[Archive] Malorndk's Army Blog

Malorndk:

[size=xx-large]Malorndk’s Army Blog[/size]



What this blog will contain:

This blog will contain my progress on my Chaos Dwarf army. I will try to make it more pictures than words, but I have made an Army Showcase for those of you who only want the best pictures and close to zero of my comments.
Warning: This first post is a massive collection of pictures and words. Scroll through it to see the pictures, if the post is too text heavy for your taste ^^

About me:

I�?Tm a 26 year old guy from Denmark. I�?Tm married and my son Storm was born 24th February 2014, so I don�?Tt have as much time as I would like. I�?Tm studying at the university and I have been teaching Parkour at local youth schools since 2009 which is a great amount of fun. English is not my native languish and you will see some creative uses of �?~ as well as a lot of weird sentence structures and typos. Sorry about that.

Warhammer and me:

I have enjoyed the hobby since fifth edition (I was 10 back then). My first army was Orc�?Ts & Goblins. It�?Ts full of fifth edition models, but some of them aren�?Tt shaded or highlighted. My sixth and seventh edition army is my Dark Elf Host, which is decently painted, though horribly based. It has a strong color theme (Boltgun metal, Chaos Black and Nauseating Blue) but though the models looks great under a painting lamp, the army as a whole is kinda dull once but on the table. Sure it blends well together, but nothing really stands out.
I always hated Chaos Dwarfs, but my brother painted a Lammasu back in the days, and through the years that model grew on me, with its beard and hat and banner poles. I discovered CDO in 2008, enjoyed the Word of Hashut, saw Xander�?Ts Battle for Skull Pass tutorials and made my decision: �?oI want a chaos dwarf army�?�



Remember back in the days, when Goblin Green bases were the way to roll? I�?Tm glad we moved on from that xD

Starting my chaos dwarf adventure:

Only problem with getting an army was (and still is), that I consider myself as quite a bad hobbyist as well as player. I had never used green stuff, I�?Tm terribly slow at painting and even assembling my miniatures, and I�?Tm not that creative. So I lurked for some years and kept an eye on the sales thread. I was the lucky buyer of a converted and painted hobgoblin bundle from a Geckilian, but my real investment arrived on ebay in 2011, where I spent 1300 US $ on a magnificent, prepainted Big-hat army, as seen in this gallery from the previous owner. Since then, I have enjoyed it and played some games using both the ravening hordes, Indy GT and later Tamurkhan rules, but I haven�?Tt actually painted a lot since I bought the army. I very rarely play competitively, and when I play with my friends we are open to house rules. One of which is: �?oIf you previously was allowed to field this unit and have invested time and money in it, we will make it work�?�. For me, this means I can field Black Orcs as they appear in the current Orcs & Goblins book and Spear Chukkahs as in the Ravening Hordes (6 under 3000, 12 over 3000). Dogs of War/Regiment of Renown can be used from the Warhammer Chronicles 2004 list and Ogre bulls, Ironguts and Maneaters can be fielded using the current Ogre Kingdoms book. This gives more tactical space, and surely makes the Tamurkhan list a lot more fun and versatile. My friends have even allowed me to make some special characters, which of course will be adjusted over time. If you wanna check the rules, click here.

The pros and cons of a prepaid army:

The pros are obvious �?" I could begin playing asap, without having to put any work into the army. It looked great, was pure metal, and the previous owner had even based the entire army on nice looking resin bases from Micro Art Studio. I thought I wouldn�?Tt have a bond to the models as if I had painted them myself, but that didn�?Tt happen, and I�?Tm happy and proud to own my force, though it isn�?Tt my own hard work which makes the foundation for the army.
The cons have revealed themselves over the years. Since I haven�?Tt collected the army, I have had no say in which models it includes. Luckily, the army is big enough that it doesn�?Tt really matter. I have had no say in the color theme, and I have to combine the converted hobgoblin host with the big prepainted army. The hobgoblin host is painted in dark colors with tons of Devlan Mud to finish them, while the prepaint army is painted in a plethora of light colors that catch your eye. So there is a pretty boring job to do, to repaint the right parts in the right colors, so that the two armies fits well together. This also sets a standard for my additions to the army. I have to try to use catchy colors, which is very outlandish to how I painted my Dark Elfs. On the other hand will this approach force me to learn, and the army will look better on the table top. The biggest con is, that the bases forces me to either invest A LOT of money in Micro Art Studio bases, use multiple base systems in one army or make my own imitation of the Micro Art bases with sculpting tools. I haven�?Tt made a final decision on what to do about this problem, so right now I�?Tm just combining different types of bases.

The origins of my army:

I bought the army in 2011, and the previous owner told me he had rebased the army. Parts of the army were featured in the Games Workshop book: General�?Ts Compendium from 2003, which was apparently featuring armies from the US GW department and their friends. On page 121, this picture of some of my Blunderbuss�?T can be seen:
If anyone have any hint who the original painter is, when or where my army was collected or painted and why the original painter chose to sell, please let me know :wink:

The Hobgoblin Host:

This is the host I bought from Geckilian on CDO. Nothing has been repainted (yet), but in the long run I will change a lot. The host consists of 60 hobgoblins, 2 spear chukkas and 10 Chaos Dwarfs. The chaos dwarfs will later be a part of my Ironsworn unit, but that project is far into the future.

60 Naked Hobgoblins with 2 musicians





These are made from the current Flagelant bodies, and then with night goblin heads. In the future I�?Tll repaint their cloaks yellow, hoods red and blue, and add shields. They look really pumped for a goblin, but I have grown accustomed to my Swarznegger Hobgoblins :wink:

2 Spear Chukkahs



The Hobgoblin crewmembers will receive the same treatment as above concerning the paintjob. The chukkahs is made from the miners box set I believe.


10 Ironsworns with Full Command



These are fairly standard BFSP conversions, but I�?Tll try to make 10-20 more and use them as my Ironsworns. In an army of Big-hats, they will stand out. Ill repaint them later, but haven�?Tt decided how yet. This project is low on my to do list, as I�?Tm bad with greenstuff, and the rules for Ironsworns is nearly as bad as the new Bleak Swords from the Dark Elf book.

The prepainted army

As this army is quite huge, I will make a lengthy run down of the different units, what I have changed and what I would love to chance in the future. The original painter was really fond of the banners from the 5th edition armybook, but I�?Tm considering making my own. Not a priority right now though.



220 Warriors with full command









This is the mainstay infantry core of the army. I haven�?Tt repainted anything. I would love to paint 40 marauder shields to replace these shields, which could then be transferred to some hobgoblins. I have 10 spare plastic warriors I could paint, so I can field them 2
25, but right now they are 100% metal.

24 Warriors with Blunderbuss�?T and no command





I very rarely uses these, as they are way too expensive and forces me into some ridiculus formations, which could potentially loose me my steadfast vs a lucky charge roll. They are looking good though, and I have a command group lying around that I could paint for them if needed.

23 Hobgoblins with banner







The original painter loved light colors. That�?Ts awesome. On his hobgoblins he went too far for my taste. Their cloaks were close to Sunburst Yellow, and I think their skin tone was Scorpion Green highlighted. This was too intense for me, and I couldn�?Tt handle the swag. I performed the sacriledge of repainting their skin with Knarlock green, and threw Devlan Mud on the model afterwards. The Devlan treatment was splendid in the skin and robes, but it ate some of the cheerfulness from the blue and red hoods. Sometimes in the future, I will correct that mistake with some highlights. I have a musician on the way for this unit. Stay tuned. This is a comparison between the skin tones:



22 Hobgoblins with bows and no command



I gave these guys the same paintjob as the unit above, but without painting Devlan Mud on anything except the skin and robes. This is the better way to do it I believe. Banner and musician incoming �?osoon�?�.



20 Black Orcs with full command





These guys need some red shoulder plates to avoid to avoid the �?otoo much metal color�?� syndrome. But asides from that, the original painter did a good job in my opinion

6 Bull Centaurs with a standard bearer











I LOVE THESE MODELS! I will deploy them in one unit, which is why I�?Tll paint two Banner beares. With 3 units of 4 bulls (22 formation) I can make quite a maneuverable strikeforce, which can hold flanks, take a beating and set up some flank charges. I�?Tm considering the simplest solutions to make musicians for them, but I�?Tll keep thinking for a while. The bases took forever to make, but it allows me to play with Ravening hordes if I so desires.

4 Bull Centaurs







As you can see, one of these guys has a mightily yellow beard. That was actually a trend in the army I bought. Lots of models had this ridiculous colored beard, which I�?Tm not fond of at all. So I repainted all but this one, just to preserve some of the armys story.

Spear Chukkah



I have two more of these on the way. A little red for my taste but I probably won�?Tt chance it.

Deathshrieker



Not much to say here. I like the rocket head ^^



Dreadquake mortar



Not much to say here either, except it�?Ts awesome that our Earthshakers came with bannerpoles.

10 Hobgoblin Wolfraiders with a banner





This unit screams RAVENING HORDES!!! xD
Back then, Wolfriders had the same unitsize as normal Hobgoblins, so 10 was the minimum. They preserved their Fast Cavalry, even with shields, so that�?Ts why they still have them. I have repainted their skin tone and bright robes, but aside from that, I haven�?Tt touched them. In the future I would like to buy/convert 2 bannerbeares and 3 hornblowers, which would allow me to field 3
5 units.



Castellan







This is in my opinion one of the most iconic models from the 4/5th edition of Warhammer Fantasy. The paintjob is pretty damn good and I almost always field him as my Battle Standard Bearer (The bannerpoles on his back is finally good for something else than swagpoints ^^)

Hobgoblin Khan





I recolored his skintone, gave him a shield and made some flaming blend on the axe�?Ts arrows. Aside from that I haven�?Tt changed anything.

Bull Centaur Tauruk



I believe he had one of the yellow beards, but I�?Tm not sure. I haven�?Tt repainted anything else. Gave him a shield though ^^



Astragoth/Sorcerer-Prophet









This is an awesome, although really weird, model. Lots of small parts, but mostly metal. The original painter had made an incredible dull work out this paint job, so I have repainted everything but the dwarf himself, to add bright colors and make the model stand out. The old paint job was pretty much grey, metal and white, so I couldn�?Tt tell where the beard stopped and the machine began.

Sorcerer-Prophet on Great/Bale Taurus









I have made him an optional base, so I can decide whenever I want him on a Great or Bale Taurus. I haven�?Tt recolored anything here, but will probably give his rock a paintjob to bring it in line with his base
Aside from what I have shown you here, the army I bought also contained a hero leveled Sorcerer, 15 Sneaky Gits and a Lord on a Lammasu. I will recolor the Sneaky Gits later, and use them as normal hobgoblins, but I probably won�?Tt use the sorcerer or Lammasu.

My own additions to the armies

As you have already seen, I went from zero Chaos Dwarfs to a pretty large army in one big buy. That means I haven�?Tt been in a dire need to paint to be able to play. I have made some additions over the years however, which I will account for here. I will go through it chronological, so my oldest additions will be first. That way I will try to get this showcase-ish first post to transition into an Army blog with occasional updates, battle reports and so forth.

Dreadquake mortar 2



Not the best picture but w.e. This was the first thing I painted back in the days. I have a hard time adjusting to bright colors, but I will learn in time. From a gamer perspective: 2 Earthshakers with the Ravening Hordes rules was quite strong! Lots of games won because of these ^^

Deathshrieker 2



I painted this around the time that I painted the Dreadquake Mortar.

Daemonsmith



This guy is actually quite cool in real life. The purple/yellow color theme may or may not have been my feeble attempt to grasp the beauty of a certain blog on this forum with a circus theme ^^
Sad to say I didn�?Tt nail it, but he still looks decent. Bannerpoles will be added at a later stage.

Dog�?Ts of War: Ogres





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A rebasing is needed for him as well, but I absolutely love the model. Pretty cool stuff. And his rules were updated in the Storm of Chaos compendium.

Deathshrieker 3



This is my first conversion attempt with the Battle for Skull Pass kit. It�?Ts from around Christmas 2013 , so It�?Ts fairly new.

K�?Tdaii Destroyer











This is my latest model at the time of writing (April 29th 2014). I have always loved the Balrog model, but never had any use for it. I bought a chopped up used version that lacked its lower arms, so I had to try my way with greenstuff. Making scales where the wings used to be was easier than expected. I have never in my life tried to paint flames, and although I didn�?Tt make the inverted flames which are the realistic way of doing it, I�?Tm still pretty proud with the result. It appears to be damn hot, which is what I aimed for, so I�?Tm a happy hobbyist.  The brightness of the Destroyer doesn�?Tt fit super well with the rest of the army, but it�?Ts a sacrifice I chose to make, in order to make him as fiery as I possible could.
The base took forever to make, and even longer to paint. I tried to hit the Micro Art Studios look, but had to use Polyfilla (Spackling paste) to model it. Lastly I will touch on the gap between torso and the arms. I have no experience with magnets, but I wanted to be able to transport my Destroyer around easily. That means I haven�?Tt glued him to the base, and the arms can be taken off as well. The downside is that it leaves the gap between torso and arms, which annoys me more than any of you.

Full Army































Moving forwards

My to do list right now includes a lot of Tamurkhan units, such as two Hellcanons, an extra Destroyer and two Iron Daemons. Aside from that I�?Tm working on some extra Spear Chukkahs, Black Ors, Ogres, Infernal Guards, Ironsworns and command groups to all my hobgoblin units. I�?Tll need some unitfillers to amass some numbers as well. I also have a unit of 24 Bearmen of Urslo stading ready. Lastly, I have som recoloring to do. The 60 brown Hobgoblings are too boring to look at, and they need shields. The Black Orcs are to Boltgun metal, and will need some red shoulderplates.

That�?Ts all I have for now. I probably won�?Tt update this often, but I wanted you all to know that my army exists and sees play regularly. I will read everything you post, and answer any initial questions I haven�?Tt covered, but ill try only to post when I have actually �?odone something�?�. I know I�?Tm not painting at Skink level or converting at Tjub/Snotling level, but I hope you will enjoy what have presented regardless ^^

- Pelle Jæger / Malorndk