DreadTober 2019 - Week 4 TO DONE

Welcome to DreadTober 2019 week four, and the completion of my challenge for this year.  It feels great having completed two 1st Legion dreadnoughts.  Here's a shot of the pair in the light box.

The Legion Dreadnought was a fun kit to build and paint.  Great details are found across the whole model. Since my last post I cleaned up some minor mistakes, added some missing highlights and completed a couple remaining details, such as the twin search lights.  If search lights they be...I made the decision with the Deredeo that they would be lights, and have continued that with this latest addition to the team.

I completed two pairs of arms in all - two power fists, one chainfist, and one plasmacannon. These will be interchangeable with a relic contemptor dreadnought primed and waiting for its turn on the painting table. I'm planning the run this dreadnought as pictured above with fist, chainfist and graviton guns.  The plasmacannon is a themed choice and will make a good ranged option for either the legion or relic dreadnought when needed.  As said in prior posts, I also have a pair of autocannon arms to assemble and paint. 

Legion heraldry proudly displayed by this Terran veteran of the Unity Wars.

Only friends and the fallen enemy see the back of this dreadnought...

I had great fun inventing some Night Lords iconography for the shattered dreadnought arm.

Another great year for DreadTober, bringing me to four years with the challenge, the last three official (I lurked through the first year, I'm embarrassed to say). I'm already looking ahead to the fifth year!  But first we must get through Squaduary and #MonsterMarch4.  This project is DONE.

With the completion of another project, it's time to think on what comes next. There are many projects on the to-do list that I am looking forward to.  Check back soon to see where the hobby butterfly takes me...

Cheers and Happy Gaming!

DreadTober 2019 - Week 3 Progress

Well into week three, I've decided to share my progress.  I would normally wait until early next week, but not sure I'll get to much painting over the weekend, and the project is nearing completion as it is.

This week, I finished up some minor work on the arms, added decals, and put the bulk of the work into the base.

This army uses a very modest earthen basing scheme.  I chose a light color to help distinguish the models on the base.  I originally bought resin deck plate bases for this army, but realized that the dark steel decking really didn't help the dark models pop at all.  The resin will get re-purposed for other projects one day, no doubt.

The smashed assault-cannon arm is from a Night Lords contemptor, perhaps recently blown or ripped apart by this dreadnought.  I laid down my best approximation of a simple Night Lords paint scheme.  Enough to tell the story without stealing the show.  From the Horus Heresy stories, the Dark Angels fought the Night Lords in many battles that kept them from returning to Terra in her defense.

Some detail on the freehand lighting bolts and crossed swords decal on the knee.  I spent some time roaming through my collection of old decals to pull a few appropriate ones for this model.  I felt the crossed swords were a nice touch for the Horus Heresy era.

Another look at the lightning bolts painted on the shattered assault-cannon arm.

I added more plasma glow to the the plasma weapons, including light spilling form the barrels and vents.  This helps the palm plasma-blaster stand out a bit within the fist, distinguishing it from the graviton guns. I also found some room for a 1st Legion numeral on the right shoulder. With all the detail on this model, there isn't much space for decals.  I have room on the legs and fists for something, but so far have chose to leave them bare. I need to be able to switch up the arms with other dreadnoughts, so they shouldn't look too oddly unique.  And the legs....just don't seem to need anything?

I settled on some checkers for the upper arm plates.  Siph gave me the great idea of putting a sword there and I had decals picked out.  However, in the end, this was a simple and effect place to include the Legion checkers, so on they went.  The swords went on the knee shield instead.

A last walk around the dread to see it at different angles. The project has come out better than expected and I'm very pleased with it.

I really like how the Legion symbol looks over the field of checkers on the arm. I chose to keep the weapons relatively plain to avoid clashing or distracting form all the main body and base details.  That chain blade may be understated, but it'll do good work on the table top, no doubt.

Here is the model so far with twin fists in full on assault mode.

And there is a parting shot with all the bits laid out. I could easily stop here and lay down the final lacquer coat.  Given the time left in the challenge however, I'll put some more thought into highlights and cleaning up various details and what not.  No need to rush this month.

How is your DreadTober project coming along?

Cheers and Happy Gaming!

DreadTober 2019 - Week 2 Progress

With another week of DreadTober behind us, here's where I was able get with the my Dreadnought project.  This week was about torso highlights and getting started on the arms. On the body, I got busy adding the edge highlights to the black armor using Vallejo Game Color Wolf Grey and a liner brush.

In addition, the red details were highlighted using GW WildRider Red. I very much like how this came out on the lion shield. The metal trim and other bits were highlighted with Vallejo Air Steel.

Lots of practice painting the edge highlights on black armor now has made this process much easier over time.

Still not sure what I'm going to do with the right shoulder guard.  I guess it'll be left as it is.  Not a good area for icons with the overlapping plates. Maybe something on the upper arm plate.

I like how this beast is coming along!  Here's a close up of the main body.

With the main body in good shape it was time to make progress on the arms.

The plasma cannon got some work, mostly base colors and some shading.  Lots of work to go, but progress...

Metal bits on the chainfist got painted in with Vallejo Oily Steel and shaded with GW Nuln Oil.

Since the fists got assembled this week, I was able to loop them in with the metal work while working on the chain fist and plasma cannon. Then I got to work on the black highlights. So broad progress across the four contemptor arm options was made this week.  But still plenty of work to do. Here's the latest shots of the arms.

 

A weekend spent mostly in bed with a mild cold put paid to week two hobby progress.  But I'm in great shape now, so on to week three!  I don't see any issues with completing the challenge given where the model is today.

Loving the progress made by the other DreadTober challengers out there.

Cheers and Happy Gaming!

DreadTober 2019 - new arms!

With a spot of extra time this week, I was able to build the remaining close combat arms for the dreadnought.  One includes a graviton gun, the second a plasma blaster.  I thought it would be fun to run twin graviton guns with the chainfist, but also wanted the themed plasma weapon for the First Legion.

Here's what the arms look like attached to the dreadnoughts.  First the Relic Contemptor who is waiting in the wings to get painted.

And then on the Legion Contemptor being painted as part of DreadTober 2019.

He's even looking tough sporting the full close combat package.

You just have to love magnets. :)  A little thinking about poses makes it trivial to swap arms among the dreadnoughts for the perfect load out every game.  I even uncovered a pair of Forge World contemptor pattern kheres autocannon arms in the 30k bits bin so that's going to be a thing as well.  Plenty of arms for these guys, no doubt.

Next up will be more painting progress, so please check back later int he week.

Cheers and Happy Gaming!

DreadTober 2019 - Week 1 Progress

With week one of DreadTober behind me, it's time to reveal my progress so far. Following the build (see prior workbench post), the model was primed black using Vallejo Surface Primer with an Iwata Eclipse airbrush.

Easy enough.  Next I tackled blocking in the various base colors.  Vallejo Oily Steel was used on the armor trim and exhausts.  GW White Scar and GW Mephiston Red were used on the various bits of livery. Mephiston Red was also painted on the eye lenses.

I am departing with the Forge World paint scheme to maintain the legion symbol as displayed on my other units.  I feel Forge World went a little 40k with the color scheme, at least in terms of the brighter, flashier color choices (while legion wings with a red sword, for example). However, I did like the knee pad livery so I'm keeping that as is.

The back of a dreadnought can be so boring...;P

With the layered armor plates on the right shoulder, I guess I'll skip any livery there.  Keen eye'd readers will note I swapped the shoulders from how Forge World displays them in their sample to match what I feel is canon for the first legion; Legion crest on the left shoulder and not the right.

GW Nuln Oil was then used to shade all the trim.  Thinned GW Drakenhoff Nightshade was used on the white. P3 Menoth White Highlight was used to base coat the candles.  Then a couple coats of thinned GW Gryphonne Sepia was used as a glaze.

The eye lenses were highlighted with GW Wild Rider Red.  I used Nuln oil as a glaze while shading the trim on the head. Some Nuln oil was then dropped into the cups of the candles as well.

I base coated the plasma coils with GW Sotek Green as a break from the other work.  Then I used Vallejo Air Steel to paint all the metal skeleton bits on the legs.

Vallejo Old Gold was used on the brass gears.  This is shaded with GW Agrax Earthshade.

I finished off the head by tidying things up and highlighting the armor trim with Vallejo Air Steel.  The it was epoxied in place.

Looking fierce! Well, okay...stern and face-punchy anyway...

Any than brought me to the end of week one.  The dreadnought is assembled, primed, and much of the base colors blocked in and even shaded in spots.   I have put in very little work on the arms to this point, choosing to focus on the body first off.  This is partly due to my plan to assemble and batch paint two others dreadnought arms along with those pictured here.  I want the arms to have some visual continuity and painting them together helps immensely with that.

I've enjoyed watching the progress from the other challengers.  Looks like we're off to a great start in 2019.

Cheers and Happy Gaming!