A few shots of the components that have been worked on so far.  Top image is the torso.  I’ve sliced out the sarcophagus and lopped off both spindles for the arm mounts.  I have cut two pieces of tubing to allow the arms to be fitted and positioned as wanted.

I’ve now cut off the pelvis joint struts, in preparation for the custom ones.  I have a piece of plastic rod that is perfect for the larger ones and will likely use wire (for strength) for the central strut.

Finally the calf pistons, carefully cut off the leg – yes it was vary fiddly if you compare it to the uncut leg…

Running Totals: Time – ~ 11 Hrs; Cost – £36.47

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Ok, perhaps not the best topic line :s

I’ve just tacked the leg components together and in fact they’ve gone together better than I’d hoped.  Less slope is going to be needed than I anticipated, which is good.  However my gut feeling prooved corect and the left leg needs repositioning slightly, just to make sure that it looks right.  One positive thing of doing that, is that it means I can modify the pelvis joins and use plastic rod rather than trying to work with the blob of plastic that it has, creating a much more realistic and dynamic effect.

After around about 8 hours of cutting, filing and some gluing over the weekend, what I’m aiming for looks like it is possible.  The right leg has been cut up into separate components and should give enough play to allow it to be hinged at the knee and hip so that it’s pressing down on a Chaos Marine’s chest.  Facilitating a slope into the base and pushing the Marine into the ground should allow it to not look like it’s drunk.

Running Totals: Time – ~ 8 Hrs; Cost – £36.47

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When I collected my ticket I also purchased myself a regular plastic Space Marine Dreadnought.  I’m a Space Wolves collector and have wanted to put together a dread for ages, but held off because I had a gut feeling that they’d be releasing a new plastic one at the same time as the new Codex.  Now that this years Golden Demon has become a possibility, I felt that it was time to fulfil this yearning and put together one of these behemoth’s.

My intention is to hack, gouge and kit bash it into something that portrays the whole ethos behind the Space Wolves.  For those that don’t know, Space Wolves are a Space Marine chapter within Warhammer 40k that have a distinct Norse/Celtic feel.  Google them and you’ll find lots of reference.

I want to also pay homage to the original Space Marine Dreadnought from yester-year, which were more along the lines of a walking robot, in comparison to the walking ‘box’ that is currently the style.  I’ve not got enough time to completely scratch build one of these and in fact I’ve not really got any inclination to as the old walking robot doesn’t fit into the modern style of 40k.  The image I’ve included in this post is one of ‘Aesir’, that was created for the Horus Heresy Collectible Card Game and appears in various art books that the Black Library have released and it is this that I am going to use as a starting point for my entry.

In summary the Dreadnought will be positioned so as to have one foot on the chest of a Chaos Space Marine.  I’ll angle the whole base so that it’s stood on a slope.  The joint that connects the legs to the torso will be lengthened slightly (couple of mm), to give it a little more height.  Instead of a sarcophagus, I’ll have a chest piece with a head.  The torso armour and leg armour will have ‘ribbing’ on it – basically to break it up and make it different to any other Dreadnought I’ve seem.  Both arms will be repositioned so as to give a bit more dynamism.  Finally the heavy bolter arm will be done like the picture of Aesir, so actually on an arm joint rather than the bloody stupid way they’re currently done.