Hello. First post. Long time fan of Big Hats and Mesopotamian history.
For a long time I kept telling myself if GW brought out a range of Bighats, I’d buy them in a second - but seeing as how they dropped the forgeworld line, that seems unlikely. My friends are getting into Age of Sigmar and I kept seeing references to “Furnace Kings” in a few books… then I saw the Russian Alternative models, and have been obsessing over them for months. I’m ready to take the plunge into Chaos Dwarves.
I’m planning to play in Age of Sigmar, in a very non-competitive setting. My friends and I don’t have a lot of time to game, so we’re mostly in it for the painting and the chit chat. I don’t have access to a 3d printer, and I don’t have a large budget to pursue this fancy…
I am planning to purchase a few items from Russian Alternative. I like the look of their models, the pricing seems good, and by everyone’s accounts they seem like a really good company to purchase from. I live in Australia. Does anyone know how long it takes to receive packages from there? Once I bought a watch from Russia and it took 3 months to arrive…
CHAOS DWARF ― ALL4WARGAMES
These guys seem to have a few of the Forgeworld items. I never liked the masked look of the Infernal Guard, but I like the warmachines they have on offer.
Has anyone ever ordered from this website? Netregistry says its another Russian website. I found a few other russian websites and the on-page feedback was super negative, with packages that never arrive, and no contact with page owners. I’m willing to make a small test purchase, but due to long shipping time, I’d rather see if someone else has any experience.
I’d agree with @Sjoerdo that site is almost certainly dodgy or a recast merchant. (Whether that bothers you or not it is up to you I guess).
At CDO we don’t officially ever promote knock off Warhammer or particularly discuss it on our open forums. (Not that I think you were doing that btw buddy, you were just enquiring as to the legitimacy of the site.just doing my admin duty by pointing that out.)
I can thoroughly recommend Russian alternative - really great sculpts that fit well alongside LoA. Titan war games have some lovely characters that would also fit. @Baggronor sculpts those bad boys and they are lovely. Linked here. I believe he has a new cannon on the way too. @Admiral ’s Etsy store, admiralty miniatures has some lovely old school big hats but also has a unit of gunners called deathspitters that really fit the LoA aesthetic. Linked here.
Also , I know you ain’t into 3D printing but if you have a mate have that is, Lost kingdom also fit the aesthetic really well. (Our latest podcast discusses these so may be worth a listen) depending on where you are based, there are often CDO guys who are relatively local and happy to help out a friend in need who wants some bits printed.
Glad to have you aboard Gilgamesh and look forward to seeing what you create!!!
PS: Random question. What rules you thinking of using? The legion of azgorh rules are likely to be left to rot now. Does that bother you due to it being a non competitive setting? Some guys do chaos warriors aka slaves to darkness rules and it can fit quite well depending on the style of force you are after.
There is a cool fan made AOS book that may interest you created by @thommyh . If your group are non competitive they may allow it! Linked here
Thanks Sjoerdo. That reddit thread was a good answer.
Oxymandias. Thank you for the welcome. Strangely enough, the only reason I was even looking at the Forgeworld stuff was because of the podcast. I started listening (I don’t know which episode. Maybe #1) and one guy was talking about the “steam train” aesthetic of the machines. I checked them out, and realised how cool they were.
Thank you for the caution on the point about knock off casts. I will also look at the links you posted. I wasn’t aware of those other sculptors.
I got super excited when I looked at Lost Kingdom (especially the big terrain pieces)… I was about to add them to the cart when I realised “digital files only.” I’ll cross that bridge later.
I actually already downloaded the fan codex about a month ago, and have been really enjoying reading it. Before I downloaded the Dawi Zharr codex I was thinking of using Cities of Sigmar Dwarves, since they have a few similar themed units. Its not a competitive group I’m with, so they will have no issues with me trying out the fan codex. I hadn’t thought about Slaves to Darkness - I’ll consider that.
Once upon a time I was worried about having competitive, or at least, tournament legal lists… These days I spend so much more time painting, modelling and reading, that I realised there was no point for me to go chasing a “proper” Age of Sigmar army. Dad life hasn’t left me with the gaming time that I once had.
Hey fella, welcome to Gaslands- no wait wrong game. welcome to CDO!
I myself bought few Russian Alternative models through the years and they are lovely, multiparts and very versatile, the heroes/command are top notch. Also they have Hobgoblins too! 3: .
even if you dont own a 3d printer, i can first of all suggest Admiralty Miniatures on Etsy.
Also from the same site, you can look at people selling 3d printed Chaos Dwarf from the Spanish company Lost Kingdom, they are the 2020 version of the old big hats, bit more dark and evil than Russian alternative. but no hobbos here .
i’d say that if you want to buy quickly some units, to check for those 2 things at first, also you might expand your search looking for blood bowl models, there are a ton of companies making blood bowl chaos dwarf nowdays, and you might find some extra thing there you might like
EDIT: i forgot about Mantic and their Abyssal Dwarf, the quality is lower, but the models are all plastic and extremely cheap! might be well worth take a look!
Welcome to CDO @Gilgamesh !! Good to have another Aussie joining the hordes of Zharr Naggrund!
I am in NSW and ordered from Russian Alternative, The order was over the Corona Christmas time and I think it took roughly 6 weeks. The models were lovely and I am glad I got them, they fit in nicely with my old 3rd & 4th ed models.
Troubles I did have were:
No one told me it’s a good idea to wash resin models in soapy (dishwash liquid) water before trying to glue them together and I nearly threw the lil F@#%ers up the wall as they would not stick together.
Paypal would not let me pay Russian Alternative, they told me that they were not to be trusted basically, fought with them for some time over it. What I ended up doing was using credit card via fleabay to make my purchase.
Welcome to CDO @Gilgamesh I am in Perth WA.
This dude is selling some big hat ahem inspired 3D prints within Australia as we often get smashed on postage from our euro and yank bros https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/154392678700
Ohhh Fabelzel’s!! I have printed some of these and must say they are bloody sweet!
Fabz really captures that old school feel, beautiful models! I highly rate Fabelzels work, one of the best out there IMO
Thanks Loidrial. I’ll keep that in mind for chasing down 3d prints on etsy. I saw some cool bloodbowl minis too.
I don’t really like the Mantic dwarves. Their hats and beards don’t do it for me.
Deebo. Thanks. I would have forgot about washing them.
IronHaiden. I’m in Joondalup! Postage always sucks, and even stuff from over east takes AGES to get here. Those Fabelzel minis look quite nice. Really like that Persian looking lord guy. I might get some blunderbusses from there.
I just made a purchase with The Russian Alternative. I’ve ordered a box of regular dwarves, harquebuses, bull centaurs, a wizard, and a bull centaur hero.
I’m super excited.
Also, in the end, I definitely got bad vibes from that other website, and have decided to avoid it. Next purchase will probably be Fabelzel, or some Lost Kingdoms via an online printer through etsy or something like that.
Nice! … and Welcome to the group! I can vouch for the excellent quality (well, the metals at least, though by everything I have heard, the resin casts are excellent) of the Russian Alternative models. Have some painted ones that I hope to get posted up in the next few weeks. Look forward to seeing what you do with them. Cheers!
Also they have Hobgoblins too!
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