4th Edition Warhammer Fantasy Battle / Warhammer: The Old World Legacy Chaos Dwarfs.

 With the release of Warhammer: The Old World, I have turned my attention to two of my more contemporary armies; Chaos Dwarfs; and the Tomb Kings. Now leaving aside the Tomb Kings for a while, my focus for the last few weeks has been the Chaos Dwarfs.

Basing was the first port of call. The new Warhammer has most of the infantry mounted on 25mm bases. I love this as I have thought that most miniature look better on 25mm bases. I always consider the 25mm round bases were a slightly cheating way of basing miniature on what I considered a better sized base. Anyway, now 25mm square bases are the norm, I was faced with re-basing the Chaos Dwarfs from the rounds with square. I didn't need to do this, but I like it better, and they look a lot better on them in my opinion, with more room to pose them.

Other items which required re-basing were the Bull Centaurs, which now have 50mm x 75mm, and the various artillery. The 1990s Bull Centaurs look a little small on the bigger bases, but with a little bases debris I'm not too worried. The Rocket Launchers are meant to be on 50mm x 75mm, with crew separate crew, but I just put them on the base together as it looks better to me. There is also an option for tinkering with the base sizes to make little dioramas, so I did this with the Earth Shaker and Hell Cannon, basing them on 120mm x 100mm. 

Aesthetically, I built up the bases a little with milliput, and many of them have a varying degree of GW skulls or watch parts added. I have done this to suggest the industrial wasteland of The Dark Lands around Zharr Naggrund and the plain of Zharr. In the painting of the Chaos Dwarfs I have kept to the colour scheme I chose when I first looked at this project a few years ago. I chose a rusty, industrial looking scheme. I think this fits with the evil industrial background of the Chaos Dwarfs, and it's quite unusual. I have tested it out on the Iron Daemons and it makes them look heavy.  Finally, I have change the Chaos Dwarfs flesh colour from the green I originally used, to a more pallid Caucasian tone.

Enjoy :)

A selection of infantry in the rusty look.
I will do proper updates on these a little later.

Wizards and Daemon Smiths.
The Sorcerer on a Lammasu was started ages ago, but I have never finished him. I quite like the 'newer' Daemon Smith miniatures.

Heroes.
I started the General on a Taurus but didn't like it and paint stripped him.
The chap on the right is going to be the Army Standard Bearer and is converted from a broken standard Bearer.

1990s plastic Axemen/ Infernal Guard.
These are a core bulk of the army, and were really quite quick to paint. I have used spare 1990s Undead shields for several of the unit to differentiate them from each other.

Metal Axemen/ Infernal Guard.
These will be normal Axemen/ Infernal Guard but equipped with Blackshard armour.

Test model for the above regiment.
I have used Warplock Bronze for the armour as it's meant to be more magical, and not really rusty.

Blunderbuss army Chaos Dwarfs.
I have organised these into regiments of 15. These were already largely completed some years ago. I have however re-based them, repainted the flesh tome, and given them a Nuln Oil wash since.

Infernal Guard with Fireglavies (WIP).

These too have Blackshard armour.

Bull Centaurs.
As can be seen, I have two regiments of 5, a Bull Centaur Taur'ruk, and Shar'Tor the Executioner.
I have painted a test model front row, second from the left.

Earth Shaker Cannons.
In the Legacy Army List these can mounted on a steam carriage, as per the later Forge World model, or not, as per the 1990s models. There is no base size for these, so I used the bases size closest to the Forge World model footprint, 120mm x 100mm.
In the new list you can also add an ogre loader. I saw someone on the Chaos Dwarf Facebook site who used the early 1990s Marauder Miniatures ogre with scale armour as he fitted the look and era of the miniatures. I used this idea for one, and used another Marauder Miniatures ogre from that time for the other.

Hell Cannon.
I love this miniature, and didn't realise how much of a beast of a miniature it was until I bought one second hand from e-bay. My one was missing the crew, and the securing chains, so I have just added 1990s Blood Bowl Chaos Dwarfs as crew. I didn't add the chaos stars to the wheels as I didn't want it to obscure the wheel details, and I didn't think they really needed to be on there.

When I took the Hell Cannon off of the base (none of the artillery are secured to the bases as of yet until they are painted) this is what I was left with. I looked at this and thought of the Chaos Dwarfs arguing:
Officer: "Well, where is it!? Where's it gone!?"
First Crewman: "I don't know, it was here when we broke for lunch"
Second Crewman: (shrugging) "Don't ask me, I have no idea. Lets just follow the trail of destruction and screams".

Death Shrieker Rocket Launchers.
 The far launcher was missing its wheels so I added some spare solid wheels.

Magma Cannon, and two Iron Daemon (WIP).
I have gone with the rusty look for these as with the rest of the army. I think that the Typhus Corrosion paint really gives them a heavy metallic feel.

Close up of one of the Iron Daemon.

Close up of the Magma Cannon.

Hobgoblins.
I have two regiments of 20 Hobgoblin Warriors, one regiment of 20 Hobgoblin Archers, 20 Sneaky Gits, and a Bolt Thrower.

Hobgoblin Khan and 5 Hobgoblin Wolf Riders.

10 Hobgoblin Wolf Rider Archers.
I shall probably split these into two units of 5 and use them to ride around harassing particular targets.

Ghazak Khan, and 8 Oglah Khan's Hobgoblin Wolfboyz.
These need repainting. I might just use these as normal Hobgoblin Wolf riders rather than Dogs of War.

The Chaos Dwarf book!
Despite working from the Legacy Army list, and painting the Chaos Dwarfs rusty rather than than 1990s red, it is always great to refer back to this book for fun.

Next update will be more Chaos Dwarfs.

A few of Rug Longtooths pre-slotta Night Goblins.

 Continuing with my 2nd Edition Warhammer Fantasy Battle painting, I have painted a couple of regiments of pre-slotta Goblins.

These regiments are based on the Night Goblins from Rug Longtooths army list from the 1st Edition Forces of Fantasy supplement. Given this I have chosen only pre-slotta C13 Goblins miniatures for the regiments, and tried to keep them thematic by choosing goblins with hoods and robes, and painting them a paler green than other goblins may be.

The warrior regiment is Ffug's Regiment, a unit of 30 Night goblins armed with sword and shield, and so accordingly they are based on the larger of the regimental bases giving a frontage of six models. The other regiment is Gobbin Honk's Archers, 20 Night goblin archers on the standard five by four sized regimental base.

As they are goblins, they were fun to paint. As mentioned I painted them a pale green flesh colour as the old 1st Edition description for Night Goblins suggests they are a more paler, pallid skin tone. The standard in Ffug's regiment is a variation of the half moon device used in many 1980s (and later!) banners, with the added 1980s John Blanche style sun device as a background. The runes were loosely copied from 1st/2nd Edition artwork.

With the advent of the new Warhammer: The Old World, I have become very distracted with some non 1980s things. Firstly I am looking to add a Tomb Kings Dragon to my Tomb Kings army. I may even consider re-basing all of the infantry onto 25mm bases.

Secondly, and most significantly, I have began the reorganisation, re-basing, and potentially finally painting, of my big hat Chaos Dwarf army. I have been adding odds and ends to what is quite a large army. With the new Warhammer this old 1990s relic (with some 2010's additions) is now a viable 'Legacy' army! I love the idea of tackling this project, and maybe even getting to do some gaming. I think the Chaos Dwarf infantry look great on the 25mm square bases, the smaller 20mm bases always put me off really tackling the army, and the round 25mm bases never felt right.

Enjoy :)

Ffug's Regiment

Side view.

The,erm, other side!

Gobbin Honk's Archers

I added a little piece of wall so I could have one of the goblins peering around it, maybe checking if it is safe enough to start routing yet!?

The goblins advance on some Dwarfs.

My next update will probably be on a few pre-slotta C27 Goblin Fanatics, and maybe a Ral Partha Giant.

The Fantasy Tribes Orcs so far.

 I started painting the Fantasy Tribes Orcs in late October last year, and this blog post is a summary of just how far I have got.

The aim was to try out the idea of regiment sized based units, something which I have since discovered other people have been pursuing as well. I chose the pre-slotta Fantasy Tribes Orcs as I thought they would work well with this concept, and I also liked the figures as well. The outcome and the output has been quite pleasing. I love the look of the miniatures of the larger bases, they give the regiments as more natural feel of spacing and moment. These stated of as an experiment, and after looking at other peoples basing, I am looking to be more creative with bases for some of the other armies in the future. For now I am concentrating on 1st/2nd Edition Warhammer Fantasy Battle armies, primarily Goblinoids, but later moving onto some of my other early, pre-slotta armies, especially those in the 1st Edition Forces of Fantasy booklet 'The Book of Battalions'.

The other thing has been the output boost. I have found it very easy to paint large amounts of miniatures quite quickly. My approach has been more for tabletop quality, and I am aiming for a 2nd Edition Fantasy look, rather than the contemporary highly painted and detailed miniatures. That said, I am not approaching them in a 'slapdash' manner, it is just that I am going for an older, less complicated look, with more emphasis on painting banners, shields, and character models, which I feel befits the era and miniatures. So far it's been fun.

I am in fact coming to the end of my Fantasy Tribes Orc collection, with only the stone throwers left to do. I am next looking to focus on the completing the Orcs forces from the Bloodbath at Orcs Drift scenario, using only the C15 Slotta based Orcs, although based on the regimental bases. I am also looking to get some pre-slotta goblins painted and based, some of whom will be part of Rug Longtooths army which is detailed in the 'The Book of Battalions'. In addition, I am in the final stages of assembling a pre-slotta Chaos army, based on Gyokurinti's Raiders.

Enjoy :)

The Orcs so far.
There are seven regiments of Orcs, Harboths Orcs (1st Edition), Mudat's Half Orcs, Despoiling Hobgoblins, Notlob's Artillery, two smaller units of crossbow Orcs, three units of Orc archers, two units of Lesser Goblins, two Orc Wyvern riders, a pre slotta C16 Orc Hero, an Orc Wizard, and a pre slotta C16 Orc Chieftain with an Ogre standard bearer (on the 50mm round base) as the army general.

Orc general.
For my 2nd Edition Fantasy Battle Armies I have decided to put the Army Generals on command bases, usually 50mm lipped round bases. I have done this as I like the idea of little dioramas around the General, or maybe just a very snazzy and imposing base. I have seen this done before both in the old 1980s miniatures, and more recent ones for other rule sets. The extra miniatures themselves are just or decoration, although if I extend this idea to my 3rd edition fantasy any standard bearers could be used as the Army Standard.
Anyway, this General (who I have yet to think of a name for!) is the old C16 Orc 'Orc Chieftain' model. I really like this miniature as he look confident and cocky enough to be an Orc Warlord. The miniature itself looks to be a sculpt from the 1st Edition Harboth miniature. His standard bearer is a converted Ogre Trooper from Golgfag's Ogre Mercenaries.

C15 Armoured Orc.
I really liked this miniature and was considering using him as a regimental leader, but I thought it was a waste. So I based him up individually and he will act as an independent hero. Despite basing the regiment on the big bases I am still having certain miniatures, mainly heroes and wizards, individually based so they can have that extra freedom to attach themselves to different regiments or go off on specific missions.

Wizard.
They never made and Fantasy Tribes or pre-slotta Or Wizards (there were a couple of Half-Orc ones). So I have used an old, slightly damaged Nick Lund Orc from the BC4 Mighty Ugezod's Death Commandos.

Fantasy Tribe Orc on Wyvern.
I have done a blog update solely on this, and the one below here:
http://goblinlee.blogspot.com/2024/01/fantasy-tribes-orc-fto-13-wyverns-and.html

The other Fantasy Tribe Orc on Wyvern.

RR5 Harboth and the Black Mountain Boys (1st Edition).
I quite pleased to have the full command for this as the champion, 'Yaskin Forit', is quite a rare miniature.

RR9 Mudak's Half Orc Mercenaries.
This was a regiment I never collected in the 1980s but the 2010s! Again, like Harboths, I am quite pleased to have the complete command set as they aren't always easy to find.

RR15  Throg's Hobgoblin Despoilers.
I have a lots of sentimental liking for this regiment as it was on of the first sets of miniatures I purchased back in the 1980s. It took me a few years to complete the set and I am quite happy to finally have them properly painted.
I chose the orange look for the Hobgoblin flesh as it was the one I associate with the Hobgoblins in the 1980s, and it suits them. I made sure to keep the tone muted though, least I have a regiment of Oompa Loompas!

RR14 Notlob's Orc Artillery.

The rear view of the 1st/2nd Edition Fantasy Battle Regiments of Renown box, with all the lovely old style artwork.

 Fantasy Tribes Orc Regiment, FTO 08 Charging with Polearm.
Many of these became part of the C15 Armoured Orcs range.

The Second Fantasy Tribes Orc Regiment, FTO 08 Charging with Polearm.

The Third Fantasy Tribes Orc Regiment, FTO 08 Charging with Polearm.

 Fantasy Tribes Orc Regiment, FTO 12 Orc Bodyguard with battleaxe.

Fantasy Tribes Orc Regiment, with FTO 01 Orc advancing with Mace and Shield.

Fantasy Tribes Orc Regiment, with FTO 02 Orc attacking with Sword and Shield.

This Orc Regiment armed with spears is a mix of Fantasy Tribes and later C15 and C16 pre-slotta Orcs.
The banner was originally used by one of the Polearm armed Orc regiments, but I swapped them over as it match the spear armed Orcs shields better.

A mix of the Fantasy Tribes and pre-slotta C-Series Orc Archers. 
I have selected the Orcs with the half moon shield, and painted them up to match the paint scheme of the Polearm Orcs, who some of whom also have the half moon shield. I have also mixed a few non archer models in with them to give some variety.
These are lovely miniature, but the bows can be very fragile. I have had to replace several bows with bent brass rod.

The second mix of the Fantasy Tribes and pre-slotta C-Series Orc Archers.

The third mix of the Fantasy Tribes and pre-slotta C-Series Orc Archers.

Fantasy Tribe FT0-10 Firing Crossbow.

Fantasy Tribe FT0-10 Firing Crossbow, led by a C15 Armoured Orc.
I opted for an olive green/brown flesh colour just to vary the look of the army and because some of the old 1980s Orcs were occasionally painted this colour.

FTL/C14 Lesser Goblins.
These are so tiny. They were a race in 1st/2nd Edition Warhammer, which was then superseded in it's function by the Snotlings (which were introduced in 1986, which were initially named 'Micro Goblins', I clearly remember buying a packed called this in 1987).
Anyway, these tiny goblins are part of the army of Rug Longtooth, from the 1st Edition Book of Battalions, and a part of Mim's Regiment.

More lesser Goblins from Mim's regiment. The regiment is split into two part, one with hand weapons, the other with hand weapons and nets. But more of that when I paint that particular army.

Orcs. Lots of Orcs!

Next update could be anything. I am currently painting Fantasy Tribes Dwarfs, but I have an idea of painting a pre-slotta Chaos army, as well painting more Orcs based on the 'Bloodbath at Orcs Drift' scenario Orc armies. I also have painted more Iron Claw Squats than I have posted on this blog, so I have a lot of options.