Converting a Blood Angel Dreadnought - Golden Demon Entry 2013

Hi all,

Today I'm going to take a look at my Golden Demon entry from last year and I'll try to explain the processes I went through in its creation. This was a spur of the moment project that I began a week before Games Day after being convinced by X2 painting studio to enter something as I was meeting them on the day. I'd highly recommend that everyone go and check out their Facebook page and like it to follow their projects.

I had an idea in my head for some time to create a Blood Angel army, all converted to show vampiric traits. With this in mind I began working upon converting a Furioso dreadnought. As the souls entombed within the dreadnought armour are supposed to be legendary warriors I wanted the character to look full on Vampire and the Ghoul King model from the Terrorgeist kit was just what I was looking for.

Here I am dry fitting the standard Furioso kit of which I have removed the sarcophagus and installed the Ghoul King into.

Next I cut the standard legs into pieces and installed sections of styrene tube with aluminium capping at the ends.

I thought the shin pads were too small compared to the rest of the model so I applied a coating of Milliput and once dried I sanded to the shape I desired.

Next I applied a further coating of Milliput to the torso armour and sanding smooth. I converted the claws so that they were in more of an aggressive orientation.

With the body glued in position I began to look at the base. I started by gluing stiffenning plates to a walled structure at the edge of the 60mm base.

Next I applied layers of cork sheeting in place.

With the cork in place I glued a resin cast pipe section from the Hirst Arts molds.

Next I surrounded the pipe with more cork.

Happy with the base I covered the whole base with a PVA and sand mix.

Here is the base once it had dried.

Here is the model positioned upon the base. I have also applied green stuff piping around the Ghoul King using the green stuff industries tentacle maker.

With the model and base complete I only had three days to paint the model before the big day. I began by undercoating the model black with Games Workshop black spray. I then applied a layer of armour brown followed by a layer of tank brown and finally a layer of golden yellow.

With the metal portions painted metallic and washed with black ink I moved to focus on applying freehand to all those flat panels.

I wanted a design to compliment the stance of the character and went with a flaming skull. Here I have penciled in the design straight onto the torso. I would also suggest sketching the design on paper first but I was running out of time fast.

Next I go over the penciled design with black paint.

And here is the final design. Sorry for the lack of photos but I was painting on a schedule.

Next I turned my attention to the leg armour. I tried to keep to a traditional Lamentors design on this panel but with a little modification of my own, a broken heart.

Here is a close up of the finished Ghoul King. I painted this model from a black base, gradually adding more layers of grey up to a white finish.

I wanted to give a name to each of the clawed arms and after consulting with a buddy of mine I chose to go with 'Sorrow' and 'Anguish' as these are both forms of lamentation.

Here is the model with levels of weathering applied with the sponge chipping technique.

And here is the model with the painted base and object source lighting applied to the claws. The base was painted from a black base then layered with various coats of reds, oranges and yellows. The claws were painted from a black base then layered with dark blue, light blue then finally white.

Here is my entry into Golden Demon 2013. This was my first ever Games Day and entering Golden Demon I was the first in the cabinet on the day.

And at the end of the day I came away with a cute medallion which now has pride of place in my presentation cabinet at home along with my Furioso dreadnought.

I'm really happy with how the model turned out and after painting it in only three days I can't complain with the outcome. I've definately been bitten by the bug and will definately be returning this year, hopefully with more entries.

Here is a video of the finished entry.

More to come,

Rumplemaster