Squattish Shooters Ahoy!

Other work by Admiral:

Chaos Dwarf Stories & Background (everything marked Admiral)

40k: Descendant Degeneration

Deviantart Gallery

The Red Host of Nir-Kezhar

Hobby Group Auxilia Work

Miscellaneous Commercial Sculpts


Thread start copied over from old CDO.

“You can run, but you’ll only die tired.”

Welcome to a showcase of the starts of a Squats army in the form of five heavy weapon soldiers whose pictures suffers from poor camera syndrome. The idea is to use them as Devastators in a counts-as Space Marine army. Their weapons are on the small side, but we can’t have gun gigantism in a Space Dwarf army because standard-sized heavy bolters and plasma cannons would drown the miniatures. Dwarf weaponry must be superior to manling dito anyway, everyone worth his beard knows that. The miniatures are from Mantic’s Forgefather range, just as the standard infantry, artilley and walker vehicles will be. Next up will probably be large drill APCs from Ramshackle games for counts-as Drop Pods. All models will receive some conversions, just as these heavy weapon carriers have received runes, signal lamps, antennae and beard rebreathers:

“I’ll cut ye down to proper size, tally!”

It’s fun enough to convert Mantic Forgefathers into Squats, so I figured it would be even better to convert a Rogue Trader-ish Squat and present it as a gift to my brother. Space Dwarfs back then had great style, style it would be worth recapturing. Everything bar the weapon and the basic 6th edition Dwarf body and right arm are sculpted on the miniature. Notice the kill count and shoulder plate scribble.

“Incoming fire!”

Progress have happened for my brother’s band of mercenary Squats. Except for weapons and one piece of 5th edition Dwarf body the space Dwarfs are sculpted. The aim is to capture the wacky Rogue Trader atmosphere, since it reminds us so much of Starcraft I . They might receive snow bases in the future.

The drunkard’s left shoulder pad reads “DIE”, the grenade launcherman’s left shoulder plate have “KILL”, whilst the sniper’s have the text “HIT!” in the hope of good tabletop performance. The sharpshooter also have some kill count lines on his rifle and two skulls painted on the helmet.

“The stronghold oldsters back at home might not have approved, but around these parts there aren’t any stronghold or oldsters. Or home, for that matter. Chap, in the Biker ‘guilds’ you’ll be your own man, with your own ride far away from safety and responsibilities. Us outriders have our own customs, so thus you’ll have me with this spiky, radical beard style, see? At least I didn’t tint it teal.”

“Life is a trampler. I like to keep a rug of a beard around to better receive life as it is in the hallway.”

"Pal, come now. Really? If you think I look weird now you should’ve seen me before the flamethrower accident."

A two dimensional update this time. Just some Squat faces I painted whilst sick at home. How do you like it?

Squat Faces 01

“Need a light?”

This fine gentleman will be lighting his cigarr with his flamethrower.

Beep…! Beep…!

This terrain piece’s name goes along the lines of “Mining operations network (MON) Omnibeacon” and I’ll explain my thoughts about it once it’s finally painted and photographed with something better than my backwards cellphone.

It is entirely built out of plastic caps, plasticard, some “pins” of various shaped, small nails, super glue and a little greenstuff. It was a Christmas scratchbuild. Of course, like an iceberg it’s supposed to be 9/10 under ground, since it’s a Space Dwarf construction.

As you might spot I thought the Space Marine Storm Talon was the perfect model for a Squat Iron Eagle aircraft. Its shape is spot-on, so I’ll just add details.

“Whom did ye call short-arse?”

Note double skull kill markings on the marksman’s helmet.

Badoom! Broadbeard, a loudmouth one-Dwarf illegal radio station sending live from his heists and battles. My character in a Kill Team-RPG campaign. More here:

And finally a drawing:

Squat Power Boarder

A mercenary prone to casual violence, Trough Mac Broigum has served the psychopathic Rogue Trader Tyrel “Destroyer” Cathek for over seven decades of ceaseless voyages between distant stars. As his master has cut a bloody swathe through long-lost Human colonies and Xeno worlds alike, so has the abhuman Trough served Cathek with savage glee.

Trough Mac Broigum has participated in more xenocides and extermination campaigns than most senior Inquisitors can lay claim to, and he has often been at the forefront of the burning and slaughter. Trough leads an sabotage squad of Squat clansmen who have mastered the difficult vehicle known as the power board, a self-propelled ride capable of great leaps and even some limited flight.

The Squat power boarders are experts at striking through backstreets and narrow alleys after heavier units have opened a breach, rushing through urban mazes and space station corridors to deliver a lethal cargo of demolition charges, incendiaries, gas canisters, neurotoxins or virus bombs to soft strategic locations (such as waterworks or aeroprocessors) in the midst of population centers. Trough and his ilk will celebrate every triumph of mass civilian extermination with strong beverages, and will constantly retell their most daring feats of martial power board acrobatics in the face of enemy resistance.


Drawn for Oldhammer Art Contest II. Usually I base my doodles loosely on official sources at best (these fictive worlds are always best for freewheeling exploration and imagination of one’s own), but this one was different. The Squat Power Boarder is a reference to three things from Book of the Astronomican: The tabards of Rogue Trader troopers, the signum of Tyrel “Destroyer” Cathek, and the power board of Stugen Deathwalker.

“Kickee Cool” on the boots was a nonsense catch-phrase which I used for a Shadowrun Dwarf kickboxer during a short RPG session. I know nothing about Shadowrun, but I made said dwarf (with neon hair & beard implants, constantly shifting glowing colours) with the wacky spirit of Rogue Trader 40k in mind.

Rogue Trader Reference 02

Comments and criticism are as welcome as always. :slight_smile:

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NICE! Haven’t seen too many good squat armies out there, recently at least. Picked up some Macrocosm models a while back but have not gotten around to doing anything with them. Really like the detailing on the flyer too!

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Nice to see you picked the same mantic models as i did to incorporate into a squat force. Yours look better of course. Over 2 years without an update though… now is the time to get this going again for the new release.

I started with squats but i found myself looking for ever more and more evil :smiling_imp: alternatives. Chaos squats is the way for me i think. Just got a few from macrocosm to paint up.

I do struggle to paint guns and advanced gear. No practice at it. I only know how to paint blunderbusses!

Do you have a full chaos dwarf army too?

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@Jackswift : Thanks a lot! I look forward to see what Squattish things you cook up in the future.

@Zoddtheimmortal : Thank you most kindly! Haha, my little brother forced me to resume conversion work on my Squat projects when the Leagues of Votann news arrived. I’ve been tinkering, have no worries there. But it will happen at a Dwarven pace! :smiley:

Chaos Squats must be loads of fun! I look forward to see what you cook up there. I might be converted.

I hear you on the futuristic gear! I’m slow to sculpt such things, but this is giving me some much-needed practice. Most of my experience lies squarely in classic fantasy.

I have a Chaos Dwarf collection, but in 19 years of Warhammer hobby I have never managed to paint a whole army of any faction. :smiley:

Squattish Grav-Jack

Grav-jacks are gravity repulsor units fitted to landbound vehicles, treasured and rare through the Imperium of Man, yet commonplace among the Kin of Squats. A halfway house between a skimmer and a groundbound tank, a heavy vehicle equipped with grav-jacks may fire up the anti-gravitic engines to lessen ground pressure. A light thrust may prove sufficient for the vehicle to escape becoming mired in mud, marshes, crystafields and still more alien kinds of treacherous soil. Yet should the vehicle run stuck, a strong thrust will be employed to lift it out of the trapping ground. Grav-jacks have limited energy and will require recharging via the vehicle’s batteries between uses, yet grav-jack patterns employed by the Leagues of Votann have been noted to be powerful enough to function as grav-chutes for heavy vehicles during their entire descent through atmosphere, something which is far beyond the wilted abilities of Imperial relic grav-jacks. Grav-jacks are believed to have originally been designed to move freight-containers during the Dark Age of Technology, and a lot more can be found out about them here.

The basis for these extensive conversions are the tracks of a resin Ramshackle Gnu armoured transport vehicle. The rest of the behemoth build is yet to be finished.

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Your old blog is almost like a historical document. Very nice, some slightly disturbing things there too- why has 1 guy have a stick with a curved blade up his bum? Its all in french.

Hope you paint that mortar and crew conversion, looks great!

What about a challenge for you to paint a legal 500pt chaos dwarf army by the end of 2023? Dont feel you have to convert or sculpt everything!

3 Likes

Stunning green stuff work as always.
The amount of details you create are only matched by your thought process behind it all, I love the historical context and pragmatic reasoning that guides your sculpting.
Everything just makes perfect sense!
Ah, if only George Lucas could write as well as your background stories.

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Squats are cool but the anti-gravity Grav Jack is awesome!

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@Zoddtheimmortal : Thank you kindly! However, curved blade you say? I suppose you mean this depiction of Takurta the concubine from the Chaos Star-Fort? I’ll encourage you to check out the rest of our Chaos Dwarf background and story writings here (compilation thread, later on to be relaunched and updated with all new stories here on Discourse).

I would have attempted to pursue such a goal, had I not discovered the joys of sculpting for casting. As it is, if I only sculpt and paint for myself, then only one or a few people get some fun out of it. If I sculpt for casting, then potentially hundreds of people will enjoy the fruits of one’s labour. So for the time being, army painting is shelved. I will however dabble in unit conversions and individual model painting whenever I feel like it. Maybe some later year I’ll try out a challenge. Thanks for the idea!

And with Dwarfs, I always have to convert everything, unless the base model is perfectly detailed and overabundantly equipped straight out of the mould. :tongue:

Cheers

@Fuggit_Khan : Thank you most kindly, sir! Fantastic worlds are at their best when all the grounded details make sense. I would have loved for him to be able to do so. As it stands, he has some evocative and most memorable visions, but let’s just say that all the glories of George Lucas’ Star Wars at their very best cannot keep you fascinated forever. Other settings ultimately can, while scratching the same itch. :smiley:

@Bassman : Thanks a lot! Glad to hear.

Ral-Terak Combine Warrior

The Hearthkyn Warriors of the Ral-Terak Combine live up to their League’s reputation of being armed to the teeth and tooled to the temple. True to maximalist Kin design, this line infantry do not only bring potent firepower, thick armour and voidsuit self-sufficiency to bear. It also bring tools, sidearms and gear aplenty. This stack of equipment is topped off by adornments ranging from ancestor medallions, through individual runes to Kindred markings and League heraldry.


This is a test conversion for basic Squat infantry built out of the new Leagues of Votann kits. The NASA-punk elements will in due time be matched with converted Mantic Forgefathers and converted Kharadron Overlords, not to mention Warhammer Dwarf conversions along the style of Rogue Trader Squats.

I have long pondered shortening the legs, trunk and arms of the new Kin miniatures, but eventually I decided against it. The difference in size and proportions will be down to diverging branches of Squats, carried into their cloneskeins. The long millennnia of divergent physical change and traditional wargear design was then brought into full view when two minor Leagues combined to form the large Ral-Terak Combine, an acquisitive and ruthless astral mining conglomerate willing to fight the denizens of hell itself for mining rights. Rock holds.

As regard the new Leagues of Votann models, I was not content with the sizeable length of upper arm left without armour on the Hearthkyn Warriors. I played with the idea of gluing 7th edition WHFB Dwarf facemasks beneath the pauldrons, or sculpting a segmented plate. In the end, I decided to add a a sliver of overlapped quilted armour, as a nod to Rogue Trader Squats. Obviously space Dwarfs will need entrenching tools, and so I cobbled together a quick spade design that could be mass-produced with some ease. Ergo the lack of sharp corners. The base is covered with hints of various xenoid flora and fauna.

Huge thanks to my brother EEJR and my friend JAB for unexpectedly giving me the largest Warhammer present I’ve ever received (aside from a Warhammer fortress from our father, given to me and my brother in 2003): A Leagues of Votann army set, complete with a fantastic new codex, one of the best things ever written for Warhammer 40’000. Now that is solid worldbuilding.

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Excellent stuff, Admiral! Really looking forward to the rest of the project.

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@Jasko : Thank you kindly, sir! It’s back on.


Ral-Terak Combine Sagitaur ATV

As is standard practice with all vehicles of the Ral-Terak Combine, this Sagitaur (nicknamed Gustr, meaning puff of wind) is heavily ornamented and carries plenty of baggage and equipment for expeditions. Since the Sagitaur is but a light scout and transport vehicle, it lack grav-jacks altogether, unlike the heavier wains of the Ral-Terak Combine such as the Hekaton Land Fortress.


Warm thanks to @Eisenhans for gifting me this Sagitaur kit when it was brand new for Christmas 2022 A.D.

I immediately set about cleaning mouldlines and assembling this joyful moon car, filling in gaps at once as they appeared when parts were glued together. It was all but assembled, and then life threw a big spanner in the works, and most of my home had to be packed down into boxes for renovations and upgrades. After a hectic and draining 2023, I have finally started to catch up with health and various projects again. The Sagitaur was the first of my own miniatures to be unpacked when I two days ago decided that I should work on my own collection for once. Everything in green stuff and bits taken from 7th and 6th edition Dwarf kits were added on over two days, and suddenly the vehicle was finished as regard assembly and conversions. Painting will have to wait until I have decided upon a colour scheme, but I am unusually eager to get this buggy painted.

The new Squat background is fantastic. Some of the absolute best ever written for all of Warhammer 40’000 from Rogue Trader and onward. The background and visual nods to the Dark Age of Technology happened to play into my hands so strongly that I am laughing all the way to the bank. Unbelievable free goal served on a silver platter by official sources, so to speak.

As to looks, Games Workshop did great work when designing the Sagitaur in particular, and overall I am impressed how well the NASA-punk aesthetic works for Squats in general, reminiscent of Terrans from glorious Starcraft. The aesthetic is not a perfect fit, but that only means that Games Workshop left me a challenge to make the aesthetic threads come together in a knotwork of futuristic design, runes, ancestor medallions and an abundance of baggage and tools. And big beards!

Seeing Olthannon’s wonderful conversions for his Kin in general and his Sagitaur in particular spurred me to unbox this vehicle and copy his conversions. I have built nothing as fine as his trailer, but I hope to eventually walk in his tracks on that count as well.

Kin is kin. Rock and stone!

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Hooray, yet another great addition! Love the add-ons, that unifying undercoat will look ace. Such a good project and I love reading about your enthusiasm for the range, lore and the whole project, that’s the stuff. Peak hobbying.

1 Like