Horus Heresy, 30k Blood Angels Contemptor Dreadnought

More Blood Angels today - this time the Contemptor. This model was actually the test piece for the whole army scheme, so was a bit experimental. It seemed like a good model to practice my freehand on before scaling down to the smaller troops. 

The model is the older plastic contemptor that came with one of the box sets (Calth maybe?) - I had it sitting around down the back of a drawer for years and dug it out to add to the Blood Angels. I've actually managed to add a few things to the army from my collection, and it's been fun finally clearing some space in the cupboard of shame! 

The Havoc launcher is actually an old Anvil Industry bit. I think they might be out of print now as a lot of the old Anvil range has gone. 

Much like the Marines, I've tried to capture that old school vibe, so thrown in blue and yellow along with plenty of black flames! 

That about rounds it out for the dreadnought. The scenery pictured behind it is another project I've been working on and may share more photos of at some point  

 

Dreadtober - 40k Skaven Dragoon - The Build

I've done it again, and I'm rather proud of this one. As with all of my work, I wanted the Dragoon to still be recognisable for what it was whilst also being rather different (and with a rat-man riding it obviously).

I decided beforehand that I wanted to change the Dragoon to have an upright body, and that it would probably have arms and a rider. Other than that, nothing was set and I went into this one knife in hand and ready to carve out the model one piece at a time.

With only a rough idea of where things were going, I built the legs stock as I wouldn't be changing those. I then cut the torso to remove the hip section and added all of that together to make a base to work from. I cut off the servitor driver as I wouldn't want him in there and then I flipped the body section so that the saddle actually formed the stomach of the beast. It also gave a nice neck form and a bit of shape. Overall, it was way too skinny though, so I kept building and adding parts to bulk it out, and his chest plate is made from the gun shield in the kit.

Sorry the photos aren't better, I was in a bit of a rush after spending so much time building it!

Overall, the conversion uses about 70% original parts from the Dragoon/Ironstrider kit. The largest part borrowed from another source is the front of a dreadnought (well it is Dreadtober after all!), which I used to build his shoulder pads as well as the command throne. There are also a few Killa Kan parts in there to build the arms and for some of the additional details. Don't ask me what else though, as it's a bit of a blur and I'm not sure I could name everything I've used. It was also quite a lot of work trying to shape the rat-pilot up top, but I like the big lever now that it's done!

In the end, the model probably took about a day to build, but I actually worked on it over 2 days to spread out the work and to give it time to dry in the middle there.

Style-wise, I've tried to keep it true to the rest of the force with combined Mechanicus, Skaven and Ork parts. I always try to give the models a bit of an evil look or edge to them too, as Skaven should look pretty bad to the bone. I'm always wary of keeping it looking futuristic though, and not going too all-out Skaven on things, as I never want the army to look too much like their fantasy counterparts.

Originally, I had thought of mounting the pilot lower down on its back, but after I added the exhausts I knew he wouldn't fit. I quite like the face that having him "up top" sort of echoes the position of the rider on the Doom Wheel for fantasy, so it adds a little throwback too. It does make the whole thing quite tall though, and I'd be interested to see it side by side with a regular Ironstrider.

Anyway, that concludes the build, which should give me about a month to get it painted. Hopefully it shouldn't be a problem, but it is a rather detailed model (and quite large now!)

Converted Chaos Defiler - The Best Conversion Ever?

Is this the best conversion ever? What if I told you it was made from a Chaos Defiler which is widely recognised as an incredibly ugly model?




Am I feeling full of myself today?




Probably.

In truth though, the model is almost 100% Defiler parts - with the legs being made out of the largest crab claws and the arms made of the smaller ones. The torso is also all Defiler, but it has been rotated and cut about to make what you see now.

One of the hardest parts was building a serviceable pelvis as the part from the Defiler kit has attachments for all of the additional legs. Other than that I used some Mauler Fiend parts on the arms.

I still need to do a bunch of greenstuff work - especially on the Battle Cannon arm and the joints on the legs where I had to cut things about. After that I have to paint the thing, which should be a hell of a task. Maybe I'll try and do it for this years Dreadtober if Greg will let me enter the thing! (What it's an armour 12 walker!).

Size wise it's about 8" tall - making it taller than an Imperial Knight, but not as burly. It is fun to be able to poke out behind buildings and use them as cover like an infantry model behind a wall.

Here's hoping Chaos get a boost in the next Codex and it goes up to armour 13! (also a points cost cut might be nice if it doesn't).

Killa Kan Mob - Let the Blattering Commence!

In an all grot army (yes I have one of those) there was only one choice of weapon - the Grotzooka. I converted a full mob with the weapons and I can honestly say I've never regretted it for a second. There aren't many units that can shrug off 6 strength 6 blasts and keep coming. As the units of actual grots are so weak, I use these guys to fill the role of infantry on the battlefield. The good part is that the points cost of Ork vehicles is so low it is actually quite viable on the tabletop as far as army construction goes.

 

Other than the guns, I've converted upwards - adding towers to the back of every Kan. Not only does this provide extra height and make them look more interesting, but it really reinforces the rickety ramshackle look of the force (and is also an excuse to add more grots to everything - are you seeing a theme here?)

The Dread-Mob in all its glory (backed up by the Deff Dread)

They've become an absolute staple of the army; plodding forward and blasting away. The actual units of Grots themselves are completely useless though, so I tend to use them to grab objectives while the rest of the force roams around killing.

The World's Biggest Deff Dread Part 2

Nothing like a low angle shot to make things look even taller!

This time I'm focusing on the work in progress shots and how I made the Mechanicus styled crew. The Night Goblins were taken from the Battle at Skull Pass (although I bought them on e-bay). I found after looking through the fantasy range that they were the closest to grots aesthetically and I really liked the character of the models.  

Those of you who read my previous article on this project will know that the Dred was inspired by the idea that the Grots would attempt to copy Imperial designs like the Emperor Titan. With that in mind I had to have Mechanicus looking grots. The only problem was getting them to look suitably 40k, as a load of bows and arrows wouldn't cut it. I also wanted to introduce some primitive cybernetics to reinforce the look.

With these thoughts in mind I set about customising the crew. I took the basic Skull Pass Gobins and did arm and weapon swaps with the 40k Runtherd kit - which was a bit challenging with single piece plastic casts and the final product took a lot of greenstuff to bring together.

For the tallest tower I wanted to create a Captain of sorts to lead the lurching machine into battle - but he had to be suitably mechanised. Luckily I managed to procure the head of an Ork Mek. I carved away the Ork's head so that only the cybernetic half of his face remained. I then did the same thing in reverse with a plastic Grot's head and then glued the two parts together to get a cyber-grot head!

Sky Captain Dingwannga strikes fear into the huddled masses

For the next crewman I wanted to introduce some robotic limbs. I was particularly happy with the claw on his back (I think it was made with an old Gorkamorka Buggy's handlebars or something and some plastic offcuts). As he was a single piece cast I had some problems with his right arm, so in the end I replaced the whole thing with a chainsword.



Crewman Bagoo revs his shiny new chainsaw with pride

After that I added a few more crewman made by adding guns to the Night Goblins I had acquired. Once they were glued in place the model was ready for paint.



Here's one I prepared earlier

The finished model before paint

The World's Biggest Deff Dread

Introducing to you - the worlds biggest Deff Dread. Measuring a maniacal 8 inches tall and weighing in at .... well, a lot for a piece of plastic.

One of my big 40k projects is an all Grot Ork army. I had the idea years ago and joked about the crazy conversions I could make. One day I just went for it and started buying rebel grots by the bucket load on e-bay. 

Anyway, this piece was inspired by the idea that the Grots would try to copy successful Imperial Weaponry like an Emperor Class Titan, but respective to their own size - even to the point of it being crewed by Mechanicus obsessed grots with red robes and cog-tooth patterns. The best part was that the army was already red, so it fit well visually and thematically.

To gain more height I used some small Chaos Defiler legs to replace the usual stubby ones. The back castle is actually an old Gorkamorka Truk chassis with tons of bitz and spare parts glued together. To build the towers I made a frame using shaved down sprue and then covered it with armour panels. The grots are actually Night Goblins from one of the Warhammer starter sets that I bought cheaply on e-bay.

I've also got some grainy work in progress shots - the one from the back shows how I constructed the castles using sprue as a frame. As I have a lot of material related to this project I may do another post with the rest of it.