EvilFuzzyDoom’s Devoted of Hashut

Obligatory first post introduction!

I’ve been intrigued by the Chaos Dwarfs since I saw Xander’s Battle for Skull Pass conversions back in the heady days of WHFB, but I was always a 40k player. After a long, long break from the hobby, I’ve come back and found that I’m more excited by Age of Sigmar than by 8th and 9th edition 40k.

I’ve got a Troggoth and a Nighthaunt army, but those projects are coming to a nice closing point.

And so, I’m finding myself obsessing about how to build a “modern” Chaos Dwarf army. Do I go big hats or masks? Do I go third party or GW only? What rules should I use for them? What’s the best way to include a Hellcannon in the army?

These questions, and more, have affected my sleeping. Clearly, Hashut has called to me.

I’ve made some early decisions and got some bits coming in the mail, but in order to keep myself sane I’ve started by assembling a proof of concept to see if it makes me happy:


This little fellow is built from a 4/5th edition fantasy Dwarf Warrior that I’ve had kicking around for literally 20 years (I only ever had the one and tried to convert him into a Squat in about 1998).

The head is a Chaos Marauder shoulder pad with Marauder champion horns, while the little cape, arms, shoulder pad, arms and shield are all also from the Marauder kit.

The beard is probably the only thing other than hair and gap filler I’ve done in greenstuff in at least a decade! I think the technique needs improvement but I’m happy with it as a first attempt.

UPDATE: END OF 2021, YEAR ONE

At the end of my first year fiddling around with Chaos Dwarfs, I’m pretty happy. Between a lot of health woes and Life Stuff, I’ve managed to get a lot of things painted, and for this project, that’s included two units and a hero:

I have a pretty neat pile of stuff now:

The collection currently stands at:

  • 1 Lord (undercoated)
  • 1 Sorcerer-Prophet (complete)
  • 2 Heroes (undercoated)
  • 1 Sorcerer-Prophet on Lammasu (unassembled, to be converted from Teclis’ companion and a Mind Sphiranx)
  • Drazhoath the Ashen (needs repainting)
  • 30 Warriors with 1-handed weapon and shield (20 complete, 10 unassembled)
  • 10 Irondrakes (complete)
  • 10 Warriors with 2-handed weapons (1 assembled, 9 unassembled)
  • 6 “Bull Centaurs” (1 assembled, 5 unassembled)
  • 20 Hobgrots (assembled)
  • Hellcannon & Crew (assembled, cannon needs repainting)

I feel like that’s plenty to be getting on with in 2022! I’ll be participating in BATG 2022, and my broader progress log is going here.

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Ah Hashut has kept many of us awake over the years, a true sign indeed that he himself is calling…now you just have to watch for bumps appearing on the forehead and an unexplained need to build a Ziggurat. Also best avoid anyone you know with the slender pointed features of a hobgoblin as that could get a little awkward :grimacing: but I’m sure fly through it all and become a stand up chap part of the next online community around

I always loved that dwarf mini, great seeing it chaosified (spellcheck is telling me that’s not a word but it is… definitely)
I really like the heroic scale on the belly hands etc. It’s an amazing conversion and a great start!
That greenstuff work is great too, especially after so long since doing it. Really well done :+1:t2:

What’s your plans for more? This guy a hero or going to try and get more for rank and file?

And then of course there’s the painting?

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First non-introduction post!

Starting points.

In addition to my test model, I’ve also had the Games Day Forgeworld Daemonsmith in my collection since that one Games Day I went to.

I also got excited and bought the cheapest Hellcannon I could find on eBay. It didn’t have a crew, so I’m going to run it using the Daemonsmith and two Flagellants in stocks as crew - representing a Chaos Dwarf and a pair of “volunteers” to be fed to the daemon engine.

The converting and paint scheme on the hellcannon aren’t mine, at some point I’ll decide if I’m going to keep it like that or make some changes. I might also pick up some of the official crew for it eventually. Both decisions can wait for now.

Next step is going to be painting the test dwarf (which means deciding on a paint scheme). After that, I’ve ordered parts for a unit of melee dwarfs and a unit of hobgoblins, so I’ll be building whichever of those next arrives in the mail.


Get back here!

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Thanks!

Painting scheme is very undecided as of yet. I’m leaning towards traditional black & red or something more weathered and beaten.

The test dwarf is just a test, I don’t have any plans for it, I just wanted to try a conversion & beard sculpt and happened to have the old model lying around!

If I do use him he’ll probably end up a Leader, since I’m not keen on sourcing 19 more of them to fill a unit.

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Welcome to the forum! :beer: That conversion is a great start for your host of Hashut. Gives me the same feels as some of the stuff from the BFSP days, which is nice. I also got pulled into the depths beneath the Ziggurats by Xander’s conversions. Looking forward to seeing this project come along!

Also, very Chaos-Dwarfy idea with the “volunteers”! I just wanted to write that the way you arranged them looks as if they were trying to get away with the Daemonsmith yelling “Get back here!” and only then saw that you actually wrote that underneath :smile: So the visuals definitely convey the narrative on their own, well done!

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I started collecting chaos dwarfs 1 yr ago and did something similar to you- made various conversions from old sprues and models. Even though i moved on to buying various 3rd party stuff, i still enjoying cutting up things and adding more cds to this 1st unit. Breaks up the painting.

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Welcome to CDO! Cutting things and adding to them is a must. It’s my favorite thing to do in this hobby!

Your dwarf conversion came out very well. Lovely Hellcannon conversion, and your impromptu crew choice is spot on. Look forward to seeing how the final models comes out!

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A warm welcome from me too here at CDO! :beer: I’m looking forward to following your progress! :wink:
To get ideas, you only have to look at the different threads, there should be enough inspiration! :taurus2:

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An update!

Yesterday I had to go in to work at my actual office (I have extended work from home due to medical stuff) and rewarded myself with a Greywater Fastness Start Collecting from the Warhammer store, since I figured the bits and pieces I’d mail-ordered wouldn’t arrive for a little while longer.

When I arrived home, I discovered that almost all of the the bits and pieces I’d mail-ordered were waiting on the front door step, and also that I’d locked myself out of the house.

After my wonderful partner had come home to let me in, I was able to take stock.

My new supplies included:

  • A Fyreslayers Auric Runemaster
  • Some 40k Grot heads
  • 20 Battle for Skull Pass warriors already kitbashed into Chaos Dwarfs by the previous owner
  • A moderately sized bag of chaos bits (which definitely contains less warrior heads than the listing picture showed, but whatever)
  • A Warden King
  • A Cogsmith
  • 10 Ironbreakers/Irondrakes
  • A gyrocopter (which I’ve already sold, lol)

And there’s a box of Skaven clanrats still in the mail yet to arrive - gonna make some hobgoblins!

In between work today I had a fiddle with my haul.

I knew that the kitbashed Skull Pass warriors would need some love, and I’d actually intended to start by pulling them apart and completely redoing them all, but some are really good already. I’ll have to go through them carefully and be picky about which ones get a rework.

I’ve done a little bit of exploratory fitting on the Irondrakes (to serve as Blunderbuss dwarfs), trying to figure out how best to fit the Chaos Warrior heads on. Since I don’t want to do any cutting on the bodies, I’m looking at one of two options: either I clip the necks just right to be able to get the helmets sit on top, or I’ll need to carve out a concave cut into the back of the helmet to get it to sit lower.

I’m leaning towards adding the cut to get the helmet to sit lower, because that means I can pad the neck with green stuff and push it a little further forward. That would make a beard look a bit more natural, too. Although I’m not sure whether the blunderbuss units will get beards, I figure I should make sure that if I build future units this way that I can add beards.

I was most excited about the Fyreslayer. He’s going to be my first Sorcerer-Prophet/general, and I had a pretty solid plan for what I was going to do with him:

Similar to a conversion that uses Kragg the Grimm that I found on Pinterest, Sorcerer Prophet 1, I used the Chaos Terminator Lord sorcerer head. Since the Fyreslayers are crazy-ornate, I haven’t don’t much else to it except reuse the model’s beard and fill in the body cavity with green stuff. It’s also based on a 25mm base rather than 32mm because everything I’m planning to use him as defaults to the smaller base size.

No big progress shot this time, too much stuff is still on sprue. The test dwarf is primed, though.

I’m going to have to start thinking about colour schemes now, aren’t I… oh no.

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ROFLMFAO!!! :smiley: OMG I lost it when I read that! Hey at least you were locked outside with some cool toys HAHAHA

Then I saw your kitbash pictures… Now I am a true blue old school big hat lover through and through but these pics could sway a man to bat for the other side I tell ya! Very cool indeed, very, very cool! :hatoff: :beer:

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These are coming along very nicely. I especially like how the blunderbuss models are looking. If I didnt already have models slated for troop units I might follow your lead and go in a similar direction. Keep it up!

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Great conversions, love them. Id definitely go for beards on at least some of the cannon holding guys. You could use greenstuff or cheat and cut up dwarfbeards from sprues and add them on. Do you think the ironblasters would rank up on 20mm square bases?

Look forward to seeing them painted :cd1980:

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Great conversions¡¡ I feel real envy when I see them¡¡¡ Im not able to glue two cut parts…xD, so really appreciate that talent¡

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Love that Fyreslayer mini, have used that one specifically myself. That terminator head fits with your other stuff well. I had that head in my Tzeentch box and didn’t think to use it!

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Great conversions! Now I’m curious to see how they look painted and lined up! :wink:

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Update led by a reply!

They definitely do; they were made for WHFB in 2012 and I haven’t really changed the amount of space they take up so it shouldn’t be any more of a problem than usual to get them to rank up on the small bases:

Some sculpting work done today!

I decided to start with 5 each of Battle for Skull Pass and Irondrakes conversions.

I’ve sculpted some beards & hair on the 2 BFSP conversions that I didn’t think were up to par, and it turns out I like sculpting beards, so that’s a very good sign:

I’ve also assembled a standard, champion and musician for the shooty unit, including reposing their heads with greenstuff. I had quite a bit of GS left so I chucked a beard onto the champion. Not sure if I’ll add them to the others, since the Irondrakes don’t have beards (presumably they’d get burnt off?):

I’m quite happy with the standard bearer. He’s a pure kitbash (using the Chaos Warriors topknot and Marauder standard topper) that I had to build because I’m worried I’ll run out of Chaos Warrior helmets:

To polish off today’s update, here’s an army picture so far:

… and here is a picture of my little helper, who is disappointed that I took away the dish of sculpting-tool-wetting water before she could drink it:

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Wonderful conversions and good beard sculpting! And most adorable cat. Cats and hobby go so well together, on the feline overlord’s terms of course. :smile:

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An update with building AND painting!

Hi all! I’ve been up to a bit of Chaos Dwarf related work in between real work and living and falling down one stair in my house, this evening (I’m fine).

First, earlier this week my Skaven Clanrats arrived and I started turning them into Hobgoblins by adding 40k Grot heads:

I’d originally been considering Stormvermin as the basis for Hobgoblins until I got it into my head that this conversion would be simpler - I’d just have to chop off the head and we’re all set, right? I forgot that I’d have to carve the tail off of every single one of them, and I’ve discovered that Chaos Marauder shields won’t fit on them because of the curve. I might have to rethink what I’m doing with these guys.

The next thing was to finish assembling the first five gun-toting Dawi, but apparently I haven’t taken a picture of them. Next time.

Then today, I painted up one of the BFSP conversions I bought, that I haven’t had to do any further conversion work on:

While I like the look of the traditional black and red, I’m pretty scarred from painting Khorne Berzerkers back in the early ‘00s and have no interest in using that colour scheme ever again. Luckily, I found some great Legion of Azgorh by Gabe from Rune Axe Radio that are painted with Kabalite & Sybarite Green as the main colour, and decided I’d use that for inspiration.

The unit shields will clearly need a big, orange emblem of some kind (probably a Hashut rune or two burning eyes) - but that should wait until I’ve finished the unit, I think.

I’m happy with the green, but the bronze, skin and hair took some messing around and I’m not sure every step actually contributed something.

For the green, I started with a black undercoat and then:

  • Incubi Darkness basecoat
  • Coelia Greenshade wash
  • Kabalite Green layer
  • Sybarite Green highlight

For the bronze, I used Balthasar Gold as the base, then played around with Nihilakh Oxide and black & brown washes before highlighting up through Hashut Copper.

The beard & hair started with The Fang and got several washes of blue & black and a few drybrishes of different greys (Fenrisian Grey and Dawnstone, mostly).

The Skin started as Celestra Grey, then got a watered-down Nighthaunt Gloom glaze, then black, purple and blue washes which gave it a great splotchy bruised look that I eventually just covered up with Fenrisian Grey and a final highlight of Ulthuan Grey with a bit of Rakarth Flesh mixed in.

I’m VERY happy to take suggestions on how to get the same effects with less steps!

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Looking at your process, it took some work to get there, but your greens look beautiful. The model came out great overall

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I was having a hard time getting Chaos Warrior heads so I picked up some Marauders who’d had a headswap with Chaos Warriors.

They arrived today, so I decided to spend some lunchtime dismantling them so I can use the warrior heads on my Dawi Zharr.

Apparently the heads were attached with epoxy or something stupid, because they were REALLY hard to remove. In the process I snapped the blade of X-acto knife I’ve been using to clean mould lines for the last 25 years, replaced it and then immediately cut my thumb open on the brand new replacement blade. It turns out my sculpting method of “cut towards thumb while being careful” only works if you’re using a super-dull blade and otherwise shouldn’t be used unless you are painting a Khorne army.

Don’t be like me, be like @Xander who displays immaculate blade discipline in his videos.

This is a long way of saying that there will probably be a brief hiatus on this blog. :frowning:

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