Hey y’all. Anders here from the Dane mark A short while ago I finished (unbelievably) my Skaven army after 14 years of on-and-off work.
I looked around for a secondary army and saw a post with a Fabelzel mini, and I was struck by the chorf bug Specifically the big hat bug. I love the juxtaposition of cutesy dwarfen fellows with silly hats that are simultaneously tyrannical, slavemongering diabolists.
In this blog I’ll document my process and progress, cause I feel like my take on the little guys is sort of unique - at least I couldn’t readily find someone who had done the same, so if anything I may help others to find inspiration for their short kings
The initial list of models was based on the Legion of Azgorh rules from Tamurkhan. For infantry, a solid block of infernal guard and 2x20 hobo archer chaff units.
Lots of war machines: a Zonk asscannon to stand in as a hellcannon, two deathshrieker rocket batteries, a dreadquake, and a sort of store-brand flame cannon (will probably replace that last one).
For characters I got a prophet on foot, a castellan (now seneschal) on foot, and 2-3 Daemonsmith Engineers. Also 2 mounted goblin Khans.
Mostly a mix of scanned metals and Fabelzel, along with the asscannon which is the only model from Zonk. I’ll have to sign up for the Patreon of @Brawniac for some later acquisitions, cause those sculpts are lit as all tomorrow
Firstly I wanted to decide on how to base the army, cause with my Skaven it had mostly been an afterthought, and as such, kind of sloppy.
I was against lava bases, since, come on, if you’re standing that close, you’re probably dead, blackshard armor or no. Instead I decided on a sort of desolate, cracked, ash strewn landscape with maybe a few tufts of hardy plants, as fits the description of the Dark Lands.
I ran through some different options for homemade crackle paste (one with baby powder - good for snow bases, it turned out, but not crackling ):
Eventually I went with a mix of hobby cement, acrylic paint, a bit of PVA glue and plenty of water on top of a layer of PVA glue. I liked the way this turned out:
Recently I acquired the 25mm bases on which I intend to out my infantry. I thought I was smart and base a bunch all at once, but I must have messed up the formula, cause they didn’t crackle as much as I’d have liked:
So this was the biggest hurdle for me (so far, at least ) I’m a sucker for keeping things vanilla, so I knew I didn’t want to veer too far from the original color scheme of the GW bighat army of yore. Even so, I had gotten a set of command guys too many, and they’d serve me as test subjects for various color compositions.
I doubled down on the red/gold/bone, but found that it was a bit much, and at a certain stage of painting it occurred to me that they looked like little santas. Suffice to say I was not digging that!
I tried to vary the beard color and put the blue some other places, but this was all a dud, in my eyes. Would I ever find a color scheme that I liked? (Foreshadowing)
Enter Blanchitsu and the Zorn palette. By chance I found out about these terms and immediately thought “that’s it!” The ochre, dark red and sepia was exactly what I was looking for. It also perfectly emphasizes the juxtaposition I so liked - the silly sculpts, painted in a grimdark fashion (while still being overall bright in color).
Third test and this was it for me (sorry for bad picture, it was screen capped from a video):
Because I’m preparing for a 1200pts tournament in April, I decided that I’d temper my ambitions in regard to my hobgoblins. Big mistake
I started out with a few test models that I didn’t quite like, and then I just went at 20 hobos with reckless abandon (and contrast paints), and it turned out like this:
And I was like f*****k, they look like ninja turtles Not in line with the overall color scheme at all. So I had to go over them multiple more times to desaturate and change the colors. Now I’m sort of satisfied, but I still need to tone down the red.
All in all I’m sitting at 7 or so axe guys (need 6 more, cause I’ll just use hobos as standard and musician), my Seneschal BSB who needs banners (more on that in a second) and the ~20 hobo archers:
Also forgot to mention: I’m doing NMM on the golds and axe blades, which is completely new to me, but I’m cracking on and I think especially the gold is getting ok.
I’ve also prepped the dreadquake for priming (switched out the resin banner pole, cause that was a break waiting to happen), and the deathshrieker + all crews.
As for banners, I’m going to be using printed paper ones, I believe, since my freehanding is questionable at best
I similarly aim to go classical, but with the grimdark/Blanchitsu pallette. With that in mind I edited up some OG banners like so:
For the Seneschal BSB:
And the dreadquake:
I’ll probably need to do a few iterations before I figure out the proper color values, but this is the gist of it. I’m excited to see how it looks all together
Thank you for following along I hope to bring some updates soon, with more Blanchitsu chorfs.
Since I’m working with a very limited palette, I have to mix paints a lot. That being the case, I get a lot of color variety, especially in the browns, I notice. I’m ok with it, but wondering if the axe hafts ought to be more uniform
I’ve got the NMM pretty much dialled down, and now I feel it’s just a matter of being sufficiently patient to pull it off.
I’m kicking myself not having painted the rest like this (the ones on the right), and am tempted to spray the other 17 white and start over. It was both faster and easier, and for sure better. That’s what I get for rushing with the paint scheme
Apart from that, I’m two steps forward and one step back on the bases. Made some with cork rocks and a new batch of crackle paste that crackled less than the previous batch. What a gyp I’ll make do with it. Paint it up a bit and hope it’ll be ok. Looks like this for now: (the cement on the new ones got all weird when I varnished it, too)
That’s it for now. I have 2x3 dwarfs left for the goal to be met (1 warrior, 5 war machine crew), and then I need to do the deathshrieker and dreadquake, then I’ll ve there. The battle is set to the 7th of march, so I’ll make it
It’s starting to look like a finished army now. Need the grass tufts, some varnishing, do the banners on the Seneschal, and do something about the base rims, otherwise this is it for the main units of my 1200pt starter army.
Speaking of the banners, I’ve fallen back in good order to the sofa, to try and make them look a bit more painterly. Will update soon.
Right, so my photo editing tool was not up to the task of editing the banners to where I was satisfied with them. I don’t have a printer at my place, so getting the size and colors just right would be a chore at best, and the army’s coherency is very dependent on the color scheme. Besides, I have to be ready in 1½ days, so I don’t have the time to be taking the printing path.
So! I decided, in the spirit of challenging myself, to go ahead and freehand the things after all. Here is a rough sketch and a test to see how big I need to make the banners for the Seneschal. I’m thinking they need to be a bit smaller, and of course a bit wavy.
Anyone who has tried this before, I’d appreciate any sort of tips. Are there any pitfalls I should be aware of? Also, what are the opinions on whether it’s cool to paint just the front of the banner…?
I painted the banners for my CD myself. Like you, I made black and white copies and sized them accordingly
Depending on the colour of the banner later, it can help to copy the lines as faintly as possible.
Or with, in Germany I know it as Butterbrotpapier, a very thin almost transparent paper with which you can see through and trace. It’s best to use a soft pencil.
I make the colour a little more fluid than with my miniatures and paint the light areas first and then move on to the dark areas, otherwise it will be quite difficult to achieve the necessary opacity.
Appreciate it, thanks. I did pretty much exactly what you detail here, although working on such a small surface was excruciating with my eyesight (and I left my glasses in the car). Holy neck pain
I added a NMM gold border, which was so-so, and stuck them onto their respective banner poles. In hindsight I should have made the Seneschal banners go the same way, but maybe I can still save it. This is how it looks now:
Hey thanks a lot man Yeah this is all painted a bit faster than I’d maybe have liked, but I’m kind of rushing to get ready for a tournament. I’m cool with most of it looking good from a distance. At this moment I have two hours to finish the death rocket / deathshrieker and crew + a Daemonsmith:
My first TOld World battle Alas, I didn’t make it to put paint on my Daemonsmith, thus he will henceforth be known as Kerspar the Unfriendly
I’ll make a separate post with a battle report, but here I’d just like to mention that I found my fledgling army to be quite handsome on the battlefield, if I do say so myself (hideous movement trays notwithstanding)
I’ve not been idle, however. The battle made me realize that I need some greenskins that aren’t complete weaklings and cowards (looking at you, hobgoblins). Thus, I spent effort - and a considerable investment - on hunting down the OG chaos dwarf black orcs. I presently have “one of each”, except the unicorn one, I’m not a fan of him:
What a blobby mess I’ll need to refine the process, but I don’t have time, so I am going to paint up the blorcs I have and make do with some creativity to fill out the unit despite my lack of bodies.
A short while ago I finished (unbelievably) my Skaven army after 14 years of on-and-off work.
Specifically the big hat bug. I love the juxtaposition of cutesy dwarfen fellows with silly hats that are simultaneously tyrannical, slavemongering diabolists.
):
) I’m a sucker for keeping things vanilla, so I knew I didn’t want to veer too far from the original color scheme of the GW bighat army of yore. Even so, I had gotten a set of command guys too many, and they’d serve me as test subjects for various color compositions.
Not in line with the overall color scheme at all. So I had to go over them multiple more times to desaturate and change the colors. Now I’m sort of satisfied, but I still need to tone down the red.
I hope to bring some updates soon, with more Blanchitsu chorfs.
I’ll make do with it. Paint it up a bit and hope it’ll be ok. Looks like this for now: (the cement on the new ones got all weird when I varnished it, too)
Alas, I didn’t make it to put paint on my Daemonsmith, thus he will henceforth be known as Kerspar the Unfriendly 
(hideous movement trays notwithstanding)
