Our story begins around 1996, I went to a GW shop with a friend who collected Wood Elves and Greenskins, and picked out my first model – the Chaos Dwarf Sorcerer. I can’t recall what first drew me to Chaos Dwarfs, it could have been the big hats, it could have been that they were evil dwarfs of industry, it could have been the brutal machines of war, in any case they were my first army. Gothmog the Sorcerer was soon joined by three boxes of plastic warriors and a command group, a Death Rocket, a small unit of Black Orcs, and a mounted Hobgoblin Hero. That’s basically where the army stayed for a while.
For the first decade of the new millennium I slowly increased the number of models in my assembly/painting backlog, picking up Bull Centaurs, Blunderbuss, an Earthshaker, some Greenskins, a Great Taurus and Lammasu (and riders). I was also able to get a Hellcannon and some excess crew in 2006.
I joined CDO in 2009, just in time to sign up for the Zargod sculpt and custom dice order. The next big expansion of the army occurred in 2011 when I purchased a very well painted force from another member on CDO (Biggy). This purchase allowed me to offload some of the models languishing in boxes and was also just in time for the release of the Legion of Azgorh. While I liked the look of the Infernal Guard, they did not fit with the rest of my army so I focused on adding the hat-wearing elite and new war machines to my host. Shortly after I also added a GW LOTR Balrog as my K’daai Destroyer, as well as a number of Dweller in the Dark as my K’daai Fireborn.
This past decade I’ve been whittling away at the model backlog, converting models where I wanted something different, and adding models that interested me from third parties. I managed to get my whole army out on a table before my latest house move (they are now all safely packed away in foam).
I can’t remember who posted it (and I can’t find the thread), but this page helped immensely in documenting my army: Photographing Miniatures – Tales From The Aaronorium. In the coming week I’ll gradually upload photos of all of the individual units. In the interim, panorama of the full army (with some photoshopping for the background):
I made a small modification to the back of the throne, and added a banner. Also, the rider is magnetised – all of my riders are interchangeable between their mounts.
Incredible. Beautiful army, and impressively vast host! Great conversions, great vision and great painting. I really love everything you’ve done with the special characters.
This big hat army is the stuff of legends! :26:
The Father of Darkness must surely be content with your offering. :21:
