Echoes of Erebor

My Dwarf Kings Champion arrived in the mail from ebay, resplendent in metal and not Finecast as is currently available from Games Workshop.

These three dudes are significantly bigger than the Grim Hammers, Thror and Thrain. Kind of like reverse scale creep since these guys preceeded them by a few years. In my own ‘head canon’ they are simply jacked, beefy dwarves. I just need a chance to prime them.

Hey guys,

Not much to update you with. I did order a new model for the army from ebay and hope it gets here soon, as well as another order of some primer. It is a metal Dwarf King’s Champion Kit I snagged on ebay. It is one of my favourite original units GW has made for the game and I am glad I own a small force with which to add it to. Stay tuned!

Thrain was a pain in the butt as a model to assemble with gap filling, but green stuff saved the day. Also as a ‘resin cast’ or whatever they have rebranded it this was not bad.

What can I say? This guy was fun to paint, and not tooting my own horn here I think he looks great.

Floi here is a beautiful metal miniature (it still beats finecast half down) I picked up a while back who is now sold in a two pack here:

https://www.games-workshop.com/en-IE/Balin-King-of-Moria-and-Floi-Stonehand-2019

I finished this guy last week but sadly have no varnish…

I deliberately chose a colour palette of more natural, neutral and normal colours in keeping with Thorin’s company from the Hobbit movies rather than the stock footage in the product listing above on the Games Workshop website.

While I do not know much about this character a quick google led me to know that he joined Balin in the ill-fated reconquest of Moria.

Also this is an interesting read:

http://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Book_of_Mazarbul

These are models I originally bought as a gift for an ex a few years ago who was a huge Tolkien fan. While that proverbial pain in the behind is gone, the minis stayed and I assembled and kept them. This was when 12 were in a box for 30 euros and interest in the game was at an all time low.

Now they have been reboxed and I am hoping this time around they have an assembly guide as they weren’t the most straightforward for monopose models and kind of finicky, but maybe that’s just me. Of course now they are in a box with more minis and work out cheaper and I did really like painting them.

Also, I deliberately gave them a red hue to tie them into Thrain visually.

These are some pictures from a couple of weeks ago of Thrain. I thought it would be fun to post the WIP shots before posting the finished model in a different entry just so you can see how it came along. Enjoy!

First up is not the first model I painted for this army. I bit the bullet and bought some resin Games Workshop minis in the form of Thror and Thrain since there was not other options. Fortunately this cast was good with minimal fuss but I did need to use hot and cold water to get the sword into shape. It was bendy and flimsy. I’m still terrified of the sword breaking. I was half tempted to buy a plastic dwarf on ebay from Thorins company purely for a sword, but it was not necessary.

Whether the old man can survive moving around in a carry case is something only time will tell.

This guy was a joy to paint btw. I’m half tempted to have a few Grim Hammers and do a simliar colour scheme to them to mark them as Thror’s personal bodyguard.