"Space Dwarfs, Halfling snipers and other things" Topic

Up until Photobucket killed off third party hosting for me, I had a thriving topic (that was all about my slowly developing Space Dwarf army), here:

TMP link

Now that whole topic as a result of nasty placeholders everywhere.

So, now that I have a new hosting site, I thought I'd just put up a few finished squads and see where we go from there. It will tidy things up nicely.

These are all part of an Astra Militarum army:

Command:

First Platoon:

Second Platoon:

1st Armoured Sentinel Sqn:

2nd Armoured Sentinel Sqn:

Priests (Berserkers):

Psykers (Shaman):

Engineseer with Servitors:

Veteran Tyranid Hunters:

Veteran 'Maiden Guard':

More will come int the next post.

Next I have elements that have been put together as the senior clan, representing the higher echelons of leadership. These Troops are put together using the Space Marine list:

Chapter Master and terminators:

Terminator Captain:

Terminators:

More Terminators:

The Chapter Master is the Hold King, the Captain is master of the Hearthguard and the Terminators represent Exo Armoured Hearthguard.

I have standard hearthguard that count as scouts but I don't have finished units yet so I can't post them yet.

As part of this project, I have also put together a squad of Halfling Snipers for the Astra Militarum part of the army. These are the first troops that I have sculpted from scratch and had cast:

They are also the first troops in the army to see paint:

I have a number of sets of these Halflings available, if anyone is interested, over here:

link

There will be other stuff turning up in the distant future too… but it won't be going 'mainstream' as it is my hobby, not my job.

Very nice !

Love the gillie suited halflings!

Cheers :)

really nice

Brilliant conversions & scratch built minis, just what I love seeing on TMP :)

Thank you :)

During the development of an army like this, there are often things that are started but don't end up being included because they don't fit with the style. One such little diversion was an alternative Exo Armour design that I came up with. I nicknamed them Wolverines and they started life as a photo-chop of a Tartaros Terminator:

This then developed into a leg sculpt that fitted the torso of the Terminator:

Once the legs had been sculpted, they were sent away for casting:

When the casts came back, I set about putting together a squad of heavy mining suits, with additional close combat weapons:

I was really happy with the way they turned out… but sadly, they just didn't fit in with the existing Exo troopers so I sold them off for charity (Marie Curie).

As you can see… I got a small box of casts and those few that remain can be found over here:

link

I am not planning on getting any more cast because I have other things that I am working on…

… Like these Hearthguards:

Someone mentioned mini Wookies (Ork 56 over on Frothers) but I didn't want to be a copy-cat so I made something different :) :

Seeing as sales have dried up, it makes sense to do something else with them :)… so I made a counts-as Jokaero.

In other news, I have actually started painting my Squat army… I know… crazy talk :D !

Anyway, here's a rough base-coat on my three Berserkers (count as Ministorum Priests):

Next will be a tidy up, wash and highlight… but I'll be doing that one at a time (so I can see finished progress :) ).

A painted Jokaero:

Some very imaginative work !

Very nice. Love the halfling sniper.

The first Squat for the army is now painted. This is a Berserker (counts as ministorum priest):

This army is going to look downright impressive when its done… Love the Ratlings in the Gillie suits! Just perfect.

Leland R. Erickson
Metal Express
metal-express.net

Cheers :)

Here's the next one:

This one just hits you with his close-combat-dog :) :

Now that I have some snipers, a Jokaero and some priests, it's high time I got my arse in gear and started painting some of the basic troops… so that is what I have done. Here is the first (rough) base-coat on the first squad of No.2 platoon:

I've started the next veteran squad. These will all have berets. The main weapons will be shotguns and meltaguns. There will be a comms trooper and the sgt will have upgraded close combat weapons (probably a bolt pistol and power weapon):

Ready for arming… then arming :) :

Great stuff again !

Cheers :)

The troops are now armed so next up will be a layer of putty on the wire before I start sculpting the arms properly :) :

Remember this?:

Well, all of the leg casts have now been sold and I won't be casting any more. That said, I have had an offer for the green so it is likely that it will be sold and may be cast up by someone else in the future. Sadly, there wasn't the demand for me to keep casting them :( .

First layer of putty on the arms, ready for the next stage which will be hands :) :

I decided that I wanted Sly Marbo in my army so I have started to convert one… this is still WIP :) :

Here's the finished Sven Marbo :) :

Next up will be a Valkyrie that is converted from a Corvus Blackstar.

Preliminary symbol removal is complete :) … I just need to sand a few things down and it will be ready to be assembled :) …

The Corvus Valkyrie has started :) .

I couldn't resist builing the kit (with a few modifications):

What a fantastic project and army! Mad skills on display there!

Cheers :)

It would appear that I had so much fun building the Valkyrie proxy that I felt the need to keep building… so I have started to build some amphibious transport vehicles :) :

I have another Hanomag on the way so that I have enough for a platoon (1 each for the command, 2 infantry squads and a heavy weapon squad). If these turn out OK, I may have finally beaten the curse :o …

Sgt Harker is getting there now :) :

An update on Harker. His flat head will be getting a nice hat… :) :

Chewing tobacco and wearing a hat, makes you a Sexual Tyrannosaur! Sgt Harker knows…

Harker is finished :) :

Next will be Dutch (platoon commander :) ).

In a rather interesting turn of events, I have sold the Halfling sniper greens to CP Models:

cpmodels.co.uk

They will be cast in metal at some point in the future :)

Wow, how tall are the "Wookiees"? And how many poses are there?

Dan

That's the only wookie… and he's about 22mm tall. He is converted from one of the snipers.

If you are referring to the snipers, they are about the same height and there are 5 poses.

A Squat Berserker WIP:

Finished:

Something for the army again; this time, it's a pair of Dreadnoughts to go with the Space Marine component of the organisation. Obviously, I can't just get a dreadnought or two. That would be too easy… so I bought a box of Mechanicus robots and here we are. Still WIP but I am getting there :) :

The guns have been added. Next will be detailing :) :

In today's little update, a top hatch, handle, front vent and some eyebrows have been added. Just for the record, the arms and top weapons are not glued in place yet… and the bodies are not attached to the base (so the pose hasn't been fixed yet) :) :

I will be fettling the bodies and getting them finished before moving on to the arms :) .

In other news… the Squat Berserker has been sold to Short Wars now :) . He will be available from here in good time:

shortwars.co.uk

The miniature in question didn't fare particularly well in the competition but the ones above it were worthy of being there. Here's my now posted Berserker:

As for the Halfling snipers… they can now be found for sale over at CP models :) :

link

Most of the money from the sculpts I have sold has gone to charitable causes so everyone is a winner :)

Nearly finished :) :

These are now as finished as they will ever be. Thorsen on the left, Ranulf on the right :) :

They will be glued down and then I will prime them as soon as the weather lifts :)

I have now primed the dreads:

Now that I have got as far as I can with them, I thought I'd see what I could find in the loft and managed to uncover my Bullgryn squad. Only one of them had been converted… and he didn't have any weapons but luckily, I had thought about that earlier and bagged a lot of Bullgryn bits from EBay. With the bits already available, it was merely a case of a bit of sawing, drilling, pinning and gluing and I soon ended up with this:

He's a converted, Mantic, Dreadball Ork with GW weapons. He still needs some putty work to fill gaps and sort out a few niggles… but he's pretty much there :) . I have another four sat in a box beside me so I have enough for a squad of five. Tidy :) .

The competition sculpt (Squat Berserker) has been cast up and I was sent a couple of copies so I painted one up:

A bit of back-story :) :

great stuff!
Why don't you just blog it? That is an easy way to access all of these wonderful postings.

I have blogs. This is effectively a blog as well (seeing as it is all the same theme).

In other news… I have decided to put together a few Squats that will match the new Necromunda Squat (when it gets released). These are what I came up with:

That's all I have (due to lack of miniatures to convert) and it makes sense to stop at these (for now) until I have a Forgeworld Squat to compare them with.

A Leman Russ proxy: