Vaaish converts a AOBR Dread.

[paulson games]

Are you using thin half round for the details? They look great and I'm trying to figure out what you're doing to get that look. Very professional looking.

[BNSminiatures]

Tasty looking dread so far mate,

Interesting to see where it goes from here.

Iain
BNSminiatures.

[Vaaish]

Thanks!

Zac: These likely aren't the final arms. I think I'll be ordering a FW plasma cannon arm and either a missile launcher or autocannon arm for the other side. Those I'll be adjusting, either rounding the same way the shoulders were or rounding off the side, though I'm not sure yet which way I'll go.

Paulson: It's just thing square strip styrene, not half round.

I got the legs extended last night now I'm just trying to figure out how to do the uppder leg armor so he doesn't look so chicken legged. I think I may do the groin plating first and then work on the legs themselves. Mostly I'm still a little fuzzy on the shin changes and upper legs. The hips I know how that will work.

[Warhound]

I love the curved panels-- very original!

Is it possible to get individual, blown up shots of the scarcophagus? (the pics are a little too small to pick up on fine details- thats called cheating round these parts )

But at the moment, I really can't add any other comment than, it would be good to see some finer details, such as rivets, relief sculpts (symbols/ freize etc)? Why does he have Ank's on the front panels?
Are you going to fill the alcoves with stuff?

Great clean work still though!

cheers
WARHOUND

[Vaaish]

Warhound: what areas in particular area of it would you like to see closer shots of? The sarcophagus hasn't really changed from the close shots I posted up a few earlier.

I'm going to change up the next couple comments order a bit, he has the ankh because he's for my custom marine chapter that's egyptian based which is also why the center of the sarcophagus has a cartouche. (if you want more background read this: http://www.digitalequinox.com/wip/docs/book1.pdf as it explains most everything).

I had considered putting rivets along the trim but I decided against it thinking it would perhaps have a cleaner look more in line with ancient Egyptian jewelry that uses a good bit of inlay and smooth frames rather that riveted pieces and the space marine aesthetic to not have a lot of rivets. I've also left the planes unfilled to give me space for glyphs and other images in the style of the 17th and 18th dynasty tomb paintings. Along these lines the ankh's follow the theme in the papyrus of Ani and other middle egyptian works that incorporate the glyphs into the illustrations for the text. (Ie. the use of the 3Xt glyph to literally depict the horizon)

[Vaaish]

ok here is a somewhat larger shot of the assembled dread. I made more progress on the dread today. I'm hoping to finish up the conversion work tonight or saturday on everything except the arms. I'm posting this because I'm not quite sure on the shin armor. Part of me thinks it makes him feel a little too thick around the ankles so I'm asking for opinions before I finish these up and put the cables back into place.

[Warhound]

Thanks for the larger pics Vaaish!

This really does showcase what you have achieved so far

I LOVE the groin guard- very egyptian and looks great!

I do agree (only slightly) that the shins are too thick/ large. The by product of your conversion work- they actually match perfectly to the torso, but then by default make the feet too small.

It is is a knife edge decision whether to drag the thickness back on the armour, or to 'upscale' the feet to match.. I would go for the latter.

In addition, the pipe work does not satisfy me on the torso. It does not have tight enough 'tucks' into the armour to match the detail work of the rest of the model. If I were you (but I am me) I would revisit this area, just to complete the model?

I hope that helps?

cheers
WARHOUND

[Vaaish]

I think the shins will get quite a bit thicker once I add in the trim edges like on the groin and shoulders and it shouldn't be too difficult to extend the ends of the toes to get everything back into line.

I don't quite understand what you mean by the pipe work not having enough tucks into the armor, could you explain a bit more what you mean by that?

[mangozac]

I think the shin thickness is ok as is, however by the time you add that layer of detailing they will become too thick and you will then have to extend the toes as discussed.

Everything else is looking amazing and you've captured the Egyptian feel spot on.

I know you're going for a cleaner, rivetless aesthetic style but I can't help feel that some strategically placed countersunk rivets would work well.

[Vaaish]

Zac, looking at the other marine vehicles I have I just don't see a countersunk rivet fitting with their aesthetic. All of the rivets I see are raised above the armor if they are even there.

Thanks, I went ahead and did a combination style plating to give the impression of thicker armor in layers while hopefully keeping the foot size from becoming an issue and filed off some of the mounting point to let the shin plate sit closer to the thigh extension armor since most of the added thickness is in the front. I did an attempt with longer toes and it really came out looking more awkward than effective and I think the current look gives the impression of heavily armored but still mostly the same dread chassis underneath. This brings me to the question of the arms, should I round the edges so the curve matches the curve of the armor or round the shoulder so that from the front it curves to meet the top of the dread. Any thoughts?

The shape on the front of the shin is an adjusted stele shape that will end up with some kind of freehand picture on either side with hieroglyphics running down the center.

[mangozac]

[Vaaish]

I have thought about curving it both directions, but I think that doing so will give a weird lozenge shape on the shoulder and look out of place with the harder shapes from the side and rear. Overall, they only real difference from the FW ones is the head and chest plate set further back into the torso and rounding the tops of the shoulders. I think I'll round out the front edge first and see how it looks before deciding completely though.

[Arkangel]

Hey Vaaish,
not sure whether you'd already done this but, I got a lot of help and inspiartion for some helmets Warhound and I are converting for my Red Scorpions from the Horus Heresy artwork books. As you're going for the whole Mk IV/ Venerable look there are some great visual adaptations of the dread throughout the series. Also there are the Heresy era Terminator shots which may give you some inspiration esp the Custodes ones. I'd definatley consider the curved 'shoulder pad' look as an idea. These fit well with the Templar look. And who better that Sigismund himself the first Emperor's Champion to inspire

Arkangel

[Vaaish]

Arkangel: I've done quite a bit of looking through that and referencing my old Epic dreadnoughts before trying to blend in some of the ideas from there to the new style.

And the final update for now, I've rounded out the shoulder to match the torso armor. I may go back and ad a riveted plate or trim to it but I kind of like the subdued look on the arms. I've also put in another AOBR dread to compare where it started to how it looks now. I'm going to put this aside for the time being to think about color scheme and work up some commissioned epic marine vehicles before looking it over again in a week or so and deciding if the arms are done and doing some final gap filling on the legs. However I have plenty of time to debate the arms since they will be the last bits I paint on the model.

[mangozac]

I like it, but I think that last edge on the front of the shoulder armour also needs to be filed into a smooth curve to match the body armour plates. The shot with the original Dread is testament to how fantastic a job you've done!