Project: Warden in White

In the heart of the Rock, the asteroid fortress of the Dark Angels chapter, the last remains of their stronghold world of Caliban, lies the Chamber of Passageways. Only the Supreme Grandmaster of the entire chapter is allowed to enter the Chamber. Only the Grandmasters of the Librarius, Deathwing, and Ravenwing are allowed to know of its existence. It is here that the chapter's greatest secrets are kept, where new Supreme Grandmasters are chosen, and where the Wardens in White stand ever vigilant. Only in time of most desperate need will the Wardens be deployed into battle, and even then, only one of them may leave his post at a time.

The fluff says that the Wardens are Venerable Dreadnoughts, the most senior members of the Deathwing, whose sarcophagi are heavily laden with purity seals and sacred ornamentation. Except Venerable Dreadnoughts aren't really that strong. I mean, S5 weapons can glance it to death from behind. When I decided to build a Warden in White for my collection, I wanted to do something special.

For starters, I wanted to use the rules for the Forge World Leviathan pattern dreadnought. It kind of looks like a mashup of the older Contemptor pattern and the newer Mortis pattern.

 There was one problem: a Leviathan dreadnought from FW would have cost me about $150 after shipping. Buying a Contemptor and a Mortis to kitbash together wouldn't be much better at $110.

 

Instead, I picked up a Grey Knights Nemesis Dreadknight and the upper carapace of a regular dreadnought at GenCon.

Total cost: $50.

I'll be posting my progress on this project along the way. I'm very excited about this build (and even more excited to use the a Warden in game!)