Bath day

As you all know, dwarves do not bathe as often as the other races would like. You wouldn't either if you saw the things lurking in the pools of water deep underground.

In any case, the dwarves have had their first lot of washes.

Badab black went all over the ranger cloaks, the arrows and on the armour. This helps dull down the splotchiness of the cloaks a little, as well as making them closer to the board colour. As for the armour, it really helps pick out the joins in the armour. The arrows darken a little to distinguish their brown from all the other browns on the dwarves.

I wish my camera could take extreme close-ups, you're all going to have to wait for the next battle report for close-ups when my brother brings his camera around. Hopefully you can still see the difference, though the flash diminishes the look substantially.


In any case, the armour will get another touch-up with mithril silver in the middle of each armour plate to bring back the shininess. The cloaks will get another wash, but this time only in the folds and recesses to try and restore some of the 3-dness of them.

The faces and hands got a wash with some Ogryn Flesh. It really darkens them a lot and lets you see cheekbones, eyesockets and the lines between their fingers. Next I'll go back and put bits of Dwarf Flesh on the raised areas, cheekbones, nose, forehead. It's much lighter than the washed flesh so this will help add more definition to them.

Lastly some Devlan Mud was washed on their grey trousers and arrow fletching. I used brown wash on the trousers instead of black just to distinguish them a little from the cloaks.

They're looking nice now, and I could play with them without feeling too pathetic, but they're definitely not finished to where I want them to be. I still have the faces to do properly, eyes on the ones that have them showing. Another two layers on the beards. Highlights and washes on the purple. Armour re-touching. Weapon highlighting. All of the browns need highlights and washes. The shields I haven't even started on yet.

Oh... and these guys...

The guys with the big axes are Khazad Guard, they are as tough as a warrior with a shield, but have more strength (which makes it easier to wound guys) and throwing axes (which gives them a very short range ranged attack). They also choose a hero to be "bodyguard" to. While that hero is alive they don't have to roll for courage.

The guys with the two weapons are Iron Guard. They are as tough as a normal warrior, but have more strength and also get two attacks. They also have throwing axes.

I'm not sure yet whether I'll spread them throughout my forces or keep them together for small squads of hitting power. The lack of mobility (dwarves move pretty slowly) kinda takes away from any speed flanking that cavalry type guys can do. Anyway, you might not be able to see from the shiny shot, but they have face masks to help distinguish them from their colleagues. These are cool because I don't have to paint faces with them!

And, of course, Etako (Balin) when he arrives in the mail. Blame the volcano for his delay =)