The Brotherhood of the Forge

Afternoon all.

Last night, I was doodling away with an idea I've had going around for a while. I really enjoy the concept, models and background of Dwarves in Warhammer Fantasy, however, we don't play enough of it at the club to warrant a second army.

So the idea began - How can I get Dwarves into a 40k Army?

The Brotherhood of the Forge are colonies on Miners spread around Imperial Space, designated as Abhumans by the Imperium, but have become new allies in this time of darkness.

The Brotherhood are a single unit, with a hierarchy, split between different Guilds across space.

The fluff behind the Brotherhood is still under development, but they're based mostly on getting Dwarf units from Fantasy into an similar style army for 40k.

This is a concept sketch of a Forge Brother I drew yesterday. The actual models would be converted from Fantasy Dwarf Warriors with Bolters, extra sculpted armour pads and a custom made Visor.

The idea behind the visor is that the Brotherhood double up on their equipment, with it being Welding / Forge gear in times of peace, and extra protective armour in battle. It also adds a bit of mystery to them - the hope being their faces and exposed skin are never seen. Could they actually be human... or some kind of cyber-construct?

The idea is, the actual army will be able to cover 2 armies at once - a Scout heavy Codex Marine army and a Witch hunter army.

Witchhunter ideas:
Cannonness - Forge Lord
Inquisitor Lord - Forge Priest
Arcoflaggelants / Repentia - Oathkeepers (Slayers)
Sisters of Battle - Brotherhood Warriors
Stormtroopers - Brotherhood Rangers
Celestians - Longbeards
Rhino - Rhino
Penitent Engines - Forge Guardians
Exorcist - Rhino / Organ Gun construct

The Witchhunters list made sense to me as it focuses a lot on Melta and Flamer weapons, which a Forge would make use of. Also, the fact they are S3 T3 with a 3+ save sounds a lot to me like they could be Dwarves in heavy armour. Plus faith points are always cool...
There's a couple of staple Witchhunter things that are missing from the list, specifically Seraphim - however I'm not sure on how Dwarves would feel about flying around places - if you've got any ideas though, feel free to suggest!

Scout heavy Marine Codex list:
Space Marine Captain - Forge Lord in MKIV O-D-I-N prototype armour
Librarian - Forge Priest in Prototype armour
Techmarine - Forge Priest?
Sternguard - Longbeards
Dreadnoughts - Forge Guardians
Scouts - Brotherhood
Drop Pods - Tunelling Vehicles
Whirlwind - Organ Gun
Bikers - Bikes...
Land Raider - Mag Train
Land Speeder - Gyrocopter style thing

So that's the idea at the moment. I'm looking for a heavily converted army I can take my time with, steadily paint it up to a high quality and create a bit of unique background inspired from the Squats and Demiurg races.

Hopefully I can get some tester pieces built up in the next couple of weeks and start using them in

If you have any other suggestions or ideas, or some feedback on the proposed ideas let me know. I'll admit, I suck at drawing... so don't comment on the quality of the sketch, it started off initially as just the Visor concept and went from there.

Peace out!
SB