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Greenkeeper dwarf really is a standout, but the little mastiff is the more adorable one and good to know that every kit has one.

 Viterbi wrote:
Greenkeeper dwarf really is a standout, but the little mastiff is the more adorable one and good to know that every kit has one.

There is a unit in the Kings of War dwarf army list that allows dwarf players to use all the extra dogs they get when they buy a Mantic dwarf army...

Normally, I don't post WIP photos, but my entry for this month's Dakka Painting Challenge is taking a lot longer than I thought it would, and I don't want the P&MBlog to be completely neglected until the end of the month.

The theme for this month is The Long War. What could be longer, I thought, than eternal servitude long after death? Looking though my box of unpainted undead models I came across my old Throne of Bone from Ral Partha. It's still in production thanks to Iron Wind, but I got this one new way back in the '80's,and after an abortive attempt to paint it, it's been sitting patiently ever since-- which is another qualifier for the theme.

So far, I have finished the Necromance and his girlfriend:




I agonized over the skintones for a while, and decided to paint the necromancer as on homage to Marlon Brando as Dr. Moreau. The whole setup reminded me of a Frazetta painting, so the girl got a light glaze of AP barbarian flesh. I painted at least four layers on each of the skulls, despite knowing that they will be all but invisible when the model is assembled.

I also did the two side pieces:




I really like RP skeletons. They aren't as thick and chunky as Citadel/GW skeletons, so they look like they'd actually fit inside a heroic scale miniature's body. My original plan was to drybrush all the bone, but it came out a littel too grainy, so I ended up going back over the whole thing. For the remaining parts, I'm skipping the drybrushing. There is a lot going on in these pieces, with cloth, armor, equipment, belts and such, so each skeleton is unique. Don't look too closely and you won't notice the parts I missed. Before assembly, I'll give the whole thing the once over to make sure I didn't miss too many details.

FInally, here are the parts stuck together with a little blutack:


There are four more smaller piles of skeletons which I started yesterday. I also have to think about a base--I'm usually a sand-and-white-glue kind of baser, but I want to do something special for this model.

I love it! I remember that model from way back in the day, and you are absolutely doing it justice. Nice change of pace and good to see a work in progress account of how you are painting it.

I don’t remember, do you have an undead army for him to lead?

Valete,

JohnS

 cygnnus wrote:


I don’t remember, do you have an undead army for him to lead?

Valete,

JohnS

I do, indeed, have an undead army. It's big enough that I don't currently have the space to store any more, which is one reason I've not been painting undead models for such a long time. Sadly, there doesn't seem to be a good way to field this model in a KoW undead army of either flavor...

That's impressively sinful.

 JoshInJapan wrote:

 cygnnus wrote:


I don’t remember, do you have an undead army for him to lead?

Valete,

JohnS

I do, indeed, have an undead army. It's big enough that I don't currently have the space to store any more, which is one reason I've not been painting undead models for such a long time. Sadly, there doesn't seem to be a good way to field this model in a KoW undead army of either flavor...

Seems like there might be some “counts as” options... Isn’t there a Pharaoh on Chariot option? And the normal undead have a named Titan character, right? I mean there’s not a lot of “Necromancer on palanquin” options, to be sure, but i can’t imagine there’d be a problem using him as a chariot- or titan-based character.

If nothing else, the Rule of Cool should make him fieldable as something!

Valete,

JohnS

I also liked seeing that dog in the line up. Great work.

Bone throne is looking great so far!

 inmygravenimage wrote:
That's impressively sinful.

I can't pass without signing under that. Yes, it is.

Congratulations!

The piece is very impressive- most excellent work!

I'm especially impressed with how realistic the purple velvet covering came out, really top notch. The shading and contrasts are perfect.

Of course, with purple velvet in the room, I just know there's going to be a black velvet Elvis painting hanging in the background, or maybe one of those UV fluorescent Spencer Gifts type doper heavy metal posters......

Much painting goodness- much wow!

Great work on the bone throne! Hedonism bot approves that miniature

Excellent choice of model for the painting challenge. The Necromancers "girlfriend" is a spitting image of one of the Dark Eldar slaves from the Dais of Destruction. Wonder if a GW sculptor has this model in their cupboard?

Crossposted from the
Here is my finished Throne of Bone, in all its gory, I mean glory:


Final thoughts:
・This model was fiddly as heck to assemble. You can see that the platform sits unevenly on the frame. It probably needed a little putty work to even it out, but then I wouldn't have been able to reach all the little details.
・The "canopy" on top is just resting on the model, rather than being glued down. I'm still not sure which way it's supposed to point.
・Being lead, and having been stored quite ungently for many years, there are lots of broken parts-- missing skulls, arms, and whole torsos here and there. I ended up adding a few skeletons to the back of the model to cover some of the gaps.
・The base it's on has the same frontage as a Kings of War regiment, so if/when I actually find a game, this model will see the tabletop.
・The model looks much better in person than in the zoomed-in images in the Dakka Gallery. Really.
・This thing ate up all my hobby time for the month, and I seriously considered counting each skeleton individually in my yearly count, but I'll add it to the large projects/terrain count instead.

Next up, it's back to the dwarfs-- I'm in the home stretch, with only a couple more Troops (half-regiments), with some random filler models after that. Will I really finish an army?

Love the finished model, I can just imagine the Necromancer getting too hot and commanding his minions to shield him from the sun.

Top job and I hope you are happy it looks brilliant.

Great work, but I got to say, I couldn't sit very relaxed with all the "attachments" to the throne

That came out extremely well- great work!

Thanks, guys. After all the hours I spent working on the model, the flaws really stand out, but it looks pretty good on the base and will make a nifty unit if/when I use it in Kings of War.

I definitely wouldn’t focus on the flaws on a piece like that. It makes a great center-piece type model and has a great visual impact and character despite any (possible) little flaws or imperfections.

Valete,

JohnS

Excellent work old son. You can always pick holes in anything - celebrate the achievement!

Solid work on the Throne. What a massive and massively-cool piece.

The Throne of Bone was a large, rather fiddly piece, and I had to take periodic breaks while working on it. I finished this guy during said breaks:



This is Mantic's Berzerker Lord on Brokk. I got it a while back for my son as a Christmas present, and it sat in the box until I put it together last month. It's a fairly old model, and not particularly well sculpted, expecially compared to the berzerker infantry I painted a few months ago. It scales well with the brokk riders, though, and it passes muster at arm's length, so in the army it goes.

I also finished off the first couple of models for the October Painting Challenge:



These are Ral Partha ghosts from 198-something (a mold line runs right over the date on the underside of their bases). As always, the huge blown up images in my dakka gallery really bring all the flaws in my painting to light. The bases were inspired by Kevin Dallimore's work for Frostgrave, with a little glowy effect added. I'm torn on whether or not I should extend the green on the bases a little farther. What do you think?

Finally, I repaired and based this Angel of Death from RAFM:


The right arm was broken off at the elbow, so I pinned and superglued it in place. Originally, it stuck straight out the the side, but I repositioned it in a slightly less stupid position. For the base, I puttied in the recess, filed it smooth and hit it with white glue and sand. I then covered it with a generous layer of crackle medium, just to see what would happen.

I'm also working on a troop of dwarf crossbowmen, but they're not far enough along to share. Maybe by the end of the week...

The Bezerker is a magnificent model, nothing like an angry dwarf riding an equally angry badger......

Really like the ghost, I would perhaps extend the glow on the base but at a 50% saturation to imitate the light fading?

The Angel of Death is proper creepy.

 Archer wrote:
The Bezerker is a magnificent model, nothing like an angry dwarf riding an equally angry badger......

Really like the ghost, I would perhaps extend the glow on the base but at a 50% saturation to imitate the light fading?

The Angel of Death is proper creepy.

Thanks. I'm rather fond of the berzerker, even if he's not the highest quality model. I think I'll try extending the glow as you suggested, as well as adding a little more to the edges of the stones as well.

Recently rewatched the Big Bang Theory episode where Sheldon recalls his uncle being killed by a badger. Now I know how it must have looked like Great model with a fitting paintjob! And nice start on the ghosts, already like the glowing effect but as Archer said a little more probably wouldn't hurt.

Lovely glowy ghosties. Excellent job!

I like the way you painted the glow effect on the ghosts, Josh. Your painting makes them look better than they probably actually are. Also nice work on the other two also with repairs and paint.

I really like that Brock Rider! If the rest of them looked anything like that, I’d probably get a unit vice trying to find some other second party option that’s not crazy expensive (looking at you Scibor!).

Great paint job on it too. The scheme on the badger is great and you really bring the dwarf to life. As always, I remain in absolute awe of your ability to crank out such volume whilst keeping your quality so high.

And, again, the natural palette looks great. It really works for the Dwarves and makes the glowing runes really pop.

Great job!

I think I’d blend out the glowing effect on the ghosts a bit. The termination line of the glow seems a bit too drastic in a couple of places. But that’s really a quibble. Having thought about, and then passed at, doing some similar effects with my Nighthaunts, I’m absolutely in no place to be casting that particular stone.

Valete,

JohnS

The Berserker Lord is great, really like what you have done with him. It also reminds me that I have the Brock painted and based but haven't even primed the rider....

Thanks for the comments, everyone. Every one makes me want to paint even more. Speaking of which:



I took your advice and extended the glow on the bases, as well as blending the green into the grey a little better and adding edge highlights on some of the stones. As always, the models look better in person than in the huge zoomed in photos on my gallery page. I also did some work on this guy:



His right arm broke off twice while I was primering the model. I ended up drilling deep into the humerus and ulna, to the point where the metal is a little deformed. That should hopefully keep it intact. The bone is finished in this photo, and I thought the wings were as well, but then I noticed the little spike-thumb things. I'll have to go back over those.

Finally, I finished another unit for my Mantic dwarf army:


The dudes in the center of each rank were painted at least a year ago, but the remaining eight were finished last Sunday. I don't have much to say about these guys that I haven't already said about the rest of the army to date, but it's nice to have another unit done. I have few more dwarfs in various stages of completion that I'll share as they are finished. Thanks for looking and commenting.

Ghosts look perfect. Really good job on the glow effect.

Not sure the angel of death does it for me as a model. But keen to see the finished paint job.

Love your dwarfs. Really dig the natural tones and your paint work is always so smooth.