Arabian Knights: Camelry

Project Arabian Knights is going on with four more riders. Since I want each knight to have a distinct look as much as possible, painting these guys seemed to take forever for me; but in the end, I am happy with how they look.

The riders and the camels are from Black Tree Design, where the bulk of my army is from. To my surprise, I found out that the riders have bows and quivers on their back. Of course that's unacceptable for such noble-borns to shoot arrows, so i had to trim the bow and arrows and hide the quivers by gluing shields on their back: Problem solved :) There are minor conversions on a couple of guys: One is the banner and the other is a simple weapon swap. The banner bit is from Reaper, and the weapon was from GW's High Elf spearmen kit. Oh, and the shields were from Mantic's Dwarf sets.

As I wrote in Damsels post, I am fairly comfortable with camels recipe right now. Applying different color schemes on each rider however, prevented me from going chinese on them. Moreover, I painted freehand desings on shields and the banner. Unless I find a better banner, he will be my BSB.

Here are some photos, hope you like them.

Laziness at Its Best: Paper Symbol on Banner

I had painted this BSB quite some time ago; but the banner was looking all but empty. Since I have the freehand skills of a three year old, I decided against drawing something on the banner and went for a paper symbol instead.

It's not the best, I know; but from an arm's distance, it looks fine. Come any closer, he will kill you. Problem solved :)

Battle Standard Bearer: Every Army Needs One

Here is one of my last ditch efforts to make it to the IzmirCon tournament: The BSB...

As you might already know, there are no BSB models for The Legion of Azgorh list yet. This is both a curse and a blessing as you need to convert your own mini, spending money and time in the process. But in the end it is worth it. Well, sometimes at least...

Before selecting the base model for my BSB, I considered a few options. Since the model is expected to carry a big fat banner, the most important factor here was the pose of the miniature. One of the alternatives I thought was Mantic's Abyssal Dwarf King model. Another one was Enigma Miniatures' Toktien model. For both of them, it would have been the same steps: Cut the weapon, give them the banner instead, done.

Instead I went for another miniature: Hasslefree Miniatures' Kain. With this model is the base, I went on with the same steps above for him first. Then, in an effort to "chaosify" him more, I added a couple of horns and a chaos shield from Games Workshop's bits. The banner itself is also a GW bit, of chaos knights' I believe.

I tried to to some freehand on the banner; but just couldn't make it, so left it like that. Maybe if I get a solid idea, I might get cracking and try it, who knows.

Below are some pictures, including a size comparison with Mantic's Abyssal Dwarf Immortal Guard miniature. Enjoy...

İzmirCon WHFB Tournament Review

Last weekend İzmirCon took place. As usual, my buddy Mr. Lee made an appearance too, driving all the way from İstanbul. The event I was looking forward to was the Warhammer Fantasy tournament which happened on sunday, where I fielded my Chaos Dwarfs first time.

What was your list, you might ask. Well, it was a little different than the list I prepared during the countdown to IzmirCon. Here is the breakdown:

• Sorcerer-Prophet (General)
     Level 4 Hashut
     Enchanted Shield
  

  

  A shot taken during the second games

     Blood of Hashut
• Infernal Castellan (BSB)
     Shield
     Dragonhelm
• K'daai Destroyer
• 6x K'daai Fireborns
• 5x Bull Centaur Renders
     Additional Hand Weapons
• 25x Infernal Guards
     Standard
     Musician
• 24x Infernal Guards
     Standard
     Musician

Totaling to 2000pts. As you can see, it was a very weak list with only 61 models, mostly because of the limited number of models available at hand. In fact, there were still super glue stains in my hand when I was rolling the first few dice in the tournament.

Anyway, if the first highlight of the tournament for me was to be able to finish my miniatures on time (I had to take the friday off to make it happen btw), the main one was receiving my destroyer. I commissioned that job to Mr. Lee and he made short work of it. If not for his efforts, I would have entered the tourney with my regular dwarfs and most likely win it, heh... Some of you might expect some photos of the monster I guess; but it deserves its own article, so, a little patience...

When I ranked up my army before the games started, people who saw my force were generally full of praises. The lava bases were their favorite, as was the destroyer; but the comments I cared about most was that they look very coherent as an army. This was big for me and I had my doubts about that since I have been gathering miniatures from different manufacturers. I was pleased to hear I'm doing ok on that front.

So, how did I do in the tourney? I came second among 8 players, losing only to the Dark Elves player who won the tournament. I must admit that I was very lucky with my match-ups through the tournament, as in the two games I won, I played against inexperienced players. Hence, I don't think that this result actually represents my skills as a general, the strength of my list or the Legion of Azgorh army list at all. On the other hand, I bagged the sportsmanship award again: Three times in a row now... The most important thing about this was I got this award while placed 2nd in points. As you know, generally it does not happen this way... at all...

Being named as the best sportsman guy allowed me to brag around a little more, right after finished bragging about my new career: A pro-painter. Also, I think I found the name of my army now: Zharr Naggrund Gentlemen! Only fitting in my opinion; but will see if it becomes a thing.

Countdown to İzmirCon

So, as I mentioned before, our local gaming convention, İzmirCon will take place at the end of this month. I'm keen on fielding a chaos dwarfs army for the WHF tournament which is scheduled for 1st of April, so I decided to take it a little seriously and built a roster to see what I need to paint. Here's what I'll aim for:

Daemonsmith (General, Level 2 Fire, Enchanted Shield, Dispel Scroll)
Infernal Castellan (BSB, Dragonhelm, Talisman of Preservation, Shield)
25x Infernals Full Command
24x Infernals Full Command
6x Bull Centaurs (xhw)
6x K'daais
5x Hobgoblin Wolf Riders (Bow, Musician)
K'daai Destroyer

I'm at 1999pts here with this setup. I know this is not the best list to play, it's very sub-optimal to be honest; but I'll have to field what I have in hand. Let me talk about the list a little.

So, with only 65 models, I think I will be outnumbered in every single game. It is just too low for 2k games. Too add more to my woes, I will only be able to field a level 2 for my arcane needs. There will be many difficult magic phases waiting for me, I'm sure :( I just could find enough points to fit a level 4 in. Maybe I'll drop the bull centaurs to swap the daemonsmith with a sorcerer-prophet; but at this time there are more pressing matters for me: The lack of infantries...

I have only 35 infantries ready right now, which means I'm 14 models away from fulfilling this list. I also need to build and paint 5 riders and finish the BSB which has spent way more time on my desk by now. Of course, I'll still need the destroyer and the daemonsmith painted by Mr.Lee, who will also make an appearance in the tournament with his filthy goblin horde. The destroyer and the daemonsmith miniatures already have 3 colors on them so, they can be fielded as-is even as a worst case scenario.

I ranted enough I guess. Please let me know what you think about the list and the bull centaurs I finished recently. I also added some group shots to show off what I have currently.