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Some nice looking trolls there Azazel. Great work as usual

FineGob! (tm)

Love the beast men and the dwarves, but the free handed eagle on the Judgemarine is amazing.

Thanks, Bob!

Once again following from Trolls, more Dwarfs. Or Dwarves. Both are correct, so I'm told...

I've found almost all of these guys are in the 1988 catalogue along with White Dwarf 107/November 1988. The three to the right are all in the Norse Dwarfs range, though I'm reliably informed by Somet that "The ‘Viking dwarf’ is actually the model GW used to represent Sven Hasselfriesian for the scenario ‘ The Magnificent Sven’ in the WHFB 2nd Ed rulebook, so around late 84. The guy on his right is of a similar age too."



I can't find the fourth one - the leftmost with the Goat-horned Horned Helm - in any of the old catalogues but it's pretty clear to me that he's from the same era as his compatriots in the photo, having both a very different style to the revamp of the range and influx of Marauder Miniatures line in 1993, and having owned him since probably the late 1980's when I'd collected the others. I strongly suspect that he's also a "Norse" Dwarf as he shares the same base sculpt as the Ginger dwarf standing next to him.



These were all painted a long, long time ago. These guys were some of my earlier repaint/touchups, back in 2012 - before doing so became a stronger focus as it has been recently. Obviously all four were painted to a similar aesthetic. Perhaps they're the Hearthguard of a Great Norse Dwarf Hero? I might have to figure out a model that fits that description. The two on our left have Marauder Miniatures' Embossed shields, while the two on the right have freehanded designs inspired (ok, copied!) from the Hammer-and-Anvil Marauder shield.



You'll notice that instead of a beaskin or wolfskin, that Sven - the model wearing the historically-correct Viking helmet(!) has a dog-skin cloak. I prefer to think that instead of celebrating his victory over such a mighty beast, that it's actually the skin of his own (former) companion that he chooses to honour by wearing his pelt into glorious battle. I'm sorely tempted to redo/touch up his cloak and "viking" horns, but I'm finding it a hard call to retouch some of these models again for some reason, even though they were updated once, just a couple of years ago.

I have to say that looking through the old catalogues to gather info for the last couple of Dwarf posts has really made me want to grab out a few more of these old models and get them painted up. I've got to hold to my discipline and keep finishing off the half-painted models on my desk, though.

Good stuff! Nice characterful poses, great freehand on the shield designs as well.

How on earth do you get such straight lines on your freehand? The black lines framing the color is offensively good.

Nice dwarfs!

oo My favourite kind of dwarf! Yes tell us your straight line secret! Those are very straight lines (I know how I do them but yours seem straighter somehow)

Uh.... just a steady hand and fine brush, and when I feth up a line, I go back over it with the other "border" colours. For those hammerheads and stuff like that, I sometimes tend to do the entire "thing" in black. Starting the outlines from the corners so they're sharp, then filling in as needed, and then doing so again with the next colour, and then going over it again with the black line if needed.

You can see on the Greek Key on the shield that my lines when blown up can be a bit wonky, and sometimes th black is thicker than the white or vice versa. That stuff is easier with a "solid object" like those hammer heads though since you can just redo the edges until you're happy with it.

It is weird how critical painters are of there own work, I can see no issues with those straight lines there, or any thicker paint.

Very nice Dwarfs though, always good to see classic minis that I have no idea about. Do you have any pre 1982 miniatures (thus minis that are older than me)?

Well, I guess you've got to be critical so you know where you can improve? Dunno, I guess you also know where you might have done better or where you've "cheated" and so forth while others just see a cool finished product (or WIP).

I do have a few older models, though no Citadel (to my knowledge). I've got a very few survivors of the tons of old Minifigs that I got off my older brother which date from the 1970's. He's the one responsible for all of this mess! I've got one giant rat recovered and painted, which I'll get photographed soon, and I'm working on an update to the "Bone Pile", supplemented with newer pieces.

It's darn fancy work whatever you call it

I need to work on some more stuff like that, and NMM, but I have such a killer backlog and most of my joy in painting is getting stuff done. Some day I'll slow down and take my time... Maybe when the kids are school age and have homework to do and rock music to listen to and hangouts to be had I won't feel so rushed. For now, I shall enjoy your excellent works

And now the last post to show off my older, previously-unseen Dwarves. I’ll have to paint new ones from here on in!



This bloke is an Adventurer from the late 1980’s. He’s in the ’88 catalogue, but may predate that as some of the others have. He’s also a good example of why old-timers often talk about the “character” that many older models have. Instead of almost all of the models from that era simply growling as they charge into combat, you get models like this, where he’s pushed his helmet back onto his head while he reads the document with an intent/beguiled/confused look on his face.



The rear view really displays the “RPG elements” that were a part of the ethos of this line back in the day. A big Adventurer’s pack, axe stowed and a sword for backup. Rather in contrast to the more “military” look of other Dwarfs from the same time period like those found in the Regiments of Renown of the day.



When I painted him I briefly considered trying to paint in an elf centerfold, but instead went with a map with diagrams and arrows for units and movement. He’s either reading a really old-school Battle Report in White Dwarf, or as I decided, looking at battle plans for the coming battle as part of Artillery Crew, which is where I always pictured him on the tabletop – and where he will soon(ish) have a place in my nascent Dwarf Army.



The Advanced HeroQuest Dwarf happens to be the only one of the sculpts for that game that I ever got around to painting. He’s nothing amazing, and if a secondary function to this blog wasn’t a form of (slowly) archiving everything I’ve painted that I still have, I probably wouldn’t show him off. Since he fits the current “Dwarf Theme” though, he gets a guernsey.



It’s not that I’m embarrassed by the paint on him, just that the model itself really isn’t anything special, and neither is the paint (though I’m still happy with the runes on his shield, as plain as it otherwise is). I guess it has a place for many due to the AHQ connection. Speaking of that sort of thing – Man, I wish I still had some of the original Plastic Dwarves from the Warhammer Armies boxed set. Those cool old white plastics.

Yet more nice dwarfs. The first one really does ooze character. Good stuff.

The Warhammer Fantasy Regiments still do the rounds on ebay:

http://m.ebay.co.uk/itm/23-Dwarf-Elf-Goblin-Vintage-Games-Workshop-Citadel-Warhammer-Regiments-/191671725406?nav=SEARCH

Usually cheap too. I sold the whole boxed set a few years ago for quite a low price.

Huh. I hadn't managed to find any in my usual trawling. Can you get back the box you sold cheap and then sell them to me instead? That would be lovely. No? I guess I'll have to take your advice and keep an eye on the Bay. Are those the usual keywords to use in that auction?

I almost had a dwarf army back in 2nd edition. I was torn between really liking the models vs their horrible Move of 3 and a lack of enough cash to buy them all. In the end I picked up the odd cool-looking dwarf and no actual army, which I'm kinda rectifying nowadays.


In other news, I just bought some deboxed Fantasy stuff from Troll Trader (Chaos Marauders before they get his with the discontinued stick in favour of the AoS guys) and saw WarMachine Ogruns for the first time...

Nice one, I myself use Troll Trader. Pretty quick service from that guy. Got a few of my Necrons from there (Canoptek Spyders)

If you have a problem, and no one else can help, maybe you can buy stuff from "the troll trader"!

Troll trader is not cheap, but always always always has what I want. I've lost track of the times I bought something and then looked to see who I bought it off and oh, its troll trader.

I think the search keywords could be anything tbh, though they were from the "Warhammer Fantasy Regiments" boxed set, so maybe that term is your best bet.

So many memories:

Hahaha! Man, that's ancient stuff. I think I was like, 3 when this came out.

 Thraxas Of Turai wrote:
I think the search keywords could be anything tbh, though they were from the "Warhammer Fantasy Regiments" boxed set, so maybe that term is your best bet.

So many memories:

Spoiler:

Yeah, that's what I've used when I've done a search. I guess maybe I've just not searched often enough.

I had probably one entire box of my own, and went "2/6 in (I ran Orcs) for.. I dunno how many boxes, back in the day. Now I've still got most of the O&G, and have found a few Skaven, but I'd love to load up on a unit or two worth of each... hopefully us lot here won't all bidding against one another on that link you posted, because I'll be giving that auction the old snipe test if I'm up early enough...

I have no intention to bid. I hope you win and that the postage and packaging is not a killer.

Friends used to swap the contents of those boxes with each other constantly. I seem to remember a 5 pack of sprues too, cannot remember what that box was called though.

Yeah, I've sent the "message to seller" on that, hopefully it's not too bad. Buying from experienced UK ebayers is usually quite reasonable, and the weight here should be negligible.

Just a bit of fun today!

Inspired by various other blogs, and especially those setups I often see on Grim's displaying his figures alongside his intricate terrain, Marouda and I took the camera out to the War Room yesterday morning and laid out some terrain for photos. Her iPad does a far better job of photos on the table than my little camera, so it got the job for the session. One day I should learn to use my good camera, or perhaps I might need to buy an iPad now. Hmm…

I set up a few photos, forming a loose narrative of a band of Dwarf Adventurers searching out an old Dwarven keep for loot, glory and the location of their missing companion. All images clickable for embiggened versions…


The Dwarves carefully pick their way through the wood, Slayers on point.


The Dwarves stop to check their map, with several on guard against what lurks in the darkness of the wood off the path.


Consternation as the map seems not to match their location?


Finally! The entrance is found!


…but something can see the dwarves as they approach. Who could it be? Oh, you read the post title, didn’t you? So much for surprises, eh?


Trolls! Foul creatures! And is that Bjarte on the ground?


Wild Nyjhul and The Nameless Slayer charge the Trolls without hesitation.


The rest of the Dwarves join the fray! But what’s that movement from the boulders over the wall?


While the Dwarven navigator checks on the welfare of their downed Kinsman, the Dwarfs force the Trolls back by the sheer ferocity of their assault. Now though, the Stone Trolls now join the battle in aid of their foul cousins!

…aaaand that’s it. I had a bit of fun setting up and taking these images. They’re not meant to be anything amazing, with the edges of the terrain camouflaged and blended or anything like that – rather a bit of a play with the toy soldiers and camera with terrain added in a “yeah, grab that as well” way.

I thought it best to leave the result of the melee in the minds of the viewer, since it’s not even pretending to be a Battle Report. It looks like it’d be a damned fun roleplaying session, though!

awesome narrative and even better with the terrain. The dwarves in the picture remind me of pigpen from Charlie Brown as they keep walking around with dirt around their feet on that perfectly manicured grass. As soon as they walk away the grass is clean again and the dirt seems to follow them .

Also reminds me I need to finish my dwarf bloodbowl team.

haha yeah. I need to get a "brown dirt" mat of some description at some stage, especially since the GW mat, nice as it is looks like the green from a golf course. Unfortunately the guys who made my desert mat went out of business and I haven't found a nice textured mat of the same kind of colour outside of dodgy places who take 6 months to ship (if you're lucky!)

I started going with the dark brown years ago because I was after a "natural, neutral" colour that could be consistent across most of my models, and work ok on grass, desert, tundra (breaks in the snow), swamp and urban terrain.

Yeah, dark brown seems pretty versatile. What you've done here is pretty much the whole reason I want to paint up adventurers, monsters, and dungeon terrain. Lite narrative photo shoots.

Grand example, thanks for paving the way

Nice to see the LOTR terrain make a cameo appearance too.

Love the photos, looks really high quality.

That was great fun!

More please!!