Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Ok so I'm going to be converting some Dwarf characters for a friend of mine in exchange for some painting from him (I suck at painting and he sucks at conversions ). I'm going to be making a King, Thane BSB, Master Engineer, Dragon Slayer and a model that could be either a Runesmith or Runelord. I'm making the models entirely out of only GW plastics. So after talking about ideas for each of the characters, looking at some concept art from WAR and searching through various Bits sites I have it pretty well planned out how I'll do each character but I do have some questions.

1. How do Dwarf arms compare to arms of humans? For instance could I swap out a normal Dwarfs arms with arms from the IG or Empire range and still have it be right as far as scale goes? Or could I put Dwarf arms on a human and have them look normal? In short are the arms of Dwarf and Human models enterchangable?

2. Does anyone know any good tutorials on sculpting GS beards? I'm going to be using seperate heads from the Dwarf range mostly from the Space Wolves and I'm going to be sculpting some GS beards and braids onto the models.

3. Does anyone have any ideas on what I could convert to be suitable legs for a Slayer? I don't want to use any of the normal Dwarf legs and like I've said I want to stay with plastics from GW, I just found a conversion someone did for Squats using Cadian legs that I might try but I'm still open to more suggestions.

4. Can anyone tell me what the Dwarfs are like from the Cannon/Organ Gun sprue? Are they assembled the same was as other Dwarfs in that their heads are attached to the front of the torso? More specifically I'm wanting to know how the engineer is with the apron is assembled.

Thanks ahead for any help

The closest thing to dwarf arms I could think of would be IG catachan arms, but those would probably be much too long. You're best off using green stuff.

Sculpting beards should be roughly the same process as sculpting fur, although if you want to do the beard braids, you'll probably want to hold off on those until the beard dries.


I'm not sure about the last two questions. Dwarfs seem like a real pain in the butt to do anything with, especially converting them.

Sorry I couldn't be of more help.

Jordan wrote:The closest thing to dwarf arms I could think of would be IG catachan arms, but those would probably be much too long. You're best off using green stuff.

I've actually been doing some searching since I made this and I found an image of some Squats someone made where they combined Imperial and Dwarf bits including putting IG arms on a Dwarf body and it was pretty close to scale. For the IG I was thinking about the Catachan arms specifically for my Slayer and if length is a problem I can always cut down the wrist area, use some wire to attach the hand a little ways out and use GS to make a shorter wrist.

Sculpting beards should be roughly the same process as sculpting fur, although if you want to do the beard braids, you'll probably want to hold off on those until the beard dries.

Yeah I know how to do braids with 2 differant methods but all the fur I've ever sculpted has been alot of short fur instead of long flowing hairs so I want to make sure I get it right.

I'm not sure about the last two questions. Dwarfs seem like a real pain in the butt to do anything with, especially converting them.

Sorry I couldn't be of more help.

That's ok yeah I've always liked the Dwarf army with their fluff and rules and units and such but I've never really liked the models with a few exceptions. There are some awesome bits but in general the models aren't that great to me. Warriors, Longbeards, Quarelers and Thunderers all look like they're wearing dresses instead of chainmail coats. Sleaved Dwarf arms are skinny and long while uncovered Dwarf arms are all hulking and roid like but quiet a bit of their units are still metal (though I did really like the old metal Longbeards). All in all it's kept me from playing Dwarfs, heck the King I'm making has maybe 2 Dwarf peices on the entire model and they're accessories.

Odins Beard wrote:Ok so I'm going to be converting some Dwarf characters for a friend of mine in exchange for some painting from him (I suck at painting and he sucks at conversions ). I'm going to be making a King, Thane BSB, Master Engineer, Dragon Slayer and a model that could be either a Runesmith or Runelord. I'm making the models entirely out of only GW plastics. So after talking about ideas for each of the characters, looking at some concept art from WAR and searching through various Bits sites I have it pretty well planned out how I'll do each character but I do have some questions.

1. How do Dwarf arms compare to arms of humans? For instance could I swap out a normal Dwarfs arms with arms from the IG or Empire range and still have it be right as far as scale goes? Or could I put Dwarf arms on a human and have them look normal? In short are the arms of Dwarf and Human models enterchangable? In my experience I would say that human arms look a bit too long on Dwarves.

2. Does anyone know any good tutorials on sculpting GS beards? I'm going to be using seperate heads from the Dwarf range mostly from the Space Wolves and I'm going to be sculpting some GS beards and braids onto the models. There's one on Bugmans Brewery, can't seem to find at the moment though.


4. Can anyone tell me what the Dwarfs are like from the Cannon/Organ Gun sprue? Are they assembled the same was as other Dwarfs in that their heads are attached to the front of the torso? More specifically I'm wanting to know how the engineer is with the apron is assembled. They are assembled the exact same as the others.

Thanks ahead for any help

I did not know Guard arms would be a good fit. I'll have to keep that in mind if the Tau do get "demiurg" allies when their new dex gets released.

Maybe they are wearing dresses. Maybe they're wearing loose-knit sweaters spray painted silver like the extras in the Lord of the Rings

Dwarfs are somewhat under-developed by GW in terms of their models. Shame, that.

Dawi-Marine'Va wrote:

Odins Beard wrote:Ok so I'm going to be converting some Dwarf characters for a friend of mine in exchange for some painting from him (I suck at painting and he sucks at conversions ). I'm going to be making a King, Thane BSB, Master Engineer, Dragon Slayer and a model that could be either a Runesmith or Runelord. I'm making the models entirely out of only GW plastics. So after talking about ideas for each of the characters, looking at some concept art from WAR and searching through various Bits sites I have it pretty well planned out how I'll do each character but I do have some questions.

1. How do Dwarf arms compare to arms of humans? For instance could I swap out a normal Dwarfs arms with arms from the IG or Empire range and still have it be right as far as scale goes? Or could I put Dwarf arms on a human and have them look normal? In short are the arms of Dwarf and Human models enterchangable?

In my experience I would say that human arms look a bit too long on Dwarves.

I prefer to segment my quotes, any way like I said IG arms that I've seen work pretty well and I borrowed the bits I was looking at from the Empire range from a friend who just bought the box and with some slight tweaking they'll be perfect.

2. Does anyone know any good tutorials on sculpting GS beards? I'm going to be using seperate heads from the Dwarf range mostly from the Space Wolves and I'm going to be sculpting some GS beards and braids onto the models.

There's one on Bugmans Brewery, can't seem to find at the moment though.

Gee thanks that's so helpfull (kidding), if you find it let me know please

4. Can anyone tell me what the Dwarfs are like from the Cannon/Organ Gun sprue? Are they assembled the same was as other Dwarfs in that their heads are attached to the front of the torso? More specifically I'm wanting to know how the engineer is with the apron is assembled.

They are assembled the exact same as the others.

Hmm so the engineer model has the head attached, that makes things a little difficult but not to much I'll be able to work with it.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Jordan wrote:I did not know Guard arms would be a good fit. I'll have to keep that in mind if the Tau do get "demiurg" allies when their new dex gets released.

If they get Demiurg allies then chances are there will be models for them. Anyway back on topic though I think the arms are a good fit personally especially when you have a Dwarf with standard arms standing right next to the one with guard arms. I still need to see if Catachan arms will work for my Slayer though.

Maybe they are wearing dresses. Maybe they're wearing loose-knit sweaters spray painted silver like the extras in the Lord of the Rings

Dwarfs are somewhat under-developed by GW in terms of their models. Shame, that.

Yeah hopefully they get a good deal of new plastic models whenever they get updated, if they followed the design scheme used in the Dwarf concept art of WAR then they'd be fine.