Avatar of War Dwarf Ironshields

The longest of times ago, I took part in a Indiegogo (Kickstarter-ish) project to fund some dwarf models from the excellent Spanish company "Avatars of War". Now I have my painting mojo back, I have painted some more of these chaps. I think at the time they were experimenting with a plastic/resin combo, which just didn't quite work. They have since moved away from this and their newer stuff look much much better. However I still think this looks great (a sudden breakdown in my normal modesty levels).

I tried for a different beard colour with these boys. I tried to follow the beard colour on the left-hand dwarf from the front of the Warhammer dwarf army book. It is a kind of ginger going grey colour. Not quite sure it worked, but that was what I was going for...

I quite like how these guts look. Hope you do too....

Avatar of War: Painted Dwarf Ironshield

Last year, I supported a Indiegogo (a kickstarter type) venture to to support figure manufacturer Avatar of War in their venture to extend their excellent Dwarf range. 

Avatars of war have been a little slow in developing their figures following the success of the campaign, but before Christmas I received my first figures. A set of 21 Ironshields.

At long last I have assembled and painted my first five of these figures. The design of the figures is excellent and they make some super looking Dwarfs. The Dwarfs are quite tall and this is accentuated by me putting them onto rocks, but I like the design. There is a slightly restricted range of tops and bottoms, but I think you should be able to create a good looking unit.

 

So the design is excellent, but the casting is less so. The material that they have used is a resin - plastic blend and it has a strange grainy feel to it. However, once you undercoat the figures you soon forget this.
 

I found that the casting was quite thin in places; especially on the shields and that some had holes all the way through. I also experienced some significant problems with the weapons. The casting material is quite brittle and with rough handling from my fat fingers; I managed to break off a few of the weapons from the shaft. Easy to fix with a bit of a pin, but not a good sign for the longevity of the pieces..
 

However, once painted, they look pretty cool (IMHO)...

See if you can spot which dwarf has his legs on back to front....

New Dwarfs: Avatar of War: out the box

Back in June Avatars of war participated in a Indiegogo campaign to support the development of an extension to their range of Dwarf figures. This is a site which is very much in the "Kickstarter" style.

The idea is that you commit to buying some of the new figures from them and if they get enough money committed then they can afford to produce the figures. If they don't hit the target then you don't get charged. Their target was met and they have started to manufacture and post out some of the models.

I ordered the following selection:
40 Ironshields
20 Thunder Warriors or 20 Crossbowmen (whichever is finished first)
20 Doomcrushers
1 Rune master
1 Ltd Edition standard bearer
1 Dwarf Lord with great weapon
1 Dwarf King.

Today I received the first selection of figures.
 21 Ironshields
All of these are plastic with torso and legs separate,but delivered on a single sprue piece.
The first up are a command group with musician, standard bearer and champion. All except the musician could easily be assembled as troops.

Next up come the core troops. There are 9 different torsos.Two models are provided of each. If you click on the picture you will get a much better impression of the detail on each figure.It is clear and well sculpted, so should be very easy to paint. One weapon had separated in the pack, but this will fix very easily.

Four shields arms are provided..

 Together with a fine selection of hand weapons..

 And a standard. It appears that AoW quite like this standard. I am not clear if they intend to use it in all their packs. Either way, it will be very easy to replace.

Dwarf Noble
This is a very nice metal figure which comes as a single piece. Crisp modelling with no flash. Very nice..

Dwarf Rune Master.

This chap is harder to judge. He is split into 4 key parts with cape, beard and staff all individually supplied. Nice casting and crisp features. Should be nice to paint, but will look better with paint on him.

All in all a mighty fine selection. I will need to work out how I want to base these and then find a little time to paint. Should be fun...

Avatars of War: Dwarf Army Campaign

I have long been a fan of the Dwarf Beserker figures released by Avatars of war, but have held back from buying these because Avatars of War Dwarf range was quite limited.

It looks as if that is all about to change. Avatars of war have set themselves up on the Indiegogo site which is a kickstarter type site. The idea is that you commit to buying some of the new figures from them and if they get enough money committed then they can afford to produce the figures. If they don't hit the target then you don't get charged. Their target is $20,000.

I have signed up for 100 dwarf figures and I am hopeful that they hit the target so I can lay my hands on some dwarfy goodness!

Avatars of War: War priest

No Empire Army is ever complete if it does not include a warrior priest or Arch Lector. I was never that excited by GWs range of priests, so I decided to give Avatars of war "war priest" a go.

The Spanish company appear to produce a number of nice figures. So I went online and ordered this chap. I ended up putting him on a bit of an angle when I added a piece of cord to represent slate under his feet. This makes him lean back a bit which does not help the look of the figure. 

When I assembled th chap I though that magic weapons could be combined with normal swords to give me an additional 6+ ward save. This is not true, but explains why I went down the route of taking an arm out of my bits box to replace the warhammer that comes with the kit. 

I found that the details were not as crisp as I expected them and I had to complete quite a bit of work on the head to clean him up and to remove mold lines. Having said that, the model does include some very nice details like a wonderful religious book (not shown on the photos clearly) and also a nice shield.

I painted him brown, mainly to make it easier to identify him amongst the remainder of my blue and cream Nordland army.

I hope you enjoy....