Sons of Horus Contemptor Dreadnought - Part I

 

That look of "well this is going to be fun".

A few days ago I had the brilliant idea of starting preparations on the Year of the Dreadnought, and started on converting a pre-painted model. I wasn't sure which Legion it would belong to, but I just wanted a bit of practice with the re-positioning the old Contemptor plastic kits. Their original pose isn't my favourite, but with a little effort I figured I could make something more dynamic.

I ended up purchasing a piercing saw (also called a jeweller's saw) for precision cuts that didn't remove too much of the model. It was an excellent purchase and really allowed this project to go forward. There was just one small problem: dust. A vacuum cleaner is great for cleaning all the plastic dust, but care should be taken to keep a tight grip on the pieces; much to my misfortune I lost one of the hip joints into the vacuum cleaner! Using green-stuff and a white clay mold I managed to build one from scratch, but I would have preferred to keep the original.

Oooh, my hip!

There is of course the issue of building joints up again after repositioning. The thighs I needed to almost completely reconstruct, after using spare sprue to glue pieces in the position I wanted. The sprue acts as a foundation to build upon, either with green-stuff or milliput. I'm pretty terrible at sculpting, but the results are...serviceable. The hips were somewhat interesting in that I ended up filling internal space with (rounded) sprue, and then pinning the legs into position with a paperclip. This appears to have worked nicely enough and should make the model a little more robust. The torso was a simple cut and rotate slightly, and with the head being much the same - just with a lot more cutting away to allow that to happen.

The hips I covered up with flexible ribbing by rolling green stuff into thin sausages and then carefully (and most frustratingly at times) layering each next to another on the model. I think it works well enough and I'll keep it in mind for future conversion work.

The original idea for the re-pose was to have the left leg standing on a tactical rock, with the torso turning slightly for the occupant to point the assault cannon at some target of interest. In doing this I had the model standing at some point on the desk and rotated the assault cannon arm up high - and behold he looked way better as if trying to block some attack with that arm. Having recently watched the Death of Hope trailer (awesome!) again, I then had the notion that perhaps another Contemptor was charging in and about to give this one a bit of a beating. This in turn made me think that perhaps a Blood Angels dreadnought would be on the assault (preferring that combat role in general) - which then makes sense for this to be Sons of Horus and perhaps taking place on Terra.

Having an idea of a duel helped to fill out the base for the pose. I really didn't want the hassle of cutting and repositioning the feet, so instead one foot is sliding on the ground to give a more stable stance in an attempt to fend off the incoming attack. I've tried to build up some uneven ground with milliput and then cover it with a texture paint to give just that impression. The base also has some bits of old resin scenery stuck around, but I might end up adding more rubble later on. Sprue cut to pieces, with some holes drilled in a few places, makes for great girders or bricks, and I have some additional scenery that I could use. I don't want to overdo the base and make it look like a junkyard, but right now it feels a little to sparse.

On a note of paint removal, that proved interesting. I used a kitchen degreaser to soften the paint and an old toothbrush to remove it in areas I felt the old paint to be too thick. I also tried an electric toothbrush. Hint: don't bother with an electric toothbrush. This is not something I'll have to do often fortunately because it took a while - if this was a regular thing for me I would definitely invest in a sonic cleaner. I also ended up digging out paint from recesses with a metal pokey stick (technical term) just to really get everything clean. It took a long time, but I think it will be worth it later on. The helmet could have used the same treatment but I had already stuck it in place by then. I'll just have to be careful not to use too many layers and obscure any more detail.

What would I do next time differently? Well I have two more of this kit somehow, so I'll have the chance to practice more. The hip joints are the troublesome part, and so I might focus a little more there. I could build up the connecting internal structure first, separate from the model, and then cut it into place once I've come up with a pose I like. I've learned that milliput is far more workable once it's cured for 15 or 20 minutes, and that should allow me to build up appropriate strips on top of the basic shape and make it look more like the parts from Forgeworld (or the new plastic Contemptors). The feet might prove easier to work with before assembly as well, so I intend to give that a go next time. Otherwise I think the repositioning has turned out about as good as I'd hoped - now to prime the model and start airbrushing the base colours.

-- silly painter.