Harboth's Orc Archers

As it's Orctober I thought I would post some pictures of the Orcs I have been working on. First up is one the classic regiments of renown- Harboth's Orc Archers. This is one of the first box sets I bought as a kid a very long time ago, and recently repainted them. 

I wanted to use the box art as inspiration for colours and for the banner or standard bearer.

The back of the box has a story with a lot of character, including information like the Orcish word for moving out can also mean deserting, running away or soling one's underwear.  I also like the information on equipment, Battlecry, Deeds, Uniforms and Shield designs.

They even spelt Harboth's name wrong here- Who is Harbath?! But you can see a close up of the banner. I like the ghostly ethereal look to it, so I set out to make my own version.

And an advert in WD. This also has a print version of the banner, in bright green for some reason, so I used this as starting point to make my own version.

At first I made a version in photoshop, but when I printed it it just didn't look right. It looked fake, a bit faded, and just... printed on a computer. I tried painting over it, but the printer ink would run and react to water based paints.

Which brings me to my final version of Harboth's standard bearer. This was painted in water colours and some acrylic paints, mainly the black. The trophies are mostly dwarf, the story on the back describes how Harboth's Orcs like to kill and eat Dwarfs -"Pulp do Stunties!" Is their warcry after all! So Dwarf trophies seemed appropriate. I'm really happy with the final result.

Here's Yaskin Forit, the units champion. Unit Champions back then didn't have to be armed identically to the rest of the unit, so he wields a two-handed Dwarf tickler. He also manages to wield a two-handed weapon and use a shield at the same time! 

His name is sounds like "You asking for it?!" - the sort of thing some aggressive thug might ask before a fight. 
I didn't like the Roman style crest on the helmet, so I removed it and stuck some horns on, I felt bad defacing the old model, but I much prefer how he looks now. Much more Orky! 
While repainting Yaskin Forit I noticed he has a necklace of ears, some are even pointy! Gruesome! I also hope to paint some design on his shield when I get time. Probably a crude face of one of his victims.

The musician- not a lot else to say, except he's the only Orc archer not wearing any chainmail or armour.

And lastly, the man himself, Harboth. His original weapon was damaged and I replaced it with an axe. 

Chaos Dwarf Army List Warhammer 3rd edition

Chaos Dwarf Army List
For WFB 3rd Edition

"Long have we Dwarfs stood against the Old Dark Powers. From the Dawn Ages to the Time of Ending have we ever been numbered among their greatest foes and for good reason. It seemed that we were immune to that warping power that is Chaos ' greatest strength. No children were born in the Dwarf holds that bore the taint of mutation. Our armies did not turn into shambling horrors when the tide of Chaos flowed over them. We thought ourselves immune to the power of the Great Mutator. It was a source of pride. Other races such as short-lived men or treacherous, sybaritic Elves might fall under its sway, but not us.

As with so much else that gave us pride, our seeming immunity played us false. During the last great incursion of Chaos, some of our armies were caught in warpstorms more fierce than any ever remembered. They vanished and we thought them dead. Soon we heard reports that armies of black-clad Dwarfs were marching out of the wastes. When we sent armies to aid our allies we discovered it was true. The full power of the Great Mutator had been laid upon our armies and they had changed. Our warriors found themselves fighting their own kinsmen, changed and demonic. You cannot imagine what a horror that is for a Dwarf manling.”

-Gotrek Gurnisson lecturing Felix Jaeger on Chaos Dwarfs
(-from ROC: The Lost and the damned)

Chaos Dwarf Army List

My aim was to bring together all the Chaos Dwarf articles printed in White Dwarf, Realm of Chaos, Warhammer Armies, etc, and put them in one coherent, balanced list. I wanted it to be representative of models and themes in WFB 3rd ed. WFB 3rd is low key, there are not many extravagant fantastical units, not as many as in later editions. Units are smaller, and specialist units are rarer.

Some Chaos Dwarf army lists have too many Goblinoid units, so many that they often out number the Chaos Dwarf units! I've seen some armies that are 75% Goblinoid and just a couple of units of Chaos Dwarfs. They look more like an Orc and Goblin army with Chaos Dwarf allies!

I think this comes from the 4th edition Chaos Dwarf army list (the big hats) and the reason this army list had so many Goblinoid units was because they only had a few Chaos Dwarf infantry models at the time (Big-Hat Halberds and Big-Hat Blunderbusses), so they packed out the army list with Hobgoblins, Orcs, Black Orcs and Goblins.
I wanted the focus of this army list to be on Chaos Dwarfs, it is a Chaos Dwarf army list after all! More Hobgoblins, Orcs and Goblins can be added through Allies or Mercenaries as usual. These can be thought of as subjugated tribes if you prefer.

I didn't re-write any background or origins there are people out there who are much better at that sort of thing than me. I didn't try to retro-fit new models and force them into 3rd. A lot of them would probably be over-powered anyway. Newer models can still be used though, for instance a Doom Rocket can use the 3 man Mortar rules. In fact the WFB 3rd ed rules for mercenaries mean that Hobgoblin mercenaries are unreliable, they might even switch sides, which is just how they should be!

I included a unit called Infernal Guard, mainly as I needed a name for an elite unit, but any models can represent these. You don't have to use the Infernal Guard models from Forge World if you don't want to. Bull-Centaurs can use the Boar Centaur profile, again I didn't want to invent something new and Boar Centaurs are already pushing war machines. Dragon Ogres profiles can be used for the larger Bull-Centaurs or Taur Centaurs (found in chaotic hosts).

It also has some rules I created for the Chaos Dwarf Juggernaut.

I have included Chaos Dwarf Swivel Gun rules that appeared in WD, and collated them into one page, so people don't have to go hunting for them.

Here's the link to download the PDF :

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/17BkC70WaR8WM9bfFtT4lOcyHKTz7srIR?usp=share_link

Preview of the pages of the chaos dwarf armylist, here mainly for search engines (images mean it's more likely to turn up in search results) - use the link above to download the PDF for free.

I hope you enjoy the Chaos Dwarf army list for Warhammer fantasy battle 3rd edition. If you have any feedback or notice any errors let me know!

https://www.scribd.com/document/646846578/Chaos-Dwarf-Army-List-For-Warhammer-3rd-Edition-V1-08

#chaosdwarf #chaosdwarfrules #chaosdwarfarmylist #chaosdwarfcodex #warhammerrules #oldhammer #chaosdwarfjuggernaut

Snotling Pump Wagon!

Another classic old model. I had an Orc and Goblin army many years ago when I used to play Warhammer Fantasy Battle with friends, but I never had the Snotling pump wagon. I always loved the craziness and rickety, ramshackle character of the model, so some years ago I bought one from ebay. Recently I got around to finishing it.

I wanted to capture the feeling of speed and how it is almost out of control, so I positioned the model like it had just gone over a bump. I tried to make it look like the Snotlings are hanging on for dear life, not always easy to convey with the models available!

I also put ruts in mud on the base to give it a sense of racing along.

Orc War Wyvern

Haven't posted anything on here for a while! Lockdown has meant I have got back into painting again. For some reason I started with really old models!

Anyway, here is a wyvern. It's the old GW Orc War Wyvern, I think was called Polly in the story on the back the box.
I converted it from it's static pose to one with a bit more movement to it. Wasn't sure what colour to paint it and eventually settled on blue as it's a different colour to all the orc's green skins. I think a blue wyvern looks ok? I may or may not add the orc rider later, perhaps use magnets so I have the option.

7TV Garth Marenghi's Darkplace Programme Guide

I've been meaning to make a cast for Garth Marenghi's Darkplace for sometime. I've always thought 7TV 2ed was the perfect rules for Garth Marenghi, funny yet action packed.

Any feedback on stats, balancing, theme, or suggestions on Special Effects is very welcome. I'm still a bit new to the 2ed rules. I'll try and post the miniatures I use soon.

For anyone who doesn't know what Garth Marenghi is here's a link:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garth_Marenghi's_Darkplace

  

 

And here's a cast for the A-Team for 7TV 2ed.