Iron Golem – Part 5

With the winter nights drawing in I’m taking advantage of spending more time indoors and making a concerted effort to finish some of the backlog of partly painted miniatures which are currently cluttering up the painting desk. After all, whilst a well painted, or even just competently painted collection is a sight to behold displayed on the shelf or marching across the gaming table, no-one has ever stopped to admire a load of miniatures with the base coats half-done. 

Today it’s the turn of the Signifer from my Iron Golem warband. As an optional extra that wasn’t included in my initial warband, he was somewhat left behind when I painted up the rest of them back in the spring.

The kit provides enough parts to build either a Signifer or a Prefector and, after considerable thought, I decided in the end to build the Prefector to begin with. However it was a close run thing and I was still keen to add the Signifer at some stage. Rather than buy a whole other box I hunted down the model individually, by which time the rest of the warband was almost finished.  The Signifer was built by the time I finished the warband but he’s lingered unfinished ever since. Time to do something about that! 

Here he is next to his alternative build, the Prefector.

And of course here’s the entire warband, completed at last. 

For the moment I don’t plan to add anything else to this particular warband although I do enjoy unleashing them in the Bloodwind Spoil so who knows? In the meantime though there are plenty of other warbands vying for my attention!

Iron Golem – Part 4

Time to tackle the final two members of the current Iron Golem gang; the Drillmaster and Prefector. I’ve also managed to rustle up a Signifer (more on him below) but we’ll need to wait to see him painted. The other two however are complete, and with that the warband is ready to take on the violent world of the Bloodwind Spoil.

First up, the Drillmaster. If I can offer a criticism of Warcry it’s the lack of background fiction for the individuals that make up the each warband. I can see that the Iron Legionaries are the rank and file, the professional soldiers which guard the artisans (if such a word can be used) that make up the rest of the gang. The Armator is clearly a dwarf, and therefore most likely a skilled metalworker who brings his talents to the rest of the group as they ply their trade as smiths. The Breacher is an Ogre that the others have “convinced” to join them, before welding hammers to his hands and pointing him at the enemy. So far so good. But what about the Drillmaster? Is she the commander of the Iron Legionaries, fulfilling a role similar to a sergeant perhaps? Does she have some kind of specialist function away from the battlefield that I’ve yet to fathom? Is she a dab hand at dentistry? These are the aspects I’d love to know just a little more about but alas, so far, Warcry has tended to skim over them, and that’s a real pity.

Again, it’s not immediately obvious what the Prefector’s role is, but I presume they’re some kind of champion, acting as a second in command to the Dominar. Whatever his job is for my money he’s the coolest looking model in the warband, packed with attitude from top to toe.

The alternative build to the Prefector is the Signifer. Usually you can only get one or the other from a set but I scrounged around online and managed to nab myself a second one. Although I’ve built him I suspect it’ll be a while before I manage to get him painted.

In the meantime however here’s the whole warband as they stand currently.

We even managed to get a game in over the weekend, which proved to be great fun. The Untamed Beasts, commanded by my partner, romped home to victory (turns out paying attention to the rules and remembering the objectives pays dividends, although it would have been handy if a run of bad dice rolls hadn’t seen my Ogre Breacher waving his fists ineffectually at all and sundry). Of course in the cut and thrust of high-stakes combat we only remembered to take one picture!

As for what comes next I really want to get the rest of the Warcry terrain painted up, and then probably start another warband knowing me, and naturally I’m feeling the pull of Necromunda as strongly as ever, and I want to get back to my Blackstone Fortress heroes, and a dozen or so other projects as well. Watch this space!

Iron Golem – Part 3

Back to the Iron Golem and it’s hammer time! With the Untamed Beasts in the bag it’s time to turn my attention back to their adversaries. Brutal, unwavering and fiercely disciplined they may be but they still need someone to keep them in line. Enter the warband’s leader; the Dominar.

With him done, an increasing amount of terrain to play on and his rivals already spoiling for a fight I reckon I’m well on the way to getting the warband completed – indeed just the Drillmaster and Prefector are needed for my first thousand point warband, so I’ll aim to get that done soon and then break with tradition and actually roll some dice.

Untamed Beasts – Part 5

After the most recent additions the Untamed Beasts were almost complete, with only their leader – the fearsome Hearteater – needed to complete the set. Life is keeping me busy at the moment but I didn’t want to stall so close to the final hurdle so I knuckled down and got him finished, ready to lead his followers on a hunt into the wilds of the Bloodwind Spoil.

And with that the Untamed Beasts are, if not tamed, then at least fully painted. Here’s the finished warband posing for their traditional group-shot.

Being undoubtedly mighty, if not particularly magical, he’ll be my contribution to the March Might and Magic challenge being run this month by Ann’s Immaterium. Full props to the challenge as without it I might easily have let this slip as work and life pressures continue to pile up. It’s still early in the month so perhaps – and I make no promises here – I’ll find the time to tackle someone equally mighty from the Iron Golem side of things, although it may be that the best I can manage is to bash through some more terrain. Watch this space!

Untamed Beasts – Part 4

What would the Untamed Beasts be without a beast (allegedly entirely undomesticated) prowling at their heels? Having distracted myself long enough with the Iron Golems it’s time to focus on getting the Beasts wrapped up, starting with the Rocktusk Prowler (or Goat Lion Thing as its often known).

Of course, even a beast wants someone to talk to. Enter the Beastspeaker, wearing a rather fetching Rocktusk Prowler skull helm. Honestly I found her quite tricky to paint and I’m not entirely happy with how she turned out, but she’s done and on the whole I’m satisfied with that.

Alas, what with things being busy in so-called “real life” at the moment, I’ve not managed to get quite as much painted for Fembruary as I might have hoped. That said I’ve between this lady and the Iron Legionary I showed previously (an Iron Maiden perhaps?) I’ve managed a least a couple of female miniatures, and without diverting my focus from Warcry.

With these two done the Beasts are now almost complete, there’s just the savage Heart-eater left to paint so I’ll get him done ASAP then crack on with more terrain and the rest of the Iron Golems.

Iron Golem – Part 2

Of course, angry dwarves and hulking ogres are all very well but somebody still has to do all the legwork, and that means if my Iron Golem warband are going to carve out a reputation in the brutal hinterlands of the Bloodwind Spoil I’ll need a few Iron Legionaries to fill out the ranks.

I love the look of the big, heavy shields carried by the Legionaries, they look grim, brutal and unyielding. Imagine lugging that around all day!

For the third one however I decided to throw in a bola, as opposed to the other option on the kit – a second hammer, to give the group a bit of range and visual dynamism.

Grouped together I think they look even more uncompromising and forbidding – but then, as I’m sure I’ve mentioned on many occasions, I’m a sucker for a phalanx! Come home with your shield or on it…

With these done I just have three more Iron Golem to tackle, whilst the Untamed Beasts are likewise close to completion, so I’ll be aiming to keep my focus on Warcry for the next few weeks and get everything wrapped up.

Iron Golem – Part 1

With work well underway on the Untamed Beasts it’s time to turn my attention to their adversaries, those enthusiastic metal fans the Iron Golem. After all, if we’re going to be able to play some Warcry then we’ll need at least two different warbands – an Orc may be willing to beat up himself if no other adversaries present themselves but a warrior of Chaos will struggle to impress the gods if that’s all they can manage.

A few months ago I painted the Chaos Dwarf Armator so with the short angry man done I turned my attention to the big angry man instead, that most muscular of an already hench warband, the Ogre Breacher.

Originally I was wondering about trying to get my hands on another to kitbash into a Goliath ‘zerker, although since there is now an official model (flawed but fixable in my opinion) that’ll no longer be necessary. However just in case anyone is thinking of using the Breacher for something in the Underhive, here’s a size comparison anyway.

And here he is next to his little buddy.

Anyway, that’s the long and short of it – now I just need to tackle the rest!

Untamed Beasts – Part 3

Work on the Untamed Beasts continues apace. Before I moved on to any of the other members of the warband I wanted to finish off the missing members of the “rank and file” – the final plainsrunner and the second preytaker.

First of all here’s the plainsrunner.

With him complete he’s ready to join his new pals and go in search of some beasts.

Secondly I wanted to paint the other preytaker. These are the tougher warriors of the tribe, as opposed to the considerably weedier plainsrunners, and it shows in their macho fighting stances.

Again, here he is next to his previously completed brother in arms.

With these done I’m going to take a quick break to tackle a couple of other projects (that ogre breacher from the Iron Golem is just too tempting to ignore any longer) then I’ll get back to the warband and wrap up the rest of them.

Untamed Beasts – Part 2

Following on the heels of my first few Untamed Beasts we have the warband’s First Fang. Unlike the others I really didn’t like this model too much in its original incarnation, the downward pointing harpoon lacked aggression, the axe looked too big and heavy and I wasn’t mad about the helmet either. I did a fair bit of chin scratching over what to do with the axe but in the end I decided to make my life easy for once and just leave it alone. I did however adjust the angle of the arm, so that he appears to be launching the harpoon at a distant enemy rather than poking listlessly at one lying near his feet. With this new pose I think the axe works better as well, counter-balancing his weight as he hefts the harpoon into the air. I also gave him a headswap for one which looked a bit more tribal and belligerent and a bit less supercilious and bored.

Here’s a quick reminder of how the studio model looks for comparison.

With the warband starting to take shape my next move is probably going to be finishing off some of the terrain I’ve started (and at some point I’ll need to turn my attention to their Iron Golem adversaries as well).

Untamed Beasts – Part 1

I’ve been banging on about Warcry since it was first revealed, yet despite the fact that it’s been around six months since it was released my plan to paint up some warbands has currently only summoned a single paltry dwarf. Time to get myself into gear, starting with a pack of savage Untamed Beasts.

I liked the idea of giving them dark skin, partly because I thought it contrasted nicely with the pale hides and straps they wear and partly because I thought it would be a nice change of pace. I’ve rarely painted dark skinned miniatures before so it was a fine chance to push my skills a little.

Having dipped my toe in with the Plainsrunner above, and finding myself pleased with the results, I decided to crack on with another straight away.

I was also curious to see how the colour scheme would look on one of the more elite members of the warband – and one of the few who’s wearing any metal – so my next move was to test it out on this Preytaker.

Here’s the three of them together, ready to hit the streets of Carngrad and pick a fight as soon as the rest of the gang turns up.

Overall I’m pleased with how the warband is looking so I’ll aim to tackle the rest of them soon.