Back in the late 1980s, a school friend introduced me to something which would go on to become one of the great passions of my life: wargaming. To be specific, the wargame in question was Warhammer Fantasy Battles 3rd Edition. I fell in love straight away, and headed to the local hobby store on the next pocket money day to buy my first miniatures (a lone Marauder Orc Boar Rider and four Orcs with hand weapons, if anyone’s interested).
In the years since, I’ve played many a wargame from many a manufacturer, and although some have occupied my attention for a time (and a rare few for several years) as my first wargame Fantasy Battles has always held a special place in my heart. I’ve collected most of the armies the game had to offer and, for the most part, I still have them (including those very first Orcs – somewhere). Sure, some have gone missing over the years, others have been stolen, but there are still literally thousands of the little blighters occupying box after box and case after case on the hobby shelves.
One of the most distinctive armies I collected was the 4th Edition Chaos Dwarfs, evil little mutants with enormous hats and their Hobgoblin lackeys. Although later editions would reimagine the look of both the Chaos Dwarfs and Hobgoblins, the newer designs never held quite the same charm as the Big Hatter-era guys for me. Unfortunately, I never quite managed to pick up as many of them as I wanted during their (relatively) brief manufacturing run.
When revisiting my collection a couple of years ago, I was prompted to make a visit to eBay in an effort to try and track down some of the missing elements of my army. As would be expected, the only minis available were those scooped up by resellers who now wanted an exorbitant price for them. Somewhat dejected, I was about to give up when I came across a 3D printing vendor who offered a selection of designs by a sculptor called Fabelzel. These little guys, while being entirely new, capture the aesthetic of the originals absolutely perfectly. Of course I piled in and bought a ton of them straight away; they truly are beautiful to behold, so now I have the army that I never quite managed 25 years ago, and didn’t have to sell a kidney to get it!
I’ve seen Fabelzel’s work sold through a number of licensed sellers on eBay, and they have a good selection of miniatures available on Etsy. A quick Google search shows that they have also issued their files for free on a drive linked to through their Facebook page- excellent news for anyone with a 3D printer!
Here’s a selection of some of the miniatures I’ve nabbed so far, but honestly, these pictures don’t do them justice. I haven’t yet built the Hobgoblin Warriors or Wolf Riders with hand weapons, so they aren’t included in the images, but their quality is every bit as good as the others. Needless to say painting has been majorly lacking, but that shouldn’t come as much of a shock to anyone who knows me!
