Dwarven Halls - Dawn Guard

The Dawn Guard

The Dawn Guard of Ras Morthil

My blog this week is my own personal ‘forge’, boom boom….. 😂. A place to chronicle the hidden histories of the Dwarves, specifically those who dwell in the shadows of maps and the forgotten folds of far away mountains. I have long been drawn to the rugged, stoic nature of the Naugrim, finding in their heavy, iron-grey beards and calloused hands a narrative depth that demands to be brought into the light. 

The Dawn Guard

Through my painting, I aim to seek to capture more than just steel and scale; I aim to illustrate the weary duty of these watchers. I will leave us all with a little more story behind this unit below. I hoped the narrative will develop over time, as the army fleshes out. But like the ancient quiet of the deep halls, this army is definitely going to be a long term project that I might revisit bit by bit over time. 

So far I only have three or four units, either painted or in my head, or even in my bits box. The rest will have to come to me in future dreams…

In front of a wonderful backdrop

So to it then: my Dawn Guard, a unit of twenty Dwarven spearman/dwarfs that guards distance shores from dusk till dawn. They are mainly conquest miniatures but there are also a few Oathmark, and a GW as the standard. The painting theme is a washed out blue and orange trim, to reflect the Sea and the Dawn. Further to this there is also a black Raven, and Dawn lit peaks on the banner and shields as army motifs. I have painted runes across scabbards and shields to reflect heritage and ownership,

Better look at the bases

Led by Lord Fudi with white beard. These were sprayed Matt black, then painted up in layers of flat blue and sky blue in the Vallejo Model Colour range. The most intriguing detail is probably the bases which are hand made using cork and green stuff to produce a sort of flagstone flooring and decorative 3d printed dungeon scatter for interest. Overall they took me quite a long time, but still have a rustic contrast type feel to them, so I definitely need to either get quicker in painting them or produce the saturated feel from glazing I used on my wood elves. Probably get quicker is the best option because I have far too much that needs painting.

Eye level - dynamic movement 

A nice little whistle stop show case of another type of fantasy unit this week. Thank you all for taking the time to read this far, have a wonderful weekend. I shall leave you with a short story for this unit:

Where the White Mountains meet the Sea, the snow-covered peaks give way to salt-spray and iron-grey, sheer stone cliffs. This is Andrast, the long finger of the world pointing into the trackless West, where the mountains do not end so much as they shatter against the tide. There are no Great Gates here, and no signal fires burn upon these peaks; only the lonely whistling of the wind through "The Singing Stones."

The folk who dwell in the lower mists are the squat, stone-eyed Dwarven Dawn Guard, watching from the high ridges as the white foam of the Great Sea batters the roots of their world. High above the spray, upon the jagged obsidian balconies of the furthest peaks, Lord Fudi stands motionless with his kin, their heavy beards stiffened by salt and spray from the vast, bruising swells of the Sundering Seas, forever watching for travellers from the West.