As much as I lauded the engineering and build quality of the Games Workshop Dark Talon, unfortunately I had the opposite experience with this dreadnought kit. It’s designed to be semi-posable but a lot of it just didn’t fit that well – particularly the legs – and it fought me the entire way. So, I ended up building it all fixed in place. I took inspiration from my AT-ST build and decided to have him “in motion.”
In 40K lore, a dreadnought is a walking tomb. If a space marine is so badly wounded that his body can’t be regenerated any more, they take what’s left of him and ensconse it within the dreadnought shell, linking him cybernetically into it as if it were his own body. It’s permanent, however, and he is kept in stasis between battles, and will soldier on until destroyed in combat. Some might be thousands of years old.
This one is the “Redemptor Dreadnought” kit that I found unboxed for a good deal at my LHS. I bought a Dark Angels chapter upgrade kit on Etsy, made by Darktide Studios, which came nicely resin-printed and added some great gothic flavor. The base is also a print, of course. His main weapon arm is magnetized, so depending on how I want to play him on the tabletop I can switch between the heavy plasma cannon and the assault cannon. Likewise on his fist arm I can swap the storm bolter for a heavy flamer.
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Enjoying your Warhammer 40K posts here and in figures. Amazing paint work on them all!
Also enjoyed the character lore you included. Thanks for sharing!
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That paintwork is awesome!
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Hey, thanks team.
I mostly use Vallejo colors, except I used Citadel Caliban Green (which is the official “Dark Angels” color) through the airbrush for the initial base coat. For some zenithal highlights I work up from the Caliban Green with VGC’s Goblin and Scorpy greens. I haven’t had much luck with layering and blending, so mostly I go with a “basecoat → wash/shade → drybrush highlights → drybrush higher highlights” process for any given detail. Drybrushing is its own skill that I’m just starting to get the hang of, and WOW is it powerful when you get it just right.
Beautiful work! drybrushing is a very powerful technique and very easy, much more then the layers technique seen on YouTube.
You could try oil washes/shade that are much more powerfulcompered to acylics where usually I got some blotchy effect.
Please could you take couple of pics about the magnets installation? I’m trying to do the same on Blood Angels Terminator Squad.
Thank you!
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Thanks @Basetta!
You’re totally right - since completing this model I’ve bought a couple sets of Abteilung502 oils and have been very impressed with the effects they make possible.
Unfortunately I’m not at home right now, so I can’t take any pics — but here’s a good YouTube tutorial I followed. I’ve magnetized a bunch of marines and terminators.
The most important things I found were making sure the hole is deep enough, and not too tight — if it’s too tight then you can’t test fit the magnet without it getting stuck. Lastly double and triple check the polarity of your magnets before gluing.
Be sure to post your terminators when they’re done!
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the detail is nuts! awesome work. I’ve never painted a Gundam figure but i might give it a shot this year.
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You should! I’ve found it very rewarding to branch out from my aircraft and armor silo. Lots of new skills to learn that can be applied universally.
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