As I tweeted yesterday I settled in for a marathon painting session and, about five hours later, I had a fully painted Dreadnought.
I had already sorted out the base and drybrushed the metallics so the big job was the red armour. And it was big job! The base layer was Mechrite Red over the Chaos Black undercoat as normal and then I built up the layers of Blood Red on top.
Perhaps because the flat panels were so large, or maybe because I over thinned the Blood Red, the paint went on very patchy and I'm sure you can still see some trace of that in some of the pics. Once I add some transfers it'll be unnoticeable I think.
I painted this model shortly after I painted my Terminators so I used a very similar palette, with the black left fist and the scrollwork and badges the same brown bone colour. This helps tie the elite models, and indeed the army as a whole, together visually. It might also suggest some shared history - could the Dreadnought pilot (called Eluvies, by the way) have been a Terminator before his confinement?
This is now the third Dreadnought model in my Blood Angels collection and it has me itching to field all three together in one force. They may not be earth-shatteringly good on the tabletop but they'll look cool!
So the completed Dread adds five whole points to my painting points tally and brings me up to the halfway mark of fifty for 2009 so far. I'm one month ahead of schedule with my target standing at 100 points for the year which now looks as achievable as ever.
The Dreadnought also helps out considerably for the Warseer Tale of 40k Painters pledge. My total at the moment stands at 1350 points and my aim is to have 2000 points painted. There are only three months left so I need to rack up those painting points! The Dreadnought comes in at 125 points and I also have 115 points to add from my completed Terminators (I claimed half points last month as they were half done). By my reckoning my new total will be 1590. That means I'll have two months to paint 410 points of models. It's going to be tight but it's possible I think.
I plan to paint my Land Raider Crusader next so that will gobble up 255 points on it's own. If I get that done within the next month I will have 155 points to paint in the final month. What will I paint?
My Chaplain Lemartes model is tempting because it is just a single model and will paint up quickly which could be useful if I struggle to complete the Crusader. The downside is that he only costs 125 points and will thus leave me short and he would be the second Chaplain model I have painted for the Tale.
Following the logic outlined above another character model is appealing. I have the Captain model from the Assault on Black Reach box but again there are problems; he would be short on points and he would need to be converted before I could paint him.
I already own all of the other character models such as Mephiston, Corbulo, Tycho and the mighty Dante himself which I bought and painted yonks ago. They are in need of a refresh but it seems a shame not to paint something new when after all the models are totally usable as they are.
Gamewise the best choice to strengthen my army would probably be some more Tactical marines. I could either add five marines to an existing squad or paint up the start of a new squad. Depending on the loadout of weapons and upgrades they might just squeak out the requisite 155 points. The downside to this is the length of time it takes to paint the models. I'm not sure that I could bash out five more infantry in time.
More leftfield choices would include a scout unit (add tactical variety to the army but LOTS more models to paint - at least ten to hit the points target), five more Death Company marines (rock hard models but are ten too many in a 2000 point army?), a Whirlwind (indirect shooting adds something new to the army but only weighs in at under 100 points) or more Assault marines (means I could add a powerfist jump packer but again five models may be too much to paint).
Decisions, decisions...
I'm still struggling with my photography, especially with the light. At one point I had the blind pulled up on my window, two lights pointing at my models and the room light on and the camera was still telling me I needed the flash!
I painted some black around the building ruins on the bases to help them to stand out. I still might go back to them in the future.
I haven't varnished the models yet as I plan to paint some heraldry on the shields.
I've also left space on the fists to add detail later if I want to.
Pretty good for starter models out of the Black Reach boxed set.
This model painted up very quickly and I'm happy with the finish.
The fluff I'm developing for the Dreadnought is that he was a former Terminator, hence the black powerfist.
You can clearly see my assault cannon conversion in the photo above. What do you think?
I was very happy with the base too. As it's my third Dreadnought it had to be different from the other two which have the standard plastic base.
Of course I have a few more models I already had painted since before the challenge, such as my Predator, Furioso Dreadnought, melt Dreadnought, etc. If I get the chance I might take a photograph with everything together.
