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Building a Dreadnought by Doug Wolfe

No, this isn't how the Space Marines build a Dreadnought, but instead how I'm building my Dreadnought. Just for fun, I decided to put a step-by-step on building my new plastic Dreadnought kit for my own Black Templars Space Marines (this will be Venerable Brother Louis for those familiar with my Black Templars, listed here on the Wolfe Den). Each step I take in completing the Dreadnought, I'll put here with pics and a description of what I did.

My plan for this Dreadnought is for it's weapon arms to be interchangeable, so I can have all of the options in the Codex: Space Marines for Dreadnoughts available to me with the one model. For each battle, I'll be able to switch out the weapons arms to fit the options I select. It looks like the arms fit snugly enough on the body to be held in place without gluing, but can still be removed without too much trouble, so this may be not too difficult. However, the plastic kit did not come with all of the available weapons options, so I will have to do some modifications to have all of them available to me.

Now, I'm a pretty slow painter, both because of the limited time I can put into it and because, well, I'm just a slow painter, so don't expect this project to be completed quickly. Anyway, here's what's done so far (Click the pic for a bigger view): 

 First thing I did was take some nice flat black spray paint and sprayed all of the sprues that came in the box. 
Sometimes, you have to paint pieces before assembling them, especially if details are partially hidden when they are assembled.

So, I took the parts that I would be able to paint easily while assembled and glued them together. This includes the body, legs (wihout the front armor plates 'cause they'll cover detail), missile launcher arm and the power fist arm (without the storm bolter/flamer - I'm deciding how to make them interchangeable)


Body


Legs


Missile Launcher


Power Fist Arm

Next, since the plastic kit does not come with arms for all of the weapons options available in the Codex (I can't understand why not), I needed to build the Twin Heavy Bolter arm I plan to use most often. (My main configuration will be Twin HB and Missile Launcher. I used the arm I'd probably use least to make this arm. First, I cut off the Assault Cannon barrel. Then I took the heavy bolters from the Land Raider Crusader kit that wouldn't be used on that model, and cut them in half. Gluing it all together and using some modeling filler in the gaps and some scraps to cover the fit, this is what I came up with...

The paint on the Heavy Bolters is shinier, but they will be painted over with Chainmail, anyway.

 

That's all I've done so far. Check back for more updates, I'll be including any changes to this page in the Wolfe Den's weekly update mailing (sign up on the main Wolfe Den page).

 

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Copyright 2000 by Doug Wolfe Last Updated Monday, July 2, 2001
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