November draws to a close, and with it, my first Dwarvember painting challenge. It was a modest field of participants this year, but some really great submissions, so I certainly can’t complain. For my own efforts, I fell a bit short (Ha! See what I did there?). I planned on painting 3 dwarfs, but only managed 2. Considering they’re the only 2 miniatures I painted all month, I’ll take it as a win.
First, some old-school lead, courtesy of Ral Partha and Bob Olley, circa 1990. This dwarf has some character! Outside of Tolkien, you just don’t see too many dwarfs armed with broadswords; it’s usually hammers or axes or (God forbid) double-bladed axes. Know what I think of ridiculous double-bladed axes?
This look says it all.
Next, a Reaper miniature sculpted by Werner Klocke: Hagar, Dwarven Hero (77482). This one is Bones plastic. He’s also about twice the size of the older Ral Partha sculpt above.
I usually don’t have a hard time with eyes, but painting the eyes on this miniature was pretty challenging. Maybe it’s the shape of the face itself. I just couldn’t get it to look right, so after about six tries, I just said the hell with it. The helmet provides enough overhang that his sockets would be shadowed, anyway.
But what of the others who picked up brush and paint (and in Dave’s case, sculpting medium!) and joined me in this challenge? You remember them, don’t you? What have they done?
- Snapfit, from Da Green Horde; did Heckarr and Jeckarr, two “dwarfs” from the Orcquest game; something I’ve never personally heard of, but you can’t argue with his results!
- Mike, a.k.a. Sasquatch, from the @sasquatchminis Instagram account; painted two versions of GW’s iconic White Dwarf himself, one is the original sculpt from the late 70’s, early 80’s; the other is the 30th anniversary edition! (I had that miniature once, but I sold it. Dumb!)
- Comrade, from Comrade’s Wargames; (submission pending)
- Dave Stone, from Wargames Terrain Workshop; not only painted a dwarf, he sculpted it first, in true Dave fashion…and it’s none other than ME!!!! Well, not really me, but a great likeness of my avatar, the red-bearded dwarf piper. (In real life, I look nothing like my avatar.) Dave even got the highland bagpipes right, which (believe me) doesn’t always happen among sculptors in our hobby.
Be sure to visit these sites and check out the work of these folks yourself. You won’t be disappointed. I will post the remaining submissions once I get word of them!
Maybe I’ll get to that third dwarf in December…
Both dwarves look fantastic Keith, and I think you made the perfect call on the eyes on the second one, it adds a lot of character in my opinion.
As for the bagpipe sculpting, it took a bit of research and looking at real photographs of bagpipes, but was worth the extra effort.
Research? Whatever do you mean, Dave? You mean you don’t have a set of bagpipes on hand? Thanks for the kind words, and for immortalizing my avatar in this challenge!
Fantastic work on the dwarves, Keith! Two very different, but great miniatures. Sasquatch’s White Dwarfs also look amazing. I’m still working on finishing my submission, hope to post it tomorrow.
Cool! Thanks for the kind words! Look forward top seeing it!
Wait, Dwarvember was last month? Shit, I thought it was happening in December! I’ve even got a set of dwarves to paint. Dammit! I’ll try to knock them out before the New Year.
Both these diminutive chaps look great! I really like the first one and you’re dead right about it having a ton of character. The sword is a bit of a surprise as I’m so used to seeing modern sculpts of dwarves with axes and hammers. The Reaper one looks like it’s suffering a bit from the classic soft Bones plastic but still looks awesome, a very formidable fighter!
Dude…if it was in December, it would have been called Dwarvcember, which just sounds silly! Looking forward to whatever you paint, dwarf or not. Your recent stuff has been spectacular (not that your older stuff wasn’t). Thanks for the kind words, as always!