Dreadtober 2019 - A 'cheaters' guide...

Dreadtober begins next week and I have this Redemptor Dreadnought to do. Now it's supposed to be you build and paint your Dreadnought [or equivalent] in the month but I know my hobby pace and knew building it in advance was a minimum.

I also got it based, primed, base-coated and then painted the base [along with a lot of other models]. Now this took a significant amount of time to get to this stage, so I wouldn't have achieved this and potentially finish the model in month otherwise. At least now I have a fighting chance.

All the brassy bronze is the next priority [ I will start that on the 1st] and my prior brassy bronze exploits will reveal this can break me, so I need to hold strong and get all those bits metalled up so I can enjoy painting the greens! And we all know how much I love doing that - just a bit above Ravenwing... is there anything I actually like to paint? Sometimes I wonder why I put myself through all this if it's all so difficult, but we rise to the challenge and maybe that is the reason - the constant striving to overcome hobby inertia...

GW Manchester Battle of the Brush - August - Big Models

Following on from July's Battle of the Brush [or 'Tale of our Warlords', as it's also known], August's category was Squads. I entered my [still wet] Ravenwing Dark Shroud - a model in the category completed in that month! My goal is just to achieve the 12 entries over the course of the year and as you can see the standard is exceptional each month so the competitive aspect will be tough, hence why I'm just along for the ride.

I've had a number of technical issues, hence why it has taken so long to get these pics sorted. Hopefully that's all fixed now and the winner for August was this fantastic Renegade Knight

2nd was this Repulsor tank.

3rd was yours truly with my Land Speeder Dark Shroud. I must admit to being honoured but a little 'unmoved' by the accolade. As much as I anticipate the reveal of the awards each month it would be disingenuous after my assertion I'm only in it to take part and then jump for joy when I win something. It's difficult to reconcile, I hope I'm explaining it enough, emotionally there's a lot of baggage. Anyway, the Slaaneshi Greater Daemon got the most inspiring award.

I'd taken these pics on another occasion because I was so impressed.

The creative use of sprue on the base was also a nice touch, and if you check out the new terrain elements for Warhammer Underworld's - Beastgrave you will see a definite similarity!

Other entries included this Invictus suit.

A couple of Deff Dreads.

Kastellan Robots and their 'handler'.

Venerable Dread and Abbaddon.

Another Venerable Dread and Mortarion.

Greater Daemon of Khorne.

Shadowsword.

With LOTS of weathering.

Magnus [who did a number of things wrong].

Giant [Mangler?] Squig?

Greater Daemon of Nurgle and the Night Haunt gibbet guy.

Arch-Lord Discordant.

And another pic of my own entry.

Once again I was compelled to take pictures of the store armies. I may well have taken the same pics previously but never mind enjoy once more Ork Speed Freeeks

And the crazy insane, Chaos Necron Tau conversions, which I have more pics next time.

Red Planet BASE! - If in doubt - BASE!

An update of some WiPs, it should be a small mid-week post but access problems to the standalone laptop means this is the only post I have to share 😔 With the Ravenwing Dark Shroud done and my recent review of 'what's on my palette' I just needed to 'flashback' these pics of how I got here. The Dark Shroud out of the way it just made sense to get some basing complete too so I had options going forward. As you can see the Redemptor Dread, Abberrants, Iconward, Rippers, Devgaunts, HIve Guard, lone Tyranid Warrior and even started the Geneestealer Familiars.

Various highlights later.

The Redemptor Dreadnought getting ready for Dreadtober. I know, I know you're supposed to make and build it wholly in the month but I know my speed and even getting to this stage it'll be a challenge for me to get it all done only in October...

One of the key drivers for this was the Ferron Fire Firs, which I've already covered but it's important to reiterate that tagging on another set of similar processes to existing task means you're adjusting your mindset only a little and the outcomes far outweigh the extra effort needed.

I have to be careful now though as I'm eager to move along with so many of these things but in reality I should be preparing for winter. With difficulties to prime models the more that's ready to go the better and the using up my 'stores' could be problematic... Luckily my project planning should keep that from happening. In the mean time I get a Great Big Galactic Big Build Basing Stamp of Approval! I probably deserve more than one for this, but it's difficult to decide, do I get 1 for 40 trees, 1 for the lone Tyranid Warrior and 1 for the two Hive Guard? So best just award the 1 and move on.