Clamshells and Sea Horses

Merry Christmas

2011-12-24T14:29:00.001+01:00

Havent really been that active (painting wise) the last couple of months, and for that I am sorry :-(

Hopefully a new year will get me back on the track.

But have done a few pieces:
WKminis: Dwarf Pistolier

A converted White Knight dwarf. Tuned him into a "do you feel lucky" kind of guy for a painting challenge at powerfist.dk.

And for the latest Brush Slave Challenge at Chaos Dwarfs On-line I did this little goblin. A gem from my impressive John Pickford-collection :-)

Sneaky Santa

Wish you all a very

Merry Christmas

Collecting John Pickford: the Zweihänders (Dwarf Great Swords) from White Knight Minis - part 1

2011-11-27T15:42:00.000+01:00

Here's another batch of awesome Pickford Dwarfs from White Knight Miniature Imperium. This time it's the first half of the elite infantry: the Zweihänders - or Great Swords, as I would call them.

Like said it's just first half, but WK couldn't sit one these any longer and just gave preview of some rather spectacular pieces.

First off, we have the Champion - as he has the biggest feather :-)

And then, what have become WK signature concept miniatures - multipart rank and file. Static, perhaps - but the poses are fantastic and with the separated head system you get a great opportunity personalizing your units. Can't wait to get my hands on these:

Last, the first two single piece casts - slightly more characterful and dynamic:

Think the last one here is my favorite and will probably be serving as my unit Captain. Really love that proud and noble look of that guy.

Looking much forward seeing second half of the unit. As for now, looks to be: a musician, a standard bearer two more dynamic single pieces dwarfs and a 3th rank and file with separate head - but who knows what happens when these 2 guys first gets started :-)

Collecting John Pickford: Bugman's Dwarf High King

2011-11-27T10:51:00.001+01:00

Lately, this blogs seems to be more about John Pickford's sculpting rather than my paintings. For that I am sorry. Short story is, my professional job is rather hectic right now - and then the surgery I had done (back in May) is still causing lots of "issues" - so if not working my ass off, I'm laying "dead" in bed :(

December and Christmas, will probably be even worse, but after that - thing should straighten out and things should get back to normal. So please have patients with me :-)

But while waiting lets have a look at what's coming:

Dwarf High King - a Bugman's Brewery Commemorative Miniature

The "Dwarf addicts" at the Bugman's Brewery internet forum have asked John to do them a miniature for their Grudge Match 2012: "War of the Beard" - a Warhammer Fantasy gaming event taking place at Warhammer World, Nottingham on February 13th and 14th 2012. Grudge Match is an event that aims to recreate one of the major, defining and nigh on apocalyptic battles in the Warhammer world involving the Dwarfs. This year, they will be recreating the War of Vengeance, or War of the Beard as it is known. A classic Warhammer conflict between the noble Elves and the stubborn Dwarfs.

The miniature is based on a miniature concept artwork done by Bugman Brewery forum-member Zachariah Bauer (aka "Baruke Splintersteel").

Concept artwork by Zachariah Bauer (see more here: www.zbauer.com)

A rather detailed concept for a 28mm scaled dwarf, I would say - and I was very curious seeing what John could make out of that. A lot of WIPs have been shared at Bugman's during the process and it have been very interesting following how a naked dwarf is getting "dressed".

By courtesy of Matt (aka Alebelly_Cragfist) I'm allowed to share some of the many pictures that's been shown and commented on at Bugman's during the process of creating a true King.

The naked Dwarf!

Shrek, anyone?

Awesome Norse Dwarf!

Noble!

Dragon King :-)

And here, the finished Dwarf High King on a 20x20mm base - without the Dragon Head Visor, though.

A true Warhammer Fantasy Dwarf King. Spectacular sculpt - and I'm so impressed by the amount of details transferred from artwork onto the 20mm miniature. Another excellent job by John.

This miniature are limited to the 69 community members that signed up for it - and now have shared the sculpting fee and casting costs. Each member then have had an opportunity ordering a number of additional miniatures. So, it looks like 200 miniatures will be cast for members. But to try and raise some money for the next forum miniature up till 50 copies will be sold to people interested in the miniature. Should you like one you can sign up here.

Looking so much forward getting my copy - and will post more pictures of him when he gets here, of course.

Collecting John Pickford: A Zoat for the Gaming Cantina

2011-11-08T21:19:00.002+01:00

Earlier this year, a good friend of mine pointed me in the direction of "Axiom" - and his gaming club "the Gaming Cantina" - as he had commissioned John doing him an event-special-miniature - a Female Howling Banshee. The miniature were for their annual event - a long time running Warhammer 40.000 Campaign called: 'Eldritch Port' - and I was very lucky geting my hands on a copy of this little beauty.

"Axiom" was so pleased with last years result that he have asked John to do the 2012 miniature as well. And has also been kind enough letting me follow the project up close and have shared all John's WIP shots, with me.

The miniature, a 40K Zoat carrying an Eldar casualty is now finished and with the courtesy of Axiom, I can now share the Work in Process shots with you:

Concept art:

This awesome piece of art is done by Jon Cave

Armature:

Early WIP:

WIP:

Almost there:

The finished piece:

As reason for doing a 40K Zoat, Axiom said: "Why a zoat? In the Rogue Trader Compendium Eldritch Raiders army list you could include 0-2 Zoat terror squads; Zoats were described as being the favoured mercenary choice of Eldar. Making a figure around that basis as a mercenary bodyguard seemed like a good idea."

The miniature, including the base, will be cast in resin and will be limited to 50 copies and given to the people attending the 2012 Eldritch Port-event.

The miniature has now been added to the Gaming Cantina page at the Pickford Wiki.

Collecting John Pickford: New Goblin wolfriders and huge/giant Spiders from Otherworld Miniatures

2011-11-07T15:59:00.000+01:00

Collecting John Pickford will be a new segment of my blog. I will start abusing my blog to plug new Pickford Miniatures I've become aware of - and stuff I've added to the Wiki-page.
Already done that when "pluging" the White Knight miniature venture, but will start doing it on a more regular basis. And "Why?", I hear you all asking? Well, because the guy is an awesome sculptor - and he deserves all the publicity he can get (so I can have even more lead for my mountain) - so it's simply just a win-win situation :-)

So, on with today's news.

Otherworld ......! cause yes, first news segment has to be about awesome, awesome Otherworld Miniatures. In November we'll see the 5th anniversary of Otherworld Miniatures and to celebrate this event Kev Adams has made a fantastic conversion kit/diorama pack to go with the first ever Otherworld Miniature - the Demon Idol done by Mr. Paul Muller. This kit will be the official 5th anniversary special, but November holds a lot of other new releases - and amongst them, the long awaited John Pickford Goblin Wolfriders. An expansion to the popular Goblins range.

John's has done a spectacular job and has created noting more than 10 different mounted Goblin's to go on - slightly converted - OW wolves/dire wolves (originally sculpted by Jo Brumby).

They come in packs of 2 core wolfriders (4 different packs), a Chieftain pack and a champion's pack - but can also be bought in a Warband pack with all 10 wolfriders.

Otherworld Miniatures: GB5-GB8 - Goblin Wolfrider I-IV

Otherworld Miniatures: GB9 - Goblin Wolfrider Chieftain

Otherworld Miniatures: GB10 - Goblin Wolfrider Champion

Otherworld Miniatures: GB11 - Goblin Wolfrider warband

But that's not all. Also out are 2 huge spiders and a giant one done by John. They will be new additions for the current range of spiders found in the Wilderness Encounters range (WE series) - started by Pedro Navarro:

Otherworld Miniatures: WE10e Huge Spider III

Otherworld Miniatures: WE10f - Huge Spider IV

Otherworld Miniatures: WE10g - Giant Spider II

All these (and quite a few miniatures by Kev Adams) are now up for pre-orders at the Otherworld Miniatures Store. The miniatures are expected to be released on the 29th November 2011.

Grab your Pickford's (part 3)

2011-11-05T23:12:00.001+01:00

Finally found a bit of time for painting some miniatures. Have been building and painting a lot recently but all on a 1:1 scale. Wife decided our master bedroom needed a make over, and for some reason it also involved me :) But I'm done now, and in time for making a few enties for the regular painting challenges, I usually attend.

First, an entry for the OWC. Most appropriated, the theme this month was: "Grab Yer Pickfords" - meaning painting at least 1 John Pickford Otherworld model. Did plan doing something big, but as said time really didn't allow, so went for something a bit smaller - the limited/unreleased Mimics.

Otherworld Miniatures: Unreleased Mimics

Originally, the treasure chest was done by Paul Muller (and is also to be found in the unreleased Otherworld Treasure pile and the Otherword Giant accessories), but John converted them and turned it into these awesome Mimics.

Next, a little piece I painted for the Brush Slave Challenge at Chaos-Dwarfs.com. Theme in October was "Beast" and there would even be an additional bonus point for painting something big. Had lots of big plans, but as I really hadn't started anything on October 31th, I had to come up with something fast, so dicided to play it safe and painted on of the promotional gems I'd got from John, earlier this year.

Grab your Pickford's: Creature

Quite a typical Pickford miniature - especially the face expression gives the sculptor away :-) A wonderful creature with lots of character, and will be very useful in my dungeon.

The miniature did came with a oval metal base, but to make him more usable, I based him on one of Fenris' 30mm DS dungeon scenery bases.

Last, but definitely not least, I gave paint to the second little musician "Mustard Seed" from John's 2007 Frother's Sculpting Contest entry - the "Puck's Dance diorama". Mustard Seed is a hedgehog playing a trumpet - and to match his pink companion - Peaseblossom - I painted this guy in an albino colour scheme I came cross looking for inspiration how to do a hedgehog.

WKminis: WKHS-02: Mustard Seed

Like Peaseblossom, Mustard Seed is now available from White Knight Miniatures' Hors Série range and I can just hope, that Puck himself will find his way into that range one/some day, too. He whould be rather fun painting, too. Till then, I'll have to be content with these two, here:

Modern times

2011-10-10T14:25:00.001+02:00

Just a quick message to let you know that "Clamshells and Sea Horses" has finally entered the 21st century and it's modern tools for Social Networking.

Some might already have seen this, but this is an official announcement to tell you that "Clamshells and Sea Horses" is now on both Twitter and Facebook.

So fell free to follow me on Twitter or maybe "like" me at Facebook

Paint an Orc

2011-10-10T11:59:00.002+02:00

A good friend, Martin "Player1" Blirup @ the Danish Wargaming and Miniature Painting Forum (powerfisk.dk) - came up with an idea of having forum members painting him an Orc Warhammer Army. Not really into GW Orcs (I'll leave that to my two kids), so I wasn't really that motivated, but helping out a dear friend (and the fact that he threw in some prizes as well) made me volunteer for his project.

And to my surprise there wasn't only GW miniatures to pick from. On Martin's list of miniatures there was lots of cool stuff - and even some of the beautiful Wargames Factory Renaissance Orcs (now called Ogres due to their size). Wasn't hard deciding what to pick. And what better excuse could I get, to try out some of Kev Adams wonderful sculpts?

Martin sent me three wonderful Foundry miniatures - and only gave me a very few restrictions:

Green skin
Red signature colour
Black rim bases with green sand

Finished the first one yesterday, as it's going to be entered into the painting challenge at powerfist.dk, as well.

Wargames Foundry: Mercenary Ogres Gashonock the Retiring

Looking so much forward painting the other two I've got, but an interesting packed have showed up at my door step, so don't feel surprise if next update is about a certain dwarf and his pony :-)

White Knight's (not so) Secret Dwarf Project - part 4

2011-10-04T21:57:00.002+02:00

Some, might remember the little pre-view of White Knight's upcoming pony-riders back in August. This is just a small update to let you guys know, that the pony-riders are now available. They come in 3 different sets: 4x Pistoliers, 4x Swords men and 4x Spear men.

Here's a preview of all the 3 sets:

Check out the White Knight's Miniature Imperium to find out more - and how to get some.

And the miniatures will be documented on the Wiki right after I get my 3 sets, of course. Can't be that long ;-)

Grab your Pickford's (part 2)

2011-10-01T16:05:00.003+02:00

Just a minor update today, but as I was painting the Eye of Terror I for the OWC, I also painted a few more Pickford's (while waiting for glue and washes to dry :) ).

First, I painted one of those little gems I've got from John himself. The one here is called "Spiker" and is probably some Sqiug-monster-proxy for some Goblins. So obviously I gave it a rather classic paintjob, too.

Grab your Pickford's: "Spiker"

Was done as a backup for the Brush Slave Challenge at Chaos Dwarfs Online in case the Eye wasn't finished in time. A classic Squig beast but with a typical Pickford face expression.

Then I also painted another two of the Orange-green White Knight Dwarf. These two will finish of the first set of infantry.

WKminis: WKD-01B: Dwarf Core Infantry with Halberds/Poleaxes 1 - part 3

And then a shot of the entire group - all ranked up nicely on one of those Games Workshop War of the Ring Movement trays:

Really eager starting some more - so next batch is now glued and ready to start painting:

A small teaser of what to come:

A mixed unit, as I want to test a few different colour schemes. So here we have 2 crossbows, two spearmen, two pole axes and two swordsmen. Should give me the opportunity to try out at least 4 new schemes.

And speaking of Mr. Pickford ...! Richard Scott gave preview of the next awesome Pickford's the other day. Next major release will be GOBLIN WOLF RIDERS :-) So excited about them. Excellent characters and all mounted on awesome re-worked Jo Brumby wolves/dire wolves. Can't wait to to add these to my OW collection. Here is a little teaser:

And you'll find more here: http://z9.invisionfree.com/Otherworld_Minis/index.php?showtopic=604

And before I go, I'll like to say welcome to the two new followers: "Hybrid Alpha" and "Jan". Glad to see you found it in here. Hope you'll be enjoying your stay.

Oh, and I almost forgot:) 21 Foundry Goblins have been added to the Wargames Foundry Wiki page. Originally not bought for actual painting, but I'm not so sure now holding them in my hands. Rather nice sculpts and ooze with character.

In the Eye of Terror

2011-09-29T12:45:00.000+02:00

Time for another OWC painting challenge entry. This months theme was "It's Dark in Here..." meaning that anything which can be found in a subterranean environment can be entered. It's like 75% (if not more) of the OW range that could be entered, and still I found it hard to decide which miniature I should do. After the bonus challenge, I really wanted to come back painting Pickford. So bottom line - it was to decide between Goblins or one of the aweful big Eye's :-s

The Eyes are - again - a multi part white metal miniature from Otherworld Miniatures - and an absolute nightmare drilling, pinning and glueing all together. Took me like a day getting the Eye of Terror I ready for priming, so I could actually start paint the thing. You can find a picture of the kit in the new John Pickford Wiki - found here.

I went for the Labyrinth Lord Eye of Terror look, as I think it's even more awesome that the classic D&D Beholder version it can also be assembled as.

An Eye of Terror is a 5' floating Orb with a central eye, eight eyestalks and a large serrated mouth. The monster have hundreds of small tentacles hang from the bottom of its body - but also have two 3' long tentacle arms ending in a spiked squid-like sucker appendage that can grasp like a hand.

The monster has many similarities to a classic D&D Beholder with it's 10 eyestalks, but the Eye have only 8 but then it has those beautiful sculpted squid-arms. Luckily, John didn't do all hundred tentacles (- as he only did 8 of them) - as they were a true nightmare putting on.

Otherworld Miniatures- DM23a-Eye of Terror I

Certainly a beautiful sculpt. John really outdid himself creating this fantastic classic monster - stayed "old school" but also gave it a nice modern twist. Painting wise?? It was fun painting - but it's big, and heavy, and big - and I can assure you, that I'm not painting scales in a very long time. So don't expect seeing Eye of Terror II and the Eye of the deep anytime soon.

And as the month is nearly over and haven't really painted much else, I'm about to enter this miniature into the Brush Slave Challenge at CDO as well :-) Theme here is: "A face only a mother could love" - so unless a Eye's don't have mothers, I think this one qualifies for the Brush Slave, too ;-)

Wish You Where Here!

2011-09-10T17:09:00.000+02:00

Just a bit of fun. The Otherworld Miniature Forum is running a summer bonus challenge about taking a photograph with the caption "Wish You Were Here". To do this you had to build and/or paint something new to create a scene.

I'm not really into dioramas and scenery, but the OW forum is such a great community and as I had a few pieces laying around, I gave it a shot. So I've created this little scene from an "Egyptian Tomb". So, "Wish you where here?" :)

Otherworld Miniatures: UD9 Mummies

The little scene consist of the Otherworld Miniatures UD9 Mummies sculpt by Paul Muller, a Sarcophagus from Crocodile Games and an Egyptian Doorway from Fenris Games. The dungeon tile bases are from Fenris as well.

Here is a few more shots of the different pieces - enjoy - lol:

Get moving!

2011-08-30T15:49:00.001+02:00

Pyh! - made it - but it was close this month :-)

Haven't painted anything this month and didn't. Have only just got back from my 40th birthday holiday in Spain. Had an awesome week with wife and kids down there. Sunny weather, great food - and awesome people couldn't get any better. I just love Spain.

Back now and have spend the last few rain days doing my entries for the #7 Brush Slave Challenge at Chaos Dwarfs Onlineand the monthly painting challenge at the Otherworld Miniatures Forum.

The theme for the #7 Brush Slave challenge was: "I wouldn't want to meet you in a dark alley" and with national première of the Captain America-movie - so why not do my "Red Skull" miniature I picked up from What the!? Miniatures a few months ago.

What the?! - Herr Totenkopf

A fantastic miniature sculpted by sculpted by awesome Aaron Brown.

Theme for the August Painting Challenge at Otherworld's was: "The Dirty Rotten Challenge". Challenge was about doing something listed as Vermin in the Monster Manual or miniatures found in the Vermin range at the Otherworld Miniatures store.

Didn't actually have any unpainted Vermin miniatures to do - but thanks to Richard that problem was solved before leaving for Spain. Have been wanting to buy the John Pickford Leeches for ages - but always found something else and forgot buy them.

So what better excuse could I get for purchasing these little gems? And what a fine way getting back at painting Pickford's.

Otherworld Miniatures: DV5 - Giant Leeches

And speaking of John Pickford ... :-)

.. I have now - finally - found the time and moved the entire Collection Guide from here (@blogspot) to a brand new site at Wikia.com. Also found time to updated it with lots of new pictures - but still needs a bit more work. You can find the new "Collecting John Pickford Wiki" (Collection Guide) - here:

http://collectingjohnpickford.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page

or just by using the link found on the old Collection Guide page found at the main menu at the top.

White Knight's (not so) Secret Dwarf Project - part 3

2011-08-04T11:11:00.003+02:00

Unfortunately not yet available but simply to good to be kept a "secret" :-)

WK has revealed what to expected next and it's certainly something I'm looking forward to. Next release will most likely be the light cavalry - or in other words we'll see the return of Dwarf Pony Riders :-)

Here is a small teaser

But you should go visit the White Knight's Miniature Imperium and see him play around with them before they went off to get moulded.

- and will admit that I can't hardly wait doing a small cavalry unite of these:

Itsy Bitsy Spider

2011-07-17T20:15:00.000+02:00

"The itsy bitsy spider went up the water spout.

Down came the rain, and washed the spider out.

Up came the sun, and dried up all the rain,

and the itsy bitsy spider went up the spout again."

Otherworld Paint challenge time again. July's theme is: "If You Go Down to the Woods" and is about painting at least on model from the wilderness range.

I took a chance this time and went for those limited edition spiders, that I got in my latest Otherworld Miniatures purchase. Richard Scott was offering a set of 4 unreleased/yet to be released large Spiders for those voucher holders that would hold back making a voucher purchase and placed an old fashion money order instead. That was one of those offers I really couldn't refuse? So cancelled my plan voucher purchase and replaced it with an order for the most wanted new releases and got myself a set of these. Had already planned doing the common large Spiders for this one, but I actually like these slightly better and decided doing them instead. Challenge says, it has to be models from the Wilderness range - so might get ruled out for entering these, but who really cares? After all, another awesome batch of Otherworld's are now painted and ready for being used ;-)

Otherworld: Large Spiders (Limited Edition)

All painted in Black Widow inspired colour scheme. Should probably have based them on some woodland scenery bases rather than these dungeon ones (due to the challenge theme) - but I really like these 40mm round DS dungeon scenery resin bases from Fenris Games - and the spiders seems almost like sculpted on them, so could resist using them.

White Knight's (not so) Secret Dwarf Project - part 2

2011-07-17T17:07:00.006+02:00

Finally, they are here :-) White Knight has just announced the release of the next batch of the John Pickford renaissance dwarves - and this time it's a massive one.

The 2nd set of core Infantry. Comes with 8 dwarfs in a set. 2 x 4 different bodies and 8 unique heads. The dwarfs are in an attention pose and can be armed with the choice of 5 different weapon: Pikes/spears, Helberds/Poleaxes, Swords and Buckler, Handguns and Crossbows.

Also released are the 3th infantry set. These are in a front rank/action pose. These are one piece casts with plug in weapons - and again you have 5 different option: Pikes/spears, Helberds/Poleaxes, Swords and Buckler, Handguns and Crossbows.

Furthermore 3 civilians are out as well. 3 female dwarfs to chose from. A set of 2 Maids and a dwarf Floozie.

Here's a small teaser from Blue's Maraudering Miniatures. Talented Mr. Blue was that privileged and got himself a few masters he could paint for Mr. White. And he did one hell of a job, if you ask me :-)

And here's a preview of the naked metals form the 2nd core infantry set armed with Crossbows (WKD-02E) - my personal favourite.

- but go check them all out at: White Knight's Miniature Imperium

Yes, more Dwarves

2011-07-13T13:17:00.005+02:00

First, of course, I'd like to welcome two new followers: Juan and Spooktalker. Glad to see you here and hopefully you'll find something worth looking at and/or reading.

And then on with today's topic .... more painted Dwarves :-)

The Golden Hat @ Chaos Dwarfs Online is now over and have found some rather worthy winners. Want to use the space here to say big congrats to "Bassman" (1st place, entry #16), "G.2" (2nd, #24) and "Blue in VT" (3th, #2). Very well done, guys - and you are truely worthy winners of what I think was the best Golden Hat ever. Lots of cool concepts and great paintings this time. Excellent - and am looking forward challenging you all in the next one ;-)

And now that it's over, I can also reveal my own humble entry. Cause as a few has already guessed. I did entry #12. A conversion based on the Four A Miniatures Dronzak Bannerfist standard bearer.

Four A Miniatures: Dronzak Bannerfist (conversion)

A rather straight forward conversion, really. Only really interesting/difficult part was the new skull helmet - but with some help from a plastic skull and a pair of HFL300 Helmet Wings (from Hasslefree Miniatures) it ended up pretty close to planned. Painted the guy when I was doing the first three WK dwarfs, so quite obvious to use the same colour scheme for this one here. And painting another Marauder-ish looking Chaos Dwarf in bright colours, really takes me one step closer to starting all over and redo the MM90 already painted.

And speaking of White Knight's Super Awesome Dwarf Project, I've painted another 3 WK Dwarves:

WKminis: WKD-01B: Dwarf Core Infantry with Halberds/Poleaxes 1 - part 2

Can't praise the Dwarves enough. Mr. Pickford really pushed it to create the fantastic visions of Mr. Knight.

The trained eye may have spotted that this one here:

- ain't 100% straight out of the box. Cause, this heavy armoured guy was simply to good just to be turned into a ordinary Pikeman! So I've change him slightly, and turned him into a Captain leading this small unite. Still got 2 more to paint - and hopefully then, the new series #2 and #3 will turn up. Set #1 here was good, but have to admit that it was set #2 that took my breath away. So hurry up, Seb ..... please :-D

And then I couldn't help it. I had to paint the little Peaseblossom (a winged pig, playing a lute) I got from White Knight as well. Peaseblossom is originally found on John Pickford's 2007 Frother's Unite Sculpting Contest entry - but has ended up with WK, and is now to be found in his "Hors Série". And I've heard someone whispering that the little hedgehog, playing the trumpet (one the same awesome diorama piece) is soon to be found in that range, as well! Another "must have" :-)

WKminis: WKHS-01: Peaseblossom

And just to show how small this guy is:

Oh, and then I shouldn't really forget telling, that the resin base is a 25mm DS Plain Dungeon Tile from Fenris Games and the awesome printable paper floor tile is made by Dave King.

Last on today's update is a rather mysterious little feller:

A unknown Dwarf Wizard

I know what it's supposed to be (at least I knew what colours scheme to use for him) :-) - but apart from that I have no recollection of whom, when, where or why - nor can I remember how it ended up in my lead pile!

- and for those reasons this little Dwarf Wizard here is perfect for the 6th Brush Slave painting challenge: "The Mystery Denisen from the bottom of the Box!" @ Chaos Dwarfs Online

Been busy painting

2011-07-09T00:04:00.000+02:00

Finish all the challenge and painting competition entries I had committed myself doing. Was quite a challenge and had to force it a bit to finish in time, but am - more or less - happy with the overall results.

Can't post my entry for the XV Golden Hat at Chaos Dwarf Online but go check the voting thread and see if you can't spot what I did. Rather classic and you should find lots of hints in here to make it out.

But, I can show the other entries I did, so first we have:

World of Twilight's First Painting Competition

Couldn'treally decide what to do for this. I got so many awesome Twilights I wanted to paint so had lots of ideas, but nded up doing the Knights of Relan lead by Danomar. The knights are the Fubarnii Empire elites and are excellent sculpts with lots of armoury and heavy war gear - perfect for such a challenge.

Twilight: Danomar and the Knights of Relan

Nothing spectacular, I know - but great fun ainting and really enjoy painting something other than greens, greys and browns for a change.

And if you got time, you should check out the other competition entries, here: http://www.worldoftwilight.com/forum/index.php?topic=1117.0

- and next:

The monthly challenge at Otherworld Miniatures

The challenge for June was "big 'uns" - so, anything that comes with a larger base than 25mm was allowed.
Already painted one big fellow this month (the Ogre Chieftain) so was quite 'blank' what to do. But came cross my 3 big lycanthropes and decided on doing them. Don't know why I picked all three as the had to be finish at the same time as the Knight?? - but I finished them in time - so here they are :-)

Otherworld Miniatures: WE7bWerewolf, WE7c Wereboar, WE7d Werebear

Turned out pretty much like I wanted them to - and should do me good on the table. Haven't painted that many of Matt Bickley's models before, but must say I was impressed by their quality and am certainly looking forward doing more. Think his Satyr might be next, as this months challenge is "If you go down to the woods...", so anything from the Wilderness range will be legitimate. Should be a perfect opportunity for doing him, but also got some rather nice Large Spiders I want to try out. But well have to wait and see, won't we?

The Secret of the White Knight

2011-06-18T08:51:00.004+02:00

As announced last, there would soon be even more dwarfs found here. And, I won't let the dwarf fans here down :-)

9 months ago I saw the beginning of the most interesting private dwarf project at Frothers Unite. The project was about doing multipart dwarfs in a Renaissance themed design fitting the style and scale of old dwarfs from Marauder Miniatures. I have always loved the old Marauder Miniature dwarf/Chaos Dwarf miniature line - but for me, the most interesting part was that he had commissioned Mr. John Pickford to do him a personal army.

The brain behind the project is a highly valued hobbyist White Knight. White Knight is a great asset in the miniature hobby world and is doing a fantastic job at hobby communities like Frothers Unite and Lead Adventure (and probably more).

As said, it's a personal project for White Knight, but in May he gave others a chance getting insight into his secret project - and opened up selling off some of the extra sets that has been made.

An offer I couldn't refuse - and also advertised a bit here.

If you want to learn more, you should visit the WK Miniature Imperium.

And not only an offer I couldn't refuse - but also a set of miniatures in such a style and quality that I couldn't resist start painting some of them.

So, I did these three here for the monthly painting challenge at Powerfist (a Danish Miniature Forum).

WK Dwarfs: WKD-01B: Dwarf Core Infantry with Halberds/Poleaxes 1

Such a joy painting and I'm rather sure that the last 5 of my Halberds/Poleaxes will soon get painted (Ohh, should probably have said 4 and my converted Champion :-P). Also got a set of the WKD-01A: Dwarf Core Infantry with Spears/Pikes 1- and already thinking of a colour scheme for those, so .... more dwarfs are coming, but first i have to fulfil my commitment to other painting projects.

A couple of dwarfs

2011-06-11T16:29:00.000+02:00

First off, a big, big welcome to 4 new followers: steve, thehermit, White Knight and Darksteed :-) Glad to see all of you here. Hope you'll enjoy your stay.

Last few days has been great - and have killed some hours doing a bit of painting. I got big plans for painting this month. Am 'committed' painting for a few challenges/competitions, but also got a few models standing here I just 'have' to slap some paint on, so will try mix that and fulfil my 'obligations'.

First, is a miniature that is very dear to me. Have had the Marauder Miniatures MM90 Chaos Dwarf Mage standing here like forever, but couldn't decide how to paint him. Wanted to stay true to the colour scheme I've already picked for my Chaos Dwarfs, but also want him to stand out a bit. Have done a few of my sorcerers in a red'-ish colour, so wanted 'something else' for this one. But back in March, just before I turned sick, I found what I was looking for and finally decided for a colour scheme. So, now that I'm back he surely deserves my fully attention. And here he is:

Marauder Miniatures MM90/1a Chaos Dwarf Mage

But like said, I've 'committed' myself doing so many miniatures this month. First commitment was the OW bonus Challenge last week. Second, is the Brush Slave Painting Challenge at Chaos Dwarfs Online. The theme is "Blast from the Past". Being like 20 years old and OOP, I could easily have entered the above Mage miniature (first idea), but I wanted something with a bit more historical feel. So, I'll take you back to the year 1602, where the people of London are heading for the Globe to watch a new play by the Bard of Avon, himself. So let me introduce the leading head role/star, the Prince of Denmark, Hamlet himself:

- or shall we just call him Hoglet, with the skull of 'Alaspoor' the jester? A very rare beardless dwarf done by Berderken Miniatures (kingofdaveness/David King) - To beard or not to beard :-) A wonderful dwarf with lots of character and a joy painting. Really hope that Dave will do more sculpts like this, soon. Such sculpts can keep my brushes warm.

Other commitments are "Brothers in arms" for powerfist.dk, First Twilight painting competition, the Big 'uns for the OW Challenge and finally an entry for the Golden Hat XV at CDO - so back to the desk, painting - and I'm pretty sure there will be more dwarfs coming soon ;-)

Ogre Chieftain

2011-06-04T22:57:00.002+02:00

Sort of back painting again. It's a struggle as I can only sit down for an hour maybe an hour and a half - one or two times a day, but it's enough to actually paint a bit, so spend a few good hours doing an entry for the Otherworld Miniatures Forum's Bonus Challange.

During the UK Games Expo (that Otherworld is attending) there will be an open bonus challenge for people to enter a painted "I've Got Something You've Not Got" miniature.

Rules are quite simple for this: "paint any model released since January 2011 or paint any of the unreleased or limited edition models". Planed on painting the unreleased mimics, but felt for painting something bigger, so decided painting one of the two 2011 releases I've bought - the Ogre Chieftain. Haven't really bought that many of the 2011 releases yet - besides the Chieftain I've bought an Eye of Terror. Had quite a back log of old miniatures I've wanted - so spend my Otherworld Silver Voucher getting those. Did plan spending some of my Otherworld Gold Voucher credit this month, but took advantage of the Early Summer Sale and got myself a few more Eyes and then pre-ordered the Duergar's, of course. And why? - cause Richard will then let me have some of the unreleased large spiders. An offer I can't refuse :-)

But back to what this is all about. The painted Ogre Chieftain. Sculpted by John Pickford.

Otherworld OG4 Ogre Chieftain

White Knight's (not so) Secret Dwarf Project - and OW Early Summer Sale

2011-05-23T16:34:00.003+02:00

I'm still unable to paint anything due to the two operations earlier this month. So, today's post is plugs for two people I believe deserves all the publicity they can get.

White Knight's (not so) Secret Dwarf Project
First, a plug for White Knight's Project creating a Renaissance themed Dwarf army. People, that have looked in the John Pickford Collection Guide or frequent forums like Frothers and Lead-Adventures would know what Sebastian is up to. But for those who don't, I can tell that he has commissioned John Pickford to do him a Renaissance themed dwarf army inspired by the old Marauder Miniature Dwarfs - and John has done a spectacular job for him.

From the very start it's been WKs personal project, and not a commercial venture, but he is now offering people a chance of getting some of these awesome sculpts for themselves. So yesterday, he announced the availability of the first set of multipart dwarf infantry.

Here is a small teaser:

More can be found in his blog. Here you also find details how to get your hands on some of these yourself: WK Miniature Imperium.

Otherworld Miniatures Early Summer Sale

Yes, it's true - today - Richard Scott has announced that he will be running an early summer sale. All prices are reduced by 20% - also all the items up for pre-order. So why waste more time, go show him you support at the Otherworld Miniature Store :-)

Go pick up some of the fantastic John Pickford Miniatures or maybe a set of these awesome Duergars (Evil dwarfs) done by Kev Adams:

And before I go, a big welcome to Blue in VT/Chris - a fellow Marauder Miniatures Chaos Dwarf-o-holic and a very dear friend of mine. A guy that I've come to know of at Chaos Dwarf Online. And I can only suggest you people to go visiting his awesome painting blog or have walk through the 10 rounds of Lead Painter's League 2011 at the Lead Adventure Forum - here you'll find stuff like Marauder Miniatures Ogres and Dwarfs or even see him go Sci-Fi with his Round 10 Star Wars.

Captain America

2011-05-15T13:41:00.000+02:00

I've always been a big fan of Superheroes and superhero-movies - and am looking very much forward seeing Captain America.

My two kids love superheroes as well so I'm abusing this interest to introduce them to miniatures and miniature painting. I've recently picked up a few superhero look-a-likes from Reaper's and will try convert them into classic superheroes and super villains - like Ironman, Batman, Hulk and Dr. Doom.

I've also succeeded finding a few home-brewed sculpts representing true classic heroes.

One of these are this Captain America that I picked up in the US - and now have painted and entered in the monthly Brush Slave painting challenge at the Chaos Dwarf Online.

Theme here was: "Do ya punk...Do You feel lucky" - and anything with a gun was allowed. So perfect opportunity for painting Captain America:

N/A: Captain America

Grab your Pickford's - Part 1

2011-05-15T13:24:00.001+02:00

Finally home and starting to recover. Had to go through 2 operations to before the herniated disc was fully removed. It was rather difficult getting out and doctors had put my nerve (controlling my lower leg and foot) under quite some stress, so I returned home with a partly numb leg - and it's rather sore. So I've spend the last few days learning to walk and then train the numb muscles. Will take some time though, but I'm confident, that I'll regain full control of my leg.

So, as you can probably guess noting new paints to show - but why not show something of the miniatures I did just before the surgery :-)

First are my entry for the April Challenge at Otherworld Miniatures. Theme this time was 'A Bad Day to be a Guard', so used this opportunity to finish my OW Goblin Command.

OW - GB4 Goblin Command Guard

Can't get more 'Guard' than that, can it? This guy is probably the best of all the Goblins John Pickford have done for Otherworld till day.

This also means that I've complete the hole GB4 set. They came to look like this:

OW - GB4 Goblin Command

Guy on the right is missing his shield. Will have to see if I can find that.

I've purchased 2 vouchers from OW this year - and with my second purchase came a few unreleased surprises. So next miniature is one of those surprises.

Last year John Pickford did a conceptual Firenewt (MM II - monster) for Otherworld. Apparently Richard and John wasn't a 100% pleased with them, so only one was made and was never official released. But it was cast and Richard has been so friendly sending me have a copy.

OW - Unreleased Firenewt

I love it. A bit big and bulky compared to a 28mm human - and I guess that future Firenewts will be slightly smaller and more skinny.

Last miniature today is another one by John Pickford. John has been so kindly to give me insight in his early works - and have sent me some promotional and unreleased miniature he did back in the early days. Most of the stuff I got is now in the Pickford Collection Page. So, this "Grab your Pickford's" segment, will probably be a regular segment in this blog.

Grab your Pickford's: Lance-a-Little

"Lance-a-little" was originally going to be a promo model for "Gamer's Quest" but the model was never actually produced. A shame really, if you ask me - as he is a wonderful and rather characteristic little tin-goblin.

Before I leave you, I'd like to welcome two new followers Tael and Mikkel Nyboe. I'm glad to see both of you here - and hope you'll enjoy your stay. Especially honoured by you presence here, Mikkel. Always been admiring your works and consider you as being one of the best painters in Denmark. And for those not familiar with Mikkels work, please go visit his Gurer-blog. Such an awesome and inspiring painting site.

Relic

2011-04-30T21:53:00.002+02:00

Today is again a little plug for another very interesting new skirmish game.

This time it's the Relic game from Tor Gaming. I instantly fell in love first time I ever saw the miniature line for this game. Nothing I'd ever seen before. Such a wonderful experience seeing someone do something complete new.

A few words about Relic (from Tor Gaming's site):

In Relics, players control forces comprising of several units as diverse as black powder musket wielding dolls to clockwork powered fighting machines to battle for the fate of the world and see their faction to victory. Forces of magic saturated elemental creatures battle against creatures of teeth and claw. Using a fast paced core mechanic, the game delivers furious action on the table top. Players must use their tactical genius to out manoeuvre their opponent before delivering the killer blow. Relics is a miniatures table top wargame in the 28mm scale range.

And a few days ago the final alpha rules has become available, and I cant hardly wait to give them a try.

The rules are available for free download - from here: http://www.torgaming.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,490.msg0/boardseen.html#new

The miniature line holds 3 factions for now. The Orcnar (the brutal beasts), the Vaettir (Natural spirit kind of race created by the gods themselves) - and my favourites the Britanan, the spooky animated mechanical rag dolls race.

So, they had to go first.

Relic (Tor Gaming) Britanan Troopers

It's certainly a fresh new breath in the fantasy gene, and if your got the chance and have time - you should really take a look at Tor Gaming.

World of Twilight

2011-04-22T21:10:00.004+02:00

First off, Happy Easter to all. Hope you are enjoying having a few days off.

Not much holiday here as I'm still struggling with my back issues - and awaiting a second scan to decide whether surgery can help me or not. In pain lots of the time and laying down most of the day, but I do find an hour here and there, where I'm actually able to do a bit of painting. And have to say that painting is truly vitamins for my soul.

Just before we're getting started I'd like to welcome a few new followers: zhu bajiee, Colonel Shofer and myincubliss. Glad to see you all here - and hopefully it will be a pleasant stay for you. And should you have any questions feel free asking.

So, with my limited time window, I've been focusing on the various painting challenges I've become so very fond of.

Today's update is about the challenge at the Danish Wargamer Forum: Powerfist.dk.

The theme here was 'The General' and could really be anything - so I decide to show my World of Twilight miniatures a bit of love. I've been a big fan of Mike Thorp's weird fantasy world - and picked up his starters for the Twilight game quite a few years ago. I've kept on adding to the two cultures from the starter pack - the Fubarnii Empire and the Devanu - but never actually painted them. Have started a 100 times, but never been pleased with the result - so all is standing in the cabinet primed and only touched when gaming.

It's been a bit quite around Twilight for a few months now, with not much new added, but Salute 2011 really changed that. Here, Mike gave release to the 2nd rulebook for the game"Of Gods and Demons" (a new rulebook covering the new culture: the Delgon, but also most of the new units for Empire and Devanu and a bunch more scenarios/fluff) - but also gave preview to a hell of lot of new miniatures - and most of them was even made available for pick up at Salute 2010.
I couldn't go at Salute, but Mike gave me the opportunity to pick up a lot of them from direct sales. Later on most of them will become available from Hasslefree Miniatures.

Here are a few samples of the awesome upcoming releases - that should arrive with me shortly:

- and if you like what you are seeing here - you should really visit The World of Twilight Forums

So to get in the right mood when they show up - the painting challenge was a perfect oppurtunity to try out a colour scheme I saw used on a WfB Empire army a few months back: purple, greys and browns - and I though using on my Fubarnii Empire - starting with the Commander. Did also plan doing a brown skin tone - but like you can see I change me mind. And here he is:

World of Twilight - Commander Brenar (HFTWEM004)

Need a shieled, though - but should arrive with my big WoT purchase, too.

Waiting for the Worms ...

2011-04-08T14:13:00.009+02:00

Feels like that these days. Have a fractured disk in my lower back, so am off work, laying most of the day in bed - and eating a hell of a lot of pain killers. And still waiting for further examination at the hospital - and then the final 'judgement' - whether surgery can help me or not.

But have a few good hours here and there. So to remain sane - I have been painting a little. Mainly tried finishing some of all the unfinished business sitting around my desk.

So lets start with one of those. An old Ral Partha Beholder. Started painting him some months ago, but base wasn't done - and eyes needed a bit more work, too. Perfect little projects that allows me to come and go as I 'pleases'.

Ral Partha 11-401 Beholder

I'm a sucker for Eyes - and really like this old model here - but it's nothing compared to the Eye coming out from Otherworld Miniatures in a few days time. Really looking forward getting that model.

Next, we have, what was supposed to be my entry for the Painting Challenge at Powerfist.dk. Theme for that on was 'Hunter or prey' - and I had the most wonderful John Pickford miniature made ready for that. But my weak health prevented me from entering :-(

But now, my entry is now finally done, so here is Dave, the Goblin from Hasslefree Miniatures or more precise, perhaps: 'Dave, the Demon Slayer'.

Hasslefree Miniatures - HFW002 Dave the Goblin

And then I found time to show them Cultists from Four A Miniatures I preview a few weeks ago a little attention. I've been trying hard to hunt down some classic Citadel ADD79 Mind Flayers for quite some time - but it's almost impossible finding. So, when I say these Adam Gayford Sculpts I immediately decided getting them and to use them as Mind Flayer proxies. The are a bit more squigmen than classic Mind Flayers, but I really didn't mind - only thing that really bothered me was the tentacle arms Adam has given them. So, they had to go - and was replaced with some plastic hands from the Mantic Ghouls.

Four A Miniatures - Cultist's (My Mind Flayer Conversions)

Really, really like how the turned out. Didn't follow the original description about there looks (mauve coloured skin - and 'four' black purpled face tentacles) - as I from the very start had chosen to go for the orange clothes look. So, gave them a more greyish coloured skin instead - but kept the three red fingers (at least) ;)

And it ain't all misery and pain, here. This here came through post yesterday - and really made my day. 1.8 kg pure miniature metal:

Yes, it's Mr. Pickford's Otherworld Giant :-) A gigantic miniature. Never seen anything like it. An absolutely wonderful miniature. Comes even with the 3 most fantastic head choices as well. Will have to find a way to magnetise them - so I can use all 3 (any tips are welcome). And will he ever get painted, you might ask? Well .... ? :-D

That's all from me. Hopefully you found something you liked. But before I go, want to say welcome to a new follower, Warduke. A friend from The OW forum. I'm glad to see you here, Warduke - and hope you'll enjoy your stay.

Have a nice weekend.

Gulguthra - Dung Eater

2011-03-29T15:20:00.003+02:00

Gulguthra, or maybe better know as Otyughs, are terrifying creatures that lurk in heaps of dung and decay, waiting for something to disturb it. They feed on dung and wastes from other dungeon creatures but also enjoy a snack of fresh meat. So watch out - my Otyugh is here :-)

This brilliant miniature from Otherworld Miniatures was release just before Christmas, and has been standing here at my desk, primed and ready for paint in more that 2 months, now. Didn't get anywhere. Just couldn't get motivate doing it.

But then I had some help. The monthly painting challenge at the Otherworld Minatures Forums had the theme: "Like, so Last Year" - so what better than paint probably the best ever miniature made - and definitely the best of 2010, from Otherworld?

The miniature is, again, a John Pickford sculpt - and was the best one he has ever done - right until this master piece here showed up a few weeks ago:

Cause yes, Richard Scott have finally decided doing a classic Eye Tyrant. Can find words to describe who excited I am. The miniature is fantastic and was pre-ordered right after the first previews- and will hopefully show up very, very soon. And it ain't stopping here, cause Richard has asked Mr. Pickford to do a second variant - but also a conversion kit for doing an Eye of the Deep variant. So, I'll probably have to order all of them. Wife is going to kill me :-)

Enough excitement, back on topic. Where were we, akk! Otyugh ..right? And yes, pictures - you need seeing some of the pictures. So here they are my OWC entry:

OW - DM22 Otyugh

Chaos Dwarf Beast and Handler

2011-03-29T12:38:00.006+02:00

I'm currently fighting some health issues that's keeping me away from painting much - so today's update is first an old piece (my Golden Hat XIV entry made in February). Late today, I'll post my March entry for the Otherworld Miniatures Painting Challenge.

The miniature is an conversion based on Asmodée's (Hell Dorado) Mouth of the Abyss and one of Dave King's BeDerken Dwergs - the Drahg Feeder of Crows miniature. All base on a slightly converted Micro Art Studio - 50mm square Shale base.

The idea was to create a more natural looking Lammasu/Shedu kind of beast. So less bearded human headed lion with eagle wings :-) Just a tormented winged lion beast exposed to the cruelty of an evil dwarf.

Hell Dorado Mouth of the Abyss/BeDerken Drahg Feeder of Crows

My Chaos Dwarf Standard Bearer is released

2011-03-07T14:15:00.004+01:00

I just want to share this little piece of news.

My Chaos Dwarf Standard Bearer is out from Four A Miniatures. Andrew Coleman added the little stunty to the store yesterday.

If you are into Old school Chaos Dwarfs - why not go and have a look at Four A Miniatures

- and maybe even grab yourselves a copy or two :-)

And even if you don't like him, why not take a look at Andrew's fantastic range of miniatures. So many wonderful castings in there. I spend another £30 in there, yesterday - had to get myself the newest Paul Muller's but also some of the fantastic Adam Gayford sculpts. Like these Cultists:

That, with a little conversion, will make basic for some great, great Mind Flayers.

On the shopping list was also: a sitting imp playing with a severed head, a young Cyclopes and a few of Adam's Goblins and Dwarfs - 'More lead to the lead mountain' :-D

Otherworld Painting Challenge: It's you

2011-03-06T23:32:00.002+01:00

"Somehow, despite overwhelming odds, our band of plucky adventurers did not meet their doom and have escaped. Their lives however, have not been easy, plagued by constant attacks, their village raped, pillaged and burned, their every step dogged by an unseen opponent.

At long last, after many years of searching, they have finally found this shadowy villain's lair, defeated his mighty and powerful guards and now they stand before the door to his chamber, all that remains is for them to walk through the door..."

That's how the second challenge on Otherworld Miniatures Forum sounded - and I accepted the challenge right one - but didn't have the miniatures for it. So, it was time to put down my first gold voucher order at awesome Otherworld Miniatures - OW.

I wanted the little party to meat the ultimate chaotic evil - but OW don't do a Lich Lord ... yet :-)

I have a few Lich Lord's in my collection and chose the Reaper Miniature 14144: Moandain, Necropolis Warlord for this. It's an excellent sculpt done by Julie Guthrie. Nicely floating through the air and with plenty of details to challenge my skills.
To allow a single non-OW miniature in the challenge you'll have to do at least one OW as well (a fair 50-50% rule) - so to compensate for my betrayal, I went for the Wight duo. The Wights are in a such scale that they can tone down the 'super-sized' Reaper Miniatures.

So here it is my February OW challenge entry.

Otherworld - UD7 Wights and
Reaper Miniatures 14144: Moandain, Necropolis Warlord

Had to rush the two Wights a bit, as I only had a few nights to finish them. For that I am sorry. Paul Muller's deserves the best , right?

And next (March) challenge is already up. This challenge is very open and is called: "Like, so Last Year" - nice and simple - paint a miniature release from OW in 2010 - so, lots to choose from. This Challenge will give me the perfect opportunity to finally paint my John Pickford Otyugh.

And speaking of John ... :) Think I'll be painting lots and lots of John's miniatures the next few months. Not only will it be the official Otherworld Miniatures - like Goblins, Ogres and the upcoming Eye of Terror or the Hasslefree stuff - but I will also find time doing a few surprises - so watch this space.

That's it for today, but before I leave you all, I'd like to welcome 'Willmark'. Glad to see you here, Mark - hope you'll enjoy the stay. Probably not that much about evil stunties, though (For those that shouldn't know Mark, I can tell, that he is our 'evil' Sith Lord (or Admin for short) at the Chaos Dwarfs Online - and do a mighty fine job :-) ).

Walking dead

2011-02-19T15:48:00.003+01:00

Braiiiins, must have braiiiins ...... :D Well, I've never been that keen on zombie miniature games in general, but that hasn't stopped me from doing quite a few Zombies for my RPGs and WfB during the years - so it's been rather nice going back and do a few more.

I'm trying to learn 'what to use' and more important how to use my set of citadel washes. Still struggling, though.

But zombies should benefit from such a treatment . Got 8 of these Heresy Miniatures zombies sculpted by Mr. Paul Muller, so gave the 4 of them a shot.

From white prime it's a few washes of a diluted mix of black, brown (mud) and green wash - then highlighted with white and again a light wash, with a similar but even more diluted mix of washes. Final highlight is VMC Silver grey with a gentle touch of olive green.

Like the way the turned out - and a bit surprise to see how quickly I can do undead skin - painting like this.

Heresy Miniatures - HV027/HV030 Zombies (mixed from pack 1 and 2)

So what's next ..? Well, if my Otherworld order arrives in time - I'll be entering the 2nd forum painting challenge - but it's all depending on that I get the two Wraiths in time. Also working on the secret entry for Golden Hat #14 at Chaos Dwarfs Online. I'm nearly there. Deadline is the 27th. - but it will be another 10 days before it will get posted here.

It's mine! My own, my precious

2011-02-09T19:51:00.001+01:00

Famous words, and describes very well how I feel about today's miniature.

Why, you might ask? Because it is mine, my own, my very 'first' sculpted miniature - and it have now been turned into a beautiful little fragile metal miniature - possible by the courtesy of Mr. Andrew Coleman. Yes, the man behind Four a Miniatures have show me some great courtesy and have kindly helped me out here. At first I was just looking for a few miniatures for myself and a few friends - but Andy has offered me a chance of having it made commercial available through his store. That is one of those offers you can't refuse, right?

This miniature showed here is one of the first master casts made - but hopefully they will go into a production mould soon, so he can be all yours :-) And while waiting, why not visit his awesome miniature e-store. I'm sure you'll find something in there you like - so why not spend a minute and a few £ there - and let him know what a fantastic job he is doing.

The Master turned up here Saturday, was primed Saturday night and then painted Sunday and based yesterday. But first a little preview of the miniature master as it came:

Colour-wise, the scheme is more or less 'stolen' from Adam Skinner. Adam's Chaos dwarf - entry for Golden Demon back i 2005, is the no #1 reason for me picking up a long gone interest for Chaos/evil/vicious Dwarfs. Adam's silver winning entry made me start looking in old forgotten boxes and suddenly find myself tracking down Chaos Dwarfs at eBay.

So this is painted rather as a tribute to Adam's awesome work and for 'helping me' clarifying what direction my hobby should take.

- and here it is, then:

Four A Miniatures - Chaos Dwarf Standard Bearer

A Skull? Yes, you are right - this is a slightly converted version of the Bearer. The mastering process showed us, that the standard top was a bit fragile - and breaks off very easily. This will somehow be fixed for the production mould, of course. But for this first version its fixed with a Skull - and don't look that bad, actually.

And it ain't just finished yet - it needs an impressive banner and a shield, of course - but for this first version, I wanted to present him naked as he comes (and running out of white primer also played a small part of it). Again it will be a Adam Skinner rip off. And yes, sure, I will come back posting the finished version, here :-)

Pink Lady

2011-02-05T00:44:00.003+01:00

This creature should have a strong resemblance of a cross between a giant green cutworm and a huge cephalopod - but as this is a 'not-Carrion Crawler' - but a "Carcass Scavenger" from the Labyrinth Lord universe - and as I know nothing about that at all - well I've painted it like I wanted to - and used the opportunity to tested a few (to me) unusual colours.

The miniature is - again - an Otherworld one - and again a miniature by talented Mr. John Pickford.

The miniature itself comes in 25 pieces. A main body part, 16 tiny little legs and 8 tentacles - so quite a puzzle putting together. But I worked it out - thanks to Wierd Chris (the Duke) and his 15 pieces of advice found here.
Followed them step by step - so yes hand primed - with Vallejo Black primer - and legs and tentacles came one very late in the process. Even the base were almost finished before they were glued on and painted :-)

But here she is (cause yes, I'm told by the sculptor himself that it's a she)- the Pink (and turquoise) Lady

Otherworld DM12b Carcass Scavenger II

And before I go, a big welcome to 'Ragna'. Glad to have you on board - hope you'll find just something interesting here.

Paul is back on the workbench

2011-01-27T14:47:00.003+01:00

Actually, been laying in bed most of the time since my last up date. The annual flu hit me - and it hit me hard - but I'm better now - and was in time for finishing my entry for the Brush Slave #2 Painting Challenge at Chaos Dwarfs Online. It's now time for voting - and there are quite a few cool entries.

The theme was Roll them Bones - so Otherworld Miniatures Skeleton I's were quite obvious for this as they are some of the best sculpted Skeletons I know of, but could it be any different when Paul Muller is the man behind the miniatures :-) But trust me, they are also quite a struggle. The Skeletons from Otherworld are so rich of tiny little details. So rich that it's making them a pain painting for an old man like me with rusty hands and tired eyes at 10 p.m.

But I did finish them. Not my best, I know. Will try harder next time - as Skeletons II is definitely on my list of purchases from Otherworld Miniatures. Cause yes, I did take advantage of the fantastic Voucher program. A program that offers you a 23-33% discount. So if you haven't already bought a voucher, now is the time. Program runs out by the end of January :-)

Otherworld - UD1a - Skeletons I

And if you are a member at CDO - well, why not go and place a vote for one of the awesome entries :)

Have also been testing how to paint another Otherworld must have ... Mr. Pickford's characterful Goblins. Next is a test piece how to do good old classic brown goblin skin.

Otherworld - GB4 - Goblin Command Chieftain

This Goblin has been a joy painting - but I'm not 100% pleased with the skin-tone. So, it's back to the mixing pallet I guess.

Last, but definitely not least are my Heresy Miniatures Giant Slugs. Not sculpted by the brilliant man behind the company, himself (Andy Foster) - but done by Paul Muller - and like always, so rich on details. The set consist of 3 giant slug-like gribblies- sort of Slug, Maggot and Caterpillar.

Heresy Miniatures - HM021 Giant Slugs

The Slug

The Maggot

The Caterpillar

Bits and bobs

2011-01-17T13:30:00.003+01:00

First off, a big welcome to Phil Hynes and 'rampant_goat'. Glad to have you here and I hope you'll enjoy your stay - and find something you like - not many zombies, though ;-) And then again ... I do have some Paul Muller Zombies from Heresy ... hmm! - a new painting project, perhaps ..??

So a new year has started, and things are back to normal. So, there has actually been time to get something done. Played with a few plastic kits, too! My son is now 8 years old - and has a growing interest for wargaming. GW 40K,though - and more precisely Orks. We build a Deff Dreed together - and after that we also did turn a Skaven Doomwheel into something Orkish. Can't hardly blame him. Been there myself - but hopefully he will mature - like Dad did :-)

Back on topic and back to today's update which is a mix of things I've done within the last few weeks.

First thing I want to show off is one of the awesome Sea Demon's Paul Muller did for Andrew Coleman @ Four A Miniatures. The Sea Demons are such wonderful sculpts. Paul did a great job sculpting them and he is one of the best - when it comes to creepy/weird/evil/cruel stuff.

Paul has done four Sea Demon for Andy (3 Warriors and a Sea Hag). All showed at the Frother's Unite Forum - but only two off them are up in the store, for now. Nagged Andy a bit, and he was so kind to let me have all 4 - plus a 5th Paul Muller Sculpt called a Piranahboy - not sure if he is an official part of the Sea Demon series, but the name surely indicates that. All the other 4 are now primed white, and will probably show up here in the weeks to come.Here is the first one:

Four A Miniatures - Sea Demon

Next, we have another Grenadier Demon. Some might remember that I entered a Grenadier Demon into the 'Paint a Classic' @ Miniature Heroes - but I've also painted a second one - as a test piece to improve highlighting reds.

So, first we have the MH 'Paint a Classic'-entry and then the new 'blood demon':

Grenadier Models/Mirliton Demons

Last, I want to show you my entry for the newly founded Otherworld Miniaturs Forums Painting Challenge . Have had these miniature standing on my desk primed and ready for painting for quite some time, now. Been wanting to paint them for a long time - but always got distracted and did something else. But now was the perfect time - and rather speed painted them too. Took me about 4-5 hours to do - and think I came up with a rather decent result. So here they are - my two new Otherworld babies:

Otherworld DM18 Rust Monsters

The Rust Monsters are another John Pickford creation. John has done an awesome job on these metal eating creatures. They are like a 3D version of the artwork from the 1st ed TSR Monster Manual. These here, from Otherworld are very close to those Citadel did in their ADD range back in 1986 - but are much bigger and have a lot more details added - so if you are into Original AD&D Miniatures these two Otherworld babies are a 'must'.

And speaking of size. They are based on a 40mm display base (bevelled base). The inner base itself is a Post Apocalypse resin "topper" base from Ian Brumby's company: Fenris Games

Grenadier Chaos Dwarf Sorcerer

2011-01-11T09:48:00.004+01:00

I've been painting like a mad man, lately (taking into account that I'm a very slow painter with way to little hobby quality time). Painted more miniatures the last 3-4 months than I did the 12 months before that. Unfortunately it hasn't been that many Chaos Dwarfs - for that I am sorry :-(

But I did one during the Christmas holidays. It was an entry for the painting comp @Miniature-heroes.com. And with only a few hours left, I think it's okay to reveal it. Didn't stand a chance, of course (Way to much talent talent over there). But wanted to show Tim my support. He is doing such a fantastic job for old school geeks like me.

And I'm rather please with my entry, actually. Think it's painted near the standard I'm capable of (at the moment).

Theme for the competition was: 'Paint a Classic' and it was limited to a miniature in the Mirliton/Grenadier Models range - and with a max of 3 miniatures.

Can you get a better excuse for start painting the Grenadier Battle Lords Chaos Dwarves box set (#1608)? Did plan to do a second dwarf - but like said a few days ago, the Painting Dragon got in it's way :-)

But here is my entrant:

Grenadier Chaos Dwarf Sorcerer

So what's next then ....? Well, painting something for the Brush Slave #2 @ Chaos Dwarfs Online. The theme is 'Roll them Bones' so took the opportunity to do my Otherworld Skeletons. I now remember why I never finished that Vampire army. I absolutely hate painting skelies. Just can't make them look right/good.

Also on the painting desk are 3 of Four A Miniatures' Sea Demons, another 2 Grenadier Demons and a the second Grenadier Chaos Dwarf, of course.

Also planing on doing my 2 Otherworld Rust Monsters. The fantastic Otherworld Miniatures Forum has started a little Painting Challenge, too. So what better excuse can I get for painting them.

And why not join in, too? Go have a look at the challenge: Level 1 Party Killer @ Otherworld Miniatures Forum

The Painting Dragon

2011-01-07T20:03:00.005+01:00

Well, not quite true I didn't paint something, that I could actually show :-)

While planing my Miniature Heroes 'Paint a Classic 2010' entries - I had a good look at The Miniature Heroes Web-store and found what I was looking for in the Mirliton - Nightmares sub-section.

After doing my order for some Demons, I came cross the sub section labelled: 'Sablesinge'.

Sablesinge is inspired by old promotional painting dragons done by Metal Magic (a - now, long gone - German miniature manufacturer).

Sablesinge is Miniature Heroes signature miniature - and Tim's version is done by talented John Pickford (think, John has become my favourite miniature sculptor) - so quite obvious, that I had to order that one, too.

The miniature is even more awesome real life, so I just couldn't resist painting it straight away. Unfortunately, the result was, that I didn't finish the planed 3th entry for the 'Paint a Classic 2010' :-(

But I finished the colouring the other day - and did the display base last night.

So here he is - the Painting Dragon:

Miniature Heroes - Sablesinge

Happy New Year

2011-01-07T11:28:00.010+01:00

Maybe a bit belated, but December is a hectic month at the Clamshell Mansion. Wedding day December 2nd, Christmas, New Year and the birthday’s of my two sons (December 29th and December 31th) and then add the usual Christmas rush, you might have guessed that December is not a great Hobby Month for me.

But I did find a few spare hours to paint. Unfortunately I can’t show you, yet - as I did two entries for the Grenadier/Mirliton painting competition at www.miniature-heroes.com.

Not winning entries, I know (to much talent over there to stand a chance :-), but I’m quite pleased with them, nonetheless. I really like the Miniature-Heroes site. The shop is fantastic (and soon Tim (Store owner) will even be stocking Dave King's BeDerken Miniatures, too) and the forum is such a great and friendly place. And it's all about hard core old school miniatures. If you (like me) like the old s***, you really should go visit the site and perhaps even join.

You can then go over to the The Heroes 2010 section - and see if you can spot what I did. Shouldn't be that hard ;-)

Here is a link for all the entries (poll):

Paint a classic 2010

– but better warn you, as you have to sign up/log in to watch them.

Se you all soon.

Happy New Year

Clam

A visitor from Hell

2010-12-14T13:12:00.000+01:00

First, welcome to follower no. 5 - Kingofdaveness :-) - and seeing you here makes me very, very guilty - but I'll promise you, that I'll start painting some of your awesome BeDerken Dwergs very soon.

On to another apology! So sorry, to have let you all wait this long. It's be a hectic month for me - and the next 18 days don't look less hectic. Don't you just hate when real life is killing your hobby?

But Saturday night I finnaly got the chance of do a bit of painting. Last week I had the most wonderful little parcel from the another awesome little miniature manufacturer - Four A Miniatures. Inside the box was 7 miniatures done by Paul Muller - and I couldn't help it. I had to start paint the little four armed demon - straight away. Finished the base last night, so here it is:

Four A Miniatures: Four armed Demon

Due the cold weather here - I can't use spray primer - so I have to use ordinary black paint and brush it on. I hate that as it don't stick that well to the models - and paints then chip of so easily. So if anyone know a good brush on primer - please leave a comment here.

But apart from that, it's a fantastic miniature painting. The muscular structures are done so well - and the 3 eyes and the belly maw is so wonderful detailed and adds lots of character to the model.

Hope you like him - cause I do :-)

Loved him so much, that I had to nominated it as best fantasy miniature at the TGN 2010 Reader’s Choice Awards - so, why not go over there and vote for him - or for one of the other cool miniatures nominated?

Mass of foul, festering corruption

2010-11-17T15:29:00.004+01:00

Today's miniature miniature has been standing on my desk for quite a few weeks, now - as I couldn't decide how to paint it - but this weekend I decider to give him a earth colour look.

The Monster Manual describe him as being yellowish grey?- but I know of no such colour - and as I'm slightly colour blind - I wouldn't dare mixing my own :-)

So yes, another old DnD moster is now painted - and this time its a Roper. Standing upright with its six arms searching for it's favourite prey - humans.

The miniature itself is not that old. This Roper miniature is rather new. It's sculpted by the talented Mr. John Pickford earlier this year - and can be found in the wonderful Otherworld miniature range - and like every other Otherworld miniature it stays true to the artwork that can be found in the old source books for role-playing games like AD&D.

Otherworld Miniatures DM20 Roper

They are here

2010-11-11T21:21:00.001+01:00

Okay, Hasslefree Miniatures/Sjoerd Trouwee has been doing Chaos Dwarfs the last 5-6 years - but with just a single or two releases a year - I've been 'hungry' for finding additional evil stunties for my Chaos Dwarf Project/collection.

But, 2010 seems to be 'the year' my calls will be heard - and no, I'm not thinking of the upcoming Warhammer Forge releases (cause I actually do not fancy those that much) - no, it's because both Dave King and his BeDerken's and theBattleForge has now released their first series of evil dwarfs.

So, this week my newly purchased Dwarfs has arrived - 15 BeDerken's (+ a Familiar) and 11 theBattleForge ones :-) All of a wonderful, wonderful quality - and I can only recommend buying these - if you are into evil dwarfs.

First to receive the painting treatment will be the 'too late arrived' Chaos Dwarf Musician:

theBattleForge Chaos Dwarf Musician

A bit hard taking pictures of this guy - mainly because of the pose - but also because of very, very bad lightning, but I can assure you, that this miniature has lots of character.

And while at it, I painted the 3 Pole Axe-men as well. These guys have huge, huge pole axes (halberds) - and looks bloody awesome - just like miniatures looked like in the early 90s.

theBattleForge: Chaos Dwarf Pole Axe Men

Definitely building a 20 man unit, when a few more poses is available.

And in other great news:
And then speaking of Hasslefree and Sjoerd Trouwee's Dwarves of Myth (Twisted Tales Range) - Sjoerd has showed a preview of the next dwarf his is working on:

Source: new sculpt WIP @ CDO - http://www.chaos-dwarfs.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=8366&pid=145172#pid145172

Very, very convincing, I think. Hopefully Kev White things the same and will add this awesome little guy to the range @Hasslefree Miniatures.

So that's todays update. But, before I go, I'll like to say welcome to the next two followers: Finch and Pyro Stick. Glad to see you have found me - and hopefully you'll enjoy your stay.

R.I.P. Rock in Peace

2010-11-03T17:51:00.004+01:00

Leave me alone
Like a dog with a bone
Like a stone that's been thrown
Let me be on my own

Let me rock
Let me roll
Let me rock
Let me rock in peace

Well thats the words of an old AC/DC song taken from the studio album
Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap. The songe is called R.I.P (Rock in Peace) - and as RIP is the theme for the current painting challenge at powerfist.dk - why not use this theme and create an - 1980's heavy rocking - evil dwarf. Made from my last Mantic Ironclad bits.

So let me take you back in time. Back to a time where real music was made :-)

Mantic Games: Dwarf Ironclad conversion

And yes, I did say something about doing an entry for the Golden Hat at CDO. This little piece was also meant to be an entry there, but things didn't turn out as planed.

And then finally (of course), a big welcome to my first two followers: Weird Chris (or should I say 'the Duke') and Kiltedyaksman. I know you guys will probably want to see something else then small evil plastic stunties - but I can assure you both, that I'll get back into painting metal DnD stuff, very soon.

Shambling Mound

2010-10-24T21:39:00.006+02:00

Have I been waiting for this update?

Since I first saw the greens for this model I've been so excited to put my brush to work on this guy. So this week I've spend all my hobby time painting this 'big' baby.

Otherworld Miniatures WE11 - Shambling Mound

The miniature is another old DnD Monster - a Shambling Mound - but in a new design. The miniature is made from another favourite sculptor of mine - John Pickford and is available from the fabulous Otherworld Miniatures. Must say, I have great, great respect for what Richard Scott is doing here - not only for the DnD community but also for miniature collectors and painters in general - so if you like miniatures with an old school flavour you should definitely pay him and Otherworld a visit.

Shambling Mound has been an absolute joy to paint and I can only recommend this miniature to everyone who likes painting.

Sadly, we haven't seen the sun here lately - so pictures don't do this miniature justice. Might try taking new ones - when sun is back in April 2011 :-D

So what's next? Well ..? - no idea yet :) Have a Chaos Dwarf to finish for the Golden Hat competition at CDO.

TheBattleforge let me down here. Thought I could have a command figure (musician) from the new range - but the greens are still at the casters - so won't get here until early November - to late for the competition, I'm afraid :-(

- but other then that ... don't have a clue - but I have a Otherworld Roper and a Ral Partha Beholder starring at me - so who knows? Maybe another AD&D Monster to slap some paint on.

A lonely dwarf

2010-10-17T12:00:00.007+02:00

Today's miniature is from another wonderful little manufacturer The Battle Forge. The company is run by Paul Stanley. Paul has specialised doing especially Halfllings and has done a wonderful range of half men. Paul's sculpt all his miniatures by himself and do them in a rough heavy style like in the old days. The miniatures are quite cartoonish and ooze of character - exactly what I like.

I've been very tempted picking up some of those Halflings, but have controlled myself till now. Now, Paul has added new races to his ranged - both a Giants and now dwarfs can be found in his eBay-store 'From fire and flame'.

But what really got me excited is, that Paul is now planing to do a hole army of Chaos Dwarfs. And has showed me the first very promising first greens - like these:

While waiting for the first Chaos Dwarfs to be released and to feel the quality of The Battle Forge's miniatures I've picked up three of the ACW Dwarfs with Pikes - just to try out how it felt painting Pauls sculpts. Mark "Artwho9" Dixon had already done an excellent job painting them in a classic ACW style - so I did a test model for a rather untraditional colour scheme:

TheBattleForge ACW dwarf Pikeman #1

Chaotic Evil

2010-10-16T15:47:00.001+02:00

Finding the old Citadel and Ral Partha AD&D miniatures at my fathers house - made me start looking for a few more miniatures. Some of those that I loved but never got back then. Have found a few at eBay - but that search also lead me to the most wonderful little miniature company: Otherworld Miniatures. Otherworld do classic 28mm AD&D/fantasy gaming figures inspired by the iconic imagery of the early Dungeon & Dragon gaming books/art works - and have specialists doing monster like those that can be found in the Monster Manual (TSR 1977) and Fiends Folio (TSR 1981) - just like Grenadier, Ral Partha and Citadel did.

My first purchase from Otherworld was the awesome Shadows sculpted by the fantastic Paul Muller. Paul has done a lot of cool models for many miniature companies - but I must admit, that the Undead range he is doing for Otherworld are some of his bests - and I was very, very impressed by both sculpting and casting quality of these.

So back on topic. After finishing the Citadel Umber Hulk I wanted to do some more D&Ds - so the next painting project was these new Undeads.

Otherworld UD Series - Undead, Shadows

I love painting Undead - so Skeletons, Wights, Wraiths and Ghouls will probably be on my next Otherworld order - and hopefully Otherworld will also do me a Lich. Would really like painting one so I has been looking for a Citadel ADD94 - but without luck.

Next project is dwarfs, though. Will have to figure out what to do for Golden Hat XIII at Chaos Dwarf Online. A Chaos Dwarf Musician? - hmmm! haven't got a clue, what I'll do - or have I :-D

Long lost monsters -

2010-10-11T12:47:00.003+02:00

I've just recently returned to AD&D (from a painting point of view) - after finding my old box of miniatures - clearing my dads house. I had totally forgot about these. Must be at least 20 years since I last looked at them. Brought back lots of happy memories - like: being 15, playing soccer in the summer time - and Dungeon and Dragons at cold winter nights.

And when a Danish gaming (powerfit.dk) site was running a painting challenge with the theme: 'Create a Monster' - I couldn't think of a better excuse for painter the Umber Hulk - can you?

Here it is:

Citadel ADD77 - Umber Hulk (TSR 1985)

Gunline taking shape

2010-10-11T12:24:00.011+02:00

Don't have much time for playing with my miniatures - but the dream keeps this project alive - creating a WfB Chaos Dwarf army.

So the 'Blunderbuss' unit starts to take shape. Still need to find a suitable model for the rare ranks. Thought of using old Citadel Chaos Dwarfs with plastic crossbows giving them a suitable blunderbuss replacement.

Here is the 12 man unit (thought it's only 10 man and a Swivel Gun). Mix of Twisted Tales and old Citadel and Marauder Miniatures.

And a few close ups:

Master of Puppets

2010-08-24T12:51:00.007+02:00

Today's post is actually an old piece. The 'mini-diorama' was actually meant for the 10th Golden Hat competition at the Chaos Dwarf Online forum in November 2009. But like always, I fail making deadlines,but I finished it in Marts 2010.

It's meant to represent a Chaos Dwarf and his fly creature - the great Taurus - and to be used for Warhammer Fantasy Battles. But as I had the Big Hat/Bull approach to the Chaos Dwarfs, I choose something different.

The miniature used are the awesome HM009 Azaroth the Fallen One Daemon from Heresy Miniatures and an old Citadel Chaos Zombie Dwarfs. To make the conversion work I had to sculpt the guy a new right arm. The rest is pretty much straight out of the box, really.

Here are a few more pictures:

Barzach SkullSmasher

2010-08-19T23:17:00.006+02:00

My biggest passion when it comes to 28mm miniatures is Dwarfs - I'm mad about them - especially the evil kind of dwarfs. And it really doesn't weather they are for a fantasy or Sci-fi setting.

Evil dwarfs are pretty hard to find now a day, but trough time a lot of manufacturers have tried their luck doing evil stunties. Think we all remember Citadels Chaos Dwarfs and Squarts - but also Grenadier, Ral Partha, Mirliton Miniatures, Essex Miniatures, Metal Magic, Rackham, Reaper's and a lot of others have tried it out. Through the years I've collected quite a few of these- and I'll use this blog to plug some of these great old (OOP) miniatures.

Currently available, the best ones are probably those done by the talented Sjoerd Trouwee. His miniatures was released through Twisted Tales, but when it closed down in 2008, Hasslefree Miniatures picked them up - and they can now be found at Hasslefree Miniatures - in their Twisted Tales range. I've done quite a few of these dwarfs recently - but also some of the newer stuff Sjoerd has added to the Twisted Tales miniatures line.

Most impressive is probably the heroic looking Barzach SkullSmasher - must say, that he was the perfect miniature painting - lots of little details and tons of character.

So, here we are

2010-08-19T22:06:00.002+02:00

Yeah, why not try this and see where it takes me.

Have started various blogs on various forums to show my (lack of) skills, but it's time to merge it all into one single blog.

So here we are - the 'Clamshells and sea dog dogs' goes live.

And you might ask what will it all be about, then? We'll ... anything, I guess ... as long as it looks cool and it's at a 28mm scale.