My Dwarf army is made up of a lot of old models. Although it started after my Empire and High Elf armies, this still makes it the third army to be added to my collection (and before the Chaos period when I just went all out and decided to collect ALL of them!). The reason for many old models is that I conscripted many of my old Dungeons & Dragons models into my Dwarf army. This is particularly evident in the Dwarf Warriors groups. Those that were undersized (particularly old Ral Partha models) tended to get reclassified as "gnomes" and have been shelved for some other army endeavor since gnomes are no longer part of the Warhammer Fantasy world.
Collection Stats:
366 models
210 painted (57%)
Largest legal force I could deploy with painted models: 6,160 points
Estimated Goal Force strength: approx. 11,000 points
Characters
Leading off the Dwarf collection is my Anvil of Doom. This is from the 4th Edition when the anvil was mounted on a wheeled carriage. At the time, it was one of my best paint jobs considering the washes I used on the anvil and blending on such details as the Runelord's Staff. I'd place the paint work to some time in the mid-early 90's.
The banners were photocopied off the back of the Anvil box and colored in pencil.
[Above] Two generations of Master Engineers. I often like to use the older model on the left as a unit champion for warriors with Great Weapons, since I doubt I'll ever use more than one Master engineer in a battle.
Bombur & Helga: Helga is a Special Character (and my only female Dwarf) from an earlier Games Workshop campaign pack. She often leads my smaller armies as a Thain. The stout Dwarf on the left is from Wargames Foundry. I named him "Bombur" after the fattest dwarf from Tolkien's "The Hobbit." I intend on naming all of the Dwarfs who accompanied Bilbo so that I can do a recreation of the Battle of 5 Armies in the near future (perhaps when the movie comes out).
Here are several of my Lord of the Rings Dwarfs who also take on various roles from Thain, to unit Champions to filling in the ranks of a unit. Although somewhat smaller, I believe they still work when mixed with other GW models since Dwarfs aren't all the same universal height, much the same that people aren't all a universal height.
Kragg the Grim is an old Special Character that I picked up off EBay to use as a Runelord when not accompanying an Anvil. Because he is a discontinued Special Character model, I could get him for a bargain price.
My two Runesmiths are old Ral Partha models from my D&D days. The one with the staff on the left usually played a Dwarf tribal leader (NPC). The one on the right was painted more recently and I often use him as one of my Avatars on the internet because his face came out so well.
The Battle Standard Bearer was originally an Army Box exclusive (not sure if it still is, or not). This is one of my more recent works on the Dwarf army (probably from 2004).
My Slayer King model is acquisition from Pete Underwood, Golden Daemon winner and GW employee. I use him to lead my Slayer Armies or as the occasional Daemon Slayer.
These two Slayers are also early works from Pete Underwood. The one on the right usually operates independently as a Dragon Slayer while the model on the left serves as a unit champion (Giant Slayer).
These two are most often used for Thains in my army. I can't remember who made the Dwarf on the left, but the model on the right is a Reaper miniature that I selected due to his dynamic pose (a rarity among Dwarfs).
Although not a character in his own right, this Ral Partha dwarf was converted to become a Standard Bearer. He played the role as my Battle Standard for a few years before GW released the nice, metal model that I now have. He is awaiting a unit of Dwarf Warriors to be completed so that he can take his place as their unit standard bearer.
I'm never quite sure where to put Felix & Gotrek, since I tend to think of them as Special Characters for either the Empire or Dwarf Armies. I chose to put them here since my Empire collection is much larger and they might get lost. Gotrek was painted by Pete Underwood, which left me with the dilemma of putting some extra effort into Felix so that he was worthy of sharing the spotlight with Felix. Therefore, Felix is one of those rare times when I spent time blending paints, working on skin tones in the face, etc.
Core Units
My first Dwarf Warriors unit (also called Clansmen) demonstrates the varied origins of my models. In this picture are models from Games Workshop (Citadel) as early as 3rd Edition, Wargames Foundry, Alternative Armies, Grenedier and Ral Partha. The Banner is from a GW Dwarf banner decal sheet.
These 4 are some of my favorites in the army due to their age and rarity. These are all Grenedier models (back when Dwarfs had that "Disney" appearance with floppy hats). They date back to 1979. The models on the left have been updated recently, while the others probably still have paint from 20 years ago.
This next group of Dwarf Warriors has as much variety as the first. These are all armed with great weapons. I will often mix these in with the earlier (hand weapon and shield) unit to create one larger unit or if I wish to have 2 units with hand weapon & shield (for example). I will do this by placing the mosdels with the appropriate weapons configuration in the front ranks and back-filling with the others. Also note how I maintained the models' original character identities from D&D, giving them more of an independent militia look, rather than an organized army unit. This is the effect I wanted with a group of Dwarf Clansmen. The banner is from a GW Dwarf banner decal sheet.
This unit is an example of the plastic Dwarf Warriors box being converted to Longbeards (notice all the longer, white beards and the use of some masks). I also mixed up their weapons configuration- giving some shields and some great weapons so that the unit could be fielded with the appropriate weapons configuration in the front. This allows you to purchase half as many models and still have the flexibility of changing up how the unit is equipped. These are from a more recent (6th Edition) plastic boxed set.
My Longbeards are all metal from 3rd and 5th Edition releases. Even though the two sculpts varied greatly, I still pushed them together into the same unit with a common paint scheme (rather than waste the older models in a unit of 10 or resell them). All shields are in the same color and livery except for a few that came from Pete Underwood.
This close-up of the command group is positioned alongside a 3rd Edition model by Pete. I had all ready selected the blue and white scheme for my unit when Pete offered me 3 of his that had a primary color of blue with other shades (such as the green on this model). Never the less, they blend in perfectly.
These Rangers are mostly converted models from Reaper and Games Workshop. The Command group is a 4th Edition metal trio that were originally part of Josef Bugman's Rangers.
This close-up of the Rangers shows some of the various configuration changes. On the left is a lead Reaper crossbowman with great weapon attached to his back. Next to him, a plastic GW Dwarf with great weapon. The crossbow was added to this model. Likewise, on the far right, a plastic crossbowman has a great weapon added. The model with the shield is one of Bugman's Rangers from 4th Edition. It is a metal one-piece model with only the shield added.
These plastic Dwarfs with Great Weapons are from Grenedier. I picked them up as part of a box deal to fill out my ranks cheaply and in a hurry. While most of the others from the box have been retired or destroyed, I've decided to keep this one unit for posterity;s sake. I just need to cut the bases down to the standard 20mm size from the current 25mm square (which is easier said than done). They are from the late 80's.
My Quarrellers are one of the units that have been neglected lately. I gutted their ranks by throwing out 24 plastic models from the Grenedier box (mentioned above) and I am left with 6 old, metal Ral Partha models. The command group are lead, Grenedier models (made with bows) that I chose to convert. However, since the Thunderers are a much better unit for the Dwarfs under the current Army book, completing and upgrading the Quarrellers has been put on the back burner.
Speaking of Thunderers, it is in this unit that most under-sized Ral Partha models have survived. For some reason, the disparity in size isn't as obvious as is in some of the other units. I was able to hold onto a vintage red, white & blue color scheme for this unit (back in the days when GW artists loved red, white & blue).
This command group demonstrates the age of this unit, as the Veteran on the right is a 3rd Edition model (probably an Empire Dwarf at the time) while the other two are from the 4th Edition, You can see the Veteran is a more recent paint job. Like the other units, the banner comes from a pre-printed decal sheet.
Special Units
My only painted Dwarf cannons are old Ral Partha models. Even though the cannon is small compared to other cannons, I use this to represent that it is not an Empire Great Cannon and, therefore, need not be represented by a larger model. In the event I use an Engineer to increase the wounds caused from d3 to d6, I use a larger cannon model to represent it. (Only one is shown here as the second crew has not been completed).
The pressure of getting into a tournament forced me to paint my Ironbreakers up in a color scheme that, at the time, I wasn't too happy about. (Time constraints will do that to you). But, over time, the basic metallic look with the bright colors of the shield heraldry have won me over. Although I seldom commit the points to a tournament army, Ironbreakers are a necessity in any kind of underground battle (such scenarios are popular with me and my Dwarfs).
My collection of Slayers comes from years of Games Workshop models. You'll note that I have Long Drong's standard and musician in the unit above, since they were the only command models available at the time I chose to add command groups to my collection. (They have since released models specific to this role). Gotrek is used as a Giant Slayer, as the better model painted by Pete Underwood stays alongside Felix.
This more recent unit of Slayers is actually made up of models that may be a generation or two older. As I add to my Slayer ranks (I have enough to build a Slayer army) I will probably use my Brotherhood of Grimnir models to represent my Giant Slayers in the unit so they will be more easily recognizable.
I chose a dominant blue paint scheme for the Miners- most of which are from Reaper Miniatures. Although the Games Workshop models are better quality, I liked the variety that the Reaper models gave me with shovels, picks, beams and so forth. Dwarf Miners play a vital role in many of my campaign and siege settings and, therefore, I have sufficient numbers for 2-3 units of them.
This close up shows the GW Veteran and musician model and a Reaper miniature to the left.
It should come as no surprise by now that I am an advocate of 2 bolt throwers in any army. This one is an old model with a crew cobbled together from various sources. On the left is a Ral Partha model, the center model is one of the crew from the 3rd Edition Dwarf army and the ammo bearer on the right is from Grenedier.
This second model has a more uniform crew (they actually came with the previous bolt thrower) as this machine is an old Hobgoblin Bolt Thrower from the Chaos Dwarf army. (They were replaced with alternate models).
Closing out my Special Units is my old, Ral Partha stone thrower. I've always liked this model and considering I bought it for $10 at the time, it was a pretty cheap purchase. I have a second that will eventually get assembled and painted, which will highly contrast the difference between my current Dwarf paint schemes and these old, pale-skinned models from the early 1990's.
Rare Units
My Dwarf Organ Gun was picked up without a crew back in 4th Edition days and I placed a Ral Partha crew around it. Even though the models are under-sized, it's not as obvious when they are manning a war machine and no other Dwarfs are around.
I used to love fielding a "squadron" of gyrocopters and humming the "Flight of the Valkyries" in Apocalypse Now fashion whenever they were on the move. One of them is still a regular player in my standard Dwarf armies. The model on the left has seen some hard times, having fallen from the roof of my car one night and been driven over. Luckily, the "crunch" was the sound of glue letting go and metal parts being bent. I managed to re-assemble the original model with another coat of paint to bring it back online following (what could have been) a terminal accident.
This Flame Cannon is the pride & joy of my Dwarf collection because I bought it specifically for the model (even before I started collecting Dwarfs). The artwork inspiration for this model (and a picture of the model itself) showed up in my 3rd Edition hardcover Siege book and I had to have it. The model is much smaller than it's contemporaries, so I mounted it on a base to give it a comparable footprint to the other war machines. The Dwarfs were also touched up in recent years because of the poor earlier paint job and the amount of wear and tear the model had taken.
Up until 5th Edition you could deploy your Dwarf Warriors with spears. Since it tended to be a static army, this was the weapon of choice at the time. Since then, my Dwarf Spearmen have been out of work. So, I place them in the Rare Section as a Dwarf Allied Unit: Dwarf Warriors with spears. By downgrading their heavy armor to light armor so that their points value is the same it was an acceptable way to keep them in circulation for non-competitive games. These are from my original Grenedier box of plastic Dwarfs.
Even though I have back-burnered the development of my Slayer Army, I couldn't resist an EBay deal on Malakai Makaisson's Goblin Hewer. The model was supposedly plug & play when I purchased it. Never the less, it needed work when it arrived. The Hewer itself had been assembled incorrectly and the paint on all models consisted of a couple base colors and a varnish & ink wash that made them look better (and more complete) than they actually were. Therefore, the whole lot had to be touched up before being considered worthy of my collection.
Close up of the Hewer crew after modifications were made. These are probably the first additions to the collection since some of the Hero characters were added in 2005.