Tag Archives: Dwarvember

Dwarvember 2023 Windup

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…

Dwarvember 2023

Well, for the first inaugural Dwarvember painting challenge, the field appears somewhat sparse. Taking part thus far, we have four painters:

Snapfit, from Da Green Horde;
Mike, a.k.a. Sasquatch, from the @sasquatchminis Instagram account;
Comrade, from Comrade’s Wargames;
Dave Stone, from Wargames Terrain Workshop;
and me.

Well, lads, it’s up to us it seems. Although reinforcements are welcome, we can’t rely upon them. Let’s do our best! (Says the guy who had a dismal Orctober…)

Lest anyone wonder if I painted that unit of Black Tree Dwarf Warriors, I did. I just painted them way back in February, 2018, so they don’t count for Dwarvember. Nothing quite so ambitious planned this year, I’m afraid…but I hope to have three Dwarfs done by month’s end.

Let’s get painting beards!

Dwarvember is coming!

Next month I am hosting a new painting challenge, featuring my favorite fantasy race of all time, Dwarfs!!!! This intentionally coincides with Movember, the annual men’s health awareness month during which men (and women, I suppose) grow our moustaches to draw attention to men’s health issues, such as prostate and testicular cancer, both of which are really shitty things to have; as well as mental health issues, such as depression and suicide, also not fun.

I cannot grow a moustache. I mean, I can; but I won’t. I hate facial hair and I can’t abide growing mine for more than a week before I start to itch abominably. I grew it out for a month once and had dreams of burning it off my face with a blowtorch. These dreams were not nightmares. Dwarves, on the other hand, love facial hair; and I love Dwarves, almost to a disturbing degree. Although I can’t (meaning won’t) grow facial hair, I can definitely paint a dwarf. And so can you!

THE “RULES”: What is Dwarvember? Why, it’s the month you paint Dwarfs (or Dwarves), of course. Any Dwarf will do, he or she doesn’t have to be strictly a fantasy miniature, either. Sci-fi Dwarfs are welcome! So grab your Grymn or Squats or Forge Fathers if you want. Come to think of it, drop by Wargames Terrain Workshop and pick up some Cowboy Dwarfs if you like. They’re cool too! Dwarfs may be any scale and from any manufacturer. I will link to your stuff throughout the month, and (if it’s not there already) add your blog/website/social media to the blogroll on the side! If you don’t have a site of your own and still want to participate, I’ll happily host your pictures here and ensure you get proper attribution!

How many Dwarfs you paint is up to you. The minimum is one, of course; but feel free to do as many as you like. The only caveat is that they get painted sometime in November.

I’m gonna hit the pile of shame and see what I can find…I know I’ve quite a few of the short fellows around here somewhere. Hoping to do at least 3, but may end up doing more than that. Who knows?

As for Orctober, I’ve stalled a bit. Only two of the Grenadier set completed so far, with seven more to go. Will I finish by the end of October? Maybe, maybe not.

If you want to participate in Dwarvember, drop me a line here in the comments!

Svala

First off, check out all the amazing entries for Old Man Paint’s #oldorcs challenge, over on his blog. There are some really talented painters that took part; some of their work is truly stunning! (You can also see my entry: it’s the one that looks like shit compared to all the others! 🙂 )

Another year, and another missed opportunity to again host Dwarvember. I keep telling myself I should bring it back each year, but I was kind of busy last month between #Oldorcs and The Vamp for Vampifan stuff, and I plumb forgot about it. Maybe I’ll bring back WizarDecember next month instead. Subconsciously, though, Dwarvember must have been working on me, because the first miniature I painted after the Red Duke was this one: Svala, from Hasslefree miniatures.

Regular visitors to this blog will be familiar with my love of all things Dwarvish; but for those who are popping over from Instagram or who happen to have come here accidentally, suffice it to say that I find two things coolest above all else: dwarves and bagpipers. And if you put both those things together, you may very well bring tears of joy to my eyes.

Anyway, I like Hasslefree miniatures a lot; but I usually purchase Kev’s Modern adventurers and martial artists rather than his Fantasy miniatures (even though they’re really good). That’s when I purchase Hasslefree at all; shipping rates are utter bullshit right now and have been for quite a while, so I don’t often “buy British” nowadays. That sucks for me, as there are some great miniatures to be had from companies like Crooked Dice and Heresy (not to mention Wargames Terrain Workshop, a company I just discovered I am powerless to resist, shipping be damned. Hi, Dave!). While looking for something fun to paint, I stumbled across Svala here. I must have tacked her on to an order somewhere and forgot. The last time I ordered from Hasslefree was at least four or five years ago.

Anyway, I decided to paint her up as an older, experienced Dwarf woman; someone who hung up her adventuring gear and now spends most days at the forge. Of course, she’s still a Dwarf; so her warhammer is never very far away.

She seemed like a good enough reason for a post as any. Hope you like her!

Insanity Pile Progress

Miniatures Purchased: +49

Miniatures Painted: +55

Total: +6 ( I went on a bit of a spree, as I usually do this time of year. Better make up some time!)

Dwarvember Week Four

The final weekend of Dwarvember has some great submissions! Thanks to all who participated in the painting challenge this month. It’s been a fun time!

Without further ado, here are the dwarfs!

First up once again is TMPs 144artist with some spectacular Mantic dwarf badger riders! I love these miniatures and didn’t even know about them until I received this submission. Great job. Makes me want to buy some!

I remember Grenadier had some cool bear riders back in the day. I’ll have to hunt those down somewhere.

Up next is another familiar Dwarvember participant, TMPs Black Cavalier, with more classic Citadel dwarfs.

Throbin One-Eye,

and Kimril Giantslayer. Here’s a unit of EM4 Dwarf Shieldbreakers. These look to me like the old Fantasy Warrior dwarfs:

Black Cavalier also found time to finish out his Chaos Dwarf mortar team:

On a side note, Black Cavalier is looking for some dwarf items in trade. I’d paraphrase, but why do that when here’s a direct quote?

“I’m looking to buy a chaos dwarf swivel gun, just the gun, not the crew.
Also, I have 2 of the same figures from the chaos dwarf mortar crew(the one I submitted this week), but I don’t have the other mortar crew holding the linstock (the spear thing with the fuse lighter on the end). I’d like to trade my extra unpainted guy with the mortar round for the guy I’m missing.”

Here’s a link to his TMP Marketplace post where you can see the miniatures in question. Thanks for a truly epic submission week, Black Cavalier!

TMPs Balin Shortstuff returns, combining his apparent love of billiards with his love of dwarfs for a truly unique unit of dwarf spearmen! Balin is trying to ID the manufacturer of these figures, so drop him a line if you can ID them. Well done!

Punkrabbit returns returns with more submissions from his Frostgrave dwarf warband!

Top and middle: some dwarf miners and a dwarf slayer from GW’s Battle for Skull Pass. The bottom is an awesome conversion of the cannon crewman from the same set to be used as a dwarf witch lord! You can read all about how punkrabbit returns made his conversion and see more pics on his blog, over in the sidebar! Thanks again!

TMP’s CBPill offers up more Hasslefree Grymn for the challenge.

I love the Grymn, and they’re one of those “wish I had time” projects that plague me. Nice to see someone doing them justice! Thanks, CBPill!

Finally this week, my submissions. I finished up my own unit of miners, some from Battle for Skull Pass, some not.

I used the command group from BfSP, considering I didn’t have much of a choice. Then I built a unit of miners without a command group to bulk out the unit.

The dwarf on the left is from Skull Pass, the one on the right is from a unit box of GW dwarf miners.

Well, that about wraps it up for Dwarvember. Coming next month: WizarDecember! Details to follow soon, so watch this space and get your magic-using miniatures ready!

Dwarvember Week Three

We’re past the halfway mark for Dwarvember, and this week has some of the best submissions yet. Let’s dive right in with this awesome dwarf piper conversion by TMP’s Balin Shortstuff!

I’ve said previously that being a dwarf and a piper pretty much make a miniature the best thing it can be, and I stand by it. (Click that link to see my pre-Dwarvember Bob Olley dwarf piper, if so inclined). Balin couldn’t recall the manufacturer of this figure, but I wish we could get a shot of what it looked like before the conversion. Well done!

Returning again is TMP’s 144artist, with two Mantic Warsmiths:

My favorite is the blond warsmith on the bottom. Great base work too! Although I painted up some Mantic dwarfs from Kings of War a while back, I have yet to play any of their games. Love the look of the figures though. Thanks again, 144artist!

Black Cavalier returns for Week 3 with two more dwarfs. First up, a Chaos Dwarf mortar crewman. Love the fangs on the old Citadel Chaos Dwarfs.

And another Reaper dwarf: Freja Fangbreaker. Personally, I don’t have many female dwarf miniatures painted, which is something I will try to remedy soon.

TMP’s punkrabbit returns joins us this week with some GW Battle for Skull Pass Thunderers he’s using in a Frostgrave warband. Any chance you’ll save the wizard for WizarDecember, punkrabbit? It’s just around the corner!

You can check out punkrabbit returns’s blog in the sidebar under Tumbahelada De Punkrabbit, where among other things he discusses his decision to jump into Dwarvember this week. Thanks for the submission!

TMP’s CBPill once again joins us with an Egyptian-themed dwarf, Big Bukka Bloved of Bes, a dwarven bard.

There aren’t many dwarf bard miniatures out there, and I’m betting this is the only Egyptian dwarf bard figure in existence. So thanks for sharing, CBPill! Remember to check out his Duelling Scrolls blog in the sidebar for more pics!

My submissions for the week follow. First up, a repaint of a recent plastic AD&D miniature, the Duergar Champion from the underdark set. Here’s the original paint job:

Actually that stock photo shows a much better paint job than was on the miniature I had. I’m not a fan of these latest AD&D figures. The scale is all over the place, the sculpts are generally bad, and they all pretty much look like they were painted by Janice in Accounting. I saw no reason to keep him a Duergar, so I added some color and here is the result.

Also, I managed to get those Ral Partha Dwarfs painted after all. The dates on the bottom say 1986, so they’ve been awaiting paint for a while!

Next week is the last week of Dwarvember, so it’s time to start looking ahead. What say you all to “WizarDecember” next month?

Dwarvember Week Two

Time for more Dwarfs! Week Two of Dwarvember is officially here. So, without further preamble, on to the submissions!

First up, some Roman-themed dwarfs from fellow TMPer Fredrick. Fredrick painted this tribune, and here he is seen exhorting his troops. I don’t know who makes these figures, but Roman dwarfs are pretty cool!

Fredrick named this fellow “Primus Pilus”. Nice to know even Roman dwarfs like big axes.

And finally, a shot of the whole unit. Well done, Fredrick!

Returning for week two is TMP’s 144artist, with a truly awesome dwarf unit complete with custom movement tray!

These guys look great, and you can see more of 144artist’s work over in the sidebar (Tactical Simulation Gaming). Here’s a closeup of the unit champion (among others):

Thumbs way up!

Also back for Week Two is TMP’s Black Cavalier, with another Citadel Chaos Dwarf Swivel Gunner:

As well as a great Bob Olley Reaper Dwarf, Quimby Copperthumb.

Great job, Black Cavalier!

As an aside, Bob Olley is one of the best sculptors of dwarfs out there, IMHO, and I love his work. Check out his Dwarf World line if you feel the same way. Used to be available through Armorcast, but that doesn’t seem to be the case anymore.

Another veteran of Dwarvember thus far, TMP’s CBPill returns with this Hasslefree Grymn Pirate Kajaran with a blade swap. Nice conversion!

You can see more pics over at MiniSmith Forge, link located in the sidebar. Thanks again, CBPill!

Then there’s this one by TMP’s Skrapwelder, dubbed “The Most Interesting Dwarf at the Prancing Pony”:

Stay thirsty, my friends!

You can find Skrapwelder’s blog over in the sidebar under Rot and Drivel (which is his blog’s name, not me being an ungrateful asshole). Thanks for the submission, Skrapwelder!

Lastly, my meager submission for the week. I was planning on painting some old-school Ral Partha dwarfs (maybe next week) but real life got in the way. Instead, I was able to paint the Dwarf Lord from Battle for Skull Pass. I didn’t want to stick with GW, but it’s all I’ve got for the week.

Once again, not the best pictures.

Hope to have some dwarfs from various manufacturers done for next week. Until then, Happy Painting!

Dwarvember Week One

Dwarvember is officially underway! But we’re off to a slow start, so hopefully we’ll have more participants next week. I’ll continue to add more Week One submissions (should I receive any) to this post through tomorrow evening, so check back soon.

On with the show! First up is a Reaper Bones Dwarf from TMP’s 144artist:

You can find a link to his blog, Tactical Simulation Gaming, over in the sidebar. He’s got lots more dwarfs over there, including a Kings of War army he’s working on presently. I like the painting technique he used to achieve the look of the chest hair.

Up next are two from TMP’s Black Cavalier. First up, a Reaper Dorn Ironspike, a classic Sandra Garrity sculpt:

And second, an old Citadel Chaos Dwarf swivel gunner:

Well done, Black Cavalier!

And here’s one from TMP’s CBPill, a Dark Fable Egyptian dwarf:

I was unfamiliar with this line of miniatures until I received this submission, so thanks, CBPill! You can find his blog (Duelling Scrolls) over on the sidebar as well!

And lastly, here is my submission: my unit of Dwarf Warriors from the Battle for Skull Pass boxed set. Although some of these were painted last month, I finished the unit in November, so it counts! Sorry for the blurriness of the picture. I need photography lessons.

Next week I’ll submit an individual dwarf or two rather than a unit. Happy painting until then!

Dwarvember Returns

A couple of years back, fellow (or perhaps former, he’s been inactive lately) TMPer Sam Sagace hosted Dwarvember, a month-long celebration of all things Dwarvish held in November. Basically, hobbyists were invited to paint at least one dwarf figure per week and post the results. But, since it doesn’t seem like Sam (or anyone else) has hosted this event since 2013, I’m humbly stepping in to bring it back. I need very little incentive to paint dwarfs.

Here are the “rules”:

Pics/links will be posted here every Saturday in November, starting on the 7th. So hurry up and get your dwarf painted! The other dates will be the 14th, 21st and 28th.

Dwarf miniatures may be from any company, and any scale.

Send your pictures or a link to your blog to angrypiper@angrypiper.com. I will post my own dwarf here, as well as any pictures I receive. I will link to your picture if you wish to host it on your own blog. And I’ll put a link to your blog on the sidebar for good measure.

First post is on the 7th, so get painting!

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