Clan Blazenbeard is on the March to Waaaghpaca

After much contemplation I've decided to run the Dwarfs at Waaaghpaca in January.  There are several reasons for this decision.  First, none of the participants, except Joe Rogers, will have seen the army in the flesh.  This will give me a chance to showcase my army in a new setting.  As some will remember I ran the Tomb Kings at both Mid West Rampage and Blood in the Sun.  Second, when looking at both the Dwarfs and Tomb Kings closely I'm forced to admit that the Dwarfs are painted a bit better than some portions of the Tomb Kings.  Those parts of the TK army were painted ages ago, and I would like to think my painting has improved since then.  Finally, I've simply gotten the bug to return to the stunties.  Since I've got most of what I need for the 2K army I get to focus the next few months on a couple of sweet conversions and an improved display base.  I'm very excited!


First up will be a couple of conversions to make some equipment that will push the mining theme of the army further. I've decided to start with what I'm dubbing the "Dwarf Steam Mining Drill".  Over the last few weeks I've sketched out some different concepts and researched the various pieces on the GW website that I could use for the conversion.  Here is my current idea for the piece, which will be be used in game as a war machine.

I've decided from the practicality of plastic as well as the cost to start the conversion with a plastic cannon kit.  You may be able to spot some of the pieces from the kit in the above sketch.  Essentially, I'm going for a large steam drill with a dozer blade on the front and a operator platform, ala the flame cannon, on the back.  Yesterday I raided my materials bin for poly styrene sheeting and started to work on the dozer blade.   The blade on the left was my first attempt which would work it was for an Orc army.  On the right is my second attempt and I'm very happy with the result, though I still have to add the rivets.  I also may drop the teeth as I'm not sure what practical purpose they would serve.  And any good Dwarf knows practicality trumps aesthetics every time!  If any of you have an opinion on the teeth I would love to hear them.

Today, I started to work on the operator platform.  You can see my progress with the stand in cannon and crew.  I still have a long ways to go, but it's progress none the less.