Farewell Orks, Hello more Blood Angels...

It was with a relatively sad feeling today that I handed my Orks over to their new owner, Colin, who had agreed to take them off my hands.  I was extremely driven to collect everything for the army that I felt I needed with the eventual list being pushed towards a Deathskull 'Big Mek' type rabble centred around a Kan Wall core, and in the half dozen games I played with it I was able to pull of some pretty convincing wins- in 5th this army was designed to chew up power armour which it never failed to do. So why sell it after all that?

Simple- I'd never finish them. With a new baby free time can be hard to come by at the best of times, and although I still have my Dark Angels to complete I'd decided that a close-combat oriented power-armour list was the thing for me, hence moving my focus to the Blood Angels. With the remaining funds I have from the Ork army sale I could go huge and buy everything I want but I'm going to try some restraint this time- I've purchased a 'core' of troops and a second Stormraven, and will work on it from there. The only other purchases remaining for the time being is a close combat Terminator unit and a Librarian as my HQ. This gives me a decent sized yet realistically achievable goal for painting and modelling in the months leading up to ANUCON (1500pts) and CANCON (expecting 1850pts).

Recent purchase just arrived- some Forgeworld Blood Angel Terminator shoulder pads. Love the detail, i've never bought anything from FW before but I can see why people like it so much.

So whilst the Orks are gone Colin is one of my gaming buddies, so i'll see the Deathskulls around for sure, and I'm sure I can get a lend if I ever feel the need to step away from the Imperium for a game or two. Although, having built that army I'm not sure about how I feel facing it across a table... at least I know where the weak points are! I hope they serve you well Colin, they are great fun to play!

Got half of the small bases painted up recently and I even glued on the tufts of desert grass/plants, the effect is awesome, better than I ever expected. Whilst the one previous 'test' base was painted with older colours the new ones are all done in the new range, and to be honest there is no perceptible difference. Had to be sure though, didn't want to run dry on a colour and then have to scrap or re-do all the bases, that would suck! I was mighty pleased to find that Gryphonne Sepia's replacement, Seraphim Sepia, is identical. Love me some sepia wash... whoops, I mean 'Shade'. I'm yet to paint the black around the sides of the bases, but thats a minor job for later.

 

 On a final note, one of my minis (Terminator Chaplain from my Sig/Avatar) is up on Facebook at the moment in an online comp, if you are feeling charitable I'd appreciate you 'liking' the picture- the more likes the better chance of me winning! To view the picture please follow the following link:

Slave To Painting- Painting Comp           

This guy here- he's awesome, vote for him!!

Thats all for today, thanks for stopping in for a look :)
Andrew

Blood Angels- Desert Bases

Got my shipment of resin desert bases in the mail the other day, all 45 of them (5 terminator bases, 40 stnadard size), and spent a lazy afternoon cutting off the excess flash and cleaning off the mold release stuff with a toothbrush and warm soapy water. About ten of them were a bit rough, in that some lumps of resin were actually found down on the base edges, but this was rectified with a sharp blade and some light sanding, and once sorted out I hit them with some black undercoat.

So with this new project i'm planning to only use "new" paint colours or those that are perfectly compatible with the older colours, but I still decided that a test scheme was in order. I took one base and layered on some Iyanden Darksun (foundation), followed with a Gryphonne Sepia wash, I then lightly brushed the Iyanden back on and finally a bleached bone drybrush. This was then finished with a glued on tuft of scorched brown static grass which I think works well. I was originally going to try finding a dark orange 'dead' static grass, but this looks more more pleasing and realistic. Still undecided on the colour for the base edges- I gave it a quick hit with black, but might change it to a dark brown instead??

Today's task is to hit up the local hobby shop for some 'new' versions of the colours above, paint up another base and compare them side by side. Im not expecting much difference, if any.

So all I'm doing now is waiting for my Blood Angels to arrive from the states... not much longer now... I hope. Will be cool to have all the bases done and waiting for the minis, I think it'll help me focus on getting them painted up properly- painted minis on bare black bases looks acceptible, but unpainted/part painted minis on completed detailed resin bases would look a bit silly I reckon.

One down, 44 to go.

Blood Angels and urban city board progress

Once again, another shift around from one army to the next.... everyone must be getting sick of the lack of consistency between the posts. Sorry, I'm a tad OCD and I kinda flit around from one thing to the next depending on what random ideas are going on in my head... current thoughts have been revolving around ANUCON which looks like being on in mid October, giving my 3 and a bit months to build a new army, paint it up (well, kinda) and get my head around 6th Ed. 

The Orks and Dark Angels got their last 5th edition swings in at Final Fifth, and its now time for me to start some serious work on some Blood Angels so the other armies are back on the shelf for the time being. The Orks had given me a thirst for close combat so the Sons of Sanguinius are definitely going to help me scratch that itch.

In order to get the Blood Angels moving I decided it was time to sell off a couple of my remote control cars as well- another of my hobbies, but unfortunately one that I haven't had anything to do with for at least 5 years. There just  wasn't enough time anymore for racing, drift meetups or even zooming round the street, and the replacement and upkeep on parts can get a bit prohibitive. However, as sad I am to see them go its very much outweighed by the fact that I can use their sale to fund my other hobbies, namely my 40K armies- with a young family and a mortgage there is generally minimal funds for things like this so I figure sell my old toys to fund my new toys and there's no impact on 'normal' finances.

The plan at current is to take the units I already have (one Stormraven definately, Sanguinary Guard... maybe) and then sort through my recent Blood Angel purchases- I went and bought a load of stuff from a place in the USA (via eBay), and the cost is around 50-55% of normal RRP. I've got 20 Assault Marines (4 boxes), 10 Death Company (2 boxes) and a squad of Close-Combat Terminators all en-route...  I also just recently got hold of some desert-themed (ie Baal) resin bases for the whole army and some Forgeworld BA shoulderpads for my Terminators.

Also trying to track down a Terminator Librarian from Space Hulk, i'll be giving him a Storm Shield as well for some phenomenal survivability and he'll be great for squad-buffing with his powers (giving Preferred Enemy to thunder hammer/stormshield terminators? WIN). Although at current most online sellers want AU$35 plus postage!!!, and I refuse to pay that for one plastic single mini (especially considering that my Termies cost me $46 landed here!).

So far I've laid down the final coat of red on my first Stormraven, painted up (most of) the cockpit details and have started on the turret servitor and the pilot, and its all coming along nicely. The Mephiston Red really starts to look really fine on the third thin coat and the smoothness of the paint is great, none of the grainyness of the old Foundations. I've also picked up a pot of Ceramite White for use on the wings of the chapter symbols on the hull/tail, as well as for some freehand stuff if time allows... maybe not before Cancon though- which, i'm now happy to say i'll be attending! Was going to be in Adelaide, but thats now been pushed back to the following week. Happyness :)

 
 

Might have two Stormravens for ANUCON, although it could be tricky with transporting units in due to the new deployment rules (only up to half your units can be kept in reserve- ignoring flyers/models that have to start reserved), so i'll be juggling a few lists and getting some playtesting in before mid-October, and also to get my head around the new rules. I've read the rulebook twice now, might be time for an actual 6th Ed game??

Also- i've finished the base layers of paint on 4 of my modular city boards, the recessed roads have a dark grey and the rest is a middle grey- starting to look something like a piece of city now. I'm planning on a few more coats on the road for durability as well as a couple more greys on top of varying lighter shades, and will eventually top it off with some drawn on details, such as drains, gutters and some intersecting lines on the raised areas to look like slabs of concrete (or the 40K equivalent at least). Will then seal the lot with some matte spray varnish- Testors or Tamiya most likely. Here's a couple of pics- sorry for the quality, the light in my room is fairly poor.

 



Four down, four to go.

 



This piece will become a set of 'Gothic Traffic Lights'  



   

 


Baneblade patrolling the streets

  
 



Landing Pad looks right at home now