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Hi, im relatively new to the hobby, and want to scratch build stuff, for my orks mostly.

I play orks and Chaos Space marines.

the idea i have, is to scratchbuild a chaos dreadnought out of plasticard, cardboard, piping, spare bitz and whatever else i have at hand.

Theres afew problems i see though

1)This project is probably alittle ambitious for me, sort of being thrown into the deep end to learn how to swim

2) I dont know the scale of a dreadnought, so getting the size right will be an issue.

3) making the legs and weapons. A Close Combat Weapon won't be too difficult, i could make something simple out of plasticard and green stuff for them. but something like a autocannon or plasma cannon, i do not know how i would make. the legs, i dont know how i would be able to do. It looks like it would be rather difficult.

What I'm asking for, is advice on how to slow these problems. Anything is appreciated, even telling me to back off for a while and start with simpler things.

Thanks in advance!


Edit : i play Red Corsiars, if thats any use on this matter

You can make a Chaos Dread or Defiler out of pretty much anything. Here is an ongoing WIP of mine to illustrate.

A dread is roughly 2.5-3 inches tall, give or take a bit depending on how tall your engine and legs are. It shouldnt be hard, however the plastic SM dread is easily converted into a Chaos Dread with some additions from the Chaos Vehicle Sprue.

MechaEmperor7000 wrote:however the plastic SM dread is easily converted into a Chaos Dread with some additions from the Chaos Vehicle Sprue.

yeah, i do realise that, but i want to get my scratchbuilding skills up for when i begin work on my orks, and im looking for a specific look on my dread that i will only be able to achieve with scratchbuiling, from what i can tell

Try going for an organic look with Chaos. If you make it look haphazardly put together, it will start to look orkish.

I think dread is a good start. As you only need the 'sillohuette' (Spelling fail) to recognise it, depending on your chosen level of scratchbuild you can conceal the more basic elements with GW accessories/weapons. The difficult part will be in the legs and possibly the power plant. I recommend for starters you make a 'chasis' from those pine coffee stirrers Starbucks have. Just grab a handful (10 should be plenty) some Pva and a craft knife. First you should practise your 'woodwork' mainly cutting rebate and chase joints as simply gluing them together is incredibly weak. Once you've got your skeleton start with some cereal packet and then plasticard once you are confident in the templates. Just reread the op, plasma weapns are very difficult to scracth build i would try and get someones spare IG HW autocannons if i were you. I Would donate them myself but if i know my flags you are from RSA lol.

And if it looks a bit crap, it should be easy to convert into an ork dredd