So my completed models for this year’s Jewel of July come to a close with this model from Avatars of War. Their Dwarf Berserker range are clearly a series of Not-Slayers, though unlike some stalwart GW defenders, I don’t take umbrage with other companies and artists taking inspiration from models and concepts that have clearly taken inspiraton from many and other sources themselves. AoW have a pretty impressive of pretty amazing quality sculpts from a range of forces, with a clear line of inspiration from a certain fantasy “Old World”, and their new released do continue in that vein – though the crossover with a new Age of S..culpts is still close enough that it would allow their use in most forces of newer games set in a series of Mortal Realms. I got this particular Dwarf Berserker quite some time ago, and it appears from the internets that he was withdrawn and used as a limited edition model, and sadly, no longer appears to be available. A real shame, as he’s a real nice one…

I’ve actually got a fair few of their models across several of their ranges, though this might be the first one I’ve actually gotten around to painting – such is my sad backlog. I see this model as saving (one of) the best for last, though. Frankly, it was a reward to myself for finishing so many of the other, difficult paints.

One annoying thing about warpaint and tattoos on models is there are times when you really feel that you’vre properly nailed the highlighting and shading on a model’s musculature.. and then you’re going to cover it all up with their “ink”. This model is an example of that. The left shoulder and arm looked pretty spiffy, so I can only hope that the knotwork dragon was worth it. (Tilt your head to the right and let me know if you can actually see the thing?)

A Traditional Rivalry, about to play out in a messy manner…

There are still a few more metal “Dwarf Slayers/Berserkers” on my desk. One is an odd one. A metal prototype for a plastic model, perhaps? A beloved character, and a rather quality single model from Mantic. After that, all the remaining Slayers are my other AoW metals, my AoW plastics, a few models from Reaper (if I can find ’em). Maybe something from Russian Alternative (I need to check!) and then it’s Fyreslayer time!

My little “Jewel of July” batch of completed Dwarf Slayers. Oh yeah, this should go without saying, but despite me saying nice words about AoW, this post isn’t sponsored or contra’d or anything’d by Felix or AoW in any way. Models all bought by me (too many fuckin’ years ago) with my own pocket money, etc. 😉