Deredeo Dreadnought: Assembled

Dreadnoughts keep getting bigger and bigger!

Forge World has a particular talent for making impressive robots, from the cyclopean Warlord titan all the way down to the more humble dreadnought.  In recent years, Forge World have done a lot with their Contemptor dreadnought, making countless variations and legion specific versions. Just when I thought they had reached a natural end, they released an even bulkier variation of the Contemptor theme, the Deredeo pattern dreadnought.  In the excitement that accompanies any FW release, we promptly purchased one. Despite our excitement, and getting an incredibly well cast version of the dreadnought, other projects pulled us away from the new dreadnought, and it did not get built.  In the last few weeks, however, something pulled me back to the armored giant, and I was able to clean and assemble the model rather quickly (and just in time for FW to release another new dreadnought, the Leviathan Dreadnought?!).  Although it was a fairly straightforward build, I thought that I would give you some of my thoughts about it, along with some pictures!

While normally such gigantic weapons would bother me, I think it works in the Deredeo's case because it is a dedicated heavy weapons platform.

The prevalent moldshifts and bubbles inherent with resin models were largely absent on my cast of the dreadnought, so the cleanup process was incredibly quick, only requiring the use green stuff in a few places to touch things up.  The Deredeo’s legs are much bulkier and  stocker than those seen on the Contemptors, making them more suitable for locking into a solid firing position. This made it much easier to pose it in a sensible fashion than the Contemptor (the thickness of the legs restrict the possibilities more).  The only other major element that had to fixed were the long autocannon barrels which were warped slightly during the casting process.  Normally, when I find a piece of resin that is bent, just running it under hot water is enough to soften it enough to bend it back into shape.  These autocannon barrels, however, were too thick and would simply shift back out of shape after using hot water to fix them.  To solve this issue, I went to a local hardware store and purchased a inexpensive heatgun.  After only about 5 seconds of exposure to the heat gun, I was easily able to bend the barrels into position.  I then dipped the pieces in cold water,  setting them in position instantly.  The whole process was so painless that I now firmly believe a heatgun is an essential tool if you work with large resin kits (particularly Forge World tanks).

Amazingly, the ammunition belts for the dreadnought's autocannons fit without the need of any bending!

One aspect of the model that did not sit well with me were the ridiculously sized barrels for the chest-mounted heavy bolters.  They look as though they are from an Earthshaker cannon.  To Forge World’s credit, the shells in the ammunition hoppers were sized appropriately.  I decided to replace the barrels, and found something suitable on the Kataphron Destroyers.  Each has a secondary phosphor blaster attached to a bionic arm.  Even these “small” sidearms were quite large, but ended up working quite well for a dreadnought-mounted heavy bolter.  I used greenstuff to fill in the ammunition hoppers that were displaying the overly large bolter shells.  Overall, I think that the modification makes them look more reserved and match closer to the look of the standard space marine heavy bolters seen on infantry models.

I replaced the barrels of the heavy bolter with something smaller and more reasonable looking. The stock version is pictured in the red-lined inset, for comparison.

And that is about the extent of the Deredeo assembly. It was fairly straightforward due to the excellent cast and the small number of individual parts.  The only slight oversight that I can see on Forge World’s part with the kit, is that they do not provide something to cover the hole at the top of the dreadnought where the missile launcher can be placed.  It would not be as much of an issue if the missile launcher was a piece of wargear that it always carried, but it is an optional upgrade.  I suppose the next time I order something from Forge World I will have to get the missile launcher too.  Having finished the Deredeo, I have another Contemptor kicking around here to be assembled, and Forge World’s new Leviathan dreadnought looks quite tempting…

- Adam Wier