Today we have the second (and last) model I finished for Dreadtober 2017.

When I restarted on this model for Dreadtober, most of the basic work was already done. Long done in some parts, and then piecemeal during the various times I’ve tried to make myself complete the model over the years, but it had been a real albatross for a long, long time. My Dreadtober work, then – was a bit of final cleaning up, shading, highlighting, de-skittling parts of the model, and then of course adding in the iconography. There are some Easter Eggs here for those who recognise them as well.

The model is the old, 2nd edition Metal Space Marine Dreadnought with a Plasma Cannon converted from the Multi-Melta and a metal Space Marine Plasma Cannon, because none of those parts existed when I built this model – not even the resin Plasma Cannons from Forge World. The arm is magnetised, and all that metal is why it droops a little. I’ll add back in a little bit of blu-tac which will reinforce the magnet enough to hold itself up for long periods

The Mentor Legion were my second “proper” Space Marine army, following my Rogue Trader Ultramarines and the mess I made of them when the latter part of 2nd edition hit – which I will discuss some other day. I started the Mentor Legion when 3rd edition came out. “New Edition, New Army” wasn’t really a thing back then – certainly not as a marketing term, anyway – but it’s what I chose to do at the time.

One of the things that put me off from finishing this model for the longest time was the lack of Mentor Legion transfers or Iconography available. Back in the 1990s, when I used a Mac (G3/233), I created a transfer sheet with Mentor Legion decals, along with many Aquila, and all sorts of other icons that would be very useful for wargaming. I purchased a sheet of decal paper, and ran it through my Inkjet. Looked amazing. After a wait to allow it to dry, I then sprayed it with a fixative as the instructions stated, and it ran and was ruined. And that was the end of that until the 30th of October 2017 when I finally tried again. Because I really wanted to add the chapter number (888) of the Mentor Legion to the model.

Of course now, in my home office, I have a really quite good quality colour laser printer. I’ve had unused decal sheets for a few years, but again – it took the completion of this project and the deadline inherent with “Dreadtober” to get over that particular hump. I also had some 3-d printed “owl” icons made by a nice fellow on Shapeways. I’ll update the post in a few days with his details once my next order has been sent as GW has been a bit litigious with this sort of thing lately and I’m a bit tired of things I like that aren’t really enforceable being ruined by C&D’s from big corporations lately.

The rear-facing number on top of the sarcophagus was inspired by police and similar vehicles that do the same. It’s not really at a proper aircraft recognition size, but it still looks decent. I’ve gone for a “Dreadnought number” rather than using the company number of my Mentor Legion. Mentor Legion, I should point out – circa White Dwarf 98/ – as distinct from the red-raptor headed “Mentors” that they kind-of retconned the chapter into, though with such little detail that it doesn’t matter. I consider them a successor chapter, or perhaps a sub-chapter in my own head-canon. I might write it up one day, or perhaps not. Either way, there’s so little written about them post-WD98, and what came later is contradictory enough that there’s plenty of Tabla Rasa space there, so I’m sure I could write up some fluff that incorporates it well enough and would probably make more sense.

So there we are then. I guess I’ll need to get to work on the rest of the unfinished Mentor Legion sometime soon enough, but I’ve got other stuff to clear out first before I re-start that project in earnest. It might even be a 2018 one.

We’ll finish with a shot of the pair of Dreads that Dreadtober motivated me to finally complete. Both finished, finally. After so many years. It feels bloody good to get this pair of monkeys off my back.