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Personally I think the Big Hat aesthetic models from 4th/5th have a lot more character than the Forge World ones... the former were absolutely their own thing, with their own unique aesthetic that nobody else could pirate from them, whereas the 8th ones drifted a lot closer to Warriors of Chaos by being covered head-to-toe in armour and the Infernal Guard having those blank masks (though, given the Dawi-Zharr make all the armour and equipment for those hairy-arsed not-Conan delinquents, it could be said that the Warriors of Chaos are copying the Chaos Dwarfs' look rather than the other way around ).

Most of all though I love how the Blood Bowl Team and the Warhammer Total War roster have tried to merge the two, to give the Big Hat line more grounding and give the 8th Edition line more character. If they continue to follow that with the new range and keep to making units that would fit in various Editions of Warhammer Fantasy alongside AoS, then I'll be very happy and more than a little tempted.

 

The Blood Bowl Chaos Dwarfs are not that distinct from the 8th edition Forge World ones. They are of a similar style (although the hats have been heightened a bit)...










The blood bowl team is essentially an extension of the 8th edition daemonsmiths. The reason why the Infernal Guard/Ironsworn differ so much is by design. The Infernal Guard/Ironsworn are the Chaos Dwarf equivalent to the Slayers of the vanilla dwarfs. That's why they have those armoured helms. They have suffered dishonour among their people and literally have those red-hot helms seared over their heads and faces. They achieve anonymity from their dishonour and can pursue a death in Hashut's good graces. Although sometimes, through extraordinary feats, they can be freed of their dishonour and have the helms removed, exposing their scarred skin.

You as a devote vanilla dwarf general can never venture down this path. We both can't own Chaos Dwarfs, it would be like the coming to together of matter and antimatter.

Besides, I thought GW were making an active attempt to keep the game lines separate (for some odd reason).

 

https://www.warhammer-community.com...ew-tomb-kings-herald-more-old-world-releases/

Also Chaos Dwarfs for AOS. Kind of more of a sci fi vibe to them.

 

New characters and a book for TOW Tomb Kings:




Grrr, !mrahil

 

https://www.warhammer-community.com...view-bow-down-before-the-helsmiths-of-hashut/

 

I absolutely love those new Tomb King character models... and all of them in plastic, too! I knew that Egyptian crown teased in the 'hat' trailer was a good sign!

 

That is a truck load of new models.
Modern take on the Chaos Dwarfs esthetics.

Grrr, !mrahil

 

A lovely array of Dawi-Zharr there, and pretty much everything usable in various Editions of Warhammer Fantasy to boot!

As expected, largely following the Total War and Blood Bowl aesthetic of more serious-looking Big Hats, a nice marriage of the two aesthetics that preceded it.

 

So, I dig the heavy duty weapons for the Dawi-Zhaar... wait, sorry, should get into the habit of annoying @NIGHTBRINGER with their new name of Zharrdron... not sure about the look of some of their infantry, but I've never been big on dwarfs, Chaos or not, so that's probably a me thing and my knee-jerk reaction of just not liking dwarfs.

Maybe they'd grow on me. Maybe not.

 

REALLY DO NOT like the missile troops or the tires on the artillery. Way too sci fi.

 

Just took a second look, and yea, somehow I missed the melee troops, and only saw the ugly as sin missile troops. Still not OVERLY keen on the melee troops, and anything that calls itself a Dwarf missing a beard is always going to be a cursed image, but they're at least tolerable in comparison to the missile ones.

As for the sci-fi comment... I... I get it, the Dawi-Zhaar's thing was that they had more advanced tech than their Order aligned cousins. Age of Sigmar has the Kharadron and their magitech airships. Makes sense that the Zhaardron go more magical-dieselpunk in vibes. Mind you, the green glow on the missile troops, probably meant to be refined warpstone, does remind me of the Necron. So, can't fault you there.

And the wheels... I got nothing.

 

A worthy ambition but a tall order. The name Zharrdron doesn't bother me in the slightest, it serves as a useful distinction between Age of Sigmar and Warhammer Proper (WHFB 8th edition, undefeated & undisputed).

More Chaos Dwarfs is never a bad thing. Model-wise it's a mixed bag. Some really great stuff, some okay stuff and some stuff that doesn't quite fit my fancy. I'm in no way tempted to trade my Forge World Legion of Azgorh Chaos Dwarfs for them.

I really want to see what they will look like with a different paint job. Technically the paint job is great (far better than what I could ever hope to achieve) but it is a little bit to "clean" and bright for my liking. As such, some of the models that I might regard as so-so, could very well turn out quite nice with a more evil paint scheme.

I think my favourite piece is this guy:


His horned helmet/hat is pretty cool.

This dude isn't too bad either, but I like the first one better:




The new Bull Centars are decent but not great. I like both the blood bowl variants and the Legion of Azgorh variants better. I do really like the bull horned helmets though; they're pretty slick. If it is possible to combine the two builds (the armoured torso with the armoured helm), that might look pretty good.



The hobgoblins look pretty cool, and I'd be tempted to pick some up if I didn't already have two units of stand ins. Still, I dig them.


And then there is this guy. The armoured bull look is pretty neat. Once again the paint scheme is too clean for my vision of the Chaos Dwarfs, but I really want to see what other painters come up with.






One thing I really can't stand are the beardless Chaos Dwarfs mixed throughout. Maybe they are supposed to be female Chaos Dwarfs? I'm not really sold on the effect. If they wanted to go down that route, they should have leaned into the aesthetic a little further. At the moment they just look like beardless Chaos Dwarfs, and that seems like heresy to me.

 

I guess I should comment on the TK as well. Nice models across the board. Great additions to the TK lineup, but probably too large for 8th.

Is this the first arcane journal for the TK? (evidently I don't pay much attention to TOW outside of model releases)

 

Back to Chaos Dwarf talk. Overall I'd rate the model ranges as follows:

1. Legion of Azgorh (Forge World) and Hellcannon Crew
2. New Chaos Dwarf Blood Bowl team
3. New AoS Zharrdron
4. Old school "big hats"
5. Iron Golem

 

Yes, the new Helsmith models all look pretty great. I think the hero models that @NIGHTBRINGER called out are probably the coolest looking, but I think the whole line is pretty solid. The walking bull Dominator Engine looks a bit awkward to me, but not bad. I'm not opposed to the wheels on the war machines. The missiles on the other hand...

Don't miss a few more Big Hats in the Underworld preview.

 

I've noticed that GW has gradually pivoted their sculpting style to give a more angular look for several AoS models. I guess it makes it easier to edge highlight?

 

I think the problem is mostly the paintjob.

Like @NIGHTBRINGER said, the paintjobs are rather clean. The result is a lot of sharp angles & clean metal surfaces, which is fine-ish when it's just a small part, like the bull helmets. But it looks rather futuristic/sci-fi when most of the model is covered in it (the giant bull mounts, the ranged troops...) Its just too many large smooth and clean metal surfaces with too many sharp angles.

Also, the fact that they gave the guns the same green glows they use on necron weaponry doesnt help....

Aside from that, cool and all. But does AoS really need more factions?

I think theyre just trying to make them stand out and make them look unique compared to some of the older stuff.

 

Yes yes. All of these new TK models look terrific!