Guide to alternative big hat chaos dwarf miniatures

It has been about eighteen years since I started collecting big hat chaos dwarfs.  My first minis were the single pose plastic ones and I still remember my outrage at Games Workshop when they reduced the amount of minis in a box from ten to eight- an early sign of the disappoint GW would impose on chaos dwarf collectors over the next sixteen years until the release of the excellent tamurkhan book by forge world.

Anyway, GW rants are best left for another day as this post is my guide to alternative big hat chaos dwarfs miniatures.  

As many of you know the big hat era lasted only a few years during the early 1990s and by 2000 the range was only really maintained by the chaos dwarf blood bowl team which remained in active production.  Production of these dudes has now also dried up with the mighty zar-naggrund ziggurats going the same way as the rest of the fondly remembered big hats.

With the success of the forge world tamurkhan range and the ongoing devotion of my brothers and sisters at chaos dwarf online, other companies have now stepped up to the plate to fill the gaps in the tamurkhan range and to reintroduce a new generation to the might of the big hats.

Below is my top three companies and my commentary on each:

Number three is Mantic games and their abyssal dwarfs- http://www.manticgames.com/mantic-shop/kings-of-war/abyssal-dwarfs.html?Action=Cookie

Mantic were really the first company to establish a complete range of kaos dwarfs (the original name until I assume some cease and desist letters were received).  The range is a new take on the big hats era with a combination of metal and plastic minis including bull centaurs and war machines.

Not completely my cup of tea but certainly worth a look and kudos for proving there was still some fire in hashut's belly for a new range of big hat chaos dwarfs.   

Second up is Ravenswood miniatures- although these dudes only have one miniature, the finely sculpted Bezhukk the Immortal, the quality and character of this mini gets them to second place.

I believe this was a limited release and sold out very quickly so let's hope more are made and Bezhukk finds some brothers at Ravenswood soon.  In the meantime keep hunting on eBay.

Finally my current top alternative big hat chaos dwarfs comes from Russian Alternative- 

http://russian-alternative.ru/our_models/

They are sculpted by the talented Rozmaz these guys could easily fill a gap in the tamurkhan range with the newly released blunderbuss armed dudes an absolute worthy re imagination of the classic chaos dwarf weapon of war.

Their great weapon armed warriors could also be considered as ironsworn in addition to being used as infernal guard.  All the minis I have seen as produced in metal which also rates highly for an old grey beard like me.

With more troops including some hobgoblins and a possible kdaai destroyer in the works, Russian alternative takes out top prize in my alternative big hat chaos dwarfs miniatures that are somewhat available.

Dishonourable mention goes to Zonk who produced his own range of big hats and then ripped most people off who had paid and ordered his minis.  Although I did get some of them through a fellow chaos dwarf online member this kind of internet scam is a helpful reminder of the perils of the internet.

For non big hat chaos dwarfs I recommend titan miniatures which is a smallish company who produce excellent minis- http://www.titanwargames.com/shop?page=shop.browse&category_id=4

Although a conversion kit to add some big hats would also be appreciated and would get them on to this important list.

I hope you enjoyed the above and thanks for reading.

Black tree design

I received some great news this week that black tree design are having their end of year sale.

If you are looking for a great range of minis to bulk out your fantasy or historical collections you can not beat black tree.

I have many of their warriors of Islam for use in my araby themed bretonnian army and their dwarf range is simply the way dwarfs should be presented - stout and full of beard: http://www.blacktreedesign.com/restofworld/home.php?cat=2314

They have a fantastic world war 2 collection with a superb range of character minis too for this period.

Check them out and help support this great company: http://www.blacktreedesign.com/restofworld/home.php?xid=c0eb643b8cd032bffbc8da1dd0a6dccf

The return of the mighty heroquest (again)

Apologies for the lack of posts beardling, work and the holidays have kept me way too busy.  Anyway I hope the holiday season has been relaxing and enjoyable for you.

Back to business- many of you would have heard the return of heroquest by gamezone miniatures on kickstarter was stopped due to various issues.  Rather than go over old ground the good news is heroquest has been relaunched on a Spanish crowd funding site.

The set still looks amazing and although postage to Australia seems a little high I am keen to support the return on this game which introduced many of us to the wacky world of wargaming.

Here is a link to the site: http://www.lanzanos.com/proyectos/heroquest-25-aniversario/necesidades/

First chaos dwarf ironsworn

These are my first conversions for chaos dwarf ironsworn.

Pretty simple conversion of the classic blood bowl chaos dwarf minis with the axe head from one of the plastic chaos dwarf warriors with remainder of the axe comes from a skeleton spear.  The shields are chaos marauder infantry shields.

My goal is to convert about 20 of these guys.

Return of the mighty Heroquest

Like many gamers one of my first experiences with miniature gaming was through a fantastic game produced by games workshop and Milton Bradley called Heroquest.  

Here is a youtube link to the great ad for the game: http://youtu.be/FY_YRatOInA

Although i never actually remember using "fire of wrath" is was a great game will cool miniatures and accessories.

Anyway the good news which has been reported around is that a Spanish company is to release a new version in time for the originals 25th anniversary.

The following is from a Spanish fan site:

- Spanish company GameZone will create a new heroquest 25th aniversary edition.
- They have distribution rights to Spain but not to other countries, but they will release the game in multiple languages and there are plenty of spanish online shops with worldwide shipment.
- They may use a crowdfunding campaign but it's not confirmed.
- There will be initially four heroes in male and female versions.
- Furniture and tokens will be all in 3D (resin) instead of cardboard.
- The board will be reversible (two in one).
- There won't be fimirs, but there will be equivalent reptilian creatures.
- It won't be overly expensive (in line with Descent V2).

Great news.

Rumours of new Dark Elf miniatures

I don't usually put too much weight in rumours like this but this one sounds legit.

Dark elves are one army I have always struggled with, their multiple options for a shooty or a close combat monster or a mix of both has always proved a challenge for me.  

The current approach to army books should see some of those magic item combos pulled into line but I am sure there will be plenty of nasties in the new book.

Throwe in a new monster (kraken) and redone throne of blood and this will no doubt be a big winner for those on the dark side of the pointy ear brigade.

Via bell of lost souls:

The fell Druchii march forth from Naggarond.  Here's the latest word on the upcoming Dark Elves release doing the rounds:

via Last Avenger

1) NEW Plastic Dark Elf Warrior Box(Makes Spearmen, swordsmen, & crossbowmen)The new Warriors look quite different to me. But then again I am a big geek that notices stuff like that. They have cloaks that come down their back and all the helmets don't cover the eyes any more.

The cloaks hang down from underneath the shoulder armor and cover the back of the chain mail. It definitely is new for them but it looks really cool. The Druchii warriors also have shoulder armor. It makes them look simply awesome. The skull embossed on their shields looks great too.

The Warriors, Black Guard, and Dark Riders all have cloaks. None of them appear to have face coverings.

It does not appear that any of the banners have designs sculpted onto them. The pictures we have of the warriors show 2 regiments, one armed with swords and shields and one armed with spears and shield. Our source tell us that they will make crossbows but we don't have a picture of them.

2) NEW PLastic Dark Riders/WarlocksWarlocks appear to have one hand weapon

The warlocks are bare chested, and the weapons look mundane...aka not glowing. They look like large jagged daggers. They are held in reverse grips which looks pretty slick. The warlock champions eyes are glowing which IMO hints at some magical abilities. 

The Warriors, Black Guard, and Dark Riders all have cloaks. None of them appear to have face coverings.

The Dark Riders are very cool looking. Sleek looking horses with only a bit of armor. All of the Riders are hunched over in the saddle to give the illusion of speeding fast cav. The helmets appear to be open faced and they are armed with spears in the picture I have, once again that doesn't mean they wont get crossbows (in the pictures we have they are in the back ground behind the Warlocks). 

There does not appear to be a command group for the Warlocks, only a unit champion. 

3) NEW Plastic Blackguard/ExecutionersThe Warriors, Black Guard, and Dark Riders all have cloaks. None of them appear to have face coverings. The Executioners appear to have skull faced helms. The theme to me appears to be a more sinister version of their High Elf bretheren. The plate armor has very spiked and jagged edges. The style will still fit well with the Shades and Reaper but next to these new models they will look very dated.

-Black Guard look very stalwart with large halberds and high helms with 3 spikes on each side with a flowing plume on top. Their armor is black trimmed in gold and they have dark purple cloaks. The unit champion is holding a sword by the hilt with the blade planted in the ground. Musician is a drummer.

-The executioners have what look like skull helms, and their armor is a brighter silver than the Black Guard. Their tunics are red in color and the Draiches are all held on the left hand side of their bodies (their left our right). They look very cool ranked up.

The Executioner champ is armed with an axe and is holding the decapitated head of a High Elf. Pretty dang cool.

4) NEW Plastic Coldone Chariot/Scroungerunner(Pulled by horses)The new chariot crew is armed with spears and what looks to be a large crossbow or bolt thrower on the chariot.

For the Scroungerunner charoit the crew look similar to Corsairs. The passenger shooting the crossbow/boltthrower has what appears to be a sea dragon cloak on. There are reins but they look like just normal black leather. The horses look awesome and angry. Both are black in color with red eyes. The chariot only has one wheel that is centered on the back part. Sounds stupid, looks cool. And as usual nasty spikes and blades al

And yes the Cold Ones on the chariot match the current Cold One Knights.

5) NEW Plastic Cauldron of Blood/Blood Throne(This model is AMAZING)The Cauldron of Blood/Blood Throne look very cool. If you are a fan of the newer larger models GW has been putting out for WHFB you will really dig it. It is a bit toned down compared to the Empire Celestial Hurricanum/Luminark of Hysh and has blades and hooks on it to make it very sinister and Dark Elf.

The Cauldron of Blood/Blood Throne are on a bigger base than the chariot base.

Yes the Cauldron and the Blood throne both have 6 wheels. They are on the same chassis, just with different stuff on the altar. I just noticed that the Witch Elves on Blood Throne have metal masks that cover the front of their face with the exception of their chin and mouth area and of course their eyes.

Ok and now to answer the Medusa question: She has the lower body of a snake and it appears there are other snakes on her base. The right side of her torso is bare, including her breast. In her right hand she is holding a spear. She has armor over her left breast and has a nasty looking clawed gauntlet on her hand. Her mouth is agape and she has snakes for hair. There is also a significant amount of blood on the model.

6) NEW Plastic Hydra/Kraken About Hydra:It looks bigger and beefier.

Yes the Hydra does have 2 handlers.

-The Kraken has 5 heads/fanged maws. The have spines and scales with smooth neck and belly flesh. Scales are painted a Dark Grey with the softer flesh painted blue. Looks awesome.

The Kraken doesn't have tentacles, it has four legs with webbed appendages ending in claws and it also has a tail.

Yes the Kraken has multiple heads. From the pic it looks like there is one main head with eyes and the other four necks end with fanged maws. Very cool looking. It may sound stupid to people as it is walking but wait until the picture comes out before passing judgement. 

You have to clear your head of any preconceived notions of what a Kraken is or looks like. Because lets face it, an 8 legged octopus creature flopping around on land would just not look right. It has 4 limbs that end in webbed feet with claws on them. It also has 5 heads. The main head has beady little eyes right above the mouth. The lower jaw on the main head extends kind of like an octopus tentacle but with teeth on it. The other heads end in an mouth with teeth and 4 claws around the head that look to facilitate grabbing their next meal.

7) NEW Plastic Witch Elf box-The pictures we have of the Witch Elves has them with two hand weapons.

The witches are also sporting thigh high boots and are very dynamic with their poses. I wonder how much of a pain in the butt it will be to get them to rank up.

The Witch Elves look great. No mowhawks or anything like that. Long flowing hair, thigh high black boots and red loincloths and for lack of a better terms bras. They appear to have open mouths so lord only knows what they are saying before they come in and hack my poor High Elves to bits. 

There appears to be a command group for the Witch Elves.

Alternate grudge thrower

I have been working on my chaos dwarf list using the dwarf rule book.

An essential inclusion is the grudge thrower with two runes of penetration and a rune of accuracy.  The current dwarf mini does not suit the look of my big hats so I have decided to get this hex catapult from eBay store Mrs Velard.

It will fit in nicely with my two earthshaker cannons which I will use as cannons.  

For less then $10 USD this is a real bargain.

2000 Point Tournament List

I have toyed around with a couple of tournament lists but always try to take a competitive list but one that is not going to put future opponents agreeing to future friendly games.

This was a list I took to a 2000 point tournament last year which although small was good fun to use.  Four games in one day with no restrictions or comp restrictions or penalties.

My list

Level 4 Daemonsmith Sorcerer - blood of Hashut, enchanted shield, talisman of preservation and crown of command and lore of Hashut Infernal Castellan Bsb with mask of furnace 22 Infernal guard – great weapons, shields and full command with the banner of eternal flame 29 blunderbuss with full command Magma cannon Kdaai destroyer


Game 1 warriors of chaos- using the old book as the new one was too recent saw the return of the marauder hordes, lots of marauder horse and skull crushers.  Great game but I was smashed 20/0 and the only bright part was using magic to take out the bsb leading a marauder cav unit.
Game 2 ogres- 3 sabre tusk redirectors, ogre block with butcher, stone horn with hunter and 2 other stone horns (yes 3 stone horns in one 2000 point army)
Big 18/2 win for me as a stone horn charged the destroyer who killed it in the first round and then managed to get the 2nd one too.  At this point he went for his third but before he could get there it was killed by my warriors.  
Game 3 high elves- lots of swordmasters, archers, eagles and a unit of silver helms.  Destroyer led from the front and was charged by some sword masters with a hero with dragon armour- big mistake as the destroyer ripped them apart and then chased everything else whilst the blunderbuss and warriors cleaned up the rest.
19/ 1 win for the big hats 
Game 4 ogres- destroyer gets charged by bull block and stone horn - 2 rounds of combat the bulls are running with the stone horn which get caught by the destroyer - I think he likes stone horn meat!
I turned the tyrant's ogre block flammable and the magma cannon soften them up with 18 wounds in one shot!  Destroyer and flaming warriors do the rest.  Blunderbuss take out some mournfang and it’s a 20/0 win for me.
  
Lessons learnt
With only 4 deployments I kept my destroyer back a little and avoided compulsory frenzy charges by being close to lord and bsb.  I also used him to draw out big units and either made them flammable or gave him hatred.  He ripped them apart and generally only took wounds due to burning bright.
Blunderbuss were deadly but when I was outflanked such as in the first game even stubborn did not save me.
Warriors were solid with flaming great weapons and the bsb providing some back up.
Using our lore of Hashut was great and when combined with the magma cannon lots of ogres burned!  
I ended up fifth overall which I was happy with as I had not played this list before.

Further chaos dwarf slayers update

Further update on the chaos dwarf slayers.

Extra green stuff to make the noses bigger and the some more work on the hats.  Will try to green stuff some arrows on the sides of the hat.

 Painting to follow (time permitting).

Hellcannon

Pretty easy one this - no major changes just added the earthshaker crew to the standard hellcannon.

Really happy how this one turned out.

Chaos dwarf slayers

First the good news, it looks like I have qualified for the Western Australia ultimates tournament which is our master event.  The bad news is the tamurkhan chaos dwarf list is not eligible for use.

Although all qualifying events have allowed the use of chaos dwarfs and I am disappointed I thought instead I would use my chaos dwarfs as dwarfs.  Heresy to some but substituting is pretty straight forward with infantry and and some war machines such as magma cannon as flame cannon and old earthshaker as cannon.  Obviously no iron daemon, bull centaurs or hobgoblins  but I did find my old avatars of war berserkers who needed some cosmetic surgery to give them a proper nose and some proper teeth courtesy of some dryad bits.

Although slayers are known for their Mohawks these dudes will still be sporting some serious big hats.  

These are a couple of work in progress dudes.  The big hats will have transfers from the old chaos dwarf transfer sheet as symbols rather than the gold symbols like the rest of the army.

Hashut protective tattoos will also be applied.

Updates to follow pending my new son and his sleep patterns.

Tale of painter white dwarf review

I think these guys do the best online review of each new white dwarf.

Tends to focus on content and not let price increases dictate the quality of the review.

Enjoy: http://taleofpainters.blogspot.de/2013/09/review-white-dwarf-august-2013.html

Finished zonk chaos dwarf warriors

Zonkcast

The tale of zonkcast is a classic story of the dangers of online forums and shopping.

The full story can be found at http://www.chaos-dwarfs.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=10142&page=15

But a long story made short is a scammer took advantage of a warhammer
 community starved of the mighty   big hats.  Many paid for minis that never
 arrived which not only is a breach of trust but should also be recorded in the great
book of interweb grudges as a crime against the gaming community!

Anyway I managed to get my hands on some of the great weapon warriors and 
blunderbuss dudes.  I had two sheets if the old school transfer which although 
time has meant I lose a couple when trying to attach the flat shields allow for 
an appropriate nod to the early 1990's and this classic range of miniatures.

I also managed to get one of the sorcerers without his banner poles but I am not sure 
if anyone received any of the cool looking bull centaurs.

Converted skull cracker

This is my converted skull cracker which uses a recast iron daemon which I only found out after it arrived.  If the price is too good to be true it probably is!

Anyway it uses the ork battlewagon upgrade sprue deff rolla which can be raised and lowered as needed.

Finished bull centaur Taur'ruk

Bull centaur Taur'ruk conversion from one of the forge world bull centaur renders.

The big hat is simply a plastic chaos dwarf warrior hat with some horns from the 5th edition skeleton warriors box set.

Really happy with how he turned out but I have yet to decide what war gear I will equip him with.

http://i1342.photobucket.com/albums/o766/Ironhaiden666/20756f1a60878e4363d5218f3225dd66_zps2274ccd6.jpg

The beginning of my repainted chaos dwarfs

Here is a link to my repainted chaos dwarfs via CDO:http://www.chaos-dwarfs.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=11947&page=1