Ultramarines Redemptor Dreadnought (Part 4)

 With mere hours of the year's Dreadtober challenge left, I managed to get my project completed. 

I used 'Ard Coat to apply the decals on this model. This was particularly necessary for the III icon on top the red circle. These two overlaying decals were from a decades old sheet and the red circle almost disintegrated when trying to apply it  I had to repaint it using Mephiston Red before applying the 'Ard Coat layer to get it ready for the roman numeral three.  

I didn't talk about it in the last post, but toward the end of the construction process I decided to use some of the left over bits from the Venerable Dreadnought kit (my Dreadtober project from 2021) to give this thing a bit more flare. The most prominent one being the shield with the terminator honors and skull jewelry  

On his back he has the round Adeptus Mechanicus shield on display. On the examples of painted versions of this model, I don't think I can recall ever seeing anyone paint in the palte that Ad Mech icon on in Ad Mech red. I decided to give it a shot and I think I like the way it turned out. 

The left side of the model doesn't have any decals. it just sort of happened that way!

One of the joys of this model is that the main guns can be swapped out. I see myself using the plasma gun mostly but the assault cannon one is just too cool to leave on the sprue. 

The plants on the base are an assort of grass tufts and Dumb Cane, a new thing I picked up from my local Hobbytown store by a brand called Gamers Grass 

This turned out to be a project that I was very satisfied with in the end, and I look forward to next year! 

Ultramarines Redemptor Dreadnought (Part 3)

 

WIP continues.

Progress on this metal hulk continues. Well, he's a plastic model of a metal hulk anyway. Regardless of all that, he is now blue! With the Dreadtober deadline for my stated project fast approaching I set about trying to achieve my month-end goal.  

The basecoats.

The basecoats were easy and quick. This is primarily because there were really just two colors, Space Marine Blue and Delta Ceramcoat Metallic Pewter (I prefer this over Leadbelcher, but that would suffice if I had to resort to it). 

First stage mid-coats.

Macrage Blue was the next layer added to the blue followed by Ultramarines Blue and edge highlighted with Fenrisian Grey. 

"Guve me details or give me death!"

Getting down to the wire as the days of the month dwindle down to hours. It's mostly the minor details and the big guns that I need to knock out before the final stage of decal application. But can I make that deadline?  With the real-life obstacles before me, my spare time is going to be (and for too much of this month it's already been) sparse and fleeting, but we'll see what I can do! 

Ultramarines Redemptor Dreadnought (Part 2)

 And finally, a progress update:

Forgive my tardiness on this update. I found the construction of this Remdemptor Dreadnought to be a tedious affair. And, much to my chagrin and annoyance, I made multiple mishaps along the way that set me back a bit as well. 

    

The biggest one, and the one I can't figure out how to overcome, is that somehow the bottom door cover doesn't go far enough up so that the top door will set into the groove on the lower door. I haven't been able to figure how I screwed this up, so I moved on. I feel that it gives the semblance of an underbite on this thing which amuses me. 

And yes,, I am keeping this in sub-assemblies for easier painting. 

I love that the guns are interchangeable. A concept I hope the GW design team allows on more kits. 

The left arm was the biggest challenge. I kept making mistakes in assembly and had to tear it apart a few time to get it right. It's not correct as the joint that connects into the should is upside down. I couldn't fix that with damaging the model so I used a piece of sprue to make a stud for the armor plate to attach to.  Desperate necessity for the win I suppose...

I didn't want to spend too much time on the base but I didn't want into be plain either. I cut up a few pieces of sprue to use as rubble chunks and tossed on a few skulls before gluing down some grit. It's subtle but it works. 

And finally, I primed this brute. He is far from done but I celebrated getting to this stage! 

And now, let's get painting! 

Ultramarines Redemptor Dreadnought (Part 1)

 I love this annual event (Dreadtober) as I usually get a really cool model built and completed for one of my factions. Two years ago I did an original Rogue Trader-era Space Marine Dreadnought (Furibundus). This year I will be revisiting that  theme by doing a modern-era Redemptor Dreadnought.  I will probably be following the same painting steps used for the Furibundus,  although it has considerably more detail, so I will likely be using more colors in addition to the Ultramarines scheme.

Redemptor in three sprues. 

Why I chose this Dreadnought is simply because it came with the final issues of Imperium Magazine and I thought it would make for a good endcap for the year considering how many Primaris Ultramarines I painted while I was recovering from my heart event earlier in the year. 

I haven't decided how I'm going to equip this guy yet, but these in depth profiles from the magazine are giving me some ideas...

Inspirational load-out guide. 

These magazines always have these small charts that are fun for rolling up little details about your specific models. They also have record sheets to track stuff like opponents defeated, etc. 

Battle Record charts.

I couldn't resist doing it for this post. So, rolling on the table my guy's name is Brother Allister and the fate that got  him interned into a  Dreadnought sarcophagus was that he was struck by a plasma blast. -Ouch!

Another reason I valued this magazine was the indepth and expanded assembly instructions that contain. This should be quite handy really soon! 

A Snippet of the assembly  guide

With the plastic piled up and clippers in hand, it's time to get Dreadtober 2024 going!!! 

Ready to build. 

What are you going to build and paint? Leave your pledge on the dreadtober blog page once you have it figured out. 

Deathwatch Dreadnought (Part 3)

 With just a little bit of spare time to focus on this thing, I have finished my 2023 Dreadtober project! 

Finished, yay!

The stripe on his leg was done using Mephiston Red straight from the bottle. Two straight swipes and the effect was achieved. The green light is green simply for a bit of contrast. The base color is Caliban Green with a dash of Moot Green and final dot of white. 

Show me your right side.

Ultimately I decided to put the word BURN on his leg scroll. Seemed simple and direct, you know, like his multi-melta. 

Show me your left side! 

And here he is embracing the Emperor's Light of an October morning sun, with a devoted determination to continue the long vigil and bring the xenos scum, wherever they might lurk, to heel. With melting heat. 

"Shhh, I'm hunt'n xenos scum."

I got to give a shot out to the all of this year's Dreadtober participants for doing some stellar work. Truly inspiring stuff. 

Deathwatch Dreadnought (Part 2)

 Since last week I got a bit more work done on this clunky relic of the past. 

Early basecoats.

Quite a bit actually. My Deathwatch scheme is simple, I use a dark grey topped with a lighter one on the edges with a little white on the corners for the final highlight. 

The mid-coats.

For the gold areas I used my old and trusty Ral Partha Copper Metallic. On the icons I applied a mid-coat of Retributor Gold. These two colors work well together which is amusing considering their age gap. The melta gun is going to go in a slightly different direction but it used that same base color.

Progress continues...

The last thing I managed to do (up to this point) is paint the scroll work on his leg and the purity seal on the main gun. I still haven't chosen what I will write on that leg scroll yet. 

He is mostly completed now, let's see if I can knock it out before month's end. 

Deathwatch Dreadnought (Part 1)

Is it Dreadtober time again? Indeed it is.  I decided this time around to finish up this Deathwatch Dreadnought. With GW discontinuing the model earlier this year I felt that this was the time to honor one of mine with a paint job. This is one of those classic "boxnoughts" that I think came in the 5th edition starter set (Blackreach). I acquired this in a lot along with a group of Space Marine Bikers and another, older, boxnought in metal. That one will require it's paint to be stripped off before I can do anything with it. But this one as you can see...

...is ready to go. I believe it was intended for a Blood Angels army, thus the blood red shoulders. I gritted up the base, leaving the single skull, and proceeded to get this one going.

I painted over the red and basecoated the base and skull. Actually I painted the skull using Corax White with the intention of using Skeleton Horde Contrast Paint over it. I opted not  to add any other debris to the base as the notion of a single, lonely, skull on such a large base is kind of amusing, and oddly striking. 

Ok, that's it for week one, not much progress I know, but this was ment as a 'kick-off' post. Check out part two next week to see how far I get.

Fixing a Rogue Trader-era Dreadnought (part 4)

 

The finished Furibundus Dreadnought.

With a bit of spare time available tonight I was able to get this model finished. Here's the last stages that got me there:

I needed something for the base. Recently ordered a pair of Chaos Space Marine Aspiring Champions from a bits seller on eBay. Each came with an extra front piece which, yay: options, ment that I now had a pair of large useless bitz. I had the idea to make an Objective Marker out of one but as I thought about it, I realized that idea would work great on this Dreadnought's base also.  I put a skull where the head would go, just a spare Chaos Space Marine shoulder pad at and odd angle and glued those where the shoulders would be. This will give an impression that this body is mostly sunk into the mud and dirt.

Really dead chaos guy. 

I applied Stirland Mud Technical Paint all around the remains of this Chaos guy. The idea was to mostly fill and cover up some of the gaps between the corpse and the base. 

 

Starland Mud.

After the Stirland Mud dried I applied the grit to the rest of the base. 

True grit.

The skull of the dead chaos guy was basecoated using Corax White. 

Basecoats on the base items. 

Skeleton Horde Contrast Paint was used on the Skull (i love this stuff!). The rest of the stages of the Black Legion guy are the same ones I used on the majority of my other Black Legion marines. Also not that two oval plates were painted in anticipation of the decals that are going to go in those spots. 

Middle coats on. 

Let's cut to the chase; here it completely done sans a varnish to seal the model. This metal after all and prone to chipping. 

Boom, done! 

The blue U looks good on the white plate. I would say. 

Almost birds eye view 

The small roman numeral three went on the red plate. And in the lower leg plate a larger Ultramarines icon was adhered on to there.

Three's the Company.

The right leg had a skull badge placed it. A departure from how it looked originally, but I thought it was over-using the Ultramarines icon before and this feels a bit more balanced to me. 

Skull!

Now for the glamor shots. 

And after much debate I did decide to keep the eyes green. I thought the red eyes would clash with the red of the gun and the red badge. I did add a white highlight to each eye however. 

And that's another Dreadtober in the can! But technically the month isn't over, perhaps I can knock out another one?

Fixing a Rogue Trader-era Dreadnought (Part 3)

WIP.

Continuing from part 2, the next stage was to apply the layer of Ultramarines Blue. This is the mid- '90s color that I am thankful to still have a nearly full pot of. It's a brighter version of the color of the same name that came in the '89 Space Marine Paint Set. 

Ultramarines Blue stage.

The next step was to apply a highlight of Fenrisian Grey to the edges. 

Fenrisian Grey highlights.

Those green eyes...they somehow work. I was going to make them red. Should I still do that or leave them? Anyway, I will deal with it soon enough...

Green eyes...keep em or not?

I really like how well the Fenrisian Grey works with the other colors and I think it makes the whole thing pop. I have been using this recipe since the start of 40k 8th edition and I definitely going to stick with it.

Backside view 

Next up, I am going to touch up the metal bits, particularly the gear works in the arm and legs, and then I got to make a decision regarding the where the decals are going to go.  I have decided not to switch bases after all but stick this current one on a regular Dreadnought sized base. I go t an idea that I think will work better than just scattered bullet shells on rocks. I hope I can get it done by the end of Dreadtober, but we'll see...