Plunder for the Ironclad Fleet [Mar 16 2024 - A Machine for Pigs]

Painted unit of Bleak Water Divers (Chaos Dwarf Warriors)

Simple but fun paint scheme using mostly Vallejo metals and a little bit of lore to accompany the unit. Tried to keep the scheme from becoming too bright despite the heavy use of metals. Not sure if I’ll bash any more Kharadron models since I used so many of my favorite bits in that range; I certainly enjoyed these ones but I exhausted a lot of the tricks up my sleeve. (I may have to pick up some bits from the airships in the future for big projects though…)

I really appreciate all of the feedback and kind words from everyone, I am happy to be a part of such an inspiring community to share my work.






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Wonderful army project, love the journal entries! If only Id been better at drawing Id do the same. :slight_smile:

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Love your big daddy! I’ve made a couple of those myself:

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Fantastic army! I love the kharadron conversions.

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Awesome! I considered a Rosie as well. Maybe some day.

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Here are a few WIP images of my steampunk basing and troop filler. The concept was the deck or internals of an ironclad with a few open vats that would lead to broadside magma cannons or steam boilers (also to tie in the basing of other units in my army). The troop filler pieces are supposed to be a weighted personnel platform to lower divers into the water, a capstan, and a torpedo repair bench.

For materials I used MDF, watch movements, clock gears, wire mesh, various wires, and a Saran Wrap metal tear strip for spiky trim. I also used baking soda sprinkled over superglue to provide a little ashen texture in spots, particularly to break up the larger areas of MDF or cover unsightly gaps. Tossed on a few rivets to finish them off. These were a fun salvage project and well worth the effort (easy to paint too).


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First models to test out my new airbrush booth. Cobbled together this DIY project over a weekend. Only had to purchase the filter and the switch (thankfully salvaged an old stove blower which would’ve been the key expense). Quick zenithal prime and basecoat using Vallejo Air paints. Hats off to Admiralty Miniatures. This bazooka team was a blast to paint and it came with tons of extra hats that will certainly be making appearances in my conversions.


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My Artisan’s Contest XXIX Entry. Had some fun with this one since I’ve been meaning to start sketching concepts for boats (to eventually start designing some for my 3D printer). Couldn’t let it go by without some accompanying background as well. May just have to convert some berserker models to match at some point.

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Great drawing and story. I love the fact that they are risky on long voyages.

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Well done on the sketch and concept. Had my vote!

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A little atypical here but a pile of Skaven slaves fell into my lap and I wanted to make use of the filthy little expendable rat-things as slaves for my Dawi-Zharr. What better place to throw them than in the mines or in the holds of slave galleys. Stay tuned for some background lore on their integration.

Skaven certainly present some fun opportunities for conversion and crossover of their haphazard primitive tech with the more infernal devices of the Chaos Dwarfs. One idea was incorporating gas mask heads to represent filtration of the pervasive ash and choking soot in the Dark Lands. In addition to the mining equipment I wanted to add some devices for catching or dealing with the various deadly creatures they might encounter.

I couldn’t resist the idea of a “standard bearer” carrying a nightlight for the scaredy-rats. Neither could I resist a warpstone jackhammer pogo stick riding slave.

The hand pump cart idea started off with just the lever rat but ended up turning into a sort of doom-flayer go-cart which I’m fine with. I leaned right into that skid with the lantern on flagpole and bar/windscreen. The rat in the mine cart was mostly because i ran out of legs and also since I find it suitably Skaven.

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Introduction to the chieftain of my offshoot band of rat-things that find themselves in servitude to the Reavers of Uzkulak. The color scheme and location of Clan Krizzor conveniently suited my needs and I went down a decent sized rabbit hole having fun with the unit while testing out painting methods to use on their Dawi-Zharr overlords. As the project expanded I decided to document some of their background and flesh out the motivations behind these enterprising rat-men ultimately doomed by their ambition. Lashikk was a quick conversion again using some 40k Admech/Skitarii bits that fell into my lap along with these old metal poison wind globadiers that I couldn’t bring myself to sell. I may use Lashikk as a Hobgoblin Khan proxy or even just as unit filler.

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Okay, last rat-slaves related post (for a while) to bring some of their lore full circle. I never claimed to have laser focus for the hobby… but sometimes the tangent tracks are productive and reinvigorating, especially if they get spun into something useful in post.

Here are some blurbs about how offshoots of Clan Krizzor were lured into slavery by destructive technology and promises of retribution against their fellow Skaven with the Dawi-Zharr subsuming the resources of a weak clan to destabilize more powerful enemies (ideally leading to the annihilation of both).



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Reaver! We must have a talk about this unsanctioned use of Skaven in service to Uzkula-Err, I mean good work, very inventive use of bits/conversions. And nice paint job too.

:slight_smile:

Uncooperative ratmen are easy to throw overboard :rat::ocean:

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Waste of good food - chop ‘em up and feed them to the other slaves.

;p

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Awesome models, great conversions and fantastic painting. As for using skaven, fear not. All must serve! All must bleed for Hashut.

Of course from a skaven viewpoint, as Bob Dylan would say ‘ you gotta serve somebody’ it may the Father of Darkness or it may be the Horned Rat, but you gotta serve somebody.

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Getting closer to wrapping up my old blog content. This daemonsmith was a fun bits bash that sparked a lot of ideas for my army.

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Tinkered away at this one for a while now. Got this ol’ metal model used and it needed serious help. Not to mention the base required extra work to make places for the crew to be magnetized and recessed within the rock and also to pin the monstrosity securely through the base. Ended up not using some of the bits since I kind of like it slightly stripped down, great pieces for future conversions too. Opted for this scheme to differentiate the purple daemonic soul magic from the lore of fire. Not much here in the conversion department but I’m happy to have this classic ready for the table.

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First wargaming related piece off of my Prusa 3D printer, and oh does it make me feel like a young daemonsmith again. Big hats off to Dancing Yak Miniatures for the awesome broken statue file download. Lots to learn I still have but the idea engine is whirring. Gave it a quick and dirty paint job just to test. Looking forward to figuring out the limits of this printer, as others have said terrain seems to be a good niche for the fidelity of FDM printers.

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