The Return to Herohammer

Note: This post was apparently sitting in "draft" state for 3 years and I totally forgot about it. I never really finished the thought but I figured I'd just post it now and get it there. 

When I dove back into Warhammer and jumped on board the #Oldhammer movement, I really loved the nostalgia, the atmosphere, and most of all, the old sculpts (don't get me wrong, the new modern sculpts are amazing technical miniatures, but I feel like there's just some character missing from them).

But the era that Oldhammer focuses on is Warhammer 3rd edition which was just before my time. I discovered The Hobby and Warhammer when WHFB 4th edition was released in all it's glory, and that's the game that I hold dear.  I will always love it but I also thought I was the only one that loved that version of the game.  It was a time of crazy magic and zany characters; the oft derided "Red Era" where it seems like 50% of every new kit was painted bright red.   When combined with 5th edition, the over-the-top nature of army lists with 50% special characters that dominated the game was dubbed Herohammer, and not in a "charming, nostalgic" way.

The advent of Facebook Groups, however, seems to have provided a place for us forgotten, shunned few that actually loved that era, with red paint and Goblin Green bases.

Anyway, that was a long intro to say that once I found the Herohammer Facebook Group, the nostalgia bug bit me hard and I'm going headfirst into a group of projects that I've always secretly wanted to do. 

Dwarf King Kazador and Cannons

 

Another quick post with recently completed Herohammer units.  Once again this is a combination of things I've been meaning to paint (King Kazador) and things that were "half painted" and never completed.  

First up, a Dwarf "Siege Gun", from Marauder.  The cannon and crew were originally painted up by a buddy back when we first started playing Warhammer 4th edition in high school (he was a fan of the "25% allies" rules, with mostly a High Elf army...any lots of allies). He eventually gifted the cannon to me because I was primarily a dwarf player.  Any it has remained half-painted like this for about 30 years.

I wanted to keep the original theme of "red and yellow" but maybe a little less "ketchup and mustard". 

So the red became muted and the yellow became gold.  

For the crew, I repainted them with mostly red, using yellow as the spot color. 

Next - King Kazador.  I remember he was the first Dwarf special character I purchased soon after getting my hands on the newly released Dwarf Army book.  I used him in a number of games and he was pretty powerful, but for some reason I never got around to painting him.  Probably because I quickly bought and painted Thorgrim on the Throne of Power as well as Ungrim Ironfist.   Anyway, Kazador is ready for battle now. 

Not my best work on the cloak, but better than unpainted metal!

Finally, another half-painted unit.  My other Dwarf Siege Gun.  I painted this cannon myself and it was "done", but I never painted the crew.  After finishing the red cannon, it was time to complete this one as well.   

I didn't take a close up shot, but the cannon barrel was my first real foray into blending (which, back in the 90s, all I had to go on was basic instructions in white dwarf painting articles that definitely left out steps). Either way, I was pretty proud of myself with the dark blue-to-light blue transition on this barrel. I even hand-painted some of the dwarf runes listed in the army book.  

I left the barrel unchanged here (because it was good enough and it's good to look back on what you've done and how much progress you've made) .  But the wheels and the gold trim were never shaded or highlighted, so I finished that up here. 

The crew were completely unpainted. I often just borrowed the fully painted crew from my organ gun.  But now the blue cannon has a proper crew.  I even figured out that the little wooden stool was for the guy to light the cannon. I never realized that until just now. 

I forgot to paint the eyes on these guys - forgive me. 

Not sure why I included two similar pictures here...

Anyway, I'm very happy to have these done.