Dark Ballista by Epic Miniatures

Where the trebuchet ends and darker engineering begins — these war machines look less like siege weapons and more like something the battlefield itself grew teeth.

• ✔ Resin terrain piece, printed fresh to order in the UK
• ✔ Supplied unpainted — primes and paints easily
• ✔ Compatible with standard 28mm–32mm miniature scales
• ✔ Works on the gaming table and as part of a display diorama

The Dark Ballista comes in three distinct sculpts, each with its own personality and silhouette. One bristles with curving claw-like limbs and a spiked rotating pedestal base, its bolt-track flanked by wicked bladed appendages that give it the look of a predatory insect coiled to strike. A second variant shares that angular mechanical menace but shifts the arrangement of its arms and hooks into a different threatening posture, suggesting a war machine that may have been designed with something other than bolts in mind. The third takes a dramatically different direction — a lower-slung frame with a demon-masked bowhead, swept flame-like cresting, and a sweeping ornate pedestal, closer to eldritch artillery than conventional siege craft.

All three sculpts share the same unmistakable character: heavily detailed surfaces, ornamented structural elements, and a sense that whoever built these machines was drawing on something considerably grimmer than military necessity. Whether you place them in a hobgoblin war camp, a devil's fortification in Avernus, or as the centrepiece of a drow siege line, these pieces anchor a scene immediately.

Each variant is listed separately, so you can choose the one that best fits your encounter — or collect all three to outfit an entire dark fortress battery.

Equally effective as a gaming table prop and as a display piece on a terrain shelf, the Dark Ballista rewards a detailed paint job: rust-streaked iron, verdigris on the mechanical fittings, and a deep black base coat bring out every engraved line and edge.

• Running a siege encounter where the defenders have something unnervingly non-standard in their armoury
• Building out a Avernus or Underdark battlefield with purpose-built war machines
• Adding a visual anchor to a hobgoblin warcamp or tiefling stronghold encounter
• Creating a diorama centrepiece that rewards close inspection and careful painting

Encounter Hook: The party crests the ridge expecting a conventional catapult line — and finds instead three of these machines already cranked and aimed, each one manned by a chain-devil who grins as the mechanisms begin to whirr and the first bolt glows faintly before it fires.

Details

Three sculpt variants available — see individual listings. Supplied unpainted with no base. Sculpted by Epic Miniatures.

Pairs well with fiend warbands and Avernus campaigns — or explore more from Epic Miniatures.

Mitz & Simz — the cats rolled History to remember every time we got something wrong. Nat 20. Both of them.

Ready to add this adventurer to your collection? Order today and we'll print it fresh for you here in the UK.