Leithel's Dogs of War

[Leithel]

So as some of you know I'm learning non metallic metal and my Dogs of War army is the place I'm trying it out. Well here is my blog and my first completed project:

Voland's Venators. It's a test unit that I wanted to do all in non metallic metal. There are no metallics on the unit at all, it's all NMM.

There are tons of pictures and come closups on my site here:
http://oddianhobbies.com/modelling-blog/2016/2/7/project-complete-dogs-of-war-volands-venators
http://oddianhobbies.com/modelling-blog/2016/2/7/project-complete-dogs-of-war-volands-venators

Would love some feedback, here or in the comments on my site.

Cheers

 

[Farmer7574]

@Leithel You're becoming a dab hand at that NMM, really good work! Having zero experience in painting it myself I don't see anything to improve on, the unit looks immaculate.

 

[Sessioni]

@Leithel Very cool unit, I love the models. Dogs of War army is something you rarely see. Will you convert them from existing models or do you have a stock of old DoW regiments?
Your NMM is great, especially the gold parts.

 

[Leithel]

Thanks for the feedback @Sessioni and @Farmer7574 . In answer to your question @Sessioni I do have quite a backlog of various DoW miniatures, though I do wish now that I'd bought heaps more when I was collecting them. I've got a bunch of pikemen of a couple of legions, the birdmen, Midas the mean, the giants of albion and the fighting cocks. I'm always on the lookout for more Dogs of War miniatures though as I would love to have got a couple of galloper guns, more of the pike units, the beseigers and the desert dogs.

 

[Sessioni]

@Leithel cool! I love the DoW pikemen, I have 12 including command, I think they are called Alcatani fellowship. My friend gave them to me a couple years ago. I wish I had more!

 

[Borgnine]

You really like your life difficult with all this NMM It looks awesome! It's been a while since I saw these models, especially so well painted. I don't exactly like how one of the horse is just as red as their plumes - it looks kinda strange, even if I understand the need to make them different. Steel shields look a bit as if they have just a gradient printed on them, not as good as the rest of the metal parts, but that's maybe because of their simple shape. Maybe those surfaces of dark grey should be broken with another highlight perhaps? Other than that - please excuse my rant - it's a wonderful job!

 

[Leithel]

Yeah I'm always looking out for the Alcatani Fellowship @Sessioni so if you ever decide to sell them you know where to go. 20 isn't enough, I want 40 or so of them to use in KoW and 9th.

Good feedback thanks @Borgnine and totally agree. The Red horse was me trying out a colour called Cavalry red. It's super red and not very horselike, much more than I thought, but I'm far too lazy to repaint it. I did love the colour though, so I thought I'd try it for the feathers and banner. The steel shields were my first attempt at doing such a large area with a strong gradient, yeah they aren't great. They are just a large flat surface so I was trying my hand at free hand and NMM at the same time. The goal here was to be able to do it fast enough to paint a while army with it, goal successful but when you look closely you can see the defects (particular in the free hand and NMM).

To do it right, it needs a black shadow highlight, but it's not something I was going to do on each model. The gold shield worked out better I think, but it took about as long as 3 of the metal shields.

Thanks everyone for the feedback.

 

[Sessioni]

@Leithel I am willing to trade them for 5th edition Bretonnian Men at arms halberdiers, if you happen to have them laying around Money can't buy my pikemen.

 

[Leithel]

HAHA @Sessioni and fair enough. I don't have Bret halberdiers, I do have a bunch of plastic bret bowmen from 5th or some really awesome 4th ed empire halberds though!

 

[Mad 'At]

Never been a fan of NMM, but I can still appreciate a good paint job, and this certainly is. Really like the helmets.

If I were to criticize it would be on the decorative line on the barding. It looks a it flat. The lances also strike me as odd. I'm not quite sure if you've tried to paint them as gold or wood. I would suggest making them as wood and add some grain lines to them. Or you could go with a painted wood look and as some spiral patterns to them.

@Leithel @Sessioni Also, I just now browsed Tradera (the Swedish equivalent of Ebay) and noticed there are auctions up for both 5th edition halberds (15 of them for 415 SEK) and Leopolds Leopard Company (12 of them for currently 27 SEK (!)). Hard to tell were they will end up in price but Tradera usually goes a bit cheaper than Ebay due to the much smaller market. I could send you the links if you are interested, but I guess there could be some complications since Tradera usually only concerns sweds.

 

[Sessioni]

@Mad 'At I would really appreciate if you could send me the link for bretties! I don't know if they send to Finland, but at least I live nearby, it would cost me about 30 euros to travel to Stockholm from where I live

 

[Leithel]

I doubt they send to Australia @Mad 'At but I wouldn't mind checking it out. On a side note, I just spent $200AU on DoW minis on ebay that I hope will arrive some time this week. A unit of the Fellowship, a unit of Leopold's Leopards, a galloper gun and one of the other pike units. I'm pretty well pleased so one of them will probably make it's way to my painting table soon.

 

[Sessioni]

Wow, don't you just love the feeling of waiting something good to come via mail How many pikemen you have after receiving those? Will they all be in the same unit?

 

[Leithel]

I will have 2 main units, Leopolds Leopards and the Atlacani Fellowship and 40 with a couple of small unit fillers in each unit I can make 50. The other pikemen I have will be backup in case I need more, but for KoW 40 is a horde so it works well. In 9th I'm using them as empire spearmen. With the Hold your Ground order they are attacking in 5 ranks as a horde which is just how pikes should be.

They're on the painting backlog, I rekon the fellowship will be the first unit I start after the painting comp and my Mortis Engine is done.

 

[Leithel]

Long time no post, but I'm still around. I'd taken a bit of a hiatus from the VC to focus on the night stalkers as I wanted to get them ready for a tournament. As it happens, I won best painted in that tourney so it was all worth it.

Here's an update though, I've just finished The Captain. This guy is the leader of my dogs, a short, but smart little man. He's all Non Metallic Metal (well except the non metal parts, I hope it's clear which is which). it's a Heresy miniature, and a wonderful sculpt. Hope you like it.

As usual there are more images and more details on the model and the base on my blog here.

http://oddianhobbies.com/modelling-blog/2016/8/21/the-captain-non-metallic-metal-adventures

 

[Borgnine]

It's so good seeing you back, pity you don't have any undeads for us

Congrats for winning the best prize on the tourney And damnit, you are getting better and better so quickly, there's so much improvement between this captain and Venators. It'll be nice to see you on the competitions sometimes Keep it up!

 

[Leithel]

Thanks @Borgnine. Yeah just noticed the fleshy comp this month. I might have a model or two that would suit and fit the rules. I don't think I can get a new one done in time though.

 

[der vued]

Your Captain is awesome. Very well done!

 

[Leithel]

So I'm still painting silly living humans, not sure why but it's lots of fun recently. I'm starting to get the zombie itch again... I'll be back to undead soon.

In the mean time, here is my take on the Ice Queen of Kislev. Man do I love this model! Didn't like the horse so I used an old Bret horse. Some freehand work on the barding. Hope you like it:

As usual I have a blog post with all the details

http://oddianhobbies.com/modelling-blog/2016/10/20/the-ice-queen-of-tyris

 

[Farmer7574]

@Leithel Nice freehand on the horse's robes and I like the highlights on that sceptre and the robes coving her legs especially. She looks icy and definitely lives up to her name.

The lavender plants on your bases work really nicely too. Are those basing tufts off eBay?

 

[Borgnine]

I didn't like this model very much, but you did awesome work on it! That blue gradient that goes from back to white on her robes, that must be hard to pull off - but creates such a powerful contrast The freehand is super cool and I like how the brown horse compliments the ice cold whole Great job!

 

[Leithel]

Thanks @Borgnine and @Farmer7574 .

I actually make the tufts myself. They're super easy. I bought a negative ion field generator to make the green tufts, look for "Static Grass Applicator" on you tube find out more. The lavender are just bristles from a large paint brush (like one to paint a wall with) cut off, painted green, dipped the end in white glue then pushed them into sand. Painted purple, highlighted and then stuck into the tufts. Looking back it sounds harder than it is, but it 's really quite easy.

 

[Nagash Worshiper]

That is an amazing Ice Queen sir! Been planing to convert one myself with the Neferata bits. You've now fixed the hazard of figuring out how to paint it! Thx! Will we see some more Kislevites?

 

[Leithel]

Thanks @Nagash Worshiper ! Actually I don't have any of the other Kislevites, but the White Wolves are going to be her entourage, they suit the design very well.

 

[Nagash Worshiper]

Oh yes! That's perfect! Planning to do the regular White Wolves or some converted ones?