WIP: Heresy Era Dark Angels Deredeo Pattern Dreadnought

Greetings.

Today I return to the Horus Heresy era with an update on the First Legion Deredeo Pattern Dreadnought.  I had left the Dreadnought primed (mostly) and ready for painting.  I somehow missed the head, but that was easy enough to remedy.  I'm hoping this dreadnought will prove to be a solid support choice for the small 30K Dark Angels I've been kicking along.  I love the plasma weapons for the army, of course, and look forward to fielding this machine along side the plasma tactical support squad I recently painted.

The model will be mounted on a typical custom cork base to lend some presence on the battle field.  To match the rest of the force, the same mix of railroad ballast is used as blasted rocky ground cover.  After applying a coat of Vallejo Surface Primer Black, Vallejo Black Lava was spread over the top to mask the cork texture, and some small spots of additional ballast spread with it to tie everything together.

Then painting began on the Deredeo starting with the metals.  My goal was to get all the messy dry brushing and shading done before I set into the flat black panels and other details. After priming, the air brush was used again to lay down a coat of Scale 75 Black Metal to all metal surfaces.

Vallejo Oily Steel was then liberally dry brushed over all the same metal surfaces. The large plasma weapons are so iconic, they deserve some special attention.  Here I am using GW Tin Bitz (OOP) dry brushed lightly with Vallejo Brass. Any suitable Copper or dark copper color would work as well under a nice rich gold for the highlights.  I'm not going for gold here, but rather a bright brassy look.

A heavy coat of GW Nuln Oil Gloss was applied over all the metal surfaces, including the copper/brass portions of the weapons. This was left to dry overnight.  The weapons stand ready for final highlighting and their blue plasma effects. Then it'll be time to address the body panels with GW Abaddon black to restore the 1st legion livery. I'm thinking about applying some black/white checkers somewhere, probably a leg panel.

Check back later in the week to see how the project advances. Best of luck for your own projects.

Cheers and Happy Gaming!