Originally, I wanted to do a full WHFB army from skull pass dwarfs, just like in the old days. Well, I’m not the fastest hobbyist, so I need to somehow cut corners (at least in the sense that I won’t be doing unnecessary or overtly repetitive tasks). The skull pass dwarfs were therefore out of question. On the other hand, the 7th ed. warrior kits are now OOP and fetch ridiculous prices on eBay here. What to do?
I chose to go all in (and probably the least sane option): Sculpt my own chaos dwarfs from scratch and cast them. I want to keep things as easy as possible since I don’t have previous experience with resin casting or sculpting a whole miniature starting from an armature such that I don’t end up with sculpts that cannot be cast. Consequently, they had to be multi-part. The plan is as follows: body and head in one piece since this is nice and compact, the hat another and, if I’m still motivated, the weapon arms. Four to five body and hat options would allow plenty of variety plus I can use the same bodies for both warriors with hand weapons and blunderbusses. As for design decisions, I wanted them to look like Assyrian warriors with a chaos twist (thanks Admiral for the inspiration). So far, I did a proof of concept model to get a feeling of how they would look like (first time sculpting a full head, that’s also how it looks ) and I have four body options in various stages of being completed.
These conversions are absolutely amazing! So impressed. Converting skull pass dwarfs into chaos dwarfs is a fine tradition here. I believe one of our first , If not first, golden hat competition involved doing just this.
Also original sculpting is class. Lots to learn on this forum regarding sculpting although I dare say you’re already leagues ahead of me. If you were to cast up some would you consider flogging some to other members? My big hat army is always looking for new recruits!
I’ll be following this blog with anticipation for what’s coming next
Welcome aboard, @Anzu , and what an entry! Exceptional first sculpt so far and outstanding sculpting on the BFSP dwarves. Love the Assyrian style. Great plan on casting it as well. Are you going to cast it yourself, or have a casting company cast for you? I might have some tips on professional casters, but it’s certainly not an exhaustive knowledge (for instance, @Antenor has discovered a German caster I’m unacquainted with).
Your sculpting is of such good quality that I am sure collectors would buy your dwarves for their armies, if you had excess batches cast and put up for sale. @tjub 's 15mm Tjublings started as just his personal army casting, but quickly spiralled into a range for all collectors. I can recommend Etsy as a selling platform in the future (perhaps taking orders via PM on Facebook and forum would be a sound start to test the waters, just as a little side venture to the casting for your own army?), especially since it provides a professional webstore look on the cheap, without any need to invest hundreds of dollars/euros/pounds into cyber security for one’s very own webshop site. If ever you wish advice with casters or Etsy, shoot a PM.
Food for thought. At any rate, I really look forward to follow your work here. What a stunning debut!
Stunning work! Even if these were not your first scratch sculpts, they would be amazing. I’m sure a lot of Chaos Dwarf generals would love to see those warriors in their armies (I certainly would), so I’ll just second what @Admiral said.
Have you been doing a lot of conversions before? Your handiwork is really outstanding. Looking forward to seeing the finished warriors. Welcome to the forum!
Thank you all for the kind replies, I honestly didn’t expect this level of interest in my work. I will make sure to regularly update this blog.
@Admiral That’s a very good question. Before posting here, I was planning to do it myself. But I might explore my options in that respect. At any rate, thank you for the helpful information, I will get back to you soon-ish!
@Antenor I did do some prior conversions on my 40K Imperial Guard. Sculpting was actually the trigger for me to get back into the hobby after I had a hiatus of about 10 years. Teenage me was truly frightened of green stuff but I think the key strategy for me is to break these projects down in as little steps as possible. That way I actually enjoy what I’m doing without getting stressed out by the putty not behaving the way I want it to.
Some progress, the bulk work is done now, just a few more details left. I attempted a more dynamic pose with the dwarf in the middle. Very happy with how they turned out.
Thank you @Oxymandias, I’m flattered! Exactly, I will be starting them next along with a set of arms such that I can cast and assemble a few test models. Need to figure out a more economical alternative to buying a lot of pin vises for this purpose, though.
Thank you @Admiral & @tjub, yeah I have been painting a bit more recently, so they hopefully don’t have to stay in their sad primed state for much longer.
) and I have four body options in various stages of being completed.
