Beautiful work, love how vibrant the colours are.
Thanks @Freakshow668!
@Oxymandias / @Jackswift - Absolutely. For me, I really struggle starting a miniature. Its like a sense of dread almost (not quite the right word) knowing that there’s so much to before the model is complete, but then that last final stretch is so fun and you get a real positive feeling seeing it come together.
I’m still waiting for my Hobgoblin Wolf Riders to arrive in the post, so I’ve just been painting up the outstanding models on my paint table. These are some Blunderbuss I’ve finished over the last 2 weeks or so.
In 6th edition you get a rank bonus with Blunderbuss, 3 ranks = S5 hit, so I’m working towards that. Just got one more Blunderbuss in a reload pose to arrive in the post and then that’ll be that rank finished.
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About time I gave an update on here…
Things haven’t been great this lockdown, the company I work for has decided to permanently close our office, so I’m losing my job end of October. Currently I don’t have another job lined up, so it’ll mean when the time comes all my belongings will go into storage and I’ll move in with my fiance and her family, or back in with my parents. So there’s been a lot of stress and anxiety over the summer, and its terrifying to think we’re mid september already.
Working on the Chaos Dwarfs is definitely one thing thats kept me level headed, and I have made some really good progress and hit some nice little milestones!
1) To carry on where I left off…
I completed a 3rd rank of my Blunderbuss regiment:
6th edition is my preferred edition, and having 3 ranks give you an S5 hit. In the 2 games I’ve played I’ve not managed to achieve much with my Blunderbuss, they’re always charged down. I’m hoping with this 3rd rank they’ll pack a bit more punch, and tactically I’ll try a different approach next time.
After this, I completed my 2nd Hobgoblin Bolt Thrower. I definitely rushed through it, but it doesn’t look too bad. I’ve seen a lot of comments on how powerful these can be in 6th, and at 30pts a pop they should be well worth it. I’m looking forward to testing these out in a game.
One thing I had learnt in my 2 games was being beaten back simply through rank bonus. Both games I’ve played my CD warriors have held up really well, but each regiment was only 10 strong (2x5) fighting 20 Empire troops at 4x5. Getting to 40 Chaos Dwarf Warriors, allowing me to field 2x20 regiments has always been one of my main goals, so I decided to work on that. As I have 2 different warriors regiments, I decided to equally split the soldiers I had. I worked on a 3rd rank for one of the regiments, and here is the result:
Then came the other regiment:
I also got round to finishing the movement tray for my Hobgoblin Sneaky Gits and taking some photos. I’m really chuffed with how these guys turned out, and they’re super quick and easy and fun to paint. I’d maybe like to expand the unit to 20 in future, but thats a luxury rather than a necessity.
2) That somewhat brings us up to date.
Painting aside, I still needed to increase my model count in different areas (for example, I still need to buy 8 more CD warriors), and one thing I really wanted to achieve was obtaining a regiment of Hobgoblin Wolf Riders. I did luck out on a few purchases, and between spring-August I was able to get 10 wolf riders. This pic was taken just over a month ago showing them in my paint queue (taken before I finished the warriors above)
I finished the first of them last night, and I’m happy with the result. Hopefully together as a regiment they’ll really pop, and on the tabletop they’ll give me some much needed fast attack I’ve not experienced yet (except when on the receiving end of pesky Empire pistolliers)
3) So whats left?
At this stage, my army is so close to completion, and really I’m wanting to expand my units to allow more flexibility in what I can field.
At minimum I need to buy:
- 8 more Chaos Dwarf Warriors. This will bring my unit count to 40, and allow me to field 2 20 strong regiments.
- 1 more Hobgoblin Warrior. I already have 4 sat on my desk waiting their turn, so getting a 5th would give me a nice 3rd rank for my regiment, totaling 15 in all.
That isn’t too hard to achieve, just have to be patient. Ofcourse, I’d love to expand my army much further, but this below is definitely a luxury rather than a necessity.
What I’d like to get is:
- 26 more Hobgoblin Warriors. 6 to complete my original regiment, and then a new 20 regiment, giving me the same number as my CD warriors.
- 20 more Hobgoblin Archers. I already have a 20 strong regiment, and I’ve not had a change to field them yet. The “perfectionist” in me would again love to have 40 in total, but I’m not sure realistically on fielding them.
- 6 more Hobgoblin Archer Wolf Riders. Going along side my Hobgoblin Wolf Rider regiment above, I actually came across 4 of the archer variants. I’d love to get 6 more so I can have a 10 strong regiment (the minimum unit count in 6th ed).
- 20 Black Orcs - I’ve seen comments saying how much fight these guys have and that I should include them in my army. This goal would actually be the easiest to achieve out of the 4, given the popularity of the models and that they were discontinued much more recently than the Hobgoblins. With that in mind though, it also makes me want to focus on the Hobgoblins first, so I know that once I have gotten them, the Black Orcs would be easy enough.
Thats just dreaming though more than anything. Fingers crossed that I’m able to find a job (I’m looking specifically in Nottinghamshire, UK) as it’ll allow me to continue working on the army undisturbed, but also make playing games so much more viable compared to where I currently live.
I’ll try make more appearences on here as I’m posting on instagram almost daily, but right now the future is a little uncertain for me.
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Mate this is absolutely awful news. Sorry to hear this 
These look outstanding!
Loving the basing scheme on this force. Proper icy tundra. Gives the normally quite Persiany big hats a very Russiany sort of feel. The colours and the hats put me in mind of St Basils Cathedral !
Makes sense mate. If you need the escapism coming on here to browse and chat could be a welcome distraction.
Look after yourself and hang in there 
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Great additions to the army! …and once you go Chaos Dwarfs you never go back, eh? 
Hows the 6th Ed scene in the UK? Im not that into it myself, but Ive got a friend who regularly meet up for a small tournament yearly.
Tough times ahead, but try focusing on the positive at times like these. You’ll get through!
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Reading up on this forum is a lot of fun. There are so many great and diverse armies on here.
This is most definitely one of them.
Sad to hear about your job and its consequences. Try to stay positive, you’ll get trough. Early last year we had some issues that seemed like they would financially take us down. Had a few close calls but we kept positive and did all we could to mediate the situation. There were rough times where I couldn’t even lift a brush to put it away, but there were also a lot of small moments I was painting or at least working on a hobby project that helped me focus on other stuff. Luckily that’s all sorted now and we are in a much better position in life now.
It helped to keep some models I really like at the ready so I could paint if and when the mood hit me. Don’t put al your stuff in storage, keep some easily accessible for when you need to focus on other stuff.
Keep the updates coming , the little bastards look great!
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Thanks for the kind comments @Oxymandias - Lorewise I wanted my army to be from the North, I guess around Uzkulak, where it’d be wintery conditions. Nothing against them, but the vast majority of CD/LOA players will have Lava bases, I just wanted to do something different. Generally a big fan of snow/mountains/alpine scenery anyways and I thought the snow helped them pop a bit!
@tjub - Unfortunately for me there’s no scene at all where I live! There are a lot of players in London though, and there’s a shop in Leicester that had planned a whole bunch of 6th edition events this summer before Covid. Some friends of mine also wanted to host an unofficial tournament at Warhammer World in Nottingham.
@MichaelX - Thanks! It is a real labour of love working on them, and definitely helps me take my mind off things. I hope I’ll be able to have a little space to continue painting if I move in with my girlfriends family, but we’ll see what happens.
This week has felt really fast paced and I dunno where the time has gone. I was hoping I would’ve achieved a bit more but this morning I finished my 2nd Hobgoblin Wolf Rider! I’m happy enough with it.
Sorry for the awful pics - when I have my own place the first thing I’m doing is investing in a decent lightbooth!
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Next wolf rider finished! Progress has been a bit slow, its been a bit of a hectic week but it was nice spending an hour or so finishing off this rider this morning.
I’ve always felt the weapon arm is at a really weird angle, but I’ll roll with it.
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I’ve now finished 5 out of 10 of my Hobgoblin Wolf Riders!
It feels super satisfying seeing them together, and for the most part I find them pretty fun and quick to paint, so hopefully it won’t take too long to finish the next 5. I’m going to try my hand at a conversion (scary) and using the same sculpt as the end rider with the blue and yellow hat, I’d like to turn him into a musician. I’ve got the musicians horn arm from Oglah Kahn’s Wolf boys, so the plan is just saw off the arm, and replace it with that, and try tidy up with greenstuff. The armour is very similar between the two so I’m hoping its not a lot of work - I’ve never done any kind of conversion before and given my first attempt is on a somewhat hard to come by model, it feels a little daunting!
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Good work! I like the mix of colours. Crisp painting. Keep it up.
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Had a bit of a busy week prepping for my house move, but last night I managed to finish the 6th Hobgoblin Wolf Rider.
Like everything, its a little messy but I’m happy enough with it. I’ve got the weekend to myself so I’m hoping to make some good progress on the next model.
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I finished the regiment champion last week, and I’m really pleased with how it turned out.
I’d been looking forward to working on him for quite a while and I spent a little bit longer than I usually do.
I also made a start on my musician. There isn’t a mounted musician option for wolfriders, so I’ve decided to try my hand at a conversion!
I’ve sawn off the weapon arm from this wolfrider and pinned the musicians arm from Oglah Kahn’s wolfboys. That’s the easy bit done. Next I’d like to use GS to fill it and also try sculpt the armour plating similar to the rest of the body.
I’ve never tried anything like this before, so I’m a bit anxious. I think I’m going to file down the armour plating thats already on the arm so its all level with the armour on the body, and then just try go from there. I’ll also sculpt some cloth rags for the forearm like on all the other wolf rider models.
I’m waiting on some sculpting tools from green stuff world so it’ll be a few days before I can carry on with it.
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Today hasn’t been great. I really do enjoy working on my hobby, but right now I’m feeling a complete lack of confidence and really deflated right now. I’ve spent about 5 hours today working on this conversion and gotten literally no where other than wasting lots of GS and feeling pretty cruddy in myself. My goal is to sculpt armour onto the musician arm so that it is similar to the armour covering the rest of the body.
My first attempt (which lasted about 3 hours this morning) resulted in this fucking mess.
I spent literal hours trying to get it correct and just kept encountering the same issues:
- If the GS had the correct definition of the armour, it was too thick and didn’t sit on the model properly and was too clunky looking.
- It was a good “thickness” and sat correctly on the model, but didn’t have any definition.
I tried again a little later on, this time creating a mold of the armour from the discarded weapon arm, using bluestuff, and then using GS attempted to wrap onto the body. This took me about 2 hours, but its just as bad.
A friend described it as a step in the right direction, but it still looks fucking awful to me.
I really wanted to try achieve this for myself to prove that I can do it, but I do think I’m just going to have to accept defeat and admit that conversions and using GS etc are just a step too far for me and that I won’t be able to conquer it.
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Never Give Up! Never Surrender!
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Mate don’t give up. Maybe take a break and come back to it another time. Hobby should be fun an relaxing not a drag. Do something else for a bit, be it warhammer or something else you enjoy. When you’re ready to tackle it again this forum has some really talented sculptors with really good tips - I’m far from great with GS but have upped my game by seeking advice on this forum.
But yeah - take a break. If it ain’t fun, don’t do it yet. The model ain’t going anywhere and you’ll smash it some point soon.
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I’m very sure that everyone who’s done any amount of sculpting has felt the pain of time and putty lost in fruitless attempts. It’s trial and error all the way, which can get awfully frustrating but is also what makes you better at it. Like @Oxymandias said - take a break and start over when you feel like it (no need to let your hobby become a headache), but don’t give up.
On the practical side of this particular armour problem, I personally can’t offer much assistance - never tried scale armour before. But on this forum you’re in the perfect community for this kind of stuff, and I’m sure that sound advice will be readily available. 
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This is my take on the old scale mail:
I could try to wip up a tutorial if you like ^^
In hindsight, I think i would have been easier to swap the horn to the regular hobgoblin arm and you wouldn’t have had to go for the sculpting 
But where’s the fun in that:)
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Thanks for the kind words all, I did have another attempt this morning but yeeesh I got no where. A friend of mine has offered to have a crack, he’s much better at sculpting than I am so it should be good!
Oh nice dude, that looks great!
Yeah, funnily enough I was thinking about that, but I was hesitant given I only had 1 musicians arm and didn’t wanna mess that up, if I had another I’d have given it a try!
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Not much hobby time this last week. I had my last day in work on Friday after my redundancy, and I’m in Nottingham now for a few days before the impending national UK lockdown.
A friend of mine is having a go at sculpting the armour on the wolf rider from my last post, so I’ll be working on the standard bearer in the meantime.
On a slightly more positive note, I got a Hobgoblin Warrior in the post, which now brings my total to 15, meaning I can field 3x5 ranks.
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