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The brown cloth was made using a base mix of chaos black and graveyeard earth. For the later highlight, I just added more graveyeard earth.

It's bad that I haven't been able to update the Chaos Dwarfs lately. I had my first battle (500 points, allied to Ogres) last weekend against Wood Elves (and Skaven). It was quite a show, my Earthshaker blew up with his first shot the Blunderbussiers killed a handful of Dryads before being crushed by a treeman and the Hobgoblin Bolt Thrower failed to kill a single rat. Oh, and my scorcerors didn't achieve anything either, but it was still a lot of fun. My combat results were usually better than those of my big-bellied ally. ^^

Currently, I am tied up with a 40k project, but worry not, more Dawi Zharr are still in the pipeline!

The hats are about 10-11mm high. The tallest one is the "Marauder Drum"-one, with approx. 13mm height.

Bull Centaurs, yay - as soon as I have finished the last regiment of warriors and my 20 Black Orcs!

Sorry for having been off for so long, guys. I got tied up by gas-masked and servo-armoured thingies!

Ishkurs Chaos Dwarfs shall be back with force soon. I already issued new whips to my slave masters to get some work done.

Oi! My Khan got more credit through the Golden Hat than a lowly hobgoblin deserves, yet I am happy so many of you liked it! Here are some larger pictures - to show all the painting mistakes which the small format of the pictures in the GH thread so kindly masked.






And this is how I made him - lo, a lot of text ahead! ^^




My hobgoblin boss, Khan Ögedei Nosebiter, had a mount already in the first sketches. But the GW wolves are quite static and tend to get boring as you run out of creative options how to assemble them (there are only about two, really). So it was clear for me that I needed to do some heavy converting to make his mount a bit more interesting!

I wanted to show the wolf in mid-motion, looking for prey, maybe a bit like a hound and had a special paw position in mind. So I checked Wikipedia's entry on wolves and found that the pose is indeed possible. I cut all the legs and ankles of the wolf on several joints and completely repositioned them. I also wanted the wolf head to look to the side, other than all other wolves in the squad. The resulting gaps were filled with brown stuff and lots of fur and skin were then resculpted over that with the softer green stuff.

In the end I was really happy with how the wolf turned out, more so after the painting. I'm more happy with the wolf actually than I am with the rider. :/

Hobgoblins are more a type of allies for the Chaos Dwarfs, not real slaves as the other greenskins. I mean, they might be wretched allies, but are allies nonetheless - so I went for a rather bold leader, with sashimono back banners, trophies and the biggest hat of all!!

At first I researched my Osprey book for Mongol Warriors for possible weapon and armour designs, but in the end I just based the design on that of the other wolf riders.

As I had a spare Oglah Khan miniature (I bought two boxes to make my unit of 10), I cut it apart at the waist line and discarded the upper body. The legs were used without any further conversion. The torso, fur and armour are built from scratch using brown stuff and green stuff. The arms are from Chaos Marauders (the left one is actually a metal right arm from the Marauder horsemen turned upside down. You don't see it under the shield but it has the thumb on the wrong side of the hand *g*) the sword blade was made from milliput and filed to look pointier, then attached to the hilt of a Skeleton sword and pinned to the plastic hand. The face is a brown stuff cast off a sneaky git, with a resculpted chin and new, half-curly brown stuff beard. The leather and fur of the helmet were scratch-made in several layers of green stuff.

I think the helmet is probably the best part of the rider, as it turned out really nice.
The worst part of the rider however is the cloak of fur on his back, that's supposed to cover the harness for the banner poles. The fur just didn't turn out the way I wanted it!

The shoulder pads were also quite tricky, as they look simpler on the GW models than they are. I think they look fine after painting, but don't look like a convincing piece of scale mail or studded leather. If I use these on the Bull Centaurs; I'll need some practicing first.

I inverted the shield colours and painted the wolf differently from the others to make the boss stand out - but as it turned out this wouldn't have been necessary as the boss became a lot larger than planned - he stands about one head taller than the other wolf riders, which I guess is quite an impressive build for a hobgoblin! ^^

I am glad so many of you liked the model. I for my part definitely enjoyed the converting and painting, and I hope my boss will cut some throats nicely during the next battles!

Hehe nothing special about the wolf, regular highlighting and drybrushing technique. The wolf incl. base only took me an evening to paint. The rider was more demanding.

Yes, there is this terrible spot - right over there!

Theoretically it would be possible to cut off the hats after the resin has hardened to a degree. But the bodies don't look that much different, so I don't think anyone would see the effect.

I have however thought of sculpting a 6th model to add to my units. But finishing the existing stuff should have priority over that!

The horned skull? That's already sculpted on, straight from GW. ^^

Nothing special really, those parts closer to the light source (i.e. the lava pool) are painted in brighter colours than those a bit further away. The parts where no light would get to (the other side of rocks etc) are left in the shadows. Surprised?

I usually paint the brightest spots on the rocks with less highlights than the final highlights in the lava. It's just a reflection after all. I do believe though that there are much better lava effects out there than mine.

Well, I think searching for "lava base" in google should already produce some suitable links!

I paint most of the stuff with regular Citadel paints. I recently bought the foundation paint "Mechrite red" and use it a lot on the Chaos Dwarfs. I also have some Vallejo paints, but these are mostly browns and greys.

Since my progress on the army is currently very slow, I figured to show some of my current concept designs instead of new minis.

My dark thoughts currently spin around scratch-made bull centaurs and immortals, the terrain piece idea is a bit older already.


Some sketches for possible designs of 'immortal' armour, masks and weapons. I imagine these guys are totally enclosed in armour from top to bottom. As I want to (if ever) sculpt my immortals completely from scratch, the design can be totally independent from any existing plastic parts by GW.


My idea for a possible bull centaur design. This one is a more fierce and beast-linke avatar of Hashut and should look a bit less civilized than the existing models who are clad in quite ornate armour.


A design concept for a bull centaur's buckler. The outline is supposed to fit better to the body shape of a centaur when held in the left hand than a regular round shield would (dunno if this sounds as if it makes sense at all..).


The tomb of Gnar. An idea for chaos dwarf architecture; turned out to look like a type of monument rather than a temple or tomb. When I drew this one I had no idea what chaos dwarf writing could look like, so the inscription in the pedestal might look a bit weird.

Totally agree with you there - I imagine the regiment front rank should look like one big wall of armour. I have not found a design yet that I can really fall in love with. I'll keep trying.

!!!!

There would certainly be no possible legal objection to that! I'd probably just have to stay away from any GW-ish symbols like the rune of Hashut or so.

Hehe I should give up my job and start sculpting miniatures for a living!

...that may mean though that I would have to live in my car for a few months, eat dry bread and cancel my internet connection. Which in turn means that I won't be able to visit CDO anymore! So maybe it's not a good idea after all.

Yes the one in the bull centaur drawing is my favourite design. If I ever create a fifth type of head of my warriors, this one might be it. ^^

Hehe good find - not many mask/helmet style Chaos Dwarfs in my drawings, are there!

@WarplockMonkey: you shall stop to consistently mistype my name - or Hashut will have your beard fall off!

@gIL^ sorry mate, no way. If I ever finish the 100% original Immortal sculpts, I will be free to sell them en masse, though!

I took some parts that were ready available in my kitchen, some are tips of icing bags, I also used two chaos marauder's drums and stuck them together.

Fellow Dwarfs of Fire, I am quite happy to be able to show some progress with my army. Although I know I should not be working on anything but the required standard units yet, I felt the need to realize something more interesting - my Taurus.

This is quite a bit of work, actually since I found no suitable bull model to base the Taurus conversion on. So I bought a pack of Fimo (a godsend, this stuff) which allowed me to build the basic shape of the model quite quickly. For those of you who don't know this, it's a kind of modelling clay that is baked in the oven and gets rock hard, so does not need to put somewhere to dry over many hours. The below basic sculpt was finished in 4-5 evening sessions.









Still missing are the General riding on that beast and maybe one or the other detail added, or refined. In the end I want the Taurus to be entirely black and glowing from the inside through the cracks in the skin, similar to the Balrog. And yes, these are Balrog wings, the only thing that looks good IMO.

Hope you like it!

"Fimo soft" is the brand that I used and I found it is quite easy to sculpt and not brittle at all, especially as it is hardly sticky at all and you won't need to use wet tools all the time. I agree though that fine details are almost impossible to sculpt, that's were the green stuff really pays off.

The body was indeed my first go, the head was tricky however and in the end I went with the third one that I made. I'll try to make the rider this weekend and do the first paint sessions next week. So stay tuned!

Of course! Go ahead and please Hashut with a worthy Taurus!

Good point about the tusks, I'll definitely add these! Have to be careful though, it should not look like a mutated boar...

I wouldn't drop it! I didn't need an armature for the body, but the legs were pinned before baking, to make the connection a bit stronger. And the pin that connects the Taurus to the base is quite long, and basically goes through the whole leg to make sure the connection will be strong and lasting.

Sure, feel free to post suggestions for the rider! I have a concept ready, but I am not sure yet with which parts I am going to realize it...

I am torn when it comes to the armour for the Taurus. Basically, it would definitely look cool, but then again I think a mighty avatar of Hashut won't need no armour! This is not final yet, however, and I will have to add a few things here and there anyway during the next days.