One of the most distinctive Chaos Dwarf armies ever assembled so far. Which says a lot, given the eccentric neighbourhood. Top notch stuff, Jackswift!
Building the “Hull Sunderer” Chaos Dwarf Submersible
The Infernal Engine known as “Hull Sunderer” was built and designed in the sprawling shipyards on the shores of the Sea of Chaos. It is said that Zhakad the Ship-Splitter based the design on a terrible creature which he spied at the edge of the Scalded Delta, rising from the depths to engulf a Hobgoblin trawler. The unfortunate vessel was torn in three pieces in moments before the monstrosity wrapped it’s writhing tentacles around the broken hull, and pulled the doomed vessel, and terrified crew down beneath the boiling waves.
Edit: Yeah, I know changed the name. Still mulling Hullsunder, Sunderer, Hullrender, or Renderspite…
Ahem… So for once I managed to take a significant number of photos during construction. Beware, this will be a photo heavy post. So this started out from the shell of an idea that never fully transpired for the “Airship” Golden Hat a while back. The shell was the skeleton I built from sheet styrene and sprue for the gasbag, but never fully realized the result:
I figured this was a good chance to make this into a finished model, if not the one originally intended. Never fear, the other bits to that airship will undoubtedly show up again in the future as well. I lopped off the bottom to make it a waterline model (not as easy as it sounded to get a flat bottom), attached a base of styrene, and begin layering overlapping, pre-distressed, armor plates onto the form. I also filled the bottom with heavy steel nuts to give it some weight and keep it upright when the tentacles were attached.
A round porthole was carved out at the front of the model and I used a bionicle round fan blade (with the fan cut out as the entry tunnel, I then cut some iris pieces from styrene and attached the entry door inside the round. Tentacles were attached using some crayola marker caps (the click on cap and the top of the markers themselves were used to give me a way to build the tentacles so that they are detachable):
Tentacles were made from tube styrene, bits of pens, crayola markers (dried out ones), and steel wire (to provide both internal support for curving tentacles, and the look of internal mechanisms). You can see the bits laid out and then a fully curved tentacle. Note, the hydraulics were an initial test, and later removed. Cool, but some what time consuming, and I decided a wire pulled mechanism made more sense than pistons given the technology. Much streamlined from my original design which would have incorporated pulleys. The look would have been very cool, and very steampunk, but would have taken months to build as I envisioned it. You’ll note that I also had positions for 6 tentacles on the first iterations. There were two larger PVC tentacles in the works, but I decided they didn’t work with the design due to length (and cut them for time constraints as well). The tentacles were topped with various bionicle claws, some cut up and re integrated:
Also in progress were the smaller grabber tentacles to be mounted on the side (lego bionicle claws, flexible tentacle pieces and maulerfiend tentacles). The eye was the rounded bottom of a small plastic cup with a round edge 30mm base and styrene strips:
Cannons made from a couple of russian techno cannons chopped up and repurposed as mounted weaponry and a couple of Titan Forge, Sons of Krashen Va models from the waist up mounted on posts as semi intelligent bronze/brass golems to permanently man the cannons:
The steam snorkel and exhausts were built from multiple pieces of tubing, pen bits, a part from the cannon, bionicle parts, and plastic parts I had in my bits from some old machinery. A periscope was built from a dreamforge trooper shoulder mounted RPG and aluminum tubing:
The rudder and engine at the bottom are again bionicle parts, styrene tube and a pop rivet:
The Ram was built from a toy missile (no idea what it came from) and again Lego Bionicle bits chopped up. The upper hood shell is styrene sheet and originally had a chaos dwarf effigy (built from again… Bionicle parts; hair was not yet added in the photos) on top of it, however I felt that the addition muddled and confused the nautilus style shape of the vessel so I ultimately left it out:
Near final model, just missing the perescope and fins (also custom cut bionicle parts). You can see the much more Nautiloid shape without the CD face on the hood:
And finally a few PIP shots. Weathering was accomplished by sprinkling a fairly liberal dose of multi-grit sand over the model immediately after the initial prime. When these sections are painted, it gives the appearance of significant corrosion in the areas where the sand lies. Some of it was also brushed off which created pits in the model which further adds to the illusion. The initial spray coat (before detail paint) included 3 colors, a brown gray primer, dark walnut brown, the core red, and also a lighter gray on the tentacles.
Almost forgot to mention. One of the last things I did (and one I forgot) to photograph was drilling recessed rivet indents over the entire model. This was a tedious, but necessary detail step just before paint application. You can see them if you look for them in some of the final shots, but they did end up rather subtle:
Hope you enjoy seeing how this came together. Next post will be final shots of the model from more angles…
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Lovely progress report on this beautiful build! Particularly interesting modelling crossroads (how cool but ridiculously time-consuming wouldn’t a pulley system be?), and lovely Chaos Dwarf effigy. You did the right thing to remove the last one for this vessel, but I hope that particular part shows up somewhere else in your collection. It looked great!
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Oh my days…
I knew I loved this when I saw it but the level of detail that went into scratch building this…phenomenal
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That effigy is phenomenal, although I definitely understand your decision to omit, Admiral beat me to it but I’ll echo the hopes to see it make a resurgence!! The succession of WIP stages makes this more impressive and is really a joy to peruse (especially given the Bionicle nostalgia). I’m a huge fan of the Pohatu (spelling?) foot kicker thing used to support the snorkel which I didn’t pick up on until now. Those specific pen bits are also genius, time to go look for dried up pens too…
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Wow, just wow. The amount of work… the recessed rivets…just glorious.
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That is frakkin EPIC! 
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Oh wow, I like it so much more seeing how it came to like, and liked enough before!!
Truely amazing work 
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Painted “Hull Sunderer” Submersible - Golden Hat XXXIV
Now that you have seen the above construction photos, presented below is the final model from quite a number of different angles.
I had a really hard time picking the right photos for the contest this time around. I find that getting proper focus and lighting on larger models quite challenging. Still have much to learn about miniature photography. Perhaps one day I will have the equipment and skill to get better shots.
A very fun model to paint and weather. Tried some new techniques with the sand and weathering and I think they came out well overall. Looking forward to getting this thing on the tabletop in the future. Another pic heavy post. Enjoy:
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The weathering experiments turned out great! Really brings the whole scratch build together.
As for the photos it’s definitely tricky with something so massive… just curious do you diffuse the light? I like to use screens of white tissue paper over 2 different lights. I’m no expert but that has helped me especially with black or dark backdrop. Knocks down glare spots a bit so it’s easier to get a good focus.
This is a beautiful build…all the more to admire when looking at the modeling in progress pics.
Thank you so much for sharing these pics…it’s one thing to look at a finished miniature, and try to emulate it in future builds that we all start, but it’s another thing to see actual bit by bit construction methods.
That’s where we all can learn from!
I will sadly be honest, I didn’t vote for this entry…even though it’s effing brilliant.
I painstakingly looked at the entry pics, searching for anything that would identify it as being Chaos Dwarf. It’s just a weird thing about me, I prefer models to have identifying symbols of some sort…the face effigy would’ve got my vote.
And I personally know that it’s impossible to build miniatures that everyone can love.
Anyways, sorry if this sounds like nitpicking, but I really do love it!
Congrats!
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Completely Nitpicking 
. In this we are completely opposite. I tend to shy away from game/system/canon specific symbols. I considered some sort of text or image but ultimately did not, in part due to time constraints. To each his own, and I appreciate the complements on the model none the less.
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Truly a great project! Such a lot of creativity and attention to detail, both in construction and painting. Hat off to you!
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Wow, totally loving this!! Excellent job on everything, particularly the submersible! Truly ‘plumbed from the depths’ of a mad forge master’s twisted mind!
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Contests aside I took a break from work on my army for a year or so, however an upcoming 3 way Kings of War Battle in the summer has me working to knock out several core troop units for my list. Working on multiple units concurrently.
The first is a Decimators unit using Titan Wargames Dragoons and Grulka, with a Siren miniatures cannnoner, a Stonehaven dwarf holding a (black powder) barrel, and led by Bezuhk the Immortal. The grey and yellow is an initial color test, something a little different than my usual scheme but which I hope will fit in nicely and add a more color. Bezuhk needs a pistol on his belt, then as soon as the cork basing is done the full unit will get paint:
Second is a standard warrior unit using Russian Alternative standard Fire Canyon troops, and a few Stonehaven models. The 3 headed Kerberos monster at the rear is my unit filler nod to Kings of War Abyssal Dwarf “mutated throwing mastiffs”, the idea being a rare attack by companion canines bred to be thrown into battle. I rather liked the idea of that monster randomly lunging over the heads of the unit to chomp on the foe. Reds and blues are mostly done, still work to go on weapons, leather, wood, and metal. Better pics once I am further along:
Third and final for now is a 6 strong unit of Reaper Bones Fire/Frost giants, to be fielded as lesser Obsidian Golems in KoW. These guys have been on my list since my first intro post on the old CDO forum. Looking forward to finally getting them done!
Cheers!
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This is the actually the 1st time i have seen your blog. Very unique take on the chaos dwarves- i like the mix of different styled units. Lovely painted and converted stuff. Glad you have got your mojo back to start painting again.
I see you are bringing in new colour schemes to your blunderbuss unit. I definitely recommend this to keep it interesting by mixing things up. I paint mine 1 at a time rather than batch painting to accomplish completing something regularly keeping me interested
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That’s cool. I’d obsess too much over them looking similar enough 
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I do not even know where to start to describe the coolness of the submersible! Amazing 
And the magama cannon concept: briliant!
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@Zoddtheimmortal I completely agree. It’s part of the reason why I often alternate colors when I do paint units. And I usually paint the command and unique models separately (which is sometimes half my unit), and a couple of test models, and then do the remainder in a more assembly line fashion.
Thanks very much for the comments gentlemen
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