These is something wrong in the concept of the original Death Rocket miniature. If you check the elevation mechanism, if you place the rocket in the regular position, you can’t elevate the rocket, you can only lower it. Like orizontal position is the highest you can get. This always puzzled me.
Another point: Death Rocket is suppose to make a big loop over the battle field and then crash upon our enemies (hopefully)…in my (wicked) mind it should be pointed to the sky in the direction of the enemy. A sort of indirect fire machine.
Like the Soviet Katyusha rockets…
I think you are right. The model presents so much better with the mechanism in front. The Earthshaker also has it’s raising mechanism in front, so it would be consistent with that. I realize now the issue of recoil doesn’t exist. It is not a cannon with a charge that expels the projectile. Assuming the little vents let out the blasts well enough (honestly they should have just made it a holder tray like the Katyusha), there isn’t any recoil.
Our only issue with the model is the mechanism being on the wrong side for the dude aiming it. Perhaps the marvels of 3d printing or conversion could help with that?
Precisely! My personal theory is that this was actually the sculptor’s intent and it was simply assembled incorrectly at the studio. However, for that to be true then the classic Mark Gibbons artwork would need to have been drawn after the sculpt was complete, and I have no idea if that’s true.
I find @Bassman’s reasoning certainly convincing, so sign me up as a follower of the inverted launcher. Not sure though if it was intended by the sculptor. The carriage looks too close to that of a classical cannon. My personal guess is that whoever designed that just was not aware / did not care about Newtonian mechanics.
First contact with Chaos Dwarfs invariably begins with bloodshed, so when Ginëladan and his army first landed in the new world it was only through Mut-Ashkur’s cunning that both factions didn’t promptly annihilate one another. When his hobgoblin scouts first reported the arrival of his curly-bearded cousins it was immediately obvious that they were no ancestor worshipers, for they had subjugated greenskins working for them, so he took great pains to study them.
It rapidly became clear that the height of one’s hat was of great importance, for all orders seemed to flow from high to low. Inspired by the great towers he saw aboard the foreigners’ vessels, and being great stonemasons themselves, they began a construction like none before. Not only would this hat tower above the others, it would have a second helmet on the top of it (to say nothing of a second dwarf)! Whether the second helmet should be considered for total height would be a matter of scholarly debate for centuries, however there was no question of it’s authority when he first approached the invaders.
Such was the awe it inspired that he was immediately brought before Ginëladan where negotiations began that would forever entwine the fate of their Houses.
man where does this fantastic model comes from?!
also i’m so proud to see your brown beige colour scheme on those bighats, an amazing rapresentation of our community and great race.
i love it so much!
So I was trying to complete the lore (and more recently banners) of units before posting them here, but that is just slowing down the already very slow process. So here’s a new year update!
I was not terribly productive in 2023 all things told. I tired of my brush-on primer and spent some time experimenting with alternatives. I dislike rattle cans because they only work half the year here and you can end up with a fuzzy primer job if you you do anything wrong, so I had a friend try a couple alternatives through his airbrush. I settled on Stynylrez in the end but could hardly expect my buddy to prime my whole army for me, so I ended up grabbing a compressor and a cheap airbrush. I’m still figuring it out, but so far it’s amazing.
One thing I did do was start a Chaos Dwarf army for Warmaster Revolutions! My flgs has a group that has picked it up and I had to join. I’m relying entirely on zenithal highlights and AP speedpaints and it’s been a great lesson in accepting “good enough”. At 10mm I simply can’t worry about every stray brush stroke. And even just trying a newer method like zenithal has taught me a lot. I’ll have a blog up for those in due time as well.
My final update, which is actually pertinent to this blog, is finally finishing off the unit of Adad-Usur’s Consul Corp (axes), adding some unit fillers, and completing Ginëladan himself! I’m working on the banners and lore still but want to get them up in the meantime.
If it looks like I haven’t drawn anything by hand since 6th grade, it’s because I haven’t! But I tried to make it interesting anyway. Older heads will immediately recognize the model chosen as @Fuggit_Khan’s Standard Bearer. I forgot to include a side shot in the entry to highlight the incredible hat on this bad boy, so here’s a new one:
It was too large for my banner, however, so I had to freehand it smaller. Then I threw our rune in the bottom corner to try and make it look less off-center (yes, my best take wasn’t even positioned properly ) I also tried to give it a black and white, jagged border like the original but it ended up looking odd against the more yellow tones of the paper so I just gave it a brown to match the rest of the army.
I think if when I redo the banner itself I will try and find a way to make it bigger, and so more grandiose, but for my first try with a paper banner I’m pretty happy with it.
Also, if anyone with more skill than I tries their hand at the original, please send a scan of it my way!
That’s a very cool piece of artwork. I like your version even more now seeing the origin. Anvil Hat will forever be my unrequited love… at least I have my fuggitzooka to sing me to sleep at night.
The guy on your banner would be a super cool concept for a sorcerer too. Perhaps in a perhaps soon Artisan’s contest perhaps.
I definitely don’t…
Have a habit of…
Spoiling the future on this blog and then entering it in a contest.
) I also tried to give it a black and white, jagged border like the original but it ended up looking odd against the more yellow tones of the paper so I just gave it a brown to match the rest of the army.