Back in January 2020 I bought, from eM4 miniatures, a 48 piece set of 28mm plastic Dwarf Warriors which included 16 warriors with spears (as shown below) with the remainder being warriors armed with axes and crossbows, and it only cost £7.70 which works out to about 27 cents Cnd a figure (the 25 round plastic shield to go with them was only £1.50 extra)! These are former Grenadier dwarf figures sculpted by Mark Coppleston from the early 1990s, but they are still very serviceable for rank and file troops. As you can see in the picture they have built in bases.
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| eM4 Spear armed plastic Dwarf |
Spears are an ideal weapon for Dwarf warriors especially in Fantastic Battles when they have to deal with enemy cavalry! Too bad they are hard to find among GW products, but I really like the Dwarf figures produced by Grenadier Fantasy Warriors in the 1990s, sadly Grenadier is no more but the figures are still available from companies like Mirliton, Forlorn Hope and eM4. That being said I believe the new plastic Dwarf infantry set for Oathmark by North Star has a spear option.
https://www.giggrowth.shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=304022
They Oathmark dwarf infantry require assembly, the old Grenadier plastic dwarf figures do not other than attaching the shield, this limits the variety of poses but it speeds things up.
These are the axe and crossbow Dwarf figures that came in the set with the spear armed Dwarf warriors:
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| Dwarf with Crossbow |
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| Dwarf with two-handed Axe |
A picture from an old Grenadier catalogue of the plastic Action Set of Dwarf warriors with spears, axes and crossbows is shown below. You can just see the spears warriors in the background with shields included.
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| Grenadier Catalogue |
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| Box Art Grenadier |
Ideas on Painting
Here are some painted examples of how to paint these dwarf spear figures by other collectors I have found on the web, the first one is from Grenadier: |
| Dragon Magazine #166 (Feb.1991), brown trim. |
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| Brass trim |
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| Brass trim |
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| Green trim |
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| Green trim |
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| Brown trim |
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| Brown trim, red / white shield |
As you can see in the pictures below there is an unfortunate plastic nub on the back that I may try to hide by painting, or filing or green stuff. Alternatively the shield could be placed on his back to cover the nub.
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| Nub |
Here is another example of the Grenadier Dwarf Spearmen with a red livery:
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| Dwarf Spear armed warriors Red Livery |
There is also a YouTube video called "Speed Painting eM4 Dwarf Spearmen for Oathmark"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LH49-VPg3fI
He starts by priming then black then a heavy dry-brushing of P3 Pig iron and pins the shields on.
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| eM4 Dwarfs spear & shield with blue trim as shown on YouTube |
I am thinking I may use dark red as the trim on the chainmail coat as opposed to green, blue, brown or brass as in the above photo examples to go with the red and white shield pattern shown above. Not sure about painting the gloves a steel colour that seems a bit odd, perhaps I will paint them a leather brown or grey dyed leather. I see one person used flesh, but I am pretty sure these dwarves are meant to be wearing gloves.
I will likely mix these figures with other 1990s era Grenadier Fantasy Warriors metal dwarf spear armed figures I own shown below, sculpted by Nick Lund, to crate a couple of 12 to 16 figure formations of dwarf spear and shield armed warriors.
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| Metal Grenadier Spear armed dwarves |
Mixing in GW dwarf command figures (or Grenadier) also works as shown below in a regiment by another collector:
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| Dwarf Spear & shield companies with command |
Starting the painting process
The first step is to prime the figures which have a large amount of
chainmail so I will use either flat black or Army Painter Chainmail
spray prime. If Primed black I will dry-bush with gun metal and if
primed gun metal I will black wash them. I will experiment with both
methods to see which I like best.
Here is the first lot of my dwarf spear warriors on magnetic bases that I have primed in Army Painter Gunmetal spray paint, shields in background, I may need to pin the shields but I hope not.
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| Primed gun metal |
Next to prime a few black for comparison purposes.
I will post some pictures of my work as the painting progresses and update this post.
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