Dreadtober done

I am done! I was not sure if I would make it this year as i managed to fumble the start and I had one week away on a work trip. But the model was such fun to paint that even if it meant long sessions I kept pushing and had to actively stop myself to go to bed several times.

Over all I am happy with the result, but if I had to do it again I would hold back on the red stripes and make the checkered field a bit smaller. In the end, the pre heresy colour schemes are quite limited and a lot of the legions tend to have the same base colour (especially when they need to be figure painted) and it is only the detailing and iconograph that set them apart, and it is very easy to slide from one to the other. It would have helped if it would have been a legion specific miniature, but as it is a generic one this matters more. I tried to add some first legion flavour by adding the shields and a sensor helmet with wings. In the end I had to skip the wings on the helmet as it ruined the balance of the model in a non pleasing way. But I still think it sort of reads as a Dark Angels dreadnought and not a Blood Angel.

I am, as always, surprised how the colour tones change during the painting process. The "blacks" are very blue in the beginning but as soon at contrasting paints are put down it turns darker. Adding the brown orange rust in the corners further change the over all appearance of the black, from a cold blue to a warm black. As I usually pain the models in subassemblies it is not until I do the final assembly that I get the full picture of the composition and how the colours influence each other. Over all I am happy with this years contribution.