Mantic Kings of War Dwarf Brock Riders

Last year I painted the orcs for a 750 point demo set for Kings of War, though as of now, I still haven't based them (you can see them starting here).

After painting the orcs I began painting some brock riders as they were the only unit I didn't already have for the dwarf army. I got the brocks painted, but I only got the riders started.

For my latest mini project I decided to finish them.

Brock Riders regiment

Colour adjusted picture to show the reddish fox fur (sort of)

Sadly I didn't take notes of paints used when I began them. One of the reasons I started this blog was so I'd have a record of paints used, oh well. But I suspect the brocks were basecoated Vallejo Extra Opaque Charcoal Grey and drybrushed with lighter greys mixed in, probably with a black wash. I do remember that the faces were painted with base colours with no attempt at shading or highlighting, I think the dramatic black and white works as it is.

I went for a reddish fox fur for the cloaks as I thought it contrasted well with the black and grey of the badgers. I think they were basecoated with Vallejo Model Color Mahogany. The photos don't really do them justice, they are far redder in real life, though I've tried colour adjusting one of the photos to try and show this. If I do another unit I might try a very pale grey wolf fur. 

I got these Brock Riders in the first Kings of War kickstarter, and they came without any command bits (Mantic now sell bits to make a standard, leader and musician). I used the orc head and a standard plate from the infantry command to make a standard, and a hammer from the Ironbreakers for a leader, though he doesn't look particularly different.

Now one of the reasons I stalled with the orcs was the basing.  I like to have a theme to an army's bases, my previous orcs are marching through the ruins of a city, with ruined walls, toppled columns etc.  I've seen some excellent bases too, T'Other One's Undead, especially his zombie horde, are inspirational, check out his ghouls here.

Now for the demo armies I didn't just want a theme to each army, I wanted something that linked the two armies as well.  I had lots of grand plans with sturdy dwarf walls on the dwarf bases, and ruined versions on the orc bases, but every time I experimented it seemed wrong.  The walls were just too obtrusive.

When I began painting the brock riders I decided to scale back my plans.  Looking through holiday photos made me think of runestones (Orkney - Norse graffiti if you're interested).  Just right for the dwarves, perhaps they are fighting in their lands, and the stones mark important places, or just boundaries or distances.  The orcs, then, would have smashed or toppled runestones.

The stones were easy to make from bits of XPS.  I tried a couple cut out by hand and liked how they looked, so then I milled some XPS to cut up into stones.  I'll put one or two on the dwarf bases (except the leader) and any that don't quite work can be broken up for the orcs.

The two runestones on the brock riders base, one is a monument to some dwarf hero.

I'm really pleased with how these came out, I'm not really a fan of the whole dwarf berserker or similar idea, but they are part of the demo army and I have quite a few.  I enjoyed painting them more than I expected.  I'll have to get some more dwarves painted now.

So, I have a basing scheme for both armies now, no excuse not to finish basing the orcs, and get on with the rest of the dwarves too.