Return to the OG – An Orc & Goblins Army

06/01/202606/01/2026 ~ Iron Jarl ~ Leave a comment

So in the late 80’s I was introduced to Wargaming and I’ve never looked back!

I saw a picture of the diorama above followed by pictures of Orc & Goblins and I knew that’s what I wanted to do, a massive Orc & Goblin Army… And so my journey began!

Through the 90’s I bought lots AND LOTS of Orc and Goblin Miniatures from a variety of sculptors/companies and played Warhammer weekly. During the Summer we’d get a huge 12ftx6ft table out of my friends garage and set it up on his drive and play huge multiplayer, good -vs- evil games! My passion for Orcs & Goblins remained but I refined my collection over time to only include newer painted Citadel Miniatures.

The Death of WFB and the Dawn of AoS – this was a turning point for me… I decided, fool heartedly, that I would sell my WFB collections and begin a brand new AoS project. The OG were gone and in their place was a Flesh-eater Courts army! I have never regretted a decision to sell an army more than this, and when Warhammer: The Old World was born I said I’d never do games in the Warhammer Fantasy setting again! I instead pushed all of my attention into Kings of War by Mantic Games.

Fast forward to 2025 and I found myself eyeing up the OG again and so my passion for Orcs & Goblins was reignited once more… A Warhammer: The Old World – Orcs & Goblins Troll Horde army was born! The Rise of Waaaaggghh Red Sunz began, led by the enigmatic Orc Warlord Rol-snik The Trollfather.

When they were little, Rol-snik liberated 2 baby Trolls. Naming them Granor & Swammi and raising them as his own, they rose to power and developing magical abilities. They attracted Trolls to Waaaaggghh Red Sunz and so the army grew in stature and prowess.

A big block of Rol-snik’s Big ‘uns, joined by the army’s Battle Standard and an Orc Weird Nob marches alongside the Troll Father…

Scouring the Border Princes area of the Old World, ahead of the Main Army are the Sun Runnerz, units of Wolf Riders and a unit of Wolf Chariots…

An army needs a Baggage Train, something for the army to be defending and so I built this little diorama where the wheel has well and truly fell off the wagon. You can see an orc tracker pointing out the approaching enemy while an orc blacksmith shrugs and asks “what do you expect me to do about it?”

This rounds out my return to the OG, I accomplished this army relatively quickly through the use of AK Play Markers and washes and I’m really pleased with how the project turned out. It has led me down a classic fantasy rabbit hole but I think my next Fantasy project will be a 10mm Mass Battles game as part of my “Year in miniature” projects of 2026… I’m looking at you Argatoria!

Many thanks One and All

Community First, Since 1988! – 𝕿𝖍𝖊 𝕴𝖗𝖔𝖓 𝕵𝖆𝖗𝖑

Look to the Future, FU to the Past!

05/01/2026 ~ Iron Jarl ~ Leave a comment

Well 2025 ended in a really strange way, my previous employer terminated my contract and I was left wondering what to do!?

Look to the Future, FU to the past Sticker By Paige/Crafty Dog Minis – Available to Patreon Tier Members

I received an absolutely heartwarming outpouring of love and appreciation from people I’d helped within the hobby community here in the West Midlands of the UK. Every one of them telling me that I should do what I do best, Community Support, bringing my experience to an online store full of handpicked products and creating a hub of fellow like-minded hobbyists.

I had been running ISG as a collective of miniature wargaming artists for a few years now and we have a following of just under 5k on Instagram. I’d also ran Commission and Events under the ISG banner prior to becoming full time employed but had to stop when my employment began, so this traction had been lost! It’s now time to relight the forge, start creating again and build a future while saying FU to the past!

A big part of this is raising funds to bring the store to life, we are so very close to our next milestone Goal (£200) and around £600 from being able to place an order from a well known supplier here in the UK (North Star) and your support would really help. Our GoFundMe Campaign is a way of giving to help us grow, to bring more great products to the community and we are running several Raffles as part of this.

Another way to support us and get something in return is to back our Patreon, with different tiers giving you different benefits, any help through this platform is a monthly boost which will be used to fund more expansion which in return helps the ISG Community.

Thanks for Everything Guys
“Community First, Since 1988” – 𝕿𝖍𝖊 𝕴𝖗𝖔𝖓 𝕵𝖆𝖗𝖑

Konflikt ’47 – The War Rages On – Sturm Division 312 – PT.1

01/01/202601/01/2026 ~ Iron Jarl ~ Leave a comment

So some of you may know that I am a MAHOOSIVE K-47 fan and have several fully painted armies, but when the new edition landed in 2025 I knew I had to do a winter Axis Army set on the Eastern Front… This would need to be an army I could complete quickly, speed paint if you’d like due to lack of hobby time at the time and so the Sturm Division 312 marched into existence!

The core of a Konflikt ’47 army is the Assault Platoon, the boots on the ground and you must select 2 advanced or specialist units as it’s backbone, the weird in the WWII. I chose to focus on Stahltruppen and Shrekwulfen!

Next up is your choice of Platoons, I went with an Armoured Walker Platoon comprising of a Panzer IV-X “Panzerlaufer” Command Vehicle and 2 Vogelspinne.

Following this up I added an Artillery Platoon comprising of a Schwertruppen command team and Panzershreck decked out in mki power armour, a Schwerfeld Projector & a Super Heavy Anti Tank Gun both with a tow for repositioning.

Last up I added an armoured platoon compromising of a King Tiger with Super Heavy Rail Gun & a Puma-X

As you can see I’ve gone for a heavy weathered look, with whitewashed armour. I achieved this with the use of heavy chipping medium over their original tricolour pattern. Once dried, I applied an off-white over the entirety of model and then removed areas of the white once dry. When this had settled I softly airbrushed off-white over these exposed areas to simulate areas of the whitewash thinning over time. AK Dioramas Dark Earth, Ice Sprinkles and Snow were added at the final stage.

I wanted to add the impression of the Vogelspinne being nimble and pouncing, a stark opposite to the lumbering Panzerlaufer. To aid in this storytelling I posed the Vogelspinne’s accordingly and on the Panzerlaufer I added stowage and begleit riders.

Hope you like my new edition/new army, I have a new one planned for 2026 and additions to this one so keep checking back for more updates – 𝕿𝖍𝖊 𝕴𝖗𝖔𝖓 𝕵𝖆𝖗𝖑

Rise from the Ashes

24/12/2025 ~ Iron Jarl ~ Leave a comment

Hi my name is Dave and I’m well known within the hobby world as Ironskull Gaming and that’s why you’re probably here. I have nearly 5k followers on Instagram, this website is home to my Blog, a place for reviews, hobby tips, project logs, etc. BUT I’d like to also have an online store for those products I endorse using my 37 years hobby experience. That’s where I find myself… in an awful position, reaching out to the Hobby Community for support as I have a plan to rebuild but not the funds to make this dream come to life!

I find myself here as up until a 5 days before Christmas I was working as a Store Manager for a very well known online retailer who has embarked on growth into brick and mortar stores. Content and happy for the first time in a while, I found myself blindsided by a Company I loved and dismissed from my role, something I would have had a case of unfair dismissal for if I had reached 2 years service (which would have been in March). I gave so much of myself to this company and then I was tossed away like nothing I ever did mattered, 5 days before Christmas, 7 days before the anniversary of my mother’s passing and only weeks after the first anniversary of my mother in laws passing.

Your help to make this dream come to life means the world to me but I know times are hard so any help, no matter how small would be gratefully received.

https://gofund.me/06950bfc3

Ironskull Reforged!

22/12/202522/12/2025 ~ Iron Jarl ~ Leave a comment

*“Relight the forge, the Iron Jarl has returned and has a grand undertaking to perform” – ISG Collective Members Dec 2025*

*The endeavours of the past 21 months have come to an end and so I look forward to reforging Ironskull Gaming once more.*

Ironskull Gaming will get a new lease of life as I, IronJarlMinis, return to the helm. We will be relaunching the website with reviews, blogs, tutorials, a brand new Online Store, Studio open for commissions and hopefully some more Events throughout 2026.

The Community is key and as such we will continue to showcase works from our ISG Collective Artists over on our Instagram account!

More news to follow, watch this space!

New Year/New Army 2024

23/01/202401/01/2026 ~ Iron Jarl ~ Leave a comment

So at the start of 2024 I announced my Hobby Resolutions/Pledges for this year over on my Social Media Pages but for those who follow me here I shall add them below:

As you can see at the very top is my New Year/New Army for 2024 Pledge…a MASSIVE project for Kings of War, The League of Rhordia/Kingdoms of Man project!

So this army is also a project to showcase the possibilities to build and paint an army that you have envisioned from the ground up and this is because Kings of War is miniature agnostic so I have trawled the world wide web for miniatures and STL’s from various companies that I feel fit the unit titles/descriptions. The graphic below shows some of the companies that I will be getting miniatures from for this project.

While I await the arrival of miniatures I set about creating the multibases for the units and thought I’d showcase a tutorial on how I went about it…

And below is a selection of the other bases I’ve made so far…

Keep checking my other Social Media Accounts as well as here for more updates on this project!

THE Game of Fantasy Battles

10/01/202401/01/2026 ~ Iron Jarl ~ Leave a comment

Calling all Rank and Flank Fantasy Wargamers, my Kings of War Events for this year are live. Join me at Board In Brum for Tournaments, Campaigns & Educational Bootcamps for Beginners.

This game of Fantasy Rank and Flank invites all players, unlike an Old World EVERY army is tournament legal (even those using models from other manufacturers), it was designed by gamers for gamers, has a friendly global community, and it’s easy and affordable to get started. 𝙋𝙡𝙚𝙖𝙨𝙚 𝙨𝙝𝙖𝙧𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙥𝙤𝙨𝙩 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙝𝙚𝙡𝙥 𝙨𝙥𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙙 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙬𝙤𝙧𝙙 𝙤𝙛 𝙆𝙞𝙣𝙜𝙨 𝙤𝙛 𝙒𝙖𝙧 𝙖𝙣𝙙 Mantic Games!

Just check out all of this:

⚔️ FREE getting started rules

🗡️ FREE army list builder

⚔️ FREE 300+ page guide to the world and lore

🗡️ Ambush Starter Sets (2-3 units and rules) from just £35 / €40 / $45

So come and join in, click the images below to get your tickets now and we’ll see you on the battlefield!

Big, Red & Angry!

05/11/202301/01/2026 ~ Iron Jarl ~ Leave a comment

So most of you will have heard of the game Warhammer 40,000, or 40k for short, but do you know the story of the blood crazed lunatic with butchers nails in his head that the Chaos god of War & Slaughter took a liking to? Well Angron, Primarch of the World Eaters Legion, was transformed by Khorne into a Daemon Primarch of Khorne, his Avatar of Destruction!

Moving forward from the ashes of the Horus Heresy and recently he has emerged once more to wreak havoc upon the Imperium of Man, the Red Angel is here…

A Dream Commission

𝕊𝕋𝕌𝔻𝕀𝕆 ℂ𝕆𝕄𝕄𝕀𝕊𝕊𝕀𝕆ℕ
𝗠𝗔𝗡𝗨𝗙𝗔𝗖𝗧𝗨𝗥𝗘𝗥: Games Workshop
𝗚𝗔𝗠𝗘: Warhammer 40,000 (40k)
𝗔𝗥𝗠𝗬: World Eaters
𝗧𝗜𝗧𝗟𝗘: Angron, Daemon Primarch of Khorne
𝗣𝗔𝗜𝗡𝗧𝗘𝗗 𝗕𝗬: The Iron Jarl Ironskull Gaming Studios

A couple of years ago I had the pleasure of painting my first Primarch Miniature for Warhammer 40,000 having only previously painted these venerable leaders of the Emperor’s Legions for Horus Heresy and I loved it! The scale of these miniatures are awesome but I’d only dreamt of painting a Daemon Primarch, the biggest and baddest of all Primarchs… That is until recently when the Angriest of Daemon Primarchs arrived as a commission!

This mini is truly stunning and a joy to paint… Even if there are a gazzilion skulls to paint! Previously I painted a Bloodthirster and a Daemon Prince of Khorne for the same client so shouldn’t have been surprised to receive this commission but I truly am astonished every time someone chooses my services for such epic minis! Well enough babble from me, may I present to you Angron “The Red Angel”, Daemon Primarch of Khorne!

𝗔𝗟𝗟 𝗢𝗨𝗥 𝗟𝗜𝗡𝗞𝗦:
https://linktr.ee/ironskull_gaming

From the Void They Come!

16/10/202301/01/2026 ~ Iron Jarl ~ 1 Comment

So the cat is out of the bag, the Cruel Overlords and True Masters of The Void have Dominated my painting desk… Which is apt really as that’s what they do to the Denizens of the Void, The Nightstalkers!

So rewind to this time last year and I set out on a journey into Kings of War by Mantic Games choosing to work on an Ambush Army of Nightstalkers… Little did I know that roughly 1 year later I’d be getting ready to unveil their Masters, The Twilight Kin!

A massive thank you goes out to Mantic Games for sending me the new kits ahead of their general release date so I could work on them, it is such an honour to be chosen to show off my take on these stunning kits!

The Sprues

So the Miniatures are hard plastic and the detail is truly phenomenal! The kits go together really well, but if like me you have sausage fingers I’d highly recommend using a pair of good tweezers as some of the parts are small and can be a little fiddly.

I decided I was going to build these with a view to making a story driven set of Multibases and as such the units are not full model count, in fact they are well below the PMC suggested but I always go by the rule of cool and try and make sure the bases still look full!

I decided I was going to build a Regiment of Corsair Voidwalkers and then I realised I had a few spare which I could combine with a leftover sprue of Reapers/Tormentors from my Nightstalkers project to make a Regiment of Corsair Wranglers (I chose to use the Reapers as I’d seen the unit that Mantic advertised, however after reading the rules I now believe that it should have been Tormentors but it still looks cool).

The Best Of Both Worlds

The best thing about having these Twilight Kin units is that I can bolster it into a full army with the addition of some units, heroes and Monsters from my Nightstalkers army! So I’ll need to grab hold of an Ambush Starter & the Characters Set and then I’ll have a 2300pts Twilight Kin Army!

With the same mantra in mind I built a Regiment of Void-Skiffs, putting 2 of the models on the Multibase this would leave one which I then decided I’d build as a Captain on Void-Skiff. The conversion was an easy one with just a head and an arm swap which both came from the Corsair Voidwalkers/Fleetwardens/Wranglers Sprue.

Not sure it will be the most competitive list but should be fun and a nice addition to the growing collection of forces of Pannithor! Check out the rest of the Twilight Kin range HERE!

Firefight Upgrading…

08/07/202301/01/2026 ~ Iron Jarl ~ Leave a comment

Yes you read that right…Firefight, the award winning Sci-fi game set in the Warpath Universe by Mantic Games is about to get upgraded!

Today, over on their blog, Mantic Games teased what is to come over the rest of the year for Firefight, which is a firm favourite hear at 𝕾𝖐𝖚𝖑𝖑𝖘 𝕳𝕼! Deciphering the Roadmap (pictured below) we will be getting a rules update, new 2 player set and new vehicles for a fair few factions in August… Is this the fabled “Tank Battles” play mode that Ronnie hinted at as far back as last year’s open day? We are hoping it is was we think a vehicle baby game mode would be awesome… Picture tank formations, air wings, etc bringing mayhem to the to battlefields of the Galactic Co-Prosperity Sphere… Pure carnage!!

Following on from that we have more vehicles and an update to the Mantic Companion, November the New Terrain Crates and Mats hit general release and closing off 2023 we’ll see new releases for Enforcers! What an exciting time to be a Firefight Fanatic and if you aren’t already, go check it out here!

𝗔𝗟𝗟 𝗢𝗨𝗥 𝗟𝗜𝗡𝗞𝗦:
https://linktr.ee/ironskull_gaming