Hello again! It feels like ages since I posted here. It's actually six days, but what the heck.
I've been collecting bits and pieces to convert a chaos dreadnought for a while. I don't mind the current Hellbrute kit, but it's very static and, for a walking tank from Hell, not all that exciting (and it has funny stumpy feet). I thought I'd make my own, weird, version.
First up, I got an extremely old plastic dreadnought and removed the legs (but not the crotch), arms and front plate. I bought some replacement legs - they are from the undead Terrorgheist model, and have a nice spindly quality. They'd give the model some height and get away from the "robot toddler" shape of most dreadnoughts.
I pinned the legs to the crotch. Much better!
Then it was time to add an arm. I had some bits from the plastic hellbrute kit, including a nice right arm. On it went. I also added a pair of heavy bolter barrels to the chest, for extra firepower.
Round about this point, something extremely chaotic happened. Blood began to appear on the side of the model! Was this a sign from the Chaos gods? No, I'd cut my finger open. Unimpressed by my own idiocy, I put on a plaster and proceeded.
I had a spare hellbrute missile launcher arm, but like the loyalist dreadnought version, it seemed very stubby, as it connected directly to the body. That made the model look pretty unbalanced, especially with the skinny legs. So, I took the original dreadnought's power-fist arm, removed the fist and attached a trimmed-down version of the missile launcher.
I had to remove the shoulder joint, where the launcher meets the shoulder of the hellbrute. That left an ugly gap, which I covered with plasticard, a storm bolter and a random bit of tech that I'd cut from a skitarri soldier.
In the meantime, I'd been working on a head. I made a new front-plate out of a rectangle of plasticard, and sculpted some chaos-style edging out of green stuff. I stuck a Tzeentch demon head into the middle of it. I got the demon head for a few quid off ebay, and I thought that it looked right with the thin, birdlike legs.
And then I stuck it all together! Not bad at all, I think. It might need some additional bits and bobs, and the base needs adornment, but the main shape is there.
It just needs paint!