No doubt I confused a lot of people with my GH entry… At least you’ll always know which one is mine! It will be the rediculously complex one.
As explained here my idea was to make a machine from the ancient times, a machine dated from the period where runes were on the way out and arcane technology was just coming in.
The fact that it happens to be a warmachine in my rules pdf (link in sig), was a coincidence of course. The majority of new things I will work on this year will be part of my list so I can add a painted models section.
So that was the basic ojective; create an earth shaking earthshaker that included something that looked ancient. But how on earth would I do that??
The basic design of the frame was fairly straight forwards, I needed to have an open base (as it’s shooting down), a section on the back for the detail parts, and some side panels to support the main gun.
I thought the lightning strikes were a nice touch, even though they took ages to do (the side panels are made from 4 or 5 layers of plasticard).
The main cannon I wanted to look seriously robust, to support the titanic shock waves it would be pulsing. I used this as a basic design (a tyranid arm of some sort)
The anvil wasn’t too hard to make, but took a while.
The hammers section was a real challenge, mainly in trying to figure out how on earth it was going to work. I kept the snake like shapes for holding the hammers up. to try and bring some flair to the back end.
I would have liked to make some crew, but I ran out of time. At least when I finish my hellcanon the crew will already be done.
I know it was some strange and arcane machine able to shaken the heart. I suppose it doubles an earthshaker in Cd list or an anvil of doom in a dwarf list… :cheers
IMO it was quite clear what it does but mybe pictures dwarfed a little bit its ambitions.
Ah so that’s what it was - a cannon firing downwards! Cool idea and the paint job and conversion is excellent. If only that had been a bit clearer on the pictures… I also love the base, very nice colours and ace sculpting! :hat off
Very cool Grim, you certainly gets points for originality and imagination! I actually really like this one to be honest, it was one of my original nominations if I remember correctly.
As others have said it is nice to know more about it though! Very cool, and very clever concept.
The base was made by first cutting a circle of plasticard, then gluing ontop lots of thin strips of pink foam until it was completely covered. I then covered it in a thin layer of textured paste stuff I’ve got, mainly to seal it all in and fill some of the gaps.
Next I marked out where the crew would stand, and the big hole. I cut these out carefully, then pressed in the remaining cracks with my craft knife.
Finally I glued down some card where the skull piles would go (so they’d stick better) and textured the rest with a scenic flock and sand.
I painted it in a random pattern of dark brown and black, then highlighted the brown with bubonic brown> bleached bone, and the black with codex grey> bleached bone.
Very well done. Amazing conversion and sculpting work. You need to take a few pictures on various angles. You always seem to take shots straight-on the sides which obscures and hides the detail and depth of your models. The first wip is a good start, but now you need to rotate it once again so we are looking at it from the corner of the model. It’s like taking a picture of a cube. If you only take pictures of the side of the cube, straight on, all that can be seen is a square. You need to rotate the camera position upwards and to the sides to see 3 faces at once. That’s what is going to show off the depth!
Looks awesome! I wondered what this warmachine did. It’s just too bad we weren’t allowed a write-up in the GH contest. I think it might have made the difference on the voting for some of the models.
Amazing work Grim’, I must say that your take on Chaos Dwarfs is unique and amazing all in one, I still have a copy of your army book and if I ever got the slightest bit organised I would have an army based on that list!!
I love the idea of this and the execution is even better :hat off
I didn’t vote for this, but that was only because I couldn’t work out what it was - I rather pegged the vents at the top as part of the weaponry, and didn’t even notice the anvil until the second round.
Looking at it now, with a greater number of angles and the greens available, it becomes much more clear - I don’t think the cramped base and crewmen getting in the way helped in your competition photos. Given the chance, I’d probably vote for this one in a do-over.
That said, it’s still a little confusing without explanation - I’d advise drawing attention to the barrel of the proto-Shaker, using smoke, or an arcane glow, or showing it in the actual moment of firing (e.g. source-lighting casting flames coming out of the barrel). Drawing attention to the crack in the ground would be good, too - painting the rock around the edges of the hole red-hot, perhaps? Or re-angling the thing so that it’s further away from the Shaker itself (would need a lot of work - elongated base etc)? Finally, I’d note that the “organic” looking chimney-vents at the top don’t work quite as well as they should - a more uniform, mechanical look would probably work better. All IMO, as goes without saying.
The whole “engine” aspect of the thing reminds me of my entry, actually. Just, you know, a lot neater and better executed. :sick
When I saw this the first time in GH VIII I instantly knew that this one was yours. You really give your Chaos Dwarfs a very unique twist - that I love very much.
But I didn’t give it my vote this time - not because I didn’t knew what it was/what it did - but because I could actually see the model. I must say - that the size of the final pictures (or maybe the angles the pictures were taken) made it so hard to actually see what it was.
I’m so glad that you have now choosen to show us some decent size pictures.
The model is stunning and so brilliant performed. The hammer/anvil and engine are so well sculpted that you belive that this thing actually works You did a great job :hat off
And I actually feel a bit ashamed now - for not voting for this masterpiece
You did a great job :hat off 