WIP + UNBOXING: Grots Batch 3 #1 and Ork Dreadnought

I hope you guys are still with me on this project and not too bored yet. I have a special surprise after the jump which I’m quite excited about.

So this is batch three of four and I’ve completely switched the colours round. The tunics are now brown and the trousers are now red. I think this change is really drastic. They now look like they belong to the Snakebites or Evil Sunz clans. I think once they’re all mingled together with the other batches the rag tag look will really come together. I’m hoping the different paint schemes really help solve the problem of the single piece, identical pose of all the models.

So the surprise is, I bought a mint condition Ork Dreadnought! I thought I’d do an unboxing of this twenty year old product. Read on for this trip down memory lane.

First released in 1994, the box art is typical of the time. Very bright, flat and garish colours. What child wouldn’t be excited by a box as bright and colourful as this which features a walking death machine on the front! It features a clear picture of the painted model and also shows you that a banner and transfers are included. The model is called an Ork Dreadnought. During first and second edition, any kind of walker was labelled a dreadnought. Ork Dreadnought, Eldar Dreadnought, Space Marine Dreadnought. It wasn’t until later editions that these Walkers started to receive their own names, in fact it was only in recent years that Chaos Space Marines dropped the Dreadnought persona in favour of the Helbrute name. Only the Adeptus Astartes refer to their walkers as Dreadnoughts now.

The back of the box, features a bio for the Ork Dreadnought, some Ork Glyphs randomly placed and the assembly guide.

No computer aided design here, just good old photo graphs and photoshop.

Inside the box we are greeted with a polystyrene tray with compartments. Ah the memories, this was how all the boxes of models were packaged. A high percentage of models at the time were metal. Most squads were metal and only utilised plastic for arms and weapons. Plastic vehicles were quite normal but used metal components to make different variants. Included in the polystyrene tray is a sheet of foam which is protecting the transfers and banner.

The model components are crisp with no signs of miscasting or any kind of excessive flash. I really like the ork pilot. I’m going to paint him separately and pin the hatch open. Metal models were notoriously bad for gluing together. The super glue would take forever to bond, the joins were never flush. The bond would be weak and things would fall apart all the time. Pinning was the only solution. I will be pinning almost everything on this model.

Size wise the model is probably Killer Kan size. These older models were considered big center-piece models twenty years ago but are really small by today’s standards. If I remember correctly, in 1994 this model would have set you back £15, you can get three Killer Kans for £28 which are plastic with all the weapon options… who says Citadel miniatures aren’t good value?

The transfers have yellowed with age but include some great glyph designs. The banner looks to be in great condition, but I won’t be using this. I plan on rolling my own from greenstuff. I will honour the design of this banner on the new greenstuff one.

So there you have it. I can’t wait to paint this model and add it to my second edition project.

Any words of encouragement from you guys and gals is always welcome, I feel like this project might stall at any moment. Help me get through it!