CLXV. Duardin Warriors of Volmar

Here come the rest of the Duardin.

Volmar sits on a mountain on Erebos, and is inhabited mostly by Duardin and Kobolds. People of Volmar are well adapted to their high-altitude life. They manage to grow crops on artificially constructed terraces, and herd goats on their mountain pastures. What their own efforts at agriculture cannot supply, they trade for the riches they discover in their mines. 

Duardin and Kobolds are very similar in height and build. The easiest way to tell them apart is  looking at the nose and ears: they are both elongated in Kobolds. However, the biggest difference is the fact Kobolds do not give birth to living young like Duardin, but lay eggs. This makes them incompatible, so Kobolds and Duardin generally do not intermarry. But they consider themselves to be one people, and most of their culture is shared.  

The kingdom has been on good terms with its neighbours for a very long time; conflicts with other realms are not common and not large in scale. 

Let's take a look at each of the Chosen Axes (and hammers!) of Volmar.

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Fjul.

This was originally the Fjul-Grimnir model, the leader of Chosen Axes. What I liked about the original model is the set of keys, the giant's skull on the base, and the pose. As with the others, the mohawk was cut off to make way for a conical helm with a mask. This not so practical ceremonial helm has a bit of a samurai vibe mixed in... The runes in his skin were sanded away. I admit that weapon is utterly ridiculous, but for some reason I liked it. So I kept it, only removing the dragon head detail from the bottom end (the part I disliked). I had to replace it with something of similar shape and size in order to preserve balance. So I stuck a ring into a clutched hand from my bits box and glued that on.

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Ugal.

This was the first one done, discussed in my last post.

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Maegri.

This was Mad Maegrim, originally wielding a pair of axes. I simply wanted some variety.

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Tefk.

And finally, this was Tefk Flamebearer. He used to have two different axes, but gave him one I removed from Maegrim, so now he has a matching pair.

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A few shots of different stages of sculpting Tefk's helmet. The nose ring was actually added in the middle of painting.

Fjul's armour is the most elaborate one. I'm relatively satisfied with it, but I see I need to work more on my symmetry. Here I went to some other Trudvang dwarf armour designs, by Alvaro Tapia. The 'beard' portion of the mask covers a larger area on the front, basically being a chest plate. It's an interesting solution. 

When I look at my four warriors side by side, I feel the style of the helmets across the warband should have been more consistent. That's something to keep in mind for next time.

The original Chosen Axes are Fyreslayers. Photo taken from games-workshop.com.