Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Vampire Skaven Part 3: The Doomtrain



Now that we're past the footsloggers, here's my favorite model in the entire army, if not my Warhammer Fantasy collection. The Doomtrain came about in those heady days when you could just order bitz willy-nilly from Games Workshop. The Storm of Chaos had just come out (yes, I've had it that long) and with it, the lovely Hellcannon kit in all its awful glory. About the same time I was painting dwarves for my friend Brian, and he paid me in trade with an Imperial Steam Tank (yes, the old-school metal model). A Hellcannon and a few bits orders later, and this monster came about.


This is another one of those cases of a model practically building itself. The Hellcannon and Steam Tank parts went together like they were made for each other, and the Screaming Bell bits followed shortly thereafter. The thing was an absolute joy to build and paint, to boot, from the little furnace full of soul-fire in the back to the wight-skaven drivers. It's also too long for even a chariot base, so damned if I know how I'll ever use it in battle.


The little stools of the Warp-Lightning Cannon's engineer minders actually fit right into the little peg-hole in this steam tank deck piece. I particularly love the little gauges and dials, which fit the skaven to T. 


The huge jaw piece for the Hellcannon still sits in my bits box, but the bigass skull piece needed minimal embellishment before fitting to the Steam Tank hull-turned-cowcatcher. I fitted skaven icons over the Empire shield mountings, and the warpstone reactors just fit the model perfectly. The end-bits even run into the grooves on the massive cog-wheels. 


The warlock-engineer hanging off the little platform to the side was an afterthought, as were the chains streaming off of the smokestack on the front. Of course, since this thing is powered by the souls the machine sucks out of the living, what's the stack for? I don't even think the steersman can see over it, anyway. If I could come up with a base to fit it, I might even enter it in a Games Day mini competition. I'd have to come up with track bits that would even hold it up, but it weighs a ton, so stability is ensured. If I did enter it, I'd also want to make a tender for it, if not some other, equally interesting car. 


Here's a shot from the other side. No crewman here, owing to the theory that odd numbers and asymmetry are more interesting. Those warpstone reactors look cool any way you turn them, so no problems with symmetry here, either. I thought of fielding it using Black Coach rules, but it looks even more durable than one of those, if not more deadly to the surrounding troops. 


This is a beauty shot, not an actual battlefield pic. If it were, the thing would steamroll right over that poor rat swarm in the front. Next time, we polish off the army showcase with cavalry. 

8 comments:

Mordian7th said...

That is a thing of terrible majesty. Excellent work - a fine testament to the warp engineers of Clan Skyre! Keep up the great work!

Anonymous said...

Wow. I haven't played Fantasy in years, but that conversion kicks ass. I don't think I ever seen aynthing quite like it, and that's truly saying something in this hobby!

Bossman Rich said...

Fantastic job! I love all of the work you put into this conversion.

Unknown said...

drools....
wow its a shame the black library site is changing atm- theres a great short story called 'enemy of my enemy' by Grehem McNeill about an iron warriors train that gets attacked by ultramarines. your conversion is just like i imagined it and would make one kick-ass special mission :)
nice job!

John Lambshead said...

Wonderful model!

Mark said...

@mike- If I had to make an Iron Warriors train, it'd be larger and way more industrial. Ever play a PS1 game called Einhander? That, but more WWII industrial.

Maybe after I finish my Tyracron army...

@everyone - thanks, it's another one of those models that just seemed to build itself (which is scary,but cool) and I enjoyed every minute of it.

suneokun said...

Wooo...wooo helltrain approahcing platfrom 1! Prepare for boarders!

Great, great model ... it's a shame WFB doesn't have an APOC equivilent ... otherwise this fella would be centre stage!

Hexlord said...

That thing is awesome. I have couple of those Chaos cannons laying around, gives me a great idea. Thanks.