Now that the size of my little collection is nearing a stage where one could, with a bit of good will, call it an army, I have decided that it’s time to start a proper blog. I hope you enjoy!
My project started when an old friend asked me if I would like to get into some 7th edition Oldhammer. The decision to go for Chaos Dwarves came easily. I�?Tve always had a weak spot for their lore and aesthetics, but what won me over completely was the possibility of complete customisation. There were so many wonderful conversions and corresponding tutorials out there that I couldn�?Tt resist the urge to try it myself. So far, I�?Tve had a lot of fun experimenting and hope to improve as I go along.
Right now, I am limited to the crafting part of the hobby by time issues. But when I finally get around to playing some games, I would like my army to be multi-system. With a bit of basing trickery, it should work for KoW, Oldhammer, and T9A.
Fluff-wise, I took inspiration from 5th edition lore and the marvellous custom army books here on CDO. I aim to post a bit of fluff along with every finished unit, both for the kind reader�?Ts entertainment and because I like thinking up stories. It will definitely not be consistently serious.
*Just saying, he hasn�?Tt won a single battle yet. He�?Tll get his epithet when he�?Ts earned one.
This is the Daemonsmith Azrubal. He has recently assumed command over one of the many fortified forges scattered across the Howling Wastes. As such, his command lies formally within the jurisdiction of the Daemon�?Ts Stump. During his apprenticeship, Azrubal has paid many visits to that cursed place, delving deep into the secrets buried within its labyrinthine vaults. There are those among his peers who think that he has altogether spent too much time under the Stump, even for a Daemonsmith�?Ts standards, and whispers of promises made and pacts struck between him and who knows what terrible powers are numerous. Still, his ventures into the depths of the Stump, being not unusual for aspiring Daemonsmiths, have not attracted much attention from the higher tiers of Zharr-Naggrund�?Ts hierarchy; the manner of his rise to command, however, certainly has. Many are wondering about the peculiar demise of Azrubal’s predecessor �?" his kinsman and teacher �?" and some think that the currently circulating story about a Daemonsmithing experiment gone awry may not constitute the whole truth. However, there are also those in Zharr-Naggrund who are willing to turn a blind eye towards such details, as long as Azrubal maintains his forge�?Ts output of daemonic engines and weaponry. It has also been noted in his favour that when he returns from his frequent raids, he usually sends more than the traditional share of slaves and treasure to the capital. So, for now at least, Azrubal�?Ts position is more or less secure; but it is also clear that the slightest sign of disloyalty or incompetence on his part might lead to a fall equally swift as his rise has been.
Azrubal�?Ts Forge-Garrison The garrison of Azrubal�?Ts forge is mainly armed with blunderbusses. As garrison duty is hardly prestigious work and mostly limited to overseeing the slaves who are endlessly toiling away in the vaults beneath the fortress, these warriors are not exactly elite troopers, but they hold their own in a battle just as all Dawi Zharr will. Azrubal usually takes a detachment of them with him on his raids to supply ranged support.
Azrubal’s Warriors Azrubal has recently assembled a new regiment of warriors to enable autonomous raids launched directly from his forge, without the need to ask his formal superiors at the Daemon’s Stump for troops. Each warrior in this regiment wields the weapon that suits him best, and while they all wear the traditional red-and-gold livery of the Daemon’s Stump, Azrubal allows his warriors to display their individual devices on their shields.
Although it is every Daemonsmith�?Ts undisputable privilege to entertain a personal guard, many in Zharr-Naggrund think that Azrubal has a lot of questions to answer regarding his warriors. Why are they always hiding their faces behind masks? Can �?ohigh recruiting standards�?� really account for their exceptional stature? And how in Hashut�?Ts terrible name does this flail even work?
The Obsidian Guard (GH XXXIII entry) As has been noted, Azrubal’s activities have attracted some attention from the capital, and not all of it benevolent. Recently, a company of the dreaded Obsidian Guard has been dispatched to his forge, ostensibly as a token of respect towards the gifted Daemonsmith and to assist him in his endeavours. But everybody involved knows, of course, that their main mission is to monitor Azrubal closely and report his every move back to Zharr-Naggrund. Mago, the commanding officer of the detachment, is more likely than not authorised to take terminal measures against Azrubal, should he find any proof of overambition or insufficient loyalty towards the Chaos Dwarf Empire.
There are certain aspects of the Chaos Dwarves�?T culture that unmistakeably bespeak their Dwarven origins. First and foremost, kinship is held sacred amongst them, perhaps even more so than amongst their mountain-dwelling cousins; for in Dawi Zharr society, each clan is ultimately headed by a Sorcerer or Daemonsmith whose rule over his kin is nothing less than absolute. And as the black-stoned tiers of Zharr-Naggrund symbolise the universal hierarchy of their cosmos �?" from Hashut�?Ts temple downwards through the council chambers and barracks to the workshops beneath �?" each single clan represents this great order writ small: from the Sorcerer on top, followed by his apprentices and officers, down to the rank-and-file warriors. To the Chaos Dwarves, the bond of blood is an obligation to obey.
It is therefore quite natural for Azrubal, now that he has claimed the leading position in his clan, to look to his closest kin for support. And he could indeed not have prayed to be blessed with a more loyal lieutenant than his own younger brother: Bel-Sebur, who has been favoured by Hashut with the semblance of His own glorious form, a Lord among the bull centaurs in the Great Ziggurat. Upon Azrubal�?Ts ascension, Bel-Sebur has taken his rightful position by his brother�?Ts side; as his representative in Zharr-Naggrund, his most trusted agent in domestic affairs, and his standard bearer on the battlefield. What could not be accomplished by a pair like this, uniting Hashut�?Ts separate gifts to mind and body by the closest of blood-ties?
First of all, thanks for the positive feedback! I�?Td like to take this opportunity to lose a few words about this Bull Centaur Lord and the Daemonsmith above. I assembled them in close succession to each other sometime last February, and it can be readily seen that they�?Tre both shamelessly kitbashed together from a variety of material. If Bretonnian bits aren�?Tt safe from CD conversion, nothing is! I especially wanted my characters to be unique; �?ounique�?� being a bit of a stretch, of course, as pretty much everything I�?Tve done here has already been done one way or another. But I enjoyed selecting every single part from my bits box and creating something new from it. It was a lot of fun and I learned a thing or two for future projects, the most important being that, when cobbling a miniature together like this, it could be wise to spend a moment�?Ts thought on how I�?Tm actually going to paint the thing. When it came to applying the paintjobs on these two, some choices I had made during assembly proved to be … not entirely practical. But overall, I�?Tm quite happy with how they turned out. (Another important thing I learned is that painting large areas red over a black basecoat can be a tremendous pain in the hat. :hat)
Personally, I like cavalry-sized bull centaurs better than the LoA-style monster-sized ones. This here is supposed to be a bull centaur Lord, so I thought it might be fitting to use an old-school Chaos Warrior�?Ts torso; but for my regular bull centaurs, I�?Tm going to work with Mantic Abyssal Halfbreeds, when the time comes. Right now, they�?Tre patiently waiting their turn in a cupboard. My next project is to finish converting the crew for my artillery (which has been sitting on a shelf half-finished for a long time) as well as a regiment of MOM golems. When all of that is converted and painted up, I�?Tll have reached the 1000P-mark in terms of KoW 2nd edition (and, I suppose, 3rd edition too. Already pre-ordered the rulebook :)).
I�?Td appreciate any kind of feedback. Hope you enjoyed, and thank you for reading!
A classic kind of conversion, and yours is probably the best I’ve seen around here so far! The colour palette helps lift it. Spot-on choices of colour placement there, and extra good touch with the kopesh and hat ornaments. Nice backstory as well!
A classic kind of conversion, and yours is probably the best I've seen around here so far! The colour palette helps lift it. Spot-on choices of colour placement there, and extra good touch with the kopesh and hat ornaments. Nice backstory as well!
Admiral
Thank you very much! I'm especially happy about your comment regarding colour placement, because I really spent a lot of time thinking about it for this one :)
Well, I finally got around to finishing something again! Another “classic conversion”, if you will. This time it’s a piece of infernal artillery, converted from a Dwarven Cannon. In fact, I must have been among the last people to get one of these, which means they kept being converted for CDs from the start right to the end. There’s a nice thought!
The lack of fluff is because I am not yet sure what I want it to be lore-wise. I intended it as an Earthshaker Cannon (or Dreadquake Mortar, whatever you prefer), but maybe it feels just a bit too small for that. Aesthetically, I aimed at an early-20th-century-artillery vibe with the slim tube, steep angle, and large wheels.
For the crew, I went with my usual masks again, except for that one who came without a helmet. I took the opportunity to try and sculpt him a proper CD face, and I think it didn’t come out half bad, especially as compared to my earlier experiments with tusks. Next time, I’ll try to make the transition from the forehead to the sculpted nose smoother. I also gave the shell a set of stabilisers to make it look more like a modern mortar grenade.
Thank you for reading, I’d appreciate your feedback! Next up: Golems!
Really nice mortar/earthshaker. The colour scheme is great and you face sculpting really nice. I gave up on tusks years ago so all credit to you.
Uther the unhinged
Thank you, Uther! That face in its current state came about rather spontaneously. At first, I just put the lower lip and tusks onto the "normal" dwarf's face (they're really just three tiny tubes of green stuff). Then I put the model on a shelf and left it there for a very long time. Only when I was setting out to paint the crew did I realise that the whole thing didn't look right without a corresponding nose, so I grabbed some more putty and gave it a try. Definitely much room for improvement here, but I'd really like to do some more faces when the opportunity arises. Maybe on my bull centaurs, I still haven't quite made up my mind about them. After all, my ideas for mask designs will eventually run out :D
I think it could pass as an Earthshaker since it�?Ts not ridiculously far off size wise.
As Uther said you are brilliant at face sculpting and have a beautiful colour scheme.
Excited to see more! You are very skilled :hat off
Gargolock
Thanks a lot, much appreciated! Well, that mortar surely won't need a railroad for transport or an ogre to reload it. But it's not the size of the cannon that's important, it's the daemon you imprison within its blasphemous mechanisms! :D
