My Oldhammer Dwarf Project

 

After I got my cancer diagnosis in September 2022, my life turned upside down, as many who have had this happen, can relate to. The thought that your life might not go on forever is actually something you don't really think about when you are 53 and completely healthy. After the initial chaos and planning and getting treatment, I started thinking about my miniature collection and I realized I would never be able to paint up all the models I have. I gave some away, decided to ignore most of it forever and only committing myself to finishing up just a few  ranges: Talisman, C38/27 Chaos Beastmen, Golden Heroes and my big box of dwarves, both from Citadel and Marauder. It was a mental lifeline for me during the long months of chemo and surgery recovery.

Now, almost 2 years later, I am still alive, thankfully. I have cleared 3 CT scans that all looked 'unremarkable', and although conventional wisdom keeps telling me the cancer will surely come back (my odds of that not happening are about 15 percent), it hasn't happened yet, and my doctor is cautiously optimistic, although nothing is for sure. 

But in the beginning of this year, I got the courage to look at my life in the future sense (years), and not just in weeks or months, like I had been doing until then. I decided to start a big Dwarf project that would take me years to complete (slow painter).  Tackling that mental hurdle has gave me a boost of optimism and with every Dwarf I finish, I feel more confident about having made the right choice to start a multi year miniature project.

I don't play (lack of time) so I had to come up with something to give it structure. I grabbed my Warhammer Armies book from 1988 and figured I will just create a bunch of units based on the army entries, all for a 3rd edition army. I painted up a bunch of minis since the start of the project early this year, so I figured it's time to put them on the blog. I will line them up in chronological order but will start with two units that were were finished before but rebased for this army. 

Marauder Thunderers. I finished these in 2019 (pano shot) but for this project I rebased them all to grass bases and painted up two more this year, which are shown below the team pics. The first one is an Asgard sculpt by Jes Goodwin, the last one an extra Thunderer. I received one more Marauder dwarf with an arquebus (CS!) but haven't painted that one yet. 

Citadel Imperial Dwarfs I finished these during the chemo months and painted the last one in January 2023. I painted them up with green bases but this converted them to grassy bases to fit in with the gang. These minis were of course sculpted by the Perry twins.

Marauder Swivel Gun This was the official start of the 2024 (and beyond) project. I wanted to tackle something small and it was great fun putting in together in a little diorama. The official designation for this set is MM14.

Marauder Organ Gun After finishing the Swivel Gun, I immediately tackled the MM12 set, and finished it in March this year. Great minis, great fun!

After finishing the two machines, I wanted to start a unit and decided on something unconventional: an Allied Halfling unit, consisting of twelve minis. But with a twist, in my story the Dwarfs, Halflings and humans all share the forest peacefully and in wartime they band together to repel the enemy. It's an example of good but different people working together! This unit took 2.5 months. You can spot some classics in there as well, see if you recognize them all. 

In June I started on another usual unit: a Dwarf Wizard with Monstrous Host. In 3rd edition dwarfs still had magic and they could even take a bunch of animals, so I put some cool ones together and painted them up. The dragon is from Superior Models and was released in 1980. 

After the really fun animal unit, I felt I had to tackle something serious again and chose the Marauder Chaos Dwarf range from 1988, sculpted by the great Aly Morrison. These dwarfs are GOOD (so not evil), and they are wearing scary armor to frighten the enemy. I imagine they ran home, dug into the closet and found Grandpa's old armor from the 'war'. Anyway, here's the progress on that, 7 minis in (August 2024):

That is it for now! I have 13 more Chaos Dwarfs to paint and then, who knows? Another clean CT scan I hope. 

One last thing, I really like making little unit fillers. When I have painting fatigue, I just create a little unit filler and stick it in with the unit. it's a good way to do something creative that doesn't take much time or energy!

SC Mike