Dwarven Artillery Review!

Hi!

As I am now the proud owner of quite a few dwarf pieces I thought it would be a plan to review some of them so am starting with the artillery!

Dwarven Great Gun

The model comes in two pieces, the main body of the cannon and the dragon headed maw. As per usual with Grendel models there seem to be few, if any mould lines and no air bubbles. The cannons detailing is fantastic from its mighty sculpted dragon head to the runes placed around its length.

The Mighty Cannon

This is a model I am really looking forward to painting as it will look fantastic once its completed! For those players of Fantasy Battle this would make an excellent siege cannon for the dwarves as its far better, not to mention BIGGER than any other cannon out there! My only complaint about the kit is the lack of crew figures. I think I will have some real difficulty finding crew for the kit as no one produces an artillery crew by itself and I dont want to have to make do with GW plastics. I may well have to make do with performing some conversion work on some existing dwarves!

The Good Stuff:

Its HUGE!
The model is really nicely sculpted and really matches the concept art from the book.
The intimidation factor for ones opponents would be great (especially if you plan on fielding a battery of them!

The Bad Stuff:

It may be a bit too big for some people!
The lack of crew is very annoying!

All in all though the great gun is a fantastic piece of kit and well worth the money (It's only £5.99!)

Dwarven Mortar

This is another nice kit, its pretty huge and has a ton of complicated looking cogs and gears to allow it to swivel and turn in a pleasingly steam punkish sort of way, there are lots of nice details ranging from the runic script on the turntable to the crewman having a telescope perched next to him! Again the model is fairly free of defects and bubbles. The kit comes in two pieces, the turntable and the mortar itself.

A Mighty Mortar

The model is described as being a dwarven mortar and while everything seems to fit this description, the crew model lets it down as it looks far too human proportioned to fit as a dwarf. I plan on enclosing the position so its not too much of a problem but its a shame that so many nice details are having to be covered (for example the crewman is cranking the turntable and the already mentioned telescope)

The Good Stuff:

Its a nice big mortar position and is very original looking.
Lots of detail that will paint up nicely.

The Bad Stuff:

Only one crewman and he's not even a dwarf!

Again its real value for money and will paint up really nicely but the not dwarf crewman is a real shame! I could actually see this model as a dwarf made machine being fielded by a human (and possibly evil) force.

The VORTEX SPELL EATING MACHINE

This is a very nice piece of kit and possibly one of the most unusual looking contraptions available to the dwarves! It comes in five pieces, three legs, the base unit with main machine and the dragon skull on top. The kit I got is second hand and a bit dusty with a few bits of loose resin needing cleaned out of the crevices but is otherwise free of defects.

The model is absolutely packed with details ranging from arcane dwarven technology to odd jewels and even a very portly dwarf crewman peering through a viewing device and lots of intricately sculpted detailing. The whole machine looks a bit Flash Gordon to be which is a plus!

The Machines Front

Rear View With Crew

The Good Stuff:

The model looks amazing and totally original!
Its got a crewman who looks like a dwarf!
Will paint up amazingly!

The Bad Stuff

Not currently covered by the Leviathan rules.

If I wasn't painting goblins at the moment I suspect I would be painting this model as its fantastic! I suspect with its combination of technology, magic and engineering it would make for a really challenging project to paint it. Although it doesn't currently have rules in Leviathan I am working on a fan supplement which covers magic and a ton of new units for each faction so hope to be able to use the machine as part of my dwarven army at some point!

If and when I get round to painting it I suspect I will try and use some magnets with the kit which will allow it to turn to fire rather than being a static piece!

All the best!