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.

Bjorn Grendel's Dwarven Holds - Marc: rank and file.

 

Ranks and files and almost a mulligan for me this month.

I started with the best intentions, but instead I managed to finish less than half of what I had planned... DAMN!

COMMISSION

Two units of dwarf quarellers. 16 models each, 32 models in total. Full command. As always no standard bearer because I'm still developing the flag designs. For them i opted for a classic, fast-paced color scheme, one blue and one red, in a true Age of Empires style... Yep. Again grass green and snow bases, as requested by the client (a choice I find horrible). He also changed his mind about the border and now wants a classic Goblin Green, which I don't have and had to order; so, for now, the trim is naked plastic (and that's why I hate being a commissioned painter).

Sjor, are you hearin a strange "Whololo" yourself?

RANKS AND FILES

NOTE: Before reading this next step, you HAVE TO play Wind Rose: Army of Stone. You'll find the video on YouTube. Thank me later.

I've long owned a handful of dwarves from MOM Miniaturas, the famous Spanish company that recently switched production from resin casting to 3D resin, a real shame. I've never liked the design of these specific dwarves, but the guys in Spain sent them to me for free. However, I still hadn't found the will to work on them: they're far too tall and crude compared to the GW miniatures, and the overall design clashes with that of the other dwarves. I've been tempted several times to sell them or use them for something else, perhaps as terrain elements, but then I thought: Ancestral guardians! So, I fixed them up, replaced the crude and "stoney" weapons with some from the Mantic kit, and painted them straight away. The idea is that the descendants of particularly virtuous and noble dwarf heroes collect the remains of their relatives and place them inside statues bearing the deceased's likeness, even including some of the hero's favorite and cherished items. Those statues are then protected with great runes and skill and armed with ceremonial weapons and buried in the clan halls or outside the Mountain, to guard the entrances to the stronghold. In extraordinary cases, the spirits enclosed within the statues awaken to protect the People and the Dvarven Holds once again.

Some might object that the painting of these guardians is dull and uninteresting, that I could have dared to add a little dirt to the stone, a little corrosion to the weapons. You're right to point this out, and I myself had a hard time NOT proceeding with heavy weathering. But I thought that, indeed, such precious objects, such revered ancestors, are not neglected by their descendants, who often take care to keep the stone clean and the weapons polished, not allowing the dishonor of neglect to fall on the statues of their Guardians, so reluctantly I kept them simple and clean… For the weapons I chose a monoblock of ancient bronze, like the more famous Ghal-Maraz, which according to my head canon belongs to the same typology of artefacts.

Hail to the fallen!... So hail to us!

DWARF TREASURE HUNTERS

Two more models from our family collection, refreshed and retouched to modernize them and incorporate them into the project. This time, they are my wife's first player characters, created for Heroquest campaigns. One is the dwarf warrior Ataz. He is a kitbash based on the body of a plastic ironbreaker, with horns from a chaos raider and a backpack from the Catachan warrior kit, painted based on an old artwork she liked.

The second model represents Ataz's daughter, Viz, created and played with after his passing. Viz was also built starting from the body of an ironbreaker, but with the front made of Greenstuff to give her a more feminine look. Some runes and details were added from the same kit, as were the weapon and shield. Special mention goes to the head: I don't had a female head in my bitzbox, so I picked a male head from the plastic chaos raiders. I chose the beardless one with earrings, filed down the chin and proportions a bit, and sculpted a greenstuff helmet to hide as much “manliness” as possible. After sculpting the hair, I added the original quiff at the bottom of the ponytail and some braids from the beastmen kit. With my current skills, I'd make different choices today, but overall, we've grown fond of this tough warrior lady.

And now let's get to the elephant in the room (quite literally): the giant dwarf.

I'm not sure how I came into possession of this Russian Technolog, probably from some cheap mixed lot. The fact is, Bjorn liked it, and instead of using it as a toy, he convinced me to paint it for him. So, last year, since his birthday present, which I'd ordered, was late, I showed up with this painted dwarf. The model itself is charming, despite some sculptural deformities in the hands and face, but my son loved it and even insisted I base it so he could play with it despite its size! Since I'm an adult and have a terrible imagination, I started to protest, but I was quickly silenced by the story of this incredible dwarf.

You must know that Ubbe was once a perfectly ordinary dwarf, a young warrior who served as a scout alongside other companions... one day the team was attacked by goblins: surrounded, the dwarves were ready to fight dearly when the greenskin shaman who led the tribe pulled out a crude staff and began charging it with a strange, sizzling energy. Fearing for the lives of his companions, Ubbe emerged from the shield wall and leaped at the shaman to wrest the weapon from his hands. After a brief struggle, the two were engulfed in energy and exploded together. When Ubbe awoke, his companions were safe, the goblins dead or driven away, and everything seemed to have resolved itself for the best, even if the helmet suddenly felt too tight. Over the following days and weeks, Ubbe began to grow slowly and steadily until he reached a size impossible for a Dwarf! Despite the respect and gratitude his companions showed him, Ubbe couldn't stand to remain in that condition, unable to predict how tall he'd grow. So he decided to leave the mountain and join a group of adventurers seeking a magical or alchemical solution that could rejuvenate him in time for his wedding!

"So I can use him according to the rules of the Ogre Mercenary, Dad."

My son is definitely wiser than I am.

WAR MACHINES

The beer cart I built last time was so popular that one of my Instagram followers decided to give me his incomplete one so I could sculpt another driver and finish it. Of course!!! Here's the second cart, so my dwarves never run dry.

Below is the updated table with this month's progress...

Thats It For this time.

As always: keep painting, stay old school!

Fresh beer, come get some!

Bjorn Grendel's Dwarven Holds - February: rank and file.

 

Bjorn Grendel's Dwarven Holds - February: leader's month.

February. The shortest month of the year, the most difficult month of the challenge, and of course the ideal month to introduce the leaders of an army.

I admit without shame that I had other plans for this month; I wanted to showcase a larger number of models, but alas, we were all sick at home, and of course not all at the same time. So, I lost a lot of days to fever, medicine, parenting care… and my painting time was drastically reduced. So instead of presenting all the leaders as I had planned, I was only able to present a handful. Here are the details.

Alrik Ranulfsson, King of Karak Hirn.

 I fully realize that this is a 6th edition model and that in our game we aim to stick to 3rd edition rules; so, I thought of interpreting him as a 20th-level hero and adding shield bearers, approximating the cost to about 160 points. Beyond that, the obvious choice was to place him in his classic support unit, the hammerers, which I prepared last month. I don't have much to say about it, probably this has always been my favorite dwarf; in my personal opinion, it is one of the best models ever made and it gave me tremendous pleasure to work on it... and yes, this specific model, for those who were wondering, is mine. Not my son's, not my wife's, MINE.

The sharpest observers will have noticed that the shield bearers are strange. Unfortunately, I didn't have the left bearer, the one with the horned helmet, but strangely I only had two right bearers (don't ask), so I went with this choice, and oddly enough, no matter how I placed them, I couldn't position them in the classic two 20mm bases. But I resolved it with a 40mm base and a bold position. And I don't regret it; now this Alrik is the centerpiece he’s meant to be.

Master Runesmith and Anvil of Destiny.

The classic model, THE ONLY TRUE ONE. Monopose guards, wheels, heaviness and fierceness. And I prepared TWO of them! Yes, two, one for us and one for the commission we talked about last month; we’re starting to see what it means to paint legions of dwarves. In both cases, I left out the banners and poles, I haven’t established an official protocol for the standard-bearers and flags yet, but I’m developing a system and will likely do a big reveal in the final wrap-up post. It’s easy to notice which anvil (and which future pieces) belong to my army and which belong to my client’s army: my bases are summer-themed, theirs are winter-themed. My bases are classic 20mm, theirs will be Old World, 25mm bases or even more unusual. If I did the math right, Runesmith, the anvil, and the guards should total about 360 points.

Slayers.

Only 3 models this month. Very few. Actually, I was aiming for the whole regiment, but now that I think about it, I don't mind at all the idea of presenting a small handful at a time, along with other things, and combining them into a regiment in the end. Yes, I'll do it that way... Now, some considerations: only one of the models is actually an original GW. The others obviously aren’t, but I thought that to increase the number in my collection it might be possible to include some cousins, and I must say they fit in; within the overall unit, you hardly notice the difference in scale or style of the bigger models.

Yes, these are Tir-Na-Boor Dwarves from Confrontation, maybe some of you remember the famous skirmish game from the French company Rackham? Exactly those. They are much bigger and hunched, the feet are really exaggerated, and they have a rougher look with worse weapons, and they even have pieces of armor and shields! I have a specific lore in mind for these rascals, but I’ll tell you that later. For now, let’s focus on the smallest of the litter. Hey, he's not even a dwarf.

That's right, he's actually a 15mm human barbarian from an unknown company, I really have no idea where he came from, but I've always had him at the bottom of the bit box. But I've always liked him, and you know what? The hell with it, I'm including him! In my personal lore, this will actually represent a gnome. Gnomes are still a thing in old Warhammer; they share the cities under the mountains with their Dwarf cousins, and in 3rd edition you could even field regiments of these midgets (a FANTASTIC way to justify the scale creep that has always plagued Citadel miniatures)! This specific Gnome even chose to take the Slayer oath, leaving the caves of his clan to join the cult of the Slayers, where he is welcome and respected among the bigger cousins, in a brotherhood where it doesn’t matter who you were or who you are, only how many bastards you’ll send to Hell before you die! Small or large, these subjects are worth 39 points (13 each).

NEW! Dwarves Treasure-Hunters.

Okay, this is a new entry for this month. We've already mentioned that our collection is vast and difficult to manage, and we've also said that we borrowed some models from other gaming systems, and here we are. Some of these venerable plastic dwarves won't find a place in the metal regiments of the Hold, but I would be a terrible person if I didn't give them dignity. As my son always says, 'No dwarf will be left behind!' And damn me if he's not right! So these two, the famous Heroquest dwarf and a generic monopose dwarf, end up here; they've always been a favorite in my family and deserve respect. To fittingly include them among this month's works, they received a touch-up in paint, covering chips and touching up here and there. We've also added a small loot at their feet to better identify them as adventurers in the streets of Mordheim or the dungeons of Heroquest. Their names, once known only orally, are now indelibly written on their bases. They are called Ascia and Martello. “Axe and Hammer” — my son wasn’t very imaginative when he was little, limiting himself to calling them by the names of their weapons, but now that he has grown up he decided to keep the original names, justifying the choice with his own lore: “adventurer dwarves leave their names at home so as not to tarnish them with the shame of defeat, but when they return they take them back with joy, making them shine with their victories!” Damn, the wise boy!

NEWS! The Hold's Clandwarves

Another new entry: still some leftovers from sorting the models for the main army: here we are talking about pieces that really have no purpose even as a Mordheim gang or generic adventurers, they are merchants, workers, craftsmen, courtiers… I’m not sure yet if they will find a place, maybe in some display, some filler, some diorama or who knows, but here they are in the meantime. These too have been taken from my collection of old paintings and refreshed to match the quality of the current project.

For now, the Dwarf Queen and the goblin jester, very old and splendid pre-slotta Marauder figures. A great way to finish on a high note...

I also prepared a couple of test models for next month, unless something unpleasant happens I should surpass myself in terms of workload... we will live and see…

Finally, here is the updated table with the points and the number of models painted. LET'S GO!

Obviously I'm taking into account the progress of my army only!

And that’s all for February. Bjorn Grendel signing out.

as always:

keep painting, stay old school.