Dwarf Bread
1/10th scale resin kit from Sean Green
Assembled and painted in 2006
If you’ve read some of Sir Terry Pratchett books set in his Discworld, then you might have come across the very strange idea of Bread as an offensive weapon. Particularly with it’s regard to being used by Dwarves.
Sir Terry had a lot of odd ideas within his Discworld, and to me it just made the stories richer, and in a lot of cases, very funny. Dwarf Battle Bread, a specially hardened wheat derivative, quite possibly wholemeal, although I don’t recall that ever being stated, just seems to have so many possibilities that could be explored – Battle Baguettes, Throwing Scones, Knuckle Donuts, Heavily seeded shields…. Well, you get the idea.
Sean seemed to like the idea a lot, and produced a short run of these, although I have no idea of how many got out there ( Escaped ? ) or if anyone has the moulds still.
However, it deserves an article, simply because I love the fact that one of Sir Terry’s ideas made it into a big scale 3D model, and that backed up by Sean Green’s excellent sculpting.
The parts layout are shown in photo #1, and whilst it’s perhaps not too clear, that is a baguette in the right hand, the shield is a flatbread, there’s a bandolier of throwing scones and the base itself is another larger flatbread with two round cobs for extra ammunition. Yes indeed, truly a carbohydrate overload.
Photo #2 shows the components assembled, although they’re not glued together at this stage, and you get an idea of how big and chunky the model is from the metal rule held next to him.
Painting began with all the components being washed in soapy water, dried off and primed with a thin coat of acrylic paint mixed with isopropyl Alcohol. The metal areas were painted first, using a mix of silver acrylic and Chaos Black, then lightly drybrushing with more f the silver to bring up the shine. The toecaps, mail short and helmet were all treated in this manner, and once fully dry, a coat of Black oils was added and then dabbed away to further enhance the appearance of the metal areas.
Photo #3 In this shot I’ve also painted the face, my usual blend of Mars Brown and Titanium White oils to create shadows, mid-tones and highlights. The face is the only bit of flesh on show, although I admit that getting the eyes painted in was a little bit of a chore, because they’re set so deeply into the face.
Photo #4 shows the leather areas undercoated in what can only be described as looking like pink. It actually isn’t ( honest ) it was a new pot of GW Swamp Brown, and OK, it looks more pink that brown…..
It’s always an idea to check how the flesh areas look once the oils have dried, and photo #5 shows the best way to do this, that being to paint in a border of some kind to the flesh areas to give the colours some reference. Usually it would be hair, hat, helmet etc, just like is shown here, and by painting a portion of the beard and the helmet already having been done, the flesh colours become more alive.
In photo #6 the model is really starting to take shape colour-wise. The shoulder pads have been painted along with the edging to the helmet with a gold coloured acrylic, adding some Burnt Umber oils to darken the edges a little, the belts, gloves and boots have been painted in to represent leather items, and the bread of the shield and Battle Baguette have been added too.
The bread was painted using a cream coloured acrylic base coat, then Mars Brown followed by Burnt Umber and finally Mars Black oils were stippled on using a sponge to give a mottled / spotted effect.
The throwing Scones were painted in a similar manner – see photo #7 – but just using the Mars Brown on the top of each scone.
In photo #8 I’ve painted the tops of the boots and the lining of the cloak to represent a soft tanned buckskin, I began with a pale cram acrylic undercoat, adding three or four layers of this to get a nice solid colour that was evenly covering the areas, then added some Burnt Umber oils into the areas that would require shadow.
Over this I then stippled Mars Yellow using a large soft brush, blending the Burnt Umber into the yellow in places, but allowing some of the dark brown to remain. Finally Titanium White was added, again with a large soft brush and a stippling action, trying to get the colour changes as smooth as possible to make the areas appear soft and yielding.
At this point I realised that there was a lot of “brown” on the model, and where it wasn’t a shade of brown, it was silver…… Hmmm, time I used a different colour.
Photo #9 shows the addition of a red to the loincloth, and the beginning of painting the jewels on the helmet with red and blue acrylics. Oh, and the beard was finished off too, but that’s just more brown.
Photo #10 shows a side view of the model so far, not much to tell here really.
And the same can be said for photo #11, although there is a glimpse of the fur side of the cloak having been painted…. Um, apologies, that’d be lots more brown.
The final shots show the completed model, the horns have been added after being painted, and some chain added to make the cobs on the base into the ends of a flail, yes, they were going to be that all along, but I just wanted to keep you in suspense as to what they actually were.
The final shots work around the model from different angles, and show off how chunky and cool this model is.
I’ve got to admit that whilst it’s a good while since I painted it, and the original article text has been lost, rewriting a short piece for this and looking at the pictures, it still makes me smile, and yes, chuckle a little.
The passing of Sir Terry Pratchett has denied us not only an interesting, witty and clever author, it’s taken a little bit of light out of the world. His books are quirky and full of strange, but somehow logical ideas that made me laugh. I regularly go back and read them again.
So, RIP Sir Terry Pratchett, thank you for the fun you brought us, and that you inspired Sean to sculpt this piece, I wish he’d take up the sculpting tools and putty once more and produce some other characters inspired by the Discworld.
