Speaking of, it’s about time. As long ago promised here are all 10 ceramics used and painted.
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Most appreciated! Thank you most kindly for that glorious picture!
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Out of nowhere, got this kingly gift at the end of last year. The first of hopefully many chaos dwarf projects on my desk this year! And I even put some non-grey colors on it.
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I love this duo, just great models and brilliantly painted by you! 
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Love it! Painting helms suits you
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Hello denizens of the Dark Lands. I present Motley Crew, a familiar band with damp boots, doots, and water in their ears. Beware of many images! Entire group shot first with mostly close-ups and WIPs below. Zoom to the bottom of the post for bonus cutting room floor familiars.
From left to right: Stone tortoise drum set, gnoblar hammer drummer, pig butt trumpeter gnoblar, and steampunk music box squig. The ogre pig water-skin bit was just too perfect to pass up.
Familiar squid playing a tortured slayer’s xylophone mohawk was probably one of the more fun projects of the lot. It was entertaining seeing the piles of seemingly nonsensical unrelated bits become these ideas over time.
Tack on this Mage Knight tentacle brain tree(?) as a double mouthed lead singer.
Chaos Squidward and Plankton on his Chum Bucket were must adds for the band. They’ll join Chaos snail Gary in the Spongebobless familiars unit 2.
For astute readers of @flagellant04 's blog the key-sword-tar hobgoblin (or rather key-fireglaive-tar) was conceived and spoiled somewhere in there. I’ll leave its polearm classification up for scholastic debate for those in tune with Spetum Rhetoric’s discography. The large stringed instrument was a must as it’s the only variety of instrument I personally have dabbled in (except maybe tummy drumming). The dark elf corsair crossbow bit was just too perfect and largely spawned the entire concept.
Finally the the gluttonous tummy drummer to close out my contest entry! This lovely concept art by @Oxymandias originated on the discord when some chatter about UK Strongman Glenn Ross intersected with discussions about how to part your beard and play your considerable paunch as a drum.
For anyone curious to the sculpting stages, as I have very few ogre bits in my collection. I used scibor’s plastic wrap hack for muscle skin texture.
Loaded up his back with snacks to keep him in peak ogre performance with his instrument in tune. As a bonus the poultry looks like it’s dancing.
Here are some cutting room floor ideas that didn’t have enough talent to make it through auditions, as such some have abandoned their musical aspirations entirely mid sculpt. The bubble trumpeting Oracle Envoy from Elden Ring just didn’t get finished in time.
As with most good ideas, my growing collection of bowls with feet and nigh obsession with ceramics are @admiral 's fault. See this archive thread for the historical inspiration. (tangentially @MichaelX ’s fault for the easy query archive)
Continuing the theme of blame gaming and idea theft. @chitzkoi poked fun at my pain and panic pots so I lost an extra day speed sculpting a real pain and panic with bonus mini-hades.
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Amazing little band! The sheer amount of skill, creativity and insane ideas is breathtaking!
…but really, you gotta do a Spongebob now. I’ll start a change.org petition if you don’t!
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Very nice work, Sir. Quite the eclectic mix of models making up the band. Your sculpt work is coming along very very well, so well I didn’t realize just how much of the ogre was sculpted, and was wondering where the model came from. Well done, and congrats on the Silver!
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So so so so good. Song many memes and Easter eggs. Expertly executed.
Well done
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I almost forgot. Love the Pain and Panic sculpts! Weirdly coincidental, my paint colors on the gargantuan bull centaur were inspired by Nessus from the same film.
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Wow, what a cornucopia of easter eggs and weird and wonderful creations! Exquisitely sculpted, imaginatively thought-out, hilariously referential and sporting a great paintjob. What’s not to love about this wild bunch?
Pain and Panic and Hades are cherry on top of the cream!
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Some of these little creatures/objects make me think of beauty and the beast cartoon. What about daemonic versions of those? A walking cauldron with a demon face on with an imp stirring the ichor inside. A few crazed 
imps after drinking it. Or your verson of the demon toilet. 
a possessed carriage with a chaos dwarf driver? Or a daemonic death roller. you probably have far better ideas.
Your entry was really really good again as usual. Well done!
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Dang, you’ve outed my cartoon inspiration!
Guess I’ll add another screenshot to my familiars ideas sub-folder titled “Grace of Zodd”
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Well this is nothing short of incredible, don’t even know where to start with all this incredibleness.
The Ogre was a favourite of mine before I realised just how much of it was sculpted 
The SpongeBob references and those legit dangerous looking hobgoblin stringed conversions would be a close second if not for the stone tortoise, wow.
Love the ideas you consistently come up with for these competitions and how well you execute them
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Very funny! and a fitting idea for a bull centaur scheme.
Thanks all for the kind words! Doubtless there will be more familiars to come. I am inching toward a second unit of 50… lurking somewhere near 38-42 I think, depending on how many of these musicians get pulled into other units.
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Mad, funny and brilliantly executed. What more can be said!
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In the wake of '22, the year of the BATG and therefore infantry painting, many single model projects were spurned. Alas, I wish my stalling on this project was confined to only last year. The origin of this model (similar to my siege giant) goes back to my childhood days collecting Mage Knight Black Powder Rebels. I’ve looted the wheels off of the original model and replaced the carriage with a Bionicle-adjacent lego piece that looked vaguely nautical. The SIEGE HIPPO is largely unmodified except for a beard.
Added bits from the Chaos Warshrine and gorebeast chariot (I think)… trying to match my own trim to that style.
Mandatory squid figurehead, a killa kan saw to make the demon mouth (“rudder”), two spellcrow dwarfs for crew, and a lot of pain in the arse heat gun work to make the hitch and rigging line up.
Overall, it’s about how I pictured it. This has been in the pile of ideas since nearly day 1 of my Chaos Dwarf army, and the model more than 15 years old. Although I’m kind of glad I waited as I really like the crew models that ended up falling in my lap very recently. Hopefully it gets painted soon…
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Really nice conversion. I like the fish helm dude too. Ive never seen him before. Alot of painting required in this project
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Utterly fantastic. I love the fact you had a siege hippo. His beard is a great touch too
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On a whim I decided to resurrect some old LotR models from my childhood. None had ever been based so I decided to square base them with magnets and make them serviceable as Chaos Dwarf servants.
As a kid I had converted some Harad to corsairs before the official corsair release which I then purchased. I’ve retained (or upgraded) some of my old conversions for nostalgia.
Scale differences and whatnot aside, I like how they turned out as a unit of mercs. Might this spiral into an “allied” Dogs of War faction? I used way too many colors to polish up a unit of chaff… So much for speed painting. The command was an excuse to paint up some Black Numenoreans as three pirate princes.
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