My Dawi Zharr project grew out of my on-going Night Goblin army. Although I wasn’t quite sick of painting and playing greenskins, I am always on the lookout for a new army to play or a new theme of models. My collection of minis has covered probably ten different armies in the last four years in both WHF and W40K; Eldar, Lizardmen, Goblins, Tau, Imp Guard, Chaos (lots of chaos), etc. When the Canadian White Dwarf team reprinted the Ravening Hordes Chaos Dwarf army list and a conversion article, a friend of mine was consumed with making a Chaos Dwarf army - he did it overnight, slapping together dwarf parts and skeleton masks. The next day, I watched a small 200 point battle between the Dawi Zharr and normal Dwarves. A seed was planted and over the ensuing months, it grew.
Months later I came across this site and seeing all the awesome conversions here, each with their own style in the manner of the Chaos Dwarves, I decided to break out the GS and make a few. I found it quite exciting and relaxing and over the course of a few weeks, spending an hour a night (limited time schedule) have put together about 11.5 models. Most of my armies only get to “war band” status - only a few models - before my interest wanes and I move on to other things. The Dawi Zharr, however, seem to be persisting and growing.
I started out following Xander’s conversion guide using BFSP dwarves and it was a good learning experience, but I didn’t like the “feet together” pose most of the models had. From there, I “graduated” to using the new Dwarf Warrior boxed set. The models are more detailed and posed more naturally, I feel, for a Warhammer model.
As I did more and more conversions, I found myself being pushed in two different directions by the style of the Chaos Dwarves. First off, the Hat vs. Helm vs. Mask issue doesn’t help. The question that comes up, which one is right? And the answer “It doesn’t matter, so long as you’re happy with it.” doesn’t help either. :o
I wasn’t eager to push away the Hat creed - it is a unique part of their style, but with the dwarf models I was using, there was a push toward the Helm creed. Since I didn’t know which would suit me most, I’ve combined both - mostly helmed models with big Hat champions.
I also wanted to retain the Persian/Babylonian/Assyrian theme. This manifested in my desire for a non-red colour scheme and the design of the musician who has a hookah styled instrument.
Looking at the pictures, though, I don’t think I’ve found the style yet. Its a sort of mix between viking, dwarf, Dawi Zharr and a few other themes. I like the models, but something isn’t quite gelling with them. That being said, I feel like I need to just keep going - another model is progress and without progress I fear I will lose interest.
Sorry for breaking up the progress of my army in small chunks but I have a backlog.
re: CD Hero
Some of my projects are inspired by pics posted on the net. I see an image and my possessive nature says “I gotta have that guy!”. Unfortunately, this means that some projects are driven less by originality and more by cool. This guy was one of those.
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I still don’t know who made the original, so if you guys know who did, please tell me!! I came across some photos, both the WIP pics of the GS conversion and finished painted pieces, so I felt that I had enough info to convert him myself.
I’ve tried to make a few changes so that it wasn’t a direct copy. I altered the type of weapon and the way it was posed. Also, I left some of the original dwarf decorations on the tunic. The original designer of the conversion removed these.
Here he is now. I haven’t quite finished the conversion yet, but most of him is done. The painted areas on the model are reference marks so I could see the relief of the model as I shaved parts away. As I shaved the metal, the paint would stay in recessed areas and I could get a clear idea of what the end result may be. The orange reference marks on the weapon shaft were so I could align the ringlets in the beard.
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Hopefully, I should have some pics of him finished and painted “soon”.
By Hashut’s Curls, you guys move fast! I think I was still writing the posts and realized that there were replies already. Thank you for your interest and kudos! With a community like this encouragement and inspiration is never far away.
Pyrostick: You cant really see any of the detail on the warriors so try get some close up pics.
Unfortunately, those pics were taken when the models came “hot out of the forge” so to speak and since then I’ve used some of them for colour painting tests (that I posted in another thread), so its hard to see the GS details. I’ve taken some more, hopefully closer, pics of the unpainted ones that are left.
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Taking photos is a good way of finding your mistakes. As I was looking at these, I saw bits of modelling sand stuck in cracks, unerased flash lines, ughh…
Got a lot of work to do… :hat off
re: That Chaos Dwarf was done by a guy called Georc.
Thanks for the info, and also that link to the thread. There was some very useful info in it, which in a perfect world, would have helped when I did the majority of the work on it. But, on the other hand, not knowing exactly what he did made it easier to break away from slavishly copying it. That conversion is a masterwork and it seems wrong to ape it so much, but its such a nice piece that I had to have one of my own.
The models look much better in the close ups. Im tempted to try some myself but i know if i tried then they would turn out rubbish. No matter how hard i try, gs always fails for me. Thats why i stick to the original models
WOW! great work GRNDL - just love that big hat champ - and yes, very nice GS-work.
The beautiful Sorcerer is - as said - made by Georg Damm aka GeOrc and came second in the German Golden Demon 2006, Warhammer, single.
He was one of the contributors at Projektforum Chaos Dwarfs / Chaoszwerge - unfortunately a dying/dead project (Grimstonefire can tell you more about that).
Another beauty from his hand is the Battlerager - take a look - you’ll love that one - too :hat
those are some cool figures!!it look like you sorcerer went to willie wonkas and turn in to a grape he he .PLease could you tell me what you use for his skin color it ROCKS!!!
These look great! Very cool gs work. I like that they all look like very dwarfish, but with a savage bent to them at the same time. The musician particularly is very cool imo.
Georc is actually a member of this forum ;). He joined the other day to download my pdf hosted here, so I don’t expect he will stay long (he’s a Dark Elf player).
That sorcerer was done specifically based on the artwork we developed on our project.
The project is still developing, now awaiting some artwork and a few conversions.
@GRNDL
This is a great start to an army.
I know its hard, but if I were you I would clean up enough models for an entire unit before doing much more greenstuff. From experience its more motivating to have the entire unit on the go at once.
The command looks cool. You should enter your standard bearer in Golden Hat V
Another beauty from his hand is the Battlerager - take a look - you'll love that one - too :hat
clam
Yep, you are right about that. That's an awesome mini as well! Great use of Ork Mekboy bits. I think it looks better in this conversion than as a 40k Ork. Seems to fit better somehow.
it look like you sorcerer went to willie wonkas and turn in to a grape he he .PLease could you tell me what you use for his skin color it ROCKS!!!
Kera foehunter
The painted pic isn't my mini, it is the one by GeOrc that inspired me (ok, that I'm trying to duplicate!), so I don't know exactly what colours he used. I've been trying to duplicate the colours on my regular CD warriors, but I'm getting mixed results. This is what I've been using:
Base: Hormagaunt Purple
Ink Wash: Purple mixed with Flesh
or, Watered down purple mixed with blue
or, Flesh wash.
Highlight: Tanned flesh
I've also tried glazing the tanned flesh with inks afterward. The colours are close to GeOrcs but lack the sophistication and richness of his painting.
What I like about his colour scheme is that it has a strong Babylonian/Eastern feel to it and I feel that's a key element for the CD's.
I know its hard, but if I were you I would clean up enough models for an entire unit before doing much more greenstuff. From experience its more motivating to have the entire unit on the go at once.
Grimstonefire
Thanks for the words of encouragement, they will be taken to heart. :)
I actually have 10 dwarves modded and in various stages of painting, but when I took those photos, the unit was in its baby stages. I think I took them to show some friends at work. Three of the dwarves are now fully painted and the 4th and 5th go under the brushes soon. :)
I tend to work in groups of 5-10 models because I tend to lose interest over the time it takes to do 20. Also, my armies tend to be rather small at first and then I grow units over time as the army fills out.
Re: Standard Bearer for GHV
If my plans to enter don't follow through, I may just enter that guy. I don't feel that that model is very original though. I had a lot of stop/starts trying to come up with a suitable SB for the unit and I kinda cheesed out.
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