Hello everyone! Zak Ludick here from Cape Town, South Africa and this is going to be a very different Warhammer 40,000 post.

Recently I have modified and built myself two really awesome Space Wolf Dreadnoughts. These ones are unique and special since they have the Fenrisian Greataxe and Blizzard Shields.

I have one of these Dreadnoughts in plastic, all Original parts. However, I got some bits from a friend of mine, Ren, who had been building a Khorne Daemon army and these sprues had Massive Axes for Blood Thirsters.... you see where this is going!

So I de-chaosified the axes and got all the parts to allow me to model these awesome looking Dreadnoughts with custom 3D printed shields by my friend @xenowolfza!

However another friend of mine, Nicholas, pointed out to me that it might be a bit difficult to get into Base to Base contact with these big shields in the way.

I did come up with a theory that if I raise the Dreadnought up on his base so he becomes a bit more tall, the shield would be raised up and Base to Base contact should be easier to achieve.

Baseline

Let's first take the original model and put him into base to base with some models and consider what his restrictions are as an original model.

Of course there is a fair bit of space at the front and the side of this model for base to base contact. Even right opposite the shield, most models have a bit of a footprint around their bases so they make contact there pretty easily.

What will probably make more of an issue is the axe arm side.

These two models are both making base to base contact with the Dreadnought on either side of the axe arm.

As you can see there is a tiny gap between the two models but nothing that should take away from the game or cause too many problems.

Modified Dreadnought 1

Now we look at the modified Dreadnought and we can see that around the axe arm it is exactly the same as the Original model.

Around the shield it creates a space for a whole model or two smaller ones and the space is the same as though they were in base to base with the Dreadnought so all we would do to play that is to put the model against the shield and that is considered base to base.

So this Dreadnought is OK! Good job!

Modified Dreadnought 2

But what about you there Venerable sir?!

What about that pose and the massive axe with its point on the table?

Well... it turns out that his wide stance means that the model can accommodate models even easier for base to base that the other modified Dreadnought. There is only a small gap with no base to base contact, much like the axe arm.

To try it out, I used more numerous and smaller models to test it some more.

Fitting around the axe arm and the shield arm means that they fit fine for Engagement Range.

I created a situation where there is an impassible piece of terrain or another model next to the Dreadnought to create a reason for the shield not being good.