Kickstarter - Dark Dwarves

Chris over at Macrocosm has just launched his latest Kickstarter, Dark Dwarves. Being a long time chaos dwarf fan, I'm pretty intrigued by this, especially as they are more in the 'spiky stunty' style. There are a lot of the units you'd hope for, handgunners, crossbowmen, axemen, but also more esoteric units, like the 2 man mortar and weapons teams like the bazooka,  flame thrower and gatling gun.

So if you're looking for some great value evil dwarves, head on over and take a look. The add on section is also offering some deals on the crazy popular Monster Balls from Macrocosm's previous Kickstarter. They're pretty hilarious and have a lot of gaming uses. The ball of steel is something I'll have to pick up myself I think. Who doesn't want a giant floating armoured cyclops ball?

Metal Beards - Infernal Golem/K'daai Destroyer

Titan Forge continue to produce what looks like almost the entire chaos dwarf army (bar the hobgoblins) as part of the Metal Beard kickstarter. Yesterday they unveiled the latest addition to the Kashan Vra, the infernal golem, which is far and away the best attempt at a destroyer I've seen to date, including the images I've seen of the Forge World k'daai destroyer. Look at that thing. Look at the size of it. It's bleedin' huge.

It's coming in at 800 points on the Metal Beard points system, which translates into about £50ish quid if you take the £61 pledge. Pretty decent value considering the immensity of the model.

Titan Forge have also re-jigged the stretch goals, so now almost everything has been unlocked at the £20,000 stretch, including the chosen of Kashan Vra, which sound very much like k'daai fireborn. They are some very intriguing models left to unlock though, such as the ancestral zeppelin, the hell bulldozers (bull centaurs) and the maw of the mountain.

With only 5 days left, I hope they make the last couple of goals as for chaos dwarf players this is a great chance to get some really fantastic alternate models.

Looking Beyond the Fimir - Poll Results

Well now, that was interesting.

Some serious food for thought with the poll results so far. I was a little surprised at the amount of enthusiasm shown for the Cult, but then, it is pretty loved as a niche army. The other thing was the total lack of love shown for the renegades. I guess you don't see many renegade/raider forces, it's all chaos space marines. To my mind the old metal marines look like they've spent 10,000 years slowly mutating and going insane, thought the very latest chaos marines models are definitely moving in the right direction. Space marines with spiky helmets though, no thanks.

The other thing that came to the fore was how much I was rooting for the fimir. Obviously my heart still lies with the swamp dwellers, and in any case it was never going to be a case of abandoning them once I got to two thousand points. They came in a strong second, so my decision, she is thus:

I'm going to keep on with the fimir until I get to a respectable two thousand four hundred points. At that stage I'm going to introduce a second project and work on them both, I just have too many things I want to add to the fimir army even beyond two thousand four hundred. But, it looks like I'll be looking for a lot of new conversion pieces in the tyranid range for project number two. There will be a third project beginning in January 2014, that one will have a lot of heat rays and howitzers involved...

Here, then, is the first bit of background for the Cult of the Dawn.

"It is M40.999 by Imperial reckoning, and world of Thelema in the Segmentum Obscurus is at war. After fifty years of conflict there is no respite to the fighting, and there is no end in sight. Both sides fight with righteous fury over the devastated remains of once mighty Imperial cities.

The Order of the Dawn had grown strong and powerful before the war, secretly expanding their power base over more than a century. They had moved into human society like the choking fronds of a creeping vine, patient and inexorable. The sons and daughters of the order had grown strong, reaching the highest position of authority by the middle the M40. It is around this time though, that the order began to diverge from the usual sequence of events when a powerful genestealer cult reached this level of infiltration.

The great patriarch of the order, known as father Calogero, is a truly ancient genestealer. Ferried across the void in stasis by the hive fleet, Calogero was secreted into the space hulk the Age of Dreams along with many of his brothers. The hulk had been vomited forth from the warp before the fleet as it made the journey across the empty space between the galaxies. There it hung for a time before again being drawn back into warpspace. How long it remained there, none can say, as time has no meaning in the realm of the Gods.

In the beginning of M38 the Age of Dreams again appeared in real-space near the world of Draconith. It drifted for decades before eventually being marked by an explorator vessel for future investigation. The world of Thelema was tasked with mapping the hulk and recovering any items or artefacts of worth due to the presence of the mechanicus forge temples on the planet. The Theleman team sent returned with the soon-to-be new head of their Order, the genestealer Calogero, who was christened by the leader of the explorator expedition. So the new cult was born.

The combination of the knowledge and mysterious nature of the ordo mechanicus and the single-minded ambition of the cult made for a powerful combination. By M40.508 the order was in control of many of the most influential institutions. But the cult had suffered it's own schisms in recent years. Many of the brethren felt something was wrong with the way plans were proceeding. This, in itself was troubling, as dissent in a genestealer coven is virtually unheard of. 

Calogero was most pleased with his growing power, but he did not feel the pull of the hive mind as it drew close to devour Thelema. The whispers in his head were not those of the great beast. They came from another place entirely. 

Far beyond Thelema, in the depths of space, lie the dead husks of the hive fleet that bore Calogero across the stars. Caught in a violent and sudden warpstorm soon after the Age of Dreams vanished back into the ether, the entire fleet was either pulled into the warp or destroyed. Not a single tyranid creature survived. As if this weren't enough to sever the link between Calogero and the hive mind, the creature that emerged from the warp was no longer a creature of instinct, but independent, cunning, and hungry for power.

Power that it's new patrons were more than happy to supply. For a price."

There you have it. Chaos worshipping hybrid ordo mechanicus, anyone? Time to begin the great bits hunt.

Looking Beyond the Fimir - What Next?

My first two thousand points of fimir are now within sight, which gives me enough to field a playable army. It's taken almost three years from the start of the project to get to this stage. I've not been working on them constantly throughout that period, but pretty consistently all the same. I am not a quick painter. I can only gaze in baleful admiration at those people like Ben Johnson and the Rodge from Pointhammer who can turn out beautiful armies in a few months.

But, despite that, soon (the end of September) I will be left with a momentous decision. With the fimir at playable level, I can now look to new horizons. I do still want to add more units to the fimir army, but I have two other projects (at least) that I am eager to get into. And you, dear reader, will decide which way I jump. Let me lay it out.

Option 1: Expand the Fimir
I have a lot of ideas for more units for the fimir. A unit of fenbeasts (trolls), a couple of units of fianna fimm (the ogre sized fimir) Crom Cruach, (hellcannon) Balor (daemon prince) warped ones (forsaken), a unit of hagworms (dragon ogres), the list goes on...

Option 2: Vampire Counts
My vampire counts army had been neglected a while now. It needs some new units to get into the spirit of 8th edition. A giant block of skeletons, a terrorgheist, some crypt horrors and more. I'll be using mostly old school models for this, mostly Citadel from the 1980s. The army follows the tale of Stephane Dreux as he searches for his sire in order to enact his vengeance and find redemption.

Option 3: Chaos dwarves
I love the chaos dwarves. I have a pretty huge force awaiting the brush, all of which are the more spiky chaos stunty style from the 1980s. I plan on having the army based as if it's moving through a long since ruined city, think Osgiliath for colour scheme, pale marbles, sandstones etc. So lots of fillers of vine-covered statues, cracked mosaics and such. The army itself is a long-range missionary force, bringing the word of Hashut to the lesser races whether they like it or not. As such the dwarves gear will be battle stained and chipped.

Option 4: Genestealer Cult
I've not played 40k since 3rd edition, but I do keep an eye on it. I've always wanted to do a genestealer cult army, probably based on Imperial Guard. The basing will probably be a ruined Imperial world where the tyranid invasion summoned by the cult never came as the hive fleet was destroyed, so now the ascendant cult is on its own and locked in battle with the remaining Imperial forces, so ruined urban style.

Option 5: Chaos Renegades
My first 40k army was renegades. I have a pretty decent collection of Rogue Trader era renegades and I love the models. A raider force of various legions all under the ruthless Lord Vortag plies the space lanes attacking Imperial shipping from the daemon-piloted cruiser the Ark of Woe. As primarily a space faring army, units will be kitted out to engage in boarding actions, and the basing will be space hulk style, or even the exterior of the ship's hull itself. Part of me wants to marry the Cult and renegades idea together into one army. With the Imperial forces on their home planet defeated, and no answer from the long since annihilated hive fleet, the patriarch negotiates passage for a Cult expedition to the next Imperial world aboard the Ark of Woe...

So there you have it. It's up to you, kids!

What project next?

Expand the Fimir

Vampire Counts

Chaos Dwarves

Genestealer Cult

Chaos Renegades

Renegade/Cult force

www.poll-maker.com

Chaos Dwarves - New Taur'uk from Forge World

A new chaos dwarf models pops up in this month's White Dwarf, the bull centaur Taur'uk. I must say, I wasn't overly enamoured with the bull centaurs, as nice as they were, when they first popped up, but over time I've come to like them more, especially after seeing Ben Curry's unit for his new chaos dwarf army. This guy, I like right off the bat. Nice armour, especially the gorget. Good pose too, he's a keeper. I may pick up a few of these guys yet.

Chaos Dwarves Knits & Mantic Monsters

I'm a big chaos dwarf fan. More so the old school spiky stunties though, truth be told. However, when a good friend offered to knit something chaos dwarfy for me, I couldn't resist but go big hat. Never in my wildest dreams, however, did I think she would produce such a tall-hatted thing of beauty.

Behold. (It's not me modelling, I'll have to wait a few more days for that.) Is it not glorious? The photo wasn't great, so I've jigged it a bit. My next outing with the Dawi Zharr will be most interesting.

In other news, Mantic have released work in progress shots for more of the kickstarter models. I saw the ogres a while ago, and I was impressed, they look cool. More pictures went up more recently, of the abyssal dwarf golem and the werewolf. I was eagerly anticipating both of these as a unit of werewolves would make a nice addition to my vampire counts army, and the golems for k'daai fireborn. Looking at the shots though, (and I know they are wip) I was deeply disappointed.

I'm a fan of Mantic. Their zombies are just great, I'm using them on my current project. But these two images do not fill me with joy. What's the werewolf doing? I mean, the physiology is good, if maybe slightly cartoony, but the pose is terrible. He looks like he's trying to catch his breath after doing the 100 metres. "AaaAAach.....Fffff! Stitch! Hang on, be with you in a minute....aarroooowwwcchh!!"

The golem. I hope it looks better down the road, as it looks pretty awful here. Maybe it's the photo, but it just looks terrible in this shot. I don't want to be too damning as it's still wip, but I'm worried. It is Bob Naismith sculpting it though, so there's hope yet.

Come on Mantic, you can do it guys.

Chaos Dwarves - The Destroyer Cometh

There's some work in progress shots out now for the K'daai destroyer from Games Day. These are from Dice and Brush. I have to say, so far I'm not feeling it. I like the head and upper arms, but the hoofyhands and little mechanical legs, not so much. I'm still unsure what it's based on. The fireborn are essentially fire elementals bound into armour, so, what's this guy? Aren't they meant to be cousins, or somesuch?

It's a sight better than the concept illustrations in Tamurkhan though, and as it's still work in progress hopefully it'll be grand once the final release it ready. Then all we need are hobgoblins. You hear me, Forge World? HOBGOBLINS.

But wait? What's this lurking at the back here, looking all very nice indeed? Lammasu baby!

Chaos Dwarves - Lore of Hashut Cards

Recently of Chaos Dwarves Online I came across this thread, a fan-made set of Lore of Hashut cards. There was also a recommendation for artscow.com, who did a grand job printing them! you can see the size comparison with regular lore cards above. Finally, no more rifling through Tamurkhan every time I cast a spell!

Chaos Dwarves - Ewal Dvergar

Recently I came across Clam's (of Clamshells & Seahorses) new blog, Ewal Dvergar, dedicated to a custom range of chaos dwarves, sculpted by John Pickford. Clam is a regular on the most splendid Chaos Dwarves Online. These dwarves reminded me heavily of the Marauder miniatures MM90 range from back in the day, which I adore. The core troops are multi-part too, which means lots of conversion potential. There was also a hero model as well as some rather nice grenadiers sculpted by Clam himself.

I thought wow, that's a great idea, and those dwarves look amazing. I'd love me some of them, but they weren't for sale. Boo.

Then Clam threw up a post called Want Some? and well, I was emailing the fellow within seconds. This morning a package arrived, and I can verify these are some super tasty evil dwarves, and will match my own army perfectly.

Joygasm.

I remember the time getting your hands on some chaos dwarves was quite a feat. Thankfully, those days are gone.

Chaos Dwarves - Forge World Bull Centaurs

I spotted this little teaser on elfordminis yesterday. From what I can see, I like, though I'm not 100% on the horned heads. It's hard to tell how big they are, those do look like 50x75 bases, which would make them pretty huge. I was sure they were going to be 40x40 lads, and this makes me re-evaluate my intention to build my own.

In other news, Mantic have released a box of 10(!) abyssal dwarf halfbreeds for £19.99, which is hard to ignore. They might not be as pretty as the FW ones, but the price is crazy good. I might get these and a box of the Avatar's of War dwarf berserkers and see what I can come up with. I may pick on an FW one for the taur'ruk though, I'll have to see how the scale compare.

Chaos Dwarves - Wolf Trade-in

I had a chance to test an idea today, one I had as soon as I set eyes on the Fenrisian wolves set a while back. All I needed was a hobgoblin wolf rider. Easier said than done though, there's quite the brisk trade in hobgoblins on the old ebay. Being the masochist that I am, I'm slowly building up units of original hobgoblins rather than convert my own. Eventually though, I managed to snap one up for less an insane price, and lo, I could test this idea of mine.

Huzzah, he fits!

Now, he needs a little nip and tuck (after his dettol bath), he's a little far back on the wolf, and perhaps some other doodads added on, blanket, couple of bags maybe, but he fits. I love the old school, but sometimes the new school comes out with something truly groovy. Look at his rather sad looking original mount beside the lean savagery that is the new wolf. No contest, methinks.

Now I just need to snap up another four of these elusive hobgoblin riders and we're go for irritating hobgoblin chaffery.

Review - Ramshackle Games

I'm quite a fan of the proliferation of smaller companies we're all spoiled with these days. Microart studios, Greebo, Puppet War, Gribbly Miniatures, Raging Heroes, Base-X-of-War, Otherworld Miniatures, Avatars of War, Scibor, (sharp intake of breath) and so on, there's a huge amount of choice out there these days. Today I'll shine the beady eye on one such company, Ramshackle Games.

Ramshackle have a fairly huge range of figures, bases and vehicles in both resin and metal. Most of the range is geared toward post apocalyptic models for their game Nuclear Renaissance, which is available free as a download, here. This range is enormous, and has a massive collection of vehicles which would not look out of place in a plethora of other gaming systems. (I'm thinking of some buggies and such for my genestealer coven here, ah, pipe dreams.)


They also have a pretty interesting range of fantasy orcs, including the hilarious dungers. I love these lads, I was tempted to use them as hobgoblin wolf riders. Again, the range is quite big, with war giants right down to orc archers. Other ranges include animals, scenery, heads, vehicle components among others. The other thing about Ramshackle is how good the price is. Everything ranges from very reasonable to very cheap indeed.

I recently ordered some bits and pieces from Ramshackle, namely the Brass Coffin (left) and Gilgamesh (below right). After looking at the prices for an iron daemon for my chaos dwarves, I went looking for an alternative model. Plus, there's something about the iron daemon model...

Anyhow, I was also looking for an interesting model to lead my k'daai fireborn. Gilgamesh here, at just under 75mm tall, fit the bill nicely, especially with the dwarf-like skull. Both will need conversion, but I pressed the add to cart and waited under by the letterbox. The models when they arrived were splendidly large, the brass coffin certainly big enough to make a fine iron daemon. The detail was crisp, but get ready for a bit of clean up. Any resin model needs a fair bit of filing and sanding, with the models I received needing just a tad more than usual. Not enough to put me off though. The brass coffin is only £9! Now, I did order a separate turret for it as well, but £9!?

Looking more closely, there was a bit of deformity on the back of the Gilgamesh model. After some mailing to Ramshackle they sent me out a new model and all was well. I'm a big fan of good customer service, especially from companies I may not have heard of before, so I was glad it was dealt with as I'd be more than inclined to buy from them again.

So, all in all, a big thumbs up for Ramshackle Games, adopt a dunger today!

Ramshackle Website

Chaos Dwarves - K'daai Fireborn up for Pre-Order

The new chaos dwarf k'daai fireborn are now up on the Warhammer Forge site for pre-order. They come in at £36 for a set of three, available from April 27th.

All we had previously were the photos from the Forge World open day, so it's nice to get some more close-up shots. I'm certainly leaning more toward liking these lads, the helmets are cool, and they seem to have a kind of metal skirt attached to their breastplates. I'd really love to see someone give these a good paint job, it would be quite the task with the flames to do them justice. I suspect they would look great.

I'm still not convinced to abandon my own idea of converting Warmachine jacks into fireborn, (bless you, game shop bargain bits bin) but I am casting a more glad eye on these fellows now.

Warhammer Forge - K'daai Fireborn Models Spotted!

The first pics from the Forge World open day are in, (thanks to Minudra from Warseer) and among the gems are some tantalising shots of the new models for the k'daii fireborn for the chaos dwarves. It's hard to get a good look at them from the shots taken, but from what I can see, they look like they have potential. They are tall models for a 40x40, which I like. Painting all that fire and lighting effects will be fun. I'm dying to get a better look at them. I'm still planning on using jacks from Warmachine as the basis for mine, but...we'll see.

Also, look at the size of that squig!

Chaos Dwarves - The Destroyer

I have a friendly tournament coming up, and thought it might be a good time to try out the new chaos dwarf list from Tamurkhan. To that end, I took a little break from the fimir, as I resolved to finally assemble my destroyer for this weekend. It's an old Leviathan dwarf war golem, and I think it makes a perfect K'daai destroyer. (All the models from Leviathan can be gotten from Scotia Grendel.) I may need to emphasise the possessed nature of the construct in the paintjob though. I've had this fellow (and 2 more similar to him) for about twenty years, and the model did show it's age a little during assembly. The resin is like concrete, which is great for durability, but sucks when you're trying to sand or drill it. A mask is a must, as resin dust, it's bad for you, kids. There was a lot of hacking, cleaning and sanding needed, and the model is still a little off here and there, but essentially it turned out well. Some green stuff for filling bubbles and gaps, and it's ready to prime. It's pretty huge, as you can see from my daemonsmith next to it.

Hopefully it'll last long enough to make combat!

Tamurkhan - Out at Last!

Tamurkhan, the throne of chaos is out at last. Priced at a hefty £45 sterling, it's a tad expensive, but a seriously beautiful book, and I suspect one that most warhammer players will find irresistible. Certainly I'll be having one, as it features a new list for my beloved chaos dwarves. You can see it here.

I'm also avidly awaiting the upcoming monstrous arcana book, not least for the reason it has rules for fimir warriors in there.

The Re-Introduction of the Chaos Dwarves into Polite Society

I've been thumbing through the new Ogre Kingodom book and I was pleased to see more mention of my little pals the Dawi Zharr. It turns out there's a healthy amount of trade between the ogres and Zharr Naggrund, and once again an army owes it's weapons/armour to the industry of the chaos dwarves, as the leadbelchers can now attest. It's very gratifying to see the dwarves o' evil folded back into the GW mythos after so long shunned and despised...

It's been a good year for the evil stunties, with Forgeworld producing a new line of the evil little fellows and the upcoming (it's been upcoming a while now) Tamurkhan - Throne of Chaos promising a new list for the long-neglected chaos dwarves. Other companies have been producing a nice line of dwarves too, with the Dwerg from Bederken miniatures being my firm favourite. I prefer the 3rd edition chaos stunties, all mutations, spiky armour and even spikier beards. No big hats here please.

I've put my dwarves on hold pending the new list, as I had been using the Indy GT list, and before I build any more of the army I want to see what options there are in the Tamurkhan list. I'm quite eager to paint up the little fellows, and I'm very happy with the test model, but I'll have to wait for now. My fimir are keeping me quite engaged in the meantime, and I'm having a blast putting that army together.

Fimir - Bileworm

The bileworm arrived today from Gribbly Miniatures. (Thanks for the link Dreadaxe) It's fantastic, it'll make a perfect addition to the various worms and giant grubs that are beginning to infest the fimir army. I'm very happy with this theme, it'll look pretty great on the tabletop I think. This fellow is probably destined to become a mount for a fimir hero. I have some ideas for how he stays on, mostly involving hooks. Looks like I'll be picking up the savage orc boar boys after all. The orcs will be converted to mounted fimir where I need them, and the boars will be the basis for conversions to chaos dwarf boar centaurs. How's that for looting a kit!

Bast*rdCon5 Post Mortem

Aahh...the warm afterglow of a gaming weekend. Another highly enjoyable event, though we still can't seem to get the Sunday multi-player game right...

I took my chaos dwarves out again for the Saturday tourney, but the wee lads only managed a loss and a draw. I love that Kolossus, but he just doesn't cut the mustard. (bloody cannons) Inferno golems performed poorly, but they got caught out rotten in both games. The obsidian guard did mighty though, cutting down all in their way. I guess I'll probably be giving the new Tamurkhan list a go soon, so I won't be spending any more time on the evil stunties until I get my hands on the book. The Sunday game was a little stilted, but I had a great time hurling dwarf bodies from the ziggurat my vampires were defending. Good times.

Highlights:

• Disastrous, though entertaining, nine of my obsidian guard got cooked as the got caught in a boiling flood on turn one.
• The Kolossus battering a large saurus unit almost to death before being toppled, giving the obsidian guard time to finish the job.
• The wight king decapitating the tooled-up dwarf lord at the top of the ziggurat. I love killing blow.
•  The absolute dedication of my opponents to destroy my annihilators at all costs.
• A lone dwarf lord ALMOST finished a bloodthirster. One wound was all he needed.
• Watching the vampire lord just wade through all opposition. I used the kit from the vamp in Unseen Lerker 8. Nice one!

Forgeworld - Chaos Dwarf Units!

Hot damn!! Now we're talking baby. These are from Forgeworld's stand at Adepticon. Now these are chaos dwarves. Looks like the spiky stunties are coming in from the cold at last...