Big Hat Chaos Dwarf Blunderbuss Regiments.

 A Happy New Year and all of that sort of thing. :)

In the closing few of weeks of 2020 I have managed to paint quite a few of the 4th Edition Chaos Dwarfs of large hat fame (or infamy, depending on your point of view).

Keeping with the 'industrial wasteland' concept, the Chaos Dwarfs are very quick and easy to paint. I have found that the bases are more involved than some of the painting. With the bases I have to paint them milliput the gaps of the slotta base, paint them black, add the sand, paint the sand, highlight the sand with (Fenrisian) grey, add the watch parts and skull, undercoat them, paint them -usually in a three stage process, and then varnish. Still, they look quite nice in my view, and add to that wasteland feel. I almost would like a 40k feel to the bases, similar to a Hive Ash Wasteland, but in a fantasy context.

I have been concentrating on the Blunderbuss armed Chaos Dwarfs first as I quite like the miniatures, and they are some of my favourites of the range. The also are quite iconic of the Chaos Dwarfs. It's nice to be able to get on with some painting as well. The Chaos Dwarfs, especially the Blunderbuss-ers are straight forward to paint and I feel as though I am getting somewhere by painting them. I have a lot (and I mean a lot!) of my more Oldhammer 1980's miniatures to paint, but the Chaos Dwarfs are less involved than they are. I'm also having fun painting them. I think this will allow me in  time to return to painting older miniatures with a fresher mind, and also being back in the habit of painting again.

Enjoy :)

The three Blunderbuss Regiments, still a WIP.

Please excuse the state of the photographing. I am still in mid house renovations and so my painting table is deconstructed and I am using the spare bedroom window sill for photographing. If anyone is interested, I am using a pile of stacked boxes and a green cutting mat as a make shift painting table! LOL

I little better photograph, but not greatly.

The first regiment.
I still need to finish painting the standard bearer and drummer.

The second regiment.
I still need to finish painting the standard bearer and drummer here as well.

The third regiment. 
This is still very much a collecting WIP group. I require seven more Blunderbuss, and a musician. 

One each of the 'shooting' Chaos Dwarfs.
Please note metal detritus in the form of cogs and metal plates on the bases. These are watch parts purchased from e-bay and repainted in the same rusty look at the Chaos Dwarfs. The Skulsl are from Citadels current pack of Skulls, which are actually pretty good.

The 'standing' Chaos Dwarfs.
These form the centre of the regiments. I much prefer the firing versions as the hats are better. I might do a few hat swaps before I finish this regiment to give a little variety.

One of the three regiment bases. I should really have photographed all three, but this one gives a good idea of the three. I have added some of the same cogs and skulls as the bases, except taken the opportunity to use some of of the larger ones. These are the first ever movement trays/bases I have ever painted. I am quite impress with them. :) 

WIP's.

General and Sorcerer Lord.

Hashut was very kind to me at Xmas.
I received the Shar'Tor the Executioner miniature, still available from Forge World. Although he is designed for the Age of Sigmar era Legion of Azgorh army, I thought he would make a lovely Bull Centaur Lord, or just to be himself if I used the Legion of Azgorh army list. I also like the miniature, and will have bought him at some point anyway.

Side view.
It's a very big axe!

I have described him as a 'miniature', but he is a very large chap!
I will probably paint him in a few weeks time.

Next update will be more Chaos Dwarfs as I seem to be painting the army now. I would like to paint  few of the Hobgoblins too, I am, after all, Goblinlee! :)

Limited released Chaos Dwarf Axemen and others.

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 :)

The three Axemen.

Flat hatted Chaos Dwarf.

Rear view.

The 'Turban' Hatted Chaos Dwarf.
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.

Rear view.

The other Flat-hatted Chaos Dwarf.
I thought he would benefit from a little bit of extra colour and so I painted a simple alternate patterning.

Rear view.

Bull Centaur.
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.

Left side.
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). 

Scale comparison of the limited release Chaos Dwarfs with a metal Axeman on the left, plastic on the right.

Blunderbussers!
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.

WIP Fan Sculpt 'Ass-Cannon'.

Next update will be more Big Hatted little Guys! :)

Middlehammer: 'Big hat' 4th edition Chaos Dwarf test miniatures.

 Yes yes yes,  I know I should really be continuing with painting the Daemon Legions, which is a fantastic project. However, yet again I have had a busy month and not had time to do any real painting. Indeed, I have had to dismantle my painting table in order to remove carpets and attend to a leaky radiator! None of these shenanigans, and working, has left any time for serious painting.

Instead, I have only painted a few test miniatures for my 4th Edition Chaos Dwarf army, painting them whilst sitting on a bed and using a couple of plastic boxes as an impromptu painting table! I never really got on with 4th Edition Warhammer Fantasy Battle. After 2nd and 3rd Editions it seemed such a let down. I was further put ill at ease with the dominance of the so-called 'Red Period' of Citadel Miniatures, both with the painting and sculpting, and so drifted away from Games Workshop for most of the 1990's.

I did however buy a few of the Hobgoblins which I always liked, but I never liked the 'big hatted' Chaos Dwarfs at the time. Over 20 passed and I decided to reappraise my view of the Chaos Dwarfs, and to my surprise I really liked them! I picked a few off of e-bay and, which as is often the case, this led me to collecting an army of them, well over 100+ including Hobgoblins, monsters, and artillery.

I really would like to paint these, but I have never settled on a paint scheme. The old 1990's red scheme is actually quite nice in it's own way, but after a test model or two I found it to be a real faff to do. To paint them in that style would take a lot of time away from all the boxes of other stuff I have to do, and I also wasn't too struck on them en-masse as an army. The paint scheme seemed 'too busy'. I tried a couple of other schemes, but It was only until the other day I considered the rusty look. I like the idea of the Chaos Dwarfs living in some fantasy version of a polluted industrial wasteland, and so have gone for the grimy grim look, using Citadel's Technical paints. I picked up the idea of adding old watch parts to the bases from the Nergling blog ( http://nergling.blogspot.com/search/label/minis ) .

Enjoy :)

Three Chaos Dwarfs.
I used Citadel's Typhus Corrosion over a black undercoat, with Ryza Rust. I have kept the palette quite small and simple to avoid looking too busy.  
I also chose a pallid green look for the skin, to make them look less healthy. I will vary some of the colours and tones as I go on. I also might need to highlight the beards a little more.
A controversial topic, but I prefer them on the 25mm round bases rather than the smaller 20mm square.

Blunderbuss.

I have kept the watch parts on the bases to a minimum to avoid clutter, and also so that I can paint the dark bases with dashes of bright colours to suggest chemical pollutants.

The left side.

I want to keep the red clothing to add a bit of colour and contrast, otherwise them might look too dark and amorphous when in regiments on the table.

Another Blunderbuss armed Chaos Dwarf.

Rear view.

Chaos Dwarf Axeman.
This is one of the mono pose plastic Chaos Dwarfs. He is actually quite full of character for a mono pose miniature. He requires a shield.

Rear view.

Next blog update might be the Daemons or the Chaos Dwarfs. I might even paint up something Christmassy!

Flesh Hounds of Khorne, Bloodletters, and a few WIP.

I've made a start on painting the Daemon Legions, starting with Khorne as didn't want to keep him waiting in case he got angry (not a problem as Slaanesh enjoys the antici..*)  .

The first thing I decided on was that each of the three Daemon Legions of Khorne are to have their own theme and colour scheme. I thought this might be more fun than having a sea of samey looking red Daemons. However, I decided on the larger of the Legions to have the archetypal Khornate red look to give the force as a whole a good Khornate looking core.

The second Legion, the smallest containing the Bloodletters riding Juggernauts, is to be 'fire and brass' themed, so the main colour is to be brass/gold, with brighter fiery colours added. I thought that this suited the heavy metal feel of the Juggernauts as well.

The third and final Legion, the one with the Flesh Hounds, I opted for a mixed colour scheme based on green and red. I didn't have a truly clear idea of what I wanted to achieve, so I thought I would experiment a little and see what happened.

I'm happy with the result, the Flesh Hounds have a weird magical look to them, still Khornate looking, but also in my opinion a little more general 'daemonic realms' looking. I have applied the idea to a test model Bloodletter, and the Legions Bloodthirster as well. It's a simple technique: black undercoat, then dry brush dab the colours on, starting with Citadel's Warpstone Glow, then Evil Sunz Scarlet, Troll Slayer Orange, and finally Yriel Yellow. The black under coat mutes the complementary green and red colours, allowing the later orange and yellow applications to look brighter.
The teeth were painted yellow, and the tongues dark purple with lighter purple. The collars were painted gold.

Enjoy :)

 

Eight Flesh Hounds of Khorne.
The Flesh Hound models are made up of three parts; the hindquarters; forequarters; and head. I have listed which of these I have used for the particular Flesh Hounds, although it was a little difficult to identify which head was which from the catalogue page (listed at the end of this blog entry) so I might have made an error!
They are lovely sculpted miniatures, quite dynamic and menacing, and quite large in comparison to Chaos Hounds and other warhounds.

Hindquarters 1, forequarters 1, and head 7.

Right side view.

Hindquarters 1, forequarters 3, and head 2.

Right side view.

Hindquarters 1, forequarters 1, and head 5.

Right side view.

Hindquarters 2, forequarters 2, and head 7.

Right side view.

Hindquarters 1, forequarters 1, and head 2.

Right side view.

Hindquarters 2, forequarters 1, and head 4.

Right side view.

Hindquarters 1, forequarters 2, and head 1.

Right side view.

Hindquarters 2, forequarters 1, and head 7.

Right side view.

Test model Bloodletter in the same style and techne as the Flesh Hounds.

Bloodthirsters WIP.
On the left one of the is the Bloodthirster for the 'Fire and Brass' legion, whilst the one on the right is for the Multi-coloured legion.

Brass and fire Bloodletters.

WIP standard red Bloodletters and Bloothirster.

The Flesh Hound catalogue page.

Next update will be more Daemons.

*(...pation).