The Chaos Dwarf Renegades

After some time, I've finally got back into my hobby, picking up where I left off with my version of the classic Citadel Chaos Dwarf Renegades. My paint job has been inspired by John Blanche's original illustration that was on the box art, using black, yellow and orange as the main colours and then based to fit in with the rest of my Chaos Allied Contingent.

The banner was a bit of a cop-out, printed onto stiff paper (although I think I will weather it a bit). I was going to try and paint my own version of the iconic illustration but didn't want anything else to hinder my, already drawn-out, progress with these:

The Master of Madness:

Drum and Drone Ulsen:

Napper Grundrin:

Foaming Mad Furrikson:

Doomaxe the Dreaded (now promoted to standard bearer as he snapped his axe in a duel with The Postman):

Khazek Doomlord:

Mad Morik Trollbiter:

Pulper Spikehead:

The Minotaur and a tale of butchery and salvation.

During the last month I've had some hobby time out partly enforced by work commitments and partly lack of motivation. So to get out of my slump I painted up a conversion I completed some time ago. Now I have realised recently that I've always subconsciously divided my work into two distinct camps; convert the fuck out of new plastic or carefully collect and paint old lead. I give no value to plastic but hold the lead in a high regard, mostly because of nostalgia and of course the fact that it is oop (certainly from Citadel anyway). So I thought it was time to change that, I'd always been inspired by the lead conversions from White Dwarf back in the day, so let it be my turn to return to something I thought nothing of as a teenager in the 80's. Time to break out the jewellers saw and the pliers and get to work...

Now I didn't approach this willy-nilly, I chose a lead model that I wanted to paint up (i.e. it is one of my complete collection of the Citadel Minotaur Lords) but one in which the sculpt is a bit shit and could be improved upon by me. With this sculpt I always felt that the head looked odd without a neck and that the arms were disproportionate (i.e. Too short) and strangely tethered to the sides of the body (no doubt due to casting constraints) so I chopped it all off and ended up with this:

A new pointing arm from an Ork was added to give him the look of a leader and a mid-hammer minotaur head that had a bit more menace about it:

Now I didn't want to completely discard the chopped off pieces and decided to re-use them on the conversion. With the head I thought that it would be fun to make a three headed minotaur with the new head in the middle and the old one (and a re-mould of it) on the other. I'm a sucker for symmetry. So I used the Instamould to get a cast of the head:

And filled it with milliput initially:

Which really didn't work so went with greenstuff the second time around which really worked surprisingly well: 

I also re-used the club which I had earlier cut off; attaching it the belt behind him:

And re-sculpting the haft with some milliput:

Here with the two heads re-attached and banner pole inserted:

And some additional work on the pole, garden wire wrapped around the paper clip to help me sculpt a gnarly old tree and a plastic vulture perched atop:

The final greenstuffing on the banner pole and some old-school mushrooms on the base:

And then decided to add some plastic horns and a bell to add some more detail:

Now of course there was another source of inspiration with this build; John Blanche's esteemed minotaur banner bearer which also has multiple heads and a myriad of other conversions:

So I too went to town on the banner design, following a more obvious route of Greek Mythology for the banner image:

I think it's an improvement on the original.

Now onto the rest of my collection of Minotaur Lords...

Freehand banners, my collection so far (plus a tutorial)

Here's my latest freehand banner, the first model for my Bitzbox Warband, a cowman, carrying an image borrowed directly from Fighting Fantasy's Trial of Champions (Illustrated by Brian Williams):

Here's the illustration which I copied, I found it quite appropriate for a beastman unit and this standard bearer also has a Skaven head at the top of the pole to re-emphasise the rat-theme.

So here's a short step-by-step of how I created this banner, which is pretty much the same technique I use for all my freehand banners:

The piece of cartridge paper was drawn to size (based on the size of the space on the banner pole) and two lengths kept at the banner end for attachment. This was then cut to size with a scalpel. It was painted with bleached bone on both sides and washed with a sepia mix to exaggerate the creases I had already added.

At this point you can see a very fine ink outline being applied, taking care to ensure accuracy.

Most of the outline has now been applied and some detail and tone can be added.

By adding a touch less water to the ink, it becomes more opaque and I can build up some darker tones and marks, while still leaving the lighter mars as they are.

At least three tones have been added. dark, medium and light.  The composition/placement of the image was a bit unsatisfactory as it left too much space at the top of the banner, so I decided to add some lettering. Partly inspired by the banners of Bryan Ansell's Chaos Army from Warhammer Armies and from the Beastman description in the Lost and the Damned, I decided upon "Children of Chaos".

Here you can see how I worked out the spacing for the lettering, 17 digits (including spaces) were drawn onto the paper next to the banner and then the letters were painted on within that space. I wish I had placed them a few millimeters lower..

The final stage was to add a frame around the banner to give it a bold edge and keep the image grounded and then some red to the eyes of the rat, a yellow Nurgle emblem in the space to the left of the design and finally some very pale white washes in the areas of highlight on the rat and skull. I just find this helps make it "pop".

So there you go. All that was left was to attach the banner to the pole with some superglue and when dried I then tweaked, teased, bent the banner to give it a sense of movement. Ideally the banner should have come off the pole at a greater angle, closer to horizonal, to capture the sense of movement as the beastman runs, but I had to settle for the appearance of it being caught in a breeze across the model.

Having completed this model I realised that I was quite proud of the numerous freehand banners I have created in my collection, so I thought I'd put them all into one post for you to see (and for me to do some sort of geeky cataloging):

From my small Chaos Cultist warband, based on an illustration by Bob Harvey.

From my Rensburg (wip) army 

My deamonic banner for the plaguebearers, Very similar to my cultist banner I realised as I documented these!

The banner for my mercenary ogres, the Rusty Flails. This illustration was from the Warhammer Armies book

For my small Orc Warband I used this illustration by John Blanche which I found in the 3rd Edition rulebook.

I wonder which your favourite is?

And here's the next standard bearer which I'll attempt, for my Beastman unit, but I'd like one of you to suggest an image for me to use here, ideally based upon oldschool gaming, so from one of GW's early (3rd edition or earlier) publications or from the Fighting Fantasy oeuvre:

Please post your ideas below, thanks in advance!

Orctober 2015. Finished Orc Warband.

The finished Orc Warband of the Orange Sun:

JugNugg Igg - Orc Shaman - Level 10 (Magic Teef)

Harnack - Underling Level 5 Orc (The Beserker)

Durz and his boyz - Orc Champion leading 7 Orcs

This warband was rolled up using Erny's Warband generator.

I've chosen some classic Orcs from my leadpile to create this warband. The only conversion is the banner as the original was tiny and I wanted to have a go at a big freehand design.

The first five I completed (I like Orcs in 5's and the symmetry of the leader in the middle and flanked by musician and standard bearer. I also decided to raise Durz on some rocks to make him look even meaner and bigger..

 I've also repeated the standard's motif on his breastplate with added black and white checks in the style of John Blanche

JuggNugg Igg and his bodyguard. The shaman is one of my favourites (I think because the model was used as the basis for the illustration of the Mercanary Shaman in Warhammer Armies) and I have also raised him up on some rocks. I believe he was originally supposed to be mounted on a boar, but I like his dancing pose here.


The Beserker just looks mental and is such a dynamic pose.


The other two orcs are slightly different looking to the other sculpts, with their elongated faces and narrow eyes. To me they look like distinct siblings so act well as a bodyguard for the slightly mad shaman.

I really wanted to go to town on a freehand banner. With previous Orc armies I eschewed the idea of a design ("how are those orcs ever going to get a beautiful banner design on a piece of cloth?") for more totemic versions. But here I've gone oldschool, being particularly influenced by John Blanche's .......... from p. of the WFB 3rd edition rulebook.

I also enjoyed doing a few freehand shields in the classic GW style with grotesque faces, this one's lifted from an illustration in Warhammer 3rd Edition Armies book:

Many thanks for looking and I hope you enjoy my contribution to Orctober 2015. Right, let's paint some Red Redemption cultists next, actually, no I'd better finish that minotaur and greenstuff my bitzbox warband...