I have read through some of the forums regarding heads for my dwarfs. I currently have around 60 GW warriors and 20 or so quarrlers. I am not a fan of the big hats and most of the masks converted from shoulders are nice, they seem a bit…done. I was looking at a 40k Imperial Knight helmet from the house Taranis. Would these fit onto the models I have? Also I have been looking at some shoulder pads from 40k and chaos fantasy. Would these fit as well? This would be my first attempt at conversions.
My thoughts on the looks of my army would be along the lines of the FW models, clean lines, menacing models, but above all dwarf. To me that means that while they are chaos that doesn’t mean that they have abandoned their pride in their armor and weapons so no hodgepodge of bits and parts…I reserve that for my 40k orks.
Any help would be appreciated, whether it’s a “Hey, look here noob” to a “Hey we’ve already covered that, keep reading before asking” kind of thing. Thanks in advance.
Greetings Dreadneck! Neat to see another Dwarf afficiendo around here.
As for Imperial Knight helmets, do you mean the large heads on the very large Knights themselves, or are there human drivers with helmets included in the kit? I’m not much home in 40k. In case of the Imperial Knight itself, I’m afraid it’s far too big, but you could find some use for it on a K’daai Destroyer conversion in the future, perhaps akin to this thing I cooked up for a friend’s Maulerfiend.
Can’t be of much help in the head area, other than possibly suggesting you take a look at Russian Alternative’s wonderful evil Dwarfs. Their hand weapon and shield warriors come with both helmets and hats, and I’m quite sure you get some extra heads in each kit of 10, so perhaps you could ask in the marketplace here on CDO whether someone have spare RA helmet heads to trade? Should you want them for your units, of course.
Chaos Marauder shoulderpads will work well on GW Dwarfs and increase the Chaos in Chaos Dwarfs. Chaos Space Marine shoulderpads could work if you like big pauldrons, but beware of their size and be ready to cut down their lower half if they’re too big for your liking. Try to borrow some spare SM shoulder pads from hobbyists in your area and try them out.
Years ago when this site was new, before Forgeworld’s great Chaos Dwarfs came along and brought new members such as me here, converted homebrew Dawi Zharr armies was all the rage around these parts, particularly conversions based on the dirt cheap 7th edition starter set Battle for Skull Pass’ monopose plastic Dwarfs, who didn’t look that well to begin with so wasn’t a shame to cut up and sculpt over. You might have seen them already, but take a closer look on the following armies in the image gallery on the front page, and you might spot quite a few useful kitbashes if that’s what you’re looking for, such as Chaos Marauder shields and weapons in the hands of Dwarfs, and not least Chaos Marauder shoulder pads on Dwarf shoulders:
Among others. Also, should you happen to look for character models or blunderbusses, check out Titan Wargames’ pretty neat and affordable metal/resin models.
Besides, how confident are you with sculpting? You could take a couple of pilot models and try to make your own shoulder pads, or perhaps scalemail sleeves for the Dwarfs (standard - hexagonal - triangular) if that’s more to your taste. Just as an experiment, with borrowed green stuff if you can get your hands on it. It takes time, though.
Besides, if you’re looking for odball ideas for heads, how about hoods? Hooded Dark Angel heads, with simple curly beards. Chaos Dwarf beards are beginner-friendly to sculpt, and may be taken to as advanced a level (rounded, more lines) as one feel like. Here are a couple of tutorials:
Yes he has. He’s given quite a bit to consider. I like the idea of bug shoulders…comes from playing to much WOW for way too long. I saw some of the things done with the chaos heads and really like how they were made to resemble horns. I have an idea for using hoods…once you suggested it…for a cloaked unit. I had thought to use the chaos tower type shields but after looking at them a bit more I think they would be bigger than the dwarves.
A question about quarllers? Do chaos use them or would I need to convert them to blumberbusses/or fireglaives to be able to use them in a playable army? I will post pics of what I am starting with as this is the first time I have done anything with Warhammer. Yes…I have delusions of ambitions.
Thanks. Ambitions are good. Chaos Dwarfs do not use quarrellers in any newer army lists (though the old 3rd edition Chaos Dwarfs had crossbows), so strictly speaking you’d have to convert them, unless you’re playing the CDs as counts-as Dwarfs or your opponents don’t mind them being crossbows counting as fireglaives. One simple conversion, should you happen to like the look of crossbows, is to make a small block on the end of their crossbow bolts (probably a thin cylindrical simple green stuff lump, flat on the ends), to simulate an explosive arrow, thus making them more appear like either Blunderbusses, or Fireglaives.
And yes WoW shoulder pads are over the top if ever there were any. Subject of many jokes among my friends. By all means go for it if you like that look. Big shoulder pads could even allow you to paint army insignia/regimental runes/freehand flames/whatever on the miniatures, should you wish to.
