I've always been inspired by the high-quality artwork of the 40K universe to convert and kitbash my models, such as the above image (Grey Knight dreadnought unit entry in the Codex: grey Knights). One day I was rooting around my collection and found this hidden gem:
A spare Black Reach Dreadnought, basecoated but otherwise living a life less ordinary. I had already painted up up to 80% of the GK's I bought off Ecstasy Bay all those years ago, so something had to be done!
Example of plain Black Reach dreadnought
I wanted to convert the plain Dreadnought into something more heroic and awe-inspiring as per the inspirational codex image, as well as to tie in with my existing Venerable and Forgeworld GK dreads, so I set about hunting for the following pieces as follows. All images credit to Let the Dice Decide!
With these pieces in mind, I set about creating my kitbashed Grey Knight-flavoured Dreadnought, like so:
Pretty cool, huh? Comes complete with a torn-off Bloodletter's head, showing off the 'exposed shrine-crypt' element of the Dreadnought with the skull on armour, with gubbins of wires and conduits (3no. flamer parts and 2no. leftover warding staves, have plenty of these for the use of gribbly bits).
Pretty pleased with the result and can't wait to paint it.