Dreadnoughts assemble!!

Dreadtober!

Every year I mean to post some Dreadnought images for Dreadtober (See http://dreadtober.blogspot.com/ if you haven't heard of it!) but I always seem to get distracted and forget!  This year, I finally remembered to dig out some images to show off my not insignificant collection of dreadnoughts.

I acquired them over quite a long period of time, but stepped up production and painting for a Warhammer World event back in the mists of time (about a decade ago!).  I painted all of my dreadnoughts (plus a cobra and shadow spectres for a friend) over about 2 months and was very pleased with the end results!  Please excuse the photography - these were taken some time ago with a potato camera.

These were painted as a home brew chapter: The Stone Guard, who were supposed to be an Iron Hands successor chapter, hence the inclusion of black armour on their first company veterans.  Their basic colours are grey plate and gold trim with black and yellow chevrons as a spot colour.  All Venerable Dreadnoughts within the force sport black armour; either on the entire hull or shoulder pads.

The dreadnoughts were organised into groups depending on their armament with one member being converted / painted as a venerable unit leader.  There are a couple of rank and file dreadnoughts who didn't fit into this rough unit organisation, such as the Heavy Flamer and Rifleman variants.

As with all Astartes forces, there are several exceptions to my colour scheme, with my marines from certain disciplines such as Tech Marines and Librarians maintaining their specialist colours.

On with the pics - I hope you enjoy them!

Group Shots

The 'Characters' from left to Right: First Company Captain, Devastator Captain, Company Captain, Techmarine, Librarian.

1st Company Captain

This First Company Captain is a firm favourite with his lightning claws and 'Tony Stark' pose!

 Devastator Company Captain

How better to honour a long serving Devastator Company Captain than to inter him in a giant metal wrecking machine armed with brutal heavy weaponry?

 

 Company Captain

In my mind, high ranking marines should be granted revered engines such as Contemptor chassis

 Techmarine

Another favourite from the collection; I based his servo arm on a spare Contemptor multi-melta - nothing goes to waste!

 Librarian

Giant stompy robot which can also shoot you with mind bullets?  WIN!

  

Chaplain Dreadnought and 1st Company Venerable Honour Guard

I was always puzzled that Forgeworld didn't make a Crozius arm for this MK IV chassis... so I made my own!

All three Dreadnoughts are armed with brutal Plasma cannons for obliterating Heresy

Close Combat Specialist Dreadnoughts

The squadron leader is a Venerable MKIV with a flamer / meltagun refit.  An absolutely beautiful miniature from FW.

 Assault Dreadnoughts

A lot of people hate this older metal Venerable Dreadnought, but with some tweaking (extra thumb removal and head replacement), I really quite like it!

 Hellfire Dreadnoughts

Need a tank gone?  You need 4 metal stumpy armed death monsters

 Ironclad Dreadnoughts

When I originally made the Venerable squadron leader, FW didn't do a MKIV Ironclad - it's one of the only variants I don't have!  Anyway, I made my own MKIV version and I really like the look of it with the oversized Ironclad hands!

 Multi-Melta Dreanoughts

Out of all the Dreadnoughts I've converted, this little guy is probably my favourite.  In case you are unfamiliar with it, the model is based on a MKI chassis and legs. I had to trawl the net for a while to get hold of both the wider body and longer legged variants in order to create this retrofitted MKI. The main sarcophagus was made from Venerable and MKIV Dreadnought parts which had to be sculpted into the hull to form a nice transition.

I used a spare Contemptor Multi-Melta for the left arm, only needing to make the shoulder mount to attach it to the hull.

I built a suitably old fashioned power plant so that it looked like the precursor to the more modern MKIVs and Vs

Although I used the original arm, I had to painstakingly rebuild the fingers and sharpen up a lot of the details to bring it in line with my vision for the overall machine

The MKI looks right at home with his buddies :)

 Straggler Reserve Dreadnoughts

Mid-range fire support and close range conflagration.  Beauty thy name is Dreadnought.