Space Wolves Dreadnought Conversion

I got my hands on some cheap Space Marine Dreadnoughts from Black Reach and have gone about converting them into Space Wolves Dreadnoughts using parts from the Space Wolves accessories sprue.

As you can see, I'm very pleased with the results and so is Wolfguard "Haggrid" who's about to partake in the time honoured Space Marine traditional of Dreadnought Tipping.

All I did was find a picture of Space Wolves Venerable Dreadnought Bjorn the Fell Handed for inspiration, cut 2 wolf tails from the Space Wolves accessory sprue along with the Wolfguard flat symbol (for tanks) and the wolfcloak torso, as well as a flamer for a sly Heavy Flamer conversion.

I got a knife and scraped the detail from the Dreadnought sarcophagus and lost a couple of rivets around the trim. Not to worry, it'll look fine when the Space Wolves dreadnought is painted. I couldn't get all the detail to be perfectly flat, but the edges were clean enough, so I took the Wolfguard symbol and glued it in place of the original.

I then glued the two wolftails in the same position as the ones on Bjorn the Fell Handed. But, because I know they would be likey to break off, get lost and never be found again, I made them both curve inwards slight, resting on the lower half of the Dreadnought sarcophagus while the chain links were attached to the underside of the Dreadnought torso, providing two securing points.

Next was the left Dreadnought arm, which as you can see took a fair bit of work. Because the Black Reach Dreadnought only comes with a storm bolter and I wanted a Heavy Flamer, this required some work. Luckily i had a spare Space Marine flamer. Upon close inspection, the Space Marine storm bolter and flamer aren't too disimilar, so I cut the barrells off the storm bolter, and cut the ridged section of the gunsight off while leave the front part. I also trimmed off the tiny skull icon on the side of the storm bolter.

I took my flamer cut the fuel tank section and the small square it's attache to out of the flamer body and trimmed it until it found snug fit where the ridged gunsight of the storm bolter had been.

I chopped the nozel off the flamer (with a little bit of the two pipes) and glued it in place where the storm bolter barrells had been. Because the Dreadnought power fist is open, you have to move it down a little bit, but it's still quite passable. I then glued the flamer nozzle to the underside of the bottom Dreadnought finger for extra strength.

Modelling purists will probably want to change the Dreadnought's storm bolter magazine feed for proper tubing

Finally, the wolf pelt was made from the Wolfguard torso on the Space Wolves accessory sprue. I simply trimmed off the wolf until I felt it was the right size, then bent the front legs to the point of breaking so that the whole thing would wrap around the Dreadnought's left shoulder. I coated the underside of the entire wolf pelt with glue, then stuck it on best I could and put some more glue in around the edges to secure it. Where plastic glue (polestyrene cement) has failed to melt the broken front legs back together I used a little greeen stuff and continued the fur pattern with a modelling knife.

There you have it, a quick and easy Space Wolves Dreadnought conversion! As you can see, I have three Space Wolves Dreadnoughts made from the Assault on Black Reach Dreadnought.

Because of my paiting method, none of these guys are attached to their bases and still come apart so I can get the brush in where I need it. I really can't wait to paint my Space Wolves Dreadnoughts. They're going to be brilliant.

One thing that is worth mentioning though: I got my hands on 3 Black Reach Dreadnoughts for my Space Wolves army via eBay thinking that I could save money. They cost between 12 and 14 pounds each, which is a good deal less that the RRP.

However, I also bought some twin linked lascannon and assault cannon Dreadnought arms for variable weapons from Bits and Kits which ramped the price up quite considerably. So if you're planning to give your Space Marine Dreadnought every available weapon you're actually better off buying the regular kit.

But if you just want a multimelta and are happy to convert the Dreadnought storm bolter to a heavy flamer, then I whole heartedly recommend the Black Reach Dreadnought.

After blinging it up with Space Wolves accessories, you wouldn't be able to easily tell my converted Space Wolves Dreadnought apart from a regular Space Marine Dreadnought -apart from the static pose of course.

Now to begin planning my Space Wolves Venerable Dreadnought conversion.