Part VII - Repainting the 3rd Edition Wood Elf Force Wood Elf Warrior Kinbands (4th Edition Glade Guard)

I now turn back to an army that I have not worked on in several months, my Wood Elves. As I last left the army it was at the state of adding my converted Wood Elf Dragon Rider. (Part VI described here).

This time around, I have churned out twenty 4th Edition spear-men for my 3rd Edition Wood Elf Force... Obviously they fill out the role of Warrior Kinbands in the 3rd Edition Wood Elf Army list.

Couple of points:

• I went with the 4th Edition range for several reasons, one being cost: the 4th edition range is not that hard to come by and the prices to round them out were fairly cheap. When compared to the 3rd edition elves they were significantly cheaper.
• Availability – Not too hard to find on eBay. The 3rd Edition elves with spears on eBay are a bit more and usually in smaller groups. I was able to assemble the unit fairly quickly.
• Most importantly, I like the minis. I am not sure the reasoning, but I have always liked these pointy ears.

So I started with 12 that I had bought years ago; stripped the old paint off and started at square one. Got eight more off eBay last fall and just got around to painting them. So without further delay the next unit to come off the bench.

As you can see I continued the autumnal feel with the basing. I also continued the green shields with the white swirl pattern to tie them into the rest of the army thus far.

Next up for this army is... I am not sure. I have another unit of Wardancers currently standing at 7 out of 10, and two units of 20 archers formed from metal command/hero minis and miniatures from the plastic Warhammer Fantasy Regiment box set.

Warhammer Armies, Chaos Dwarf Army List for 3rd Edition – Oldhammer Back-Port

Special thanks to orlygg for the scan and the ones that appear in the "army book" below.  

Being the Mad Hatter that I am I decided a while back to post my "back-port" of a Chaos Dwarf Army list to 3rd Edition rules. I've been on the periphery of the

For those not in the know, back in the 3rd Edition days the Chaos Dwarfs only appeared in two sections in terms of armies in the game and then not even in their own army. They appeared in Warhammer Armies as part of the Chaos Ally contingent and as part of the Khornate army listed in Realm of Chaos- Slaves to Darkness. Even then, the Chaos Dwarfs were different than what would appear in the 4th Edition rules in their own "Army Book". From there, the uncertainty of 5th through 7th editions until Chaos Dwarfs Online spearheaded a resurgence and brought them back from the brink of disappearing.

So with this in mind I attempted to create an army listing in the same vein as how they were presented in 3rd Edition, but using the organizing concepts of 4th Edition and beyond. That is to say I combined orcs and goblins into the list, even though in 3rd Edition they are listed as hating all dwarfs including Chaos Dwarfs. Oldhammer is what you make it and I'm not too worried about the 3rd Edition Warhammer police breaking down my door by breaking a rule. Then again, with Games Workshop Legal? Who knows...

Knowing a fair amount about graphic design and having produced both the Word of Hashut and Gold and Glory ezines it was a fairly easy task to replicate the look and feel of Warhammer Armies. The problem wasn't the design but rather it is my illustration skills which have atrophied over the years. So it was a lot of scans were in order, namely from White Dwarf, Realms of Chaos - Slaves to Darkness and Warhammer Armies.

Be warned, this has NOT been play tested so who knows how it will work! You'll also note that there is space for adding rules for the Chaos Dwarf Juggernaut. Strangely, Games Workshop created the model back in the 80s, but never created rules for it. The production run of the mini was limited and goes for quite a bit on eBay. At some point I'll add rules for the miniature and its accompanying crew.

For more details on Chaos Dwarfs in the 80s and early 90s, be sure to check the excellent site Realm of Chaos, a leading light in the Oldhammer movement.

The 3rd Edition Chaos Dwarf Army list can be downloaded here, let me know what you think.

Part I - New Creatures of Chaos Minis from Langley Miniatures

EDIT: 7-19-26, Since this post, Langley Miniatures has shuttered operations. I was able to get the minis prior to that as I discuss here. 

Link to the Original kickstarter. 

As if I do not have enough to paint already and adding to the fact that my painting desk is groaning under the weight of copious amounts of unpainted lead. What do I do? Of course, I purchase more minis. I have been eyeing the excellent range of Creatures of Chaos by Andrew Taylor for several months now and finally got around to pulling the trigger. Suffice to say I am eagerly awaiting these guys from the UK.

My purchase was of the cockatrice, chimera and manticore with a toss-up between the chimera and manticore as to which one I want to paint first! NOTE: these are not my paint jobs.

If you are in the market for these guys, whether for role-playing games or for war-gaming you could do a lot worse. These guys look excellent and I cannot wait to get my grubby mitts on them. Link to Langley Miniatures. I will just have to remember to post my progress here as my various projects underway are scattered across multiple sites.

Lastly, more Old School miniatures in the same vein goodness can also be found here, great stuff really.

Building an Old Worlder Mercenary Force for 3rd Edition Warhammer

Snooty Bretonnian knights!

EDIT: 7-19-26, in the years since this post I did indeed finish the unit bit as Bretonnians after all, go figure. 

One of the coolest things about 3rd Edition Warhammer are the rules for Allies and Mercenaries. While not perfect, I think they are the closest they have ever come to being truly playable in the various iterations of Warhammer.

This post is about the Old Worlder Mercenary Contingent, but first a bit of backstory.

As I noted here, my very first step into Warhammer Fantasy Battle was in 3rd Edition. Since the other guys had already picked armies and we did not want to duplicate any one army I had a few choices to go with, all on the "good side". I had always liked knights back in the day so Bretonnia it was. A few stops at the local game stores left me with the following for my very first games (around 1988):

• 10 Chevaliers D'Honneur
• 22 Archers
• 1 cannon and crew
• A bunch of assorted models I recall fielding as Brigands.

I only ever recall playing against Dave's Skaven before converting them to an Empire force which would become my first real army. Jeff had some he sold me some Empire halberdiers I think to bolster the force and aid the conversion of the army. As knights of the Empire I used epoxy glue to add aluminum foil to paint barding! Ugh. The lengths we went through to make the models WYSIWYG. Nowadays I could pull it off with green stuff but back then my skills at modelling were not so good and no one knew what green stuff was.

After a while my dislike of all things Bretonnia grew as well as eventually creating three 10+ units of Empire Knights which the need for Bretonnian knights standing in as Imperial ones diminished. Even so, I bought some 5th Edition Bretonnian horses a number of years later repainting and remounting the knights; and then promptly did nothing with them. I was fortunate in that I did save the original horses having a vague idea of using them as steeds for a paddock and stable terrain piece. A casualty of them sitting at the bottom of various bits boxes for years was that almost all were missing their tails. No big deal as I recreated them with green stuff that came out quite well. Moral of the story: never throw anything out!

Now this brings me to the present. A month or so back I stripped down the archers and primed them just for the hell of it. But in doing so I got to thinking. About six months ago I reassembled one of my Bretonnian cannons that I saved the frame for 20 years (the barrel was part of a crappy home built steam tank, now since destroyed). Did this mean I was going to reassemble my Bretonnian? No. With a perusal through the 3rd Edition Warhammer Armies book it became clear it would be more fun to paint them up as scummy mercenaries! This has the added benefit of the fact that I am the administrator of Dogs of War Online, homeland of mercenaries!

Free Foresters at the ready!

A few nights of stripping paint, redoing horse tails and finding shields and we were all set. Note the shields will be repainted; some of them sport their crappy 1988 paint jobs. Paint jobs reflective of me not knowing what the Hell I was doing back then.

So now the force becomes:

• 10 Tilean Condotieri or 10 Estalian Caballeros
• 22 Archers now equating to 20 Free Foresters*
• 1 cannon and crew (probably will just end up as a small diorama type piece)
• 9 crossbowmen I've had for odds and ends to form a small unit of Tilean crossbowmen.
• Going to add 20 pikemen from either the Pike and Shotte range or the Perry Miniatures range*.
• 20 Bretonnian brigands. I did have a few here but foolishly traded them, I'll need to reacquire these guys.
• I also was able to rehab 10 unarmored 3rd edition horses; I'll be looking for more knight figures on eBay sans riders to fill them out.
• Still need to decide on a mounted contingent commander.

• Yes, the rules say a maximum of 20, but I am not too worried about the 3rd Edition Warhammer police breaking down my door at 2 AM for rules violations....

** Perry miniatures obviously seamlessly integrate with the other minis. Minis from the Foundry line are another possibility.

Death on the Reik- Scale Model of Castle Von Wittgenstein

 

 

EDIT: this project never really got off the ground. I did get to the point of creating the gatehouse at area #28-30. From there the project stalled. The parts I did complete got recycled into the main gate for my scratch built "Mighty Fortress."

 

As such this post is kept for historical purposes. 

 

My favorite RPG might just be 1st Edition Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, followed by 2nd Edition AD&D. So with that in mind my thoughts have been turning to iconic images from 1st Edition WFRP. And if I don't have enough "irons in the fire" as it were when it comes to Warhammer projects my thoughts have been turning to the next large scale terrain project.

What got me thinking about it is this: T1 The Village of Hommlet was a classic, seminal module for many and the Moathouse (meat grinder thought it was/is) stands a indelible image of AD&D. I think for me it would be fairly easy to do something like this, but its already been done as it were. And I should add its an excellent model all around so no need to do it again.

So with that in mind, my thoughts have started to coalesce around this, a scale model of Castle Von Wittgenstein from Death on the Reik. 

Now, I do have the module (obviously) but one thing I'd have to decide early on is which route to go. What do I mean by that? The floor plan/map is not the same as the art which is to be expected. But its not even really close. I get that Miller's cover is exaggerated to great deal but the castle made is far wider.

The tougher route to go with is the art because its just that one picture from the cover and the backside not shown would require some guess work based on the map. Sorta a Catch-22.

 

I've posted this a couple of different places (Chaos Dwarfs Online and the RPG Site) to gauge interest/ideas/feedback.

Right now this is in the idea phase only. 

 

NOTE: If looking for themed miniatures for the amazing adventure? You can't do any better than this although its in French (I don't speak it). 

 

Nippon Castle for Warhammer- Part IV

Wow, the Nippon castle has been garnering a lot of attention on the web, keep up the comments guys and many thanks; especially the shout out here, thanks Scot!

I've stepped back and taken stock of where I am with the project at this point which is to say a lot further along then when I really picked it back up in October. Overall I'm pleased with the pace I've been on and have been enjoying the whole project. I've even found time to work on other projects like the siege equipment, paint a few units and other things that strike my fancy.

But, the title of this post says Part III so what am I working on right now in relation to the Nippon castle you ask: As I mentioned in Part II I've been re-reading my stack of White Dwarf magazines from the range of #220-235. In particular, in #225, Nick Davis' "Jungle Fever - Part 2" where he covers the creation of his Lizardman Castle has been of particular interest. #224 is where the rules appeared for 5th Edition Siege rules for moats which I'm drawing on as well, so here is the point of this post, moats.

As you can see, I've started on the beginnings of a moat for the castle. The moat will obviously surround the entire castle to simulate a Nippon fortress situated on the lowlands of Nippon (or Nihon?) near rice patties perhaps? I deliberately started at the most difficult part of the moats, the corner towers knowing the wall sections would be far easier. I also took inspiration from the corner board sections of 3rd Edition Talisman.

From there, once finished I also have been formulating ideas to create a way to raise up the entire thing so it will sit on a series of cliff walls to simulate a mountain top type of castle. That is further off and I will be using fair amount of paper-mache to make the mountainside.  In this, the 6th Edition High Elf Army Book has some interesting photos of minis and mountains so we'll see.

Note- my overall progress of my Nippon Army is tracked over here at Dogs of War Online.

Speaking of paper-mache, I took a brief side track to work a tomb/barrow, first seen in the 6th Edition General's Compendium on page 52. I started out when I looked at a barrow I created about 15 years ago. I was going to pull that apart but just decided to create something from scratch. Then remembered the barrow in the a fore mentioned General's Compendium. You'll have to excuse this photo as I remembered to take it as I was applying the paper-mache. But I digress, here is the barrow:

As you can see, the top will be removable because I'm insane apparently and need to add all kinds of stuff to the interior..

And if the barrow/tomb were not enough of a bonus, I've also been working on redoing the river pieces of the terrain that Jeff and Dave created 25+ years ago! I widened them a few years back but now I've added gravel to the river edges and will be painting them shortly. Need to add a few more bends and another river crossing part. You'll have to excuse the quick photo on this one too, I only remembered to take a picture after I had already started on it and undercoated one.

I think that's all for now. Good gaming in the new year everyone.

WM

Nippon Castle for Warhammer – Part II: From Real History to Fantasy Table

While I haven’t updated the blog in a bit, I have been plugging away and highlighting my progress on the Nippon castle for Warhammer Siege but also could be used with the rules for Warhammer Historical Siege and Conquest.

One of the things I’ve been trying to reconcile is that it’s not an Asian/Oriental/Japanese castle, but a castle set in the mythical Warhammer world. Those are two very different things, but it seems I have a hard time separating it!

As such, the walls and castle are very symmetrical, which is very unlike a traditional Japanese castle, which snaked back and forth with large sprawling grounds and multiple walls and moats. Since gunpowder was not widely used in medieval Japan, castles were for the most part made of wood and with very large moats. This had the practical effect of said castles taking up a very large amount of ground.

What I created, however, is a conceit to the physical limitations of building a castle at 28mm scale and my gaming table, which is 5x6 in terms of feet. It fits, but even with centering it in the middle of the table there isn’t a ton of room on the edges (note it’s not centered in the photos below). While rules exist for playing siege games across the editions, I’m planning on using the siege rules for 3rd Edition, warts and all.

One benefit of using the 3rd Edition rules for Siege is this lack of space is accounted for with Remote, Encamped, and Ready zones that are part and parcel of the rules. For those not in the know, these rules formed areas outside of the tabletop where action took place — essentially “off table” as it were.

As is depicted above you can see the corner towers are all complete now, along with the previously completed corner wall sections.The tops of all four towers are removable to facilitate the placement of war engines and miniatures as needed.

After I took these photos I began the process of gluing down stones an gravel in preparation of painting in the not too distant future. I'm also in the process of determining what the "inner" courtyard will look like so stay tuned.