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I've been a long time fan of the Squats, but a squat force always seemed just out of reach. Now a combination of:

-Reissue of Harlequin "Space Dwarves:
-Mantic Forgefathers
-A deal on some squats from a very gracious individual

...has made it a possibility. I'll share my philosophy and goals on this army later, but to start off, Here's my first squad of Squats. These are Harlequin Space Dwarves that I finished up last week. The only conversion is the plasma gunner. A simple swap of the lasgun for a RT-era ork plasma gun.

Looking forward to your work on this.
Are you going for as little converting as possible or just with what you can find? I always wondered how well kit-bashing WFB Dwarves with Cadians would look.

Squats? Sapce Dwarves?

Pure HERESY, the INQUISITION will be paying you a visit very soon...

I am though interested to see where you go with this, always like the nostalgic P&M blogs

Title of the thread made me LOL though, thought it might have been a blue movie, so of course I had to check it out

Papasmerv wrote:Looking forward to your work on this.
Are you going for as little converting as possible or just with what you can find? I always wondered how well kit-bashing WFB Dwarves with Cadians would look.

Though I am using some forgefathers, I'm sticking mostly with the GW-ish squat asthetic, so I won't be doing any cadian conversion. However, a number of folks have done squats from cadians with a head swap/mod and leg shortening.



I found this pic, but it lead to a dead site, so I'm not sure where it came from. I've seen others in the past, but can't recall where.

Ruglud wrote:Squats? Sapce Dwarves?
Pure HERESY, the INQUISITION will be paying you a visit very soon...
I am though interested to see where you go with this, always like the nostalgic P&M blogs
Title of the thread made me LOL though, thought it might have been a blue movie, so of course I had to check it out

Thanks! I'm also interested to see where this goes...

Squats!


That Cadian conversion is awful though, lol. A for effort though.

My shippment of GW squats has come in and quite a few are soaking in the purple power right now. In a day or so I'll have pictures of 3 more Harlequin Space Dwarves with weapon swaps.

For today,
Here's my first official Squat miniature. I actually got him out of a clearance bin for a buck in the mid 90's. The blister was broken and he was missing a gun, but it said 40k, So that was enough for me. I'm not totally sure, but I think it might be a Space Ork Plasma gun that he ended up with. I have no idea where I got it.

The second pic is just a close up of the Space Dwarfs radioman.

As promised, today I'll show three more Harlequin space dwarves converted. First a bit about them. These figs were originally made by harlequin back in the early nineties just as squats were being squatted. That's probably what kept GW from bringing the legal hammer down. The lines were acquired by Black Tree Design who struggled for years with customer service issues and removed the harlequin sci-fi line from circulation for several years before reinstating the line last year. They've also reportedly improved their service dramatically and these figures arrived quickly and in good condition.

I really like the look of the space dwarves, and they are quite affordable (less than $2.50 each) but there are only 9 sculpts, and a couple of them are a bit odd. These are the three packs available from BTD here: http://www.blacktreedesign.com/northamerica/home.php?cat=2599





Also, I am not a fan of the stub pistols that some of them have. luckily these are easily removed are replaced and I have plenty of 2nd edition autopistols, laspistols, bolt pistols and plasma pistols that look good on them. I compared some of the RT era bolt pistols from the plastic space marines, but they look a bit too small.

Thus I got to work converting a couple.


The fellow on the left got his pistol trimmed a bit and a not-bolter from the demonblade weapons pack (now made by megamins and available here: http://freeboardgamesnow.com/sciencefictionpartsshop.aspx ) I somehow ended up with 4 of these guns in a trade and really like the early studded look of them.

The middle guy got a power fist from the RT plastic marines pack. The RT power fist is smaller than other plastic power fists (even than the 2nd edition version) and fits squats nicely. A second edition ork bolt pistol finishes him off. With squat's smaller size, I haven't decided whether to use it as a bolter or bolt pistol. I have found that 2nd edition and RT era ork weapons look pretty good on squats. Back then the ork weapons were mostly the same as imperial weapons, but a bit chunkier and more riveted.

The last guy just has a 2nd edition plasma pistol. One nice thing about the pistols that come on the squats is that the trigger assembly is large and the gun is nice and linear so it's fairly easy cut away the existing pistol and add a different weapon while keeping the hand/trigger/trigger-finger intact. A small table vise (not the GW piece of crap) and a razor saw made quick work of weapon removal on these guys.

The weapon swaps won't be the easiest to shoehorn into current codices (I may swap some weapons later), but I made them for a game of In "The Emperor's Name" which offers a bit more flexibility. You can see the games played here:
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/491884.page
and find the ITEN rules here:
http://thegamesshed.wordpress.com/2011/07/02/in-the-emperors-name/

The stuff below is pulled over from a previous thread, but here's my thoughts so far on how to use this army in 40k. As I don't play 40k much anymore it may end up being a moot point, but if I'm going to put the effort into the army, I'd at least like to have the option to use it. Here's the rather wordy summing up of how far along I am now...

Ok, so I'm starting a Squat force and I'd appreciate any advice and opinions you have on how to make them work within the framework of current 40k codicies. I've got a pretty good plan down, but it's not complete.

My premises for the project are this.
1) As I'm using some non GW figs, my army won't be played at GW stores. I'm ok with this.
2) I'm using GW Squats, Harleqin Space Dwarves, and Mantic forgefathers.
3) I'm far more interested in making an army that reflects squat fluff as contained in RT and 2nd edition 40k sources than building an army that is competitive, though if you have advice in that direction I'd like to hear it.
4) I'd like the weaponry (and to some extent the armor) to be as WYSIWYG as possible to make it easy for my opponents to know -and for me to remember- what's what.
5) I'd like to keep them codex and rulebook compliant.
6) I'm planning on using an allied list of SM and IG to cover all the squat units.

Here's what I've come up with that seems pretty reasonable.

1 Squats with bolters:
The image of the squat with bolter is iconic. I've got a few metal squats with bolters and I plan on giving 2nd edition style bolters to all my Mantic forgefathers. For the most part I'm thinking that I will run them as Space Marine Scouts.

2) Thudd guns.
SM Thunderfire launcher seems like the best bet.

3) Squats with bikes.
So far I only have regular (non Heavy weapon bikes) so SM Scout bikes seems like a good choice.

4) Squats with Lasguns, plasma guns, plasma pistols, and laspistols.
The bulk of the squats will be run as imperial guardsmen, stormtroopers or vets. That will cover most of my Harlequin Space Dwarves and basic GW squats, both are armed with the weapons above. I'm leaning toward vets or stormtroopers as I think a squat would be a bit tougher than an average guardsman, but I'm not married to one or the other.

5) Squat exo armor. That will be terminator stats. I've got some RAFM Reaction marine destructors that could fit the role quite well with some leg shortening.

Now for the more problematic units. I'd appreciate any feedback about the suitability of these units and how you'd feel facing them.

1) Squats with Heavy Plasma guns and Multimeltas.
Heavy bolters, lascannons and Missile Launchers can fit into IG platoons or scout squads. However, squats like their big guns and I have a few squats with Heavy Plasma guns and Multi Meltas the only way to get them into the army would be to use Space Marine Devastators. I'm a bit wary about this as devastators have power armor and increased stats, though it wouldn't be too out of line for the heavily armored Mantic Forgefather "stormrage veterans " http://www.manticgames.com/Shop-Home/Warpath/Forge-Fathers/Infantry/Product/Forge-Father-Stormrage-Veterans-5-Figures.htmlwho are more heavily armored than any of my other squats and are armed with rough analogues to Heavy Bolters and Multimeltas.. Also it's not a unit that's going to get into close combat, so I don't think it the WS increase would be too Cheesy in gameplay.


One other option would be to take them as servitors for a Squat Engineer run as a techmarine (see below)

2) Squat Engineer Guildmaster
With their mix of weapons, it seems like Techmarine and Tech priest are the only choice.

Techmarine has the same drawbacks of giving power armor in that it's a bit more potent that a squat would be, but I have to take techmarines of some sort in order to be able to use Thud guns and it would provide another path to including Multimeltas and Plasma guns (see above).

If I go with engineseer....
I'll still need a techpriest for the Thunderfire, but the enginseer would allow me to use two more of my squat multimeltas or hvy plasma guns.

I could do both as, it's appropriately fluffy to have more than one squat engineer, and Squat fluff and the RT squat army list has tech priests accompanying the squats as observers and advisors,
So I could use a squat engineer as the lower-stated enginseer that allows a couple of servitors (squats) with heavy weapons,,,
and my RT techpriest figure as the higher-statted-power-armor-wearing SM techmarine that allows me to have thunderfires (thud guns).


3)Squat Living Ancestor.
This is the squat psyker and the squat army list's most potent character. I'm unsure of whether to go with IG Primaris Psyker who is no slouch, but not really reflective of the Living ancestor's prominence or the Space Marine Librarian who is more reflective of the living ancestor's psychic power and prominence, but has far more close combat and offensive power than a Squat Living Ancestor would. I don't have an appropriate figure for a living ancestor yet, but I plan to find something.

4) Guildmaster and Hearthguard.
This is the Squat commander and his bodyguard. It will probably be a Space Marine captain and command squad or a Master of the forge accompanied by a SM veteran squad. I'll probably be using the Mantic Forgefathers for this though I don't know how I'll arm them. Thunderhammers seem fluffy and the forgefathers kits provide plenty of big hammers.

Anywho, I'd appreciate any input you all would have. Especially regarding the appropriateness of various units for the stats I'd be using them with. Also, I'm planning on using the vanilla SM codex. I've got the BA codex also, but it doesn't fit the squats very much. I don't know much about the Space Wolf codex, would it be more appropriate?

Very interesting project Eilif. Subbed. Looking forward to seeing how you go but I think you've got a very good approach laid out.

Not much to show today.
I've been putting the finishing touches on a post apoc neosoviet warband and 47 Void Junker Legionaires (been cluttering up my desk for 6 months) to clear the decks for my squat project.

Still, I did work out a Forgefather with a bolter.
This guy would probably be run as a SM scout, though he could work as a marine.


Ignore the paint job. He came that way and is now resting gently in a cleansing bowl of Purple Power.

Good News:
-The arm set that is separate from the body is not hard to carve away the rifle and replace the bolter
-The round joints on that arm set make it easy to adjust the position of the bolter slightly up or down so it's not all in the exact same position. Thank heavens the arm sets aren't press-fit!

Neutral news:
-Shaving off the imperial eagle from the bolter leaves a bit of a blank space. I think I'm going to try and trade for any random dwarf bits that have dwarf emblems on them small enough that I can shave them off and glue them to the sides of the bolters. A bit fiddly, but I've done this kind of thing before and it will definitely add some character.
-Bolter looks a tad on the big side, but once I angle it down a bit and shave a bit more off the handle hand it should fit nicely.

Bad News:
-Unfortunately one of the two bodies on every forgefather sprue has the rifle and head molded on and that's just too much work to modify.
-Added to the fact that I'm not too keen on the caped body (one of every two FFather bodies has an integral cape) means that I'll only be using half of whatever forgefather troopers I buy. Still, I've been finding good deals on them to the point where I should be able to sell the caped/monopose figs and not take a loss on the caped figs.

Good start Eilif.

Thanks Gitsplitta,

Dug the squats out of the purple power. Only 3 more needed a bit more cleaning.

In the mean time I took stock of my squats and found that I am woefully short of lasguns. I'm doing this on a pretty tight budget and can't pay much for RT lasguns, and I don't want to use IG lasguns. However, I did find what might be a fair substitute.

Here's a rough draft of a Kroot rifle cut down, with a lasgun muzzle and the handguard bent downward. On top is a standard RT era lasgun.



I think I might cut the stock completely off and remove the handguard, but I haven't decided yet. If I can make a design that I'm happy with from these parts, I think I have enough kroot rifles to make all the lasguns I need (about 8 or so)

By the way, anyone got 8-10 RT era lasguns they don't need?

Those Harlequin dudes have a real Baseball vibe going on with the padded armour and baseball caps - could see them being used in a Necromunda gang

"warriors come out to plaayaay"

Seriously though I never thought of it that way. I just saw it as a copy of one of the GW styles of armor. Now that you mention it though, on the harlequin figs it does come down more like a catchers vest rather than being tucked in a belt like the GW squats.

2) Thudd guns.
SM Thunderfire launcher seems like the best bet.

I think the mantic Jotun thing looks a closer match, but even better you could use the forgeworld thudd gun.

A mole mortar is pretty iconic but not sure how you could make one and I think you can get Termite looking things from Ramshackle that could work as drop pods. Apart from that, a Gyrocopter out of a valkyrie would be a pretty cool project.

 Bruticus wrote:

2) Thudd guns.
SM Thunderfire launcher seems like the best bet.

I think the mantic Jotun thing looks a closer match, but even better you could use the forgeworld thudd gun.

A mole mortar is pretty iconic but not sure how you could make one and I think you can get Termite looking things from Ramshackle that could work as drop pods. Apart from that, a Gyrocopter out of a valkyrie would be a pretty cool project.

The model I have (will shortly have two of) is the Mantic Jotun, It's the Thunderfire launcher stats that I'd be using. FW has a cool model, but I'm kind of on a budget.

I actually have just received a mole mortar. It looks pretty much like a regular mortar at first glance so I'll probably use it as such even if it is fairly ineffectual in game terms.

The ramshackle drop pods are definitley on my maybe list. I'm not sure if Drop pods fit the style of play the army will lend itself to, but the models really fit the vibe!

As for a Gyrocopter, I hadn't considered that. I thought of it as more of a dwarf thing, but a cool flyer would be nice to have for the dwarfs. I have two Robogear models (Condor and Hornet) that would work well as squat flyers. They are a bit chibi-ish, with lots of rivets, but not so random that they would have to be ork flyers.

Here's a model I have in my closet (mine isn't built yet) that I might do up as a squat Land raider.



It's a bit big (about the right width , but two inches too long, and a bit tall), but it sure is cool. It's technically 1/72, but scales pretty well with 28mm figs, Especially if I change a few hatches. Here's one next to a Wargames Factory 28mm greatcoat

As for a Gyrocopter, I hadn't considered that. I thought of it as more of a dwarf thing, but a cool flyer would be nice to have for the dwarfs. I have two Robogear models (Condor and Hornet) that would work well as squat flyers. They are a bit chibi-ish, with lots of rivets, but not so random that they would have to be ork flyers.

How come you hadn't considered it? Are you looking at the Epic squat army list? Here's a load of good pics of epic 40k squats: http://www.stephane.info/show.php?code=ne_squat

I used to have an epic squat army which is why I am interested.

Thanks for that, I think I need an Airship!
Oh the possibilities...

I hadn't looked at the Epic 40k Squat lists/background. I've just been going off of the RT Red Book Squat List. I think I've definitely got to start reading up on Epic 40k squats.

Another small update. My first full squad of GW squats primed and ready for paint. They've been cleaned up-reassembled and primed with gesso. These guys will be run as an IG squad, either Vets or as part of an infantry platoon.

6 plastic lasgun squat troopers. These are the original stock plastic multipart squats.


The rest of the squad. Left to right: Metal Squat with lasgun, Plastic squat done up as sergeant (might end up as part of a HW team instead) A plastic Missile launcher (an RT Marine weapon, but looks exagerated and squatish to me) and a metal squat with plasma gun.


For most of my figures I have no problem with using hardware store camo sprays for priming and basecoat and plastic glue. That's because most of what I paint is metal (from which anything can be stripped with MEK) or cheap, common plastic figs. However, these are pretty rare figures and if I screw up the plastic squats there's not much chance of being able to afford many more for a while, so I'm going with gesso and using super glue. I'll still dip them at the end, but over gesso and acrylic, the dip is easy to strip if I need to fix a paintjob.

These are looking great I have a feeling 6th ed ally rules with SM and IG running together could be your friend....

 Llamahead wrote:
These are looking great I have a feeling 6th ed ally rules with SM and IG running together could be your friend....

Thanks!

That's actually the plan. If you'd like to look over the 8th post, I'd welcome any input regarding how I've distributed the Squat units between the IG and SM codex. There's a few places that I've had to stretch the bounds of WYSIWYG a bit, but in general I think I've got most units well represented.

Looking good. Really liking the old school missile launcher.

Thanks alanmckenzie,
I'm collecting a RT marine army that will be my project after the squats, And I'm thinking about stealing more of these from that group (and replacing them with current style launchers).

Nothing much to report today just a few small updates:

-Started painting the 10 man squad tonight. Hope to have them done by the end of the week, but we're preparing for a Christmas party so I may have other responsibilities...

-My Mantic crazy christmas box arrived today. I split it with two friends, but I did get the Jotun Hailstorm cannon (bringing my total to 2 of them) and another set of Stormrage vets. Hopefully my buddy will trade me the leadbelcher crew. There's a neat pipe-smoking arm in there.

- I may have found another good replacement for lasgun arms. The Mantic Dwarf Ironwatch sprue. Specifically the arms-on-gun bit and the separate gun bit.



They have a nice long non-heroic look that matches the RT lasrifle dimensions. With a lasgun bit at the end of the barrel, it could look quite nice. Luckily the sprue contains enough for both varistions so anyone who does their dwarves as archers will have extras, so I've got an ad up over at mantic forums asking to trade for these bits, we'll see what happens.

-Lastly, I finished stripping the last of the squats. I've still got some cleanup to do for a few of the plastic squats but later this week I'll post a full list of what I've got so far.

This looks very similar to an Iron Eagle gyrocopter: http://ttfix.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/puppetswar-final-flyer-preview.html

I'd not taken a long look at the Iron Eagle.


The one you linked too is a pretty cool model, but...
I do have 2 or three of these Robogear Condor's in hand currently and they only cost about 8 bucks each. (not my pic, mine is unassembled)


Here's someone who did there's up as a squat gyrocopter


I've also got a couple of these Robogear Hornets in the box as well as another option.


Whatever model I choose, I'd probably run them as a squadron of Vendettas.

Haven't updated this in a while. The Christmas Season has been rather hectic.
Some small updates:
-Am nearly finished with another 10 member Squat Squad.
-Ordered a batch of Victoria Lamb lasguns and shotguns. They have slimmer proportions to the standard IG weapons, and at a great price. I don't need to hunt down or scratch-convert any more lasguns now!


http://victoriaminiatures.highwire.com/productsweapons-and-gear?pagesize=12&page=1
-Picked up a reaper steampunk dwarf Willy Brassbender. Not sure what I'll use him for yet, but I'll think of something. His weapon is such that it could be converted to just about anything.

-Am just about wrapping up a deal for 36 more squats. Except for adding a few here or there, that would probably be all the squats I would need for a long while.

Another update. Still no more painted figs, but I have decided the vehicle that will be the Rhinos for the SM-Statted portion of my Squat army. I've got 3. Two that I bought as below and one that I found at a resale shop.

They are the toy m113 from this BMC "City Police Playset"

Most toy and hobby stores that carry toy soldiers have this one as does Amazon and other online retailers for 8-9 bucks. The helicopter, playmat and police figures are pretty useless. However it does come with:
- 4 long highway style guardrail pieces,
- Some low signs that would be good for cover
- Some cones for scenery bits
- A 1/43 Crown Vic'ish sedan would work nicely for 28mm post-apoc. I'll probably do these up as ruined vehicles for our winter post-apoc campaign.

The verdict is still out on the jeeps. They look to be closer to 1/35 than the 1/43 cars I use with 28mm. I'll probably quickly post-apoc them up with grated windows and armor and a nice gritty paintjob and sell them. All in all, I might be able to nearly make back the cost of the playset by selling the parts of it I don't need!

Here's a few pics from a friend's blog (http://ljshobbyspot.blogspot.com/2010/09/imex-m113-conversion-backstory.html )showing it against an mk1 rhino and a space marine.




The top hatch actually opens, and it's height and length are exactly to rhino specs. It is about a 1cm to narrow, but I'll see about widening the profile a bit with some stowage.

At this point it doesn't look like much, but I've got some MK1 Rhino bits (still looking for more if anyone's willing to sell) on the way, and a pretty good idea of how I'll be converting them. They'll definitely be magnetized for both Rhino and Razorback, but I haven't decided whether to use the turrets from Ramshackle, or Puppet's war.

In other news, I finalized the deal for 36 squats. That brings my total to nearly 60 squats, not counting the not-squats from BTD and the Mantic Forgefathers. I think I'm pretty well set for squats. When the package arrives, I'll post pictures of what I'm working with.

Quite a few updates today.

First of all, I have the second squat painted and awaiting the dip. Unfortunately I can't seem to find my Minwax Tudor, so they're on hold for the moment.


Secondly, I think Victoria Miniatures Laser rifles are THE BEST not-as-heroic-scale Lasguns out there (and maybe the only). As folks have no doubt seen, they look good on modern figs too, but here's one on the left compared to the vintage RT-era lasgun on the right.

I also think these would be just the thing for converting some of the new crop of plastic historical figs. They have realistic proportions and so don't look great with GW weapons, but would probably look great with these.

I began work on the comand squad and a Heavy weapon for my first squad as well.

Here's the commander and one of his men. Yep, that's a squat with an AK47. Things were pretty crazy in the early days of 40k!


Here's a missile laucher. IIRC it came from a catachan metal, but I got it separate and mangled. A bit of cleanup on the shoulder area and removing of the imperial details and it looks pretty good. An old style metal catachan shoulder kneeling and a squat standing are about the same height.


I also acquired a batch of autocannons in a trade. I know squats usually carry their guns and aren't usually associated with autocannons. However I really like the idea and look of lots of artillery and the plastic army man artillery carriages I used for my IG lasguns (see my gallery) are much too big for squats . A few Dwarf plastic bits cover over the imperial iconography.


The gunner is a harlequin space dwarf with a GW dwarf axe hand. I may have to go back and shorten the cuff of his sleeve a bit. That bag of dwarf bits I bought really has come in handy!


That's it for now. Stay tuned for later this week when the last shippment of squats arrive!

Wonderful stuff dude! Really characterful models, helped along by your nifty conversions, especially like vic's lasguns. One thing you may want to change is the height of the squat's missile launcher, poor fella can barely see out of the sight!


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Hmm, on second looks it might be easier to sit the squat on a rock or something, it looks like it would be quite a hassle to go chopping the bipod up!

Another batch of wonderment, thanks for sharing!