Sunday 31 May 2020

Dwarf Catapult (well, sort of!).

So what do you do if you require a Dwarf Catapult, and yet you don't have one, nor the inclination to swap a kidney for a another Gob-lobber on e-bay?

Well you scratch build one!

But scratch building can be challenging, with all those beams and pulleys and ropes and thingy ma doodles. Not to mention counter-weights and the flingy arm thingy. All very tricky for a Goblin like me you see.

So I hit upon the idea of a group of Dwarfs arriving at that this there same problem. Why not have a small diorama of Dwarfs at the planning/pre-construction stage of building the Catapult, but use it as a stand-in 'working diorama'?  And so that is what I have done.

For the Catapult itself, all in pieces, I piled a number of matchsticks on top on one another, to give the impression of a pile of lumber. I added two spare wheels of from an old Empire/Dwarf Cannon to stop it looking like a pre-lit bonfire.

I then chose the miniatures to represent a typical crew of three Dwarfs for the '3-man Catapult. For the Dwarf reading the assembly instructions I chose the D4 range Dwarf Bidur, who was probably originally meant to be a map reader. His less than helpful helper is a crewman from the Imperial Dwarf Bolt Thrower crew, although I converted him to hold a matchstick plank by re-postioning his left hand 180 degrees.
For the final crewman I chose a the limited release 'Jolly Jape' Dwarf. He looked suitably confused and so suited the situation, and I was never going to use him for anything else. To add to his help (or woes!?), I added a spare Snotling Sawmaster from the Limited addition LE25 Dwarf with Inferiority Complex set.
All this maddness was placed on an old Citadel Monster base, and ta-da, a Dwarf Trebuchet, of sorts, but full of 'Oldhammer character'.

Enjoy:)

The 3-man Dwarf Catapult.
From the side.
The pile of clothes and armour are part of the'Jolly Jape' set, and I thought it gave the impression of the Dwarf' rolling up his sleeves' and 'getting down to work'.
Confused with the task in hand.
"Where does this bit go?"
"Well where does one start with this?"
Although not clear from the photograph, I tried to suggest that the plans held by Bidur were from IKEA.

No idea again what the next update will be on.  I have a mind to paint some Goblins, and also some Squats.

13 comments:

  1. Ha! A fun idea and well executed! Looks great!

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  2. Agreed. Nice vignette! I didn't know the Jolly Jape dwarf. Is it a Citadel miniature?

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    1. Thank you.
      The Jolly Jape miniature was an unreleased Citadel vignette from the 1980' involving a Dwarf who is getting dressed, and a pair of Snotlings who had stolen his boots and helmet and using them to relieve themselves as a 'Jolly Jape'.
      I don't own the Snotling part of the set. I bought the Dwarf from an ex-GW staffer about 20 or so years ago, and had never found a good use for him until now.
      Here's a link to the Stuff of Legends page on the 'Jolly Jape':
      http://www.sodemons.com/rhrare/jollyjape/index.htm

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  3. Brilliant concept, wonderfully executed. Nice work. The choice of miniatures is spot-on!

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    1. Thank you.
      I did'nt really have a use for the 'Jolly Jape Dwarf' or the spare Snotling Sawmaster and was'nt sure what to do with them. When I was looking at the Bidur miniature one day I thought he would make a good Dwarf Sapper, perhaps one reading some plans rather than a map.
      The idea just developed from there, and the 'Jolly Jape'Dwarf, Snotling, and Bolt Thrower crewman seemed to fit the general look and idea.

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  4. Fantastic work Lee, full of character and perfectly executed

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  5. Replies
    1. Thank you, it was great fun to put together, and I found a good use for some lovely old miniatures which were laying idle.

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  6. Brillant! It seems that IKEA is everywhere, even in the Oldworld.

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    1. They do get about!
      I've been chatting to people on some of the Oldhammer Facebook groups and the general idea is that the Old World's IKEA would be based in Norsca and run by Norse Dwarfs.

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