So it finally happened. I finally played my first game of 2010, and it was on February 27... yeah I was a little busy.

And which army did I play? Well, if you are reading this you might be able to take a shot at that one. Right, Space Marines... it was my turn to defend humanity against the vicious threat that is the Tau. It was a lot of fun. I really need to play more.

What I would have liked in that game, would have been a Dreadnought, and in the best possible situation, a Venerable one would have helped a lot. I just couldn't hit with any of my heavy weapons... that extra BS would have been nice.

So snooping around the MiniWarGaming store room, I came across this little beauty. Being that I haven't played Marines in quite some time, I didn't even know these were available. I was excited to say the least... although now the threat of a Venerable Dread Sock just doesn't have the same ring to it.

It didn't take me long to rip through the protective plastic coating, and the box proved to be of even less difficulty to open, but once I got to the spruey goodness inside, I noticed something very different from past Dreadnought boxes I have assembled. That difference was this:



Lots and lots of bits. That's right, there were a ton of different bits, and since looking through the instructions isn't really my style, I dove right in and started snipping all the parts off the sprue.





I don't recommend this for people that have to go step by step with instructions. In fact, the sprue itself has these nifty little numbers that probably corrispond to what they are, or where they go... I'm not sure, I misplaced the instructions somehow.



So once I got all the pieces off the sprue I noticed that most of them are just different options for the same piece, and although that makes it tough to decide what to put on the actual model, it does leave the conversionist (I'm sure that's a word) in all of us some great bits.



Since I know I always have trouble deciding what to put on a model, I fell back on my tried and true method and assembling all the stuff I know has to go together, and then decide on the options later. So I was off to the legs, and they are the same as the regular Dread legs so that was a snap. I feel that this is a great place to give you the first "Joe's Tip of the build"... I'm sure there will be more to come. The tip is simply this: When gluing the legs to the feet on a dreadnought, which comes with a decorative base right from the box, it is important that he stands straight. The easiest way I have found to do this, is to place the feet on the spots I want them on the base (don't glue them yet), and dry fit the legs. This will allow you to move them to get the toes facing the direction you want, and you will ensure nice flat coverage to glue the bottoms of the feet onto the base as well. Then put a dab or two of glue onto each foot, and stick the legs in there.





After that, the torso was a breeze and just before I glued it to the legs I though to myself "You know, I would love to be able to turn the torso on the legs, and I am sure if it were removable, it would make transportation that much easier." And I wouldn't have felt like such a fool, but I thought that out loud, and my roommate was within earshot. She laughed at me.

It didn't take long to bust out the magnets for this... and even though she was still laughing at me, I was able to drill my holes, and use a couple of 3/16" round magnets to stick this guy together. I used 3/16" mainly because I have a bunch of them, and besides vehicles, they are too big for most infantry, but also because the added strength means the model won't come apart unless you really mean to take it apart.



Next I was off to the right arm and guns... being that I had my magnet gear out, I figured it was the next logical step... I was surprised to see that I didn't need them at all. It seems like GW is helping us indecisive players out, by giving us a system that makes it incredibly easy to swap out guns as we want.





That's right, all you have to do is take the arm off the shoulder, and the gun pulls right out the front. Just make sure not to glue that in place, and there is no need for magnets. Thanks GW, although I do love magnets. Luckily for me, the Stormbolter/Heavy Flamer mount has no such system! Of course, magnets to the rescue. 1/16" was what I used, and although the single one on the mount didn't seem strong enough, I put one on the ammo feed and that seems to fix everything.





After that, everything that was left was simply playing dressup. At first, I wanted to go with all the Gothic Arch bits, as they look pretty freakin' sweet! I stayed away from those however, as I didn't want to cover the Marine in the middle of this beast. Because of that, I figure with this model, I will be staying with the standard scroll motif, and maybe use the other bits to possibly convert one of my AoBR Dreads into a cool looking Iron Clad Dreadnought, or another Venerable. Time will tell with that one I guess.

So with that, I was pretty much complete with the model.







And I was left with all these awesome pieces to do with as I please.



Right now he is drying from my first coat of primer... so I will be taking off to work on that now... hopefully you will all get to read that article soon. But as I leave you to work on my new Venerable Dreadnought, I will leave you with a couple of pictures for size comparison. I think they are basically the same size, but these should give you a good idea.