Terror from the Deep: Second Hellcannon

Here I am again, with yet another monstrosity. I have another hellcannon to show off; but this time, it is entirely different from how Games Workshop interpreted it.

Before I talk about the mini at hand, I have to say that I am not a fan of GW's current hellcannon sculpt. It looks too "machine". Hence, I looked for ideas on how to build a hellcannon which looks more "monster", less "machine". I found my answer in Ordo Fanaticus forum. The user JMGraham's beauty was too good to pass and I decided to undertake this project.

The base model here is a SPAWN action figure again. It is called GEMINI from Warriors of the Zodiac series. I am familiar with working on action figures lately. As you might remember, my second K'daai Destroyer was also built off of a SPAWN figure.

So, I started building this model by creating an effect that it is hoisting itself from inside the ground. The height of the model was crucial here due to the "firing point" of the monster. To make it right, I placed it side by side with an original hellcannon. Once I adjusted its height, I buried it into the ground by using putty and then surrounded the putty with balsa pieces. Finally, I applied -a lot of- Vallejo Black Lava for the lava surfaces, as well as the rabble on the rocky parts.

The painting has no real trick. Flesh is Tallarn foundation, Ogryn wash then HL with Tallarn again. The gems are done with Vallejo Golden Yellow and GW Chaos Black GW Orange base with a touch of white dot in the end, a very common gem painting recipe.

I painted the crew miniatures separately and placed them after that. There are many conversions on the crew miniatures and bits from various sources. As a last minute touch, I ransacked my gf's accessory box to find the chains and the bollards (?). They look OK, don't they?


In the end, I am very satisfied with the result to be honest. I am looking forward to displaying this piece in upcoming events and hopefully, I can bag a trophy or two with it. Who knows...

Enjoy.

 

Pimp my Ride - Hobgoblin Wolf Riders

I'm a little tired of dealing with monstrosities, so here's something small for a change: A bunch of hobgoblin wolf riders.

Being the only fast cavalry, I think these little annoyances have great potential in a Legion of Azgorh list. I can see them being useful at usual redirecting duties, as well as hunting a war machine or two, earning more than their cost in the process. Also, they might prove invaluable as screen units, which will provide screens for my monsters from cannonballs, hopefully...

Of course, there are some cons about them too. The most important thing is the hobgoblin animosity. They tend to fail their animosity rolls at times that you need them most, so they are not exactly a dependable unit. Also, they are not very cheap pointswise. One of the other handicap they have is that they are listed on rare slot. It's quite a problem for them since they share that category with hellcannon and k'daai destroyer. It's the tightest slot for chaos dwarfs and it's sometimes hard to squeeze these buggers in.

The miniatures I used here are from GW's Goblin Wolf Riders box, so nothing fancy here. The lava bases are still there and I am still using the Black Lava of Vallejo. When painting, I tried to make them look as ragged as possible, so I used earthly colors like khaki, leather brown on their cloths as much as possible. As for the metal parts like the helmets and the horn, I applied some flesh wash for a little rusty look. The skin tone recipe is very simple: Paint with knarloc on brown undercoat, wash with Thraka then highlight with Knarloc first, followed with Vallejo's sick green.

With one other test model I have done before, they are now 5 guys and can be fielded in the games I'll play. I think I really need to return to basics and do some more cores, as I am stuck at 3k points now due to the core requirements. Expect some more cores soon, most probably in the form of hobgoblins on foot.

Enjoy...

Borderline Cheese: Second K'daai Destroyer

Hello! Is it me you're
looking for?

I assume everybody who plays with or against Forgeworld's chaos dwarfs have heard about the K'daai Destroyer by now. I already have a Destroyer in my army which is built and painted by Mr.Lee and running it in my lists with mixed success. These infamous monsters have made a remarkable entrance to "The Cheesiest List" since the release of the Legion of Azgorh army list. So the question is, if you have a cheese monster in your army list, why not make it two and guarantee the bad sportsmanship scores?

This 6" high miniature (!) is an action figure actually. It is called Tremor 3, from SPAWN Series. It is made of hard plastic and comes pre-painted; but of course it needed to be painted to suit for its new role. Being an action figure, the joints of the miniature were designed to be moved, so the first thing I did was to fix them in their places and fill the gaps with a mixture of putty and liquid green stuff. I can't say I managed to do it perfectly though since some of the  joints can still be seen unfortunately.

I took a leap of faith when basecoating the miniature and went with bright yellow. I call it a leap of faith because I never painted over yellow basecoat before and also I didn't know how will the action figure material will take the paint. Luckily for me it went OK and saved me from spending considerable amount of time and yellow paint. Once the basecoat is done I drybrushed my way to darker colors again:

- Vallejo Gold Yellow
- GW Blazing Orange
- GW Blood Red
- Vallejo Red (Bermellon)
- GW Mechrite Red (Foundation)
- 1:1 mixture of GW's Codex Grey and Chaos Black

When drybrushing, I made sure to drybrush lightly as the color darkened, not to overshadow the fiery layers underneath. After these steps, I applied a very light yellow wash to the miniature. I prepared the wash myself by diluting Vallejo's Pale Yellow with water. Once the wash was dry, I picked the "hottest" parts with Vallejo's White.

For the base, I used some balsa again. Also there is a small bit from Fenris Games with runes on it. There is also an island of rock between the legs of the monster. That was originally the stand of the other destroyer. Recycling FTW... Also, I should mention that there's Vallejo's Black Lava applied on the base to give it some texture.

So, there you have it, the second Destroyer. Now it is time for me to play a poor soul who is willing to play against an army with not one but two notorious Destroyers. I've also included a comparison shot of my two destroyers. The new one is HUUUUGE... :)

Enjoy the photos...

Thinking Big: K'daai Destroyer

K'daai Destroyer with
a summoning diorama

I must admit that this article is kind of embarrassing for me. I'm about to write about and show off a model which I commissioned out to Mr. Lee to build and paint for me. There are certain services, for which gentlemen must not pay money; but since I don't have an airbrush, I had no choice but to hand it over to him. Although I am perfectly aware that he will torment me every day and night for allowing him to paint for me, I am more than happy with the job he has done on it.

According to the ForgeWorld guys, K'daai Destroyers are supposed to be on 150x100mm bases. Currently, this is the biggest base size in WHFB and very few models, including the dreaded Arachnarok Spiders are mounted on those bases. The would-be K'daai model should be big, that's granted; but with such a big base, it was almost mandatory to populate the base with other miniatures, creating a diorama in the process.

So, what was used in this project? The base model for the destroyer is the Titan Overlord of Crocodile Games. This 4.5" long beast is completely metal and as heavy as a beached whale... almost... The summoner guy (which is removable) and the snail are from Scibor's Shaman and Mutant Snails set. As for the stones and menhirs, they are from Fenris Games, bought long ago for a reason that's long forgotten...

Since I was not the one who painted this, I can't give you recipes; but Mr. Lee has a project journal in which you can see the progress, the recipes and his whines. Make sure to check it out too.

Below you can see more photos of "DA BEAST". I don't want to drown the page with the images, so I added just a few of them here. You can see them all in this album. Oh, and also there is a size comparison shot with one of my Mantic infantry. Have I said that this thing is huge... :)

İzmirCon WHFB Tournament Review

Last weekend İzmirCon took place. As usual, my buddy Mr. Lee made an appearance too, driving all the way from İstanbul. The event I was looking forward to was the Warhammer Fantasy tournament which happened on sunday, where I fielded my Chaos Dwarfs first time.

What was your list, you might ask. Well, it was a little different than the list I prepared during the countdown to IzmirCon. Here is the breakdown:

• Sorcerer-Prophet (General)
     Level 4 Hashut
     Enchanted Shield
  

  

  A shot taken during the second games

     Blood of Hashut
• Infernal Castellan (BSB)
     Shield
     Dragonhelm
• K'daai Destroyer
• 6x K'daai Fireborns
• 5x Bull Centaur Renders
     Additional Hand Weapons
• 25x Infernal Guards
     Standard
     Musician
• 24x Infernal Guards
     Standard
     Musician

Totaling to 2000pts. As you can see, it was a very weak list with only 61 models, mostly because of the limited number of models available at hand. In fact, there were still super glue stains in my hand when I was rolling the first few dice in the tournament.

Anyway, if the first highlight of the tournament for me was to be able to finish my miniatures on time (I had to take the friday off to make it happen btw), the main one was receiving my destroyer. I commissioned that job to Mr. Lee and he made short work of it. If not for his efforts, I would have entered the tourney with my regular dwarfs and most likely win it, heh... Some of you might expect some photos of the monster I guess; but it deserves its own article, so, a little patience...

When I ranked up my army before the games started, people who saw my force were generally full of praises. The lava bases were their favorite, as was the destroyer; but the comments I cared about most was that they look very coherent as an army. This was big for me and I had my doubts about that since I have been gathering miniatures from different manufacturers. I was pleased to hear I'm doing ok on that front.

So, how did I do in the tourney? I came second among 8 players, losing only to the Dark Elves player who won the tournament. I must admit that I was very lucky with my match-ups through the tournament, as in the two games I won, I played against inexperienced players. Hence, I don't think that this result actually represents my skills as a general, the strength of my list or the Legion of Azgorh army list at all. On the other hand, I bagged the sportsmanship award again: Three times in a row now... The most important thing about this was I got this award while placed 2nd in points. As you know, generally it does not happen this way... at all...

Being named as the best sportsman guy allowed me to brag around a little more, right after finished bragging about my new career: A pro-painter. Also, I think I found the name of my army now: Zharr Naggrund Gentlemen! Only fitting in my opinion; but will see if it becomes a thing.

Countdown to İzmirCon

So, as I mentioned before, our local gaming convention, İzmirCon will take place at the end of this month. I'm keen on fielding a chaos dwarfs army for the WHF tournament which is scheduled for 1st of April, so I decided to take it a little seriously and built a roster to see what I need to paint. Here's what I'll aim for:

Daemonsmith (General, Level 2 Fire, Enchanted Shield, Dispel Scroll)
Infernal Castellan (BSB, Dragonhelm, Talisman of Preservation, Shield)
25x Infernals Full Command
24x Infernals Full Command
6x Bull Centaurs (xhw)
6x K'daais
5x Hobgoblin Wolf Riders (Bow, Musician)
K'daai Destroyer

I'm at 1999pts here with this setup. I know this is not the best list to play, it's very sub-optimal to be honest; but I'll have to field what I have in hand. Let me talk about the list a little.

So, with only 65 models, I think I will be outnumbered in every single game. It is just too low for 2k games. Too add more to my woes, I will only be able to field a level 2 for my arcane needs. There will be many difficult magic phases waiting for me, I'm sure :( I just could find enough points to fit a level 4 in. Maybe I'll drop the bull centaurs to swap the daemonsmith with a sorcerer-prophet; but at this time there are more pressing matters for me: The lack of infantries...

I have only 35 infantries ready right now, which means I'm 14 models away from fulfilling this list. I also need to build and paint 5 riders and finish the BSB which has spent way more time on my desk by now. Of course, I'll still need the destroyer and the daemonsmith painted by Mr.Lee, who will also make an appearance in the tournament with his filthy goblin horde. The destroyer and the daemonsmith miniatures already have 3 colors on them so, they can be fielded as-is even as a worst case scenario.

I ranted enough I guess. Please let me know what you think about the list and the bull centaurs I finished recently. I also added some group shots to show off what I have currently.

FAQ and Errata for Tamurkhan is Available

Still haven't got a chance to read the Tamurkhan The Throne of Chaos book thoroughly except the Chaos Dwarf army list; but the guys at Forge World were quick enough to publish a FAQ & Errata. This three page document is intended to clarify some of the vague points on gaming aspects, like what weapon does a daemonsmith carry or can a K'daai destroyer be wounded always on natural 6s.

The document appears to be released due to huge demand from the chaos dwarfs community, since it only contains stuff about the Chaos Dwarf army list section and nothing more. If you are interested, it is available from Forge World website.