Anvilgard (Army completed)

[Kierdale]

Thanks, Hammer.
The ‘goyles aren’t finished yet but the sorceress is.

I used my airbrush to do the eye glow for the first time ever and though it’s not great I’m glad I did it firstly because I’m happy with the result and secondly because I overcame the “don’t try it, you’ll muck it up!” thoughts I had in my head before getting going 😅

[Kierdale]

My ‘living statue’ heartrender allies for my Anvilgard army are done. I had deliberately damaged them a bit...and one took fall from the hobby desk and lost another horn and the tip of her javelin. I’m sure a blunt tipped stone javelin would still cause considerable pain.

I think the bases came out nicely. Ruins, again, care of Green Stuff world’s Aztec textured roller.
 

 

[Kierdale]

I haven’t updated this thread in a while!

I’ve been busy though...

nearly finished a unit of 6 pistoliers, and one of five dark riders. The former are on horses but for the latter, as my army is predominantly Scourge Privateers - who like catching beasts - I’ve painted up their mounts as dazzle-camo nags.

Carnivorous ones.

 

Im also replacing their cloaks with lizard-scales ones to tie the unit in with the Corsairs (I made the cloaks by taking Oyumaru moulds of Corsair cloaks, straightening them a bit while the plastic was still soft, then making the cloaks with GreenStuff).

A quick WIP of the nags.

[Mordeus]

Super stuff man, you have a good theme going on, looking forward to more!

[Kierdale]

Thank you, Mordeus!
Here’s the first of the human contingent...

 

My pyromaniac Freeguild pistoliers:

‘Lord Pire’s Cuirassiers’

 

 

First up is the lowest of the unit, and likely the most hard-working. Servant to the nobles, his job is to cook for them, look after their horses and keep them supplied with loaded pistols (hence he’s carrying so much stuff). I gave him a slightly smaller horse (from a Mordheim Road Warden) to represent his lower status, and gave his armour a brown wash to dirty it up. I had originally given him a pistol in his right hand too but part way through the project decided to show that they’re from the realm of fire by giving them trophy racks (hot realm, hot tempers) and burning torches  (the latter idea came to me while watching the old Conan The Barbarian movie, where Thulsa’s warband torches the huts of Conan’s people).

The chain about the horse’s neck was added to hide a big gap, and add to the image of servitude.

 

The unit Outrider and leader. Mordheim Road Warden (IIRC) mini. I replaced his crossbow with a double-barrelled pistol. When I added the ‘pyro’ element I made a brazier from paper clips, skulls and a metal bead. The flames were made with hot glue (probably should have had them come from lower within it).

And the rest of the unit...

Several of the skulls have gunshot wounds added to their foreheads. These men like to take trophies from only their finest kills.

Edited April 10, 2020 by Kierdale

[Kierdale]

I finished my dark riders this week.

I took moulds of Scourge Privateer cloaks using Oyumaru, then once the moulds were solid I removed the plastic bits and reheated the moulds and stretched them a little. Privateer cloaks are all blowing to the model’s left, which would look weird on Riders. I straightened them out, at a cost of a little detail I must admit.

I gave them cloaks to make them look like scouts and beast hunters, a part of the pirate forces. And did their headswraps  red rather than black so they looked less like Shadowblade forces and more like Aqshian pirates. Again, I did not use pirate heads as their hair blows to the sides.

 

The herald (leader). I used part of an Alpha Legion decal for a serpent tattoo on his scalp. It came out alright but I may redo his scalp and give him a black serpent-like design instead (to represent the Blackscale Coil organisation).

Standard bearer. Kraken decal and an Eldar decal, with scribblescript.

Trumpeter.

And lancers.

I’d love to get another box. Do some converted poses. One shooting a crossbow to a side, more lancers, maybe one with a lasso...

Edited April 30, 2020 by Kierdale

[Mick D]

I really like the freehand detailing on your banners and horses (zebras?!) Any tips on how you do them?

[torsten7048]

Very creative idea. I think, till today I haven‘t seen any zebras in a warhammer context. 👍

And they are looking really good. Especially together with the also colourful cloaks from the riders. 

[Kierdale]

9 hours ago, Mick D said:

I really like the freehand detailing on your banners and horses (zebras?!) Any tips on how you do them?

Thanks!

I do the scribble text on the banners by painting lots of dots, rather than lines. I hate when people do wavy lines. You have to water down the paint a bit but not too much. A lot of testing on one’s left thumb 😁 and practice. Maybe I can try to do a video sometime.

As for the zebras, I did start by doing one with an image of a real zebra on the monitor in front of me, but I didn’t like how it came out. I re-sprayed it white and just did it without any source image. I always started with the black band over or nearest the eyes and tried to make it look sinister. Rather than tapering the ends of the bands as I had originally, I ended them roughly.

I’ve seen a couple of others do it on Instagram. I was inspired by nurglewalkers, who did it far better than I:

https://www.instagram.com/p/B3nUm4pHKH_/?igshid=mfonug0965ga
 

9 hours ago, torsten7048 said:

Very creative idea. I think, till today I haven‘t seen any zebras in a warhammer context. 👍

And they are looking really good. Especially together with the also colourful cloaks from the riders. 

Thanks, as I mentioned above, I was inspired by another.

As you say, with their colourful cloaks they’re no ‘dark riders’ anymore so I figured I may as well make the beast hunters and scouts for my Corsairs, and give them weird steeds they had captured in a far off land (realm? Ghurian dazzle nags?).

[Kierdale]

My first all-duardin unit.

Thunderers of Karak-Brynbar. Some may be a bit long of shank and short of beard but all are loyal sons of Grungni. Some pureblood, some bloodbrothers...but duardin is in the soul, not the beard.
 

The descendants of the few duardin of the karak that managed to evacuate to Azyr are now returned to Aqshy, based in Anvilgard as verbal records state that the karak was in this region...though so much has been lost that they must now search for their ancestral home. Many humans have sworn to assist the dispossessed; some with honourable intentions...and at least a few mercenaries and treasure-seekers.

 

[Kierdale]

I like the flame-feathers now so redid the blue feather one of the pistoliers had. All feathers in the army will be done this way now.

 

 

And I’ve been working on my Kharibdyss. GreenStuff World’s colourshift paint -like the Corsair cloaks- for the beast’s hide. I did the belly lighter - countershading - as it is a sea creature.

Feathering the horns/talons/teeth from black through the reds took a long time but I like the colour it adds.

 

Edited May 21, 2020 by Kierdale

[Kierdale]

I got my Kharibdyss finished!

It was very fun to make and paint. I did choose to rotate the left fore claw after painting it, so GreenStuffed a manacle on to hide the rotation point.

I’d love to get a couple more. Perhaps give one the claws and tail of the Hydra for some variation.

 

[Ravenborn]

Love the manacle, great idea even if you didn’t need it to hide the joint. 

[Kramer]

So so good. Love the green scaley sheen on the... well scales. The manacle really ties them in. 

and seeing I read the thread title as having finished seven out of five kharibdysses completed 😂

I feel you definitely should do more 

[Kierdale]

14 hours ago, Ravenborn said:

Love the manacle, great idea even if you didn’t need it to hide the joint. 

Thanks. It got me wondering if, on a future Kharibdyss, I could hide a neck-angle change via a manacle. I don’t want to have three beasties all with their heads in exactly the same positions. Likewise bodies: I might do one partially submerged, sawing off the bottom one or two centimeters....

maybe swap the crew of a chariot for the beastmasters for some variety there too.

13 hours ago, Kramer said:

So so good. Love the green scaley sheen on the... well scales. The manacle really ties them in. 

and seeing I read the thread title as having finished seven out of five kharibdysses completed 😂

I feel you definitely should do more 

That would be quite some love for the beasts! 🤣

I’ll definitely do one or two more👍
Thanks!

[Kierdale]

I finished Corsairs 11 to 20 (of 40). These ten will go in the same unit as the first ten cutlass/dagger ones.

An ex-Wanderer.

Three here with Doomfire Warlock blades. Taken from their still warm hands, no doubt.

 

 

Show off with two cutlasses.

 

My favourite is this one with the two-handed sword. Executioner arms with a cutlass blade.

Spear and harpoon for extra stabbiness.

 

Being pirates, one has to have a hook hand.

 

And I’m now working on a Black Ark Fleetmaster. I’ve seen people adding texture to cloth via highlights and that’s why I’m trying here. 
I haven’t the time to learn/try NMM let alone SENMM  but managed a bit of Sky Earth True Metallic Metal here on his chest and shoulder played with some Agrax Earthshade and Guilliman Blue Glaze. Happy with it. 

Edited July 28, 2020 by Kierdale

[Kierdale]

And here’s Corsairs 21 to 30! A squad with crossbows and daggers, making their way onto the beach.

 

Here’s the Reaver (squad leader):

 

The standard is a witch elf one, with the Corsair top added back on. As the sail ‘Wolfships’ and are pirates but I hadn’t done a particularly ‘pirates’ flag yet I did this one black and used a wolf-skull and cross-bones decal from a Space Wolf sheet. I also used some Alpha Legion hydra decals as it goes with the beast-hunters theme. Perhaps they’re battle honours, perhaps beasts captured.

Like all the standards in the army, I repositioned them so that they’re flowing front-left, as are the Corsairs’ cloaks.

The unit’s piper, wading her way through the shallows. Another ex-Wanderer.

I modelled this one with a set of brass knuckles (knuckle duster, to some), winding up a punch.

 

 

Double daggers.

Another couple of ex-Wanderers. Didn’t take the ‘Eternal Guard’ title literally, I guess.

And the last two.

Corsairs 31-40 are on the painting table now.

After that I’ve got:

- a scourge runner chariot

- a dark elf-crewed  and converted a bit celestar ballista

- a light wizard

- my black ark fleetmaster

 

...and that’s the army done for now.

Rumour is that Armies On Parade 2020 might not be happening. If so then I’ll enter next year instead, which gives me time to add more units 😉

Edited August 4, 2020 by Kierdale

[Kierdale]

I forgot a couple more units I have to make:

ten darkshards - these will be done as animated statues, like the Gargoyles. The miniatures all being so similarly posed should help the image.

 

sixteen Phoenix guard - I have a box of Bretonnian Men At Arms, and intend to give them FW Cawdor heads (cleaned up a little), making them into Phlogiston Guard (pyro cult).

[Ahriman]

Insane work, especially on the Hydra

[Kierdale]

Thanks, Ahriman.
 

I finished my black ark fleet master, Khirdail, and am rather happy with the cloth and SETMM I tried on it. I kept the blade subdued rather than making it really bright and fiery as I didn’t want it to draw attention from the rest of the mini.

 

[Kierdale]

This is the final 10 Corsairs I have, bringing the total to 40.

...until I get some more. I really love these models. I started doing some more kit bashing and conversions (rotating elbows so arms pointed out rather than in, etc.) on the latter 20 and want to do more.

 

I realise that I forgot to repaint the base rims black. Must fix that.

Here they are:

The reaver. The only one with pinkish hair? The ****** son of a Khainite, perhaps...

Uses two crossbows to compensate for his lack of depth perception. 😉

 

The standards bearer. I tried to recreate Hokusai’s famous “The Great Wave off Kanagawa”...with an Aqshy/corsairs twist.

 

The piper.

 

 

 

my favourite of the unit (after the standard bearer):

 

 

Edited September 3, 2020 by Kierdale

[Kierdale]

I finished a unit of dark shards for the army. Like the gargoyles I made some time ago, these are magically animated statues. Did my sorceress have the carved from  igneous rock from the mountains beyond Anvilgard, or have once-living minions petrified so that they might serve her eternally?

Must get another ten sometime.

The guardmaster:

Standard bearer. I remounted the standard (and that of my black guard) to blow to the side so it matches those of my corsairs. It was bugging me that their standards were affected by any wind at all. Brass rod and a spear as a topper. I used my dremel to grind off the bit of shaft that was attached to the back of the flag.

Flag has the kraken over the sigil of Aqshy.

 

The piper 

 

All the unit have damage (Martian Ironearth on stumps and in areas where I cut into the models, then sprayed over). These are some of the most ‘injured’.

The one who lost a hand is inspired by the T-1000 when his hand snapped off.

 

 

 

Edited September 10, 2020 by Kierdale

[Grungir]

hey mate, outstanding works!

can i ask how you do the "stone effects" on models? is that drybrush on contrast?

[Kierdale]

2 hours ago, Grungir said:

hey mate, outstanding works!

can i ask how you do the "stone effects" on models? is that drybrush on contrast?

Thank you!

I haven’t experimented much with Contrast actually. I’m sure you could do a fair bit of my process quicker with it. What I did do was:

1. dark grey spray all over.

2. light grey zenithal spray.

2. Drybrush Ulthuan Grey with a big makeup brush (a tip I got from Darcy Bono. Gives a good, soft Drybrush effect).

3. Over all shade of Nuln Oil. You could leave it here and be happy but I wanted to do a bit more.

4. Another Ulthuan Grey Drybrush.

5. Shade over all but this time Agrax Earthshade and Athenian Camoshade. A bit of one here, a bit of the other there, mix a bit of both in another place. Got that idea from the Warhammer TV video on painting these ‘living statue’ style minis.

And that was that. Very quick work. I hope to do another ten dark shards sometime, and ten or twenty dreadspears soon.

 

I hope that helped.

[Grungir]

thanks man!

i have my first 10 minitures (old school chaos dwarf plastic) that are paint horribly, i was 8 at time and games workshop wasn't so spread in my country back then, so nobody helped me and i painted them with kids colors with brush.

so uses them like "ancestral guardian" for my new restored dawi