Chaos Allies - Chaos Dwarves

It’s been a long time since I painted up a full Warhammer unit and, if truth be told, it broke my hobby mojo. But after a break, I’ve come back determined to complete it (and other unfinished projects). The unit consists of the original Chaos Dwarf Renegades as command, a Chaos Ogre for some beef and visual height and a range of the classic Citadel Chaos Dwarves which I had slowly collected over a number of years. This unit will form the backbone of my Chaos Allied list from Warhammer Armues 3rd Edition, which is now complete! I’ll take photos of the entire contingent kater. For now, here’s them Dwarves:

A Chaos Ogre for my Chaos Dwarves

As I slowly complete the rest of my rank and file Chaos Dwarves, I decided to add a classic Citadel Chaos Ogre to the ranks, to add a bit of height and interest. He’s armoured in a similar way to the Dwarves and certainly has the chaotic look about him that ties him right in with the twisted Stu ties. I went for a strong red armour which was fun to paint and contrasted it with a paler skin tone.

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:

Chaos Dwarf Renegades

This is one of my favourite pieces of box art from Games Workshop back in the 80's, by John Blanche of course. The triangular composition gives a imposing height to the Chaos Stunties (what is the Master of Madness standing on at the top?) and the contrasting black armour with warm oranges gives an apocalyptic feel to the image. It feels a bit like a last stand for the Renegades, weapons drawn, back to back facing in different directions as they bid to make their stand against an advancing foe on the battlefield.

I've often wondered about their background and my initial knowledge was scant; I remember that the Old Dwarfs tunnelled deep and further North, until some went too far and were cut off from their brethren. The incursions of Chaos came and those isolated, North Eastern most Dwarfs became tainted by the touch of Chaos. So I've tried to do a bit of research about the Renegades in particular. Are they Renegades because they have turned to Chaos or are they renegades within the Chaos Dwarf community? White Dwarf 79 shows their release which hints at how Dwarfs have previously been seen as incorruptible:

And White Dwarf 80 gives us this more detailed information:

On Norse Dwarfs:

"The power of the Chaos Gods had touched and polluted the minds of the Dwarfs and they had turned to the worship of those foul, unfathomable deities. The other Dwarfs shunned them, but the gods were kind, gifting their more dedicated warriors with untold power, honouring them with the mark of chaos. Today the Chaos Dwarfs honour the gods in turn, shedding blood, pursuing slaughter for it's own sake, spilling libations of blood and burning their captives so that the gods may taste the stuff of life. In the Old World they hire out as mercenaries or join with bands of wandering chaotics, Warriors of Chaos or Beastmen.

Chaos Dwarfs are less swarthy than ordinary Dwarfs, their skin is pallid, greenish or even dead white. Their hair is normally black or very dark. Armour and clothing is black and they dress and behave in a manner similar to other Warriors of Chaos"

The last segment is most precious for me, I enjoy reading, as a painter, about how these characters/miniatures may appear, so when I come to paint I'll have some concept of how Chaos Dwarfs were imagined by the design team. Of course, this is not the be all or end all and I usually go my own way when painting, but I do like the description of "pallid and dead white skin, black armour" (which of course this ties in with the box art again) and inspires me to paint my own collection in this style.

 Finally on the back of the boxed set it says about the Renegades:

The box art illustration of course shows each of the eight Chaos Dwarfs that come in the boxed set and upon further investigation I remembered that each of them was named; Master of Madness, Khazek Doomlord, Foaming Mad Furrikson, Doomaxe the Dreaded, Mad Marik Trollbiter, Drum and Drome Ollsen, Napper Grundrin and Pulper Spikehead. This old habit of naming little miniatures gives them a little bit of extra character as I can imagine how some of them have acquired such titles and of course ties in with some of the Chaos attributes they have been given and sculpted with.

I never owned the boxed set as a kid, even though I always wanted to, but as an adult I have now collected the eight models and have started to paint them with my research in mind. Here are the eight Renegades (note the variation of metal colour - the three brighter ones are obviously much later in release, the duller ones much more likely to be from the 80's castings):

I considered recreating the box art by having the Master of Madness on a palanquin, or even raised on a stony outcrop with his guards less raised either side of him to create the triangular composition, but decided against this is in the end as I wanted to create a unit of them. I couldn't just field 8 Chaos Dwarfs, and because I love the models so much, I ended up collecting a few more to create a unit of 20. The Chaos Ogre was left over from a previous project and seems to fit in quite well with the short ones.

Here you can see how I've started to sculpt some Chaotic shields, using some of the illustrations from the Realms of Chaos books as inspiration. The standard bearer may well carry a banner that pays homage to the original box art by John Blanche..

Painting is underway, you can see some wip in the background of the above shot. Until next time...

Chaos Allies - Chaos Dwarf Machines of War

Just the two Chaos Dwarf warmachines to add to the contingent (unfortunately I don’t have a swivel gun, tenderiser, whirlwind or juggernaut just yet), so here’s a mortar and a bazooka to add a little distance support to my force:

Chaos Allies - Chaos Dwarf Beserkers

These have been half painted for an age, so I forced myself to sit down and paint over the weekend, as I've had a barren time and little enthusiasm for the paint brush recently. These Marauder Slayer models have been re-purposed as Chaos Dwarf Beserkers to join my Chaos Allied force (the Contingent Commander - visible in the background - can be seen here).

 I love the character of these sculpts, even though there are typical Marauder features with the too large hands and feet and I figured that with a colourful approach to the painting and by tying them in with the basing that they would sit comfortably amongst my other Chaos models. 

I hope I've got a bit of my painting mojo back, but my next few posts will show me adding my already painted Centaurs and Minotaurs to the force whilst I continue painting some of the Citadel Chaos Dwarfs to complete the contingent.

The Bestiary of the Exalted and the Unfortunate

Quite a while ago, over at the Oldhammer Forum, I signed up for a community project to create a conversion for each of the entries from the list of random Champions found in the Lost and the Damned book - a serious undertaking! There are already a host of excellent and imaginative conversions and paint jobs on that thread, so the standard is set pretty high.

I chose this particular entry with a host on interesting attributes to create, for my first go:


160 --- Dwarf --- Horrible stench, all arms tentacles, multiple heads (3), bestial face on 2 heads (goat) and featureless head on 3rd

I had an unwanted Marauder Dwarf troll-slayer lying around ready to be mutilated! Only recently I was reminded of my participation and so therefore bought my conversion out of the depths of my "to paint" tray and, well painted him:

I went for a realistic skin tone and alternative blonde/ginger hair for the beards and hairstyles so as to not make the model too busy with lots of bold and vibrant colours. The cool blue of the trousers were deliberately chosen to counter the other warm colours used.

The conversion was pretty simple really; some careful snipping off of his arms, some delicate gouging of his eyes and nose followed by some wire pinned into position for where the tentacles would go. The two beastmen heads were glued in place and some greenstuff used to sculpt the tentacles around the wire armature. The weapons were finally added and then all the gaps were filled and some additional hair sculpted to hide some of the unsightly gaps between the multiple heads.

His backstory?:

From a young age Bromni eschewed all contact with his kin; their mundane conversations, lowly ambitions and monotony of routine angered him. As soon as was possible he up and left, leaving his family without even a goodbye. He had decided to go on grand adventures, explore the world and live life to the full. It was of course destiny that he should eventually join up with a cult of dwarfs known as Trollslayers; those destructive warriors that look to defeat their enemies or face certain death. Working alone with just their axe as company. This was perfect for Bromni.

And he was good at it. Trolls were slain and his reputation as a fierceome slayer grew. He hated the adulation that he started to receive - other adventurers seeking him out, wealthy Dwarves looking to offer him money to fight their enemies, so it was unsurprising that Bromni withdrew further from civilisation and wandered further north into the chaos wastes looking for a true fight. 

Everything changed for him one fateful day. He had tracked down a group of trolls to a marsh somewhere in the realm of chaos. But, unbeknownst to Bromni these trolls were led by a powerful sorcerer. Bromni slayed the seven trolls after a fierce fight and was cleaning his axe when the sorcerer returned from an errand. He feigned ignorance of the trolls and instead showed Bromni exaggerated respect and offered the young dwarf an ale. Over the ale the sorcerer skillfully asked questions of Bromni and discovered his desire to fight bigger foes and his disdain for company. The sorcerer saw his opportunity to punish the Dwarf, casting a multiple head spell, where the heads of the next two enemies slain by the dwarf would begin to grow next to his own head. It was not long after this chance meeting that Bromni slayed a warband of beastmen and of course the heads of two of these beasts began to appear from his shoulder. The horror of this situation broke the young dwarf and he wandered for days with the constant chatter and braying of the beastmen always accompanying his every waking moment. It was of course no surprise when the sorcerer re-appeared and offered Bromni salvation as a follower of his chaos god. The path to damnation was set....

A Chaos Dwarf Mortar

I painted this up for a small challenge on the Warhammer Forum, entitled "Rise of the Machines". Originally I was going to finish converting and then painting a Nurgle Chariot, but it became too lengthy and so as to meet the deadline I switched to this model, thinking it would be easier.... 

However the detail is not as crisp as it could be, making painting detail a challenge and I also really struggled with a colour scheme. After a few aborted attempts I went for this (I am at least pleased with my perseverance if not the outcome itself):

I went for a Mario Bros feel for the faces on the mortar-balls and used some etched brass for the first time on the fern leaf you can see here. I've thrown in a couple of old-school checks too.

They were also a nightmare to photograph!

So there's always a plan. For these guys they will be part of an in progress 3rd Edition Chaos Allies list which will ally with my, in progress, Nurgle Army. Everything is "in progress", One day I'd really like to tick off one of my many projects...

So where next, Jes Goodwin Ogres, Family Heroquest, LotD retinue table or the Orc Bloodbowl team? I'll see how I feel next time I sit at my painting table.

Retinue Table: D8 Chaos Dwarfs

So whilst I've been uploading all my recent images, this is what I've been working on in the background - Chaos Dwarfs.

I've always loved the Marauder Slayers and have slowly collected them from ebay (having sold my originals many moons ago) and I've only made a few small conversions to some which I picked up that were already damaged. I decided to use a range of different palid skin tones (washed onto a white undercoat) and brighter colours for their hair to create a chaotic looking group.

When I have time I'd like to add some tattoos too.

And here they are all together (bloody pain to rank up!).

Eventually these will become part of my Chaos Allies (another 6 to be added to make the magical Nurgle 14) as Chaos Dwarf Beserkers, but that is a long time in the future behind many other bright ideas I have....