Old School Miniatures Ewal Dwergar

My recent order to Old School Miniatures included a pack of their Ewal Dwergar. They are very reminiscent of the original Chaos Dwarves, not the more modern Big Hat ones.

They are sculpted by John Pickford, the same chap who did Towerhead, and fit right in with him, though he does tower head and shoulders (and hat) above them.

The pack includes eight bodies, two each of four different sculpts, eight different hand weapons, two left arms, ten different heads and eight plain round shields.

Quality of sculpting and casting is first rate, they look like they will be a joy to paint. I've seen some lovely painted examples on Blues Marauding Miniatures, 

As with the chariot, the price is very affordable (currently £18 for the pack of eight). I'm tempted to get a few more packs to build up a small Chaos Dwarf force, perhaps allies of my various orc tribes. All led by Towerhead of course.

Old School Miniatures do quite a range of Ewal Dwergar, including characters, civilians, command, crossbows, handguns, great weapons and cavalry in the form of boar riders (the source of the extra boars I got for the chariot) and boar centaurs. There's even artillery, and an entertaining version of the fabled 'ass cannon'.

Features such as wings, a goat leg or the occasional extra head were common in the original Citadel sculpts, but these are Ewal Dwergar, not Chaos Dwarves. It should be relatively easy to add a greenstuff tentacle or two, should I wish.  Regardless, they are not going to be mistaken for good dwarves.

Old School Miniatures

Most of my recent old school mini collecting has been original Citadel from the eighties. But there are companies making old school minis still.  Some of these use the original moulds; I see that the old Minifigs Mythical Earth range is available, and the early Aurora Rococo, with its amazing elves is too.

Other companies sculpt new minis in the old school style, and I've just received some from the appropriately named Old School Miniatures. 

New Old School

I found out about the company from Blue's Marauding Miniatures, a blog I came across when I was searching for ideas for painting my Marauder wolf riders. I'd been looking for an orc chariot for a while, and kept on missing out on evilbay.  I realised that recent minis sales allowed me a bit of purchasing, so I sent off for an orc chariot, a pack of boars and some 'Ewal Dwergar'.

I'll look at the naughty dwarves separately, but I will say that all the minis are very good, and exceptional value.

OSM Orc Chariot

One Orc Chariot, easy assembly

The chariot is sculpted by Andy 'Atom' Taylor and is very good, the archer is rather Kev Adams style, the other crew slightly less so (the driver with the whip reminds me more of the Marauder style) but all look the part, and make very respectable orcs, if you can call orcs respectable.  The only thing I'd have liked to have seen extra is a set of blades, but that's easily scratch built.

I'd like to see more orcs from Andy, but sadly these are the only ones in the range so far.  The remaining minis in their Orcs and Goblins range are all Kev Adams goblins, I believe they were a recent Kickstarter.

The chariot itself is sturdy and goes together well.  I tried to assemble it with Blutac sufficiently for a photograph, but that didn't work. You can see a fully assembled and painted chariot on OSM's website.

I suspect the crew would have preferred a higher front for their own protection, but it makes it easier to see them.  

The wolves are OK, but stylistically don't match either the Citadel or the Marauder ones I already have*. I deliberately ordered a pack of boars for the chariot anyway, as I wanted boar power rather than wolf power for my orcs, so this isn't a problem.  The boars are great and I don't have any in my Orc force, so there's nothing to match.  I may well use the wolves as hobhounds for the Severed Hand orcs, they are fun minis, a good size, but with longer, thinner snouts than the wolves I already have.

Casting is very clean, the wheel rims and one of the boars have some flash, but its easily removed. Mould lines are at a minimum and are in very sensible places.
 

Boar-ing, actually no, very nice boars

I'm looking forward to painting the chariot, but it will be after I've made more progress on the Orc's Drift stuff.

In Summary

I highly recommend Old School Miniatures stuff. They cover quite a range, from orcs and goblins, through gnomes (delightful garden gnome style rather than the short dwarf style) and Medieval Marginalia (must get the bagpiper) to SciFi minis.

Prices are very reasonable, coming in at significantly cheaper than most Oldhammer stuff sells for now, and when I ordered, they had a sale on.

I probably don't need any more chariots; I am, though, tempted to see if I can scratch build one for the spare boars to pull. I will get a few more Ewal Dwergar though.

And maybe some Kev Adams goblins.

And perhaps some miscellaneous undead.

And...

And...

*So apparently I can accept, indeed relish, different styles of orcs and goblins, but I want my wolves to be the same style.  That's just me being contrary.