As promised, I've finally taken pictures of the Annihilators I've done already, and with them I pose a few questions, but first, pictures (something that there really aren't enough of on the blog)-

10 Annihilators- (Full unit will be 15... I have 2 more off-screen, so I have 3 left to do)


aaaaaand a close up on some of their ugly mugs


Now, my questions on the unit-
1- with the more Persian/Bighat theme in mind, should I keep the classic Red/Black color scheme, or switch to a patterned yellow/black?
2- should I keep the current dwarf sleeves, or switch to a baggier, poofier sleeve

(The guys in the center background)

I think that those two changes might add an interesting exotic quality to the army... though the poofiness will probably be a lot more work than would be worth it visually.

I guess the last question would be should I keep the faces open like they are now, or give them some cloth covering their face like they have in the movie. This would probably be a good deal of work, but it would definitely go a long way toward the exotic, sinister look I'm going for.

Stuff to think about!

Okay, this is late, I know, but quite a lot of cerebral work DID get done over the weekend.- I've been fiddling around with a list, looking around online to see what kind of tactics the gaming community has been able to agree upon for the new Indy GT list-- And I found an early draft of a list that I've sort of emulated... I've still got about 60 points that I'm not sure what to do with, but this is the VERY early version of the list. Ideally, I'll get the army done sooner than later so I can do some playtesting with the full-size army.

Also, in the way of theme, I've opted to take bits from both the Bighats and 300 Persians-- This sort of allows me to stick to a less 300-fanboy theme, as well as one that better suits an army that's toting a death rocket and an earthshaker cannon around with it.

Chaos Dwarfs-2250pts Take 1. (complete with modeling commentary!)
High Priest
- Level 4
- Arcane Apparatus
- Black Gem
= 330pts
The High Priest is going to be the general of this mess- and to suit such a title, he's going to be the evilest mother I can manage. He'll be seated on a throne, with a big naked belly, and a ton of piercings (counts-as chaos armor??) to sort of strike a balance between bighat-ness and a Xerxes general. Model-wise, my idea thus far is to have him ride around on a mini-Xerxes throne, that'll be a unit filler for my major CD warrior block-- with one of the front rank sections being designated as his 'position' in the throne. Form over function, by God!

Slavemaster (BSB)
- Scale Mail of Gazrakh
- Sword of might
= 140pts
Going the way of 300 here, the Slavemaster will be one of two things:
A. A fat, more ornamented chaos dwarf (visibly a character) who cracks a whip and such
or B. This guy.


Daemonsmith
- Shield
- 2 Dispel Scrolls
= 162pts

Daemonsmith
- Shield
-Holocaust Cloak
=157pts
I can't find a picture of them, but if you know what the Persian Sorcerers (the guys throwing the bombs) in the movie looked like, that's basically what I'm going for.. something exotic and strange.

CORE
23 Chaos Dwarf Warriors
***General and BSB here***
- Full Command
- Shields
-Stone Totem
- 1 Eruption Team
= 307pts
Okay, now for this unit, I'm a little torn. If I'm going even partway bighat, my major block should have the hats. But I desperately need to have SOME Immortals in my army... so I'm thinking a combo between having the big hats, and a sort of blood-pact style mask? The unit will be planned with the unit filler Throne thing in mind.

Also, I have no idea what that Eruption gun will look like. Just throwing that out there.


15 Annihilators
= 180pts

15 Annihilators
= 180pts

I've done up a unit of 14 Annihilators already, so I'll take the command out of there, and just try to go for the look I got with them, which overall I'm pretty happy with. My big question is should they have puffier, looser sleeves and such? That would lend the weirder, more exotic appearance (and be true-er to the movie!) but would have the possibility of making them look like pirates.

SPECIAL

5 Bull Centaurs
- Shields
= 95pts

5 Bull Centaurs
- Shields
= 95pts

The Bull Centaurs are a challenge that have been tackled many a time in the Chaos Dwarf community... and one that I don't feel has ever been done QUITE right... I'll have to think on these a while before I do anything.

Death Rocket
- 90pts
The words "death rocket" were what inspired me to play chaos dwarfs YEARS ago (note that I'm just now jumping on that inspiration), so I want it to look good.. but it'll require some tinkering. I think the key here is A)Differentiating it from normal Dwarf-anything (as it'll most likely be based on the dwarf cannon from BFSP) B)Reflecting the fact that it IS a monster capable of going berserk and eating stuff and C)Finding the happy medium between lunatic steampunk technology, and oldschool bighat CD's.

2x Hobgoblin Bolt Thrower
-70pts
There's a great tutorial up on CDO about making these from the grudge pony's cart, probably about an afternoon's work?

RARE

Earthshaker
= 110pts
I've actually got the oldschool Earthshaker cannon, though I don't think that it would fit straight-up into the army. So my task is going to be to accomplish all those mini-goals I set up in the death rocket comment, and meanwhile incorporate the barrel (at least!) from the old gun.

3 Inferno Golems
-Lava Fire
-Face of Hashut
= 275pts
When I first glanced through the Indy GT book, and saw the words 'Inferno Golems' I knew I would make some. The question is how. It'll be the sort of thing that I'll have to show you rather than explain.. but I'm thinking just about the wackiest steampunky idea I can think of. Brace yourselves.

So that's the tentative 1st list that'll get me about where I need to be model-wise! I'll write the Modeling Schedule up on a calendar once it's a sane hour and I can look into how best to do that on the blog. I'll also snap some pictures of my painted annihilators, and see whether or not I want to stick with the old black/red/metals color scheme.

Okay,so I didn't really do a New Years' resolution post or anything like that, so this one about my Chaos Dwarfs will have to suffice:

So, as I was outside brushing snow off of my car and shoveling the driveway, I had some time to think about my chaos dwarf project (I do that a lot, if you haven't guessed)-- Basically, here's what I'm working with:
-I'm doing the army as part of the Iron Fist League's Winter '10 Fantasy Escalation League
-That means I need to have 2250pts of said Chaos Dwarfs for a tourney on March 20th (I think?)
-I just realized that a month is a very short period of time
-I'm at square 1
-I run out of steam on these projects relatively easily.
-I'm relatively new to the gaming aspect of WHFB, so I'm going to get my shit wrecked at that tourney-- So my best option is to go for Best Painted, and just have fun with it. It'll be a good way to sort of get introduced to tournament play and all that good stuff.

The answer to all this, as far as I can see, is that I'm just going to have to go Rocky Balboa on this mother, and crank out some goodlooking, superevilpersiandwarfs, and do it FAST. I'm going to try and get up in and around the 2k range sometime around mid-to-late February, so I'll have a little while to get accustomed to larger games, as well as just play the army some.

I did some Persian Annihilators, But I'm going to reevaluate, and change them up a bit, so no pics QUITE yet. I know, I'm sorry, you can blame the perfectionist in me. I've got a graveyard shift at the firehouse tonight, so work will resume when I get back home tomorrow morning. TOMORROW: I'll throw up my prospective 2250pt list, and pictures of those Annihilator conversions. Promise.

Okay, so as I've got this week off, I've been doing a great deal of thinking about my army (and, honestly, not that much doing), and I've decided to be honest with myself:

Until now, I've been striving to recreate the 5th edition GW Chaos Dwarfs, which are the ones that inspired me to start this whole mess. But over the last few days, looking at previous attempts and test models, I've decided that I'm going to go a different direction-- Not because I can't do it, and certainly not because I don't like the style. The biggest reason is really that I don't think I'm going to be able to recreate the 5th ed CD's in a way that lives up to my vision of the army... so rather than continue down the road to certain disappointment, I'm going to change directions.

Where will I change directions to? After a few days of thinking about it, I think that my favorite option is to go the route of taking Chaos Dwarfs' Persian theme, and blowing it up and exaggerating it a few bagillion times, and going after a sort of 300 feel.


Obviously there'll be some differences between my army and the movie (I can't really have an 8' tall general), but there will be some similarities for sure. From here, I'm going to take apart and strip the annihilators I've already done and redo them. So the quest for Chaos Dwarfs starts anew...

DSC02522
Originally uploaded by It's Coming This Way!

After a lot of cursing and some sculpting, I've come up with my first unit of Chaos Dwarf Annihilators... I've surfaced just long enough to post these pictures, and then it's back to the grind with painting, sculpting, and studying for final exams. Yes.

-Quin