The Helsmiths of Hashut have arrived, and Norman and Rich are taking a look at the army set. Our thanks to Games Workshop for providing Goonhammer with review copies.

After a number of years devoid of any kind of chaotic Duardin activity, the realms now once again clamour with the ring of the Helsmiths of Hashut’s forges. Obsessed with the perfection of their craft, the Zharrdron harness the powers of daemonic forces to elevate the effectiveness of their weapons, hubristically believing themselves immune to the detrimental influence these powers exert over them in turn. Now turning their eye to conquest, the Helsmiths have thrown wide the doors of their mighty ziggurats, ready to march forth and put their masterworks to the test through subjugation of the realms.

First Impressions

Rich: It’s been a long old wait for the Age of Sigmar version of Chaos Dwarfs, although it feels like we’ve been hearing whispers of their impending arrival for almost the entire existence of the game. It’s a wait that’s worth it though. Launching with an army set containing a full Spearhead force of a character, unit, and a pair of war machines (one the traditional artillery piece interpretation of that phrase, one decidedly less so), the Helsmiths’ design feels to me like it really adds a different dimension to Grand Alliance: Chaos.

The inspiration of the Warhammer Fantasy Battles Chaos Dwarfs and Forge World Legions of Azgorh is clear, with tall helmets, angular armour plates, ringed beards and chaotic flame all making an appearance. The sculpts are fantastic, with every model fitting into the well-drilled, regimented whole but also displaying flashes of each dwarf’s individual craftsmanship through different armour trimmings, jewelry, and the like. The War Despot is significantly larger and more grandly-appointed than the line troops of the Infernal Cohort, reflecting a Zharrdron of supreme power and cunning.

The flavour of the faction shines through even more in the war machines. The Tormentor Bombard sends daemonic projectiles arcing across the battlefield from its roiling reserve of chaos energy, engraved with profane runes and crewed by somewhat more pragmatically-dressed Duardin in aprons and gloves, as well as the closest thing I’ve ever seen to an Age of Sigmar welding mask. The Dominator Engine pushes the chaotic vibes even further, stamping forth on cursed hooves to unleash a torrent of daemon flame. This model is the most patently silly of the box, with “big metal cow robot” feeling like a potential off-ramp for anyone who prefers their fantasy a bit more serious, but in my opinion the sculptors have managed to pull it off through use of smoke pieces (and maces in the alternate build) to balance the pose and give the model a real sense of weight.

The box art paint scheme is a new creation, far from the red, black and brass of the classic incarnation. This pink/purple and bronze scheme with green flame has been a bit divisive online, with some people claiming that it looks too much like Skaven energy, or that it’s a crime to diverge from the classic look.  For me, that’s a bit short-sighted. The ‘Eavy Metal paint jobs are fantastically rendered if you like their style, and the scheme has been carefully chosen to fully show off the models in as much detail as possible, which ultimately has to be the job of the pictures on the product packaging and marketing material.

Nevertheless, die-hards will be glad to know that the lovely Battletome (also included in the set) attaches the purple scheme specifically to The Forge Anathema subfaction, with other colour schemes including the classic red preferred by the different ziggurats across the realms.

Norman: Chaos Dwarves were one of the things I initially fell in love with when I got into Warhammer, and I have always wanted to own an army of them. It’s the coolest grand alliance combined with the coolest race in the setting, so what’s not to love? Overall, I think the designers have knocked it out of the park with these guys. Every model tells a story of what its battlefield role is and what it wants to be doing while also not being overly detailed, a problem a lot of new models tend to have. None of these took a particularly large amount of effort to paint (outside the flame freehand I did but you don’t have to do that one) and they were all fun to get through.

Building

War Despot

Rich: The Despot comes on a tiny frame in only six pieces, but despite the surprisingly svelte sprue he assembles up into by far the chunkiest of the Duardin in this set. He goes together well, and although you could easily leave his arms/hands off for ease of painting in subassemblies, I found there was no need to as the pose is nice and open. There’s not a lot else to say really, easy to build and a great pose! The downside, he’s very static and there are no options, so I can see people trying to get hold of the upcoming Underworlds kit or the alternate build from the mounted version if they want to run a second War Despot without them being identical.

Norman: It’s a bit odd standing next to the Champion in the Infernal Cohort since the champ has a bigger rock. That said, this kit is great, too bad I’ll almost certainly not be fielding the unit.

Infernal Cohort

Rich: By comparison to the War Despot, the Infernal Cohort are the heftiest kit in the box, covering three A5 sprues.The kit goes together easily, with a variety of sturdy poses that, while not exactly dynamic, go together well to form a sturdy shield wall. The shields are interchangeable, and I opted to leave them sub-assembled for ease of access. My favourite part of the kit by far is the musician, who simply wields a large mallet with which to bong the gong carried by a hard done by Hobgrot.

Norman: I wasn’t super happy with how the shields attached to the arms, I had a few fall off during painting. Also I don’t love that if you’re running a spear unit only 7 out of 10 of the models can have a spear and a few don’t get shields. There were also less female head options than I expected once I started building. That said, the kit goes together fast and has a good amount of options to make each model have their own personality without being wildly different.

Tormentor Bombard/Deathshrieker Rocket Battery

Rich: The bombard itself here is pretty simple, with a wheeled frame that can have either the bombard gun or the rocket battery mounted on top of it. I think if you wanted to, you could magnetise or blu-tac these pretty easily to swap between the two. The roiling flames in the furnace on the back of the assembly do a lot to add to the Zharrdron character of the piece, and it all comes together to look pretty brutal. The crew are characterful, dressed in protective gloves, boots and aprons rather than full armour plate (or, in the Hobgrot’s case, a loincloth). Charmingly, the Duardin crew have little flip down protective faceplates molded in a skull pattern, one of my favourite details of the kit. As with the Despot, these crew are pretty static, and someone wanting to run multiple batteries of guns may find that the repeated crew poses stand out. Still, it’s nothing that a bit of gentle conversion couldn’t solve.

Norman: I built the Deathshrieker variant and have the same assessment about magnetizing it to be both guns. You do wanna leave the grates off the model for painting the warpflame furnaces.

Rich: Ah. I forgot to leave the grates off…

Dominator Engine

Rich: Cow! Cow! Cow! This thing is silly as hell and I love it. It’s got a tiny curly tail! Amazing, no notes. More seriously, the kit goes together well. There’s not a huge amount of choice other than the two weapon loadouts and the head, of which you also have a few choices. There’s a little flex in the arm and head posing, too, in case you want to do multiples. Everything fits together well, with minimal gaps, and I found there was no need to subassemble the model. If you did want to keep the smoke plumes separate, for example to spray them a different colour to the rest of the model, they join as an entire separate piece which is useful.

Norman: This thing goes insanely hard and is a really fun kit to build. It’s more posable than you’d expect and makes for amazing conversion fodder.

Painting

War Despot

Rich: I had a great time painting this guy, so much so that I put way too many of my allocated painting hours into him! He’s got just the right mix of textures and materials, and the slightly larger face when compared to the Cohort means there’s room to inject a little more character into the frown under the helmet. I opted to try to replicate the colours of The Forge Anathema from the box art scheme, and I’m pretty happy with how it came out. I did take the path of cowardice and avoid doing the freehand on the robe sleeves, and in hindsight I think it definitely loses something – the bright trim on the ‘Eavy Metal model’s sleeves really helps to frame it well.

The main armour colour I’ve used is Pro-Acryl Bronze, washed with a purple wash and glazed down in some places with browns and black before highlighting back up with bronze and then a bronze-silver mix. All of the gold is Citadel Retributor Armour with a flesh wash and highlights of Retributor, Liberator Gold and silver, and the silver metal is Two Thin Coats Dwarven Iron (how appropriate) with washes and glazes of black and then bright silver highlights.

Norman: This guy doesn’t take much to paint compared to the Cohort, he’s basically the same as the champ there but with longer horns and more gems. I painted him in the spare minutes of waiting for paint to dry on the Dominator Engine between steps and finished before I even got halfway through the Engine. Nice and simple.

For my scheme I mostly followed the book’s Musphelzharr scheme, using Vallejo Charcoal as a base, highlighted with Somber Grey. The Trim was Vallejo Polished Gold highlighted with Army Painter True Brass. For the gems I used Vallejo Night Blue as a base and then transitioned to white using a traditional Gem technique. For skin, I used Vallejo Warm Grey, washed it with Citadel Darkoath Flesh and highlighted again with Warm Grey. This was the basis for all the models in this box.

Infernal Cohort

Norman: Ok, freehanding flames on all of these may not have been the smartest idea I’ve ever had and I’m the first to admit that. That said, these shields provide a fantastic surface for freehand and are detailed enough to paint up fine without it. The banner provides an excellent opportunity to use the amazing transfers that are in this box too.

Rich: Thanks to the time I spent on the War Despot I didn’t get all the way through the Cohort, but I did get a test shield done. It looks like this:

I also made sure I put in the time to finish the most important guy: Gong Hobgrot! This guy is not happy with his lot in life, and it really shows. It’s really fun to have the occasional hobgrot to paint as a break from all of the metal armour, too. His skin is Hobgrot Hide with the same purple recess shade as I also used on the Despot’s flesh, and highlighted up with a mix of Hobgrot Hide and a purple-grey. His robe is Pro-Acryl Burnt Orange, shaded and weathered with a dark brown and highlighted up in successive mixes with Nova Orange. For the gong I started with Retributor Armour before throwing on a ton of layers of black, brown and turquoise washes and glazes. This was highlighted up with some rough, tappy highlights in a bright mix of silver and gold. I’m really happy with how the gong came out, it looks well-loved.

Tormentor Bombard/Deathshrieker Rocket Battery

Norman: As I mentioned above, you want to do this in small sub assemblies, leaving the grates off. For the daemon flame, I did Vallejo Ghostly Green at its deepest parts transitioning to Vallejo Night Blue at the highest, and hit the whole thing with Citadel Aethermatic Blue to tie it all together. All the little dudes really help the model come together in a mini diorama with none of the crew being too overly detailed for set dressing. I had trouble aligning my Hobgrot to the ground since I subassembled him but I’m willing to chalk that up to user error. Again, the freehand was a dumb idea.

Dominator Engine

Rich: This one was a lot of fun. As I often do with models involving fire I resolved to do that first, starting with a bright green through the airbrush before washing with white and drybrushing up through various darker and darker greens to black. This was incredibly messy, but I knew I was basecoating metals over the rest of the model, so it would be fine. I was then messy doing this, and had to go over a load of the fire again afterwards. In short, this model is going to be a time sink to paint neatly! It’s worth it though, it’s definitely the impact piece of the army set.

I based this (and all of my Helsmiths) to try and emulate the ‘Eavy Metal bases. I added patches of Agrellan Earth, and after it had dried and cracked I glued sand onto the rest of the base. After this was dry, this all got a quick coat of alcohol followed by watered down PVA to lock all of the stuff onto the base. Everything gets basecoated Dawnstone, gently washed with a thinned black wash, then drybrushed in Ionrach Skin and white. I use some targeted washes and glazes of brown and green to add a bit of natural warmth in places, especially on and around rocks, and then the base rim gets a few coats of Stormvermin Fur. Finally, the whole model gets coated with a 50:50 mix of matt and satin varnishes through the airbrush. As a finishing touch, some tiny brown tufts from GamersGrass help to conjure the struggling plant life of a barren wasteland.

Norman: This dude was a blast through and through. I thought at first the flames would be a nightmare, but it came together rather quickly. The only real issue I had was with the runes. Highlighting them is a nightmare so I opted to mix some oils to get a glow going in the recesses. After that the whole thing painted up real fast. I’m already looking forward to painting another one.

Final Thoughts

Rich: Chaos Dwarfs are back, and in a form that I think might be divisive for some fans of the classic fantasy version who wanted something that hewed more closely to that aesthetic. Personally, I think you can see the throughline from there to here, and I am a huge fan of these minis; I love the modernised design, and think they bring a new kind of aesthetic to Age of Sigmar. As an army set it’s a great collection of new miniatures, obviously, but to me the extra win is that it’s a functional Spearhead force in its entirety too. That makes it appealing even to people that don’t want to grow a force into a 2,000 point army, and I expect we might see the set sell out quickly on release.

Norman: Man this was a blast through and through. I really love this range and can’t wait to get my hands on more. I had to speed through painting these for the review deadline, and I’m already considering preordering another box to double up on my stuff. I have gripes here and there, but overall I was very pleased with whole box.

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