I’ve been playing normal dwarfs since the start of the latest rulebook, Ive liked Chaos Dwarfs ever since they came up with the cool helmet models. But I’ve never really considered playing them because there was no real list. Now the Indy list is out and I’ve met some other CD players and I really like the idea of playing CD.
My Vanilla dwarfs are all metal and loads of old mini’s, I even have some very old CD’s who I use as unit champions and characters, so the idea came to expand my vanilla dwarfs with some real CD units so I can use my models for both armies saving me lots of money and extra painting time…
The first CD unit I wanted was the Bull Centaurs, the models are expensive and only available via sites like ebay. I’m a freelance animator/illustrator so I got time, but money is always a problem so I went to all my boxes of old minis and found 10 elven steeds (without tails, that’s why the were very cheap on ebay) and 10+ Troll Slayers. My Vanilla Dwarfs already have 20 painted Trollslayers and I never use more than 12 so I could use these.
The modeling is pretty straight forward, removing the head of the horse, shortening the legs (not really necessary but the model looks better this way) and sticking the top of the trollslayer on top, smoothing everything out with greenstuff. First I made one to see if the conversion was doable and then I did the rest of the unit. I stuck some shields on the side of the models and made sure I had all the weapon options so depending on with models are in the front row the have aditional/great wepons (with shields). 2 models got an extra chaos weapon so I can use those as unit champion and hero. This also works great with the overal theme of my army of mainly CD unit champions.
I only had 2 old plastic chaos weapon arms so I used the shoulder pads as well as some extra armour.
The tails are bits from my bits box, some old horse tails and Dark-eldar helmet fluff.
the spikes on their back armour come from some kind of plastic strip I took out of a wooden coat hanger, very flexible stuff great for glueing in strange shapes.
I then painted them in the same colours as my normal Trollslayers (looks great in my miniature cabinet, but unfortunately thy can never be in the same army). Because of the lack of armour I painted the Rune of Stone (+1 armour save) on the side of the models. the Rune also works great as the unit marking.
the finished models:
(not so happy about the pictures, must make better ones)
Not all models came out as good as I hoped (had some trouble with the shape of the bellies and the beards) but I’m quite happy with the look of the whole unit.
I think my next modeling project is going to be a EarthShaker canon (or Hell Canon) for less than �,�4 of bits (ex. crew).
They look brilliant mate, the join and paintjob i think are flawless, i myself you used slayers as a base for my BC’s only i used WOC knights as my base.
I think that they don’t look beefy enough but i think it also comes down to how you model the rest of models ( as in ’ Will it be a similar theme?)
Sometimes when stuffing torsos on top of steeds like this makes them look a bit unbalanced but these work very well.
You only took the feet of the slayers I gather?
Edit: And now reading closer I see you also shortened the horse legs. That would have been my suggestion. And explains why I thought these were looking wonderfully well proportioned!
And you could always use them as DoW cavalry in a normal Dwarf army.
What a great start to your new CD force well worth some slaves i think They really look great, the way you have blended the flesh of the steed and the dwarf in works really well, please keep this great stuff coming
Looking at the forum now, I probably should have started this tread in “Army Blogs”. Sorry my mistake. ( If a moderator wants to fix this its fine by me)
@Alfract: I’ve seen centaurs wit bits of warriors of chaos, the looked great. but next to mainly old metal dwarfs these look good. If I had the WOC models I would have done it like that probably. But I didnt had the models and I’m trying to buy less new models and paint more old ones (cassic problem I think).
I will post more pics of my army in progress in the future.
@snowwbliss: only the feet and a bit of the legs, had to keep the beards intact. I thought of using them as DoW cavalry in a normal Dwarf army but didnt dare suggest tha here (;
@Loki more stuff coming up, thanx for the slaves (got a link to somewhere about some info on these slaves?)
Those centaurs look great! But I cant really say they look like CD to me. More like really feral dwarfs... Sweet anyway! :)
tjub
Cant agree with you more. but that fits great in my overall theme I want to go for: dwarfs just under the influence of Chaos, so lots of 'normal' looking dwarfs and some mutations (mainly on champions).
Cool, you plan to build Kinder Surprise Battle Golems… and I thought, I’ll be the first, who do this
Your theme sounds cool. it has a lot of potential. You could give them some… decent evilness ^^. what will you use for the hobbos? the problem with the mutations is allways… Dwarf don’t mutate, they just turn to stone ^^
I love those centuaurs but Im nto entirely certain their chaotic or evil enougth to be juged as CD’s but more savage dwarf centaurs nicely barbaric and would make a nice proxy for marauder horsemen. Some black tree slayer clones for about £15 for 20 or so and maybe a chariot and you got a chaos army Very nice work I like it keep it comming
Cool, you plan to build Kinder Surprise Battle Golems... and I thought, I'll be the first, who do this ;) Your theme sounds cool. it has a lot of potential. You could give them some... decent evilness ^^. what will you use for the hobbos? the problem with the mutations is allways... Dwarf don't mutate, they just turn to stone ^^
Snotling
No a Battle Golem, Eartshaker cannon (: for hobgoblins i'll use mainly 3rd edition gobbo wolfboys, they are very small and should fit with the army (they really should they come from the same line as the dwarfs.) you're right about the turning to stone, I forgot about that fluff, its just I've got the mutated CD models so I will use them.
I really should read all the background stuff again before continuing the army, thanx for the tip.
On with the earthshaker:
When I broke that cote hanger I knew I was going to have loads of fun whit that plastic spike strip. Glue-ing it around the canon was a nightmare, I used 3 kinds of glue in the hope that it will hold. (Until now it does.) I didnt cut the capsule in half but followed the line of the part that fits under the top. and then I filled the capsule wit rolled up stripes of paper to give the canon more body glued in place whit a mix of woodglue an water.
I’ve had some experience with scratch build war-machines, I didndt like the Dwarf Grudge throuwer model and the old very cool goblobber is to rare/expensive so i build a Rocklobber. (a step by step set of pictures here explains some of the techniques I also used for the Earthshaker pic01, pic02, pic03,finished model)
some more work on the frames, and I smoothed the center and the front with greenstuff. If I had a PVC pipe I would have stuck this in the middle to get a perfect round hole but alas. I filled the back of the hole of the cannon with chewing gum (cheaper than greenstuff).
thats all for now, just got a mail from a client, need to make some awful flash banners (:
fit excellent with the existing stuff!
In my witness your centaurs are Frurndar (3rd edition Marauders!) and no ordinary followers of hashut! ;)
Zanko
Cool, I just googeled "Frurndar" cos I didnt know what you meant and the first relevant hit was this forum, and yes you're completely right.
more up coming stuff tomorrow, workin at some lame flash banner at the moment but my fingers are itching to continue my Earth Shaker and some old gobbo wolfboys are getting rid of their paint in thinner as we speak.
And the next step for the earthshaker: not much to tell except I made a small carving in the to base plates instead of using 4 loose beams, this will make the model a lot less fragile.
And the finished (unpainted) model: All the bolts on the machine came from the goblin shield sprue. (the weels used here actually are 3dr edition plastic dwarf shields but any shield will do) using wood glue around the edges of stuff looks so much better cos the glue will ‘blend’ the to shapes together, a cheap and easy modeling tip. (woodglue is also great for filling gaps, I also used woodglue on the dwarf centaurs). I only had 2 chaos warrior arms in my bits box when I started my CD’s the weapons and shoulder plates were already used on the centaurs and i’m so happy I could also use the ring-thingy from the bottom of the warrior weapon on the base of the cannon (: If I can use the fist somewhere else I get a 99% output on my chaos bits.
I think this is the cheapest conversion I ever did, and the most expensive part on the model is the Kinder Capsule d:
next up: the painting, but first time for some sleep.
I think you should cut a piece of plasticard (or thickish card like a cereal box) to cover over the greenstuff on the earthshaker. It will look a lot smoother once painted.
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They really look great, the way you have blended the flesh of the steed and the dwarf in works really well, please keep this great stuff coming 
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