Ork Mega Dread

Just what every mekboy wants; an even bigger `Dread! A smoke-belching, hydraulic monster able to tear apart enemy tanks and smash a side lesser war machines with contemptuous ease.

Ork Mega Dread

These two were part of a display at Warhammer World.

Ork Mega Dread

The Ork Mega-Dread is a very large walker vehicle. This monstrosity of a walker is to Deff Dreds and Killa Kans in the same way the Contemptor Dreadnought and its offshoots are to Space Marine Dreadnoughts. Thus these things are actually rare, since constructing one requires a Mekboy of both uncommon talent, and high levels of Orkishness, so a Guardsman won’t be seeing one on every battlefield.

I have one on my workbench, but it needs to be finished off…

Ork Mega Dread

Ork Mega Dread

Just what every mekboy wants; an even bigger `Dread! A smoke-belching, hydraulic monster able to tear apart enemy tanks and smash a side lesser war machines with contemptuous ease.

Ork Mega Dread

This is from the Forge World stand and is a work in progress.

Ork Mega Dread

I bought mine at GamesDay 2009 and purchased it with two Killkannons as I didn’t think much of the Rippa-Claw, it looked flimsy in comparison to the model as a whole.

Ork Mega Dread

See the workbench feature on my Mega-Dread.

Adding the main weaponry

So after getting all the parts together the next stage was finishing the model off. Sticking the arms on, the frontal armour and the exhausts.

As you can see from this rear view, there is a lot of detail on this model.

I aim to bring out this detail using a combination of washes and drybrushing.

My converted KilKannon, it used the plastic KilKannon from the Battlewagon upgrade sprue.

I did consider having the guns pointing at the same target, but in the end decided to have them slightly off kilter.

See the full workbench feature on my Ork Mega Dread.

Mega-Dread main weaponry

I bought the Mega Dread with two KilKannon arms. The reason for getting two KilKannons was that I was not that impressed with the close combat weapon that was available at the time, the claw arm looked very flimsy and as a result I felt the model looked unbalanced (from the photographs). Since I bought mine, Forge World have bought out a buzzsaw weapon arm for the Mega-Dread that is much better in my opinion and looks “heavier” and more deadly. If I was to buy a second Mega-Dread I would seriously think about getting the buzzsaw.

These are nice castings that go together really easily.

Mega-Dread main weaponry

Though using one on the left and the right means taking a little extra care to ensure that you don’t end up with two left arms!

For one of the arms I used the plastic KilKannon from the Ork Battlewagon Upgrade Sprue. My reason for this was to make the Mega-Dread look too well constructed, I wanted the Mega-Dread to look like (as it does with the main part of the model) as though it was thrown together by a Mek from lots of rubbish and parts in his workshop. The plastic weapon needed minimal filing to fit and adds variety to the model.

Mega-Dread main weaponry

One left arm and one right arm… Of course the model as a result has two spiked shoulder pads.

Mega-Dread main weaponry

See the full workbench feature on my Ork Mega Dread.

Attaching the Mega Dread legs

Next stage on my Ork Mega Dread was attaching the legs having attached the thighs to the main body.

One of the challenges was to ensure that having positioned the legs that the model not only could stand, but was also stable so wouldn’t fall over during a game. I didn’t really want to have to base the model if I could help it. This is so I could use it in various games and not have a grassy scenic base whilst playing Cityfight style games.

Though… of course if you do use a base, you could convert the model to make it look like it was walking rather than standing.

See the full workbench feature on my Ork Mega Dread.