After biding their time in their ziggurats, the Helsmiths of Hashut are on the warpath, aiming to conquer all that is rightfully theirs – which just so happens to be the entirety of the Mortal Realms. With every hero and unit available to pre-order tomorrow, you’ll be able to complete your own army soon.
A selection of the wider Warhammer Community team, alongside a cabal of mysterious archivists, pledged themselves to the Bullfather and together they painted a selection of the new miniatures to help inspire you as you submit to Hashut. A few have even provided some tips on how they’ve painted theirs.
Ben: As soon as I read about Zharr Vyxa, I knew I’d have to paint my Helsmiths in their colours. How cool is a giant walking daemonic dredging rig?
I kept to the core Zharr Vyxa colours of red and brass with some purples mixed in, including shading the base with Druchii Violet in to show the effect of all that necromantic energy suffusing the Realm of Death. This also helped tie Urak Taar to the force, despite him hailing from the Forge Anathema.
As a certified looker-after of ‘Old Things’* I couldn’t resist adding what might be the oldest mortal in the Realms to the force. Painting his mount Ghorrakos was great fun, drybrushing up through pretty much all our brass and copper paints – I had to get some Hashut Copper in there! Shading different parts of him with Seraphim Sepia, Agrax Earthshade and Reikland Fleshshade also added some variety.
Adam: Seeing Urak Taar in the original preview I knew I wanted to paint this rock-skinned commander and his battleworn brazen bull. The smoke and magic effects were something I had looked forward to painting, using Contrast greens followed by drybrushing greys. I wanted him to look like he was infecting the land with his presence, so I painted a variety of greens on the base before covering it with Mordant Earth, which let the noxious colours show through the cracks.
Luke T: I took inspiration from the House Malinax Knights scheme seen in Warhammer 40,000 and The Horus Heresy, as I felt the dark metals, grubby bone armour, and red spot colour reflected the Helsmiths’ diabolical nature. For the bases I referenced artwork and photography in the battletome, which often depicts the Zharrdron standing in their forges over molten pools of metal guarded by grates, and picked up some Void War bases to represent this environment.
These were primed Chaos Black, got a recess wash of White Scar, followed by several thin layers of Blood Angels Red. I then sponged on Iron Warriors over the top – I used this method for the weapons too. The bone-coloured armour was based first with Mournfang Brown, layered with Zandri Dust, and highlighted with Ushabti Bone. All the metals were based with Iron Warriors and highlighted with Runefang Steel, with Gehenna’s Gold used for some spot details. Finally, everything was shaded with a 50/50 mix of Nuln Oil and Agrax Earthshade.
Andy: I designed my own warhost of Khorr'Varak, which I based on the red and burgundy scheme of my first Chaos Dwarf Blood Bowl team from over 15 years ago. The whole scheme is done using Contrast paints over White Scar –Blood Angels Red and Sigvald Burgundy – with single highlights or drybrushes to add detail. I wanted to capture some of the garish bold colours of the armies I remember seeing around the late 1990s and early 2000s. The banner sigil was made by splicing two of the existing transfers together from the decal sheet.
Luke S: For the Helsmiths I snapped up two characters to test out two schemes – a War Despot in colours of Muspelzharr, and an Ashen Elder from Ur-Zorn. Both presented opportunities to experiment with metallics and freehand, and let me plan out a Spearhead colour scheme.
For the Ashen Elder of Ur-Zorn I chose to glaze Aeldari Emerald into the metal as a shade rather than the mix of cold and warm greens in the official box art, which I thought worked quite nicely over the pale Liberator Gold elements. For the War Despot, I mixed Abaddon Black into both Leadbelcher and Runelord Brass to create some darker metallics to complement the trim and details, which were based in Skullcrusher Brass. The dark robes made cutting back into shapes of the freehand easier, which made defining them less of a challenge.
Of the two the War Despot wins out for my favourite scheme, which is handy as he’s the leader of the Spearhead! One box of Infernal Cohort will be ordered promptly.
Rik: I decided to go for a bronzed copper armour to match my Legion of Azgorh Chaos Dwarfs that I painted for The End Times campaign years ago, but this time I have Contrast paints to work with!
I began by undercoating the models with Chaos Black, followed by a spray from above with Leadbelcher, then a liberal sponging of Stormhost Silver on the uppermost areas. I then applied a coat of Gryph-Hound Orange, followed by drybrushing layers of the appropriately named Hashut Copper and Sycorax Bronze. I tidied up the leafmail skirts with Abaddon Black and then drybrushed them with White Scar, before using Ardcoat varnish to give the look of black obsidian Blackshard Armour – a feature of the old Chaos Dwarfs.
For his War Despot, James took the core concept of Ur-Zorn but went for a more matte armour with Sybarite Green over Sons of Horus Green, and weathered him up to make them suit the wilds of Ghur. The Infernal Cohort proved popular with our painters, and we got a few different takes on them from the team, with Ellie and Alex giving us a couple of alternative schemes.
Last but not least, Dan from the Warhammer Painting Team – who recently painted a Dominator Engine – also found the time to give us another red take on the Zharrdron, this time painting a unit of Infernal Razers armed with chunky Grizmalok Blunderbusses.
The whole Helsmiths of Hashut range is available to pre-order tomorrow alongside their Battletome, so you can forge your own warhost for a ziggurat of your choosing. Be sure to share your results with us on Instagram!
* Ben hails from the mysterious vaults of the Archive, which is packed with ancient treasures beyond imagining.
