DreadTober Week Three: Armand Titus, Howling Griffons Chaplain Dreadnough

This week, I managed to finish the first DreadTober miniature: Armand Titus, the Howling Griffon Champlain Dreadnought, that will lead my small contingent of the chapter set during the Badab War. I also made some more headway on the Dreadnoughts for my Blood Angels.

Pict 1486: Armand Titus leading a squad of Howling Griffons

Pict 1487: Armand Titus, Howling Griffons Chaplain Dreadnought

Pict 1488: Armand Titus, Howling Griffons Chaplain Dreadnought

Pict 1489: Armand Titus, Howling Griffons Chaplain Dreadnought

Putting the finishing touches on Titus really only took one evening – completing my (initial) DreadTober pledge and readying him up to lead my growing Howling Griffons collection! After highlighting the important details I also put on some free-hand writing: the nubers on the skulls and most importantly his name on the left shoulder pad to mirror the one artwork he appears in. His right shoulder only has a decal of the number four since he is part of the chapter's fourth company. I also could not help myself and dated him on the exhaust to remind myself that he is this year's DreadTober miniature. I'm really quite pleased with the miniature – reviving my Chaplain Dreadnought of yore after quite some time collecting the correct OOP ForgeWorld pieces.

Pict 1490: DreadTober Blood Angels Dreadnoughts (WIP)

The two Blood Angels Dreadnoughts had the last remaining base colours done – especially cleaning up the red armour around the gold trim took some time. The decals as well as the oilwash are on them now and I can see myself finish at least the Boxnought until the end of the month. But I also recently saw a great Conversion of a 30k Castraferrum that sported the Havoc launcher from the vehicle sprue, so I might just go ahead and add that on this one as well...

The Dreadnought Drop Pod might have to be sidelined for now. Even so, I'm glad to have started painting it. If I can muster the motivation, I'd like to paint the thing next month alongside my Kharybids... We'll see how it goes!

DreadTober Week Two: Blood Angels Flyers and a whole host of Dreadnoughts

This week was quite effective: I finally finished some Aeronautica / Legions Imperialis flyers for my small scale Blood Angels and got some good work done on the next few dreadnoughts (big and small)!

Pict 1477: Legions Imperialis Blood Angels Air Support

Pict 1478: Legions Imperialis Blood Angels Thunderhawk

Pict 1479: Legions Imperialis Blood Angels Thunderhawk

Pict 1480: Legions Imperialis Blood Angels Fire Raptors

Pict 1481: Legions Imperialis Blood Angels Storm Eagles

First up: I managed to finish this collection of Aeronautica planes that form the backbone of my aerial assault formation in Legions Imperialis. They were half painted on my desk for quite a while (I last showed them in June but I started painting them last December...) and I'm really happy now that they are done. I'm really looking forward to using them in the next game and then painting the last three Xiphons that are still missing to complete my flyers.

Pict 1482: DreadTober Blood Angels Dreadnoughts (WIP)

As promised in last week's post, I got to work on the Blood Angel Dreadnought. Whilst working on the Castra Ferrum's basecolours, I also did the same colours on one more Contemptor and the Dreadnought Drop Pod I had wanted to paint as a strech goal last year. It would be great to get them done during October as well, but I'm not holding my breath. As long as I can get some progress on them, I'm happy!

Pict 1483: Howling Griffons Chaplain Dreadnought (WIP)

The Howling Griffons Chaplain Dreadnought meanwhile has been oiled up and is already looking quite goot. I'm confident this one will be done quite fast!

Pict 1484: Rados Cults Scourgers (WIP)

I also got a first wave of additional miniatures for my Rados Cults. These three Scourgers are pretty basic troops and now have the first few colours on them. Since I plan to play a lot more Alkemy, I'm sure they will get done sooner rather than later. As long as I don't get to distracted...

Pict 1485: Legions Imperialis Leviathan and Deredeo Dreadnoughts (WIP)

Lastly I also started on some small scale Dreadnoughts to keep in the spirit of DreadTober whilst still cashing in on the motivation from finishing the Aeronautica/Imperialis flyers.

Raven Guard Recons and DreadTober begins!

Sometimes you just really get into a project – this happened to me these past two weeks and I quickly finished the Raven Guard Recon Marines, I had converted and shown of in the last post and built a Centurion to lead them. I also got a start on my DreadTober Dreadnoughts!

Pict 1472: Ravan Guard Recons securinh a communications shrine

Pict 1473: Raven Guard Recon Squad

Pict 1474: Raven Guard Recon Squad

These really painted up quite fast! I managed to put on the base colours more neatly after a black prime and the grey zenithal. This left me with only a few touch ups and detailwork to do after an oil wash. As always, I documented the steps of painting in a recipe to remember them for later. They are a bit simpler than my Blood Angels but since I kept the bases the same, they should fit right in nonetheless.

Pict 1475: Chaplain Dreadnoughts (WIP)

I also put the base colours and transfers on my Howling Griffons Chaplain - these went on really quickly! The next step will be the oilwash. But I also might get moving with the Blood Angel Dreadnought I want to paint as a strech goal. With the good progess so far, the additional goal seems not that far off!

Pict 1476: Raven Guard Delegatus Centorion (WIP)

After painting the Recons, I had to also think about a HQ unit to lead them as an allied detachement. While a Vigilator sure would make sense to put with them, I also would like to be able to run them as an actual Recon Company with the Rite of War. This means either using a Praetor or the Centurion Delegatus as the budget version. I liked the idea of the latter and looked for inspiration to show the Centurion's station. As far as I can see the only miniature released as a Delegatus is the 2015 event-exclusive Alpha Legion Autilon Skorr. He is sporting a baton which I liked and repeated on my conversion. Other than that the base model is the venerable ForgeWorld production MkV with some added green stuff at the hips and neck for additional hight. I also kept the option to run him as a Vigilator open and gave him a Nemesis bolter converted in the same manner to ones on my Recon Marines. I'm pretty happy with the way he's looking and can't wait to paint him up and more importantly run him in a game!

DreadTober: The Castra Ferrum finished

This week I got around to do quite a bit of glazing and detailwork to finish both the Castra Ferrum Dreadnought and the remaining eight Despoilers. Not much more got done though, so again, a rather quick update.

Pict 1376: Blood Angels Mk IV Castra Ferrum Dreadnought

Pict 1377: Blood Angels Mk IV Castra Ferrum Dreadnought

Pict 1378: Blood Angels Mk IV Castra Ferrum Dreadnought

Pict 1379: Blood Angels Mk IV Castra Ferrum Dreadnought

Pict 1380: Blood Angels Mk IV Castra Ferrum Dreadnought

Pict 1381: Blood Angels Mk IV Castra Ferrum Dreadnought

I love the look of the Castra Ferrum. The silhouette really is iconic and this one really was a joy to paint. After last week there was not that much more to do but to glaze some highlights onto the red and of course apply chipping. As a last touch I added the date in roman numerals to the back to commemorate that this particular Dreadnought was painted during DreadTober this year.

Pict 1382: Blood Angels Inductii Despoilers

I also finished these eight Inductii Despoilers. They are the remaining bodies to fill out my squad of 15 close combat Marines. I do like how they came out, but I am ready to paint something other than Blood Angels. But there are still ten Destroyers and their Rhino to do. And of course I still want to get to that Dreadnought Drop Pod - at least building it should be doable.

Blood Angels Depoilers and Plasma on the Castra Ferrum

Another quick update this week, as I did not have that much time to paint. I did, however, finish the first half of my Blood Angels Inductii Despoilers and got some more work done on the DreadTober Castra Ferrum Dreadnought.

Pict 1373: Blood Angels Inductii Despoilers

Pict 1374: Blood Angels Consul

This is the first half of my Inductii Despoilers and the matching Consul. Highlighting the red armour with glazes does take a while, but I'm pretty happy with the results! I hope the finish the other eight during the next week, so I can get ahead with my other October projects.

Pict 1375: Blood Angels Mk IV Castra Ferrum Dreadnought (WIP)

Speaking of, here's what I managed to do on my Castra Ferrum Dreadnought. I pretty much only worked on the lenses and the plasma coils of the gun arm. Whilst I have these colours on my wet pallet I will do the lenses on the Destroyers and the Rhino next. After I'll be onto highlighting the other parts on the Dreadnought!

Finishing six Xiphons and a first DreadTober Update

This week, I finished the six Aeronautica Xiphons to make a start on my Legiones Imperialis collection. I'm also making pretty good time with my DreadTober Castra Ferrum and am concurrenty batch painting several Marines in sevor armour. The Dreadnought Drop Pod is also coming together, but will take some more work.

Pict 1365: Aeronautica Imperialis Xiphons

Pict 1366: Aeronautica Imperialis Xiphons

Pict 1367: Aeronautica Imperialis Xiphons

First up though, to get back into the finer highlighting, I finished up these six Xiphons I started a few weeks back. They are my first foray into the 8mm scale. Since I used pretty much my usual Blood Angels recipe, it really did not feel that different and I quite enjoyed it. While I could use them in games of Aeronautica Imperialis, I am really looking forward to Legiones Imperialis and plan to get into the game using the same Siege of Terra themed Blood Angels and allies fitting into that era. While not that much, these six planes are somewhat of a head start.

Pict 1368: Blood Angels MK IV Castra Ferrum Dreadnougth (WIP)

The Boxnought I'm painting for DreadTober is really starting to look like something: After last week's update, I added a bunch of decals and then putting an oil wash over the whole model. After a layer of matt varnish, the dreadnought is now ready for highlights and further weathering.

Pict 1369: Dreadnought Drop Pod (WIP)

The Drop Pod is also shaping up. However, SincaiN reported in the comments of last week's post, that he had used magnets on the doors. After looking up the relevant posts on his blog, I saw that he had not used them to hold the doors closed like I wanted to do, but used them to replace the hinges. Since my solution of using putty to rebuild the hinge has not worked out the best (the hinge is already breaking again), I will replicate his solution.

Pict 1370: Blood Angels Inductii Despoilers and Consul (WIP)

Here's a quick shot of some of my Inductii Despoilers. Not the whole batch, but they are all pretty much at the same stage. I have gone through quite a lot of highlighting on the details. What's left to do is to put highlights and weathering such as scratches onto the black and the red areas. I'm slowly getting there, but painting them in a batch of sixteen marines is quite a lot of them at once; I might reduce that down for those last stages to a more manageble number.

Pict 1371: Blood Angels Mortalis Destroyers and Aster Crohne (WIP)

Pict 1372: Blood Angels Rhino with Reinforced Armour (WIP)

Lastly here is the current state of the Destroyers and their Rhino. In comparison to last week, I put on the black panels and then they had the decals and oils done alongside the Dreadnought. Since the Blood Angels decal sheet does not come with classic Destroyer markings, I used some from the World Eaters sheet. Since they are only the outlines and not solid, they don't show up that well on the black shoulder pads and I might add the colour in myself.

Starting DreadTober 2023: A Castra Ferrum for the Blood Angels

It's the start of October and that does mean, among other things, it's the start of DreadTober, one of the fun community challanges of the hobby year. This time around I will paint up a boxy Castra Ferrum Dreadnought for my Blood Angels. A stretch goal will be a Dreadnought Drop Pod as a delivery system. But I do also want to finish some squads for my Blood Angels Legion to play them in an upcoming tournament.

Pict 1359: Blood Angels MK IV Castra Ferrum Dreadnought (WIP)

So, onto the juicy bits: After showing the Castra Ferrum conversion last post, I primed him up and started to put some paint on him. I really love the boxnought's silhouette and I'm very happy with the conversion. The painting process really just flows along. The basecolours are almost done. After that I will put on decals and an oilwash. This sould all go rather fast. It's super enjoyable!

Pict 1360: Deadnought Drop Pod (WIP)

To keep things interesting, I want to add this Dreadnought Drop Pod as a stretch goal to this years Dreadtober. Once again, I got this miniature for rather cheap on the second hand market. It was, however, in a really sorry state. One of the hinges was broken so the previous owner glued the doors shut and covered all of the hinges in a layer of milliput.
I have by now managed to disasseble the whole thing and have gotten rid of the paintjob as well as the putty. There will probably be some residual super glue on the doors but I can live with that. The next steps will be to finish repairing the broken hinge, installing some magnets and metal pieces to keep the doors shut and then reassembling the miniature.

Pict 1361: Blood Angels Inductii Despoilers and Consul (WIP)

The Inductii Despoilers and the Consul sat somewhat idely during the last two weeks. They have had their oilwash done and had a first layer of varnish to seal the oils in. After that, however, they collected dust. I find myself in the mode to basecoat, being less careful and not using the wet palette I'd use for highlighting.

Pict 1362: Blood Angels Mortalis Destryers and Aster Crohne (WIP)

Pict 1363: Blood Angels Rhino with Reinforced Armour (WIP)

As I mentioned in my last post, I have signed up for a Heresy tournament. I easily have the required 2000 points painted, but why not use that opportunity to finish some more of the backlog. After the Inductii Despoilers, I also want to finish these ten Destryoers and their Rhino. And of course I also added in the appropriate character in the form of Aster Crohne, even if he will probably not be part of my tournament list. So while putting the base colours on the Dreadnought, I did the same to them. The tournament is at the start of November – we'll see how far I can get until then!

Pict 1364: Howling Griffons Veterans and Captain (WIP)

Lastly, since I'm clearly not working on enough Space Marines, I also put the base colours and an oil wash on some more Howling Griffons. I had started the black armour quite a while ago and they should be done rather quickly now as well.