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Hey all. So my brother has started collecting Ultramarines, I figured I'd help out by making him a birthday present out of an old crummy AOBR dread that was collecting dust. With a few unused bits from a venerable dread kit and a bit of tinkering I reckon I've made a good enough improvement.

It's only bluetacked together for now, until I wrap up work. Not entirely decided on what more it needs.

Thoughts?

Looks pretty darn god to me. Maybe a few more cables etc between the arms. The kinds look like a single RPG could knock them off atm.

I think you need to beef out the 'armpits' with more robust-looking pistons and cables. Then it'll be sweet.

 JohnnyHell wrote:
I think you need to beef out the 'armpits' with more robust-looking pistons and cables. Then it'll be sweet.

I would agree with JohnnyHell. I think it looks fantastic, the pose is super sick(in fact, you motivated me to give this a try with my own!), the supports/actuators/pistons look a little weak considering what they are holding up. Also, I don't know if I would make them stick out that far. I totally see it for the pose, its just hard to picture it in a static stance(ya know, like normal) then going to that without some weird transformers crap happening...if that makes sense.

Good work overall! I'm sure he'll love it.

Nice conversion. Some beefier armpits would most certainly go along way to improving an already ripping model.

That pose looks slightly familiar...! He-he! It looks great! Looking forward to seeing i painted.

That looks great! really like the pose and the way you did the hydraulics I'd like to know what you used and how you did it?

I like it. The pose suggests he is scanning for something to shoot, or perhaps that he's suddenly noticed an enemy and locked on.

If you decide to add some extra parts in the armpits, I would suggest for one idea looking at IG heavy weapon team bits...the lascannons in those kits have a thick bundle of cabling connecting the gun to its battery that you might be able to convert to fit in there.

I think you've done a very good job! My only suggestion would be to add some power cables between the chassis and the arms.

Thanks for all the feedback folks. The more I looked at the pictures (and the model mockup itself) the more I started to think what most of you have mentioned, more cables and pistons. I stuck a few more cables inbetween the two front pistons, but I'm thinking I'll have to just glue the arms onto the torso and throw in stuff between those as well, like AegisGrimm suggested. A few cables and some bigger pistons. So more pictures to follow once I do that. I did want to paint them separately for ease, but should be ok.

As for the pistons (for nerdfest09), the central pieces connecting to the disc (attached to the weapons) are 3mm and 5mm diameter styrene rods, the near semisphere on the disc is the neckpiece from marine helmets. After those had dried up I just drilled through the disc and slightly into the ring on the torso, then ran 0.5mm metal pins through. The bigger pieces connecting the pins to the torso are styrene rod with rounded off ends while the thin pieces opposite side are electrical cable covering. Then bit of electrical wire and guitar wire for the power cables.

Right, I finished the dread. However, I changed my mind about reworking the arms, or adding to them. As awesome as it would've been, it'd been extra work, and/or removing my completed work. As for extra cabling, as I was planning on, I didn't really feel it necessary in the end, and just slapping the arms on after painting was a lot easier. Substantial improvement from the regular AoBR read I think, and good enough for tabletop quality gaming.

So, here you go. Comments welcome.

It looks good man! Paint added a little more bulk.

It looks great

The effect you did to the barrels of the main gun looks amazing, it looks just like real metal.

 AntomanElven wrote:
It looks great

The effect you did to the barrels of the main gun looks amazing, it looks just like real metal.

Thank you, that was the first time I tried it. I looked up a few tutorials here on Dakka. Blue wash at the end of the barrel, purple wash after it toward the middle.

I'm going to give you the best compliment I can think of - Its wonderful. And I hate you -

 AntomanElven wrote:
It looks great

The effect you did to the barrels of the main gun looks amazing, it looks just like real metal.

I think he has just done it with washes, It's what I do to my Hordes of rats