Sunday 2 April 2017

Rogue Trader Dreadnought vs Modern Dreadnought


So I decided to take a break from the Assassin Project for a bit as painting predominantly black models can get a bit tedious and I do like shake things up every so often in order to keep my interest up. Thus I rummaged through my (fairly large) abandoned projects box and found a 1988 'Rogue Trader' dreadnought that I had assembled and basecoated green in 2013 and a far more modern 'Assault on Black Reach' dreadnought that I had basecoated blue in 2009 just after that specific version of 40k (5th Edition) was released.



These two models are victims of my fairly common hobbyist disorder of 'serial project abandonment' and they had been left to linger for years as new shiny things grabbed my attention. However now seemed like an opportune time to finally get these models finished and ready to play with. This also allowed me to do something similar to my assassin project by painting an old school model alongside its modern contemporary!


The old 1988 model was painted to fit in with my Rogue Trader Salamanders army and I tried to follow a painting style and process consistent with models from that era. I generally like my older models to have a clean, neat paint job and this is something that I apply consistently across the force.


I embellished this old model with some classic Rogue Trader fetishes such as the painted on scrollwork and the inclusion of the ubiquitous 'KIL' marking on the right shoulder. My favourite such piece of this artwork are the 'teeth' on the vox-grill... So 1980s!!


If I'm being perfectly honest then the model is as crudely sculpted as all the Rogue Trader models from this specific period were and as such certain modern techniques would look out of place on it or are just not feasible! That being said it is a beautiful miniature that is still full of character and is great fun to paint. I used the advert photos from 1988's 'Book of the Astronomican' as reference throughout, and I think I captured this look nicely.

God knows what the ranged weapon is supposed to be...but I will be using this model as a dreadnought equipped with multimelta and power fist/stormbolter combo.


The modern dreadnought on the other hand was painted to fit in with my large Crimson Fists force which I have been building for the last 15 years. It shocked me that I had originally built this model eight years ago and so I was glad to be finally giving it the love and attention that it deserved.


Unlike my 1980's models I like my modern Space Marine vehicles to appear a bit more weathered and worn as if they are fighting on an extended campaign. Therefore I ensured that this venerable war machine was covered in dust; chips and scratches in order to show its strong battle heritage.


I focused the majority of this wear and tear on the areas of the model that would naturally be prone to such damage, for instance the sharp edges of the chassis and the power fist.


On this model I had originally put a dead chaos space marine's helmet in a pool of 'green stuff' blood as a piece of scatter terrain on the base when I assembled it nearly a decade ago. Initially I considered removing it this, but I decided to keep it and I'm glad that I did as it spruces up an otherwise fairly empty base. A few layers of gloss varnish ensured that this pool of blood was suitably glossy.


Overall I had great fun painting these two models and it only took me a couple of hours each night for a week to go from a basic basecoat to the finished article.

As you can see from the side-by-side shot there has been a considerable degree of scale creep between the 1988 model and its successor. Nonetheless they are both great miniatures and I'm sure that they will be facing off against each other at some point in the near future!






11 comments:

  1. Great paint jobs on both of them! I used to own three of the original dreadnoughts, two armed as yours, painted in Crimson Fists livery. I rather stupidly gave them away in the late 90s. If memory serves correctly, the unidentified weapon is a lascannon.

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    1. Cheers mate! It's a shame you gave those models away; I always feel a little bit sad for models I've given up in the past... like my massive blood angels collection and later my dark angels army!

      Lascannon..... got it! I think I'll use it as a multimelta for modern rules and contemporary dreadnought lascannons are supposed to be twin-linked.

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  2. Splendid job on both and It's impressive to see how you manage to tie those models while adpating your style to fit the sculpt.

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    1. Cheers JB. I'm going to have to varnish the Rogue Trader dreadnought as it's all soft metal; but I am dreading (excuse the pun) doing it as I think the varnish might tone down the retro effect!

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  3. Absolutely cool work, nice to see how you got the spirit of both eras and translated that into your paintjob.
    Absolutely great!!

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    1. Thanks Suber!!

      I like being able to mix and match my styles to keep myself interested! It's fun to have these different models to play around with!

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  4. I remember the metal dreadnaughts. A pig to put together. You've done a cracking job.

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    1. Spot on Phil... it was an absolute nightmare to put together.... it spent a lot of time glued to my hand!!!!

      Cheers mate!

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  5. Great work here on these two dreads. My tastes very much lie in the Rogue Trader era of sculpting style, but I can really appreciate the skill you have applied in bringing out the detail on the plastic version. And you basing detail is great fun too! But perhaps a little blood splatter on the horns of the helmet? The Chaos Marine's remains look rather too neat and tidy compared to the dread. Or was is just a 'clean kill'? (;

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    1. Cheers Orlygg! As an Oldhammerer I am drawn to the older dreadnought much more; it has a sort of 'innocence' to the sculpt that was very much the mark of the time. Where as the newer one is intrinsically tied to the current 40k canon and couldn't really be justified outside of that genre!

      I was considering a bit of blood splatter but I couldn't decide how best to achieve it without obscuring the striations I'd done on the horns!

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  6. Lovely, I just picked up an old RT era Fury Dreadnought, I think that arm is the Las Cannon arm, the other arm which looks like a Plasma Cannon is actually a Missile Launcher looking at the artwork in the RT book.

    Talking of scale creep - the new Redemptor is ruddy huge! Bigger than a Forge World Leviathan and that was big.

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