The Dwarrens

There’s quite a few that needs painted, so I’m going through them fairly quickly, not spending too much time making perfect blends or aging and weathering them at all. Also, they’re only lightly glued to the bases, cause I’m expecting them to be snapped off and put on the round bases 🙂

These are the paints I’ve used so far. Unless I am adding new colors in, I will not repeat the list, cause I’ll be using this recipe as much I can throughout all the dwarves.

Unless otherwise noted, it’s Scale75 colors:
Skin: Basic Flesh, Reikland Fleshshade(GW), Golden Skin
Purple: Violet, Flat Black, Braineater Azure, Lendar’s Grey
Silver: Black Metal, Nuln Oil(GW), Heavy Metal
Black: Petroleum Grey, Flat Black, Birch
Wood: Brown Leather, Flat Black, Birch
Horns: Pale Skin, Seraphim Sepia(GW), Birch
Gold: Retributor Armor(GW), Reikland Fleshshade(GW), Auric Armor Gold(GW)
Cloth straps: Birch, Agrax Earthshade(GW) x2
Eyes: Petroleum grey, Birch, Flat Black
Bags: Dubai Brown, Agrax Earthshade(GW)
Red Beard: Kalahari Orange, Agrax Earthshade(GW), Birch
White Beard: Birch, Nuln Oil(GW) watered down, Titanium White (Schmincke)
Yellow Beard: Iroko, Seraphim Sepia(GW), Birch
Grey Beard: Rainy grey, Nuln Oil(GW) + Agrax Earthshade(GW) 50/50, Birch

I keep wanting to go back and take them to a higher standard. I just know that I’ll never get them done in any kind of reasonable time, if I start doing that. So I guess this is my ‘tabletop standard’ for now :p

I’ve added a one more beard color, so here’s the paints I’ve used for that. As always, it’s Scale75 unless otherwise noted.

Brown beard: Brown Leather, Agrax Earthshade(GW), Birch

The two beserker dwarves I had lying around. The images is a bit washed out, so it’s not really showing up on them, but I did a bit more work to their skin, since there’s so much of it. So for the shadow areas I mixed in a little violet, to give them more depth.

Also, one more beard color has been introduced. As always Scale75 unless otherwise noted.

Light Orange Beard: Mars Orange, Seraphim Sepia, Birch

@halfmileduck has been so kind, and offered to help paint some of the dwarves. So I’m sending him this unit of 12 trigger happy Dwarrens. Following along as a chaperon is one painted axeman. Only because halfmileduck seemed eager to color match as much as possible 🙂

Have a great journey lil dudes.

I didn’t realize they had little candles in their helmets before starting to paint these. I love that. Too cute <3

All 8 of these are done, so it’s terrain pieces next I think. Only one new beard color added to the mix. and the recipe for the candles off course. As always Scale75 unless otherwise noted:

Redish brown beard: Red leather, Agrax Earthshade(GW), Birch
Candles: Birch, Seraphim Sepia(GW), Titanium White(Schmincke)
Flame: Titanium White(Schmincke), Sol Yellow, Mars Oraange, Aldebaran Red, Petroleum Grey

UK UPDATE: Following an 800 mile journey, my first batch of Dwarves arrived in rainy Berkshire. I’ve been a wargamer and painter for over 30 years but have never before painted a Fantasy Dwarf figure, so I was extremely excited to get my hands on these models, plus kind of flattered to be invited to be involved with this project.

The thunderers needed a bit of TLC/preparation, with a myriad of mould lines, plus following aurorainbag suggestion I removed the plastic tabs and then very lightly superglued the models to the original square (shock horror!) bases, assuming that the BoW team will be rebasing them at some point. My standard approach is to prime the models in black from a Halfords rattle can and then zenith in grey and then white through my airbrush. I find models hold the colours of the paint much better this way. I started with the metallics as I find drybrushing the chainmail can be a tad messy, so those got a basecoat, wash and drybrush, then did the same with the skin tones, you can see the WIP models drying after the skin has just been washed.

Note from Aurorainbag: I just wanted to say thank you so so much to halfmileduck for helping out. I really love the fact that we are more working on this together. It’s becoming a community project for our favorite gaming site. Also…that test dwarf looks stunning <3

The cannon team is all done. And so is a bit of the ‘terrain’. From my own stash, I only have the General and pony wagon to do. I don’t think I’ve added any new colors to this.

The first unit of Thunderers is now finished. I’m pretty happy with the results, they are double matt varnished and ready for basing. First up the 10 rank and file Dwarvesies. I mixed up the beards to try and add a bit more variety to the unit but overall quite pleased with how they came out.

Next up is the unit Champion and Standard. These guys were really good fun to paint. I have to say that I have really enjoyed painting Dwarves, they are so small, you can make real progress very quickly. I stuck to the same basic colours and metallics as the unit, adding in some warmer brown tones to the standard bearer and a bit of freehand fun on the Champions base.

Overall, I really enjoyed painting this unit and it is great to get an opportunity to give something back to the OTT team, I’m chuffed that I got the chance. This got me to thinking and I braved a trip up into my loft to visit my “Pile of Shame” of unpainted tiny fighting men and I discovered a couple of very old Dwarves buried deep within The Pile. I will be winging this unit off on the last leg of their round Europe trip back to their new home and may also be including a couple of other models too at some point. More on the details of them in my next update. As always, thanks for reading!

Got the wagon and the general done from my stash. The wagon took way longer to paint than I thought it would, whereas the general was done in a moment.

I did the potions in a bright and light teal/green color, to make them look magical and really stand out.

New Colors:
Pony: White Sands and Rainy Grey for white parts. Rotbraun Red and Sand Yellow for Brown Parts. Petroleum Grey, Nuln Oil and Birch for black mane and tail
Reins and tack: Flat Black, Rotbraum Red
Green cloth: SS Camo Italien Green, Athonian Camoshade, Birch
Potion Bottles: Arctic Blue (all over base), Gamma Green Ink (West Design), Lunar White Ink (West Design), Walnut, Agrax Earthshade

This means all the dwarves from my own stash are done. I have the same amount again that the OTT team send me, including a few terrain pieces and a really nice dwarven prisoner model. Have to wait shipping anything though, since danish postal service gets quite expensive quickly. So Warren will have to wait til they’re all done 😀

Whilst searching up in my loft I found some very old Dwarves from the 1987 Warhammer Regiments Boxed set as well as a couple of old lead Marauder Miniatures Dwarf Hammerers. These models have been in my stash for a very long time and I thought that it would be nice to paint them up and send them along as part of the army.

Unfortunately, the original shields were long gone, so I needed new ones. I plumped for some of the Scribor miniatures Dwarven shields, this company do a fantastic dwarven line of products and the detail is so crisp, they were perfect for what I wanted. The 1987 regiment Dwarves required quite a bit of cleaning up and pinning, but with the addition of some paint, I think that they came out pretty well and don’t overly show their age – although the real test of time will be seeing them up against some more modern compatriots I guess.

I stuck with the same basic palette laid down with the rest of the force, but added in a bit more of a brass tone with the shields. I was kind of going for a unit that has seen a lot of recent action, so the application of a bit of (probably Goblin) ichor on the weapons seemed fitting to me. After these guys, I spent a bit of time on the Hero Hammerer, I love this model and simply had to make him a Ginger, it just seemed fitting somehow! I struggled for a while with colour choices for the plum on his helm in the end I used a purple ink and then just drybrushed carefully up to nearly white, overall I think he makes a good model to lead the old regiment Dwarves into combat once again.

This brings to a close the first batch of Dwarrens that I got from @aurorainbag although a second batch will be hitting my table soon, hopefully including a couple more old school favourites, please check back on the project for future updates. Thanks for reading!

So for my final update. I received my final ten Thunderers with champion, standard and this time a musician. After discussions with aurorainbag, we made the decision to paint this second unit identically to the first batch, then you have the option to use them as a single large unit, or two smaller ones. The Thunderers were painted in roughly the same manner as the first lot and double varnished for protection whilst gaming.

I really hope that people like these little guys and get as much enjoyment out of playing games with them as I did out of painting them. I hope to make it to OTT central one day and get a game with them. I had a great time being part of this little effort with aurorainbag, I hope to get the chance again, thanks for reading!

Slowly getting to the end of this project 🙂 After this I have the second pony wagon and the second canon team to finish. Been going somewhat faster than expected lately.

I’m showing the newly painted ones with the ones I already had done. To show the differences.

Just a little passed two months later, I am done:

20 Axemen
16 Pickaxe Men
3 Berserkers
2 Cannon Teams
2 Ponywagons
2 Generals
1 Hammer Dude
2 Prisoners
Various Terrain

All I have left to show here is the last ponywagon and the second cannon team. And a very special Dwarren Dance

And just for the hell of it, here’s The Dwarren Dance. With the help of my 12 year old daughter (who’s been extraordinary patient with me spending a lot of time painting – thanks Critter <3), here’s my first stop motion dwarf dance. Never thought I’d ever do such a thing :p