Brad Gamma

The Oakfire Arsenal are responsible for the defense of the city itself. In possession of a dizzying array of deadly weaponry, they are prepared to unleash fiery death against any would-be attackers. The resilient Copperheart Oaks absorb artillery fire as if it were falling rain and the mist of alchemical powders float to the forest floor and nourish the earth. Thane Dhurim Gharuksson, Lord Engineer of the Oakfire Arsenal stands proudly in front of his cannons which he is always eager to test.

Big update time! I have been working on these guys for several months now, painstakingly painting longbeards at only 10 points a pop! Reintroducing, the Gharuki Forest Duardin! During the Age of Chaos, the Duardin of the Chamonite Continent of Agrellia were almost hunted to extinction. A small portion of them retreated into the depths of the gargantuan Gharuki Forest. So deep and dark was this wood that the roaming bands of Khorne and Tzeentch neglected to delve too far inside. As the Duardin hid they took solace in the solidity of the ground, building their community around the roots of the leviathan copperheart oaks. Over time they began to revere the trees and their civilization ventured upwards. Now, in the Age of Sigmar their huge city sprawls from miles underground up to the forest canopy itself. They refer to themselves now as the 'The Gharuki' The Gharuki are now a diverse mixture old and new, tradition and change, engineering and druidism. Their society is divided into four main factions. First amongst these are... Steeped in tradition and stoic to the last, the root guard are the conventional military wing of Gharuki Society. Preferring to live under the trees than around them, these Duardin are a superb warriors and immovable defenders. Their armour is crafted from the vibrant inner bark of the Copperhearts, as strong as steel and much more flexible. They vigilantly patrol the forest floor and have fought off any force that dares to trespass.

Here is a peek at my terrain work for armies on parade. This is part of a much larger piece.

Thanks dude that means a lot! Similarly, your Root King conversions were very influential for me. I actually changed direction once I had seen some of your stuff, I decided to take a more techno-route, because I thought you had got that druid root style down to a tee. My ironbreakers might take a bit more inspiration from your duardin when I eventually get round to them.

Heya. I might not be the best person to consult on spray-primers, because I use vallejo primer through an airbrush. However, I would say that if you feel you are clogging up detail you are probably right. Once my minis are primed, I rarely feel that I have lost an detail. It would certainly be worth checking out a few other brands of primer, Rustoleum is frequently recommended for spraying minis for good value. Krylon, Citadel, Tamiya and Army Painter are all brands that I have heard people recommend. I have found before that some of my friends would over prime their mini because they were trying to get a perfect primer coat all over. The main function of primer is to provide a surface for paint to bind to, and it does that job most of the time even if you can still make out some of the original plastic through the primer. If its not too much of a stretch, I can heartily recommend picking up an airbrush, even for stuff like priming. You can pick up everything you need for under a £100 (thats a compressor, airbrush, cleaning fluids/tools and primer). You won't be doing any fine detail work with the cheap airbrush, but for just getting basecoats on it can be great. EDIT: If you started a topic just on priming, I'm sure you'd get a bunch of help

Looking fantastic mate. You really capture the savage druidic vibe.

So it's been a while since I've posted. I have still been doing lots on these guys I just wanted to post some coherent finished posts, including artwork and such. I'm also working very hard on a display board for armies on parade, which involves a HUGE tree. Anyway as a sneak peak here are some recent additions. EDIT: Just to add because it amuses me. The guy at the bottom has a grey splodge on the piece of dowel he is blutacked onto. Thats because when I get around to doing faces, I decide all the beard colours and do a colour splodge to remind me.

Welcome! A fantastic start. I love when people flesh out some background to their projects. Also a big fan of using varied miniatures to represent freeguild, to match the variation of civilisations we see in the books. Really nice work on the robes of the guard, good colour and depth. Are the ice goblins a potential future project?

Cannons! I like doing cross-posts here to bump the Ironweld thread! These are some unconverted cannons that I painted up. Spent a month doing 100 points of longbeards so its nice to knock out 320 points of cannons in a week! Cut the barrel mounting holes off in preparation for a converted weapon I am working on, so I can swap between them. I went with the 60mm base even though the guidelines go with the oval one. I just prefer the 60mm round most people I play with won't mind though!

Just a quick post. Its been I while since I've put anything up, but I have been doing a lot of work on these guys. I am now aiming to do an armies on parade board for them, so its all hands on deck until October. I have painted up another unit of long beards and have been converting up different sections of my army. To keep this alive, here is a pic of some cannons I painted last week as a placeholder. This picture isn't as good as my last few, couldn't get the light right today. You may notice that the cannon barrels aren't fully attached, and eventually they will be swapped out with a Gharuki-specific weapon that I am working on, but this gets my grey plastic painted and stuff ready for the table! Hope to have some big posts for next month

Oh man, I am gonna have to apologize in advance, because I have designed almost the exact same runelord ? Including the branchwych mash up! Its looking really good mate, really looking forward to seeing it painted!

Thanks dude! Yeah the 24 hour flip between 32mm and 25mm base suggestions has left my head spinning. I think I'm gonna have to continue with 32mm with my characters and just suck it up. As promised, here is the second part of my Gharuki Story. II - The Gyrocopter Dozens of hopeful young Gharuki would apply to join the Canopy Corps each day, but only a handful would be accepted. The Corps did not have a monopoly on the cities aircraft, one could find pilot work in the fleets of a thane or guild, but as the official air force of the Royal Household the Canopy Corps held a certain prestige. It was also the largest air force in the forest, responsible for at least half of all operating gyrocraft. While the Corps had many stations dotted around Gharakor it’s primary base of operations was a group of three proud trees just east of the palatial Oak of the Verdant Queen. It is was at these headquarters that a Duardin would apply to join as a pilot and it was where Kirgo was headed now. He was still running along the walkways of Pyetar’s Steeple aiming for one of the huge bridges that linked each tree. This network of connected oaks formed the capital of the Gharuki kingdom. Each bridge was a marvel of Duardin engineering. From afar you might have mistaken them for intertwined branches repurposed as thoroughfares, but upon closer inspection they were elaborate copper sculptures crafted to blend seamlessly into the trees from which they sprang. Kirgo would need to cross eight of them before he would reach his destination. The first of these bridges, which connected His mother tree to a larger and more populous one, had become a busy market place. Stalls lined the edges, a few select items on show while the majority of their goods were in bulging sacks hung securely off the side like the cocoons of some large arachnid. Every now and again a storekeep or their assistant would winch the sacks up for more items to sell. As kirgo wandered past he caught a smell from one of the food stalls. It was the sweet scent of faliberries and always had the power to launch him back to his childhood. Like an astral moth to the realm of Hysh he could not help but divert himself. “Greetings Dawi!” beamed Kirgo “How much for the faliberries?” The grizzled merchant gave Kirgo a fairly cynical look. “Tell you what Kirgo, why don’t you tell me what you can afford?” He replied. Kirgo drew out his coin purse and had a peek inside. He realised that coin purse was a generous term for what was simply an empty pouch “Well reminded! I should really be saving this for my workshop” Kirgo responded as he felt the blood begin to rush to his face, hurrying his words before his blushing became visible. He shoved his purse back in his key pocket, rattling the contents as best he could to sound as if there might be coin. The storekeep gave an unconvinced nod and turned his attention back to the bridge. Kirgo walked to a gap a few stalls down so that he was out of sight and then braced himself against the railing. He would need to find more work at the breweries. He had kept himself alive thus far as a mechanic in the local distilleries and bars. Some of the most complex inventions of the Duardin were those that pumped ale from one location to another. Whether from brew kettle to settling tank, or from keg to tankard, there was a lot of business to be done in keeping the pipes flowing. Kirgo however had a rather unpleasant habit of trying to improve upon everything he inspected, and his reputation was suffering recently from a much exaggerated beer explosion. Just as he was about to bring his attention back to his journey he felt the air from above push through his beard and a familiar sound broke through the din. He turned his head back and upwards as his hood flapped in the gust. A gyrocopter swept overhead not twenty feet above him, followed shortly by the low hum of grumbling patrons. He returned his hands to the rails and watched as it sputtered off into the distance. They were by no means a rare sight but he was never able to look away, his eyes wide with wonder. The gyrocopter bobbed up and down as it flew with all the grace of a drunken megalophin. With puffs of smoke and whooshes of air, hundreds of intricate pistons and cogs spun wildly and seemingly at random, all working together to turn its leather bound propellers. It was at once preposterous and bewildering, reassuringly capable but as if it could fall out of the sky at any moment. Once it had flown a few trees away it began to turn to the east. As it did so it was joined by another two similar vehicles and one larger and even more improbable craft. The squadron arranged themselves in a clumsy formation and before he knew it they had flown behind another tree and were out of sight. Kirgo let in a big breath and his knuckles regained their colour as he loosened his grip on the railing. He could tell you every part in any model of gyrocraft you could name, but he had never actually flown one. He could never afford a copter of his own, the mooring costs alone would eat up everything he earned. So he would do what he did every month, and continued on his way, but now with a almost imperceptible skip in his step.

Since I've posted it on my thread, thought I'd post it here too. My first completed Ironweld Arsenal unit. # Anyone have much experience using them? With tempest's eye bonus it will be nice to have that initial 18 inch move for objective grabbing depending on the scenario, and a 3+ save in the first turn might keep it alive. Beyond that it seems much too easy to kill, and I imagine pulling off steam gun shenanigans is harder than you'd think. I'll still use them however, because they are beautiful!

Finished my Gyrocopter. There is nothing major in the way of conversions. In many ways the stock gyrocopter is the model closest to the aesthetic that I am going for. When I add some Kharadron units, I will be modding them to be more like the gyrocopter rather than the other way round. The paint job even matches the box art, so I'm definitely not being original here! I did spend some time really finding my style for bases. I used a piece of the citadel trees, extended it a bit with miliput, and then buried it so its protruding from the ground. These guys live in a forest where the base of one tree would probably fill a game board, so the forest floor is a dark mess of foliage and roots. I'm moving towards the idea that the ground is so uneven with gargantuan roots, that it is easier to fly in and out than to walk. The root guard themselves are effective defenders because they can navigate and fight within the tangled arena. There are flat areas too, and I am currently working on some azyrite ruins that will form the remnants of an ancient town in the southern forest. I can then have skirmish games in them with the idea that the Gharuki are exploring them to discover what befell the area, and whether it is cursed. I will probably post the second installment in my story too this evening. Thanks guys!

5 more of each will do you fine!

I would certainly have preferred 60mm rounds, they look a bit more pleasing to me. The cannons that I order today I may leave commando for a bit so that they easily integrate into my armies on parade board plans. Hopefully in that time there will be a bit more clarity on how ‘official’ the guide actually is and how many people in the community follow it. Feels like there are a couple of corrections that need to be made too. i will however rebase my cogsmith onto a 32mm round, since I think that looks better for characters. He is on a 25mm now because I assumed that was the translation from the 20mm square. The base design for my army has come on a bit since then too! EDIT: Seems the updated cogsmith to 25mm overnight! Ha!

Another fantastic guide. Well done dude! My default allegiance might be tempests eye over dispossessed for my dwarf army, especially because I have a few too many ironwood units to fit into allies at the moment. Super speed gyrocopters might be fun. Greywater fastness is a bit too random for my tastes, although I might give it a go one day. In the meantime I will give thought to the living city. Some very interesting possibilities. Thanks once again!

Why did you put this in my head! I've been staring at a spare wildwood base piece all morning! I've had a rethink and miiiiight fit something in. ? This may be my go to allegiance however now, thanks for the suggestion! I hadn't seen that dispossessed and ironweld were added to the errata until I checked out the new one.

Oh I've got plans! My artillery won't be too out-there but they will be a significant modification of the current kit. Will be a couple of months though. I do have an ordinator who is almost ready to paint, who will probably be completed first. Him and my cogsmith going out to battle with nothing to buff! ? I do wanna pick up firestorm, just for the little bits of material. I think firestorm sort of marked a turning point where aos became interesting to me. I think the sylvaneth would have harsh words for my dwarfs! They both care about the forest but their methods are very different. In the lore I have drafted out there is actually a sizeable community of wanderers (about 5% of the population) that live in the gharuki capital, and I may add them at some point. But alas! Too many plans.

Haha! Makes me think of bioshock. Luckily I've got the longbeards, ironbreakers and an artillery detachment to do, gives me months to plan any irondrakes. Your enthusiasm in the ironweld threads has meant I've already spent a month thinking about cannons! ?