Dwarf warrior #1: Kevnog

I couldn't finish 2012 without a post announcing what comes next year. So, let me present you my first dwarf warrior, Kevnog. As you can see, I've decided to postpone my shield issue by equipping this second unit with double-handed weapons. As I've never understood how one can handle a big axe and use simultaneously a shield, it means that their only protection will be their light armour... Problem solved (for the moment ^_^)



The painting of the scale armour was a little bit challenging, and took much more time than the usual chainmails, since I had to treat the scales one by one to get a result as clean and crisp as possible. His face was also tricky, because in the shadow of the helmet. I've used glazes of pure Vallejo Model Color Oxford Blue to darken the top part of the face, and tried to limit the highlights to GW Dwarf Flesh. And finally, to add some fantasy (ahem), I've opted for black and red stripes on the sleeves: I just hope they're not the colours of a famous football team... unless of course the players are reknown for their ferocity and their long beards :o)

My Christmas gift

A (very) small sketchbook with great drawings of dwarfs. It's not exactly cheap, but it contains some really inspiring designs for dwarven shields or banners. I'll try to use them on my upcoming warriors.

Published by Stuart Ng Books

Ten at last!

YES! With this tenth crosbowman form Marauder Miniatures, I've finally completed my first unit of dwarf crusaders (I know, the theme is still unclear, but it should improve with the addition of shields and regular troops).


And the family pictures:

Second rank

First rank

Let's see how many points this glorious regiment is worth...

Damn... only 130! And I have to paint 10 more to reach the minimum requested. Sigh...

All right, next time, I should post the first recruit for my new unit of dwarf warriors. And if I believe the army list, I'll have to paint at least 20 of them. Sigh again... 

Crossbowman number 9: Dimbo

Dimbo is the last guy of the trio I've painted for the Brush Slave League painting contest.


The tricky part of this model is the sallet: after many layers of greys, black, white, dark blue and dark red, I've finally found the places where to put the lights and shadows to get a convincing result (OK, more or less convincing). One week later, I was discovering an illustration which would have simplified my work a lot. It was published in the 3rd edition Warhammer Army Lists and it is signed by Dave Gallagher. As you can see, it clearly shows the back of my crossbowman... and his sallet!


I'll keep this picture in mind for my next NMM attempts...

Crossbowman number 8

My eighth crossbowman is a dwarf from the MM10 range, referenced DW8. I'm really happy with his face, but to be fair, Marauder Miniatures are often better sculptured than Citadel ones, which makes the painting job much easier.

So, here is the leader of my crossbowmen:

Crossbowman number 7: Brewer

This is undoubtedly one of the best dwarfs sculpted by the Perry brothers: the crossbowman reloading his weapon. I painted him a month ago for the Brush Slave League contest on Chaos Dwarfs forum, and it was my first try to do a quareller without chainmail or leather armour. So, what colours should I choose?

Eeer... as you can see, none ^_^ Since I have in mind a kind of crusading army trying to reconqueer a lost stronghold, I wanted a very simple scheme, only based on black and white. I hope it will work!

Crossbowman number 6: Jorj

So, here comes the difficult time when an Old Lead lover has to admit that oldies do not always make goodies... See this guy for instance: the only reason why I bought him twenty years ago is because he was part of Wayne England's dwarf army. But honestly, this model is really ugly :-p


The interesting point with such figures is that you can try some things you wouldn't dare on a nicer model. Here for instance, I wanted to test the Wargames Foundry viking shields, and, as you can see, they're definitely too big for dwarves (even if in this precise case, it's rather a plus, for it hides many details!). I've also tried to add some celtic designs to the black cross, by looking for inspiration in the concept arts made for the excellent animated film "The Secret of Kells". Here is an example:

(you can find plenty of them on the web, don't blame me for the copyright!)

And here is what I've tried to do (remember it's a test before booing me ^_^)

How to make simple bases

A short time ago, a member of the Bugman's Brewery forum asked me how I do my bases... the answer to this question gives me the perfect opportunity to write a post without showing any dwarf.

Basically, I glue small pieces of cork to make the stones on which my models stand, and I cover the remaining plastic with thickening medium to add some relief to the base.Once the medium has hardened, I use an old brush to apply water-diluted PVA glue on the places where moss or grass is supposed to grow and I sprinkle the whole base with fine sand.


When the glue has dried, I basecoat the base with Chaos black... and the painting job can start! For the rocks, I apply a base of dark grey, such as GW Adeptus Battlegrey. For the ground, I use dark brown, like Vallejo Chocolate Brown and for the grass, Vallejo German Cam. Dark Green.

I then drybrush the stones with lighter and lighter colours (Codex Grey, Fortress Grey and Bleached Bone) and paint the sand with different tones of green. Et voilà ! Two bases (rather) quickly done.

A short history of shields

I've recently started to think about the painting of my clansmen, once the first 10 crossbowmen are complete. My main worry was the shields, since I don't like the GW plastic ones and since I've wasted some of my precious Marauder Miniatures shields on poorly painted minis (I was young, I didn't know). Whatever...

So, after taking advice on Bugman's Brewery forum, I've ordered some Wargames Foundry shields and I've just received them with an additional free (and lovely) viking figure:


Nevertheless, I'm not totally satisfied: the round Viking shields seem a little bit big for my dwarves. And the Norman Kite shields blister was a real disappointment. As shown on the official picture, they're ornamented with nice bosses:

 Errr... and as you can see in my blister, they've been replaced by...  a hole :(

So I'll see what I can do with the round ones!

ADDENDUM (on November 29th) Wargames Foundry has sent me a second set of blisters with bossed shields (for free!).

Crossbowman number 5

Yippee! Already half a unit with this fifth dwarf. If one excepts the chain mail, it was a real pleasure to paint this one: the sculpting job on the face and the hands is really clean, and the shape of the helmet raised some interesting questions about the places where the highlights had to be placed to get a convincing NMM.


Unless I find a better candidate for the November's 'Dwarf Guard' theme, this crossbowman will be my entry for the Bugman's Brewery painting competition.

Crossbowman number 4

All right: my fourth crossbowman, again a 'refreshed' painting of something I committed last year. To tell the truth, I'm a little bit tired of leather armours. So next time, I should be back with chainmails!

Games Day 2012: A new hope

As usual, I went to the french Games Day with my pal Haekel, and, as usual, I'm a little bit disappointed by the event: with so many people and such a poor lighting, it's always difficult to fully appreciate the work of painting and sculpting on the entries. And for us, dawi lovers, it was even worse, since I haven't seen any entry with a beard. Fortunately, Edgar Skomorowski was kind enough to allow me shooting very closely the last models he did for Forge World: three magnificent dwarves that should be on sale in December, which is really good news, since I haven't been expecting anything valuable from Games Workshop for dwarves for a decade.
And finally, the standard bearer with his two fellows:

Edgar, you did an excellent job! I hope other dwarves will follow soon.

I amost forgot: the Slayer Sword was won by Bruno Lavallee, with an Empire griffin. Excellent work (as usual with him):

As you can see, the Warhammer Monster category was very disputed, since the Silver Demon was won by a very talented painter, Jérôme Otremba, with his splendid ork warboss.

Sigh: it's always difficult to find motivation when you know that you can meet one of these guys in your category... I'll see if I can do something with Edgar's dwarves next year!

EDIT on October 30th: OK, the pictures of Edgar's work seem to arouse some interest. Here are two close-up of his standard-bearer (a little blurry, but it's all I've got!)