So far, my opinion of the model is this:
The level of detail is nice, I hope that this is a small hint of what GW has in mind for the future of its model lines. A LOT of the parts do move, such as the armor plates on the carapace, and mini turrets. It was rather surprising how much bigger this dreadnought is, especially compared to any of the ForgeWorld models available.
It was fun to assemble, though it is suggested that it only be assembled in sections to make painting much easier. Especially if you have a rather complex paint scheme or pose in mind. Main complaints:
Surprisingly the hips do not give as much of a range of motion as one would expect of such a large model. To get the extra height for the crushing leg, I had to remove some of the locking pins in the hip rotatory ring, and then trim about a 1/16" from the grin plate to give it free range of movement. An equally thick spacer bit behind the groin plate would have done much the same. This model does not seem to really lend itself to being set up for having any of its parts magnetized so as to be modular. The mini turrets are a bit too small. The front plate that determines whether it is a grenade launcher or storm bolter does not give much space to drill in a decent size magnet, which leaves the other choice of simply using a small bit of steel instead, and a larger magnet in the mini turret. But I had trouble even with this bit of simplicity with the little room available, and simply gave up by going full time storm bolters.
The left arm was perhaps the biggest disappointment. The elbow and upper arm connect via a slender peg, and the tolerances are fairly tight. It is possible that there is enough tension to manually swap arms, and not worry too much about it dropping off during a game or while sitting on your display shelf. But that does not satisfy my OCD, so I tried to make it more secure with some more magnets. After twisting and turning bits and bobs around, I never could get it to work right with the almost equally small amount of available space. So went full time plasma BFG instead of the heavy dakka Gatling gun. The secondary weapon on the power fist is slight less disappointing in being made swap-able, but I gave up on that around the same time as the other two weapons.
It would have been nice if the sarcophagus had other options for its front plate. The outer armor has a choice of two at least. And if you have not guessed by now, an older model dread's front plate would be rather small in comparison. And would only fill in the empty space with some modifications.
Overall, I like the model so far. It is really tempting to get a second one, but I am still sitting on the fence with the whole new primaris phase going on, and waiting to see how the rest of the story/models will progress from this point.
Since I am a bit old fashioned, I added some rivet bolts to the dreadnought to hearken back to the days of the MK 5 space marine armor. Found some 2mm and 3mm "pearls" in the paper craft section of Hobby Lobby that made it easy to add them to the armor plate. Went a bit overboard on the shoulders, but tried to be more sparing on the rest of the body sections.
