WFB: Going Retro with Chaos Dwarfs – Part 2.

4 Minute Read

Nov 1 2014

Hi! I`m Tommy from the little known and rather obscure blog bigbossredskullz and we are making a Chaos Dwarfs army!

In this part I’ll show how I went about and planned the making of the bases and how I painted them to get the final result.

I’d also like to own up that I made a mistake. These are 4th edition miniatures, BUT they are classic 😉

Preparations
A good friend of mine bought the supplies he needed to cast stuff in resin. He was so kind that he made a mould for me based on various base sizes that I made to get an unique look on all of my bases. Here’s the 40mm one (have no idea where the others are..) and the mould.

So I’m sorry I can’t give advice on how to make a mould and casting but what I can say is that I saved a ton of time doing it like this!

Now here’s a clever advice that I should’ve followed myself. Try ranking up…you see there’s a reason many of the old minis where placed with an angle. Otherwise they wouldn’t rank up, as in not a chance. But as I explained in part 1, the gaming aspect is a bonus for me not a must so I dug out 25mm bases and glued my casted ones on top. Here’s pre-basecoat. Note that I had to add some sand for the transition between the 20mm base and the 25mm base.

Painting the bases

So when that’s all dry we can start on the fun bit!

1. Basecoat black.

You can do it with a brush but it’s better with spray for an even coat.

2. Layer of mid tone grey

I use dawnstone grey from GW. Here you just give it a good solid layer, covering up everything.

3. Washes and inks

I used a mix cause that’s what I had at hand but you need brown, red, yellow and green. Dab spots with each colour until the grey areas are covered in a crazy pattern like this. If you use the old inks always dilute them with water.

4. Black wash

Now I use my black ink, heavily diluted with water and give the entire base a good covering. Note that the black needs to be so thin that it doesn’t cover all of the previous ones.

5. Drybrushing, step 1

First with the mid tone grey to bring some stone colour back.

6. Drybrushing, step 2

Then with a light tone grey over the previous one. Just to give a highlight.

7. Drybrushing, step 3 & basering

Finally with pure white, but do it with the utmost care so you don’t mess up the previous layers.

I paint my baserings black, always. Because it looks best that way (always).

8. Flock

I use this type of green flock as it reminds of scrubs that you often find in the mountains, early or late winter. Topped off with a bit of snow here and there.

9. Dullcoat and all done

To take the shine from the washes away and get a good finish I use Armybuilders dullcoat. Good stuff!

A hint of what’s to come

I guess you’re now getting an idea of where I’m going with my Chaos Dwarfs, and if not (or as a confirmation). There will be no lava 😉

In part three I’ll show you how to make your own transfers and how you make them look good (or at least better).

That was the end of part 2! Was the tutorial okay and how do you like Chaos Dwarfs on non-lava bases?

Don't Miss:

Author: Tommy Hovind Kristiansen

Tommy is a tabletop miniatures hobbyist and painter with over 10 years of experience. His specialty is Games Workshop's Warhammer universes. He began writing for BoLS in 2014.

Chaos Dwarfs Game Tutorial Hobby Miniature Painting Warhammer Fantasy