Ready, Aim, ... Fulminate!

It's been a long time coming, but Dwarf Flame Cannons are now awesome!

Flame On, bitches.

The 1993 model was always fantastic: a steampunk barrel of volatility, crewed by three of the burliest dwarves you'll see. A shame that the rules, starting from 4th Ed, weren't much snuff compared to the stalwart Cannon, or spleen-ripping Organ Gun.

But now... it's an Age of Sigmar mortal-wound dispenser of fiery death, and it only took four edition updates and the death of the Fantasy world to get there.

Well worth it, don't you think?

I remember buying this model (new off the shelf, there's a novelty). It was on a trip to Manchester in the mid-90s and I had, in my own head, completed my first fantasy army. It just needed one more war machine to round it off.

The ever-helpful GW staffer was trying to draw my interest to other dwarf models. "Oh no," came my confident reply, "this will take my army up to TWO THOUSAND points - I won't need to buy any more after that!"

Ahh ... for a time machine and whack over the head with a Reality Stick

It should come as no surprise that my first paint job exactly resembled the box art, but during my first repaint of the Dwarf army, I brought them in line with the blue-yellow-white scheme of my other Dwarves.

(hang on ... first repaint? Am I stuck in some kind of Forth Bridge loop where I repaint my Dwarves every time I get a better idea about their look?)

He brings his pet cannister to every battle.

The original crew have been removed and given special duties - they're so large they make all the other war machine crews look diminished (even by dwarf standards). Fortunately there are two good crew from the latter flame cannon model that fit perfectly. The third one is a much older spare from the old bolt thrower, stuck on a metal step from the old cannon.

The Golden Yellow is unique to the war machine crews (I reckoned it would give them some unity, as well as acting as some kind of 'keep back' sign to the other dwarves), with Ultramarine Blue to match the rest of the army's theme.

(although now looking at this model, I realise I originally painted them yellow and red, to match the gun barrel - oh god, how many times am I going to repaint them?)

"Change it up! We haven't tried magenta yet!"

Anyway, for the final, final repaint, I removed their brown rocky bases and gave them the same grey rocks I'm integrating into all my army. I also switched the flame cannon's 50mm square base for a 60mm round one - not from any deference to Age of Sigmar, but because I've decided I like war machines on rounds (easier to swivel and aim), and it was struggling to stay on the 50mm one.

Before: Rocky Road

In fact, this was how the model got pushed to the front of the queue: I'd stolen its base to make a chimera footprint for my Cockatrice. I felt sorry for the poor dismounted thing, and it's not as if my dwarves couldn't do with some attention.

After: Ragged Rock and Round

Oh yes, and I added some freehand runes on the front, but the less said about them the better. They look okay in person, it's just that damn digital camera that makes it look like I drew them in crayon.

Until next time: Flame Off.