I've been in the hobby for many yeras, and after suffering 40K burnout, decided to return to my artistic roots in WFB. I knew I wanted to work on something solely for artistic merit, not an army by any means. Army building makes me feel pressured, and drains the joy out of sculpting and painting for me.
Enter the Dawi Zharr. I loved the marauder line ages ago, and loved the direction they started to go in with their fluff during the "Big Hat" era.
The models then... not so much.
But we're talking about now, and it seems that the Dawi Zharr are in for a major overhaul in many ways in the next few years.
My question is, how do you gents feel about it? The new look and the possibility of "evolved" fluff?
It see the Big Hat Vs Mask arguement is pretty popular on the Hand of Hashut site. It's been done to death. I'm more curious about people's opinions of fluff and look in relation to each other.
I have taken the fluff and look very seriously for my conversions. Building on all the fluff from the White Dwarf Presents: Chaos Dwarfs book, mixed with the
Hellcannon, and going even further with
Grudge Bearer, I am attempting to modernize the Chaos Dwarfs for the 7th edition of Warhammer. If you look at my many conversions in the Conversion section, you will see the Hellcannon aesthetic throughout. But it is also joined by scale armour and the occasional hat on a hero. Additionally, I've stuck to axes and hammers to maintain a dwarven feel.
So from Fluff to Looks, I start with WDP:CD, and cross that with the look of the
Hellcannon and the fluff from
Grudge Bearer. So far I am very pleased with what I have. I am converting up more Warriors now. My
Immortals, should I elect to make them will be used as Chaos Dwarfs with Heavy Weapons. And my slave unit will be a mixed race unit consisting of 25mm based creatures counting as Orcs. So that's where I am headed, and I might make a Stag Taurus sometime once I have completed more.
Yes Xander, I did indeed look at your conversions. Very nice. Captures the look it seems the Dawi Zharr are heading in perfectly.
The hats... I tend to think they were rather appropriate for the times, representing the more ceramonial and sacrificial Dawi Zharr of yesterday. The new fluff (in Grudgebearer, Ogre Kingdoms and the like) and look (the Hellcannon crew) show a higher emphasis on rationality over ritual. It captures their role as brutal slavers and brutish artificers to a T, something I never really felt in the old models.
Seeing the updated fluff and models, I can see clearly these sun burnt, leather clad beasts toiling away on massive daemonic constructs, cracking whips and prodding with barbed tools the countless slaves doing menial labour under their control. Picture a mix between the scenes in the Fellowship of the Ring in which the Uruk Hai are being born and armor is being forged, spliced with Mad Max imagery. One has to wonder in what direction the blunderbusses will take, now that the Dawi Zharr are more Daemonic Forgemasters.
The masks add a level of otherworldly-ness to them. De-humanizes them. Makes them more enigmatic and terrifying to their slaves and enemies.
I understand 2009 is more than likely the projected target year for a new armybook. I'm glad to hear it, as we'll see Gav focus on them without having to worry about updateing an older book.
The masks add a level of otherworldly-ness to them. De-humanizes them. Makes them more enigmatic and terrifying to their slaves and enemies.
Similar to the Immortals in Frank Millar's 300 (in cinemas soon 
).
I quite agree with you, although I still think there's a dash of ritual, given the "scale-coated" priests in Grudgebearer.
In any case, Hotstuff, Xander, EE, and Snotling really capture the new direction of the Chaos Dwarfs for me.
And Grimstonefire's Brotherhood of Hashut/Temple Guard.
Yes, the priests perform rituals to awake the daemons in the war machines.
EE is set to release some of his new stuff sometime soon, I can't wait for that!
I quite agree with you, although I still think there's a dash of ritual, given the "scale-coated" priests in Grudgebearer.
True. Abit, but not an overbearing amount.
BTW, anyone else notice that this crewman...
Is wearing abit more armor than the others, and scales no less? That, coupled with the flaming wrench/axe, makes me wonder if we're looking at the first of these Hashut Priests of the Forge...
He's only wearing gauntlets and a mask. He has no armour on his torso. The pink fire is GS.
The
Grudge Bearer book is quite explicit in describing the Priest as being robed in scale coats. Coats, not a bib.
As for the fire issue..
Crewman with Pliers
I initially made a mistake when cleaning my crewmen. I thought the flames coming off the skull held by the Chaos Dwarf with the pliers were flash and immediately set about filing them down. About halfway through, I realized that I was filing down flames. I covered up my blunder by building up some exaggerated, serpentine flames to replace what I'd filed off.
http://us.games-workshop.com/games/warha...stakes.htm
As for the scale coat, you may very well be right. Still, perhaps this is merely a first attempt at portraying the Hashut Priests. After all, Grudge Bearer describes that these war machines are given life once they are on the battlefield. One of the crewman models could very possibly be meant to represent one of these priests.
I think I'll sculpt burning entrails being held in the pliers..
I don't argue that one of the crewman might have those duties.
They very well may.
The flames that he filed off are no where near as big as the ones he added. They are so small, I might just file them off anyways.
I tend to think they add character. I kept them myself. Pics as soon as I can.
Another thing I noticed. The mountains of skulls. Some of them have a huge ingot protruding from them, each with a flat skull adorning the top. The possible Hashut Priest carries these as well. Hmm...
Each model captures a role, IMO. The skull-mask bearer seems a slaver. Cruel weapon slung over back, pointing as if giving orders. I may have to add a few slaves to the base of my Hellcannon.
The shovel bearer is obviously there to feed the furnace.
The third? I'm sticking with possible Hashut Priest. After all, maybe his beard is covering the scalemail.
Another issue involving updated fluff I'd like to get opinions on. In the US 300th WD, there is a "Travelogue of the Ogre Kingdoms". In it was an interesting and ominous passage...
"
Sommerzeit 1st-12th
...The sight of the twisted and infamous Black Fortress to the east has not helped our spirits either. Frederico kindly regailed us with tales of flesh-eating Dwarf slavers who wear masks of iron and take their blacksmith's tools to their captives in brutal and lengthy displays of torture. If there is any truth to these stories, then I can understand why the local Gnoblar populace upped sticks and headed to the mountains. I intend to do the same at the earliest opportunity, once we have reached the city in the standing stones and recruited our guards. The barren, ash-choked plains and the threat of being inslaved by Daemon Dwarfs are no comfort, particularly because we are running out of rum."
Anyone else notice this?
No, I have never seen that, pretty cool.
"[i]Sommerzeit 1st-12th
hehe, i didn't know that the names of imperial months are german in english, too.. Sommerzeit ^^
hm, the story is cool... i wish there would be some new fluff written by GW... deamon dwarfs, this sounds very cool! 
Alot of the Imperal lingo is based on German. Like Reikland, Reik meaning river in German - I think, as I haven't studied it in ages.
One model that looks alot like the Immortals would is one of the old CD 3rd Edition minis. He crewed the Harpoon Gun, the one with the spear.
Alot of the Imperal lingo is based on German. Like Reikland, Reik meaning river in German - I think, as I haven't studied it in ages.
Yep, you mean the Rhein. once, i heard that the Empire fluff based on the "Heilige römische Reich deutscher Nationen", that was in the... i think it was the 15 th or 16th century or something... far away ^^
but in warhammer are many parallels with the real world, that's cool (or a loss of fantasy )
One model that looks alot like the Immortals would is one of the old CD 3rd Edition minis. He crewed the Harpoon Gun, the one with the spear.
Any chance you have a link to the image?
Hmm. Can't say I agree with you on that one. The chainmail-veil might be something, but that's about it, and I see Hobgoblins as more of the chainmail-users than Chaos Dwarfs.
I'd love to see a Hobgoblin with a chain-mail veil, his nose poking out of a hole in it.
According to the
Grudge Bearer description of
Immortals they wear "solid steel from head to toe" and have long sheathes of metal over their beards, and parts of their armour reinforced with solid marble or granite.
To me, that rules chain mail out.
I agree that any kind of elite dwarf unit should be in some kind of plate armour. I'm not really concerned with the novelized fluff too much for my conversions so far tho. It's definitely a good inspiration, but so far I've just been focusing on the "Chaos" bit of Chaos Dwarfs, kind of like the old Marauder concepts.... That is to say, they're all crazy nutters!
Also my sculpting skills are not yet refined enough to produce reliable uniforms
To be honest i agree with Ashur, and not just because of the similarity of our names
. The Assyrian look makes them somewhat unique in style and i think it should be kept, albeit with the hats maybe scaled down a bit.
The last thing i want to see is the Chaos Dwarfs going back to their original incarnation and just looking like short marauders.
Thankfully in the fluff at least, GW does seem to be keeping some of the Ancient Near East flavour of the Chaos Dwarfs, with the Immortals mentioned in Grudgebearer.