X-bows are the primary missile weapon of the Dwarves in 3rd edition and when your little legs only carry you 3 inches a turn having a weapon that can fire 30 inches is a massive plus.
As usual with Edouard's Dwarves these guys fit in perfectly with GW's Imperial Dwarf line.
The crossbow is separate and needs gluing into the mini's open hands. There are three variants of crossbow too, one basic, another cocked unloaded and the third one is cocked and loaded.
I've started to run out of the obvious colors for halving the different unit's surcoats so these two units got Swooping Hawk Turquoise and Warlock Purple (well, they may be the Coates D'Arms versions).
These guys were really easy to paint and I think that happens with lovely sculpts which these definitely are. I've gone for a mixture of blonde, ginger, light brown, dark brown, black and grey beards to add a little individuality. I've painted the weapons a light colour because I read somewhere in an old white dwarf (possibly a McVey tip) that good races look right and proper with light coloured weapons and evil races work best with dark coloured weapons. Not sure if this works but I've always stuck to it.
My bases are Army Painter Leather Brown (this is mainly because they produce a 100% colour match spray paint for quick and easy painting of movement trays). I always stick sand/grit onto my bases after I've stuck my minis onto their bases. I stick the Mini's on with Loctite Gel and use PVA for the sand/grit. I then spray the mini and base (usually black but I use white for some cases such as my High Elves). I tend to use a mixture of Citadel, Foundry, Army Painter and Coat D'Arms paints although I do have a small number of Vallejo paints also. I also really love Army Painter Soft/Strong/Dark Tone Quickshade Ink Washes (not the dips, tried them, not for me) and even the Leather Brown base gets a go over with the Quickshade Inks. Once this is dry I dry brush AP Desert Yellow followed by AP Bone. Once dried I repaint the edges of my base AP Leather Brown. To finish off I stick on AP Mountain Tuft with Loctite Gel and PVA glue on some static grass in patches.
I haven't finished these units off yet as I want both units to end up being 20 strong with Champion, Standard Bearer and Musicians. I'm going to experiment with wedges for larger units once I've expanded the unit sizes.
I've almost completed my challenge (3000pts of Imperial Dwarfs with Baggage Train) and next up is my civi's for the aforementioned baggage train.
All comments and constructive criticisms are welcome
