Dreadtober 2024 preparation.

 

As has become tradition over the past couple of years, during October I'm going to be taking part in Dreadtober again.

The first year I completed an Ork Dreadmob and last year I painted up two World Eaters Legion Dreadnaughts for the Heresy period.

This year I decided to head back to my beloved Greenskins and tackle a model which I ALWAYS wanted but was never able to afford from Forge World before it was discontinued.

A Meka-Dread!!!!

A huge mechanical monstrosity armed with a massive Buzzsaw and a Shunta/Zzap Kannon. As well as a multitude of smaller holding klaw arms, and piloted by the maddest of Big Mel's makes this a brilliant kit.

As alluded to, I think the kit is Out of Production now, but as is usual for Forge World it was ridiculously priced for their lack of quality control so I haven't got that kit.

Instead, I found a free to download STL of the Meka-Dread on the purple site* and downloaded and printed my own.

After a few full build plates, washing and curing the parts I was left with this:

There are some serious chunks of resin there, lots of pinning will be needed!

Making a start, I began with the engine block as that seemed the easiest. The top exhaust and the pipes on the side were separate and easy enough to glue together:

Next I decided to tackle to Shunta-Kannon, this was in seven pieces total, and as there is a fair chunk of weight hanging off the shoulder I decided to add pins throughout this piece.

There are five or six pins in this gun alone!

Not photographed yet, but I also have the legs glued together and pinned with the hip joint added, so the beast is almost ready for priming.

I'm going to use my traditional Ork Goff scheme, starting from an orange basecoat to begin the rust effect, and then work up through metallics and add the black, red and checkers on the armour panels.

As usual through the month I'll document progress to keep everyone updated as well as for Dreadtober itself who post a weekly round up of everyone who signed up to take part.

Until next time, have nice day...

*If any of you reading this doesn't know what the "purple site" is, I will explain if needed. But as I know at least one GW staff member who reads this sometimes, I don't want to get the 3D modeller in trouble.