2018-11-10

Dwarves

A new warband has been finished. And something not as... human as I usually do: dwarves. Short, hairy fellows in chainmail and with pointy sticks.


I bought these essentially on a whim, because I wanted some kind of spearblock as a shelf ornament. Useability in games was of secondary concern. But they could possibly be used as Scots in SAGA: Age of Vikings in case I wanted to go anti-historical (and I can't believe I said that). And now SAGA: Age of Magic is coming out, which makes it even better.

Most of them could also be used in 9th Age, if one were so inclined. I did manage to completely accidentally base them suitable for that, in their 20x20mm square bases (chosen only to have as great a density of pointy sticks as possible, while keeping them single-based). And once Oathmark comes out, it will of course have to be investigated, these are after all official Oathmark dwarves (mostly their plastic kit).


Archers are always useful. Oathmark plastic kit sadly only have bows for ranged weapons. This fits nicely with SAGA, but I would have preferred crossbows since these seem more "dwarfy" somehow. If I ever want some crossbow dwarves, I guess I will have to improvise and kitbash.


2 block of warriors with spears, 8 each, as is fitting with SAGA. Can of course be mixed into one unit of 16, if that is a possible option in whatever game I use them for.


First unit of standard warriors, with green shields. All plastic, except for the fellow with the shield on his back, that's a metal Oathmark dwarf champion.


Second warrior unit, with yellow shields. These 8 are all plastic. The runes on some of the shields say "Hold of Iron" (suitably dwarfish), but I decided that I want to change these for something else, which is why not all shields have them. I just need to figure out which "dwarven" runes to use...


The hearthguard/grumblers/greybeards/whatever one wants to call dwarven semi-elite infantry. Two units of 6 for SAGA, or combined into one unit of 12. Once again, all plastic except for the fellow with his shield on his back, which is a metal Oathmark dwarf champion. Their cloaks are greenstuffed, to distinguish them from the ordinary warriors (which are the same models otherwise). The two units can be distinguished by slightly different colours on their cloaks.


The big boss himself, carried into battle on the shoulders of the most reliable warriors. The colors of green and yellow on the dwarves were chosen as "earthy" colors. If I ever paint any elves, they will be in "sky" colors (light blues and greys, predominantly), while any greenskins will be firey (red, yellow and orange) and a specifically but generic human fantasy army will get water colors (blues, possibly with some dark sea green), to tie them all into the four elements.


This is some surprisingly easy converting on my part (and a load of greenstuff). The big man is built as an ordinary plastic dwarf, albeit with special helmet and axe, a greenstuffed cloak, and with the base he normally stands on chopped away. The shield bearers are similarily built as normal (with greenstuff cloaks), and the arms carrying the shield are adapted from the plethora of arms in the plastic kit, with any weapons cut of. The base of the shield is a 20mm washer. The initial idea was to magnetize the boss's feet, which would then keep him on the washer, but this proved too weak. Instead, two magnets were also attached to the washer, and the uneven-ness covered up with greenstuff, which results in a surprisingly sturdy model.

The reason for all this, is so that the boss can be rebased onto a normal base (or an even more extravagant base, if I ever build such a one), or exchanged once I get more bosses to switch between.


I also made a standard bearer (simple, all the pieces bar the actual flag (greenstuff) was in the plastic kit), and a musician, which I of course had to make a bagpiper since these would tentatively be fielded as scots (arms, body and head from the kit, pipes from chopped up spears (also from the kit), bag from greenstuff).


The warriors, with standard and musician, makes a surprisingly fearsome block on their own.


The hearthguard are not quite as fearsome by dint of their smaller numbers.



Still, all together, they look utterly awesome. And now I kind of want even more dwarves, to expand them into an equally awesome army.

/Fool Out