Today I present you the newest addition to my Dwarven army. This project has taken me many hours of work during the last two weeks and my pathetic handicraft skills have been stretched to their limits. May I introduce you... the Indomitable!
Yes, it's supposed to be a Steam Tank. Before I show you how this gadget came to be, I'll tell you something about it.
This Steam Tank is the result of co-operation between my Dwarves of the Iron Company and Imperial Army of Talabheim. As the Empire has a warscroll for these huge behemoths but the Dwarves don't, I play it in game terms as an ally unit in my Dwarven army.
In the fluff, however, the Dwarves are even better at building things than Men which is why I gave this particular Steam Tank a bit of a "stunty" or "dwarvish" look. My mercenary Dwarves built it alongside the Men of the Empire, with both races adding their heraldry upon the shining steel surface of this war engine.
Now on to the building process!
First step was creating the basic form of the tank. I cut out a piece of foam, sawing, filing and cutting it into a fat little box with lots of sharp edges and flat surfaces.
Next I cut out pieces of cardboard from a candy box, shaping them to fit the flat surfaces of the tank and applying them until as much of the foam was covered as possible. Continuosly adding more and more cardboard plates to fill the gaps I created an armoured (and a little ramshackle) look on the tank.
After the plating was done I sawed off little pieces from a wooden broom shaft and halved them to get the huge grinding wheels under the tank. Then I simply sprayed the whole thing matte black and once it was dry I sprayed a light layer of shining metal on the armour plates.
A straight wooden stick (I have no idea where it came from) became the pipe on the back of the tank, while the cannon on the front is a spare piece from the Dwarven Cannon/Organ Gun -box. From the same artillery box I took the Dwarven shield on the left (the round one with a golden cannon on it) while the Talabheim shield on the right is from the Empire Knights box. The large shield under the cannon was a treasure found while plundering the Warhammer Giant box.
Dwarven artillery set also supplied the pickaxe and the shovel on the sides of the Steam Tank. They're sure to come in handy when this block of metal gets stuck in a pool of mud or a rocky outcrop!
The golden parts on the sides of the wheels are pieces of a Dwarf Cannon that finally found their way out of the bits box.
At the back of the tank more Cannon pieces can be found, resembling some kind of external parts of the machinery inside. A couple of gearwheels and a coal hatch (the heat to turn water into steam has to come from somewhere, right?) thus represent the vulnerable spot of the Steam Tank, stationed in the back of the vehicle.
The turret at the top of the tank is magnetized to the hull to give the mounted Steam Gun some maneuverability (it can be turned full 360 degrees). The Steam Gun on the turret is actually the tip of a Repeating Handgun from the Empire Handgunners box, resembling a steam-powered gatling gun ready wreak havoc!
As a final touch I included a hatch at the very top of the turret to give the Engineer (either Dwarf or Human) an access to this steel behemoth. I also tried to paint small vision slits in tactical places on the tank's hull to give an impression that the driver can actually see from inside his tin can!
All in all I'm quite happy with how this Steam Tank came out. Although the "dwarvishness" and compactness on the tank was intentional, I still think it ended up a bit too tall. Especially with the turret. Also I'd say that despite the shields, heraldry and machinery the hull seems a bit dull and blank.
Perhaps that isn't an issue, it's a huge steel-clad war engine after all, not a sports car!
We'll see if my next post is a Narrative Battle Report with the unique scenario I promised, or if I manage to paint up a couple of my Dwarf heroes. Until then!
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