DreadTober 2023 - Week 1

 

It's time for DreadTober!  This year, I'm tackling the new Ballistus dreadnought from the Warhammer 40K Leviathan box set. This is a push fit model which I have glued together, except for the feet (easier painting) and the weapons which are designed with slots so they can be swiveled up and down and removed - maybe for future weapon options?!

I start with a black primer coat.  Here I've used an Army Painter black rattle can. Then I used an airbrush to spray the whole model with Proacryl Black Green, according to the paint recipe I use (see tabs above). I'm having trouble with the proacryl becoming hydrophobic over primer sometimes - not sure why exactly and it doesn't happen all the time.  but I think it's mostly when the primer is smooth and shiny like this - not gloss but satin or semi-gloss? It is easily solved by laying down several light coats with some drying time in between.  Eventually the paint sticks and covers.

I love the feet pegs on this push-fit model!  So easy to work on the base, while still using it to support the model. Not sure yet what I'm going to do with the alien/Tyranid bits. Need to pick a swarm, I guess, and go with that color scheme. Some dry brushing needs to happen here and then cleanup and weathering of the metal bits before finally painting the black rim.

The main body advanced to a point that I was able to lay down a coat of GW Nuln Oil over the whole model to shade things nicely. It looks like a lot of work for the first week, but actually came together fairly quickly in just two painting sessions of a couple hours each. 

The paint is a bit over exposed by the desk lamp here.  You can still see the contrast between the metal structure of the dread and the armor panels over that. Some detail work will pick out different metals and provide more visual interest to the monochromatic silver shown here.

So that's week one in the bag! I gave myself a head start clearly by having a fully assembled and based model to start with. It's a little outside the spirit of the original DreadTober, where week one was meant for assembly.  However, I prefer to spend the month painting. :)

Now head over to dreadtober.blogspot.com and check out the rest of the DreadTober projects!

 Cheers and Happy Painting!