Dave's Dread-Full December - Grey Knights

I have managed to squeeze a bit of painting time in over the weekend to get a bit more of my dread complete.

I still have more of the detail to complete but it is nearly finished

The back is looking a bit plain and I will see what I can do make it more interesting

I think I have only one more update to do for this, when it is complete

Adeptus Custodes Contemptor Dreadnoughts - Dread-Full December

Well as its christmas, its bargain time, so its 2 for the price of 1 for Dread-Full December!
These guys are for my Adeptus Custodes army (counts as Grey Knights) which I have had semi-complete for a while now.
Although they are Contemptor models, every man and his canine companion knows that grey knights always rock best with the double twin-linked autocannon in either standard or venerable flavour, give them the psybolt ammo upgrade for a measly 5pts and its S8 dakka dakka bitches!
After assembly and pinning I gave them an airbrush basecoat of Vallejo Grey Primer. I chose to spray them with Vallejo Liquid Gold. Vallejo Liquid gold is a fantastic paint although it is not an acrylic, it is made up of gold pigment floating in alcohol. You apply it, the alcohol evaporates and you are left with a very vibrant, shimmering gold. Just the ticket for the emperors finest! Anyone thinking of using it, word of warning, do not get water in it as it will instantly rust..no joke. Also a synthetic type brush is best as the alcohol can eat away your general citadel brushes. After the basecoat I gave it a thin spray varnish to seal it and then applied Oil washes. I've now just hit the highlighting stage.
So here they are WIP: -

The right dread is currently more finished than left. They both still need substantial highlighting and shading in some areas. Bases have been weathered but I need to go in and add more details to the bases. I think i'm going to add some snow so i'll probably do a little tutorial on how I do that. I also have some brass details that I may add to give them a little extra as the armour plates look a little bare, perhaps some freehand on the kneepads may help but we shall see.
I will also do a full post of the army after dreadful December draws to a close.

I'll just leave you with a sneak peak from the army

Cheers
Luko Dakka

Dread-full December, Space Ork Mega Dread, The Build.................Part 2

Hi All

So here's part 2 of my walk through of the Mega Dread build. This will show how the primary weapon arms were built. Importantly it should be noted that both arms can be built for left or right fitting, depending on the orientation of the upper arm to shoulder piece connections. Your choice but be careful not to make 2 left arms! ;)

First up you should recall that I did a dry run and drilled and pinned the shoulder sockets previously but didn't fix them to the torso as shown here;

The Kilkannon arm;

The following series of shots show step by step how I built the main gun and the left shoulder;

The shoulder joint and upper arm, drilled and pinned;

The Barrel and Support prior to fixing showing the excess lug protruding and then with the excess material removed so that the barrel joins snugly to the chambers later. DO NOT fix the support to the barrel yet!

The Kannon frame attached to the upper arm/shoulder sub assembly with the kannon klamp, shown from several angles. The large hole is for a wide pin to connect the shell chambers to the frame later.

The wide pin which will hold the cylinder in place, the kit doesn't contain this. Whether mine was missing or not I don't know, the instructions/contents sheet doesn't show anything. I made this pin from the chopped off lug from the barrel, by shaving it down to the correct diameter. You could use whatever you have available.

The cylinder attached to the assembly. Ensure you fit it with the shells pointing forward! ;)

The barrel support now fitted in place, note that the hole for the barrel is aligned with one of the shell chambers.

Barrel fitted. This was a nice strong joint.

The shoulder guard fitted onto the shoulder joint. This was a total mare! The join is small and not well moulded. I spent a lot of time filing and sanding and in the end used 3 pins to get a decent fix. Be wary!

Left arm in place but not glued, the pin is tight enough that the arm doesn't droop under the barrels weight so I'll probably leave it unfixed after painting for ease of packing and transport.

The Ripper Klaw arm

Now the right arm, this was tricky! The worst bit was fitting the 4 pistons, the instructions are rubbish! My pistons did not conform to theirs, I did lots of dry runs and ended up using them in different positions and having to create an extension for one of them. There was some bad moulding involved with 2 of the pistons. My advice is to take this bit really slowly and be very very patient!

The shoulder pivot connected to the shoulder joint. I pinned this just in case.

The next 3 shots show the pin holes in the wrist and the 3 Klaws and finally the completed "hand".

Adding the pistons to the arm. As I said earlier this was tricky and required a lot of trimming and repositioning.

The arm connected to the shoulder pivot. This required a pin and some careful positioning so that the finished arm was in the desired position when complete. Again dry runs required at every stage.

The pin and hole for the wrist joint;

The klaw attached to the arm. Full rotation is possible here for a wide choice of positions;

The shoulder guard fitted. Again this required a lot of work and 2 pins to get a decent joint.

At this point I will share an important lesson I learnt; Don't Stop Doing Dry Runs!!! With the guard on, the arm didn't fit to the torso with the pin in its current position. Only a fraction off, but enough for the join to not work. So I removed the guard and fixed the arm as I wanted it and then put the guard in place. The arm is now fixed to the torso and cannot be removed.
Lesson Learnt!

The finished model;

Overall well pleased with the build, I made a few mistakes along the way but also learnt a couple of things. This is a big and complex build which deserves a careful approach and the model is well worth that effort.
I have since modified the model slightly as I want to field it in a codex orks army and the latest data sheet for it in I.A.Apoc, which is the only way to have one in a codex list, doesn't allow a third big shoota! Boo! So I've removed it.

The next post will cover painting the model and the base I decided to put it on.

Bluddtoof

Dave's Dread-Full December Grey Knights Dread

I have starting adding some colour to the metal. A blue wash for the armour plates and black for the metal. I have highlighted in chainmail and a further detailed highlight in mithril silver.

Where there is writing I have washed in agrax earthshade

This photo shows how dark the miniature started (the base is boltgun metal) and how light it is now.

The mound at the back has the parts of a dark eldar on it. This i will paint a vibrant colour to stand out against the silver of the dread.

The details I will be doing in gold.

Progress on Dread-Full December - Death Guard Contemptor and Hellbrute

DOC back again with my Dread update....

So first off my Contemptor is built and primed (my god I've actually done something!!)  I have also magnetised the arms and made a pin slot for the cyclone missile launcher and fully painted a CodedesignsUK base.  Pictures:

Ok I love this figure its awesome but I have had some problems getting this far.  First off magnets great but bloody fiddly and yes I got the polarity wrong DOH!  Also there were a few air bubbles which I filled with green stuff and lastly if you look closely despite and proper wash before commencing the build in places the paint hasn't taken that well.  Despite this I'm still confident of a nice finish!

This isn't all though my other entry will be a chaos hellbrute.  This was a fair simpler build being a push fit model.  The detail is amazing for a starter set model though and it is taking me some time to get the base colours down before the washing can commence.  Here is a couple of work in progress shots...

 

 

Ok folks that's all for now back in a few days with a further update.  Early feedback and comments is always welcome.

Doc out...