Hi folks,
This unit of Dreadnoughts is perhaps the project most dear to me on my 2015/16 To-Do list. It is definitely the longest running, with the Dreadnought on the right having a long and chequered history. In fact, each of the Dreadnoughts has an interesting story attached to them, which I will share in between photos. I don't think they will be the best executed project this year (my money is on the Iron Snakes Techmarine or Centurions eventually taking that honour). In particular, the colour of "Dark Angels Green" is bit lighter than the contemporary equivalent, "Caliban Green". This makes some of the optional arms a little darker than the rest, but I can live with that. You will see what I mean as we go down the rabbit hole, starting with the most recent (but not youngest...) member of the squadron.
I call this Dreadnought "The Sergeant", because he has a banner :-) I completed this model for Dreadtober a while ago, though his base is a recent addition. The close combat weapon can be replaced by a twin-linked autocannon for MOAR dakka, but I like the option of hitting harder in assault, particularly as a squad.
This model is a very old one, released during 2nd Edition in the 90's. When Dark Vengeance was released I swapped all of the Chaos stuff to my mate Heinz for a whole heap of old Dark Angels stuff. This guy was the cherry on top; I had desperately wanted one of these guys back in the day, so finally blagging one hit me right in the feels.
I bought the next Dreadnought when the new plastic kit was first released. I armed it with a twin-linked lascannon and missile launcher because, like I said, I had a soft spot for the classic Dark Angels dreadnought load-out. It didn't feel the same though; I miss the days when you could fire d3 plasma missiles at something.
I sometimes still field this guy with the missile launcher, or swap the lascannon for the twin-linked autocannon. The lascannon arm has parts from the Ravenwing Master kit to add a bit of Dark Angels flavour.
The dreadnought close combat weapon only has one little added detail: a hooded Angel of Death figure. I have armed my Dreadnoughts with stormbolters whenever possible as, even though heavy flamers can be very effective, I seem to have ridiculous luck with them. The number of times I have picked the last wound off a character, squad or monstrous creature beggars belief.
The next Dreadnought is my oldest, in fact, it was one of my first 40K figures. It was a Christmas gift from my mother, who was dubious about buying something so expensive and small. But she new it meant a lot to me and bought it anyway. For that reason it will always be a special part of my collection.
It is actually a Blood Angels Dreadnought, again from 2nd Ed., which I originally painted and converted as a Legion of the Damned Dreadnought, before they even had a full list. There was a skeleton from Warhammer Fantasy pinned to the left torso and flames everywhere. I loved that damned Dreadnought!
One of the guys I played against regularly (lets call him Joffrey...) berated me for having an army made up completely of Legion of the Damned figures, to the point where I painted over everything in Dark Angels green and bought myself an Angels of Death codex. I started kicking myself that I hadn't waited a few months to get my Dreadnought: I could have gotten a cool Dark Angels one! I decided that I would put my own stamp on it, so spent over an hour sawing off the multimelta barrel and replacing it with a plasma cannon barrel from a Devastator marine, using a blunt hacksaw blade with no handle. I can still feel the pain. Dark Angels weren't all plasma cannon spam in those days and there was no official plasma cannon model for a Dreadnought, so my first conversion (ever) was recognised as a very special one at my FLGS. It also owned people; in those days you could super-charge Dreadnought plasma cannons, unleashing a Str 10 shot with a large blast marker.
A few months later the LotD army list was published in a White Dwarf.
The assault drill is a new addition from Forgeworld that I had lying around for ages. The original close combat weapon has been lost and I often mount a missile launcher to replace it. I have found the combination of plasma cannon and missile launcher can be quite effective, using frag missiles to thin out swarms and krak missiles to take out MEQs and light vehicles.
For now, I am calling these guys done! Perhaps one day, if I find the right green paint, I'll touch up some of the weapons so they fit the rest of the scheme more perfectly. Until then, they are ready for their first game against Sgt Waz's Tyranids and I get a big green stamp:
See you across the table,
M4cr0
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