[Archive] Beginner Advice

Archive [Archive] Modeling Ideas and Advice
1

Eddiejes:

Hey everyone,

I’ve been deciding on my second WHF army, and the mighty  CD have gotten my attention. I need some advice from some members of this board to get me ready to take the physical and monetary plunge to start a CD army.

Are there any tutorial for making CD faces? Mainly looking for the tusks, lips, and beards. I’m not a very accomplished sculptor and CD will be my first foray into detailed sculpting.

Are the standard Dwarf warrior and thunderers models as easy to change into CD as the BFSP warriors?

My other army is Tomb Kings. I painted them up with a red and black color scheme. I don’t want to do another red and black color scheme. What are some good, dark, Chaos Dwarf-y color schemes that you’ve seen ?

Thanks for reading my idiotic questions :cheers

Oh and I know some people don’t like them, but I’ve decided my warriors shall wear tall and mighty hats :hat off

2

Vash:

:hat off big hats! nice choice sir :cheers

in the conversions subforum there’s another sub(sub)forum with turorials. linky Tutorials

i’ve only used normal warriors and thunderers for conversions, so i have no idea if BFSP models are harder/easier to convert… but my guess is, that warriors are harder, since the BFSP models have a shield molded inplace and you’ll need to sculpt a beard around it. normal warriors have a shield arm in place, but no shield in the way.

as for colour schemes… i use red, grey and rusting bronze (dark copper with blue/green rust).

hopes this helps:)

3

Nicodemus:

I’ve used the BFSP Warriors as well as Thunderers for Chaos Dwarf conversions. All told, I think the BFSP Warriors are a little more work, but I’ll add that they aren’t harder. If you’re prepared already to do cutting, glueing and sculpting GS with Thunderers or regular Warriors, then it’s not that much more work with the BFSP guys. There’s just more trimming to do on the shields (assuming you want all the regular Dwarf iconography and runes removed… which is recommended unless you want them confused for normal Dawi).  Getting the beard to flow around the shield sounds fiddly, but it’s no more work than putting beards on anything else.  The one good thing I’ll say about the BGSP models is that their pseudo monopose helps out because once you’ve done two or three the next bunch is just more of the same. Tedious, but you’ll be well practiced :wink:

Just to toot my own horn, here’s an example of my conversions of Thunderers to blunderbuss models:





For the Blunderbuss models I found the BFSP ones to be less work overall. Here’s an old WIP pic with varying stages of completeness … but should not be taken as the consensus method for doing the BB conversions:



As for colour schemes… can’t help you there. I’m still struggling myself… Like Vash’s suggestion, I was experimenting with copper and the vergegris effect last night, although without some nice turquoise paints I was trying to mix up something close to it with other colours and I don’t feel like it worked…



I think as long as you steer clear of the old White Dwarf colours that were used you’re probably doing well :wink:

~N

4

Baggronor:

Are the standard Dwarf warrior and thunderers models as easy to change into CD as the BFSP warriors?
I actually prefer the Warriors and Thunderers to the BFSP set. The separate arms makes things a little easier imo. Also check out the WoC plastic sets for useful bits (the Marauder Horsemen in particular have some very cool weapons, shields and banners). This may cost more, but you can always ask around friends who may have spares or ask on CDO if your budget is tight. Also, the Marauder shields are available from GW mail order.
I don't want to do another red and black color scheme. What are some good, dark, Chaos Dwarf-y color schemes that you've seen ?
Red is pretty much essential, same way that you can't seem to do Dark Elves without purple (well, you can, but I've never seen a good looking DE army that didn't have purple). As the CD background is rooted in fire and volcanoes, you're looking at warm colours. Perhaps try bronze or gold-coloured armour with red robes and dark brown leather? The way I see it, blues (too cold), greens (too nice) and purples (too poncey) are out. Browns, reds, black and metallics are the colours of Zharr!
5

Eddiejes:

@ Vash

Thanks for the tutorial link. Glad to hear that they’re easier, oh and after seeing your CD, might just have to rob some of your hat conversions. :hat off

@ Nicodemus

With those models, you have the right to toot your horn :smiley: Love those Blunderbuss models. Good verdigris effect on that hat.

@ Baggronor

I’ve heard of the magical and necessary bits and shields in the marauder sets. They’re a must buy for me. The local game store has 50% off some old Warhammer sets, so I’ll check there for some valuable bits. :slight_smile:

Thanks for the responses guys. As for color schemes, I’m thinking of red cloth, silver, gold for the champions and leaders, and the necessary browns for leather and such.

I’m off to go buy a Dwarf Warrior set tomorrow, along with some green stuff and a sculpting tool.  I’m going to get the beard and faces down before I go off and buy the hats (aka pins) and the marauder bits.

6

Vash:

i would suggest you look for a dwarfen batalion set, it’s got 24 warriors, 16 thunderers and a cannon/organ gun. it’s also slightly cheaper then when you buy the seperate boxes.

7

Nicodemus:

i would suggest you look for a dwarfen batalion set, it's got 24 warriors, 16 thunderers and a cannon/organ gun. it's also slightly cheaper then when you buy the seperate boxes.

Vash
Seconded, big time. I bought a box of thunderers about 3 months ago and then a cannon last month... as I'm already eyeing up a box of warriors it would have just been cheaper to get the battalion :P
8

spetswalshe:

I’m going to second what everyone else has said, pretty much. I’ve just finished a CD Mordheim warband (pics) that was my first use of greenstuff, aside from gap-filling. I bought a Battalion boxed set, mainly because I had designs on the artillery crew and wanted to make full use of uniqueness of multi-part models - in Mordheim you’re able to make each model into a character, rather than slogging through an identically-armed unit. It does mean I only used four Thunderers, four Warriors and the artillery crew, though, so I can sell the untouched sprues to make back some of my moolah. Bear in mind, though, that many of the Warrior and Thunderer torsos actually have one arm moulded on - so you might have to be cutting through arms regardless of the set you go for (though they still don’t have moulded shields like the BFSP). Ultimately, just go for the one you prefer the look of; BFSP might be a little more hassle, but only one-extra-minute-spent-on-each-model hassle.

On the greenstuffing; try it. It’s easier than it looks. You’ll soon learn the best ways of doing things for you - I found it was best to glue on the nose (I used noses severed from unlucky Gnoblar heads), then roll a small bit of GS for the lips - then leave it to dry. Letting GS dry is probably the biggest thing I learned - give it five minutes after you’ve mixed it to set a little, then work on it one section, then leave it to dry afterwards. Doing 3 ‘stages’ - lips and nose, beard and hair, moustache and tusks - meant if I screwed up one stage, I could just remove it without wiping out my previous work.

Good luck with it, it’s great fun!