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I was motivated to start an army with a different method than usual. I generally spend a few weeks scrounging models from one dealer or another to line up all the minis and bits I want, then start converting and painting. This time, I decided to undertake a fixer-upper project.

I found a lot of dwarfs on bartertown for $330 shipped.

It had the following in it:
50 warriors
50 BFSP warriors
10 thunderers
10 BFSP thunderers
20 quarrelers
32 metal miners
38 metal slayers

2 cannons (1 multipart plastic, 1 metal)
1 stone thrower
2 organ guns (1 plastic, 1 metal)
1 metal bolt thrower

and A boatload of characters - 20 or so. (king Alrick, all the engineers, all the thanes, the BSB and limited BSB models)

So it had pretty much all the models I need to field an army. The only things it's missing are hammerers and an anvil of doom. The former are going to be converted as I hate the models, and the latter will get dealt with later.

The condition of the models was fair. The warriors were mostly assembled w/ plastic glue which is bad, but nothing had any paint on it, which was good. After poking through the box and thinking for a while, I got to work.

The army is going to be based on the Norse dwarfs of Kraka Drak - specifically a brewers clan from that hold.

I started with a long beard unit - here they are:





The color theme is pretty simple, and the bases are themed on a march in the spring thaw. The banner, which is a little weird looking I guess, is the world tree Yggdrasil with its roots curled around a keg of Red Axe ale - the clans own brew. I'll develop the brewer theme more in upcoming models - I always like to start an army with a nice, big, simple unit to get the juices flowing.

Let me know what you think,

Wonko

Seems like a solid list, i like the banner, did you paint it yourself?

Very nice dwarves my friend. I like them a lot, the basing is top notch too.

Love the color scheme. Banner is top notch and the basing is excellent, cant wait to see the rest come together!

Great painting, can't wait to see more!

I foresee some 'best painted' awards in your future ^_-.

Great looking unit. Awesome standard. Basing is just right for the look you want.

Nothing super groundbreaking, but everything just WORKS. Great job.

I swear folks just don't look at fantasy painting or blogs on this site!

These are really nice, colours all compliment and I think that the awesome basing on this unit really does pay off as well.

Very nice, one of the better dwarf armies I've seen. I've only seen a couple but that doesn't take anything away from this, still a damn fine job. Better than a lot of stuff I've seen on a table.

And the freehand on the banner is mint!

Great work, looking forward to seeing more excellent work !

fab dude.

Nice looking unit there. Really nice, clean strong colours.

Looking forward to watching the army develop.

Cheers,

Dante

Glad the dwarfs are a hit - I wasn't shooting for anything revolutionary with these guys, just a simple, solid dwarf army.

Here's the next couple of units:

Being a sucker for nifty war machine bases, I tried to do these up pretty well. They're keeping with the brewery theme - the crews used kegs of red axe to fortify the guns. I'm using a light palette on all the beards in the army to adhere to the Norse bit.




I also finished the thane that will generally accompany the longbeards. He's one of my favorite sculpts - simple, but very dwarfish.



That's all for today,

Let me know what you think,

Wonko

Absolutely stunning.

I rarely see Dwarfs on Dakka, and when I do, it warms my warty green heart.

Though, on an advice note, it doesn't seem like the Thane fits with the army's colors of Blue, what with his silver armor and whatnot.

Great work. Reminds me of reading WD back in the early 90's. Great snow work.

I play dwarves and I have to say, yours are better than mine. Nice job.

Yeah, sweet looking and very vibrant. The Snow makes me nostalgic for the Gate of Ekrund in Warhammer Online. Only thing I'd perhaps warn against off the top of my head is having too many red haired dwarfs if you're going to have any slayers in the army. To many regular troops with that colouring will detracts from the impact of that unit.


Have you also checked out gamezoneminiatures
http://www.gamezoneminiatures.de/index.php/cat/c45_Dwarfs.html/page/2

And avatars of war, who produce a couple of amazing dwarf characters
http://arena-deathmatch.com/images/aow09.jpg

Awesome painting, I used to collect Dwarfs about 8 years ago before I left the hobby - yours looks about 10x as good as mine ever did though.

The dwarf throng grows! I managed to get the next squad finished today, so here are 12 thunderers. I painted 2 champs up with the unit, just because I had the models. I don't imagine I'll stick a guy with 2 pistols in, but you never know.



Next up is a hammerer unit - I'm converting them out of the platics because I don't care for the single pose metal models.
Let me know what you think,

wonko

Hmmm...

I'm really liking where this is going, congrats!

Now, how would you go about converting those Hammerers?

Dude, those models are looking absolutely awesome! Can't wait to see more in the future!

I know there isn't a whole lot of love out there for the latest dwarf plastics, but I like them pretty well. I definitely like them better than most of the 6th edition metals (with the slayers and longbeards being the exceptions) & the first plastic warrior box.

After some work, I've finished converting the lord with his hammerer bodyguard. I know there's even less love for the masked look, but I like it - maybe it's just the old Tolkien fan in me.

I think GW made every great weapon in the warrior box an axe on purpose - to ensure nobody used them as hammerers. It was a dirty trick, but with some green stuff and brass rod I think I've gotten around it.

Here they are:





As you can see, the lord is the Bugman model astride the omnipresent shield bearers. I can't imagine taking a lord without them.

Let me know what you think, I'll post pics of the group when it's painted.

Wonko

I love the theme and the banners; that Thane is definitely my favorite miniature of the lot.

Nice update on your work, very nice stuff - still following it all when I can

After a busy week at work, I managed to get the hammerers finished up. Here is the full unit with the lord on his ever-present shield bearers. I like the look of these guys better than the single pose metals, although I know a good number of people disagree with me.






Next up, I'm switching gears to finish up the 4th Valkyrie for my Catachan army. After that, I'll be back to knock out a couple more war machines and a unit of quarrelers.
Let me know what you think,

Wonko

Great army. Stupid question: why is plastic glue bad and what are you supposed to use instead?

Plastic glue is the stuff that actually melts the plastic pieces together. I hate it because it eliminates the possibility of separating the parts again once their assembled. The fumes off the stuff also makes my head spin. I use plain ole' super glue.

Alright, so I began this army with the intent of keeping it pretty standard, but in the end, I couldn't hold to it. The problem is the gyrocopter model - it's horrible. I can't figure out any way to convert it into something I like, so I went with something a little different.

Looking at the stats of the 'copter, I couldn't help but notice they're not all that different than the stats of a thane - sure the WS and A are lower, but the rest is about right. And what might a flying, Norse thane with a template attack look like? My guess is Thor!

So, without further ado, here is Thror, the flying, lightning throwing, dwarf thane that counts as a gyrocopter. I can only imagine the combination of runes that makes all this possible - maybe someone accidentally inscribed the rune of flight on his helmet?





The conversion took a good bit of head repositioning, and thanks to the way the dwarf plastics are sculpted, I had to hack the torso in half and rebuild it w/ green stuff to get him to look up. The rest was pretty simple.

He'll be painted soon enough - let me know what you think.

Wonko

cool

Hey, how did you do that snow effect, i love it!

The snow is water and pva stirred up, then snow powder (woodland effects cheap stuff) is poured in, and the whole mess is smeared on with a toothpick. It's way easier than it looks.