Blood Bowl – Chaos Dwarf Star Players

With the release of the Chaos Dwarf Blood Bowl Team of the Zharr-Naggrund Ziggurats, we get three resin kits as well covering Star Players and positionals. And a lot of love went into this update.

As of today, all of these are updates of the existing vintage positionals and players. And we would like to begin with H'thark the Unstoppable.

The Star Player comes in a massiv blister and costs 40 EUR. H'thark is the largest of all Bull Centaurs and is quite towering on his 40mm round base.

Within the blister you will find the star player card / profile, but no instructions. You have to build him from the product picture, but I hope this review helps. This is a classic Forge World product and cast in resin. 16 pieces spread across eight casting aids. We laid out the pieces in the way they are meant to be put together.

There is minor mould slip on some parts, but nothing to big to not be able to be scrapped away. Minimal flash here and there, but easy to remove. But no air bubbles or inpurities on the casting. The fit overall is okay, but there are smaller gaps that will need some filler.

In some cases the overlapping design of the individual pieces cover minor gaps, so that problem solves itself. It is a rather quick build and impressive how tall H'thark ends up.

The miniature is an update of the 1994 model by Gary Morley and got a proper 2024 upgrade. Nice details and a very dynamic pose, fitting for a Blood Bowl star.

As you want to see him from different angles, we can certainly do that. You can see some of the smaller gaps around the model. Nothing a bit of putty / green stuff couldn't take care of.

Beside H'thark there is a blister of two Chaos Dwarf Bull Centaurs, and to my surprise we get two different sculpts and not just the same blister twice.

The blister is quite high, as it has to fit in two models on 40mm bases. The RRP is 46 EUR and unlike the other, there is no star player profile, as these are "regular" positionals, but we get an instruction on how to assemble these.

The two Bull Centaurs are build from 28 individual pieces, with minor casting flash and some clean up to do. There are casting aids on some of the finer pieces, like small 1mm round strips to avoid air bubbles in the casting process. Clean up takes a bit of time, and there is some minor mould slip here and there, but easily filed down. Some pieces, like the horns on the helmet have a clever design choice, as they use a tounge and grove technique to be assembled, but have different shapes to avoid mix ups.

Same as with H'thark, there are minor gaps here and there, but sometimes covered by the armour they wear. Overall moderate time invest in building these.

Back in the day, Bull Centaurs were already a part of the Chaos Dwarf Blood Bowl teams, but did not have determined miniatures within the range, so you had to take the regular Bull Centaurs from Warhammer Fantasy and cut of their weapons. I have to say, after seeing the new ones and their brass knuckles, I think I have to sculpt these on my old models as well.

Very dynamic poses on them. Really like how different the two look and the more bulky the Bull part of the miniature got. Very present.

The second Star Player and third model of the resin release for the Chaos Dwarfs is Zzharg Madeye. Another player that got an update for the new release.

Just like H'thark the Unstoppable he doesn't come with an instruction, but a Star Player Profile instead.

Zzharg is build from eight individual pieces and stands upon a 32mm round base. Very clean casting, no air bubbles or inpurities in the cast. A bit of mould lines here and there, and you have to remove the casting aids, but that is a usual thing with resin models.

The fit was good, minor gaps (I had a bit of trouble aligning the upper jaw with the beard) but beyond that a very fast build.

While the Star Player was around in 3rd edition of Blood Bowl, just like the Bull Centaurs, Zzharg didn't had a model of its own for Blood Bowl. You had to grab a blister of Chaos Dwarfs with Blunderbuss, and use one of those for that role.

Proper model, and I like the protruding eye to underline the Mad-Eye part of his name, along with the scraps flying in the muzzle flash of his blunderbuss.

And the models fit really well with the plastic. Proper addition in terms of star players and positionals. But holy guacamole, that is a lot of casting aids. But that is the full Forge World experience and normal with these kits.

To give you an impression on these models and how they compare to the plastic range - they are big and proper dynamic poses.

Conclusion

The addition of these models to the existing plastic team is optional but certainly of benefit to the punch they pack. The design and overall productiong quality is ace. Nothing to argue about. The small gaps are something that happens with casted resin and as this is a very manual labor intense process and not automated by machine, certain variations can occure. But everything within limits that are absolutely acceptable.

The amount if detail is amazing and very dynamic as written above. The prices are certainly not cheap, but as I said, manual labor production in a Western European country. Which explains why they are currently out of stock, as it seems there was quite the demand for them - regardless of the pricing. Actually the aspect, that you can order these directly from the Warhammer online shop or within the brick & mortar Warhammer stores has made availability much easier, compared to the separate sales channel of the Forge World page. This is a plus.

In case of H'thark I could even imagine that some people will give him an axe or hammer and a shield, and put him with their Slaves to Darkness forces, as he is such an impressive model and not too sporty, to be used for example within Age of Sigmar or the legacy lists in The Old World.

Blood Bowl is a brand by Games Workshop.

The reviewed product item was provided by the manufacturer.