Heresy & Heroes

What’s big, red and smashes through fortress walls that it’s just set fire to? Yup, it’s my Blood Angels Leviathan Siege Dreadnought – the latest addition to my Heresy Era, 2nd Ed Inspired Army. And I’m very happy with this guy. Let’s take a closer look.

Firstly, it’s a lovely kit. Another Forge World cracker. What’s really nice is that it comes with instructions that I sort of followed (sort of). It’s not cheap, but when you see the size of this thing… well, for those of you haven’t seen one in the flesh, this is what it looks like next to a Contemptor Dreadnought:

Yeah. Chunky. As I said, it’s a lovely kit, and so are the weapon arms – also massive. I based him simply on stone/ash that ties in well with the rest of the army. I equipped my Siege Dreadnought with a phosphex launcher, two heavy flamers, the frankly “ridiculawesome” Cyclonic Melta Lance and the Siege Claw with inbuilt Meltagun. So that’s four melta shots, a wall of flame and a claw that will act like a tin opener to most tanks. Not bad, though having worked out the points cost, ‘not bad’ is the least it should be!

While the Contemptor is a shiny, venerable hero of legend, the Leviathan is a hulk that wades into oncoming fire and thinks little of it. For this reason, I haven’t given him any gold trim or intricate freehand. Also, along with the dust kicked up on the lower legs, there’s a lot of weathering throughout, from oil on the metal areas to the black blotches indicating shots that did nothing other than make him grumpy. You won’t like him when he’s grumpy.

The one bit of embellishment that I did give him was the white flames. These are close to the flame weapons, primarily because of this guy:

He’s on the 2nd Ed box art and I really enjoy the idea of everyone in my army using heavy flamers having these white flames as part of their armour. Yes, the guy above is technically using just a flamer, but I intend to have a lot of heavy flamers and I’d like to use this idea for them as if will highlight the importance of this weapon within this legion. On this Siege Dreadnought, I weathered it up a bit too – scorches from the flamers and few points where the white paint has come off to reveal the red underneath – I’m pretty happy with how it looks.

You can see more examples of that weathering here – the kicked up ash, the black marks of gunfire and, in this case, the exhausts. This was done with a knackered old brush applying Rhinox Hide and then Abaddon Black. There are so many details in this kit – it really is a joy to paint, even if its size and intricacy make it seem a little daunting too.

This weapon really is gloriously ridiculous, both in terms of its rules (although 6″ more range would have made it amazing) and its looks. I want to meet the Tech Priest or Magos who picked up a multi melta and said ‘hey, we should strap a few of these together to see what they can do’. That’s my kind of thinking.

So there you have it. Done and on to the next project which, true to form, I have no idea what it will be yet – though keep checking back to find out. My guess is it will still be Blood Angels related but we’ll see. This guy was a treat to paint and I’m very happy with how he turned out. A true monster that can weather just about anything the traitors and heretics of the time might throw at him. And for those of you still trying to work out how big he is, I’ll leave you with a shot of how big he is compared to a standard dreadnought. Onwards!