Hod the Chief Trumpeter

After Horik the Lord Commander and Knutr the cranky old slayer it's time for the third one of the heroes I painted for my 'Hill Dwarfs' project - Hod the optimistic trumpeter! Just like with the previous ones, it's a middlehammer dwarf on a bright green base, a nostalgic trip to the times when I was just starting with Warhammer.

The model is officially named 'King Kazador', but seeing how I want to make my 'hold' an unimportant, backwater one, I decided to downplay his royal characteristics and reduced him to being just a thane with a fitting role - the main trumpeter of Karak Valldar. In comparison with the previous ones, this one looks the most classic - with a simple pose and weapon held high, so to do him proper justice, I tried painting him as colorful as my painting style allowed for - he was pretty simple in the end, but enjoyable nonetheless.

Now that those three are done, it's time for some troops - and war machines too! Still, seeing as this is a slow project in a particularly slow time in my life, it will take some waiting...

While subterranean dwarfs can rely on their strong lungs and good acoustics of their tunnels for communication, the hill dwarfs of Karak Valldar must use some help in that regard - that’s where trumpeters come into action. Using impressive horns, they sound elaborate calls that help their leaders command the troops on expansive, grassy hills. The current Chief Trumpeter in the hold is Hod, a relatively young Thane serving under Horik. What sets him apart from all his comrades in Karak Valldar, he is earnestly enthusiastic about his work here, immune to the grumbling attitudes of older dwarfs. Lacking resources, goblin raids, irritating inspections from their superiors, Hod can find something positive in all of that and more. Hill dwarves can laugh at his naivete, but secretly they admire his view on life and find some kind of comfort in it during all the hardships.

Old Knutr the Slayer

Next installment of my 'Hill Dwarfs' project - a colorful Middlehammer force with a whole backstory of a hilly, grassy fort no dwarf wants to visit for too long - all to explain bright green bases and vibrant tufts.

While Horik was my favorite model from the whole Dwarfs range, this slayer here was easily the second favorite - and it was like this ever since I saw him on an old GW website. I got him some time ago and now he is one of the three models to kickstart this project - and just like them, I managed to take photos of him a day before I found myself without time for hobbying!

Unlike the Lord Commander, this guy here doesn't have any armor on him, which allowed me to try a little bit harder on the hair, skin and various freehands. Other than trying to devise what is what on this model, he was a real pleasure to paint! Also, probably the first time when I had to paint so much red hair!

Once every few days a grizzled slayer comes down to Karak Valldar from the surrounding hills, dirty and weary, to restock his supplies, tell some stories and go back to the wilderness. While not a part of the ‘Hill Dwarfs' officially, the old slayer Knutr grew to be an integral part of the 'fort' - and one of the reasons why the service here is so unexciting. With a hardened, veteran slayer who spends his days wrestling trolls and busting orc tribes, it’s nothing strange that the younglings here are so bored. Well, at least they can entertain themselves devising various backstories for the mysterious Knutr, every one more colorful than the other - and trying to confront them with the slayer without getting his axe in the face for their trouble.

Horik Raloffson, Lord Commander of Karak Valldar

Today I am glad to start and present you a whole new long-term project here - middlehammer Dwarfs! I always liked their style - with big heads and no knees and lots of beautiful metal models. That and a lot of nostalgia from the times when I was facing them on the battlefield in 5th Ed. WFB.

The main idea of this project is to embrace the old style of GW miniatures while applying modern techniques - so the color palette is bright (at least brighter than my usual), the bases are juicy green and the metals are shiny - all done with my current skills and more elaborate bases.

To justify Dwarfs standing on green grass I have spun a whole backstory for them - of a small contingent of Dawi warriors stuck in an unimportant fort in nice surroundings of rolling green hills. It will be only moderately serious - and you can read the first installment below.

The Lord I am showing today is their leader - and the first model that I bought for this project - I always loved this guy. There are not many colors on him, so he's serving as a middle ground between my usual grimdarkness and the other dwarfs that will follow.

Although it’s unbelievable, not every transgression against dwarven law requires taking a Slayer oath - sometimes it means getting promoted! Horik is one such example. The third son in a powerful noble clan, he got involved in ‘youthful foolishness’, for which he got transferred to Karak Valldar to serve as an officer there. Only when he arrived he understood his elder’s intentions - “Karak” Valldar was a small, mostly surface-based fort overlooking a wide, hilly area of minimal importance. Amongst the ‘real’ holds, the crewmembers of this fort were mockingly called “The Hill Dwarfs”. Still, Horik wasn’t going to appear weak, so he took his new job as seriously as he could (albeit begrudgingly). Now, after a thousand years (or so he always says - time seems to go really slow in Karak Valldar), a much older and experienced dwarf, Horik holds the position of a Lord Commander here, still angry about his situation - but still too stubborn to actually admit this fact. The only hint to that is his helmet, which he commissioned shortly after coming here - officially it’s supposed to be a terrifying, warlike visage - while in reality it just reflects how mad he is all the time.