Me Too, Here's the start

I had a stack of Grey Knights on the shelf when a bud of mine told me he was starting Chaos. He still hasn't gotten around to it but I decided now was a good time for me.

There is a metal strike squad and a metal termie squad painted. But, seeing this is the WIP section I will start here. I built the first dread for my Dark Angels army but didn't get to painting it. Looks a little more knightish so I am going to tune up that icon on his right leg and get him going.

I don't like the Matrix style Dreadknight so I am going to go with either a giant termie or huge dreadnought. I do love dreads so I am leaning in that direction. So without further ado, here's what I have done so far.

awesome start! Welcome to the brotherhood.

Progress. Leg armour was done with 1/2 inch tube and trimmed down to what you see there.

Shots of the "cockpit". Going with the big dread look. It's a lot more time consuming than I thought. Slow going but I do have a good idea of what I want it to look like in my head.




The unevenness in the legs will be brought up some with green stuff. Maybe add some wording if I'm feeling ambitious. I was thinking of maybe some sort of shoulder mount for the heavy psycannon. Maybe deal with the big holes up there as I am not going to use those big silly struts.

looking good... i need to get htat dex!

Could you adjust the struts to be some sort of techmarine style harness for the psycannon?

You know toaster, that's exactly what I was thinking. There is a void in the shoulder armour and the very top of the armour itself that would make a good spot to mount it. Most likely magnetic so I can swap it out. I should have some time to work it out this evening while I wait for the sculpting on the head to dry.

And weasel, you certainly should, it's nasty.

how fluffy would it be to have a grey knight tech-marine? I assume that the Grey Knights need them, perhaps this could be a 'special character' type deal. add some mechandrites, the servo arms and maybe use a modified Admech symbol for the pilots heraldry.

again, not sure if that would fit the fluff, although there is a logic to it.

What is that dreadnought torso made of? The one with the Defiler mask. I've been something similar before, but I can't for the life of me identify the body.

Pretty fluffy, since they're even in the codex. Not only are they like any other Techmarine, they're also psykers to boot.

the body is from an inquisitor scale model iirc

I know it's heretical but it's gazgul's torso. The shoulder guards are from the inquisitor range. The braziers are from the vampire coach. The skull bit in the center is also inquisitor.

The Grey Knight techmarines are rather useful. They can use orbital bomabrdment and conversion beamers. Kinda heavy on the points, but a nice add on in a higher point game.

liking the work mon, looking forward to seeing this beastie done

and yes techmarines are quite nice for gk, especially if you leave them at the back with your psifle men dreads in a 3+ cover save building

got to ask though if you're thinking of shoulder mounting the weapons are you thinking gimbal mounting (predator style) or flat out fixed emplacements (warlord titan style) ?

and while i think of it did your kit instructions mention part 75 at all, (the little doo hickey down by the psycannon in your may 7th posts first pic) i think it's probably the warp jump, but it bugged the heck out of me for a minute or two trying to figure out where it was meant to go

Tread, I have no idea what part number 75 is. I took everything I was going to use off the sprue and tossed the frames. Is that the rectangle looking thing? I don't see it in the destructions either. That part with the little antenna with the two circles on it? I guess that's what it is. I would think it should be somewhere near the pilot to activate wouldn't you?

For the placement of the shoulder weapon I was thinking of making a permanent mount up there. I can't see ever not having at least one weapon on him. The other shoulder I am going to close up and have one on the arm.

So that being said, I saw a Grey Knight army with a techmarine with conversion beamer on one end of the board on a ruin and a vindicare on the other end. Had to laugh at the chaos opponent who was getting pummeled on either end while the main GK host went up the middle. The other nasty this guy did was a rhino with a purgation team in it. Rolled up 11 inches jumped out and deep fried a havoc squad. Chaos heavy weapon teams are havocs right?

yep thats the bit i'm talking about, i'll be gluing it to a rhino as a warp stabilisation field personally

i'd go for the psycannon on the shoulder mount as it looks the most plasma caster like of the three
you could try making a weapon mount that slots in to the shoulder slot with a magnet in the top and just fake up a base for the weapon itself with the other magnet in there

then you have the option of all three as the psycannon/psylencer gubbins can be interchanged easily enough as the have quite good tolerances on the weapons:scratch:
"hull?" as most of mine is held together with faith in the emperor (and blutak) currently

while the other weapon "hull" makes the heavy incinerator ideal for arm mounting (the extra inch could be vital one game lol)

personally i'll be rocking the heavy incinerator, gatling psylincer and nemesis great sword and (if i can figure out how to make a dreadknight scale sanguinary guard winged jet pack) the personal teleporter

I can see it being a stabilization field. Wouldn't be hard to make some extras and have a couple around the outside to make it seem like it was generating that field.

The cannon on the shoulder for sure. Magnets, definitely. Just completed a modular storm raven with magnetic wings and a cross brace kinda thing to make the storm bolters optional. I already have a couple ideas as I have been moving those hydraulics around a touch. I also have some plastic tube that can make a few extra struts. I am a fan also of the flame thrower on the arm, so I am going with that. Seeing its the cheapest of the weapon options it will most likely be the one used most.

Tonight I was working on the armor a little. Added a little bit of trim around the right front and working on a "head". I was going to try and sculpt one but that wasn't going well. I scrapped that idea and seeing the forgeworld dread head looks like a terminator head, I am making a larger version of that. Didn't get very far but can post a picture if anyone is interested.

I really like how its going and it looks great so far keep up the good work.
Im liking the dreads too.. nice.. looking forward to seeing the finished pictures of that first guy.. pretty cool.

The forge world claw type close combat arm showed up today for the first dread. So there's that to look forward to. I have to remove those Dark Angel wings off the leg armour and I think leave it at that. I will incorporate the sword into his heraldry I think.
I am going to work on his head some more tonight between laundry loads. I am off on vacation in a day so there won't be much more work done past tonight. I will get back to it again when I return.

Update. Not real thrilled on how this is turning out. What do you guys think? I added the green stuff trim around the armour and spent more time than I care to admit getting the large grey knight helmet/dreadnought style head right.







It's still very rough. I have to close out the "eyes" and blend the armour edges. I guess if it was easy everyone would be doing it right? Looking at it from a stand back, are the vertical chestplates too short perhaps? We shall see where it goes. I have a new idea already. Enclosing the cockpit and making a "viewport" persay.

I"ll tell you what does't seam right, he has these tall round legs and a short stumpy body with his "head" way below his shoulders... i would probably raise the head up taller... and maybe round over trher cheat parts to blend more with the dreadknight part...

just what i see going on...

That's what it's got to be. I will figure something out to raise the head. Maybe something round like the middle of a Mark 4 Dread. Fashion a new psychic hood for the top and make that gun mount for the shoulder.

Something like this? I think you're right.

From there to here. I need to trim back the armour some, blend it back and curve it slightly. Any ideas?

The head looks a little broad. Maybe try elongating it, or bringing the sides in so as to make it have a pointier snout? How does the balance look? Want to avoid having it look like it is going to fall forward. Maybe try shortening how far the sarcophagus sticks out in front?

Just to make sure you take my thoughts as constructive criticism, and not as me attacking your work, I do really like the direction you are going. You are making a model that looks like [I Swear Too Much] in my opinion and are successfully turning it into something that it should of looked like.

Double checking, the head does look too fat, thinning up the sides would help that out.

i think fosner is onthe right track, i'd push the chest back a bit, and make the head a tat thinner if you can... it's looking really good though, now it''s just finding hte balance:)

I know what you are saying with the head, but it looks fat because it's short. If you reference a grey knight helmet, it goes back farther from where I have it. Then there's the round parts and the vent looking things on top, all of which are planned. Or I could have said simply it's only half done. That would have worked too.

The chest/sarcophagus I have to agree on. What wound up happening there was me following the original lines of the model. There's a oval type part that comes out and forms the waist of the knight. That part with the book and two swords sits at the end of it. I think that's tonight's work. It does look too far forward. Thanks guys, I will post some more when I have some more.

You are at a pont where you need ot stop looking at the original and start just dealing with the mini:) it's going good

Rifleman is done and painted.