The Fires of Industry - Home made Chaos Dwarves

Hi There
This is a second Gnoblog I've started to chart the progress of a project I've got going on the side. My first love is till my Change Eater Tzeentch Themed Ogres but this is something I've been thinking about for a while.

The Idea is to produce a 2000 point Chaos Dwarf Army. Don't get me wrong, I love the aesthetic of the classic big hat wonders, but an army of them would prove prohibitvley expensive as eBay tends to be the only way to go about it these days. The idea is to sculpt my own chaos dwarves with my own slant on them using no GW IP and no GW parts at all, then cast and reproduce enough to field an army. I've started this blog to chart the success (or failure ) of this project. A lot of members of the Stronghold have talked about casting minis so I thought this would be a useful rescource for my fellow ogres to have. Learn from my mistaes and all that

So where are we at right now? I've finished the first chaos dwarf and started on the second and come up with a rough army list in progress. So without further ado some pics:

This is the first of five great weapon wielding dwarves. I'll then cast enough to make my units. I went, rather than the babylonian imagery of GW's chaos dwarves with a more steampunk look, but also went for an aesthetic that was the antithesis of the classic GW dwarf imagery. My Dwarves are thinner, more wasted away and crucially, they seem to shun the use of axes and hammers, instead prefering swords and glaives.

I've moved on to the second dwarf in the unit (I'll be using unit to refer to a particular weapon loadout, e.g. I'll make 5 differant posed blunderbusses from that unit but the casts mike make two regiments inpractice). He's obviously still very wip biut as the scratch sulpting is the first stage of the project I'll post progress pics here:


And finally, on to the WIP List:
Sorcerer Lord     
Level 4         
Power Stone     
Dispel Scroll     
Staff of Sorcery   
         
Sorcerer     
Level 2         
Dispell Scroll X2   
         
Sorcerer     
Level 2         
Dispell Scroll X2           
         
Sorcerer     
Level 2         
Chalice of Darkness   
     
Death Rocket     

Death Rocket     

Death Rocket     

Death Rocket     
   
Earth Shaker     

Earth Shaker     
     
15 Warriors     
Blunderbuss     
         
15 Warriors     
Great Axe     
         
15 Warriors     
Blunderbuss     
         
15 Warriors     
Champion     
standard   

There'll be fluff and concept sketches to follow in the next few weeks,

As I said this will be a slow burning project but I hope it wil pay off and I hope you guys can get some useful info from it.

Thanks
Corai

cool idea! If you manages to cast your models, I'd be more than happy for a guide.

 - Kyte

4 Death Rockets and 2 Earthshakers?

I think it would be smarter to add another unit of warriors, maybe some hobgoblins or bullcentaurs, and a fighter hero.

Also 5 dispell scrolls sounds like a little too much to me..

Your first model is looking great, I'm looking forward to more greens and concept sketches!

Your army list looks like a "bastion" army. Nothing moves and it all resume to pounding the ennemy.
Movement is the key in Warhammer, we all know that. Ok you have Earthshakers but beware of troops with "infiltrate", flyers, other warmachines causing panic tests or units coming from table edges of their choice (gorgers come to my mind).
Second remark : wouldn't this army be a bit "boring" to play ? Diversity of troops brings fun to the game doesn't it ?
All in all, I see your army list more as the core of a bigger force, with more non CDs units to add color and flavor to it.
My 2 cents.

PS : what do you think of the "concept" chaos dwarves maning the Apocalyps canon ? I love those personnaly. They really look more evil than the previous generation of CDs GW did. Back to the roots !
PS bis : which death rocket do you use ? The one manned by hobgobs or the original rocket launcher on the shoulder of a cd ( http://www.solegends.com/citcat88/0312dwfsets.htm ) ?

I like the idea and all BUT I should probably mention that the easy (and GW accepted) way of making a Chaos Dwarf army is using regular dwarf and Greenskin models, and converting them.

On the model: I must admit, I don't really like it. The greenstuff work is exemplary, but the weird gasmask makes it look far too Skaven, and I don't think the sword really fits in with the Chaos Dwarf background (but then again, I've always been a fan of the Assyrian theme). I feel u should probably make the sword a little narrower, but whatever, its ur model. Just to reassure, the GS modelling is brilliant, I just don't really like the model itself.

Seems like CDs are really popular at the moments. Check out these blogs:
http://warhammer.org.uk/PhP/viewtopic.php?t=22941
And:
http://warhammer.org.uk/PhP/viewtopic.php?t=23594

I might make a unit of DOW shooty CDs for my beastman army! If I do, I'll make them from scratch as you did!

 - Kyte

Thasnks for the feedback guys. As for the list, it's obviously very WIP. as I make more models I want some more diversity becasue I'm getting ideas for centaurs and wolfriders etc so I'll prbabley modify it this week.

For the death rocket I'll be building one from scratch that will probabley be a seperate machine to make it a little easier for the opponent to tel what they're shooting at!

As for the model: thanks for al lthe feedback (posiitve or otherwidse). I'm probabley going to leave the sword as is for great weaponsb ut make a much narrower one for regular warriors. I appreicate the mask is not to everyone's tastes, but I do have some bizarre obsession with aesthetic of gasmasks (wow that sounded far worse than it should have ). Maybe I had a past life experience with germ warfare or something...

Thanks
Corai

I did some more work on the second warrior. I'll post pics tomorrow as at the moment it just looks identical to the existing one. The armour on the arms will be differant and distinguishing and the great sword is being held aloft on the left shoulder. Pics tomorrow hopefully

Thanks
Corai

++UPDATE++

Finsihed the second Great Weapon Warrior. Like the first the weapon is currently unattached for ease of casting. I had some mahor trouble with the head of this one and it's a little too big as I had to add another layer to fix some mistakes. The armour is more varied and there's a little chainmail in there to carry the heavy armour theme.

A quick pic of the first rank developing. The next one is actually going to hold his great weapon in two hands (shock horror!)

I've been thinking about the hand weapon and shield warriors. The initial plan was to have them with swords and shields but I might represent the hand weapons with glaves of some kind now if I can come up with a  satisfactory design

Thanks
Corai

Looks great and at the speed you do this at is amazing
Tri

Absolutely LOVE the techy, steampunk feel you've given them. More important than the sculpting details is the feel a model has, and you've done that great.

Sweet sculpting as well. But, I have to ask - what is that wiry thing coming off their masks?

Vincenti

thanks, That wiry thing cvoming off their amsks is indeed wire (guitar string to be precise). It curls round and is tucked nder their beard. I nactual fact it plugs into the front of their armour and helps respirate the gas masks, but their beard covers it up. On the hand weapon and shield warriors (less prestigious than a great weapon) I may do shorter beards soi this is more obvious

Thanks
Corai

how much is a casting of your first one going to cost?

 - Kyte

Do you mean how much will it cost me to cast one, or how much with a view to selling them?

To be honest, I hadn't planned on selling any casts (never thought anyone would be interested) but if any stronghold members were interested I'd probabley just charge the cost of the materials plus postage.

Thanks
Corai

I'd be very interested in a casting of the first one, as its pose looks similar to one of GW's Dwarf Lords, and it could work as a hero for me. I don't plan to do an entire army, rather a DOW Dwarf Unit lead by a hero.

Where do you live? If it's a resin cast, it will weigh nothing and be cheap to send.

 - Kyte