Shaved Dwarf's Conversion Adventure

[Tactalvanic]

+1 on the helmet conversions, they really work well with the overall style of the minis

Great stuff

[Tordenskjold]

I was expecting some conversions of shaved dwarfs. Boy was I disappointed 

Other than that, great minis! I like how you can change the whole look of a figure with some relatively simple reposing, tweaking and green stuff details. specially the wolf-riders are impressive IMO.

[Shaved Dwarf]

Thank you, guys.

I spotted a fourth missed to photograph mini... the rightmost in the first image. Guess I have to be more thoughtful...

The next batch is in production. I want to have some orcs that are not part of a simple warband, but of a trained and disciplined rank & file unit, the guard of the orc boss'. Therefore, I have to see that I can limit the space one orc occupies to a square of 20mm edge length. Yes, that's the usual WH and WAB basing, nothing fancy... the problem is, that the models are much to broad for this. Now I have to cut both arms of every model and reposition them to the front. Fortunately, the feet fit exactly within the 20mm, so no need to alter them. To enhance the impression of professional soldiers, all are made from the same miniature, the spearman, and will have the same clothing and armament, and will be painted in the same way. Here's a WIP, next to an unaltered specimen:



By now, I'm planing to build 18 of them, so there's a lot of work to do and this will become rather.... dull.

[Brandlin]

Good conversions as always and I agree with your view of getting away from orcs as an undisciplined rabble.

However isn't WHFB frontage for an Orc 25mm?

[Shaved Dwarf]

Thanks.

However isn't WHFB frontage for an Orc 25mm?

Frankly, I don't know how orcs are based for WH. The reason I ended up with a 20mm square per figure is not WH. I don't think I'm going to play WH in the next couple of years.
The reason is another: I have three figures on every warband base. The base's width is 60 mm and the depth is 30mm. I can't place 3 figures in a rank next to each other, I have to place them somewhat shifted. Thanks to the depth of 30mm I have enough space to do that. That's why the middle figure on the images is displaced to the rear. This also suits the unordered way of a warband better. But to depict a rank & file unit, I need to place all of them in one line and that means with a width of 60mm I have no mroe than 20mm for a single 28mm figure.

edit:
I noticed that I had not stated that the images of the painted and based orcs show bases of the kind "warband". Should have mentioned that...

[Reed]

Will they receive some special looking armor and/or weapons?

[Brandlin]

I haven't played WH since... Hmmm ... 1986 ish...

And mostly our figures were preslotta then... I vaguely remember my dwarfs on 20mm squares of curly edged cardboard.

[Shaved Dwarf]

@Reed:
They will receive another spear than that they come with. The WIP image already shows one (ignore the nail's head, this will be cut off in the final version). And they will get their own shield, a rectangular one.

@Brandlin:
Oh, that's 20 years by now... quite some time. My only WH experience is with the 8th edition.
edit:
Oh no, it's not 20, it's 30 years! (Time to go to bed, I guess... )

[Shaved Dwarf]

With 18 minis in the same clothes and with the same weapons that are all made from the same pose, there's little room to bring some variety to the unit. So I decided to try to do more modifications on the faces. I think with faces and heads, relatively small changes suffice to enhance variety. Of course, this theory of mine has to be tested, so here we go:



Frist, I removed the tusks from all of them. The guy on the right got an old injury from a fight in the face. The one left of him got a new tusk in IMO a more plausible position than the original. The other tusk he obviously lost in a bar brawl, I'd say.
With the two on the left I tried for the first time to do open mouthes. And the leftmost even got a turned head.

[Shaved Dwarf]

The archers are painted:



But I'm going to prepare some more in the future...

[jon_1066]

Great stuff!

[Shaved Dwarf]

Thanks!

I have to admit I fail to get on with the guard. If I sit down to continue on my orcs, I usually take one of the others, not-guard minis, in the hand. Seems like working on them appeals more to me than working on 18 similar guards...
Well, here is one of the others, as from time to time one of them gets finished:



This is a swordman, with his right arm replaced with that of a spearman. Removed both tusks and placed another farther to the side. And tested a  new self-made shield on him. Doesn't look bad, I think.

[Shaved Dwarf]

In the last months I didn't get ahead with my orcs (and with none of my other wargaming projects, too).    At long last, I managed to get two of them finished...



This swordsman wears an additional cloth around his shoulders, connected by a cord holding an amulet. He also wields a rather rough DIY-blade.



For some time now I thought that I need some maces. Maces are quite simple weapons compared to spears, axes and swords, so an orc warband should carry a number of them. That's why I took this archers bow from him, cut his arm at the elbow and glued it on in a position that looked suitable for a mace. Removed the quiver on his back and replaced the cord around his waist by a proper belt with buckle.

[tomrommel1]

nice progress