Dwarves for LotR skirmish game!

With the re-invention of the Games Workshop Lord of the Rings skirmish game, I jumped back on the horse and picked up working on my armies.... I have so many of them now!


Currently, I am working on finishing every Dwarf and Goblin model I have.... at least until they come out with new ones! I have approximately 100 or so Goblins painted and about 10-15 more to go. They were easy to obtain as most folks did not want them and so many Fellowship starter boxes found their Goblins up for sale, trade or even free.... I took advantage of that!


As for Dwarves... I waded into that army slowly... I started with all plastics.... 12 warriors and 12 rangers (my friend and I split the boxes of 24) with an assortment of lead heroes and command. Over time, the force grew to match my Goblins. I now have about 80 or so dwarves, including standards heroes, etc.... but not including any of my Gimli's... that would probably add another 10 or so figures!

 So, it had been a while since I painted any Dwarves for LotR Skirmish battles and so I had to pull out one of the warriors so I could match the colors. One thing I noticed right away is that all of my already painted dwarves had their base rings in a medium grey color.... a paint I no longer have. I had to go and repaint all of my existing dwarves in Eshin grey, a darker grey for the base rings.

 

Another issue was that the blue I used.. Ultramarine blue I believe was also gone.... I opted to use Cygnar blue and found it a bit too shiny. in the above picture you can see how it looks. It was at this point I went back and took the chance on Nuln Oil as a friend or three suggested it when I posted on FB. I also tried to blend some white with the Cygnar blue to flatten the shine and that seemed to work also. Below is the same figure hit with GW Nuln Oil... this was my first attempt and I am thinking on going back and repainting the highlighted areas brighter as it is too dark in some areas. I also experienced this with some of my Milite Christi crossbow men... I was sold on using the Nuln oil when I saw how cool it's effects were! I just need to practice and get better at using it.

 

As for Dwarves... recently I picked up a great amount for a great price in the flea market at one of the HMGS shows... I even got a dwarven ballista and crew! Originally, I had only bought plastics and a few lead command figures. I never bought the original pre-plastic lead packs that came out... because of this deal, I now have plenty of the lead dwarves to paint and a bunch more plastics.

 

Here are the first three lead ones I did.. they are all from the same pack. The detail is so much better than the later plastic kits. Below are close up shots of each of them.

 

 After having painted them, I moved on to a second group... a dwarven king, a vault warden team and a couple of plastic warriors. I am still undecided on the paint scheme for the king and he will be addressed in another post. I plan to use him as a captain from another household... which means I will be painting a warband in his household colors to match.. once I decide upon which to use.

Above is the group (sans the king) completed and below is the group in close up shots. The main colors for my dwarven army is blue, bronze and then, of course.. the other necessary colors for leather and armor... a mix of ITW, GW and Army Painter paints. I used the larger GW gravel as the theme for the army is Blue Mountain dwarves, come to reclaim Moria in the era of Balin. Obviously, they can be used "as is" with any hero, but the main theme is Blue Mountain Dwarves from Thorin's time and then just after as Balin went to reclaim Moria from the orcs and Goblins that dwell there.

 

 One of the things I should mention better... the plastic warriors and rangers box sets.... a LOT of detail is lost in the molds or the sculpts were poorly done. I am not sure which yet, but there are a few ambiguous places where details blend together and it is hard to discern whether it is armor plate or leather or even cloth....


As I mentioned, I painted these figures, then used Eshin grey to go back and paint the base rings. I need to touch some of them up before I mat varnish them! I think they came out decent enough. I have more to paint just like them and by the time I get to them, I will know better how to ink and use the Nuln oil. In all honesty... I have achieved all of my effects to date by drybrushing and building up layers... the Nuln oil, when done right, goes right into the recesses and creates shadows ad a very nice look. This, coupled with some dry brushed highlights should greatly improve my painting appearances!

Here are the first three again. All were coated in Nuln oil for shadows and recess shading. I think all of them need touched up to brighten areas where Nuln oil was left NOT on highlighted areas.


Currently, I am working on another batch of dwarves. I'll post about those in another update. In the mean time, I might have to pull out the whole army and post a few pics of both it and the Goblins. I know I have been talking a lot about GW's Nuln oil.. but I am finding it pretty damn cool and it really does break up the model's surfaces, shadows and highlights.... it makes crisper lines and draws the eyes around the model.