Host of the Silver Bear - I

Aims

It has long been a desire of mine to do two things with my Dwarf and Orc armies

1. Have suitable figures to fight both huge epic battles and small, personal skirmish encounters using the same forces. Imagine a host o stout dwarven warriors arrayed against the ravening hordes of a truly gargantuan orc horde. Thousands of figures each side where strategy, tactics and the ability to command are paramount.
   Now zoom in to a small section of that battlefield - a key building that the dwarfs must hold or the tidfe of the entire battle turns. Look at the handful of stalwart do-or-die warriors prepared to stay put until the last swing of their axes to give their king their all. Can they hold out? Will the whole massed battle turn on the decision of the orc warparty leader to charge in? will a single dice roll turn the whole encounter?
   You get the drift i think...
2. Have a single force that is represented over the eons in history(?) and technological advancement, so the history of a single unit is represented from dark/medieval fantasy through the ages to the far flung future of star striding science fiction. The history and

My attempts at 1 are long and slow. I have the 1,000 figures of dwarfs and orcs that would make any self respecting gaming table groan under the weight of good old lead. I admit I haven't painted many! But there are outlets for 6mm fantasy miniatures where I could - given the inclination, time and money - establish a few thousand figures either side. Its possible. Its a goal. I need goals.

This thread of blog posts is more about item 2 and my long ignored yet first love - DWARFS.

History

My nom de plume "Brandlin" was an ICE RoleMaster/MERP character from back in the 1980's. He lead a varied life in a number of Tolkienesque high fantasy settings which found him hatching dragon eggs, going insane, repelling gravity, annoying the party's elven spellcaster, and hitting stuff - mostly with a large morning star. He later went on to be a protagonist in a number of games I GM'd both over the table and in play by (e)mail. He became a leader of a group of "Dwarf Supremacists" fell in love with an Elven Dragon Mistress, was driven insane by a spellcasters necklace and gathered quite a following. Eventually amassing an army sizable enough to declare himself king (through rather dubious second-cousin thirteen times removed kinship rules) and set about taking back that pesky mountain. He was last seen "Doing a Gandalf" and bravely/stupidly delaying a marauding fire demon whilst the cowardly elves and humans ran. (In my head he was always going to come to the rescue in book two - there has just been a very long delay in publication).

It is Brandlin that is and always shall be the leader of my Grenadier Fantasy Warriors Dwarf army. I imagined him setting up a dynasty that lived long long into the future, through the industrial revolution, the information age and out into the far future and distance worlds of space. These far flung descendants are represented by my Hassle Free Grymn Army (with Old Crow vehicles and "The Drop Ship").

Yes, yes I know that I've finished very little, haven't painted in ages and haven't rolled a dice in even longer. But I thought I'd share how in my mind the whole thing fits together.

My FW Dwarf army includes a couple of regiments of the wonderful bear riders and (the only non FW figures) three of the old Ral Partha sleds pulled by three bears. I have always intended painting these as polar bears and taking the Bear as a symbol for the whole army.


So, without further ado, welcome ....

The Host Of The Silver Bear

Colour Scheme

My colour scheme of choice has also long been a turquoise / teal (for you blokes out there, that's a greeny blue, and for the computer literate its a dark cyan colour) and white. The Foundry Triad of these shades is my chosen go to colour. I like the fact this isn't the usual blue or red scheme most dwarfs get, and I also like the cold nature of the colours along with the white/silver. Gold will feature sparingly and used instead of silver to identify elite units, leaders and other notable persons.

Sigil

Sigil? Yes, I've been watching too much Game of Thrones but I think Sigil sounds sexier than 'Emblem' or 'Banner'. I want to tie the two armies together with more than just colours.

Dwarfs have round shields. Don't argue with me on this, its just true. You wont find anything less round than an squat ellipse in my dwarf shields. And with units of bear cavalry I ahve long thought that a simple design of a bears paw would make a great emblem.

As its a fantasy army I think a differing range of these symbols would be best, tied together by the general theme rather than a slavish copy of each one. I'm imagining these in teal on white, white on teal and possibly with halved and quartered backgrounds. Heraldic rules? meh!

I like the celtic and stylised tribal Tattoo styles and think this might even be an extreme ornate version of the symbol for war leaders.

For the more organised forces of the Grymn I think a standardised symbol will be best and recreated on each vehicle. Perhaps the left most of the paw prints above, or even...

I shall be doing some work on these images and scaling and colouring them appropriately and then getting a range of different water slide decals printed. (I'd do them myself, except i will need to print white and that requires an ALPS printer).

Banners

No self respecting fantasy army takes the field without  the mass fluttering of banners, standards and pennants. This gives plenty of opportunity to add bear related symbols for different units, all in the similar white/teal theme.

Runes and Additional Markings

For additional fantasy unit markings I shall use the Angerthas (Cirth) runes from tolkien (obviously)

I shall make certain phrases in decals and maybe use individual markings for each unit.

However I have come across two problems.

1. I cannot find anywhere that has numerical runes. (I may have to 'invent' them - something simple like a tally system). I want 
2. I can get a FONT of runes easily - this makes it simple to 'type' out phrases and alter point sizes in the designs etc. However I'd like a more science fiction style font version of the same basic shapes - something that looks like its a stencil shape for vehicle markings in particular. This kind of thing - but runic!

 Anyway, that's my thinking and research to date. Plenty to do. No rush.

... and he did not think it too many

I've talked on here before about my love of Nick Lund sculpts, and my view that his best work was done for Grenadier back in the late 1980's and early 1990's.

I've always liked dwarfs so when i saw these in Tottenham Court Road Virgin Games Store i had to get some. They were grim, dour, and looked the business. No orange haired silliness in sight, just a massed line of chain mail and axes. Proper Dwarfs.

Over the years I've dropped into ebay and bought a few more.

I started basing these figures around 4 years ago, on laser-cut ply supplied by the rather wonderful Fenris Games. But I still have some way to go. The Ply is then on magnetic tape which holds the figures in Games Workshop movement trays lined with steel sheet.

Today I got organised and took some pictures. Its amazing how the numbers build up slowly over 20 years. I think only a handful of these were bought full price. All the rest are e-bay buys.

That's 200 Heavy Infantry on the right, not 120...

Note that the Bear Chariots are NOT grenadier or Nick Lund - I think they may be old Ral Partha Snow Barbarian chariots or some such. I just like the, but they have made me want to put snow on all the bases and paint the bears as Polar Bears!

This is 460 Infantry, 20 Bear Cavalry, 3 Cannon and 20 Ballista.

You can't buy one army without having something to fight it. As a Nick Lund fan it was only natural that I'd get orcs. Nick's orcs were just like his dwarfs, brutal, functional and grim. The black orcs that nick sculpted for citadel back in the day became the basic pattern since. Before they got all "Waaarggghhh!" and spoke in comedic brummy accents.

So I started picking up a few of them. This is what I ended up with. All but a handful are e-bay buys, with a few extra musicians and heroes from the ever helpful Doug at em-4 miniatures, and a couple of Mirliton purchases.

One of the best things about Orcs are the Wolf Riders. I didn't seem to have many of them. So...

I have included here a number of Citadel N14 Orc Wolf Riders as they were again sculpted by Nick and although they are a tiny bit smaller the style is the same and there is greater variety to make a unit look more of a rabble.

I make that about 250 Infantry, 44 wolf riders and 26 assorted Big things, 3 Heavy Chariots and a Juggernaut (which I hate the sculpt for- but have included for completeness... thank you OCD!)

Now, one of the great things about Orc armies is the amount of allies they have and the variety in the troops. If you are going to have orcs then you really do have to have Goblins!

The goblins haven't had anything like as much love as the Dwarfs and Orcs, and aren't even glued to bases.

170 infantry, 10 flying gargoyle riders, 12 lizard riders, 6 spider riders.

The orcs have those three lovely Big 4 wolf Chariots. And we all know that what orcs have goblins want, only smaller and faster. So ...

That's enough parts to make 8 Chronicle 2-wolf light chariots, except I am two wolves short and had to include 10 wheels from elsewhere. There were 3 versions of this chariot as you can see from the variations in the number of sides and the crew. Also, the sythes, and rams head fronts of the chariots vary. I'm not sure which went with which versions as the only references I can see on the web do not have photographs, so I'm going to mix them up a bit.

And I forgot to photograph it, but I have one of these too. Again bought from Mirliton.

 
Well there you go. One long days organising and categorising.

A total of:

880 Infantry
100 Cavalry
14 Chariots
30 Big Beasties
33 War machines


I should point out that I have managed to paint a grand total of 20 dwarfs out of this whole list. Everything else with paint on it is as it came from e-bay.

I have a lot of work to do...

Great new dwarfs from Hasslefree Miniatures

Grenadier Fantasy Warrior Dwarfs VI

Finished basing the First Dwarf Unit in the granite, snow and winter grass scheme. I'm happy with the overall look of this unit, although I think I need to plan the bases layout better on the following units so that the snow and grass patches line up and look 'cohesive' (Damn this just gets more complicated and slower!)

I had a couple of people asking me how I had done the bases for my Grymn Troops so I thought I'd share the sequence, materials and suppliers here. I haven't taken WIP shots as I'm pretty sure anyone reading this knows how to spread PVA on a base and dip it in stuff!?!!



All the troops are mounted on Laser-Cut plywood bases from the wonderul Fenris Games (ebay shop). These plywood bases are 1.8mm thick. I wanted to use the thinnest base I could as the Grenadier Miniatures have fairly thick integral bases so i didn't want every figure to look like it was sat on a hillock! The bases are dead flat and extremely accurate, (in my experience thin plywood is much less likely to warp than the equivalent to MDF and is tougher and more resistant to wear on the edges and corners) couple that to the friendly and lightning fast service and Ian (Geronimo Jones) at Fenris gets my whole hearted approval.

The bases are coated on both sides with dilute PVA glue to further prevent warping and to stop any moisture penetration. The miniature is superglued to the base and the edges built up with your favourite modelling putty.

The upper surface of the bases are treated in a similar way to the bases of my Grymn troops to create a rocky winter look. All of the materials I used to decorate the bases come from Antenociti's Workshop.


Diluted PVA is spread and Antenociti's fine talus (408) applied to around half the base area and allowed to dry. Then course talus (410) applied similarly in smaller patches. The base then receives a thinned coat of Foundry Granite 31b followed by dry brushed highlights of Granite 31c and (lightly) Canvas 8c.

Once dry the snow is applied. This is a mix of Antenociti's own AW Snow Powder, diluted PVA glue and white paint. Jez over at Antenociti's recommends mixing in the white paint to this powder so you get a more opaque look, I didn't do this on my Grymn figures, and I think the snow on them looks too translucent. The resulting paste is then smeared/dolloped onto the un-talos'd areas of the bases with a brush and allowed to dry.

The final element to the bases is the application of a little of Antenociti's own Winter Static Grass, with dilute PVA.

The underside of the base has magnetic sheeting applied curtesy of Tiny Tin Troops, another superb on line retailer who seems to break the speed of light in their shipping service - again recommended. Steel sheet (again from Tiny Tin Troops) is adhered to the movement tray.


The movement tray is one of the Modular ones from Games Workshop, although I bought these from Maelstrom Games a discount online retailer. This is probably the most useful thing that GW has produced in the last few years - I picked up half a dozen sets and will have all the Dwarf and Orc units equipped with the relevant sized trays. I made 20 trays in justa couple of hours sat in front of the TV the other night. The only issue in assembling them is needing to fill the joins between the corner pieces and the sides; here I've used Squadron Green putty and sanded lightly.

Overall the magnetic movement tray allows you to to invert the movement tray without the figures falling off. Its a bit more work, but well worth it I think, especially as I want to be able to use these figures to play with my 8 year old son. (Yes, I know I still need to paint up the movement tray!)

Overall this took me a couple of hours to do the 15 bases here, although that was spread over a few evenings of modelling and painting - normally while waiting for something else to dry!

Now all I have to do is figure out how to make a snow and rock board to game on.

Grenadier Fantasy Warriors Dwarfs V

I almost didn't post this picture as the bigger version is very unforgiving of the standard of painting. But remember I have 400 of these to paint, and spending my usual 6 hours plus painting each one would take me... 100 days non stop no sleeping breathing eating or blogging to paint them all. This unit took me around 8 hours total for all 15 figures. As long as you keep the figures at arms length I think they're OK....

Grenadier Fantasy Warrior Dwarfs IV

Started daubing some paint on the first of 32 units for my FW Dwarf army. The colour scheme is one that runs through all my dwarf miniatures and will be familiar to those who saw the grymn figures from earlier in the year.



I always struggle to paint units, its the monotony of it, and i always try to spend too long painting individual figures. Even though i know the steel toe cap on third warrior from the left wont be seen when they are ranked up, I still seem to end up giving it 5 coats of paint. So I am trying to be dedicated and paint in a simpler style.



I do all my painting in Foundry Paints, but this is the first set of figures I have used the new Citadel Washes on.

Grenadier Fantasy Warriors Dwarfs III

Following on from me digging out around 450 Greandier FW Dwarfs, I also remembered that some time ago i bought three Ral Partha Bear Chariots of the Ice Lands. My intention was to use them to give my Dwarfs some chariotry to go with the bear cavalry!


I bought mine on eBay, but you can still get them from Iron Wind Metals. As these are sleds pulled by polar bears I have decided to paint all the bear cavalry as polar bears, and model the entire army on snow bases!

There are plenty of good reference photo's such as:


Now I just need to decide what figures to use as charioteers. Selection is best seen from the Mirliton site. I'm guessing that either spear armed (or converted to hold spear) or a bowman would be best from a chariot. Suggestions welcome.

Grenadier Fantasy Warriors Dwarfs II

Just stumbled on a problem with my Greandier Fantasy Warriors Dwarf from this post. FW basing for Dwarfs is 1" (25mm) square and WH is 20mm square. How do I base these for both systems? I'm sure i'm not the only one with this dilemma.

I'm inclined to base them on 20mm and to hell with the rules, but judging from the FW rules being able to bring 25% more figures to bear on a 4 figure frontage would be a tremendous (and unfair) advantage.

I'm considering basing everything on 20mm bases (probably from Litko Aerosystems or East riding Miniatures) and putting magnetic bases under them. Then buying two complete sets of movement trays. One set to match the 20mm frontage of WH and the other set with 5mm spacer bars between the figures for FW.

Has anyone else done this? Got some tips? Got other Ideas?

Comments very welcome!

Grenadier Fantasy Warrior Dwarfs I

I've always had a soft spot for the old Fantasy Warriors Dwarfs sculpted by Nick Lund, and in the late 80's I collected oh about a couple of dozen. The great Stuff of Legends site shows the original range hereand here. Then in the last couple of years someone invented Ebay and didn't put a warning label on it... The consequences are that I now have almost 450 of them.



I dug them out today and organised them into units. Yes, I know there are too many of them to play a sensible game, but i do love the massed units look.

These figures are back in manufacture by Mirliton of Italy and Em-4 Miniatures here in the UK.

This is the order of battle I came up with, based entirely on what i have, rather than any kind of sensible structure. It works out at 6,580 points without including tandards, msicians, leaders, hero's etc...!

I think i may have over done it...

Infantry
12 Royal Guard (2 handed, x-heavy (inc lead, mus & std) (2)
2x 20 Dwarf Infantry, hand weapon and shield (inc lead, mus & std)
2x, 20 Dwarf Infantry, spears and shield (inc lead, mus & std)
8x 15 Dwarf Infantry, 2 Handed, (inc lead, mus & std)
3x 20 Dwarf Heavy Infantry, 2 Handed (inc lead, mus & std)

Missile Troops
12 Hand Gunners (5)
20 Rangers/Archers (inc leader, musician (horn) & Standard Bearer)
60 Crossbow Dwarfs (no command) (2)

Artillery
3 Giant Dwarf Cannon (12 crew)
20 Giant Crossbow (40 crew)

Cavalry
12 Bear riders with Axe (inc leader, hero, musician & standard) (7)
12 Bear riders with Spear (inc leader, hero, musician & standard) (7)
4 Giant Bat Riders (4)

Command
3 generals
2 wizards
1 Seer (1)

The numbers in brackets is the order i've just put in with Mirliton to fill out the remaining slots!

If you're interested in Fantasy Warriors game then I suggest you join the FW Yahoo Group.

So just 450 figures to clean, base, undercoat and paint...

... but then i haven't sorted through the Grenadier orcs and goblins i collected to fight against them....