Painted: Heresy-era Salamanders the 'Iron Dragon' Cassian Dracos

Greetings once again InterWebs!!!! It is Friday morning here and Mordian 7th and I are heading to the airport soon to catch a flight to GW's World of Battle in Memphis, TN. I thought I would show off my 3rd HQ choice for the event, here is my take on 'the Fallen Master, the Dragon Revenant, First Commander of the XVIII Legion': Cassian Dracos.........

His Banner which I am quite pleased with how it all turned out!

This was a very 'busy' model to paint with lots of surface details everywhere. I need to practice my flame painting a bit more, I would like to have the effect be more muted.....hmmm.

His base and if you look closely you can see a child's little dolly that he almost stepped on.

Cassian Dracos has special weapon arms which combine a powerfist and a special Salamanders flamer unit. I went with Puppetswar arms because I do not like the Forge World ones and I felt these ones looked more Heresy-era (older). The arms came with talons which I painted bone color to represent a Drake's Talons.  I also added a dragon headed flamer/melta nozzle which sits in the center of the powerfist.

The backside of his banner which shows the 'Iron Dragon' icon.

A look at one of his many trophy/fetish ropes and his base.

A look at the other shoulder and the Drake Talons over the powerfist. I think the contrast is nice between the bone and blue. He is a HQ choice and a very special character so I thought this was a decent way to add some more 'bling' to customized Dreadnought armor which happened to have been built by Vulkan himself!

Another look at the dragon nozzle poking out of the powerfist:

That is all for now, gotta get it all packed up in the car for the trip to the airport. One of the nice things about living in CO is we are fairly close to all things in the US and we have an awesome airport! I will have more painting updates when I get back and a whole mess of pictures from the weekend of Horus Heresy gaming! Take care and thanks for looking!

Painted: Heresy-era Salamanders Contemptor Dreadnought

Greetings once again InterWebs!!! The day was spent putting the finishing touches on the Legion Glaive and packing everything up in my BattleFoam case for the trip to GW's World of Battle in Memphis, TN for a weekend of Horus Heresy gaming. I have not had a lot of time lately to actually take pictures of everything but I have managed to take a few pictures. I would like to present to you my attempt at a Legion Contemptor Dreadnought for Legio XVIII Salamanders:

Venerable Brother Kinz'la:

Oaths of the Moment papers, flame red eyes, and a flaming Salamander icon:

Master-crafted Multi-Melta arm, Salamander Icon on the shoulder, and a Fetish Rope:

Backside view and a little look at his base:

Powerfist arm, Salamander Icon, and another Fetish Rope with a Blacksmith's Hammer:

The carapace mounted havoc launcher is magnetized to come off easily if needed:

I think the recovery of an abandoned project (from a friend.....Mordian 7th) turned out well. I can't wait to see what Forge World actually does for a Salamander Contemptor and I am sure I will have to get one or more! I do have pictures of my attempt at Cassian Dracos and I will try to get them posted before I jet off to Memphis. Thanks for stopping by and taking a look! Take care!

Heresy-era Salamanders: My take on Cassian Dracos

Greetings once again InterWebs!!! Just a short post tonight to share with you my latest build; here is my take on 'the Fallen Master, the Dragon Revenant, First Commander of the XVIII Legion': Cassian Dracos.

I used the Bray'arth Ashmantle body from Forge World, Puppetswar arms, various bits from the bits boxes, and greenstuff. I think the model works for a Heresy-era version of Bray'arth Ashmantle.

Each arm and the power pack all have fetish/trophy ropes. I scratched together the banner pole for the cloth banner I will be using.

I went with large talons on the fists to help sell the 'oldness' of the model, that and I am not a fan of the Forge World arms that are used on the Bray'arth Ashmantle model.

I think I managed to get a bit of a sense of motion out of this otherwise fairly static model (all marine dreads are very static in my opinion).

I used a helmet from the venerable dreadnought kit instead of the helmet that came from Forge World. I did this because I think this looks more Heresy-era (with the rivets and knightly-look) and it helps make it not look exactly like the Forge World basic build.

I had to sculpt a tabbard to cover up the Bray'arth nameplate on his groin. I then added a fetish/trophy rope. I think this is a decent representation of the first Legion Master of the XVIII Legion although I am looking forward to seeing what Forge World ends up doing for the model.

Thanks for stopping by and taking a look! Take care!

Heresy-era Salamanders: Contemptor Dreadnought

Greetings once again InterWebs!!!! The weather has been super cold lately which has meant a fair amount of indoor time in the hobby room/man cave. I was able to get quite a bit of build time in which is getting me ever so close to having 3000pts of Heresy Salamanders built. First off I started with my 'Heavy Hitters' and I would like to show you all my Salamanders Contemptor Dreadnought:

This is another gifted project which was abandoned by the original owner. The paint was thin and there is not a lot of surface detail on the model so I didn't strip the paint before starting the rebuild. I used plenty of greenstuff to make a base Contemptor a little more Salamander-looking.

I had to go with a Multi-Melta which will become 'master-crafted' when using the Salamander's Rite of War during games of 30k.

Flaming Salamander icon on the chest plate instead of the aquila (which is not Heresy-era):

I managed to primer him up while I waited for his missile rack to show up from Forge World. Here he is with his newly installed (and magnetized) missile rack:

That is all for now, I have my version of Cassian Dracos up next. Thanks for stopping by and taking a look.

Painted: Blood Angels Furioso Dreadnought

Greetings once again InterWebs!!! I would like to present to you my Blood Angels Furioso Dreadnought; while looking for some minis for a friend I stumbled across this guy lurking in the back of the cabinet. This model was converted from an Assault on Black Reach Dreadnought before GW came out with their plastic Blood Angel Furioso Dreadnought kit. All in all I think he turned out fairly well for being a conversion/kitbash  using parts from the bits boxes. Of course I had attempted to paint him those many years ago and he looked nowhere like the rest of my current Blood Angels, so the first step was to bring the red areas 'in-line' with the look of the rest of the army.

Here are some various paint-in-process shots:

This shows the new placement of the Meltagun:

Now to start some of the initial highlighting:

Now to add some of the other colors:

 Not too bad for a yellow over black:

I managed to knock out the rest of the painting last night as the snow was ending; here is my Blood Angels Furioso Dreadnought all finished up:

A look at his Heavy Flamer conversion:

Kill marks for the Meltagun:

The business end of the Heavy Flamer conversion:

Lurking in the ruins of a building (for scale purposes):

Thanks for stopping by and taking a look! Take care!