Zebraoutrider lets slip the Dogs of War

Behind every mercenary army there needs to be a Paymaster General, and this chap really needs a lot of muscle to protect his financial assets. So taking the high ground, the Paymaster (who likes to remain as a silent partner in this quest) and along with the ‘Accountant’ have teamed up with the Ogre Cannoneers. They can certainly shoot from distance, but if any threats get too close they’ll revert to using their iron mortars as close combat weapons. No one messes with the Boss!

So, we’ve come full circle back to using the mini hoover to initially clean up the minis which has enabled quite an extensive and refreshing Spring Clean using the same palette of washes and consistent use of basing material that runs throughout the various units in this project. Indeed, I can now put this ‘completed’ table-top ready army back onto the bookshelf to accumulate another 5 or 6 years of dust!

So what’s next… well there’s a set of half/painted Ogres to add some extra beef and 30 unpainted Knights of the Avenging Flame to add as a core spearmen unit… If I get them all finished before the close of the Spring Clean Challenge 2023 on 21st June, then fantastic, but as this is not my day job so if they’re not finished in June, I’m sure the army will be nearing completion by the end of the Summer…

This has been a great journey. Thank you to all that have followed and provided such positive feedback and support!

As we enter the last throes of the Spring Clean Challenge, I really wanted to finish off with a centrepiece for what started as a couple of desperately dusty units into a tabletop-ready and playable army. Now I could have turned to a few different options, but there was always a Forge World miniature that I wanted but I had missed out on when I hadn’t realised it was being retired and disappeared from my basket while I delayed my purchase for 24 hours!

I’m talking of course of the Magma Dragon – a huge resin piece sculpted by Keith Robertson. The only place I could acquire it was through eBay and sadly I had to pay hugely over the odds on its original RRP but on the plus side it had already been built, undercoated dark green and glued to its base and it arrived fast and was packed well. It needed some liquid green stuff in some joints and although I toyed with the idea of repositioning the dragon more centrally on the base, I decided against it to enable me to develop the base akin to a vignette.

The rough scales were drybrushed with Wraithbone and washed with Casandora yellow and further blended with Wraithbone and delicate wash splotches of Nuln Oil. The bony spikes with highlighted with Wraithbone and White Scar. The under belly used a very old but unopened bottle of Striking Scorpion Green and again washed with Casandora Yellow. The fleshy mouth and tongue used Warlock Purple, Kislev Flesh and ‘ardcoat for a wet look.

For the base, I made up a mix of polyfilla powder, grit, sand and model railway ballast to create a stony effect which was applied to create a crater where the uprooted tree used to sit. I used real embedded twigs to represent roots and real lichen and moss for some plants. The earth was painted black before a coating of glue and home brew green flock was added. The whole model was sprayed with gloss varnish to give a moist look to both the dragon and the ground.

To finish the scene off, I added the C11 halfling I toyed with accompanying Lucrezzia Belladonna and I think it adds the sense that this dragon, although massive and scary is indeed on the side of good (otherwise he’d have eaten the hairy footed companion!). For me this represents the relationship between myself and my recently departed father in that he was awesome and I looked up to him. He left a huge footprint in my life and it will continue to be difficult to match his magnitude in life, but this community and these Spring Clean Projects have helped me enormously to refocus and move on to write the next chapter in my life. So this model is dedicated to my dad ‘Les’…

To support Bronzino’s Galloper Gun and to provide some swift counter-attacks Al-Muktar’s Desert Dogs have crossed the ocean from Araby to Lustria in search of the fabled treasure of the Slaan.

These horsemen were not in such a dusty state as the other miniatures because they were still in my painting pile to join my existing  Bretonnian Project and stored in my painting den. They still needed finishing off to bring them up to table-top standard and the bases upgraded to fit in with the luscious green of the fertile continent.

Al-Muktar’s Dogs of War unit comes with six members including Al-Muktar. To make this up to a unit of eight (so they fill the movement tray) I’ve added the DoW character model Suliman the Saracen and an Arabian Wizard on a flying carpet (Citadel Miniatures C33 ‘Airborne Wizard’ 1985). They are all mounted on 25x50mm resin rectangular cavalry bases (I think they are ancient bases from Micro Art Studio?)

If you are going to field Suliman the Saracen, then you need to really also field his companion Baron Odo D’Outremer. This Bretonnian mercenary is mounted on a 50mm Ancient base aligned with Al-Muktar’s horsemen and also needed to have his paint job finished. The ‘Eavy Metal GW example in the various White Dwarf magazines show Odo all in white with a Red Cross as his main livery symbol, but I decided to instead quarter his livery with red checks and used a black cross so that I could link his colours with his mate Suliman.

I decided to also give Odo his own little companion with the mad wee halfling (Citadel Miniatures C11 ‘Hacker’ from 1986)  charging forward with a hatchet! This chap was originally going to join Bloody Mary’s unit, but having painted him up in Odo’s red and white livery, I think he adds a lovey dose of comic relief… note I deliberately posed the halfling so that it may look like Odo is about to whack him either as punishment or to encourage him forward! 

Another quick unit to add to the Dogs of War army. This time it’s Lucrezzia Belladonna (Citadel Miniatures’ DoW 2000). I should say it wasn’t that quick. I needed to clean off the dust and refresh the original base layers with a Carroburg Crimson wash, Reikland Fleshshade, and repaint the rather sickly green with Lothern Blue followed by a wash of Drakenhof Nightshade. I also opted for some unicorn transfers from the old Bretonnian Knights’ kit.

The base is another 50mm square Arcane Micro Art Studio. As with the General’s base, it was drybrushed using Mournfang Brown and blended with Wraithbone. Agrax Earthshade was used as a wash and Retributor Gold for the metalwork. Unlike the General’s base, I decided to make the recess full of clearish water. This was achieved with three layers of ‘ardcoat and a little splash of Thraka Green wash around the floating leaves.

I wanted to give Lucrezzia Belladonna a companion and toyed with the idea of another halfling. It didn’t look right next to the steed, so I opted for a human-sized scout/bodyguard and pulled out the Citadel Miniatures’ El-Adoran Sureshot – CO1 Fighter (1986) from my pile of shame and painted him up in the same livery colours as his Mistress. In gaming terms I thought they could act as one unit, but would enable Lucrezzia Belladonna to have a ballistic bow and arrow attack before she enters melee combat.

When I took the Freebooter unit off the shelf, my heart sank. I thought I’d finished painting them, but to my disappointment the layer of dust simply hid the fact that I’d given up on them – why? I can’t remember back that far, but I guess after painting the Mordheim vampire (as the unit leader) my interest waned and I was distracted elsewhere. To add salt to the wound I dropped the whole unit whilst cleaning them and so working out a decent configuration of the ranks of soldiers took a few attempts.

These plastic minis were constructed using the Citadel Miniatures Empire Militia kit, the Chaos Marauders’s kit and the Mordheim Accessories sprue to produce a unique, pirate-themed unit.

So, once the dust was hoovered up and the minis were painted up using the same mix of random colours on my work table and a series of washes and we have ‘Bloody Mary’s Marines’. These are not elite Ultra Marines, oh no! they’re more like cannon fodder to distract and slow down the enemy.

All armies need ground troops and so for this growing force I’ve added a unit of veteran swordsmen commanded by Baron Otto Von Auerswald and a unit of crossbowmen to provide him with appropriate missile support.

Again, these minis were covered in dust which my portable dust buster dealt with quite effectively. The movement tray had no rear edge, so a created one by cutting down old blister plastic packing and supergluing in place. To fill out the spare spaces on the movement trays, I glued down recycled 20mm square bases discarded from the Pikemen of Pugno upgrade, but I also added a Scibor Ancient Ruin 25mm square base to add a bit more character to their environment and to help with moving the trays on the battlefield.

The minis themselves were refreshed simply with washes of Nuln Oil, Reikland Fleshshade, Baal Red, Carroburg Crimson, Drakenhof Nightshade and Cassandra Yellow.

I acquired the miniature of the DoW General in a mixed lot of minis on eBay years ago and he sat in my pile of unpainted for just as many years. He didn’t have his horse… but again I was quite lucky because as many DoW miniatures sellers today seem to want to extract as much dosh out of punters as possible. So I found one of my old, damaged Bretonnian horses(first edition plastic) which was missing its rider and initially its tail as well (further digging in my bits box and one surfaced) and whose paint job was not that bad (in my biased view!). I needed to work on the damaged transfers but I felt the Minotaur head would be apt for this Tilean Mercenary. For painting of the general, I kept it quite simple using black and white as the theme to align with the horse and gold to align with the other DoW units.

The dog companion is actually 40 years old and comes from the Citadel Fantasy Special Range FS49-2 Barking Dog. I’m imagining it to be a whippet/greyhound hunting dog used by the General to secure his meaty dinner each night. He was originally painted using Humbrol Enamel grey for the skin tone and brown for the base. I’ve opted to paint it to contrast the black horse by using Wraithbone over the grey undercoat followed by drybrushing White Scar.

Both miniatures are mounted on a 50mm square resin arcane base from Micro Art Studio. Base was drybrushed using Mournfang Brown and blended with Wraithbone. The open pits were painted to look like pools of water with Lothern Blue, White Scar, Drakenhof Nightshade and ‘ardcoat varnish. Retributor Gold linked the general to the metalwork on the base. The dog’s original lead base was clipped down and that vibrant flock was used to tie the base to the rest of the army, yet allow this base to link with potential other Arcane bases I may want to use on other units.