It's a Love/Contempt Thing.

I thought I would kick off our "Month of Contempt" with a general homage to the model that still inspires and thrills us all; the Space Marine Dreadnought!

Let me start out by admitting my absolute and complete love for the Dreadnought.  I am not ashamed to admit it.  Since my earliest days in 40K, the Rogue Trader era, I have been obsessed with Dreadnoughts.  As a kid, I had two of the original metal ones.  I used them in every game as well.  With the old Vehicle Manual rules, they were nearly indestructible.  When 2nd Edition came out and GW revealed the new design for my favorite model, I had to have it.  I bought one of the original Blood Angel ones as well as Bjorn, the Fell Handed when it came out.  The metal models were difficult to work with and weighed a ton, but I loved them!  

After a decade and a half away from the hobby, the first thing I bought when I came back into the game was the new Ironclad.  To this day it is my absolute favorite GW model.  Since then, I have added two more standard Dreads, all of them are magnetized for any last minute changes in my army lists.  When I decided to repaint my entire Marine collection, the Dreadnoughts were the first models I painted.  My standard list has two in Drop Pods as spearheads for the rest of my forces.

Apparently my obsession is genetic.  When I started to rebuild my 40K collection a few years ago, it wasn't my colorful Eldar, massive Land Raider, or powered armored Tactical Marines that caught the eye of my then two-year-old; It was the very same Ironclad that had me at "hello".  Claiming him as his own and naming him "Dready", Oz had become the newest and most obsessed 40k convert since yours truly picked up the game over twenty years ago.  He actually cried when I repainted him from his original purple and blues.  I catch him every now and then playing with him on my desk, fighting whatever toy he has out at the moment.  Of course, Dready always wins!  

A boy, his monkey, and his Ironclad.

When I saw the Contemptor Muggins purchased, I had to get one of my own.  The overall shape and style of it are very reminiscent of the Dreadnoughts from Epic, one of my favorite GW games of all time.  My WIP pics and discussion about my choice of weapon load-out is a discussion for other articles to come this month.  I plan to show just how damned easy that kit is to magnetize as well as dive into the tactical uses of the Mortis Pattern variant.  Stay tuned for more from the rest of the gang as we dive a little bit into the fluff, our inspirations, some painting and modeling, and tactical uses for one of our universally beloved models; the Contemptor!