Dreadnought drop pod, power swords and more BA progress

Wow, its been a month since my last update- apologies to anyone thats been looking for an update- things have been very busy at home and whilst I've had a lot of time painting I've barely been on the computer at all.

With only 17 days left before Cancon i'm in overdrive trying to get the Blood Angels up to a certain level of completion. I've resigned myself to the fact that they wont 100% done- they'll most likely still have unfinished bolt pistols and chainswords, and some chest and shoulderpad details wont be completed. However, I should quite happily get all the red armour plating painted and basically highlighted. I have finished the helmets on all the Assault Marines, included their eyes- I will go back and re-line a few bits later, but they will suffice. Terminators will get some love really son, and the Attack Bikes after that. Wont be winning any awards with them in this state, but I'll have them all completed and detailed in time for Wintercon (June) without too much hassle.




All the yellow helmets done- they really stand out now


The Stormraven is getting moved along quite well- all the 90 degree edges and gaps between panels have been shaded with several coats of Carroburg Crimson, and i've started on highlights on the sharpest edges, the whole vehicle is really starting to 'pop'. I also built an overlay to go on the Raven's base, which is made from MDF and has been carved with a dremel and small cutting wheel to look like ruins just like the rest of the army's resin bases, it looks fairly convincing.




MDF is still the greatest IMHO...


I decided that my Assault Sergeants should stand out a bit, and to this end I've swapped out the one guy with a Power Axe to have a Power Sword instead. I've then painted up a scheme on all three swords that is a stylised reflective look, going from deep dark blue up to white, through 6 colours and thinning the paint as much as possible. It can take a fair bit to get right, and a lot of time is spent going back and fixing up the transitions to make them as smooth as possible.

On a gaming note, I've been doing some research concerning what Psychic discipline to roll for with my 2x Librarians- we roll for this before our first game and our opponent signs off on it, and this is what they use for the whole tournament. I was originally using Biomancy, for the potent offensive capabilities it gave, however I now believe that Divination to be the best for a Librarian, who should be used to buff an attached unit. Even if you roll for things you dont want you can fall back to the primaris power of Prescience, which provides for re-rolls to hit (shooting and cc) which really helps boost the power of an assault unit. Moreso than any other discipline these ones will keep your men alive and killing better for longer.

I'm also thinking that my Librarian in Terminator Armour will only selectively answer or issue challenges, as his axe-wielding capabilities are massively overshadowed by the 5 Thunder Hammers in the squad he's attached to- in addition he's going to be my Warlord, and will therefore have a 1VP price on his head, which I dont wish to squander. So, he'll skulk at the back of the pack for most engagements, unless circumstances are in his favour. Still working out how best to use the Terminators, I'm even thinking that I could Deep-strike them in on turn two in the vicinity of the Furioso's Drop Pod, to form a ridiculously resilient CC strongpoint.

Speaking of, here's the modified drop pod for my Furioso. Didnt want to splash out for the FW Dread Pod, so I've modified this standard troop carrying one to have a removable fin section (fluff wise- explosive bolts blow it out on landing when the doors drop) and Adiel comes lumbering out. I also magnetised the gun mount in the roof to allow me to still use the stormbolter or missile pod, and they can still articulate up and down. If one takes the liberty of assuming that the gun and its mount retract into the roof of the pod then the Dreadnought fits in quite easily!! This conversion turned out better than I expected.



Fits easily :) 



Magnets are mounted top and bottom for maximum hold.



Magnetised gun mount. Used a drill press on high speed and
 lots of care to make this fit without blowing out the sides. 



Recessed magnets with lightly filed-down outer edges. Snaps into place really solid.

Thats enough for today- got loads more work to do!

Cheers,
Tempest

 

Marines, Bikes and Priests- 21 November update

Assault Squads

All 30 are now base coated red (armour), with a single heavy wash of Carroburg Crimson in the recesses. I've worked out that to do the armour, helmet and pinning onto the base each marine owes me an average of 1.5 hours. So even ignoring the construction time/ prepping and painting the bases, thats about 45 hours alone just to get the three assault squads done. I've also taken delivery of a fancy new Battlefoam Assault Marine tray, I can get 5 full squads in there. Pretty neat:)

Thats one tray full of rage right there, and I can fit another 20 in as well!

I've also been finishing off the meltagunners for the squad- here's three with their 'hazard stripe' meltas - this is my second-edition 40K roots showing... three left to do, just ran outta time tonight. The melta arms jsut slide on snugly and aren't attached so i can finish all the other details later. As the pics will attest, this is a simple basecoat of yellow for the stripes- will wash and tidy later on.

Come at me armour :P

Bikes!

The bikes are all basecoated red, I'm in the process of assembling the riders and gunners, with three multi-meltas (melta spam!! everywhere!!) as I jsut cant justify bikes with heavy bolters. And besides, the bolters on the bikes have a 24" range, just like the multi's, so i'll get to use them as well :) Was initially tossing up whether or not to take the attack bikes, now Im glad i persevered, they're such great looking models!!

Moar dakka coming soon...

  

Sang Priests

I'm pretty happy- these are cool looking priests, and with the right combo of parts and a vague idea they came together quite quickly!!  Been researching people's tacticas regarding the use of SPs, mine will be put in the middle/rear of the Assault Squads, although if covering multiple units (6" range to buff squads with FnP and FC) I'll place them out on the unit's flanks. I think T5 2 wound Attack Bikes getting a FnP save will be highly amusing...

Greenstuff Grails and "cut 'n' shut" narthecium/chainsword conversions- surprisingly easy...

Im also thinking that these guys are going to get challenged, which works fine for me- I can refuse the challenge, and I'm just losing a few Str4 attacks, which means my Sgts will be freed up to deliver power weapon hits here there and everywhere- i'm relatively sure my opponent will want to cut down the Priests firstly to remove the Feel No Pain. Although the WS5 Sang Priest should be able to hold his own with a possible jump infantry 'Impact Hit' and four Str5 (furious charge) attacks in the first round.

That and any shooting hits on him can be negated with a Look Out Sir! of a 2+, as he's an Independant Character attached to the squad.

Just need a basecoat of red on these guys, maybe some gold to pick out the grails, and some white on the 'X' shapes on the jump packs and Narthecium arms,  and that will do for this weekend's game.

What's next? 

At this point in time i've only got a few small tasks ahead to get my BA army ready for the Apoc on Saturday. The metal parts on the second Stormraven, maybe tidy up the red a bit more,basecoat the gunners and riders on the attack bikes (just blu-tak' in place for this game), and then go back and re-check everything again. Two thousand points of Blood Angels assembled and Basecoated in a couple of months: done. But completing a solid 1850 list in the next two months in order to make Cancon?? Its looking like a 50/50 chance at best... maybe the holidays will give me more free time, who knows??  

Thanks for having a read, its appreciated. Comments and feedback most welcome!

Blood Angels paint scheme sorted out + New HQ unit

Today is just a short and simple update- I tend to carry on way too much in general...

With my Blood Angels I've started work on a new scheme that only uses the current range of GW paints, with no reliance on older colours. Woe betide the painter who gets halfway through an army and runs out of their core colour...

The following is a sequence of shots of a Tactical Marine I had lying around in black undercoat. I was originally going to buy an army painter spray and work with that, but now im thinking that I can get this to work instead, and to be honest i'd prefer not having to go back and black out all the weapons on 30+ assault marines...

So, here we go: 

(Please note- the mini below isnt actually shiny- although in some shots it appears to be- its just that my white-light source is fairly close so it reflects a bit)

Mephiston Red base coat- two lightly watered down coats (basically just pre-wet the brush). Goes on super smooth, especially when compared to old Mechrite Red.

Apply a heavy-ish coat of Carroburg Crimson shade (wash).

Reapply a coat (or two) of Mephiston Red, avoiding the recessed areas.

Apply two thinned down coats of Evil Sunz Scarlet on all the major sections of armour, leaving sections of shading and darker red at joints and hard edges. 

Add this stage I add a highlight of Fire Dragon's Bright, which is a thin colour and gives a orange/peachy type highlight colour. And most importantly- two coats of Bloodletter (Glaze)- this smooths out the transitions between  all the previous steps as well as bringing the hue up to a richer red more in keeping with the boys from Baal.

Final step is to revisit the Dragon's Bright Orange highlights, and i've (roughly) painted in the eyes, armour joints etc for some more detail. But all in all, this is my Blood Angels will be painted. And all with straight-from-the-pot new colours, no mixing for me :)

Oh, and here's my next challenge- My new HQ unit- a 'Space Hulk' Librarian in Terminator Armour. I've removed his Stormbolter and given him a Storm Shield for some big time defensive ability. I've also freed him from his standard 'base', save a section of the step/pedestal under his back foot- this will be suitably disguised to blend into his new base (and more on that soon). 




Gah! The red, it hurts my eyes!


So that's all for now guys, hope you like.

Comments and feedback are always welcome!

Cheers,
Tempest