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Hi guys,
I recently acquired:
- 2x Venerable Dreadnoughts
- 2x Ironclad Dreadnoughts
- Some Maxmini Scenic bases
- Several bitz sites orders
- A whack of rare-earth magnets
My goal? An almighty Dread kitbash!

So far, I've done about half the arms from the kits and orders, magnetised about 2/3 of those and gotten the Venerable Dreads more-or-less ready for priming.
I've assembled one to be blinged up to the nines, as a former Brother-Captain, and one that (to my mind, at least) is distinctly Chaplain themed and will be painted as such.

Which brings me neatly to the point of this post.
I built one set of the Ironclad arms, just to get a feel for the finished article for dry-fitting etc., and got to thinking how appropriate the Seismic Hammer was for the Chaplain Dread, much more Crozius-like than the Power-Fist-esque Venerable Dread Close-Combat Weapon.
So, Ironclad Chaplain dreadnought, to be used as an Ironclad in standard games, for Apoc I'll rules bash the Chaplain Dread rules into the Ironclad profile, but that's for another post.

I've gone down the route of mounting the Assault Launchers on the front of the arms, partly because I like it better than front-mounted, partly so I can beef up the front armour on the two Ironclads without them getting in the way, partly so I have enough to spread over 3 Dreads, and partly so I can use my Chaplain Dread as an actual Chaplain Dread (with appropriate magnetised arm swap of course).

My only hang-up at the moment is I can't decide where to mount the Hunter-Killer Missiles.
Take a look at the pics below (Excuse the Blu-Tak, some bits are easier painted separately!):

Concept One

It looks a lot beefier, and just cooler to my eye, but may cause a problem with weapon hard points.
It's my understanding that a 'Weapon Destroyed' result with a Dread results in an arm being removed, underslung weapon and all.
So That'd mean I'd lose the HK's at the same time.
I know I don't HAVE to be so literal, especially since it's not covered in the rules per-se, but I think to do otherwise could be confusing...

Concept Two

This gets around the potential rules problem, and the magnet fitting will probably be a lot easier, but I dunno, just doesn't quite feel right, ya know?

So, what do I do?
The cool-but-possibly-rules-complicated approach, or the easiest but "he's a but hunch-backed, isn't he?" approach?
Help me Dakka, or I feel my indecision will condemn this guy to the infamous "I'll finish it eventually" box!

p.s. One extra thing - The weather here has not been primer-friendly for a few weeks, but today seems to be an exception.
It's sunny but not hot, doesn't seem likely to rain, hasn't rained earlier, isn't cold, isn't humid.
So basically I'm looking to get this guy primed today, and I hate adding on to a model after that!
So cast your vote, quick-sharp, and help me make a choice and get on with it!

Anything's better than the standard mounting! Having said that, I voted (d) because the arm-mounted version looks a little erratic - more like a countermeasurees dispenser than a HK missile launcher.

I've ben toying with the idea of mounting HKs on the outside of the wrist, with a suitably-dramatic pointing pose. Not sure how that'd work over the top of the DCCW, though.

Your Dread build looks pretty damn sweet, too.

Great Dread kitbash , made even better by your base!

My call was Other- have you considered remounting the waist sensors and replacing them with waist mounted HKs?
Could look good IMO. It also gets around the problem of weapon removal.

@ Necroagogo
I love the idea of the wrist-mounts, but I fear the Ironclad DCCW & Seismic Hammer are too bulbous to fit them on, and I'm still left with the weapon removal problem

@ CadianXV
Yeah, gotta love those Maxmini bases! Those are the only ones I've bought so far, but I know what my next army will be standing on!

CadianXV wrote:have you considered remounting the waist sensors and replacing them with waist mounted HKs?

Oh you genius! That'd be perfect! But I think impossible at this point
The sensors are part of the, rather thick, torso base that's mostly obscured once the Dread is assembled. I think I'd do too much damage to the surrounding components trying to do that now.


P.S. To those voting 'Gak' can you please tell me why you think that!
I'm rather fond of this model, and quite getting into this Dread Forge project, if you genuinely have beef with it, let me know the specifics!
I may be able to fix it, or at least avoid the same mistakes on the others.
Or, if you're just fething with me, then

thats one of the better looking conversions for a dread ive seen in a while

epil wrote:thats one of the better looking conversions for a dread ive seen in a while

Which one?

Second pic. I like the missile launcher's mounted on the tops of his shoulders it reminds me of the typhoon missile launchers on the tactial dreadnought armor

That's a good point, hadn't thought of it like that...
I'm also painting my Dreads the same was as TDA RE: placement of colour, so that's quite a nice comparison!
Thank you!

The missiles on the top look so much better than on the arms. On the arms it looks just added on.

I would be inclined to try a vertical launch mount attached to the back. Guided missiles don't necessarily need to be facing their targets at launch

I like concept 1 the best.
It makes the dread look really wide.
I know that you will lose some of this width when the arms are attached properly(without the extra bulk of the blu tac) but wide/squat dreadnoughts look ace imo.