Next up in our series of articles about beginning Warhammer armies is John Shaffer's highly converted Dwarf Engineer Army. Stay tuned for a follow up to see some more of John's converted Dwarf gadgetry.

The army thus far - a lot of firepower in a small package.

Why did you pick Dwarfs for your Warhammer army?
Ever since I saw the prevalent engineering theme in the most recent line of Dwarf miniatures, I began to fixate on doing a Dwarf army full of crazy inventors. The way the Dwarf Army book describes the Engineers’ Guild in Dwarfen society caught my interest, and an army full of Miners, Thunderers, war machines, and “counts as” constructs led by a Rune Lord and some Master Engineers seemed like a really fun project. The fact that Dwarf miniatures are relatively easy to paint and that the army is generally pretty small were additional incentives to get started, as I could get to playing with my newly painted toys that much sooner. After reading about the different Dwarfen holds, I decided on Karak Izor as the hold with a strong mining background, which would fit in well with the engineering theme I was after.

How did you get started on the army?
Well, we had just started a staff escalation league at work, and the starting size was 500 points. With this number in mind, I whipped up an army list that included some units that I wanted to paint and were effective on the tabletop. I really like to convert my figures in one fashion or another. Thus, after I worked out my list, I did a few sketches of simple conversions that I could do to the models to personalize them a bit. I started by picking up the Core choices first. A box of Thunderers and a box of Iron Breakers (which I converted into a unit of Rangers for my second core choice) got the job done. After a bit of conversion work, my deadly yet tiny force of 25 models was ready for some paint.

Did you use any method for painting a large number of troops?
I’m trying a speed painting technique on this army passed on by my friend Bill Starmer. I’ve found that this approach works well for Dwarf models of all sorts provided they have a generous number of metallic areas. I start by priming the entire unit with a silver spray paint. I happened to have a can of Boltgun Metal spray primer left over from when that color was still available, so I chose to use that. After the models were suitably silver, I gave them a wash of a mix of Tin Bitz, Scorched Brown, and Future Floor Polish. When this dried, I gave the models a drybrush with Chainmail and then I picked out all the non-metallic areas like clothing and flesh with the appropriate colors. I’ve found this process speeds up my painting time considerably. Aside from the unconventional priming approach, I’m a true believer in the assembly line method of army painting where I focus on painting and highlighting a single color on all the models in a unit before moving on to the next.

Describe any style or theme you are incorporating into your army.
As mentioned above, this army is part of the Engineers’ Guild from Karak Izor. As such, I’m going to restrict my unit choices to those appropriate for the theme. Miners are a staple inclusion as they will gather the raw components to make blackpowder and mine the ore to make weapons. Thunderers are also appropriate as they have the most advanced missile weaponry in the game, and undoubtedly, this army would have plenty of skilled individuals to maintain the weapons. A unit of Rangers is a bit of a stretch, but I included a unit and “teched” them out a little to fit the theme. This unit is armed with throwing axes, which I modeled as shoulder-mounted blunderbusses. All war machines are appropriate for the theme, and I’m working on a few Bolt Throwers to accompany my finished Organ Gun. For my heroes, I started with a Master Engineer and when I’ve expanded the army enough, I’ll include a Runelord and an Anvil of Doom, as it seems to be the most appropriate Lord choice for an army of militant craftsmen and inventors.

What are you planning next for the army?
I’m currently working on expanding the Core choices in the army. I’ve added another two ranks to the Rangers, and another unit of 10 Thunderers is almost complete. After that, I’ll do a unit or two of Miners followed by some Bolt Throwers. I’m saving the Runelord until last, as it will likely be the centerpiece to the army. I’m still on the fence about how I’ll convert the anvil to be more unique. Oh and as a final bit, a unit of steam-powered automatons that use the rules for Ogre Maneaters sure sounds like a lot of fun...