Personalizing your collection: Dwarf Army (Nearly) Completed

Readership, I'm not dead. :)

Thanks to Glenstorm for keeping the blog alive the last few weeks - I've been painting a Blood Bowl army on commission for a friend of mine and have finally gotten back to the summer project of finishing terrain pieces for my underground table (in prep for the next tournament) and finishing the details on the Dwarf and Goblin armies. Today, I'd like to give you a glimpse (though not a close look) at some terrain work I've been doing and focus today's discussion on the army of Dwarves that are now (almost) completed. You can see the army here (51 models) and also can see that the walls of the Dwarf Hold have received their grey base coat (more on these pieces in the coming weeks).

The first division is led by Gimli and it sports my Dwarf Warriors with shields, Dwarf Warrior with banner, and Khazad Guards. I play Lord of the Rings Online (LOTRO) and decided a long time ago that I'd eventually give all of my Dwarves names. After I made my own Thorin's Company in anticipation of the Unexpected Journey movie, I actually put into action the collection of names. In the lore of this army, all of the Dwarves in this army live in Thorin's Halls in Ered Luin, north of the Shire. The Dwarves you see here are trainers of great warriors (champions, guardians, and wardens) or they are craftsmen (weaponsmiths and armorers).

The Dwarf Warriors with Dwarf bows are led by this (kind of washed out) shield-bearer. Though LOTRO doesn't have many archers, there are hunter trainers, bards, and other random characters. In this army, those who don't directly use hand weapons for training are going to be assumed to use bows.

Here is my famous (as in, awarded a prize for best conversion at the last grand tournament and currently the most popular post on this blog) Thorin's Company - 13 Dwarves that can be fielded for 200 points. Though not as powerful as the units in the new Hobbit release (except for my Balin, who costs about twice what the new Balin does), the fact that I can get 13 units for the cost of 2-4 of the other members is enough to convince me. I'm thinking about putting an oakenshield on Thorin's model (somewhere), but I'm not sure I want to do that quite yet. The new model, though, has piqued my interest, though I'd probably go for a closer representation to what is wielded in the movie (vice a device that looks more like a shield).

Finally, I have "The King's Rangers," led by a shield-bearer. These rangers are trained in woodlore as all rangers should be, but their specialty is found in roaming the tunnels of the mountain and ensuring that they are neither seen nor heard as they scout for Goblins and other fell creatures. These models have finally been glossed and were the last large project for my army...at least for the time being.

I'm hoping to get the rest of the terrain pieces done soon and will be dedicating the rest of the month to those terrain projects. August will be almost exclusively Goblin-focused, while September will turn to cover newly-acquired models (birthday money is coming) and my Wood Elves - who are scheduled to be brought to the next Grand Tournament and have been woefully neglected as of late in their hobbying needs.