This weekend I took some army pics of my Chaos Dwarfs that I’ve been working on since early 2018. These are my finished models (as I’m writing this I realise I forgot to take pics of my Lammasu!) and I decided to write my thoughts. Excuse the bad pics, I’m great with Analog cameras, not so great with DSLRs!
Its a real labour of love working on this army. I’m an incredibly slow painter (I’d say my average time for painting a regular warrior is about 1.5 weeks per model!!) but its really pleasing to see it all coming together. Even as a young teen (I’m 29 now) I remember seeing about these old oop models and was just fascinated by them and bought one or two warriors off ebay. Just everything about them was awesome and I fell in love them. Eventually though, as I got a little older I grew out of the hobby, gave my models away to friends at the wargaming club I used to be part of, and that was that. I started getting back into Games Workshop stuff in 2017 and didn’t really know what I was doing. Having not paid any attention to the hobby for over a decade I was obviously really confused to see AoS and Primaris marines. I bought some space marines just to try some painting again, but I didn’t really identify with 40k, and I didn’t really like the look of AoS models. I googled the old big hat Chaos Dwarfs I remembered as a teen and man it all just came flooding back. I knew I had to collect some! I didn’t know how I was going to game with them, but I knew atleast I wanted to get some to paint and have on display.
I started off buying a few odd warriors and painted up a few in differing styles as I didn’t really know what I wanted to achieve, or how to do it. After a while though I finally painted up the sorcerer in bright bold colours and decided to settle on the scheme. It was similar to the original 'eavy metal scheme of the 90s without being too oldhammer (not that thats a bad thing mind!). From there I stuck to the formula and started painting what I had, whilst picking up a few more warriors and blunderbuss here and there. Simultaneously I started researching the period of when I was first into warhammer and (re)discovered 6th edition. The nostalgia got me hooked again and I started buying 6th edition rulebooks, white dwarf issues etc. A plan was forming in my mind - to build up my chaos dwarfs and have some games of 6th edition! I was stoked to find things like CDO, but also groups on facebook like Middlehammer and Warhammer Fantasy Battle 6th Edition where I could chat with other people also into the same era of hobby as me. By this point now I had a whole bunch of warriors, blunderbuss, a death rocket and even a centaur or two, and really started buying into the army as a serious collector.
Fast forward to 2020! I now have quite a nice army, though I still need to get more models - almost doubling it actually. I’ve had 2 games of 6th edition (1 draw, 1 major loss) at Warhammer World in Nottingham, and had loads of fun. I’m hoping to relocate to Nottingham this year so it’ll be a lot easier for me to have games at WW and maybe establish some kind of Middlehammer gaming club. I’m at Warhammer World quite often so if anyone is ever about, give us a shout and lets grab a pint!
Personally Its really nice to see how far I’ve come with my painting. For example, the Sorcerer I painted in early 2018 and is probably the first model where I was SO proud of what I’d done - whereas when I compare the standard of painting to the Hobgoblin Warrior Champion (which I finished a week or 2 ago) I think there’s a massive improvement. I still feel I can improve in so many areas, and I also think these photos are great at picking out all the faults of my painting - and ultimately they’re all just block primary colours, there’s no “advanced” painting techniques on display here - but thats ok, because I’m still really chuffed with them!
I still have a way to go until I say the army is complete. I don’t really have a points-goal in mind, but I’d like to have enough units to feasibly swap around in an army list. I still ideally need to get:
- Hobgoblin Axe Wolf Riders
- Hobgoblin Archer Wolf Riders
- 10 more Hobgoblin Warriors
- 10 more Hobgoblin Archers
- 20 more CD Warriors
- 20 more CD Blunderbuss
I’m trying to stick to all original GW models - there’s loads of great alternatives from 3rd parties that still have the big hat Babylonian aesthetics, but for me its just what I’d like to do - although I’d LOVE the Bezhukk the Immortal model from Ravenswood art.
Thats pretty much my goal then to be honest - carry on building and painting up the army, and get some regular games in!
I’m on instagram as @filmdegminiatures which is pretty much for progress on my CDs but theres also lots of 6th edition love there.
So below you’ll find army pics! As I said, I’m not great with a DSLR so some of the pics aren’t great, but you get the idea none the less!
Praise Hashut! Father of Darkness!
