Distractions and Inspirations

My hobby time has taken a bit of a sideline of late, as I had seen a PC game called Cities:Skylines and it looked intriguing, but I checked and my PC (i'm not an avid gamer) was at least a 400 quid graphics card upgrade shy of being able to run the game (and possibly other requirements, but I certainly balked at that first hurdle and didn't check the rest) However a friend pointed out that there is an Xbox one version, and he was happy to lend me his Xbox. Normally that kind of game doesn't translate well to console but I read a review that said this was the exception, so I accepted the offer and gave it a go... and that is the sinkhole into which quite a bit of my free time has disappeared of late...

In case you're interested, this is less a city building and more a traffic managing game... you could have all the garbage trucks in the world, but if they're stuck in a mega traffic jam your city will go down the toilet faster than yesterday's vindaloo...

Anyway, I have still been watching what the world of warhammer is up to, even though I haven't been lobbying much, and I was startled out of my lane mathematics and arguments with AI traffic (the AI is excellent at replicating human stupidity, I give them a 6 lane highway which splits into two three lane roads, everyone wanting to leave the highway to the left still cram into one fucking lane...) by the recent Space Marine stuff. Now I'm not a marine player myself, aside from a small deathwatch contingent, but I am always keeping a watchful eye for things my boyz can loot...

And that's where this beauty comes in...

First off, THAT is a cool looking model. However reading that background info... scout dread... sound dampers... wait, what? A sneaky dreadnaught? Are you taking the piss?!? What does it do, tiptoe through the timeline and hope not to get spotted... I mean, sure the sound dampers will help but it's still a 30 foot tall bright blue monstrosity. Subtle it ain't!

So that of course gave me an idea. First off, I want to build the kit and see if I can model the fucker on tip-toes. Second, I wanna put an ork in the "cab." Third, I want to take that combat arm and see if I can pose the hand in front of the "face" with a raised finger, as the big Walker shushes those more raucous friends like a grumpy librarian... 

That just leaves one more decision. What clan to paint him as part of. There are three leading contenders.

Goff.

Pros - already got gorkanaut, morkanaut, 2 deffdreads, 6 killakans, and a ghar conversion based on a dreadnaught that will be a counts as third dread once GW finally get round to giving me a bigger, better, ghaz model. So the dread will have buddies.

It's also my most recent army so the colour scheme is fresh in my mind, I got this.

Cons - the rest of his clanking brethren are loaded for combat mostly, he'd be the odd one out with lots of guns. 

Deffskull

Pro - this army was all about looted vehicles.

He would be joining 2 already looted dreads that have 2 guns/2 combat so it wouldn't be quite so out of place for him to have guns.

The deffskulls are a shot army

I copied this paintscheme for the commission army I painted, so again fresh in my mind.

Cons - as much as I love the dread models I already have, in a shot army, there are better shooting options.

Both the above two also lack a reason for a dread to be sneaky, although I do have about 5 or so converted kommandos in a drawer I still haven't painted, so he could have a small team of buddies to join him in either of those armies.

Or option 3, and in all honesty the one I'm leaning towards if I can talk myself past the Con...

Blood Axe.

Pros - the army is famed for tactics and willing to use stealth. An obvious fit.

My intended list features lots of kommandos, so he will have plenty of sneaky company.

The playstyle of the army will fit with him sneaking up on things... I may have to use the teleportarum strat to get him there but we'll all "know" how he really got there...

Con. I'm planning this army to be WW2 German wermacht themed. With dive bombers painted to look like Stukas. Having a dread in that doesn't quite fit the theme...

Although...

I did see a game once which was WW2 with techs, and that looked quite cool, so the idea isn't completely without precedent... 

I'm definitely leaning Blood Axe. But first let's try to build the bugger and see if my conversion hopes can even be realised. I'll cross the second bridge when I come to it and just hope it's not a bridge too far... 

Thank you very much I'm here all week ;)