Collecting John Pickford: Dwarf knights of the Great Bear on foot on Kickstarter

Just a quick message to let you all know that the previously unreleased - but most awaited - Dwarf Knights of the Great Bear by John Pickford and made for White Knight Miniatures Imperium is now on Kickstarter.

The Assault Group (TAG) is running a short 4 day kickstarter campaign to found the final moulding and casting.

So pledge now to help TAG add these two new additional packs (8 miniatures) to the Dwarf Empire range.

You'll find the campaign here:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/584137481/tag-28mm-dwarf-empire-bear-knight-miniatures/description

Collecting John Pickford: TAG - Dwarf Empire Knights on foot

White Knight Miniatures Imperium have announced that they have joint forces with The Assult Group (TAG) and that TAG will take over moulding, casting, stocking and the processing of orders of the John Pickford Dwarf Empire miniatures.

From, 1st of December 2015, TAG will be involve in all aspects of the design, sales and distribution of White Knight's Dwarf Empire. And all the dwarfs are now available for general sale through the TAG-web-site.

TAG has been a strictly historical miniature maker, but are now breaking into the fantasy genre. To kickstart the dwarf-venture TAG has launched a crowd-funding campaign to fund the release of 17 brand new packs - The Dwarf Empire Knights on foot.

The Kickstarter campaign is a short one and ends on 31st December 2015. You'll find the campaign here:

Here is a small teaser to show what it's all about:

To see more of the new miniatures check out the TAG-campaign page, WK's blog or the many photos on WK's Facebook-page

Collecting John Pickford: Iron Mask Miniatures on Kickstarter, again

Good friend and fellow John Pickford enthusiast Gary Price of Iron Mask Miniatures is now running his second crowd funding campaign on Kickstarter.

This second one is all about bringing mounted dwarf musketeers to his fantastic fantasy musketeer universe.

As with the first wave of Dwarf Musketeers (the Musketeers on foot) the new mounted dwarfs come as multi part figures with an extensive selection of hands, weapons and head options.

The Mounted Dwarf Musketeers includes four different ponies with exceptional personality. These ponies were originally sculpted by John Pickford for White Knight Miniatures and his Renaissance Dwarf light cavalry range and are now, with WKs kind permission, used for the Dwarf Musketeers as well.

All the miniatures have been sculpted and mastered. Therefore, all the many choices can be seen on the campaign page - but here are some samples of the wonderful builds we can do, when the campaign is successfully funded:

And I must say they all looks stunning. Just look at the Four Musketeers down here all painted (pretty sure it done by Terry Matheny of Sword and Palette):

Now, who wouldn't like such a unit to hunt down Lord Buckingham's spies or the Cardinal’s Guard - or maybe even the Cardinal himself? For let us hope this goes all the way. Because one of the many wonderful stretched goals are just a mounted version of the Cardinal.

I feel in love with the Cardinal on foot, but this one is even better. Lovely, lovely sculpt.

To find out all about the Kickstarter Campaign - just click this banner down here:

Landgriffons coming from White Knight

In January White Knight Miniature Imperium revealed his plans for the next dwarf  release. Next release will be all about monstrous cavalry as John Pickford have sculpted him two magnificent Landgriffons to be used for the coming Dwarf veteran knights.

Here'a a little teaser of what to expect:

The dynamic duo did it again :) Magnificent work - and looking much forward getting my hands on those.

Collecting John Pickford: White Knight have released their Dwarf Artillerists and Inventors

White Knight Miniature Imperium have recently released their Dwarf Artillerists and Inventors all by John Pickford. A must-have fore any Renaissance Dwarf fan (or Pickford fan ;-))

The new releases are:

• Dwarf Artillery Crew set
• Dwarf Hackbut and Crew set
• Dwarf Inventor With Snipergun 
• Dwarf Inventor With Handgrenade

WKD-50: Dwarf Inventor With Snipergun

Check these cool new releases out at WK's blog (and now you are there you might like to check out the wonderful Sea Elves sculpted by Mark Evens and MickDarpa's Human Zombies).

Collecting John Pickford: Puck's Dance

Back in 2007 the Frother’s Unite Community ran their 4th Pro-Am Sculpting Competition. The theme for this competition was, as always, a very open theme trying not to limit the sculptor's creativity. The theme for this 2007 Competition was: "The Unseelie Suspects or the dark side of faeryland" and sculptors where to do fantasy characters, spirits and creatures with inspiration taken from the classic folklore and fairy tale without going Disney.

John entered this competition and was competing in the "Satyrs and woodland spirits" category. For this category John did a entry called "Puck's Dance" - a diorama piece with roots in classic English folklore and Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" - but with the usually little twist of evilness and humour that is seen on many Pickford sculpts. Puck was inspired by Neil Gaiman's "the Sandman" - in here Puck aids the Norse God Loki in kidnapping Daniel, and am playing a small role in the death of the Sandman.

Entry commentary: 
The main figure is Puck, dancing on a rock, his true nature revealed from behind. With him are Peaseblossom on lute and Mustard Seed on trumpet, who provide the music for Puck's dance. 

They do not care that they are disturbing the inhabitant of the rock, and are therefore neighbours from hell. It must be early morning as he has not yet brought in the milk from the doorstep. ©Frother's Unite

The Frother's sculpting competition concept has that the winner/winner's and selected runners-up are moulded and sold through Frother's for a limited period of two months. After that, the miniatures faith are up to the sculptor.

John didn't win his category, as it was won by Kev White's lovely Oberon, but Puck's Dance was moulded and cast in limited numbers. Unfortunately, I wasn't around in time to get myself a copy. After the limited sale on Frother's the rights went to White Knight (WK). White Knight has then released the two characters Peaseblossom and Mustard Seed - both available in his Hors Série - line - but he has never released the entire "Puck's Dance" - diorama. Such a petty, I'd say - and I've been nagging him over and over again releasing it - but with no luck .... till

... 6 weeks ago when WK surprised me with an offer of letting me have Puck's Dance and put it in production, cause as he said: "It's more chaotic anyway, so makes more sense in your range than in mine". 

For me, it was one of those offers you can't really refuse, so I gladly accepted his strict license terms and signed the 50 page contact ...., in blood - and I've just donated the first kidney. Hopefully he can wait a bit for the second one :-P

So, here is the master cast I've got from WK, and I will now try and give it a proper release:

The 2007 FU!-UK Sculpting Contest "The Unseelie Suspects" - Puck's Dance

The trained eye will see it's now after breakfast, as the little Milk bottle on the doorstep has been brought in. The little bottle might have been lost in transit or it was still sitting in the master mould, when the master's were spun :-?

Here's all the diorama pieces:

And here is Puck, will work great as a stand alone piece as well :)

And that's not all. It actually came with an additional head piece. Puck head ain't a separated piece, but think it's an easy conversion - should you like replacing the awesome head he already has.

Hopefully Puck's dance will become available Autumn 2014 - so interested keep an eye out for the Claminiature-blog

Collecting John Pickford: Dwarf Inventors/Engineers from WK Miniatures - take 2

Okay, I might have posted news to quickly regarding The White Knight Miniature Imperium and the new Inventors/Engineers. Cause not only where they unfinished but a third Inventor has then been added. This week, WK posted the finished pieces at LAF - and here they are, in all their glory:


WK Minis: Inventor/Engineer with Longdistance Sniper Handgun

Sniper, Page-boy and stand

Build with the alternated stand

WK Minis: Inventor/Engineer with Swivel Gun

WK Minis: Inventor/Engineer "the Bomber"

Comes with two alternate bomb holding hands, "regular" and "holy"

- but that was not all ..... cause a few days later multi-part Artillery crew showed up as well. A set that really shows, why going "multi-part" is just so right. Such a beautiful set - and with all the builds you can really personalize each Cannon Crew in you 1.000 Dwarfs Army ... amazing ... :)

WK Minis: Artillery Crew Set

Commander with two arm option

Loader

Crewman with bucket

Crewman with ramrod or ladle

Crewman with ramrod or ladle 2

No plans for doing a Cannon for them, though. As White Knight explained: "I need to concentrate all resources on the figures and there are plenty of options from the likes of GW dwarf and Empire ranges, Lead Adventure Miniatures, TAG renaissance artillery,..." - fair call, I think - should be easy finding suitable Cannons for them.

Collecting John Pickford: Dwarf Inventors/Engineers from WK Miniatures

The White Knight Miniature Imperium  have just posted a preview of their coming Dwarf Inventors/Engineers on LAF - and they are absolutely gorgeous. The level of details John has manage to put into these are amazing. Incredible work - and yet again stunned by their quality. Such a good day being a Pickford-enthusiast/collector :)

WK Minis: Dwarf inventor/engineer with Hackbut

WK Minis: Dwarf inventor/engineer, with Longdistance Sniper Handgun and Page-boy

The Long-distance Sniper Gun will also come be done with a simple gunstand as an alternative support mechanism - even more options .... White Knight is sure spoiling his customers :)

Collecting John Pickford: WKs Dwarf Knightly Orders are out

- and more fresh news, this is!

White Knight Miniatures has just released the additional Knightly Orders for their Renaissance Dwarf, previous showed on here.

The Knights of White Boar, the Knights of the Great Bear and the Knights Templar of the Order of the Raven with matching command miniatures are all out.

A strong new release I must say. Will be hard choosing what unit to build, as they all look magnificent - but I do have a soft spot for Boars :)

You find all the new releases here: http://whiteknightminiatureimperium.blogspot.be/2013/05/getting-some-dwarf-knights.html

And while there .... check out the upcoming Zombie Halflings. Not done by John Pickford, but are done by Mike Darpa - still very good, I'll admit :)

Collecting John Pickford: More Dwarf Knightly Orders

Guess most of you have already seen this at the White Knight blog or on the various forums and social media they have been posted on.

But this release will also have relevance on here as well .... :) - cause White Knight and John Pickford have been doing  probably made the most significant release for the Renaissance Dwarf range till day - the knightly order upgrades.

Back in May, White Knight released the first heavy cavalry/Knights for the dwarf range. A great release, with knights wearing helmets and big feathers etc. - nothing wrong with with that of course, but especially the command set reviled that more knightly orders need to get done.

And they are here - and certainly worth waiting for. 3 new knightly orders are coming:

The Order of the Great Bear, aka the Templar Knights of Ursa Major 

The Order of the White Boar

The Order of the Raven, Templar Knights of the God of Death

This release leave me speechless. Don't really know what to say - other than 'when'?

Incredible work, John an WK :-D

And for more information and pictures - check out the White Knight Miniature Imperium-blog