Balin Marches to Moria, WIP.

 

I've decided to give each base its own source of light with a torch bearer,  I think this touch helps to give the impression the Dwarves are fighting in the dark.

These Dwarves are well equipped and battle hardened.

The procession of Balin on its way to Moria 

I like the fact that there's lots of different styles of armour and equipment.

Balin's standard is a stylised Moria symbol with the Dwarvish rune for B inside it. It's also under a mountain. 

Nori looks around a little bit lost in all the armoured bodies. Is he scared or lost? He keeps track of the twists and turns inside the mountain.

Balin's torch bearer is a veteran from the Battle of the Five Armies. He matches the other figures I used for Dain's army. He looks good on Balin's base as he is heavily armoured and even has a covered face guard.

I'm not going to do too many standards for Balin's force as the torch bearers will take their place. I will paint them blue to make them different to Dain's Iron hills red standards.

The motley crew of Balin's expedition crawl their way forward through the narrow tunnels.

I think the torches turned out okay. They were done in the usual way of working up from white. White,yellow,orange,red then black for the smoke.

A veteran leads the way, dwarves excel in fighting underground and these guys are no exception.

Making 28mm Torches

To help give this force of Dwarves a Moria feel, I thought it would be a nice touch to give them torches. This of course to help them in the gloom of the Black pit...Moria.

This is an easy thing to do with the help of some cotton and brush bristles.

This dwarf even has a giant torch to help light the way.

Once the brush bristle was cut and drilled into place, I covered the tip in super glue. Cotton was then wrapped around it, soaking up the glue as it went. This creates a nice torch, I made sure to cut some wood grain into the plastic bristle.

 A covering of glue in readiness for the cotton.

To make the fire a bit more animated, I stuck some packing material to the end. This does cover the cotton but hopefully should look good when painted. The cotton level could be skipped but it does look good for unlight torches.

I found this packing fome in a figure box and thought it would make great fire.

I did buy a few torch bearers from Alternative Armies, but it's also quite easy to convert other figures.

Having learnt my lesson with the shields on the last batch, I took the extra time to green stuff some straps for the stowed torches. Using the spare putty to create a little bag.

When the super glue was dry, I coated the flames with PVA glue to keep them in place. This keeps them in shape and also the spray paint will help this too.

Handy spare torches for the campaign.

This dwarf got a spare shield to add some variety to his sculpt.

Just a tiny strap is all that's needed to secure the torch to the belt. Hopefully, these little extra details should make the difference when painted.

Almost set for the endless dark of Moria.

Spare torch, it's nice to see the cotton.

I was pleased with myself for managing to give this dwarf his axe back that I had cut off. I simply drilled it into his other hand holding the shield. 

Undercoated and drying in the wind.

UPDATE: WIP on these guys. I've decided to paint a couple of these torch bearers to include on the first bases.

These have most of their base paints on at the moment, it turns out I paint the beards last.