Two More Dwarves

Well, the basecoated dwarves I showed here are now finished. The chap with the warhammer is a Heartbreaker Miniatures Dwarf Champion with Warhammer, designed by Kev Adams.  Given the designer, its not surprising that he fits right in with Oldhammer dwarves, though he is a bit taller than my old Citadel dwarves.  Ral Partha Europe now sell the old Heartbreaker line. The crossbow chap is an older Citadel model, a Perry twins Norse Dwarf listed as X Bow/Shureshot on Lost Minis.  Both of these will make great additions to any dwarf skirmish band and gives me more options for FfoL.  In Frostgrave I see Sureshot as a Marksman, the Champion could be a Templar.

As with Deetoo, I used whatever colours were on my wet palate, though I made sure they both had some blue.  I was determined to find a suitable recipe for red hair, my last attempt on the dwarf here wasn't great.  As with the blonde hair, I followed a recipe from Juan Hidalgo, again substituting Vallejo paints for Citadel.  My version is as follows;

Base coat Vallejo Model Color  Orange Brown (Game Color Parasite Brown is an alternative, but my local stockist didn't have any in).  Highlight with VGC Dwarf Flesh, then wash with thinned VGC Flesh Wash.  Highlight again with VGC Dwarf Flesh then VMC Sunny Fleshtone, then selectively apply a thinned mix of VGC Red Ink and Yellow Ink (about 4 parts yellow to 1 part red).  I'm pretty pleased with the results, though I'll practice a bit more before I'm truly happy.

As always these were great fun to do.  I find not painting to a specific brief quite liberating at times, though it still helps to have some goal in mind, as my lack of focus proved in 2020.  For these I'm kind of thinking towards a Dwarven warband for Frostgrave.  I'm also simply enjoying the old minis.  The Champion has slightly less character than Sureshot, but he's still a great sculpt.  My only complaint is his eyes, which are decidedly not level.  I've tried to compensate for this when painting, and lining in eyebrows has helped as well.

That's it for dwarves for a little while, though I have some more to do.  Next in my 'Random Oldhammer' stuff is some more of the original Fantasy Adventurers to accompany Praetorius.

Did you spot the dangerous mistake?  I originally based the Champion on a square base.  This was me thinking about making up whole units of Oldhammer style minis.  Who knows where that madness might have led?