For the fiery base for a cheap way of doing it try doing them out of hot melt glue. Maybe combine the techniques in these two videos, at least if it doesn’t work out the first few times, you didn’t waste a lot of good materials.
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Woof, I’ve been sleeping on these guys a bit - although I’ve been keeping busy painting anything and everything else, I ran out of puff when faced with the next few items on the plate: there’s some big conversions that didn’t work out how I would have liked, I got COVID while preparing for the last Artisan’s Contest (I was going to finish my Bill Centaurs unit!) and the Hobgrots really knocked the wind out of my sails. This collection was starting to feel cursed!
But, I realised I was coming up to two hundred models painted for the year on my BATG thread so I decided I’d do something special!
I’ve finally painted the first Chaos Dwarf I built, right back at the start of this blog as a proof of concept. I have to say, I’m surprised how good it looks! I’d been staring at the undercoated model for ages thinking that the various places where the parts meet would stand out like a dog’s proverbial, but I can barely see them on the finished model. I tried to get the chaos symbol on the shield to look like forge-hot metal, and while its not perfect I’m not unhappy with it at all - not bad for launching in without a tutorial!
I also picked up Krookgrin from the Warhammer Underworlds box set, in case I want to run a hero with my Hobgrots.
Hopefully it’s not so long between drinks next time!
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Congrats on 200 painted this year! So glad to see this conversion hit the painted shelves. I like the scheme a lot with the tealish color. Makes the shield pop nicely
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Update!
I’ve been trying to source a rider for this Lammasu for some time, and the options have been slim. The only sitting dwarf in the entire current range is the Fyreslayer from the Magmadroth kit, and I just… I don’t like his little naked legs. I just don’t.
The other option I thought about was to scratch build something over a wireframe, maybe sculpt some scale armour and glue some little feet on, but I’m quite shy on spare bitz and the only real option for a torso was to shave down a BFSP standard bearer into something I could have made out of a few bits of sprue anyway!
Since I’m trying to keep the scratch-building to a minimum for this project, I decided against it. I decided I’d just go old school. Some time last year, a 4th edition Great Taurus lord with his head and weapon missing came up on eBay, and I remember thinking it would be a great conversion piece if I had a monster to mount him on, but by the time I had a Lammasu he was gone. So, occasionally I’ve been browsing eBay to see if something similar would pop up and LO AND BEHOLD I finally snagged a rider.
It’s no sorcerer-prophet, but honestly, I’m not fussed at this point. Just happy I can put a dude on the dudelion!
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Old school miniatures do mounted chaos dwarfs, pick heads and hands to suit your needs?
This is my plan anyway…
@Zoddtheimmortal I’ve considered it but I’m still committed to this project being 100% GW sculpts for now (although I suspect my flying cow and my dudelion aren’t fully legit). If my willpower breaks though, I’ll just launch myself fully down that path and grab the Raging Heroes Shedu, the Titan Wargames Chaos Dwarfs, and a whole lot of Fabelzel sculpts… but I’m not there yet! Largely because I’m very distracted by other projects, but my Chaos Dwarfs are still in the display cabinet!
Speaking of grabbing, I splurged a little and picked up two new things for this collection:
The final crewman for my Hellcannon (picked up oh so long ago), and five Orruk Brutes, who will of course be Black Orcs in my collection, and can be run as Stormcast Eternals if I ever actually play using my “Cities of Hashut” plan.
I’m still tossing up whether I do some conversion work on them - I suspect they want helmets - and I’m very distracted with Imperial Guard at the moment so it’ll probably be a little while before I get around to them. But they’re on the pile!
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*Gorkcast Morkternals
or perhaps
*Morkcast Gorkternals
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I suppose it depends on whether I’m feeling brutally cunning or cunningly brutal that day!
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RESURRECTION
Oh boy, I didn’t realise it was quite this long since I’d painted or added something Chaos Dwarf-y. It’s been a year since I bought the Orruk Brutes!
Well, here’s one painted up as a Gorkcast Morkternal!*
I didn’t end up doing any conversion work on them, I’ve just made sure to decorate all their shoulders with bones to make them look a bit more brutal.
I followed roughly the same painting scheme as I did with my Hobgrots, so the model looked very pastel until the washes hit.
Colours used were:
- For the flesh: Ironrach Skin with Gryph-Charger Grey on top and Deepkin Flesh highlights.
- For the straps: Slaanesh Grey with Carroburg Crimson and then Druchii Violet over the top.
- For the horns: Wraithbone, Skeleton Horde, Wraithbone highlights.
- For the metallics: Vallejo Metal Colour Steel, with Army Painter Dark Tone over the top and a few patches of Seraphim Sepia to give it a bit of flavour.
- For the pants: I used a Rustoleum Grey Primer and hit the whole model with Basilicanum Grey contrast paint before anything else. I’ve done nothing else on the pants.
- For the tabard and pouch: they’re not really visible in the picture, but I used the same greens I have done for my Dwarfs - Incubi Darkness, Kabalite Green, Sybarite Green.
For some reason I had in my head that I hadn’t used any browns on my Hobgrots and so I went all purple with the weapon strapping and the ties holding the bones on. Looking back at them, I can see that I’ve allowed myself some Graveyard Earth in the palette so I might revisit this model later and add a few touches of that colour just to make him look a bit more grounded. The purple is a great colour, but I think it’s a bit much.
We’ll see.
Anyway, back into the forges…
*… Or is it a Morkcast Gorkternal?
9 Likes
Remember that lord on a rock I first worked on in May 2021 and finished building in September 2021?
I painted it!
I decided I really wanted to do a Chaos Dwarf for model #200 in Battle Against the Grey 2023, and I really do love this little conversion, so it was meant to be.
I’ve been planning on giving him a lava/forge-hot axe for maybe fifteen months or something ridiculous, since Duncan Rhodes put out his “how to paint hot swords” video - although I ended up going a slightly different direction with it.
I had to get a bit creative with photo filters due to some weird lighting, so the pictures show the highlights on the green as a bit scratchier than they are. I am nonetheless very very happy with how this model looks and I think I’ve done the conversion justice -
Paint wise, the only unique thing for this model, other than the axe, was the cape. I went back and forth a bit on whether to pick out the embroidery but in the end I decided that the colour was enough of a “pop” without putting much more into it. It’s just Volupus Pink over Rakarth Flesh. Contrast does good work, and it’s a bit more in-palette than either of Magos or Leviathan Purple.
Im not sure it comes across in the picture properly, but I’m really pleased with the horns, not really sure why. They just pop. I’m a man of simple tastes, sometimes!
Now hopefully it won’t be so long before I paint more short angry lads!
EDIT: I forgot that I promised work-in-progress shots!
Here they are:
Here’s the first pass at the axe:
I started with Fenrisian Grey, popped on a layer of Magmadroth Orange and then just went nuts stippling red, orange, yellow, and brown until I was happy with it. Then white in the crevice and black around the edges.
Everything done except the green:
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Really love this guy! Awesome work and great painjob! 
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