Tag Archives: Iron Warriors

Dreadtober 2024: Iron Warriors Legion Naismith Pattern (Contemptor) Dreadnought (3D Print)

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Dreadtober is an annual painting challenge that runs every October. Pretty much every year for the last several, I hope to start on it, but never end up finishing a model. This year, despite being as busy as I have been, I decided to try and speedrun a stealth entry and see if I could get something finished in time. That way if I didn’t manage to finish anything, it wouldn’t be a(nother) “Here’s the project I’m starting but actually not going to finish” post.

So how’d I go? Did I succeed? Well, yes and no. You can see the results in the picture above, but the caveat is that while I think it’s certainly table-ready, there are a few more things I still want to do with it. Weathering, more work on the base, possibly some greenstuff or guitar-wire cables on the old-school Lascannon, and I’m also not sure if I should add some more colours to the Lascannon.

This model is, obviously, based on the original Dreadnoughts from Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader – sculpted by Bob Naismith. I’ve had this STL sitting on my PC for quite a few years now, and as I’ve now got a printer that isn’t a huge pain in the arse, it was time to break out this nostalgic bad boy and make it physical.

As a 3D printed model, you can see some of the print lines on it – I feel like they’re not as problematic on a mechanical model as they would be for something organic. I’m still pretty happy with the result, especially given that it’s an FDM print and so is much “cleaner” and more straightforward than resin printing.

After looking around online, I decided to print it at 115% as people had suggested – at that enhanced size it fits more with the current Contemptor models, which is what people tend to use these as. I guess in a 40k situation it’d be a Hellbrute, but 40k has really messed up the whole Dreadnought situation pretty badly with their model/range culls of recent times. As someone who hasn’t actually played for far too long and has no interest in competitive play, IDGAF so I’ll just use it as whatever whenever I get back to friendly games.

I may or may not add some more colour modulation as well. It is a bit tricky with a limited-palette, limited-detail model like this, but perhaps a little more brownish tint on the lower portions and some more highlights up top – though I don’t want it to look too shiny, either!

And here’s a little bit of WIP-progression from the last week or so, photographed a bit at a time. As noted here and in yesterday’s post, I haven’t really had a lot of time for blogging, and let’s be honest – none of the above photos really deserves a post of it’s own, either!

Still, this is the first 40k related thing I’ve painted in quite a long time, and the first Iron Warriors model I’ve painted in even longer. Might be time to harness some of this enthusiasm and fit some more Warhammer back into this blog!

Iron Warriors MK.IIIc Pattern Predator (MechaNovember ’19)

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Iron Warriors MK.IIIc Pattern Predator

Here’s the final of the three, very neglected, vehicles I managed to make myself finish through November. I really should have taken a “before” picture of this model, but it was very much something that was warped, repurposed and then cobbled together. Originally, I got this as a secondhand piece, covered in spikes and bits of the original Chaos Vehicle Sprue and painted in a dark blue of (presumably) the Night Lords. After disassembly, I found that the hull was mis-aligned and the hull was heavily scarred with plastic cement from where all of the crap was glued onto it. I covered the holes at the front and back of the hull where the joins were, as well as the scars on top, sides and front of the track assembly.

Iron Warriors MK.IIIc Pattern Predator

I considered removing the spiked hedgecutters, but they really did not want to come off, and so I’m writing off that one bent spike as “battle-damage”. I added some etched brass details as well – the large Legion Skull Icon on the front of the hull as well as the smaller IV and Icon on the fender and turret. The large Legion number and vehicle name were from the Forge World decal sheet.

Iron Warriors MK.IIIc Pattern Predator

The metal top hull plates didn’t fit well at all, and the same was true of the two halves of the turret. I tried to fix both, but to no real avail – it feels like they’ll be one of those things that other people don’t notice too much but annoy the hell out of the painter (me). I’ve also added some hazard stripe decals on the hull and rear of the turret, as well as painting a small amount of the trim in copper to make the vehicle a little more like my older Iron Warriors infantry.

Iron Warriors MK.IIIc Pattern Predator

As one of the engine exhausts was missing, and naturally the fine pipes were all broken, I reattached a pair of the exhausts at the rear of the tank – though with the engine hatches located at the rear of the hull it doesn’t seem a terrible fit. I also needed to fill in some space to bulk out  the rear of the track sections, so a combination of a pair each of jerry jans and the original rhino kit stowage crates covered that. With the finish, I wanted it to look “clean”, yet worn – befitting the more orthodox Iron Warriors.

Iron Warriors MK.IIIc Pattern Predator

Here is the Predator alongside some of the Iron Warriors infantry that will be fighting alongside it.

Iron Warriors MK.IIIc Pattern Predator, Plague Marine Rhino Mk.I.

Finally a shot of the Iron Warriors Predator alongside the Iron Warriors Plague Marine Rhino that I finished as part of MechaNovember ’19.