Monday 19 October 2020

Ruglud's Armoured Orcs - Spike-Can Commandos

 

Finally got around to Painting Ruglud's Armoured Orcs. I still need to finish the bases, the banner, and maybe some extra weathering sometime. Rather than paint their armour in the traditional way with blacks and browns (which is the colour of most of my Orc army), I thought I would try something a bit different.





The story on the back of the box describes how Ruglud came across a huge room filled with dead Dwarfs. "Spiky Stunties an' reg'lar ones... wiped each uvver out...". In other words, Dwarfs were fighting Chaos Dwarfs. The Orcs loot the Chaos Dwarf armour. So I decided to paint the armour in the style of Chaos Warriors- would dwarf armour fit an Orc? 




I then had to decide what Chaos faction to paint them: 
  • Undivided - Black armour would just look like a lot of the Orc units I already have. 
  • Nurgle - rusty brown metal or green, and again would not stand out. Green armour and green skin doesn't sound like a good combination. And a lot of my Orcs are already in rusty armour.
  • Khorne - Reds and Blacks, tempting but still similar colours and style to some of the Orc units I have already. 
  • Slaanesh ...nope. At best, just complicated to paint those pastel colours. At worst, complicated and I would end up with kinky Orcs.
  • That left Tzeentch. A nice faded blue colour, and something that would look different to my other Orc and Goblin units.



This is a confusingly named regiment, the story states Gudruk is the chief, Ruglud is just an 'Orc hero' so seems to be the Champion. I'm not surprised by how many people get the models mixed up. The stat line says "Gudruk is equipped with heavy armour and a two-handed sword." and "Ruglud is equipped with heavy armour, a shield and is armed with two swords."

This is contradicted by their names being stamped on their slotta base tabs - see above (well Ludruk and Ugludd- but it's close enough).

In addition the story on the back of the box describes how Ruglud gets his head stuck in a Chaos Dwarf helmet. "The tribe feasted upon Goblin-flesh long into the night - all except for Ruglud, who couldn't get his helmet off, and was reduced to sucking broth through a straw." Which also explains his face being all squashed up.

But just to add to the confusion the end of the story also states "As the gear's discoverer and the bravest, meanest and certainly the most stupid Orc, Ruglud was made leader." So does this mean Ruglud was supposed to be the higher level hero and therefore the leader all along?

Either way, because of the slotta tabs and the story stating that Ruglud is wearing a helmet, I'm certain that Ruglud is the model on the right with the helmet on.



Finally the command group characters. From left to right- Maggot (Gudruk's offspring and standard bearer), Gudruk (the leader), Ruglud (champion), and Bambrag (musician on the xylobone and whiny, cowardly shaman).

I think I may have overdone the glow on Ruglud's sword, but it was my first time trying this technique. I plan on adding a banner later on. It will be made up of two ripped banners. The top half will be Dwarf, the bottom half will be a Chaos Tzeentch banner, all crudely stitched together. Probably add some Goblin trophies as the units battlecry is "Gobbo fer tea, Gobbo fer tea, Gobbo, Gobbo, Gobbo fer tea!"

I hope you like them!










Sunday 4 October 2020

Harboth's Orc Archers


As it's Orctober I thought I would post some pictures of the Orcs I have been working on. First up is one the classic regiments of renown- Harboth's Orc Archers. This is one of the first box sets I bought as a kid a very long time ago, and recently repainted them. 



Harboth's Orc Archers painted miniatures regiment of renown


Harboth's Orc Archers regiment of renown

I wanted to use the box art as inspiration for colours and for the banner or standard bearer.

Harboth's Orc Archers regiment of renown back of box

The back of the box has a story with a lot of character, including information like the Orcish word for moving out can also mean deserting, running away or soling one's underwear.  I also like the information on equipment, Battlecry, Deeds, Uniforms and Shield designs.




They even spelt Harboth's name wrong here- Who is Harbath?! But you can see a close up of the banner. I like the ghostly ethereal look to it, so I set out to make my own version.




And an advert in WD. This also has a print version of the banner, in bright green for some reason, so I used this as starting point to make my own version.


Harboth's Orc Archers banner standard



Harboth's Orc Archers banner standard photoshop

At first I made a version in photoshop, but when I printed it it just didn't look right. It looked fake, a bit faded, and just... printed on a computer. I tried painting over it, but the printer ink would run and react to water based paints.

Harboth's Orc Archers banner standard miniature painted


Which brings me to my final version of Harboth's standard bearer. This was painted in water colours and some acrylic paints, mainly the black. The trophies are mostly dwarf, the story on the back describes how Harboth's Orcs like to kill and eat Dwarfs -"Pulp do Stunties!" Is their warcry after all! So Dwarf trophies seemed appropriate. I'm really happy with the final result.

Harboth's Orc Archers miniature painted Yaskin Forit

Here's Yaskin Forit, the units champion. Unit Champions back then didn't have to be armed identically to the rest of the unit, so he wields a two-handed Dwarf tickler. He also manages to wield a two-handed weapon and use a shield at the same time! 
His name is sounds like "You asking for it?!" - the sort of thing some aggressive thug might ask before a fight. 
I didn't like the Roman style crest on the helmet, so I removed it and stuck some horns on, I felt bad defacing the old model, but I much prefer how he looks now. Much more Orky! 
While repainting Yaskin Forit I noticed he has a necklace of ears, some are even pointy! Gruesome! I also hope to paint some design on his shield when I get time. Probably a crude face of one of his victims.



The musician- not a lot else to say, except he's the only Orc archer not wearing any chainmail or armour.




And lastly, the man himself, Harboth. His original weapon was damaged and I replaced it with an axe. 







Saturday 29 August 2020

Chaos Dwarf Army List Warhammer 3rd edition


Chaos dwarf swivel gun firing


Chaos Dwarf Army List
For WFB 3rd Edition


Here's the link to PDF download v1.08:


https://www.scribd.com/document/646846578/Chaos-Dwarf-Army-List-For-Warhammer-3rd-Edition-V1-08


"Long have we Dwarfs stood against the Old Dark Powers. From the Dawn Ages to the Time of Ending have we ever been numbered among their greatest foes and for good reason. It seemed that we were immune to that warping power that is Chaos ' greatest strength. No children were born in the Dwarf holds that bore the taint of mutation. Our armies did not turn into shambling horrors when the tide of Chaos flowed over them. We thought ourselves immune to the power of the Great Mutator. It was a source of pride. Other races such as short-lived men or treacherous, sybaritic Elves might fall under its sway, but not us. 
As with so much else that gave us pride, our seeming immunity played us false. During the last great incursion of Chaos, some of our armies were caught in warpstorms more fierce than any ever remembered. They vanished and we thought them dead. Soon we heard reports that armies of black-clad Dwarfs were marching out of the wastes. When we sent armies to aid our allies we discovered it was true. The full power of the Great Mutator had been laid upon our armies and they had changed. Our warriors found themselves fighting their own kinsmen, changed and demonic. You cannot imagine what a horror that is for a Dwarf manling.”

-Gotrek Gurnisson Lecturing Felix Jaeger on Chaos Dwarfs
(-from ROC: The Lost and the damned)


Chaos Dwarf Army List

My aim was to bring together all the Chaos Dwarf articles printed in White Dwarf, Realm of Chaos, Warhammer Armies, etc, and put them in one coherent, balanced list. I wanted it to be representative of models and themes in WFB 3rd ed. WFB 3rd is low key, there are not many extravagant fantastical units, not as many as in later editions. Units are smaller, and specialist units are rarer.

Some Chaos Dwarf army lists have too many Goblinoid units, so many that they often out number the Chaos Dwarf units! I've seen some armies that are 75% Goblinoid and just a couple of units of Chaos Dwarfs. They look more like an Orc and Goblin army with Chaos Dwarf allies!

I think this comes from the 4th edition Chaos Dwarf army list (the big hats) and the reason this army list had so many Goblinoid units was because they only had a few Chaos Dwarf infantry models at the time (Big-Hat Halberds and Big-Hat Blunderbusses), so they packed out the army list with Hobgoblins, Orcs, Black Orcs and Goblins. 
I wanted the focus of this army list to be on Chaos Dwarfs, it is a Chaos Dwarf army list after all! More Hobgoblins, Orcs and Goblins can be added through Allies or Mercenaries as usual. These can be thought of as subjugated tribes if you prefer.

I didn't re-write any background or origins there are people out there who are much better at that sort of thing than me. I didn't try to retro-fit new models and force them into 3rd. A lot of them would probably be over-powered anyway. Newer models can still be used though, for instance a Doom Rocket can use the 3 man Mortar rules. In fact the WFB 3rd ed rules for mercenaries mean that Hobgoblin mercenaries are unreliable, they might even switch sides, which is just how they should be!

I included a unit called Infernal Guard, mainly as I needed a name for an elite unit, but any models can represent these. You don't have to use the Infernal Guard models from Forge World if you don't want to. Bull-Centaurs can use the Boar Centaur profile, again I didn't want to invent something new and Boar Centaurs are already pushing war machines. Dragon Ogres profiles can be used for the larger Bull-Centaurs or Taur Centaurs (found in chaotic hosts).

It also has rules for the Chaos Dwarf Juggernaut.

I have included Chaos Dwarf Swivel Gun rules that appeared in WD, and collated them into one page, so people don't have to go hunting for them.


Preview of the pages of the chaos dwarf armylist, here mainly for search engines
- use the link above to download the PDF for free.

Chaos Dwarf Army List Warhammer 3rd EditionChaos Dwarf Army List Page 2Chaos Dwarf Army List Page 3 berserkers characters heroesChaos Dwarf Army List Rank and fileChaos Dwarf Army List Units, Immortals, Infernal Guard, Berserkers, DevastatorsChaos Dwarf Army List Boar Centaurs, War Altar, SappersChaos Dwarf Army List Flame throwers, Hobgoblin Sky Rocket, Bazooka, Swivel gun, War machinesChaos Dwarf Army List Allies, Mercenaries, Baggage, Hosts, SkirmishersChaos Dwarf Army List Bestiary Boar Centaurs characters rulesChaos Dwarf Army List Ballistics Swivel Gun RulesChaos Dwarf war machines Tenderizer Tenderiser Whirlwind rulesChaos Dwarf Juggernaut rulesChaos Dwarf Army List Juggernaut rules war machine siege tower

I hope you enjoy the Chaos Dwarf army list for warhammer fantasy battle 3rd edition. If you have any feedback or notice any errors let me know!


#chaosdwarf #chaosdwarfrules #chaosdwarfarmylist #chaosdwarfcodex #warhammerrules #oldhammer #chaosdwarfjuggernaut

Tuesday 16 June 2020

Snotling Pump Wagon!

Another classic old model. I had an Orc and Goblin army many years ago when I used to play Warhammer Fantasy Battle with friends, but I never had the Snotling pump wagon. I always loved the craziness and rickety, ramshackle character of the model, so some years ago I bought one from ebay. Recently I got around to finishing it.

Snotling pump wagon out of control warhammer oldhammer metal miniature painted




Snotling pump wagon out of control warhammer





I wanted to capture the feeling of speed and how it is almost out of control, so I positioned the model like it had just gone over a bump. I tried to make it look like the Snotlings are hanging on for dear life, not always easy to convey with the models available!






I also put ruts in mud on the base to give it a sense of racing along.






Monday 15 June 2020

Orc War Wyvern

Haven't posted anything on here for a while! Lockdown has meant I have got back into painting again. For some reason I started with really old models!

Anyway, here is a wyvern. It's the old GW Orc War Wyvern, I think was called Polly in the story on the back the box.
I converted it from it's static pose to one with a bit more movement to it. Wasn't sure what colour to paint it and eventually settled on blue as it's a different colour to all the orc's green skins. I think a blue wyvern looks ok? I may or may not add the orc rider later, perhaps use magnets so I have the option.


A blue wyvern warhammer miniature painted