it looks great. Great orange across the force, looking forward to more

That’s a fantastic glow up for those guys! I bet they smell amazing too! The lavender actually looks pretty good on there too, weird fantasy giant seeds

Lovely work on the Dwarves, they look spot on. The light effect you got on the gleaming axes is really impressive.