Little Army Challenge 1 - September

Hello again, and so soon too! 

In the two-ish weeks since my announcement of the little army challenge, I've been hard at work scouring Ebay and gluing tiny people together. Its been fun, seeing what sort of force I can acquire on a budget, and how to best blend what I have to make the final force look cohesive. In my first post, I showed off the three boxes that would form the base of my army; two Stone Realm kits from Fireforge, and a Dwarf Infantry kit from North Star Miniatures. The results speak for themselves in the 500 point version of the list.

A Thane, 10 Hammerers, 15 Warriors, and 10 Thunderers.

Their Official, Unofficial Movement Tray

So that's 500 points. Here's the 1k role-call in no particular order!

10 Miners - these are extras from the North Star kit, who's helmets I reshaped to be more akin to the early great helm style,early great helm style, and then added apoxiesculpt candles to the top of. There's a part of me that wants to sculpt the whole army from scratch, and another part that wanted to use the mole miners from Splintered Light Miniatures, but neither of those parts won out, so here we are. Not too shabby for a night of putty pushing.

Also, since these guys are Miners, they needed picks. Since the kit didn't come with those, I took the spears and the bows from the box and made ten pick silhouettes. They might not pass under actual labor or scrutiny, but these picks will do their job from feet away (which is where I'll be, so that's really all that matters.)

Over here we have a hero, made out of the leftover bits from the Arqbussers kit from Fireforge with a brace of pistols. Though not on the list, it might be handy to drop another hero in to issue challenges, lead units, or hunt other stray characters.

Also, we have a unit of dwarf slayers who are Dvergr Berserkers from Gripping Beast. I just want to say that finding suitably unclothed dwarfs was a pain and a half, and some of the google searches I did definitely put me on a watchlist. Unfortunately Saga units come in increments of 4 or 8, and so I'll need to find another few bodies to make them the full compliment. Also, these models have a mentionable lead component, so I'll need to be careful when converting them (some of them need extra hands and whatnot, that kind of stuff.) If this unit gets completed, it'll be a miracle.

In the far back, we have a stonethrower, crewed by 3 nerds using parts from all the plastic kits. Runing it means I'll have to dig out my old cannon templates, but that's the joy of playing middlehammer. If you're not guesstimating your rock range, are you really living?

10 Hammerers, just doing their thing. They'll make a decent anvil for holding objectives and smashing face. While I doubt they'll ever get a charge off, those great weapons offer a +2 strength bonus, which translates to a -2 armor penalty to anyone foolish enough to face off with these guys.

Also, the Thane from the list! I decided to give her a loadout different than the one I originally wrote down, mostly because she looked cooler this way, but perhaps I'll make a third hero who actually fits that initial description. We'll have to wait and see! 

In the way back, we have a unit of dwarf ironwatch from Mantic that'll serve as my quarrelers/rangers. They're fresh out of the box so I haven't had time to mess with them yet, but my plan is to cut off their heads and replace them with the hooded heads from the North Star kit so that they blend in with the rest of the army.

Then in front we have the Arqbussers from Fireforge, who are just 1:1 for my thunderers. I'll be shit out of luck if it rains, but how often will that happen underground? Its fine. nobody needs a plan.

15 warriors - they're just here to hang out. I still don't have a great grasp on tactics for this army, in this iteration, but having someone to go out and tarpit or claim objectives seems really good. Even though the list still leans heavy into range/artillery, I want to have something that kills goblins the old fashioned way. 

And army more or less assembled.

So there we go! Most of the miniatures are built, converted, sprayed, and ready to take the paint! In the next month I'll need to decide on a scheme for the uniform and for the basing, and get a chunk of the force tabletop ready. Also on the to-do list is sourcing movement trays that allow for proper formations, and maybe cooking up some lore and terrain to compliment these cranks.

That's all I've got for now though, so I won't draw it out, but thanks so much for reading and see you in October! Ciao!