I've been busy painting, but also very busy at work, so a bit of a hurried blog update.
I am really enjoying painting the 4th Edition Warhammer Fantasy Big Hat Chaos Dwarfs. The industrial wasteland look is quick and fun to paint, and I think it gives my army a different feel to other Chaos Dwarf armies, not that I am decrying the other armies out there! The rusty look, combined with the pallid green flesh and darker red clothing gives them an evil aspect. I like the idea of them being the despoilers of a 'green and pleasant land' with the 'dark satanic mills of Blake's imagination, and with the attitude of the blue Meanies from the Yellow Submarine!
Anyway, this update is primarily about the three Chaos Dwarf Axemen sculpted around 1995 for Warhammer Quest. These were not part of the first few releases of Chaos Dwarfs, but received a limited release a little later on.
The miniatures themselves are all variants on a one standard sculpt, the main differences being the axes, hats, and the length of the armour. The sculpts are a little smaller than the other Chaos Dwarf sculpts of the same era. As they are rarer miniatures, and I purchased them from e-bay, I was concerned that this was a sign they were re-casts. However, upon a little more research it seems that they were actually slightly smaller sculpts. I'm not sure why, and I am unsure if they were sculpted by someone else other than Alan Perry, who sculpted the main Chaos Dwarf range. To compensate for this I raised them on the base a little to bring them more to eye level with the other Chaos Dwarfs. The painting followed the standard template as the others.
I have also painted a lot of Blunderbuss Chaos Dwarfs, and started other elements of the army. I haven't had the time to showcase the Blunderbussers, but will do in an oncoming update. They were fun (indeed a blast!) to paint, and the bases were enjoyable to do, being full of cogs, skulls, and industrial detritus.
Enjoy :)
I am not sure if 'Turban' is really the best description of this style of hat. As I live in Brighton and Hove they always remind me of the Domes of the Royal Pavilion.
I thought he would benefit from a little bit of extra colour and so I painted a simple alternate patterning.
I love these miniatures, and still need to pick up a couple more of the variants. The green seems to work well on the Bull Centaurs body.
I like the slightly bigger basses as I allows me to add bigger pieces of debris and skulls, in this case the Plague Bearer skull and the large spring (see above).
I will photograph these properly at a later date. I had fun doing the bases, which took almost as long as the Dwarfs themselves! It's quite pleasing to be able to paint these so quickly, especially when i have a lot of other comments on my time at the moment.
