Diesel DM

Horgenhold Forge Guard

I’ve completed the min-unit of Forge Guard.  I purchased the repackaged max unit, but painting units is painful enough without doing all 10 at once.  Also I only need 6 for the list I have in mind.  The thought is to have these guys screen for my Storm Strider.  Weapon Masters with reach should discourage models wanting to take free strikes to get past them.  Though at SPD 4 I’ve got to make sure they get out ahead of the Strider enough to screen for it without significantly slowing it down.

Initially when painting began I though they were wall Hammerfall Khaki and this was a simple unit, but once you get brush to model you realize there’s a lot of detail here. There’s the green shoulders and elbow armor, the gold chest piece, which I them matched to the rear armor piece which isn’t shown in the studio scheme. There’s leather straps, green pants beneath the armor plates, red insignia and so on.

Backpacks, lots of backpacks

Each model in the unit sports an identical backpack, topped with a bed roll and hung with a mug. For the bases I consulted the old IK World Guide to see what Horgenhold was like: mountain and cold.  So I went with larger grit for the bases, dry brushing the Battlefield Brown with Bloodstone Red, then Morrow White.  I then used Army Painter winter tufts and snow flock to complete it.

The leader

The only model with a fully exposed face is the leader, and I enjoyed painting it.  It came out well, especially the eyes.

I’m looking forward to getting these guys on the table and I really should paint up the other 4 eventually….someday… Have I mentioned I don’t like painting units?

Troll Whelps! Food fit for a King.

Having completed the Mountain King it seemed only right to also paint up a set of Whelps for him, since he can bring them for free.  I did have a bit of a dilemma here, as one of the whelps is carrying a bottle of moonshine.  I don’t drink so I wanted to have something more reflective of me.  Mountain Dew was a natural choice.  So I free-handed a white label and painted “DEW” in red, since there wasn’t room to get Mtn Dew on their, I went with the more striking red letters.

A lot more water effects on these bases.  Particularly the whelp on the far left, who is standing up his ankles in a puddle of water.  It took way more layers than I expected to fill this.  When I popped him off the painting dowel I discovered why: I hadn’t sealed the bottom gap well enough and the Still Water had leaked through.  So note to self: Use some putty to thoroughly seal the base before applying a ton of water effects.

Since these guys are mainly for the King, I went with an all blue matching scheme rather than making different kinds of whelps.  The next set I will differentiate by doing that.

Trollblood Axer

Another Trollblood warbeast done.  This time it’s an Axer, well-known for his Rush animus that gives +2 SPD and Pathfinder.  Great for extending threat ranges for EBDT, Mulg or even the King.  The Axer also has reach and thresher, which is a nice way to clear out some infantry, though at MAT 6 you’ll want to choose your infantry targets with low DEF or increase your chances with Wild Aggression.

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The Mountain King – finished at last

And here is the Mountain King, completed. He came out better than I had hoped.  It also didn’t take nearly as long as I was starting to think it would.  The problem was just not having time to paint, which seemed to drag it out.  In my last update I had attached all the extra chains, since then I primed them (brush on primer), then painted them using the standard metal technique shown in the Trollbloods book. One thing to keep in mind before painting the chains is to bend them into positions that will allow at least one additional contact point for more glue.  The chains are pretty sturdy, but giving two glue points makes them even stronger.

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