Dwarf Miners of Oakenheim

The wealth of Oakenheim was not in gold and gemstones, nor in iron or coal, but in salt. It has been used by dwarfs for thousands of years, for seasoning of course, but most importantly for food preservation. The dwarfs could not survive the bleak midwinter months if they relied on hunted game and foraged berries. It is the vast larder of salted (preserved) foodstuffs that gets them through the lean winter months. That, and copious barrels of beer. It was the discovery of salt deposits under the mountains that first led to the founding of the hold of Oakenheim, and transportation of the valuable commodity that enabled the kingdom to spread. Dwarf Miners are the bedrock of dwarf society.

This has been my main focus in the month of Decembeard, a unit of dwarf miners from around 1992. They are possibly the dwarfiest  dwarfs of this era. I think most people associate miners with coal or metals, I know I certainly did. But after a holiday in Krakow and a visit to the Mines of Moria, I discovered the significance of humble salt to human civilisation, and translated this into my Oakenheim history. Travel is a wonderful thing !

When I started to paint the minis I had very few choices to make. The mail shirts would be metal colours and the leather gloves would be browns and tans. The only thing to decide on was the beards. I thought white or grey would give the most contrast, and these three are probably my favourites of the unit. The dwarf in the centre of this trio is hands down the best sculpt in the unit in my eyes.

With the command group I wanted to add some variety of beard tones. I figured that the banner, horn, etc would draw the eye and thus the beard could take a slightly more background role. At some stage I might add a flag to the banner pole.

For completeness, the final pair of dwarfs from the unit. Nothing particularly spectacular, but sometimes the sum is greater than the parts.

With the gunners from the previous post, that’s my sum total of achievement for Decembeard, as far as the Dwarfs of Oakenheim are concerned. I am very happy with this result, painting has not come easy to me in the past few months and these were certainly completed much quicker than earlier units. The miners took around ten hours in total including prep, and I reckon that’s a very good result at just over an hour a figure. 

Stay tuned for the Twelve Days of Beardmas 🎅🏻