DreadTober 2025 - Week 3

 

Greetings and welcome back!

DreadTober is drawing to a close and I have been way of my blogging game. But not so with the painting progress. This dreadnought is very close to done.  The legs are glued to the base and the arms are glued to the body.  The torso is left free for now to assist with the remaining painting.

I'm working on the highlights and cleanup now, to push this project over the finish line.

Oops, still need to paint the Opus Machina on the power plant.

As always, I had great fun with the transfers.  I would like to add more, but decided to cool it for now.

 

I wanted to strike a balance with veteran honors and typical Deathwing iconography. Honestly though, I think this veteran needs more honors to warrant the blessing of this armor.

I'm pretty close to the finish line here.  There are lots of highlights to go, and a few details to complete.  but taken in all the progress has shaped up nicely against my vision for the project.

I'm about ready to glue the torso on and lock in the final arm positioning.  Once the paintwork is completed, I'll matte varnish the whole thing, the try my hand at filling the small crater with water effects such the the skull appears to sit in a pool of water. It's just something different for my dreadnought bases.

Anyway, check back next week to see the final results. I'm confident that I'll complete this project by the end of All Hallow's Eve... 

Cheers and Happy Gaming!

 

DreadTober 2025 - Week 2

 This week I worked on highlighting the armor using dry brushing.  I then needed to clean up adjacent red and metals colors that were affected by my otherwise fastidious dry brushing technique. 😂 The I worked on the Adeptus Astartes symbol on the front armor a bit.  Not a lot of change over all, but the model definitely is settling into it's Deathwing role. Week three will have a log of cleanup. highlights to the red and metals, and transfers.

Maybe during week three I'll glue down the torso and arms - however that will wait for week four if I don't feel I have enough access on the bits that become more obscured once things are glued down. 

 Best wishes for the other DreadTober projects out there. 

Cheers and Happy Gaming! 

DreadTober 2025 - Week 1

 

Ack!  I missed an update deadline. Well it's not because I haven't been busy with my project.  Everything started out well with a successful build setting things up nicely. The I primed the model and the base, and that's where things went sideways.

 The base and twin-linked stubber went fine.  But I decided to use a satin finish rattle can that I had for the body of the dreadnought.  I liked the color for a Deathwing base and figured, what the heck. A satin finish might lend itself to shading. Welllll...that maybe.  But I wasn't thinking about managing touch ups and the like where I would not have the same base color to work with....and the finish was more than a little hydrophobic as it turned out. This last issue made base coating more than a little time consuming as I needed many thin layers to ultimately lay down a sufficient coat of any base colors.

Undaunted (OK, I was pretty well daunted, to be honest), I set about filling in a black base coat for the metals, and then dry-brushing that with a dark silver from the Pro Acryl line. This was irritating enough that I paused to complete...the base.  I don't think I have ever completed a base in the first week of a project.  but here it is...

Given the campaign against Ork Waaaghs on Piscina IV and V, Almace and the Tharsis Reach forge world, I thought is would be fun to include this Orc skull.  If all goes well, it will be resting in a pool of water when all is said and done. But I can't add the water effects until final weathering powders are applied and varnishing is done.

Ok, pissing and moaning done, I got back to the dread proper and painstakingly painted red on the various weapon casings, to match my force. This was really great fun over the satin finish I must say (NOT!).  Much cursing and ranting followed, but I remained on task.

As we often say in the hobby, "Trust the Process!".  And I did.  Things here look proper messy, but the dreadnought is starting to take shape. From here I finally painted a base coat over the armor. 

And this is where things stood by the end of the week. Tears were shed, teeth we gnashed, but in the end this Deathwing dreadnought has taken shape.  Week two will no doubt go more smoothly as I'm back to the matte finishes and color palate that I am familiar with.  For more on that, please check out the Dark Angels Paint Recipe tab above.  I am using the Pro Acryl colors on this project.

Happy DreadTober to my fellow challengers.  Sorry to miss the week two update, but it was great to see all the projects coming along so nicely.

Cheers and Happy Gaming!!

 

DreadTober 2025 Kickoff!

 

Hello and welcome to DreadTober 2025! We're ten years in, I guess, and there's going to be more DREADful projects this year.  Make a point of hitting the DreadTober link to see more about this year's projects as the month progresses. DreadTober continues to be my favorite community challenge of the year, bar none.

This year, I will be painting up a Dark Angels Brutalis dreadnought.  This veteran of the chapter served in the 1st company before taking grievous wounds on the battlefield.  Such was the valor of his deeds that  Belial himself bade he be honored with interment in a dreadnought chassis.

 

This is the third in a series of Space Marine dreadnoughts based on the modern Redemptor pattern. It's a close combat beast and should serve well among the terminators of the Deathwing as they roam the galaxy bringing the Fallen to heel.

A few past projects from 262krieg

Check back weekly to see progress on this project and do make time for the DreadTober site itself.  The challenge never disappoints! I look forward to closing out the challenge with a new family photo for the Decade of Dreads. 

Cheers and Happy Gaming! 

Results from the 2024/25 Hobby Season

 

And we've come to the end of another hobby season.  In fact were a couple weeks into the next season, but never mind that.  Today I'm talking about the 2024/25 season. Here is the To Do list I started with last season:

The Horus Heresy

• Complete two Dark Angels Legion Characters
  
• Complete Dark Angels Legion Command Squad
• Complete a Dark Angels walker unit (DreadTober!!)
  

Warhammer 40K

• Complete two Terminator Characters
  
• Complete unit of Deathwing Knights
• Complete unit of Terminators
  

Adeptus Titanicus

• Complete Legio Tempestus Warmaster Iconoclast Titan (Monster March?)
  
• Complete some more weapon options
  

Aeronautica Imperialis

• Complete Adeptus Astartes Thunderhawk Gunship (Horus Heresy)

Legions Imperialis

• Complete four infantry detachments
• Complete four support detachments
  
• Complete four vehicle detachments - partial
• 1 detachment of 4 tanks completed 

Bonus Projects:

• Complete unit of Deathwing Companions (30K)
  
• Complete Lion El'Jonson (40K) - partial
• Complete unit of Inner Circle Companions (40K)

 I cannot say that I was overly focused on my initial to do list for that 12 months. But here is what DID get completed that was not on the list:

Warhammer 40K

• Completed 10 additional terminators for a total of 15 for the season
• Completed an Invictor Tactical Warsuit for the Blades of Vengeance (DreadTober)
• Death Korps of Krieg Heavy Weapons Squad (stubbers) 

Well, that's not a lot.  But it is not nothing either! :)  I don't generally consider built items as part of the season, but this season it is worth noting that much of the lack of painting production was due in large part to other hobby activities. The following list includes those things built in addition to what was built and painted last season.

For Legions Imperialis, I assembled:

• 53 Mechanicum models (a mix of bases, vehicles, and knights)
• 18 Solar Auxilia Tanks
• 8 Space Marine tanks 

For Horus Heresy, I assembled:

• 10 man Dark Angels Cataphractii terminator squad
• 10 man Dark Angels Seekers in mkVI armor
• 5 man Dark Angels Heavy Support squad in mkVI armor w/lascannon
• 5 man Dark Angels Legion Recon squad
• 1 Sicaran Battle Tank
• 5 man Dark Angels Command Squad in mkVI armor
• Dark Angels Legion Praetor in mkVI armor with Power Ax 
• 4 Rapier weapon platforms
• 4 Tarantula weapon platforms
• Dark Angels Centurion in mkII armor
• Dark Angels Praetor in Saturnine armor 

For 40K, I assembled:

• 1 Dark Angels Primaris Impulsor
• The Lion
• 5 Dark Angels Desolation marines
• 10 Dark Angels Assault Intercessors w/Jump Packs
• 1 Dark Angels Gladiator Valiant tank 
• Corsair Voidscarred kill team
• Ravenor Kill Team and Hormagaunts 
• 10 Death Korps of Krieg Engineers and their Cyclops weapons
• 1 Death Korps of Krieg Artillery Piece
• 5 Death Korps of Krieg Death Riders. 
• Lord Marshal Dreir and a 5 model command squad

And the Just Move! statue, for good measure.

I think that's 196ish models of various sizes built all told, in addition to what was built and painted during the season. So I was not idle at all.  I also added an IKEA Milsbo display cabinet to join the Detolf cabinets and rearranged a big part of the collection to make use of it. And I primed my entire collection of First Legion infantry, very close to 200 infantry models.

With all of that out in the open, I can safely say that I'm not at all disappointed with the season. In past years, I have pushed myself to focus on painting which has produced many fun models for my collection.  But I'm not at all sad having built more than painted this year.  I love building these models. I speculate we're at the end of Legions Imperialis, so I'll be assembling less tiny stuff during the current season. There is no telling where Horus Heresy is going, I suppose.  But I have six Saturnine Terminators almost complete and 40 marines and the dread waiting in the wings. I'm not holding back any 40K models at this point, but I'm certain to build SOMETHING form that line as long as the cool stuff keeps killing the hobby trough.

I'll post a new to do list with goals for the 2025/26 hobby season.  But for now, I'm content to sit back an enjoy what I have here.

Cheers and Happy Gaming! 

 

On the Workbench [August] - More Horus Heresy Dark Angels!

 

 

Greeting and welcome back! It has been a bit of a hiatus here on the blog, but the hobby has been going strong here.  I'm on a bit of a painting break while deeply enjoying all the new Horus Hersey models recently released. I do enjoy painting and I very much look forward to getting back to improving my skills there with a veritable smorgasbord of available projects to choose from. But wow, do I really love building plastic soldiers! 😅

 I decided to try something new, since the Rapiers come with bases.  I wanted there to be some evidence on the ground that the machines were actually trundling along on their tracks and didn't just get set down on the bases via a hoist or some such. For the first attempt, I masked off where I wanted the tracks and applied my normal coat of wood glue.

 Then I applied my basing material as standard practice. After this had dried, I removed the masking putty.

 

So far so good.  I was planning to lay down some devlyn mud or other texture paint and stamp the tracks into it. But this rarely achieves the effect of heavy tracks sinking in an leaving an impression in the mud - at least not at this small scale.  I get the tracks clogged with texture paint and a somewhat gloppy impression on the base, rarely resembling track marks.  So...I thought what if I used green stuff and "molded" the track marks into it?

 

This approach products the look I wanted, although we'll see how things come out in the end with paint on the base.  I think I will be challenged to convince the eye that this gravel would break down to squishy track marks under the weight of the Rapiers, but we'll see.  I think it'll still look better than perching the machines in the middle of the pristine gravel.  There will be no doubt that track marks are coming out from under the backs of the rapiers.

The process seemed unnecessarily complicated, so I revised the approach to skip masking and simply applied the green stuff directly to the base prior to painting on the glue. 

I could then press the rapiers into the green stuff to make the impression before finishing things off with the glue and ground cover. Not shown here is the process of spreading the glue out before ultimately applying the model railroad ballast mix I use for ground cover.

And there we have it.  The ground cover really wants to stick to the green stuff here because I was too impetuous to wait until it had cured. However I actually hope the irregularity will help sell the final effect under paint. We'll have to wait and see! Regardless, there are two ways to got about getting some track imprints on a base using Greens stuff and other basing material.

Here are the Rapier Laser Destroyers with their new bases.  The Graviton Cannon battery received the same treatment though I failed to capture a pick of the final results. and here's a pick before the base work with the assembled crew:

I used the last of the MkVI Dark Angels heads I had and one unique resin head I had in the bits box. The new heads with the rapier kits do look cool, but I am out of MkVI bodies and I had six heads to spread across the team.  MkVI armor was known to have improved optics and such, so why would the legion specific helmets for the same mark not have the same improvements, right? :) Anyway, it's rule of cool here mostly in any case (I admit I do like my fluff too...).

Next up I built the new tarantula missile battery and sentry guns.   
 

The sentry gun options are basically push fit at this point so I assembled all the options and didn't bother with magnets.  We'll see how this continues when the paint starts sloshing on. With only the two gun mounts, I like the notion of being able to swap in appropriate weapons for a given game.

 Then I finally broke into the new Saturnine box to build the Centurion and Saturnine armored Praetor.

I love the Praetor details and weapons, but I'm a bit meh on the pose.  It'll grow on me, no doubt.  The Centurion sure is fancy.

I also built a ten man Veteran Assault squad with disintegrator pistols, but apparently didn't take any pics yet.  So I'll share that another time. I'm building the Saturnine Terminators soon, but otherwise waiting on the rest, I think.  I need to start the new hobby season soon with a painting project - well, probably completing the DKoK siege gun platform I was working on...a couple months ago?  LOL.

 

 

 

On the Workbench [July] - Horus Heresy Dark Angels

 

Hello and welcome back! Today I'm sharing some recent hobby builds..and other stuff. With the Saturnine box dropping soon, I decided it was time to build the remaining MkVI marines I had from the prior launch box. I had three MkVI infantry sprues (15 marines) remaining, so I built ten as a Seeker squad.  MkVI armor was known to have improved systems that could be exploited by forward deployed Seeker squads. The squad is mostly deployed with bolters to take advantage of the special ammunition provided to Seeker squads.  I added meltabombs and a couple magna-combi weapons with melta guns to give the squad punch against hard targets and a plasma gun for the Sergeant, because, Dark Angels.

The remaining five marines were issued autocannons because I love the dakka and still have weapoins left over from the earlier released boxes heavy weapons. I have a feeling this isn't an optimal weapon for the game, but at this point I have built missile launcher, lascannon, multi-melta, and Volkite culverin squads.  So I have a few options for heavy support - for a game I have only played maybe once or twice when the first edition rules were the only way to play.

I then decided to keep on building (I do *love* building marines) and pulled out a box of Legion Recon marines that I've been sitting on to go with the Legion Vigilator.  These models will give me a small Firewing contingent for the collection.

THEN, I picked up the plastic Sicaran as a Father's Day gift to myself. This was part of an expedition to a local GW store which I don't typically frequent. However, on this day I decided on a pilgrimage and wanted to pick up something interesting to support the store. 

The last model I had from the last HH box set was the Praetor with Power Ax.  He sports a MkVI helm which coincidentally goes well with the MkVI Command Squad box I also had laying about. I had planned to use the parts for scratch building, but decided to assemble a command squad for this Praetor instead. I can always mix the four non-banner bearing Chosen with the MkIII command squad if I want a larger command squad for a (mostly mythical) game. Regardless, and before the Saturnine box has even released, the mere hype of new rules and models has inspired me to build 26 marines and a tank.  And not to stop there, I also decided it was time to prime everything that I had sitting around in bare plastic.

This is only half of what I primed.  I forgot to take a picture of the first lot which also filled the nine "priming sticks" shown above. There are 96ish models in the this second lot, so assume about the same in the first.  That's a lot of priming.  Thankfully, I have an airbrush booth that vents outside so I can prime away during the hot humid summer months here with wild abandon. These are primarily Dark Angels models, but the keen eyed will spot a few Custodes models in there as well.

I burned through two rattle cans of Rust-oleum 2x Ultra Cover Flat Black primer, finishing off with a dreadnought I didn't photograph and this Sicaran Punisher I picked up off eBay some time ago. I didn't take a pic of the fully primed tank, but I took this one to remind me of the prior paint job. Many apologies to the previous owner.  

As I have been building models it became clear I was going to need more display case space. This led me in June to pick up a new IKEA Milsbo display case.

I added strips of self-adhesive LEDs to light it up and stuck my painted collection of House Taranis Knight suits in there to start.  I followed suggestions from Spikey Bits for the lighting. With a cross of lights at the top and strips down the front corners and door centers, the case illuminates models well.  Here's a close up of those knights.

Other than the reflections, the lights at the front are not visible, and so do not blind the viewer.  I'll be moving models into this case to make room for more Dark Angels in the other two Detolph cases I have been using, which are now squashed side-by-side at the other corner of my basement hobby space.

40K on the left, 30K on the right

So that's that. 26 models built, ~200 models primed and a new display case. No other painting, but still a lot of production and I still have a final set to prime which will add 30 or so more models I think. Oh, and that doesn't count a few tanks that need priming as well. Lots of future painting projects are waiting in the wings. I keep adding shelves to the Detolph cases, but I'm near the limit there.  Tall models like the Knights have moved to the new cabinet so I'll likely finish adding shelves to these cases for more infantry and vehicles that fit.

What's on your workbench??

Cheers and Happy Gaming! 

On the Workbench [June] - Legions Imperialis Mechanicum

 Hello there!  I have been building so many models recently that I'm behind in my Workbench posts. Today I'm sharing what I built for the Legions Imperialis Mechanicum faction.  Above we have my initial box of Krios tanks built as four Krios and two Krios Venators along with the assembled 'extra' bodies that come in the box.  That's So much waist...I feel like the Venators could have had their own box. Perhaps this is so one could magnetize and enjoy the options.  This seemed involved enough that I wasn't interested in getting into that sort of project.

Then I bought a second box set so I could have four Krios Venators and four additional Krios tanks. Next I built the box of Karacnos assault tanks.

All of the Mechanicum tanks were fairly straight forward to assemble.  I found the side sponsons fiddly. but doable. Next, I built the box of Knights Magaera and Styrix.

Above are the Knights Magaera, and below are the knights Styrix.

 While building these, I was also puttering around painting the Death Korps of Krieg heavy weapons squads and artillery piece. I very much enjoy the Legions Imperialis scale and hope to play a game at some point before the rules change. :)

For my next post I'll share what I've built in July - and at some point I'll even complete the artillery piece.

Cheers and Happy Gaming!

 

DKoK Artillary WIP - the Base

 

Greetings and welcome back!  I've been absent with the posts of late...and 2025 trend that I hope to reverse.  As usual, I have not been idle at the workbench, just at the computer. I thought I'd talk a bit about the base for the Death Korps of Krieg artillery piece I've had on the painting table for a while since completing the heavy stubber team.

After gluing down the scenic bits for a base, I like to use a good quality wood glue to apply ground cover as I did here. In my experience, wood glue holds better to the plastic than PVA or white glue. Sometimes I'll use a product like Vallejo's Black Lava or similar.  But for 40K, I have for years used a simple mix of fine and medium coarse model railroad ballast. In the case of this artillery base, I considered that during a siege, this artillery piece might be in place for some time, so the ground around it might become beat down and muddy where the crew congregate to manage the equipment. I've used poster putty (blue tac, etc.) to mask the areas I wanted to appear well trodden then glued down the ballast/gravel.

After allowing the glue to dry, I removed the putty and applied GW Agrellan Earth technical paint. A note on removing the putty, this had to be done carefully because glue had been spashed and dried on the putty, so pulling the putty up did start to lift the glue in spots. Had I been more careful with the application of glue, i could have avoided this bit. But back to the Agrellan Earth, as this paint dries, it cracks and makes a nice dried mud texture. In hind sight, it might have been fun to take a troopers foot and make a tone of overlapping foot prints as this dried - but I'm not sure if that would have really helped or not in the end, at least at this scale.

Anyway, this looked pretty decent prior to painting.  clearly some dried muddy areas amid the rough ground texture. with the gun in place, you can see the well trodden areas as they appear around the field piece. 

 

At this stage I paused and finished the Heavy Stubber team.  When finally coming back to paint, I laid down the base colors, the washed everything with GW Agrax Earthshade.

I then added some GW Athonian Camoshade to the muddy bits and all around the edge of the base, though honestly, it ended up leaving only a very subtle dark green to the shading. Probably could have skipped that step, or gone in hard with a couple more coats.

Then it was time to dry brush the ground and sandbags, tidy up the details and add highlights.  The final results are above in the title pic and in this pic from another angle.

Now we're ready to glue the field piece down once it is complete enough to do so.  I'm currently working on it, and in my next post I'll share the process and the progress for painting the gun and crew.  I batch painted the crew to a point while painting the heavy stubber team, but did not bring them to completion at that time. The gun has sat before now waiting in the queue with only an initial prime and grey base coat.
 

We'll see if I can get back to my old posting rhythm, so expect another post later this week.

Cheers and Happy Gaming!