Bjorn Grendel's Dwarven Holds - June: rank and file. Month of the Bear

 

Finally... They are here!

Month six.

A living hell.

June coincides with the end of the school year, and any parents among you know exactly what that entails: an incalculable number of extra commitments for the kids: plays, recitals, rehearsals, shortened school days, final afternoon sessions...

Then, of course, the first days of vacation for the children (though not yet for working adults) and the first outings... but also the need to renovate the house and redo the rooms for the growing kids...

...plus an unseasonable heatwave in my region that hit record-breaking highs.

I’ve never seen acrylics break down and dry out so quickly on a wet palette!

So, having just had to declare a "Mulligan" last month, this June I’m forced to scale back the workload and bring a very limited number of models to the challenge.

Let’s break it down.

COMMISSION

Crappy pics, i know. I took them in a hurry befor delivering the commission.

A regiment of 20 Dwarf warriors: a commission piece, as evidenced by the rocky-themed 25mm bases. Most of the models have been modified and converted: some feature weapon swaps from an old MOM Miniaturas resin kit, while many others have had fur added to their shoulders using green stuff; the shields are recasts but feature understated, thematic freehand designs. Once again, I used a printed paper banner—for the sake of my own sanity.

RANKS AND FILES

The most observant among you will have already started to spot a pattern here...  

Dwarfs Bear Riders! I’ve owned these beauties for a long time; they are (as is often the case with me) Mirliton models that are still in production—thankfully, as I had to order three new ones to reinforce the unit. Of course, we are fully aware that nothing of the sort exists in the rulebook or the codex, but we followed the "Rule of Cool" and included them anyway. Fortunately, the third edition allows for the creation of custom units, and since bears appear in the codex, it works out perfectly. 

In our "house canon," these riders are the equivalent of the Empire’s knightly orders: rather than guarding the stronghold's inner halls, those bear-riding rangers protect the surface passes, defending them against invaders, rapidly ferrying messages between the outside world and the strongholds, and even collecting tolls and passage fees at the crossings. An ancient bond of deep friendship links the mountain-pass Dwarfs with the forest bears, and they live in a state of near-symbiosis on the surface. They are armed with great axes and small throwing hatchets; the sound of their horn echoes across the valleys, and the standard they carry has witnessed more than a few goblin invasions. An important note on the freehand shield designs: initially, the idea was a simple stylized motif representing two mountain peaks with a rune in the middle to signify the fortified pass, but then I got distracted and let my hand run wild. I wanted to redo them all, but my son (yes, him again) stopped me, saying they looked even better with all that color.

These riders were supposed to be accompanied by a garrison on foot—ten Dwarfs in a mixed spear-and-bow formation—but unfortunately, I didn't manage to get them ready in time.

SLAYERS

Banner and Trolls. Yes i wanted to show off my greenstuff sculpted custom Trolls... 

Here my favorite 

Now that I’ve finished all the models in the unit, the time has finally come to talk about the lore behind these incredible shield-wielding Slayers! First off, it’s worth noting that no one else at home likes these Dwarfs—except me. My wife and son wanted to get rid of them and sell them off, but this time (oh yes, *this* time) I MYSELF was the one who enforced the "no Dwarf will be left behind" rule. I fought to keep them and slot them into the unit to fill out the ranks. "But Dad, Slayers don't use shields." He’s right, of course, but these ones are different. “You should know that every Stronghold has its own customs; while Dwarves share a common cultural background as a race, each fortress possesses unique quirks and variations. Where these particular dwarves come from—a distant northern stronghold—warriors are scarce, and few are capable of fighting to defend their mountain. Furthermore, the staunchest warriors have always felt that dying in battle from a volley of arrows loosed from afar is an undignified end. That is why some Northern Slayers have struck a pact with their Rune-smiths to craft special shields—adorned with the rune of magnetic attraction—designed to draw a barrage of enemy arrows and projectiles toward the shield itself, sparing their comrades. This allows far more Slayer dwarves to reach the front lines and slay enemies in close-quarters combat, perishing in a glorious, furious melee rather than ending up like pincushions in an open field. Needless to say, bearing these shields is a great honor, though certainly no easy task; the chances of survival are even slimmer than usual for these volunteers.”

“You’ve convinced me, Dad!”

THE DWARF KING'S COURT

Just one model this month:

A dwarf princess. Actually, I believe it’s a Halfling cleric from the Reaper Bones PVC line, but we’ve always interpreted her as a proud member of the Dawi folk—so here she is. Freshly painted, squeezed in between other projects.

MONSTERS

Owlbears!!! We’re keeping the plantigrade theme going strong this month! You should know that bears have always been my favorite real-world animal

I swear, its a coincidence!

And—obviously—Owlbears are my favorite fantasy creature.

These specific ones were 3D printed by an old friend who knows me well and gave me a great gift: three of them, perfect for a unit of trained monsters. The Third Edition rules really help me out here, too; I can simply pay the points cost for any medium-sized creature and I’m all set—or I can always use them as proxies for Ogre mercenaries. In short, I’m never short on justifications for fielding these beauties. Even though I opted for a classic, understated color scheme, these models are hands-down one of my favorite units.

Keeping them company is a rare specimen of Kite-Bear, having descended from the highest peaks in search of food.

This fella Is Just a scratchbuilt from a chewed toy bear and a extra Griffin head

In my personal lore, these creatures aren't the result of Chaos influence, dark magic, or mere wild beasts; instead, they are an ancient, proud race—symbiotic with the Dwarfs of the World's Edge Mountains—that has maintained a very close bond with the Dawi for centuries. Owlbears and Kite-Bears are intelligent, proud, loyal, wise, and ancient creatures. Although incapable of articulate speech, they are perfectly able to understand and make themselves understood by the Dwarven race and to collaborate for mutual benefit—even going so far as to march into battle alongside the mountain folk to defend their shared territory.

I devised this lore—distinct from the classic D&D canon—because it seemed more consistent with the idea that head attributes should prevail over torso ones; this explains why Minotaurs and Gors tend to be savage and bestial, whereas Centaurs and Sphinxes possess immense intelligence, even if they are often evil.

AFTERMATH

If my calculations are correct, here is the updated total so far.

Even though I met the challenge requirements and painted a lot, I already know I won't be able to finish everything that remains before next month's wrap-up.

I feel like I’ve failed, and my morale is at rock bottom.

Pile of shame AKA "the dwarves i left behind"

BUT I intend to follow the advice I always give all of you:

KEEP PAINTING, STAY OLD SCHOOL.

Paul's Dwarf Army June Leader Month

 The last two months have been pretty hectic and having the time to sit down and do any painting has been a bit of a luxury. As a result I had to skip last months post. However, I have managed to get a little bit more on track and this month can show my leader, a fine sculpt in an action pose with his foot on the severed head of a green skin. The quality of finish on this model is probably the highest I have achieved for this army. I am very pleased with the way that he has turned out. 

As well as the leader of the hold I have managed to get a cannon fully painted and the crew almost painted up. Once again the NMM approach has produced a nice final result but was very time consuming. It probably didn't help that I tried to show all the wood grain on the cannon body and then opted to add a highlight to that as well. To tie the war machine in with the rest of the army I originally painted the wheels yellow and black stripes but I wasn't happy with the final result and ended up stripping and re-painting them as you can see in the photo below. 

This is one of two cannons, the other which is almost finished. The crew are almost complete but still have little bits and pieces that need doing. The second cannon and all six crew will be ready for final overview next month. Below shows the current state of the crew so far. 

Adding to my spearmen (which I showed in a previous post) I have managed another six models including a full command of champion, musician and banner bearer. 

I am especially pleased with the banner bearer and the banner pole which was mainly due to the influence of Frogbug who insisted that I do a stripey maypole effect on it. I was reticent to do this but I have to admit it does look pretty good and was a motif I carried on to the next unit finished for this month. Below is a close up of the banner bearer.

At the start of the challenge I had lots of models which I had acquired from a friend many years ago after we exchanged armies. I had some 40K imperial guard which I passed over for the dwarves. Amongst these were what I had thought to be dwarf clansmen but after starting the challenge and purchasing the 4th edition codex I realised that they were longbeards. These were too good not to get a coat of Deep Sea Blue and Volcanic Yellow so they joined the production line.  Below you can see the unit without shields. 

The biggest pain with these guys were the shields which took an age to paint. I'm still not happy with them and will need to revisit them and neaten up the final result. I initially painted up the shields with a Yellow Field as you can see from the photo below. However, when you put them against the minis I'm not sure that it works so I then painted up a shield with a black field. I'm still trying to make my mind up before I commit to gluing them to the models.

As I like gun line armies I added another 10 Thunderers to join the first unit. I believe that some of these sculpts may predate the thunderers shown in the army book. I have to admit that I like the variety in sculpt as I wasn't going for. mono-pose army with these guys. 

Finally, what Dwarves Hold would be complete without a unit of Quarrellers. I have a unit of twelve, all individual sculpts. I would like to get the final two sculpts which are illustrated in the army book but despite scouring the obvious sites I haven't been able to locate them. That's a job for the future. You can see the dirty dozen below.

Looking back at what I have just typed I have realised that there are a fair few models that are completed. The challenge has led to me developing techniques in order to get the army finished. Looking at the models as a collective I feel that the quality of finish on these later models isn't as refined as the earlier ones but in order to cater for volume of models something has to give. However, I believe that I have got better at adding details which cause the models to 'Pop' on the table and so when seen all together the sum of the parts is much greater than the individual models or units. 

A few units that I started painting and are in progress are a Runesmith and a Gyrocopter. I was desperately hoping to have them completed for this month but it wasn't to be. However, below is a photo of the current state and they will be completed before the end of July. 

Part of the reason that these aren't complete is the fact that I am not the most focused when working and I tend to jump around a lot as I have the attention span of a gnat. One of the things that I have loved about this forum is the creativity of the people involved. There are some amazing painters in this group but there are also some brilliant writers and scenery builders. Whilst I do not have the imagination or the literary skills of many in this blog I have been inspired by the scenery and display aids that are frequently on show. This has been both a blessing and a curse as it has led to me losing painting time as I have endeavoured to create a display board for the army. I'm trying to go for a more vertical look with models on lots of levels rather than the traditional 2' X 2' board that I would normally go for. Therefore I have made a start on some scenery. I have built a couple of dwarves towers and battlements together with a gate which needs the top completed. I'm hoping that these raw builds will be completed for the final round up next month but in case they aren't then here is the current state. I've included a couple of figures to give an idea of scale. 

Well that's it for now. It's 23.59 on the 30th June so this ic cutting it fine. Hope you like what you've seen.

Bjorn Grendel's Dwarven Holds - April: rank and file. The Golden Month

 April, Ranks and Files. The Golden Month

Always by the skin of my teeth...

It's 10:48 PM on April 30th as I'm about to write this month's report. I've said many times that for me, photographing, editing, and writing the blog are the hardest parts. I don't like spending time on my phone; it takes me hours each time. I'm one of those people who can paint dozens of details on miniatures, but I get impatient after just a few minutes of technology. I feel like an old boomer.

I'll try to keep this short because it's late and I'm tired.

This month is the golden month. Every model I've made has a powerful metallic and gold component. Why? Because I felt like it.

COMMISSION: Dwarf mercenaries

A few models. 8 old-metal ironbreakers. Few, but good, I'd say. They are some original Marauder sculptures, Imperial dwarves. The client was undecided whether to include them in his Reiksguard unit or as the front of his Tilean pikes. Ultimately, he chose the second option. Gold, flat red, and triangular shields with a simple freehand, to match the style of his army painted many years ago. A work neither infamous nor praiseworthy.

RANKS AND FILES

More ironbreakers, this time from our collection.

I managed to find ten metal models, with a complete command group. I spent a small fortune sniping on eBay, and I limited myself to the bare minimum, mostly to have them in the collection. They're gorgeous. Gold, steel, and blue livery. Simple and elegant.

Did you expect that? More ironbreakers! 18, more than enough for a decent unit, this time... A few years ago, I won two boxes in a painting contest: I've never really been interested in them; I've built some for conversions or experiments, but without interest. Every now and then, I've received some loose models from mixed batches, which is why the unusual number. Along with them, I also built four Irondrakes, which I hate, but as mentioned, no dwarf will be left behind, so I painted everything. The flamethrowers will remain as a side element, just because they're there.

Slayers. 3. Let's slowly move forward to complete the unit. I promised you more lore, and they'll come, don't worry. But not today.

Oh! Rangers! I finally got my hands on the command group! I loved them, I had so much fun. I even added a couple of extra rangers and a warrior that fit perfectly, so I managed to bring the regiment to 15 rangers (16 including Bugman)—quite an achievement!

Note on the banners: finally, after four months of waiting, I've found a solution I like. Beautiful printed paper banners with different designs but a similar style, perfect for homogenizing such a large and varied army. A friend of mine made them, and I jumped at the chance. I didn't feel like drawing them all by hand, because, damn, I have a life, too, and I didn't want simple totems. I needed color, so here's the perfect solution. Okay, maybe I'm getting lazy, but the number of models is so huge, I'll have to get by somewhere...

DWARVES TREASURE HUNTERS (evil)

A few more models from my personal collection. These are some chaos dwarves operating war machines or cannons. I had them. I'd painted them poorly. I rediscovered them and freshened them up a bit, perhaps waiting to build or find a demonic machine to give them. In the meantime, here they are. No dwarf will be left behind (and who knows, maybe they'll have a chance to redeem themselves one day). In this group of bastards, I also included an old Marauder dwarf warrior, who I didn't know where to put and who still had a malevolent appearance (closed helmet and armor with nipples), and a Reaper Bones dwarf, decidedly huge compared to the others, but the "no dwarf will be left behind" rule must always be respected, so here he is in this section.

DWARVEN AUTOMATA

Another new entry. Dwarven automatons. Obviously, these, especially the centurion, are inspired by the Dwemer from the Elder Scrolls. Especially Morrowind! But also a little Skyrim. The two smaller ones and the most bizarre one were created many years ago with Space Marine bodies and Chaos warrior arms for a DeD campaign (the smaller ones) and an old Kinder Surprise (the funny one), while the larger one is a more recent composition, starting from a toy found on the street by chance. In all cases, they were painted crudely and unsuitable for the current project, so here's the opportunity to improve them, changing a few details and refreshing the color scheme. And now they're ready to defend the inner halls of the mountain again!

As of today, the army is composed as follows (updated the number of finished models and updated the point cost for banners and command groups where applicable).

And now I'll leave you, as it's 11:32 PM and I still have to upload the photos to the blog. Sorry, I don't have the time or energy to edit them properly; this time you'll get them straight from your phone.

I'm tired. But I'll keep painting and staying Old School.