Karak Coors - Special and Rare units

When I started with dwarfs I started with the slayers. I still remember the impact when I first read about these guys, rejecting protection, looking for the greater death possible against the biggest enemy available. With an army being an Inn in the way of Karak Eight Peaks it was clear it would be always crammed with these orange soldiers, so the decission was clear.

 I started painting these guys so long ago that I didn't even recorded the date. They are the very best, my first warhammer square, but the starting/finishing dates are completely lost. I suspect it was like 20 years ago, aroung 1995, but I will never be 100% sure

I started with slayers, beast slayer, daemon slayers, dragon slayer...all sorts of troops regardless troop choices or rules. Back in the days I was not into playing so I really didn't care much about other things rather than background. The final result was a chaotic group, not really playable, and with huge problems to assemble together, their poses being too dynamic. In other words: purely slayer style. Lovely.

These two guys are the very first two miniatures I ever painted. Well, of course I painted a few space crusade marines and so when I was a child, but these two were the very first I painting using all my skill back in the days and with the purpose of creating a whole army.

The funny thing is that I had no idea how to paint or create bases (o magazines, no internet), so I used clay, painted green, and pierced with a toothpick to create the holes. I thought that would create a nice grass effect, haha. I even kept them in the fridge for a couple days to harden the clay. Another details is the black line in the base of the left guy. Back in the days I intended to represent the importance of the characters by using these codes: green, black/green, black, black/red, red. The daemon slayer bases are red for that reason.

This is one of my favourites. Really simple, but the face, the pose...I've always loved it. Notice I had already improved the clay base (thank God)

These are the heavy hitters, the daemons slayer. The first one has a black axe, a disgraceful choice I've been repenting about my whole life but the rules are clear: once finished never retouched.

With the lesson of not using black metal learned, I moved into the next one. This I'm really proud of. I know the black lines in the hair and the plain metal are somehow clumsy but well, back in the days this guy was a huge step forward.

The command group was one of the latest to be painted and I think it shows the improvement: clothes are no longer plain, weapons have a decent scheme (although still plain colours), skin tones are not that brownish and, in general terms, there is no huge mistake in the figures. Not bad for a kid

A later addition is Gotrek. He came a few years later, while I was at the University and used to read his books in the train. I loved the character and this was my way of paying respect. Felix? Well I never intended to paint him anyway so I don't even know where would he be now.

Another of my early units was the gyrocopter. Finally realizing that with my slow painting pace it would take years to achieve something worth seeing, I switched into machines instead of big infantry units.

It was the bigger unit in the dwarf range back in the days, so it was the greatest display for my scarce force. It has a nice colour choice in the rotors, and the wood is plain but not bad either.

Once finished I created a small clay ball attached to the top of the bomb, painted red, mocking a burning fire. Tip: never put clay without glue, it falls off eventually.

The second incorporation to my army was the great cannon. With an extremely basic metal scheme and the crew painted in the yellow and blue of the Karak, it was not a really difficult project. Basic stuff but an always welcoming unit in any army.

Originally the cannon didn't have base, and the crew had simple brown ones, with the same material as the infantry, but in brown. Yeah I know, not really inspired.

The cannon base was added a few years later, trying to create a more compact unit. I simply glued a few standard bases and I even tried to name them. As you can see, it never happened and I just left it that was. One day...one day...

A gunner with a purple beard. It is a pity because the blue was quite nice for the time.

And finally this guy. One of my all-time favourites, just lovely.

Finally came the organ gun, the last of my artillery pieces. Horrible work except the wheels, which are quite funny, but the rest is just low quality. I am not very pleased with it.

The best part is this guy, Gunther. I've always loved his face, with his beard and teeth. It could had made a nice hero if having been sold separately. Now he stands back in the expo. Life is such a bitch...

Karak Coors - Basic Units

The first miniatures I ever painted were the Space Crusade box set. I was just a kid then and painting was just another hobby, with plastic humbro paints and toothpicks as paintbrushes. I was not very regular until I was 18 aproximately, when I truly decided to become a painter, or at least to try. There was only one rule back then: Give your best to every single miniature; no holding back; no time constraints; aim for the best and one day maybe...

The first army I collected were Games Workshop Dwarfs. I still love these guys as my first love ever, and they are still my biggest army. Today I will show you the basic units of the Karak-Coors Inn army

Of course one of the best things of collecting an army is creating a story and start building around it. In my background a travelling dwarf, Baruk Doro Grom, decides to create an Inn in the way to Karak Eight-Peaks. It is a dangerous area but with plenty of adventurers, son there is an opportunity for adventurers.

The Army will therefore be a small security outpost, growing into a small garrison, all assembled depending on available forces and coming from different places, so there is no basic color. 

My first unit was the 1º Regulares of Karak Coors. The color scheme was inspired in an Iyanden article I fell in love with from an old White Dwarf. The nice thing about these guys was that the first one was finished on 10 february of 1996, and the last one on 27 october 1999, 3 years and a half!!. Yes, I am a slow painter, and got tired of these guys so many times that I still think it is a miracle I finished them at all.

Another detail: every single dwarf in the army is named from a musician from my personal collection. I only saved Iron Maiden, Blind Guardian and Gamma Ray. They are the officers of each regiment. Up the Irons!

 The painting was rude, the colors not quite blend and the basin is just gruesome. Not a bad job for my first one, though, but things had to be improved if I wanted to get real quality stuff

Anyway, I still think there is nothing like a nice, solid warhammer regiment square. Nice!

The next guys were shooters. That is a dwarf army without plenty of shooting stuff?

These guys were painted from 27 october 2003 to 7 december 2005. Not bad for just 12 dwarfs. In this case I changed the color scheme, using another eldar-theme pattern, but I was unable to decide whether to use black or red as primary, so half the soldiers are painted in white and the other in red (see the shields)

I was not a huge step forward and I am not very pleased with them, that is the reason they don't even have a movement tray, or official regimental name. They are supposed to be the 3º Cazadores but now they are just a bunch of hunters, rangers scouting for the rest of the army.

And yes, they live outside so they are not really trustworthy, hehehe

The main improvement here was the use or a more advanced basing and nice experiments with blue-white patterns. The rest is just standard quality event from those days point of view. A missed chance...

One of the sad things about GW is that they tend to put out of production the really nice old models. I've always regretted not to buy many many units, but one of those units I managed to buy before put out of stock were the Dwarf thunderers: the jewel of my army

I started with these guys in february 2006, but I was kind of lazy and its production was disconiuous, so it was not finished until october 2009. I tried to use the elven white (darkened with blue), red as secondary color and yellow for hair, to give them a real fantasy-like style.

In this case the base slides down, making a gentle slope, decorated with standard grass & hair. The effect is quite nice although I was unable to photograph it.

I sincerely think that the great part of this unit lies in its models. Purely metal, single character miniatures that really gives the impression of single individuals joining up for a a battle, like this one with the pink  feather, one of my favourites

The line of battle look pretty chaotic, different than the typical warhammer all-look-like-the-same blocks

And this is my favourite one, with the red handkerchief, the NMM on the gun, the aiming pose...just superb work from old GW

A thunderer with a dragon-like gun mouth. Wow, these are the detailes we loved so much about GW

The sergeant, with two gun and the standar bearer behind. The idea was to create some green marble-like pole, and I think I more or less made it.

These are the only guys that look more or less the same. It is all about the hat. Nice anyway

A few glimpses at the whole regiment in formation. Soooooo nice

And here you can see the slpe, going down gently, makes the guys look like they are lined in high ground.

Years passed by, other armies came and went, several techniques were learned and, one day, Games Workshop decided to release a brand new range of dwarf miniatures. A call to arms was given: the dwarfs were back in the game. It was time to re-arm, time to include new miniatures.

It was during summer 2014 when he very last unit of my dwarf army was created. Designed as a one year long reinforcement program, it included the 2º Regulares of Karak Coors, runesmiths, engineers and heroes, almost 500 points which, for a 1200 points army was quite extraordinary.

Plans were laid to paint during a three weeks long vacation period and discipline was strict: paint or die.

For this regiment, the idea was to use blue as main color to blend it with the 1º Regulares, but using a NMM pale gold. The most important part were the axes, with huge two handed axes as the prominent part of the miniature, the non metallic metal had to be just perfect. 

I also used a GW moment tray and created an 80's name patter. With my standard basing technique for years (sand, grass and hair grass) I expected it to look really awesome.

After several previous miniatures learning NMM I think I finally learned the basics to achieve a nice convincing effect. The only bad point: it lacks a subtle blue ink effect to make them colder; but I am anyway really happy with them

  I got these guys from an old box I still had with the plastic on, so I could just field 16 of them. The price was also in the plastic: 2500 pesetas, almost 15€...and now it is more than twice that much...wow

And these are the command group. I love them

  I love the big axe so...more photos, hehehe (basically because the rest of the miniature is a standard soldier body so it has 0 detail)