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.

Misumena vatia Tyranids

A bit of a random update on some random painting...

I was gardening the other day, not my natural forte I might add, when I saw a lovely and odd looking spidery thing on a white lily bush. Now my first thought was 'that looks like a tiny Tyranid!', how cute.
As it turns out, it was a something named a Crab Spider, common in Southern England, with the Latin name Misumena vatia. I did take a photograph on it, but I seem to have accidently deleted it when I whilst I was having computer trouble. However, there is a picture of the Spider at the bottom of this blog update, not of course at the top, just in case people are adverse to Spiders. I'm not a great fan of them, I was bitten by a False Widow a couple of years ago, and was very ill. The False Widows pop up in the garden now and again, so I kill them on sight!

All this spidery nonsense got me thinking about Rogue Trder era Tyranids. I had painted mine a long, long time ago in the classic blue/purple Genestealer colours (with green Zoats), but had paint stripped them ready for a repaint which never came. So as an aside I tried out a paint scheme based on the spider on a few test models.

The painting was simple. Black undercoat, based coat of Vallejo Stone Grey, highlight of white, a very very very thin wash of Vallejo Lemon Yellow, and then a final white light highlight. The Genestealer Magus received a very very very thin wash of Citadel Xereus Purple twice. The Zoat and Hunter-Slayer guns/equipment are a thined Vallejo German Field Grey. I gloss varnished the Screamer-Killers/Carnifexes to give a shiny carapace look, matt varnish to the other to avoid that same look.

They were fun to paint, and I am happy with how they look. They are test models, and I don't intend painting the army anytime soon. I have another project I wish to do.

Enjoy :)

 Genestealer Hyrid Magus.
I love this miniature, great detail, and full of menace.

Rear view.

Screamer-Killers/Carnifexes!
I mounted these on 50mm round bases to look a lot better. I find it's always odd to consider that many of the larger old Rogue Trader miniatures were confined to 40mm square bases at the time.
It was these miniatures which sprang to mind when I was looking at the spider.

I was never a great fan of these miniatures, nor the paint scheme they were released in. However with a little re-posing of the body and arms, and a different paint scheme I think they look a lot more terrifying.

The other one.

Rear view.
Probably the best view from which to shoot at it!

 Zoat.
I like the old Zoats, and I have about a dozen 40k ones. I think they look a lot better on the Citadel Oval 60x35mm bases.

 Hunter-Slayer.

 Misumena vatia, the Crab Spider.

The next update will be on the little Dwarf diarama which I am finishing this evening. The after that I am going to tackle a 40k Squat project.