Azrubal was sitting and pondering alone, far beneath his forge, where winding caves of living volcanic rock twisted endlessly through the bowels of the earth, illuminated only by bubbling pools of magma. It was vexing. Managing the forge, producing masses of war machines for Zharr-Naggrund, the occasional raid �?" month after month nothing but the same. Azrubal was becoming impatient. He longed for some undertaking on a grander scale. Not raiding some Imperial villages, but razing a proud city. Not plundering a few dwarven mines, but obliterating a mighty hold. How else was he to earn recognition and achieve prominence among his peers? But then again, what could he accomplish with the small force at his command? Loyal and stalwart fighters they were, but few, so few! And although he steadily kept recruiting from the families bound to him by blood and oaths, it would take much too long to assemble a force that could justly be called an army; and even then, every single casualty would still be felt keenly. Of course, this was a problem shared by many commanders among the Dawi Zharr, most of whom solved it by bolstering their forces with slaves or levies from the semi-autonomous hobgoblin tribes. But even these roads were closed to Azrubal, as every slave he captured was needed in the forge and there was no significant hobgoblin population in the area under his command. Still, Azrubal needed soldiers �?" expendable, yet reliable soldiers who could open the first breach or take the brunt of an enemy attack before he committed his valuable household troops. And as he was meditating his predicament alone, far beneath his forge, where winding caves of living volcanic rock twisted endlessly through the bowels of the earth, illuminated only by bubbling pools of magma, Azrubal had an inspiration.
Finally, the golems are done! The models are Dark Guardians by MOM Miniaturas with a bit of conversion. The bases are 40x40, but I�?Tm in the process of making them some 50x50 trays for KoW/Vanguard.
These two I painted out of the box:
As per 3rd edition KoW, golems can be upgraded with a magma gun. So I took a ready-made vase (also MOM), recycled an old bass string, grabbed some putty, and went to work. Here’s the result:
As I had never tried sculpting big hats before, I thought that this might be an opportunity to remedy that unfortunate state of affairs. I assumed that it would be easier on this large scale than on a 28mm dwarf; also, I didn�?Tt have to smooth it all out since it was supposed to look like rock.
When I started out, I was planning to do a complete command group, but in the end decided to stick with just a champion. The shield is from MOM, the magma sabre I sculpted myself.
With these lads, I�?Tm at 1000 points in terms of KoW. I�?Tve got one more war machine ready to paint, and then it�?Ts time for the next conversion project �?" Bull Centaurs! Might be some time, though, as I�?Tm still not sure about a lot of things �?" faces or masks, big hats or not, etc.
A little experiment in style, and also a silly pun.
Behold… the Hoblite!
It started with me wondering how to use an old kit of Warlord hoplites. One thought led to another, and here we are. This was meant as a kind of prototype. I�?Tll probably make one or two more and use them as Slave Orcs in Vanguard.
Here are some WIP pics with an unconverted hoplite for comparison:
The cape serves mainly to conceal the transition from the cuirass to the hunchback. I sculpted the Hobgoblin face plus cap over a Corinthian helmet in order to achieve comic-style proportions with a head slightly too big for the torso. That much worked out, I think. For a next attempt, I should probably try sculpting some actual eyes (this one�?Ts eye cavities are really just the slits in the helmet, but that shouldn�?Tt be too distracting if viewed from a typical tabletop distance).
Good point, Hashooot. I also think that the Phrygian cap (or would that be Scythian, for Hobgoblins?) actually goes along nicely with the linen cuirass. Reminds me of Rome Total War’s “Persian Hoplites”
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!
