On the Workbench [June] - Heresy Era Dark Angels Relic Contemptor Dreadnought

While preparing for my next Horus Heresy game, I decided to give The Dark Angel's Molecular Acid another try.  And what better way than hosed out of a mortis pattern contemptor dreadnought?!  I picked up the Relic Contemptor body and all the trappings from Forge World and got to work.  The Dark Angels do not have a custom contemptor body yet, but the relic body features shields and other embossed motifs that should paint up nicely for the First Legion.

When building Forge World dreadnoughts, the legs are always the main challenge.  They can be extremely posable, but that flexibility means lots of little fiddly bits that need to be held in place while a pose is worked out, but before the glue (and any pins) can be applied.  I used some good ol' poster tac to set the pieces while I worked out the right angle for a striding pose.  In this case, the dreadnought is striding over some broken ground. We're having our front walk redone and there are loads of great rock chips to use for basing, just laying about.

Once the leg position was chosen, I glued everything together.  This is a careful process of working piece-by-piece from one leg to the other being very careful not to lose the pose I worked so hard to get in the first place.  All the balls and sockets were scored with a hobby knife to generate a coarse surface for the 5-minute epoxy to join to.  With the glue all set, the rest of the dreadnought's body went together quickly. No pins were used in the end.  The epoxy makes a strong joint for these "smaller" models.

Poster tac held him to the base until I was read to pin him down permanently. In the end, I believe I captured a decent dynamic striding pose. Next up it was time to assemble the arms.  I glued the shoulders and upper arms bits in place, then magnetized the weapon arms.  I'm never satisfied with Dreadnought weapons and it often pays off to be prepared for a weapon swap later.

Come get some!

The final pose look suitably menacing for a First Legion dreadnought striding into battle.  Th emodel was pinned to the base using the right foot, whiel the left is simply glued down with more expoxy.  The the base cover was applied using a quick dip in the ol' ballast tub after a good layer of wood glue was laid down. This ties the model in with the rest of my Heresy Era Dark Angels.

I was planning to leave things here, but I also had the missile rack for the dreadnought's carapace.  I'm not planning to use it in my upcoming Zone Mortalis game, however it looks cool and I expect I'll enjoy it in other battles. In the end, I decided to assemble the launcher and glue it on too.  In some games, I won't pay the extra points for it, but that's no big thing.  I'll just inform my opponent that it's out of ammo for the battle when that is the case. :) It's rule of cool all the way! I ruled out magnets because I felt I would almost always use the launcher, so it wasn't work it coming off for the odd game.  My model storage if full of magnetized dreadnought options that never get swapped out or used. 

Yes, that's much better.  Here is the final product of the build.  The dread strides forward hosing down some target off to the right. The small bit of green stuff on the left shoulder is patching a hole made while trying to clip the part from the "sprue".  Once painted, no one will be the wiser. A small skull found it's way onto the base as well.

I'll wrap up with a shot of the rear for completeness.  Lots of great detail on these dreadnought models form Forge World.  I look forward to getting paint on this one next month.

I have a 10-man unit of breachers to build for my 1K Zone Mortalis list, then it's all paint all the time until I get the additions ready for battle.  And of course, I have to complete my Adeptus Titanicus Warhounds before then.  They have not been forgotten and must be completed before any more paint gets on the Dark Angels.

Until next time,

Cheers and Happy Painting!