Norscan Chaos Dwarf Hellcannon

Amongst the Northmen, there are often a few Dawi-Zharr – fire dwarves. Although few in number, the inclusion of even a few of these mercenaries are a bad sign, as they are masters of creating vile and hideous war-machines. Their war engines are no mere machinery, but are instead horrible amalgations of flesh and metal, held together and given their own will by chaotic sorcery that bind deamons into the machinery. 

Worst of them all is the hellcannon, a massive smoking construct of metal that growls and shakes with daemonic sentience. In battle, these arcane engines heave crackling blasts of raw energy that soar through the air into their targets, liquifying anything they touch and sending the survivors insane with fear. 

The Hellcannon is not just a cannon, it is a powerful monster made of metal in its own right, capable of smashing, grinding and chewing through the whole formations of trained troops. Such is the Hellcannon’s bloodlust that it must often be chained to the ground to stop it rampaging towards enemy lines. Even these precautions often prove inadequate, as there is little that can stay a Hellcannon’s lust for destruction.

The Dawi-Zharr load their charge by brutally shoveling the bodies of their enemies into the Hellcannon’s dire-furnace. Flesh runs like wax as the Daemon-machine’s hearth feasts on body and bone. Soon, only the souls of its victims are left, harnessed in the Hellcannon’s gullet as crackling bolts of energy that are fired towards the enemy in powerful spasms of malice. 

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I painted up a hellcannon for a painting contest. The theme of the contest was to polish a turd. This miniature is obviously not a turd, but it was a second hand purchase, and it was slathered in paint, with a bright orange barrel and thick blobs of metal everywhere else. I wasn´t sure I could save it, and it had been in the bottom of a box for years.

I decided to actually keep the scheme of the original, painting up the skulls on the barrel as writhing souls being tortured by the deamons. In the end, I am very happy with the result, and it even inspired me to bring the same deamonic colors over on a couple of new units that should be coming up shortly.

In Kings of War, there is not really much that fits the hellcannon. Abyssal dwarves (chaos dwarfs) have a big mortar that can work, but it does not fight, so it is not a perfect match. I play Varangur with my Norse, so I will probably use it as a giant with blizzard or as a devourer with breath, although it will probably mostly be a shelf filler 🙂