Mostly dwarves

Hello all.

As the title states, here are two of my mercenaries which I painted in november.
Both pics suck as lighting was poor and I hadn't quite learnt how to use the camera.
Due to these facts the figures look much darker, and I must admit, also a bit better than IRL.
Haven't painted mercenaries in couple of months now and at the moment I'm working on some dwarves.
So I guess next time I'll be posting some figures with more manly beards and beer bellies than these manlings have. Would be really nice to hear your comments, so speak out and don't be shy.

VERY SHARP LOOKING mercenaries! They capture the Landsknecht feel VERY NICELY. I REALLY like your choice of colors, AND the bases are EXCELLENT. VERY WELL DONE!

First off: Welcome to the Forum!

And what a nice couple of mercs you have !

I can already pick out the different techniques you put in there!

Highlighting, sharp black-edge shading, very nice! the bases fit perfectly.

Must give you kudo's for the perfect white you painted and the blue. i find those hard to paint to a good. and YOU do it awesomely!

cant wait for more

Thanks to both of you for your kind comments!

DeafNala: The landsknecht look was just what I was aiming to when painting these figures. I first thought to paint every figure with different colour scheme, but ditched that idea when I realized how much more work that would mean.
I actually like painting more than playing, but as I'm a VERY slow painter and my closet is full of unpainted figures, I feel like I don't have a choice. I'm trying hard to get 30 figures painted this year.

Paluke: Thanks for the welcome.
You are really flattering me.
I agree with you on how difficult painting white is. The white in these two is probably looking that good just because of the lighting.


Here's the first dwarf.

COOL, I remember that mini...that REALLY dates moi! You did an EXCELLENT job on the face...GREAT skin tones & a FINE job bringing out his personality. VERY WELL DONE! I look forward to seeing the rest of his friends.

I'm also more the painter than the gamer, AND a SLOW painter at that. My saving grace is that I do have the time to put into the minis; SO...there are quite a few minis that get done up over a year's time.

Some people just paint awesome. I envy that a lot!

You are one of those people. What an excellent job!

I love those mercenaries, they look great!!!

Very crisp painting, almost sparkling! Your painted minis could be used for promotion!

Thanks for the positive comments everybody!

I've been lurking around here for some months now, and seen some very beatiful figures.
I wasn't quite sure how you would like my figures, but seems like I was worrying for nothing.
Reading such nice comments really helps getting more motivation to keep on painting.

The dwarf above was actually a test piece for the possible skin tone. I decided to paint the others with more "traditional" skin colour, i.e. using more dwarf flesh. I ended up in this decision partly because I couldn't copy the skin tone of this one.

Some boring blather about my dwarfs:

The warband is going to be made up from 80's and early 90's models with a few 6th edition ones. Some other manufacturers' figures are also included, but one thing is common for all of my dwarfs: They all are metal.
Only shields and some weapons like halberds and spears are going to be plastic.
As I really love the old figures, I'm not very eager to convert them.
They look really great, so I don't see any reason why would I want to ruin them.
And the rare times that I end up playing the game, we don't follow the wysiwyg-rule too strict.

During this year I've managed to finish 9 dwarfs, so I'll try to get photos of the remaining eight tomorrow.

The dwarf looks really good! He has some real character. You can see from his face that the years have taken it's toll on this dwarf. He looks tired...

Very very well done!

The human mercs are also very nice. Nice old models worthy of such a paint job!

Thanks Boreas.

Alright, so here's one more mercenary, but I guess it could be used in my dwarf warband as well.
Not quite happy with the pistol, might have to paint it again. Lovely sculpt if you ask me.
All comments welcome.

it looks good mate!

what's wrong with the pistol? i cant see it!

Nothing wrong with the pistol if you ask me!!! It looks great dude... i really like the style you use to paint your mini's!!!

Thanks for the comments.

Well, I think that the wood grains (is this the right word?) are looking too pale and kinda stand out in the negative way.

sianpää wrote:

Thanks for the comments.

Well, I think that the wood grains (is this the right word?) are looking too pale and kinda stand out in the negative way.

Maybe a bit darker... but i would be happy with that

Woah! Excellent painting! It really makes me miss the old days - I love the "Imperial-style" dwarfs they used to make.

Fantastically done!

SeiFeR-NL: Yeah, I agree. It's just so darn hard to get back painting figures that you once thought were ready.

CygnusMaximus: Thanks man!
The old figures are just awesome! Imperial dwarfs are probably my all-time favourites from GW.

This is how the bases really look like.
Simple but decent IMO.



Here comes the bearded folk:













And finally two of their shields:



Still unsure about the shield with mountains. I think it doesn't really look like dwarf warrior's shield, rather like a drawing done by some 10-year old who has just read The Hobbit.

Great painting mate.
Though I'd have to say it.. Some of those dwarf models look quite odd.. their faces being too "vertical" or their mustaches being weird.. or none existent at all!.

The ones I like the most are the guy with chain mail & axe rising up his fist (with white hair), the one with chain mail a hammer & shield with black hair/beard and the one with a green coat and a two handed axe. Those three guys have a super attitude! ahoy!

Thanks for the comment. Criticism and all ways of improving my painting are welcome too.

Not quite sure I undestand what you mean, though. If you mean that their mustaches don't stand out well, I agree with you. I was thinking of black lining them as well, but decided not to. Not even sure why...
Was also thinking of g-stuffing mustaches to the guy without them. I see your point in this one: He looks weird.

Pirexian wrote:

Those three guys have a super attitude! ahoy!

Some well done dwarfs you have there. Me being partial to the short in stature, but large in bellies fellows allows me to think this way. Keep up the great work and stunties.

W0W! This is a trip down Memory Lane...some VERY NICELY painted OLD favorites there. EVEN as a Goblin Guy, I must admit LOVING the classic GW Dwarves...GREAT minis that you've done up WONDERFULLY WELL!

I'd be delighted to offer critique if you ever did something less than terrific.

Thanks for commenting, Drugart and DeafNala.

DeafNala wrote:

I'd be delighted to offer critique if you ever did something less than terrific.

Really? Nothing at all? How about the shield, do you think it's looking OK too?

Well okay: on the mountains, you might sharpen the outline a bit & carry them down to the shield rim...try to make it look like one peak is behind another. Otherwise they look FINE! I've used the Mountain Peak idea in combo with the Bad Moon for my Night Goblins...it's a really effective design.

DeafNala: I'll have to think about it and possibly repaint that shield. Thanks for the ideas.


Although I like the real mordheim warlock figure very much, I ended up painting this old Citadel wizard to represent one instead. Quite happy with it, excluding the staff.