28mm Middle Earth – The Lead Goes Ever On: Durin’s Folk (Dark Ages Dwarves)

So this is the 20th anniversary of the release of the movies “The Fellowship of the Ring,” so I finally moved my Middle Earth project onto the front burner. It is my goal this year to paint and field several Middle Earth factions and get some games in using the Dux Arda fan mod rules for the Dux Britanniarum Dark Ages rules from Too Fat Lardies. The factions I have on hand to paint up and field include:

1. The Dwarves of Erebor and the Iron Hills: Dark Ages dwarves from Conqueror Models and older Vendel (Thistle and Rose) miniatures.
2. Men of the West: Various Romano-British and Saxon figures (Gripping Beast and Artizan) to assemble the Fyrd of Bree and the Greenways, including some Dunadain Rangers and Hobbit archers.
3. Orcs of the Misty Mountains: Primarily an collection of nice sculpts from Ral Partha that have been sitting around needing some paint and love. I’ll use some Wargames Factory 28mm plastic Orcs for the more “organized” Orcs of Gundabad, Mordor and Isengard.
4. Dunledings: I would prefer 28mm Dark Ages Picts, but happen to have some 28mm Ancient Germanics from Wargames Foundry that will do nicely.
5. Custom decals I made up in Photoshop, and then printed by Little Metal Spaceships.
6. Combo of MDF and 3D printed terrain for villages and Middle Earth ruins and such.

The first completed faction is Durin’s Folk – the Dwarves of Erebor and the Iron Hills (with painting help from Russell Levy!). This force is designed around a Shield Wall of heavy Spear, supported by units of one-hand and two-hand weapons, and some Crossbow figures for missile support.

The Dwarven warband arrayed for battle

The King stands ready!

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The Dwarven warriors of Erebor, the Lonely Mountain, hold the right flank

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A contingent from the Iron Hills holds the Left Flank

Skilled crossbow units harass the foe with deadly fire

The overall warband is about 50 figures strong, and I’ll add some extra figures as well, including a Dwarven Sage figure (basically a Wizard) from the Oathmark game line. I was going to use Oathmark shield decals, but then decided I wanted shield designs from Middle Earth, so I put them together in Photoshop (along with other factions) and had Brent Dietrich at Little Metal Spaceships print them out for me.

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Custom made shield decals, using a 3mm hole punch to place a hole for a shield boss

And that completes my first faction for Middle Earth! Next up will be the Orcs of the Misty Mountains.