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A few months back I had a slight bump in pay so decided to treat myself to an ork heavy. I wanted something to make a nice centre piece for my army and a project I could work on for a few months, as I'm a notoriously slow painter. Even more than usual though I've been taking my time with this one and slowly painting it up piece by piece. So far I've finished up the claw arm and its shoulder pauldron, with a very simple base coat over the rest of it. I'll be surprised if I finish this before Christmas, but it's coming on really well.

Since it's going to take forever to finish this thing, I thought I'd post up some work in progress pictures, see if anyone has any pointers for taking it over the top. It's already the best thing I've painted IMO, but I'm down for making it even better. Let me know what you guys think.









In particular I'd love to hear any pointers on the base. I grabbed a decent looking one from ebay, and have played with adding some tall grass, but I've never put a lot of time into bases so not sure what else to add - if anything.

Looking good keep up the good work on it would like to see it finished. I've got a mega dread enroute as it happens hehe. What size is that base? (I guess I'l be needing a base for mine)

Thanks man. Ill get it done, just going to take some time. That's a 120mm base. This one infact:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/120mm-oval-DS-Dungeon-Lair-resin-base-/150632140689?pt=UK_Toys_Wargames_RL&hash=item2312600f91

I also started work on converting a mega dread yesterday Love the concept of the monsterous robot For the base on mine I used cork board to build up a rocky look. Imo, the base you have currently is a little plain. Id love to see some wrecked or damaged bits on it. or just a little more going on. Due to the spacing of the mega dreads legs you have a large gap on the base which seems very open.

I always imagined that due to their nature of fighting in large clanky mobs with bits dropping off the whole way, ork dreads would normally be followed by a swarm of meks and gretchin dragging tools and spare parts. Perhaps have a few gretchin or a mek, how you pose them would depend on whether you're going for a 'in the midst of action' pose or a 'taking a break before advancing again' pose. (i.e jogging along behind, hammering something back into place, or cowering behind it as the shots come in)

Interesting idea Mecha. I do have some spare grots so maybe I'll add a couple here and there. Nice plan. Edit: You can actually see one in the below pic.

As per above recommendations for the base, I've now got the Dread crushing down a metal fence. Was fun busting out the blow dryer to get it to bend properly.

Will also be adding some more grass spots in the future.

Nice.

The MD could look a bit more ramshackle...
Realy nice base though....

Don't worry, lots of weathering to come

The fence (and the grots) will certainly liven up the base, but I'd add one more suggestion.

Oil spots. The Mega Dread doesn't look like a particularly tightly engineered device. Some drips of oil on the base might break up the expanse of sand, and emphasize how ramshackle the mega-dread is.

Also, any large orky base is improved by the addition of a squig. No matter what.

Nice model.

By the by, do you actually do poi?

As per grot suggestions, have grabbed a few from an unpainted big gunz crew. Greenstuffed a few of them on to try it out, I'm liking them so far.







A bomb squig might be fun, suggesting it's going AWOL perhaps. Oil spots I do like the sound of though. Will have a look up some tutorials, make sure I don't crap the base up.

Poi? No... fire staff... yessir :p

Looking awesome was think on getting one myself, how are they to build? was thinking on having mine loom over a waithguard

Ah can't help you there I'm afraid. Grabbed this second hand and already built from Ebay :S

Ah ok

With the grots peeled off for now for separate painting, I decided to crack on with the main body. Cleaned up and highlighted the blue on the main body and added another layer to the white to make it a bit more solid.

Wow nearly two months since the last update. I have been working on him a little, honest, I just bought Kerbal Space Program near Christmas and the free hours have just disappeared.

Anyhow, crappy pictures but they get the idea across. Progress is being made as the main body is now mostly complete. The smoke stacks and engine need doing still, as does the pilot, but the rubbish bin middle is weathered and washed to a state that I'm pretty happy with.



I also started work on the extra gretchin that you guys suggested I add and they're coming on quite nicely.



Hopefully I'll get another update done before another few months have passed. Bear with me.

Here's a much better shot of the front, showing the weathering properly:



Note the Dakkajet in the background which I've been modifying with a lot of battle damage. That's part of the reason this Dread is taking so long.

I also finished up those three Grot riggers. Three to go:



Been working on the engine block this week. It's weathered and washed in most places, though there's a couple of cables to finish and a bit of highlighting to do:



I'll also probably add some soot with weathering powders once I've finished painting the whole thing. Nothing worse than getting that powder all over the place.

One thing I'm having trouble figuring out conceptually though, is what to cover up that "shield" on the base with. It's obviously part of a Dungeon, fantasy era base set, but does it fit just sitting there like that? I feel like I should cover it with something, like an engine part but nothing that I've tried looks right. Maybe I should just surround it with the tall grass? What do you guys reckon?

Looks fantastic and I love the base work!

Ok engine block is now complete. I may do some more weathering to it at some point, add some soot or oil marks, but I'm done with highlights and washes, so we're getting there slowly but surely. That's over half the thing done now - huzzah.



Spotted a mold line in this second one after taking, but due to the angle you can't see it when it's stood normally. Likewise the little colour cable details I did at the bottom, but oh well.

Right pauldron now finished as well.



Not the most well lit shot I must admit. I'll get something better when I've finished the boom gun and pilot. Bit of a milestone finishing the top half.

Well it's been a while guys and progress hasn't been rapid,surprise surprise, but it's still ongoing. I've now finished the Kannon arm and I'm quite pleased with how it came out.

I'm not 100 per cent happy about the shells inside the... chambers? But not sure what I can do besides adding a highlight on the point of each perhaps? Any ideas?



I think I over-weathered the barrels a little, but still like the overall look. I'm being consistent at least.



The little diorama on the base is coming along well too, as I've stuck down two of the finished Grots and have added some more long grass. There's also a few clumps of shorter grass to make it all a bit more interesting.

There's a couple more gretchin to go and some more grass and bits, but it's not far off now.



And here's how it's looking altogether so far. I'm thinking I'll do the pilot next and then work on the legs and lower torso. This has now stretched out to a six month project so I'm a bit embarrassed it's taken this long and will try and get the last bits finished before the end of March, but it'll probably go for longer than that in the end.



At least it should look good when it's finally finished.