What planet striking Space Marine force would be complete without Drop Pods? Well in the world of 30K (or even pre-Heresy like for my War Hounds) then it's not a Drop Pod, it's Dreadclaw (below left)!
Forge World make a very decent Dreadclaw, but it's a large piece of resin and frankly a lot of money for something that sits there looking like a rather unhappy crab!
So when I saw some of the Guardians of the Galaxy toys (The Nova Corps Starblaster below right) on sale for $10 I thought I'd grab one just to add to the massive toy collection here at Beardy Hammer Central.
It wasn't until I sat it on it's bum that any notion of anything else even stuck me - but there it was (below right) Dreadclaw-ish. All it would take was some paint and a bit of slicing and dicing!
Forge World make a very decent Dreadclaw, but it's a large piece of resin and frankly a lot of money for something that sits there looking like a rather unhappy crab!
So when I saw some of the Guardians of the Galaxy toys (The Nova Corps Starblaster below right) on sale for $10 I thought I'd grab one just to add to the massive toy collection here at Beardy Hammer Central.
It wasn't until I sat it on it's bum that any notion of anything else even stuck me - but there it was (below right) Dreadclaw-ish. All it would take was some paint and a bit of slicing and dicing!
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Screwdriver in hand, it was time to pull this thing apart. There's only one screw holding the base together, so I channeled my inner MacGyver and got to it. The thing basically fell apart, so it's very easy to do.
Once the pieces were all apart I gave it a good soapy soak, then filled some seems with glue and sanded them flat when dry. The whole thing was undercoated black, then the metallic pieces were sprayed Leadbelcher, and Balthasar Gold was then used as an alternate metal colour for some areas. When this was dry, the metallic pieces were were washed heavily in Nuln Oil and left to dry while the cabin was sprayed white, then sprayed Macragge Blue. The metallics were then drybrushed in Ironbreaker.
Once the pieces were all apart I gave it a good soapy soak, then filled some seems with glue and sanded them flat when dry. The whole thing was undercoated black, then the metallic pieces were sprayed Leadbelcher, and Balthasar Gold was then used as an alternate metal colour for some areas. When this was dry, the metallic pieces were were washed heavily in Nuln Oil and left to dry while the cabin was sprayed white, then sprayed Macragge Blue. The metallics were then drybrushed in Ironbreaker.
Once the legs and engine section were completely dry the legs were placed back in the engine section and the plunger that was originally removed was placed back in and glued in place (below left). This would keep the legs as far apart as I wanted without them doing the splits (below centre)!
While this was drying, extra armour plates and rivets were glued to parts of the hull (below right). This was to give it a more Imperial look in tune with the Warhammer theme. SO MANY RIVETS!!
While this was drying, extra armour plates and rivets were glued to parts of the hull (below right). This was to give it a more Imperial look in tune with the Warhammer theme. SO MANY RIVETS!!
Once the plates were done and dry, the hull was sprayed black, then a light coating of white, followed by Macragge Blue spray again (below). No work was done on the cockpit as it will remain closed.
The previous cockpit section was sprayed white then washed and highlighted with shades of light grey worked up to white (below left). Not sure happy with this result as the shape is awkward to do.
Decals were applied for my War Hounds Legion and the blue was shaded and highlighted. A word of warning though, there are a lot of angles on this proxy Dreadclaw, so be prepared to do highlighting!
Decals were applied for my War Hounds Legion and the blue was shaded and highlighted. A word of warning though, there are a lot of angles on this proxy Dreadclaw, so be prepared to do highlighting!
... And there we have a $10 Dreadclaw!
| Is this a perfect Dreadclaw? No - no it's not - BUT it is a very cheap way to represent a vehicle that will drop your troops into the midst of a fire fight. The Dreadclaw by Forge World is a pretty hefty price, considering it's role - it's not a tank after all - so why not do what the original Warhammer modellers did and build your own? All up it took half a day to get most of it done, then maybe four hours spread over a few nights. In retrospect this would look really sweet with the blades from the Warhammer 40K Drop Pod on it too - maybe closer to the original Dreadclaw - but this one works too in a round about way. I'm sure this idea can be improved upon, so go get one of these and give it a go, then share with us - we'd love to see what you come up with!  |   |
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