Wrapping up the Painting Challenge

The Painting Challenge has been over for nearly a month now and I'm trying to get back into the brush-swinging habit - this should be made somewhat easier by the return of winter to the Prairies but I'm having to work at it... anyway I thought I'd try to get myself back into the spirit by posting some of my last Challenge models here as well. Away we go...

From the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge Blog:

Having completed the Chambers of Challenge and offered tribute at the Altar of the Snowlord, all that remains is to post the last few models completed before the end of the Challenge. First up is this Hobgoblin Chieftain on Dire Wolf, from Games Workshop's old Warhammer Fantasy Battles range.

The first army I ever painted for WHFB was a classic "big hat" Chaos Dwarf force, which still maintains pride of place in my cabinets. An important part of the army was a large contingent of Hobgoblin Wolf Riders, which engaged in some "creative reimagining" of battle reports we posted on our blog.

In sniffing around for something to paint at the last minute, I noticed that I had this model that had been waiting for paint for nigh-on 15 years or more. So I got at it!

Makes me want to get the Chaos Dwarfs out again for some old-school WHFB! Barks - take note - I counted 15 SKULLS on this model alone! Must be some kinda record...?

Next up is the King of the Dead to accompany my recently-painted Warriors of the Dead. The King is a metal model which arrived yesterday from an eBay transaction. It was new in the blister, having originally accompanied an issue of the Eaglemoss "LotR" collector's magazine.

As before - simplicity itself to paint. White spray and Biel-Tan Green wash. That's it!

Lastly, another postal arrival from yesterday - a very cool "Death Worm" from Otherworld Miniatures (currently on sale at their site for 4 quid!!)

This monster is a sorcerous construct and not, strictly speaking, undead - at least according to its entry in the Fiend Folio under "Necrophidius". Conscript Brian H. instantly recognized it when I showed it off on our Zoom call last night and directed me to the FF entry. Good knowledge Brian! 

It was obviously another super-easy model to paint and brings the total skull-count for this post to 16 SKULLS. WOW!

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I also posted a wrap-up of my Challenge models on the Challenge blog:

Assembled production

Well, here we are at the end of the Challenge. I'd set myself a modest goal of 500 points which I ended up more than doubling. Still, it wasn't *quite* enough to get me into the top 25 - my good friend Greg pipped me by a mere 6 points! In any event, here's the breakdown of my Challenge production:

• 28mm foot: 75
• 28mm mounted: 3
• 28mm large figures/monsters: 5
• 28mm artillery pieces: 1
• 28mm tanks: 1
• 28mm landing craft: 1
• 28mm furniture/terrain: 12
• 20mm foot: 2
• 20mm cars: 1
• 20mm tanks: 1
• 15mm tanks: 3
• 10mm Titans: 1

self-portrait

I just want to end this post by again thanking Mr. Curt and all of his Minions for running the Challenge for all of us, and also to Lady Sarah and the Minions' other halves for their forbearance and tolerance of the time Curt and the Minions spend on it. Thanks also to my fellow Challengers for the kind words you posted about my work.

See you at the bar...!

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So that's it... I promise I'm going to try to get some models painted... I have an idea what I'm going to do (and I've even finished the conversions and gotten them primed) and I promise you it will be like nothing you've ever seen on the blog...!

Chaos Dwarf Sorcerer Lord on Mighty Lammasu!

Wow, now here's a blast from the past... a Games Workshop Chaos Dwarf Sorcerer mounted on a mighty Lammasu! My first big "army" project - nearly 25 years ago - was a Chaos Dwarf army for Warhammer Fantasy Battle.  

Affectionately known to the Conscripts as the "Big Hats", the Chaos Dwarfs were kin to the Dwarfs of the Old World, albeit twisted and mutated by the Chaos Gods. Having migrated thousands of years ago from the southern lands to the Mountains of Mourn, their empire spans a vast plain known as Zorn Uzkul, or the Great Skull Land. The Chaos Dwarfs have turned the skull plain into an industrial hellscape, crowded with vast factories, open pit mines, and mammoth red-hot forges echoing with the cacophony of pounding hammers and the screams of tortured slaves. 

The change wrought by Chaos upon the Dwarfs opened them to the influence of magic, and the leaders of the Chaos Dwarfs are great and powerful sorcerers. The race worships the Chaos bull-god Hashut, Father of Darkness, and consider their magical affinities to be their dark gift from Hashut.

However, the influence of magic on Dwarf physiology invokes a dark curse. As Chaos Dwarf sorcerers grow older and more powerful, their bodies gradually become more stone-like and immobile - gradually turning the sorcerer into a living stone statue. The main avenue of their capital city, the obsidian ziggurat of Zharr-Naggrund, is flanked by ranks of stone statues - all that remains of great and powerful Chaos Dwarf sorcerers.

Sorcerers sometimes ride into battle astride a mighty Lammasu, believed to be a mutation of a Great Taurus, itself a massive winged fire-breathing red bull. The Lammasu is possessed of a keen intelligence and breathes not air, but the Winds of Magic itself! 

Mutated Chaos Dwarf? You can see the resemblance...

Sorcerer getting ready to do his thing.

So this model has a long history of sitting primed in a drawer! I think I got my Chaos Dwarf army in a huge mail trade back in 1997 or so (I traded a load of Mutant Chronicles models for it and got more Chaos Dwarf models than I'd ever need). The Sorcerer Lord on Mighty Lammasu came in its box and while I assembled and primed it, it had never been painted... until now. Hopefully it won't take 20 more years to get it onto the table, but the way things are going, you never know.

Hobgoblin Contingent Reports Overwhelming Victory for Hobgoblin Contingent

Tower of Zharr Naggrund, The Dark Lands - The Hobgoblin contingent of Slave Captain Lord Bzaark the Mean won an overwhelming victory over far superior numbers of Imperial troops, Lieutenant Gnashrak of the Hobgoblin contingent's Wolfrider regiment reported yesterday.

"We met a su-per-i-or force of mounted Pistoliers and put the hurt on them big-time. We really wrecked they shit. I mean it wasn't even close," Gnashrak said.

"After we bum-rushed those clowns we pursued them until not one Pistolier was left alive," he continued. "Hell, we rolled up on a Great Cannon and scared those dudes so bad they blew they own shit up! I talked to my brother Kashnak, he a gunner in the bolt-thrower battery, and he said they totally dominated the knights they was shooting at, too."

"Word," reported Kashnak when contacted for comment. "We aced those d-bags, two regiments worth of heavy knights. When you come for the bolt-throwers, come heavy, or don't come at all, know I'm sayin'?"

The Hobgoblin contingent was part of the raiding force commanded by Slave Captain Lord Bzaark that had left the Tower of Zharr Naggrund three months earlier on an extended slave-taking mission.

Neither Bzaark himself, his second-in-command, Lieutenant Mazalam of the 43rd Bull Centaur Regiment, nor any other Chaos Dwarf troops of his raiding party were available for comment at press time.