Dreadtober – Contemptor Style

If you’re not aware of Dreadtober, I don’t think you’re alone.  I’ve heard of the term a couple of times over the past few years, and only last year did I really feel like I should be painting one when Greggles from Feed Your Nerd started an internet movement with the idea.   The thing is, I’m notoriously difficult to inspire, so even though I felt like I should be painting a dread, I didn’t actually get off my duff and do it.

Well, this year is going to be different.  Joe over at Broken Paintbrush took up the mantle and I threw my hat in the ring.

And why shouldn’t I?  I have a total of eight dreadnoughts of various types that need to be painted:

• 1x Chaplain
• 1x Contemptor
• 1x Deredeo
• 4x “Normal” Dreads

That doesn’t include the three that I have painted (Ironclad, Venerable, Normal), or the half a dozen various dreads I have for my Chaos army–that I’m sure will never actually see the table.

By the way, anyone want to buy some Chaos Dreads?

That aside, I clearly need to get off my duff and paint a dreadnought or two, so why not use this opportunity to actually get some work done?  Well, the number one reason I would avoid this (aside from general malaise) is that I want to be working on my Genestealer Cult, as they just got a new codex, but hopefully I can knock this out relatively quickly and get back to that project.

With so many dreads to choose from, I figured it really didn’t matter all that much which one I started with.  Since I’d already had a venerable painted, along with an Ironclad and a normal one, the obvious choices were between the Chaplain (who looks cool, but I doubt is any good in the game), the Deredeo (which is pretty fantastic–at least it was when Brandon played one against me–but mine has some warping on the guns, so it will likely take longer) or the Contemptor.

I went for the Contemptor, both for the reasons listed above and the fact that I’d already mostly assembled and magnetized it–plus primed and basecoated it as well (you can make it out in these pictures).  Then again, basically all of the other dreads were in a similar situation, but whatever, I’m painting the Contemptor!

Like I said, it was already primed and basecoated in blue, but when I went to go paint it, I realized that I had missed some steps.  Firstly, I had never assembled the missile launcher for the back of it (I had purchased one, but it was still sitting in the baggy–I think I avoided it because I just didn’t know what that bit was for–but it was entirely possible that I had looked at it and laughed openly about how dumb it looked and ignored it on principle).

Still, I had purchased it, so there was no point in not magnetizing it before I painted up the model, right?  So I got to gluing that together and getting it magnetized on the back of the dread.

Likewise, I realized that I had done nothing to put Ultramarine iconography on the model.  I suspect that’s because I didn’t have any brass etch remaining, but luckily I had purchased some for a Vindicator that I was working on, along with some of my Ultramarine flyers, so I tacked on a few Omegas and an Iron Cross on this guy and painted over them with some Gesso (Bob Ross Gesso, to be precise).

I then went over the base coat with some more blue and promptly forgot that this post was supposed to be entirely contained to modelling, so I started putting up layers of black and boltgun for the metals.  Oh well, a little extra progress never hurt anyone.

Frankly, I don’t think I’ll have many posts on this guy–maybe one more WIP post for painting, but I may also just have him finished next time I talk about him.   I could also see a post dedicated to basing him, but I’m not sure he’ll be based by the end of the month.  I do have a lot of other basing to do, so I’ll likely just lump him in when I base the rest of the stuff.  I doubt that will be until December though when things slow down a bit for work.  You never know though…

I guess time will tell!