Grenadier Miniatures Undead Army.

 At the start of my collecting it wasn't always Citadel Miniatures I opted for. 

When I started in 1986 Grenadier Miniatures were always an option. I still clearly recall visiting Beaties and Gamleys in Brighton and Hove as a young goblin and seeing all these other interesting miniatures with their different sculpting style and vibe. On my 13th birthday in 1987 I was given money to 'go buy something you want', and with that I purchased several blister packs of Grenadier 'Fantasy Lords' undead, to add to the few random Grenadier miniatures I had already (as an aside, I started a part time job just after my 13th birthday, and so my purchasing power increased just in time for Citadel's 'Golden Age').

As time wore on my focus shifted more to Citadel Miniatures (Brighton GW opened a little later in the 1980's) and the availability of Grenadier Miniatures wasn't always as strong. However, I never lost that magical feeling I first got from the Grenadier Undead. Over the years I returned to them, but without any clear idea what to do with them. E-bay helped with buying odds and ends, but it was only recently that I thought of an idea of painting them less conventionally Undead, and more with an ethereal feel. And winter. I wanted a cold, muddy, winter feel to them as well. 

So here were are. I based them on regimental bases because beautiful as Grenadier Miniatures are, the pre Fantasy Warriors Grenadier ranges they can be quite fragile, especially the undead. Some of them have been repaired or converted because of this. I painted them over a white undercoat with a wash of Citadel Tesseract Glow, then Citadel Nighthaunt Glow, dry brush white, them a light wash with Tesseract Glow again. Then snow effects on the bases. I like how they have turned out and pleased that after all these years, they have finally received the attention they deserved.

Enjoy :)

The whole army.

Left side of the army.

Centre.

Right side.

The Liche King.
I placed him on a large command base with a spare standard bearer just to show him off.

Closer view.

'Fantasy Lords' 061 Mummy Lord.

'Fantasy Lords' 014 Mounted Skeleton.

'Fantasy Lords' 167 Skeleton Flyer.

'Fantasy Lords' 011 Undead Cyclops.

'Fantasy Lords' 130 Dart Thrower.

'Fantasy Lords' 032 Undead Boatman.
In a Warhammer Fantasy Battle Army I would consider using this as a Plague Cart proxy.

Axemen.

Men at Arms.
I added a mounted 'Fantasy Lords' 137 Skeleton Command kettle drummer as I had one spare and I thought I might add to the look of the regiment.

More Men at Arms.

Spearmen.

Some more men at Arms.

The Bear Clan.
These are miniatures which predominately have bears sculpted on their shield, so I grouped them together. The standard bearer is a conversion of a broken miniatures, and has a sculpted green stuff bear pelt as a standard.

Archers.
These are actually based on two separate bases representing 10 models on each, so that they can be deployed as one regiment of 20, one regiment of 20 in line, or two regiments of 10.              

One half of the archers.

The other half of the archers.

A mix of Skeleton Cavalry.

More Skeleton Cavalry.

Masterpiece Editions 5506 War Rhino Captive Carrier.
This model comes with a banner which kept snapping off, so I left it off.
I was going to paint the captives inside in a normal paint scheme, but I though it would be nice to just have them as eternally captive screaming souls trapped inside.

Right hand view.

Masterpiece Editions 'The Undead Legion' 5505 Imperial Guard War Mammoth.
This is a lovely model, but I bought it in a sorry condition from e-bay. It was missing the lower part of it's trunk armour, all of it's crew, banner, armour, and shields. Anyway, I added a couple of spare crew and made the best of it.

Right side view.

The army marches!

Close up.

In addition to the ethereal miniatures I painted a few other undead to add to the army if I was to use them for gaming.
On the left is a Grenadier Lord of the Rings range 7504 Hillmen of Trollshaws 'Miffli'. I would use him as a Necromancer or Liche.
On the right is a Grenadier Lord of the Rings range 7502 Sauron's Dark Ones mountain Vampire.

Two Grenadier Lord of the Rings range 7502 Sauron's Dark Ones Wraiths.

My next update could be on a lot of different things. I have been painted a lot of different things, but not had the time to blog about them. I have been painting Goblins, more, but different, undead, modelling and basing trees, basing Slann, re-basing Dark Elves, painting infantry for Prince Wilhelm's army, painting Elementals, and painting Orcs!

(Extra) Spiky Chaos Dwarfs.

 Over the summer I have been concerned with several different projects, dipping into one or another as time went by. One of these has been my 2nd/3rd edition Warhammer Chaos Dwarfs.

Here is a link to the range:
http://www.collecting-citadel-miniatures.com/wiki/index.php/Chaos_Dwarfs

Whilst making steady progress with others things, I decided to tackle a range of miniatures which I have always liked, Citadel's C16/D3 Chaos Dwarfs from the 1980s. Now I have painted some of these in differing styles of the years, but I have never found the look I really wanted. Anyway, I sat down an thought about them and considered what I wanted from them. I came up with the idea that I wanted them to look dark armoured, spiky, and with some sort of red colour involved, but not to have them too overly detailed.

What I have settled on was to paint them black, with light gun metal/chain mail metallic paint, and any details a deep red moving into a blood red, but it was with the bases which I really wanted to make a statement. First of all I abandoned the 20mm square bases. I have always considered them far too small for the miniatures. So, with the current move to base a lot of miniatures on 25mm bases after the release of the new Warhammer Fantasy Battle, I chose 25mm square bases. These also link nicely to other Chaos ranges of the time. To give them that extra spiky feel, I added cut down cocktail sticks of various sizes poking up from the bases. My idea is that rather than natural defensive stakes/spikes (such as archer stakes) they are some sort of magical mutation of the ground of the Chaos Wastes. To add to that Chaotic feel, and to add that red look, I painted them and the earth red.

I am very pleased with how they look. They were fun to paint, and I have spent the last few evenings after work basing more, and cutting up more cocktail sticks. Also, to add to that Chaotic feel, I am adding some of Citadel's Chaos Familiars miniatures to the regiments.

Enjoy :)

Chaos Dwarf test models.

Kirgund Widowmaker.

Spikes Harveywotan.

Kaaos Armahand.

Scarsol Smashskull.

Rainhard Stump.

'Iron Clad Imp', for Citadel's Chaos Familiars range.

Chaos Dwarf Bazooka.
I tend to base war machines and artillery on round bases, rather than square, as I think they look better, and it differentiates them from infantry, etc.

The other side of the Bazooka.

Next update will probably be on some more of the infantry from Prince Wilhelm's army, although I have been painting a lot of Undead, some it might be some of those!

'The Book of Battalions': Peasants and archers of Prince Wilhelm's expedition.

 Now due to recent family events and other shenanigans, I have been in the curious situation of having lots of time and opportunity to paint, but very little time to actually sit down and blog about it! In fact, I have been painting a lot of varied and eclectic things, and have a backlog of photographing to do.

Now my current distraction is a project which I have wanted to start for a while, which is collecting and painting each of the armies in the 1st Edition Forces of Fantasy books supplement, 'The Book of Battalions'. Now there are eleven armies in the book, ranging from Goblins to Dwarfs to Slann, as well as Giants and Samurai! I have largely collected all the miniatures required, with only a few odds and ends to find, and I have kept true to the era and am using only miniatures from that era (late 1970s to 1984 inclusive). The miniatures are mainly Citadel, although some are from the other adjoining ranges which include Ral Partha, and Chronicle.

Anyway, I decided to start a little while ago with some of the Dwarfs from the Dwarfs of Horrorwell army just to paint some pre-slotta Dwarfs. However, I have started work on a complete army project, namely 'Prince Wilhelm's expedition'. This a a human, Hundred Years War/War of the Roses era human army, with an added (and annoyed!) wizard. It might seem strange to start with what is essentially an historical style human army, but I wanted to paint some medieval soldiers for fun, and so here they are.

As for painting, because I am using Citadels C26 Men at Arms range (still available from Foundry Miniatures), I opted for a War of the Roses look, with a little generic medieval feel about them. Basing wise, when I think of The War of the Roses era I always think of the first series of Blackadder, which was filmed in a bleak, muddy, wintry setting. Added to that is the snowy Battle of Towton. All of this convinced me that rather than go for the lovely bright medieval army fighting in summer pastures, it would be good to paint an army in snow, mud, and a little more shabby. Basing wise, I have opted for the big regimental sized bases, just to give them a good visual look. This is something I plan to do for all of the 'The Book of Battalions' armies. Don't worry, I am still painting other miniatures on 'proper', individual bases as well!
 
Enjoy :)

'The Book of Battalions'.

Prince Wilhelm's expedition: Battalion 1.

Prince Wilhelm's expedition: Battalion 2.

Prince Wilhelm's expedition: Battalion 3.

Longbows, led by Falstart.
I have based these on two bases suggesting 10 models per base, so I can increase the frontage for shooting, or deploy them separately.
There are lots of little puns, jokes, and references, in the army's description. Here the leader is named Falstart, a play on Shakespeare's Falstaff, as well as maybe 'false start', suggesting the archers shoot to early(?).

Falstart (centre) and half of his Longbowman. I chose a miniature for Falstart who was portly and drinking, like Falstaff. The Longbowman are in the livery of Cheshire, as taken from an illustration in the Osprey Book 'The English Longbowman: 1330-1515. 

More Longbowman.

Peasants, led by Will Nosedew.
These are a big regiment of 38 peasants, divided onto two bases for ease of movement.

Will Nosedew (centre), and some of the peasants.
I positioned the two peasants either side of Will to suggest they were in conversation concerning the dubious merits of them being in the army in the first place!

More peasants.

New update will be more of Prince Wilhelm's expedition, although I am also painting some Grenadier Fantasy Lords rang miniatures undead at the moment as well.

Chaos Dwarf Magma Cannon and Iron Daemons.

 A final and quick update on my 4th Edition Warhammer Fantasy Battle/Warhammer: The Old World Chaos Dwarfs. I painted these about a month ago and I haven't had the time to upload them to the blog until now. Since these I have been painted a few old Rogue Trader things, some old Perry Twins/Wargames Foundry C26 Medievals, as well as assembling and basing some Diehard Miniatures Eru-Kin, and Citadel C32 Slann. There's a lot of Slann.

Anyway, back to the Chaos Dwarfs. I love this range now (despite disliking it in the 1990s), and I learnt the appreciate the later Forge World (RIP!) range as well, to which these belong. Again, they are painted in the heavy rusty look with Citadels Typhus Corrosion. I really enjoy the look it has given these models, and how heavy it makes them feel. 

Enjoy :)

Two Iron Daemons and a Magma Cannon.
They are mounted on the Citadel Chariot sized bases.

Left side view with the dangerous looking magma holder.

Right hand side, with crew.
Again, a shocking lack of health and safety at work!

Top view.

Iron Daemon number 1.
Both Iron Daemons were purchased earlier this year, and were not in 100% perfect condition. This one has a damaged top of the smoke exhaust. I also had to disassemble it and reassemble it, and drill and pin it to get a better assembly, as well as re-attaching a couple of the wheels. 

The crew, hard at work.

Another crew photograph.

Iron Daemon number 2.
This one was in a terrible state, not only missing the unnecessary exhaust railing, but the chain linking the wheels. All but one of the wheels had fallen off too!

Rear view.

Next update could be on anything. As mentioned, I have been doing all sorts of things. I am currently basing a lot of Slann at the moment.

Chaos Dwarf Hell Cannon and Earthshakers.

 More Chaos Dwarfs, this time some of the heavy artillery, with two of the 1990's Earthshaker Cannons, and a Hell Cannon.

I mounted the Earthshaker Cannons on 150mm by 100mm bases to simulate the footprint of the Forge World Earthshaker. In addition I borrowed an idea from one of the Chaos Dwarf Facebook groups and added an Ogre loader to each using 'era appropriate Ogres' from the early/mid 1990s. I also secured them all to the bases to give them the look of a diorama. I shall be adding banners to the Earthshkaers at a later date. My plan is to add all of the banners to the army in one go once it has been completed.

As for the Hell Cannon, I mounted that on the same sized base as the easthshakers, but vertically. I purchased the Hell Cannon second hand from e-bay, and it was missing the crew, and some of the chains. I replaced the crew with one spare Earthshaker crewman, and two 1990s Bloodbowl players. I didn't bother adding new chains, I just assumed this Hell Cannon was a little more well behaved, perhaps trained the Barabara Woodhouse way, as older readers of this blog may recall!?

Enjoy :) 

Hell Cannon, and two Earthshakers.

Left side view.
I left off the Chaos star symbols from the wheels as I wanted to have a more mechanical look to it, and to tie in with the cogs and bits on the bases. 

Right side view.

Top, showing the metal daemon skull.

Close up of the tormented souls inside. I opted for a blood red look to tie in with the rest of the red in the army, and to give an icky feel to the cannon.

The first Earthshaker.

On one of the Facebook groups someone used this Marauder Ogre as an Ogre loader. I thought this was a fantastic idea and looked good. The scale armour really ties in with the Chaos Dwarfs.

Chaos Dwarfs carrying the shell.

The corroded gun barrel.
I wanted to keep the rusty theme of the army with the gun barrel, but didn't want to have it look like rusty iron, which I didn't think would make sense for a cannon. I didn't want a verdigris bronze either. So I painted the barrel Typus Corrosion, lightly painted it Retributor Armour, and then, before it dried, wiped some of it off to leave a pitted mix of the two.

The second Earthshaker.

Another Marauder Ogre being used as an Ogre loader.

More crew.

The other gun barrel.

Next update will probably be some more Chaos Dwarfs. I have been painting a lot of different things recently, and so have a backlog of photographs to add to the blog, so I shall started with the last few Chaos Dwarf items I have painted, and then update on the other things through July and August, mainly Rogue Trader, and 2nd/3rd Edition Fantasy Battle stuff.