Welcome to a trip back in time. 40 years back in time to be precise. Back to a time before Hellcannons, before Tamurkhan, before the Great Taurus. Before a single big hat was donned.
Back to when Chaos Dwarfs were simply Dwarfs who served Chaos.
The first Chaos Dwarfs were released in 1985 and were heavily armoured dwarf versions of Chaos Warriors.
There were shortly followed by some more lightly armoured and heavily mutated models which brought a much more distorted and twisted look to the units, am aesthetic that I have always liked. I'm really not a fan of the ordered ranks of plastic that emerged later.
My purchasing habits around this time were very much a matter of saving up some money (often by skipping school dinner) and picking up a couple of blister packs of whatever G&I Models (there wasn't a Games Workshop in every town back then) happened to have in stock.
The bizarre nature of the Chaos Dwarfs will have caught my eye because I like my Chaos to be...well...chaotic.
The sheer variety of these models really captures the feel of early Warhammer Chaos, with each model being a unique character, blessed by the Chaos Gods in different ways: a hunchback with spines; a Dwarf/Beastman hybrid split down the middle; an armoured warrior with a mane and duck feet...
...duck feet?
Yep. Worshipping Chaos isn't all about wearing black and looking cool.
One of the things I really love about this range is that they capture the total randomness that rolling on the Chaos Attributes table in Realms of Chaos: Slaves to Darkness (a d1000 table) would deliver, often making the servants of Chaos less effective.
Vestigial horns and a single leg are not an awe-inspiring demonstration of the benefits of kneeling before the pantheon.
In fact, I'd imaging that kneeling would be a bit awkward for this chap.
The eighties were a different time in Warhammer, a more bonkers time.
To my mind no miniature captures this insanity better than this horned, zombie, ninja Dwarf being part of the Dwarf Villagers range rather than a Chaos Dwarf.
I'd love to have some insight on the whole thought process that led to the creation of this one.
Anyway, these five chaps will be joining my Chaos Marauders, although Duck-Feet might waddle his way into a unit of Chaos Warriors when I get round to them as he's a bit heavily armoured for a Marauder.
There are some more very old miniatures to add to this unit that will lend even more of a chaotic feel.
Acquired: -79
Painted: 178
Lead Mountain: 395
They look great, the best Chaos Dwarfs that GW released
ReplyDeleteI just wish I had bought more at the time.
DeleteAwesome Chaos.
ReplyDeleteI agree, by far the best vision of Chaos, and yours look lovely.
I remember the old chaos dwarfs. They were really cool models and had that wacky Oldhammer feel. These guys look great and would look nice in a unit. By the way, where does the quote at the start of the post come from? I remember it being sampled in a song.
ReplyDeleteIt's from the first X-Men movie. It was a play on the mutation concept, and also these being no longer true dwarfs, or even chaos dwarfs.
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