The first design step was a reverse-engineer the scale of the original HQ hero minis. The original dwarf was three heads tall, proportioned in three, 8mm sections--head, torso, and legs/feet. 8mm arms, from shoulder to wrist; 5mm hands, from the wrist. The male dwarf had slightly larger hands (6mm), but the best measure for hands is the size of the face, so we went with that, instead.
She is armed like the unused Don Kuekker concept sketch (the one with the hammer dwarf, polar warbear, and ice gremlin), but with some modifications made to the helmet (and obviously, the gender). Possible further changes would be to add in the fur half-cape from that same sketch, or a Flint Fireforge-esque horse-hair (or griffon, if you believed him) plumage to the tip of the helm.
The hammer is modeled after some random dwarf warhammer from a box of Warhammer Fantasy dwarf bits.
She will likely have a removable shield made. I have not yet designed that.
I wanted her expression to show defiance; both for her seemingly perpetual absence from the original line of miniatures, and for the comparative ratio of male:female dwarf minis on the market, today (or ever, really).
