Anvil of Doom

Skagg Hammarhand, Runepriest of Oakenheim, with Anvil Guards Hurgin and Durgin. Most of the time, Skagg spends his time in the hold, forging weapons and armour for the thane and his warriors. But recently, incursions by wandering Undead have required more in the way of magical defences. Wielding his mighty hammer, Skagg can dissipate magical forces, with droves of skeletal warriors unmade by each strike of the anvil. 

The first of the beards for Beardecember. And what a fantastic figure to start with. I am not going to pretend that I painted it up in the past couple of days. I have been tinkering with it for months - a little session here, a half hour there. But I wanted to kick off Beardecember in style and this gave me the incentive to knuckle down and finish the job. The two guards I painted about a year ago, then I started the runesmith over the summer months. The anvil I painted mostly over the weekend. There is a banner pole (just one, the original model had two but one has gone missing) that might be added at some point with a suitable flag.

If I had to name my top ten favourite Warhammer models, this would be one of them for sure. Part of the reason is no doubt nostalgic, in that it was first released just about the time I started collecting Warhammer figures, in the early 1990's. At that time I was an Elf and Undead collector, but I remember quite clearly being blown away by the dwarf artwork of Mark Gibbons. I never quite felt that the models met up with the art, but in the case of the Anvil it came very, very close. Years later when I finally gave it to the lure of the beard, I had always had this figure in my sights. It's good to finally tick it off my list.

Incidentally, if you are a fan of this era of Warhammer figures, you might be interested to learn that there is a facebook group - the aptly named Middlehammer - the stuff between Oldhammer and the new Age of Sigmar. I suppose it's a bit like a therapy group for those of us who still cannot quite let go of the Olde World.

A couple more photos of the figure. There are multiple angles on my facebook page, for the dedicated dwarf fans out there!