Angels of Vengeance

[Rizara]

yes, wanted it to be a side view of the hooded skull, sort of trademarked of the squadron.  Taking ideas from marine tail fins, they have a squadron icon on the tail, and then numbers at the top of the tail.  These are marines, so it works, even though I am more partial to airforce.

[deathspectersgt7]

Well done brother. i'm X- jarhead.

[Brother Immolator]

Yeah, thats the model I had in mind. The only turn off is the plasma gun strapled on the sword. I mean ok cool but its....weird?

 

Loving your take on him, cant wait to see him painted.

Also Thanks for taking the time to give me all that wealth of info!

[JeffJedi]

I really like the new Grandmaster... I might have to steal your idea some how.  He looks that much cooler than the Flesh Tearer model did before.

[DiscipleOfCaliban]

I really dont feel the names of the successor formations should contain the -wing Idiom. We know were it came from the deathwing and perhaps there is a story for the ravenwing I am not aware of.

 

A good name for either formation could be Persecutors. Generally think of a reason why those formations would be named and not be just 2nd and 1st company and after you find your reason a name will come.

 

Ace job on the paininting! Welcome to the unforgiven.

Yeah I agree actually. Also, I like to give them new names anyway. In my Disciples of Caliban I refer to my "Ravenwing" (essentially 75% of my army) as the Raven of Caliban and my "Deathwing" as the "Lions of Caliban". Its a bit cheesy but it suits the chapter name and differentiates them well enough from the DA Wings.

[Rizara]

Ok, time for an update.  I have tried several times over the weekend and this week to get good pictures of this guy.  I just can't seem to get any crisp detailed pics.  He looks great as a thumbnail, but any detail pics are always blurry, no matter how far away or close I seem to get, i think its when I end up cropping the image I lose all the detailing.   I finished him up last thursday night, was so motivated to paint him, but so upset I can't get a good shot.  Maybe I can get a good shot when I get to the store this saturday and can snap some army shots on the tables. 

So for the disappointing pics. 

http://i1307.photobucket.com/albums/s585/Jason_Mullis/Angels%20of%20Vengeance/Chorazin1_zpsc832230b.jpg

http://i1307.photobucket.com/albums/s585/Jason_Mullis/Angels%20of%20Vengeance/Chorazin2_zps57a1bd84.jpg

 

Now for the unexpected.  I got some painting time in last night, and forced some more time in this morning to finish this guy up.  I was trying to focus on finishing up the two deathwing squads for troop choices.  They are about half way, but once my brush started applying the basecoats on this guy, I couldn't put the model down.   And yes, its not the assault cannon that came with the kit, sigh I had so much trouble with that multipart barrel that it broke on me, wouldn't stay straight, gave me nightmares, and became more of a headache than I could deal with, so after it broke and became unfixable, I just snipped off a normal assault cannon.  Hes still legit, but the gun is smaller, oh well I still think he turned out awesome.  

 

Also, gave him the angels of vengeance death wing icon on his knee, his other knee is a red stripe.  He has a blade and 3 white chevrons for honor markings, a sword on his right shoulder, and the AoV icon on his left shoulder and right leg.  Gave him the number 5 on his back and left leg.  

http://i1307.photobucket.com/albums/s585/Jason_Mullis/Angels%20of%20Vengeance/DWDread-1_zpsd5474958.jpg

http://i1307.photobucket.com/albums/s585/Jason_Mullis/Angels%20of%20Vengeance/DWDread-3_zpsb1a8dcdf.jpg

http://i1307.photobucket.com/albums/s585/Jason_Mullis/Angels%20of%20Vengeance/DWDread-2_zps16563068.jpg

http://i1307.photobucket.com/albums/s585/Jason_Mullis/Angels%20of%20Vengeance/DWDread-4_zpsf2e8b868.jpg

[Rizara]

Woops double post, getting some lag today.

 

Anyways, the dread I posted is one of my deathwing dreads, in games I don't use the contemptor rules for him, i just love the models, so use them as veteran dreads.  I have another one to do at some point, with lascannons.  

[Deathwing70]

Grand master looks great from what I can tell, the conversion is awesome, I think it really fits the AoV theme.

Choice of how you painted the sword is cool too.. really suits them better than one of those airbrushed bright blue glowing sticks (though they do look cool)

 

I have and still am thinking about doing some Angels of Vengeance too, these are a pretty good inspiration. I don't really want to use the winged sword emblem so much though and its a shame (for successors) that so many of the goodies they released are winged swords .. imo..

 

I did think about, what we know of their background, that if I did model some of them I'd be liberal with sprinkling bionics on them. They don't have to look like Iron Hands but all Marines are veterans in a way (specially compared to Imperial Guard for example) and being as stubborn as these guys are supposed to be, I'm sure more than a few of them have taken a plasma gun shot to the knee or barely dodged a lascannon shot and end up losing an entire arm... afterall fluffwise not all 'casualties' we pull off the table are 'dead' Marines ;)

[Interrogator Stobz]

I can't believe I haven't posted yet...been following this thread for ages, but forgot to comment. ;)

I love the blackness, just sooo damned grimdark. Perfect first legion style.

 

Coolio

stobz

[Rizara]

Thanks guys.  Yeah, bionics would work, but one, they don't make alot of bionic parts really, which is a shame, and the only set to get the bionic arm is the command set.    As for the sword, I was trying to give it a slight glow field, but also make it feel like it was made of obsidian.  Gonna try to get some better shots later tonight, as a guy at the store yesterday noticed my camera was not set to the highest setting for sharpness, so that might do with it some.    Also the detail gets lost as I crop the image, so that means I am probably taking the image now to far away as zooming all the way in and cropping it worsens the detail.  

 

I have also been debating on going back and giving all my power weapons a glow feel to them, maybe making the normal power weapons have a green glow, still debating on it, since I haven't gotten any new sealer to seal my models yet after painting them.    I did manage to get an updated army shot yesterday at the store.  Will update that later this evening as well.

 

 

Anyways, so I made a trip to the store, and got some games in.  I did a small low point escalation tournament yesterday, so the games were at 750 points each.  Still i got in some games, which gave me practice playing the army, learning the rules of the army, as well as more 6th edition games. 

 

Unfortunately my army wasn't really set up for small games.  Hard to get what I need with only one tacsquad right now, and the rest being terminators.   So the rules, no characters over 2 wounds, no armor saves of 2 so no termies at all, and no armor over 33 points in total.   Easy enough.  My only draw back as character wise, I only had my librarian on bike that I could use.   So I started with the character, added in troops.  I had to pull a sergeant from the assault squad to get a second tac, and I pulled a flamer from my assault as well, since they don't have jump packs.

 

My list was basically this.

Librarian on bike, lvl 2, conversion field.

Tac squad, x5, sergeant with plasma pistol, chainsword, 1 plasma gun ( in hindsight I should have dropped the pistol and replaced the plasmagun with cannon)

Tac squad x5, sergeant with plastma pistol, power sword, and flamer

Black knights x3, 1 grenade launcher

Bike squad x4, vet sergeant, plasmagun + multimelta attack bike

Speeder with assault cannon and heavy bolter.

 

I played 3 games, and I basically got two draws, and one loss.   I played against a tau player, dark angel player and a guard/wolf list.

 

The Tau player was almost a win, If I had remembered to go for objectives, we got started a little late so time ran out on us before we knew it.  I decided based on terrain to outflank my bike squad, but then I siezed the initiative which meant I should have just fielded them against his gun line. This game showed me the love of the black knights.  Turn one, they shot up his commander, who was attached to stealth team of 3 and six gun drones.  I popped a rad grenade to bring everyone down to more managable kills.  I was able to wipe the gun drones and 1 stealth suit out in shooting, then I charged.  Hand to hand was a bit harder, but I managed to would his commander, and it was just one stealth suit left.   He fled, but next turn I got him.  The attack bike was also a prized unit, really in all three matches, as it was just the focus of all my enemies and they couldn't seem to drop it like they wanted.  Lasting 2-3 turns with focused fire is always awesome.  Anyways, had I contested one more objective or gotten a unit that stayed in his enemy lines at the end, i could have won.  Oh well was really a fun game.

 

Dark angles was a bit harder.  This guy had a scout squad, librarian, 4 small tac squads with heavy weapons, and a 5 man devestator with 4 plasma cannons and a whirlwind.   I did pretty good overall, eliminating 2 of his tac squads, one squad was down to 1 man, another squad was down to 2 or 3, and his devestator squad was down to 1 cannon, but again, not being able to claim objectives or having a unit in his deployment zone cost me a win again.  He however did wipe out my warlord and black knights in a single round of shooting with plasma cannons...that really hurt.   It was also his only really round of shooting with them, as I assaulted them with bikes the next turn to prevent any more devestating volleys. 

 

The IG was just a bad game.  For starters, my dice failed me in this game, and failed me bad.  I was rolling way to many 1's and 2's against the lasguns, even when it was only a few hits.   I also didn't have anything that could remove 70 guards men fast enough.  he basically had 1 lt command platoon, a psyker, 1 vet squad, and 2 30  man squads blobs.  he took a 5 man grey hunters squad as well as a wolf priest and rune priest. These characters were attached to the ig units.  I did manage to get rid of the greyhunters, but only after they smacked down my librarian.  Sadly this battle was won by the wolves in that respect to the age old challenge.  At the end I had my speeder, attack bike with one wound, and 2 tac marines left.   He had 4 veterans, 3 in his command, all his characters, one unit was left with 1 guardsman, the other unit had about 8 guards left.  I killed alot of them guards, just not enough to win, or draw as I was running out of bodies myself.  

 

Was a fun game, hopefully next time I get to the store to play, it will be bigger games.    Also its time to start painting the tac squads.  Was great to play, but was much more enjoyable fielding the painted units I did get to field, they just looked great on the table.  

[Deathwing70]

yea it's a shame GW doesn't produce more bionic parts but you should check out this guy's site if you're interested: Anvil Industries (I linked it to the bionic's page, he makes alot of other stuff aswell and keeps adding more). It's good quality and fits well on Marines.

[Rizara]

Ok, I updated the first page with an army shot, but also putting it here for those who look for an update.  Here is my army shot of all my fully painted models as of April 1, 2013.  Total points of this so far is 2401.  

http://i1307.photobucket.com/albums/s585/Jason_Mullis/Angels%20of%20Vengeance/AoV_Armyshot_zps45aa0a30.jpg

 

I have lots more to paint and add.  I have two more units of 5 death wing terminators with CML to paint, plus I think one extra Heavy weapon variety still to assemble which will be a termie with plasma cannon (for flexability options when I field the termies).  I also have a 9 man assault squad to paint that will accompany Azraell in the lists i take him, plus the helmet bearer for azrael.  I have to finish assembling and paint my 5th company commander, the DV tac squad, and the rest of the ravenwing attack squad of 6 bikes and attack bike, and the second contemptor dread with lascannon.   I also have to strip, then remodel, and prime/paint some extra marines which will give me another librarian on foot, 3 more tac squads and a 10 strong devestator squad and maybe the start of a 5th tac squad. I am also looking at investing in an executioner from forgeworld (yeah for wife approval to buy this tank hehehe), and to strip and repaint two assault cannon razorbacks and land raider reedemer.    SO I have alot of models to keep me busy for quite a while, plus I need to finish rounding out my 5th company units, as well as round out the armory for my 1st and 5th company, and flesh out the 2nd company into a playable ravenwing list. 

 

The Angels of Vengeance shall rise and conquer, and bring glory to the first legion, and death to the fallen and the enemies of the first.

[Brother Immolator]

There is a brownish tint coming off from the vehicles. Which I think it is a nice contrast. The  Chapter master is really a show up piece even from the distance.

Great job bro!

[Rizara]

now that you mention it their is a brownish tint.  That must have been some glare off the lighting and walls or something.  Not sure where that is from really.  I took 3 pictures of the army, and this was the best one that came out.  I really should just invest in a better camera I guess, not a cheap one but get a good investment.  

 

As for the chapter master, yeah I wanted him to stand out, and be a nice conversion.  I am looking at doing some tournaments and having those character conversions really helps make the army more noticeable.   Now if I could only get a better shot of him.

[Brother Immolator]

Probably is a reflction of the surroundings been done durring the camera flash taking effect.

Dont worry, the quality is there. I have an ability to make my models look like crap in pics so you can say I have a trained eye and I can tell good from bad painting, and yours is good defo!

[Isiah]

Awesome sauce collection of models. I particularly like the way you've painted their banners and their robes where they have them. Very characterful and covetable.

 

Cheers

I

[Rizara]

Thanks Isiah.  Only the models with inner circle rules are getting the black robes.  So characters, and deathwing.  Everyone else is getting red robes. 

[Rizara]

Ok, so some hiccups with the executioner.  I really want one from forgeworld, wife has even approved it so I figured I was good.  But their is simply no way I can get one sadly being in the US, and all, my bank can't adjust my card so i can use it overseas, go figure.  Even Email forgeworld about it.  I can go with the old fashioned snail mail option, where I send a money order, and wait patiently.  Or I can just simply convert one up.  With all the frustration it dawned on me that I still have the plasma cannon bits left over from an old storm raven.  So the question is..should I just convert one up using a predator, or go for broke and invest in the forgeworld one.  I do like the look of the forgeworld one, but cost wise, converting one would be cheaper, then I don't have to deal with resin which also gets to be a pain.  I do have to deal with converting one up, but I do have some spare plastic card and green stuff, and I would only need to invest in a predator kit.   

 

Choices choices choices.  What would you guys recommend?   I really want to add a plasma toting predator to the army somehow, and I got the rules for the tank, just have to either invest in the expensive one, or customize my own variant?

 

Cost wise, it will cost me about 85+ dollars to order the forgeworld.  If i customize it maybe I can pick up another tank for my armory, maybe some transports, or a vindicator, or a razorback. 

[Deathwing70]

I guess the question could be, are you in love with the version Forgeworld has made?

Personally I don't really like the roundish turret(s) so I would probably go for a converted one. Make it unique, besides with all the magnet options out there (not that having a Forgeworld version would stop you from doing so) you can build a Predator into anything with some imagination.

 

Not sure exactly how much a normal predator sets you back over there or how much you save by not getting the Forgeworld one. Enough to buy a 2nd predator? Or another piece of wargear you've had your eyes on? :)

[Rizara]

well my local store gives a 20% discount to veteran club members, so I could effectively get 2 predators for around the same price, or a predator and a dread (been thinking of getting one to field for my 5th, that is a square boxxy one with plasmacannon and missle launcher), or what I think I might get is a predator and another razorback.  My army really lacks in the armor department, so getting a transport option for my tacsquads would be good, plus I could use about 2 rhinos and 3 more razorbacks as it is to flesh out the transports for my 5th company.   Yeah, I like the look of it, but I am not so in love with it that I can't convert one.  I am just more suprised that the thought never occured to me before today on making my own.  Plus with magnets, or extra sprues, i can invest in a few turret options. 

[Interrogator Stobz]

What happened to your Kheres barrels?

[Brother Immolator]

If you feel confident on your skills, Id say go scratch build one.

I collect models for collective purposes first and formost but I am not beyond building my own versions if I can.

I find that from a cellection persepective, a unique model sometimes its more worth it than the actual ones.

Think of your company master: How many have that awesome model? Only you ;)

 

EDIT: Isnt there a frater (think it was ELMO?) that has actually build one of the things.

[Rizara]

Stobz, the barrel broke.  I had issues getting it to actually stay when i was trying to glue them into the cannon, they kept sticking to my finger more than the barrel, not wanting to stay straight, and then trying to fix it and add the rotary tip, broke two of the barrels.  That is my only real complaint is I hate resin kits, especially the few forgeworld models kits I have gotten, the resin doesn't want to glue.  In all Honestly I think they could have done a better design with that barrel, cause it was a pain to get in straight, perhaps drilled some holes for the barrles to sit in so they didn't lean inwards or outwards.  It was very frustrating, and this was just the end solution I had to fix it, as I now had the contemptor, but a broken weapon.  So i used a spare assault cannon to fix it so I could still use the weapon and it still count as an assault cannon.   It is much smaller, it was just frustrating.  I might have had a bad one to begin with because one of the barrels was shorter than the other two barrel pieces to start with, just a fraction of size, but it was noticeable when assembling it. 

[Phenomenalon]

Greetings MA, I have been following your AOV blog since you started it to scout for ideas for my own AOV army I'm forming here in the UK. Especially impressed with you Company commander conversion, please keep up the posts.

Anyway, have seen your plight with the predator executioner and was wondering if you have considered using the Baal predator as a starting point? I'm halfway through converting one into an executioner myself, as I felt that the fuel cells for the flamestorm cannon look more like the plasma cells seen on the warhound titan. I simply added some thin rectangles to the outside of the cell to match the ridges found on most plasma weaponry cells.

As for the main gun I had two of the old metal demolisher sponsor plasma cannons, so used the to form the tips and extended the barrels (using a mould of the plasma cannon filled with modelling putty) to a length similar to the gun barrels of the Forge World model. As the Baal kit was made much later than the original predator, GW use of CAD had improved, so I find the styling of the turret and accessories is more detailed. I've also used all the piping of the heavy flamer sponsors to give the turret a more "I don't understand how this works and it may blow up in my face" look.

 

Would be interested to know what you think and to see how yours turns out. Good luck!

[Rizara]

Thanks for the extra feedback on the predator. It so happens I am using a Baal predator as the base. For starters I like the front of that predator kit better. I am also planning on using the heavy bolters for sponson. I am looking at using the two storm raven plasma cannons for the basis of my cannon conversion. I am going to trim a lot of excess off and try to get it to match the forge world twin plasma cannon look. I will look into the other ideas you mentioned.

 

While I am waiting for the kit to arrive, I have been working on my 5th company. I stripped a bunch of tac marines and I am painstakiningly adding all the sculpted AoV icons to their shoulder pads. I figure its worth it to not have to hand paint all the icons, I already have to hand paint all the arrows and unit numbers. When I get all these marines prime dead and ready for paint it will give me 3 full 10 strong tac squads, 2 five man tac squads, 1 ten man assault squad on foot, and 2 five man devestators with two heavy weapons in each. I also will have the sergeant ready for the second assault squad minus jumppacks, and one of the dev sergeants is lacking the signum backpack. I also had one spare veteran left over to make the apothecary for the command squad. I also have my company master and the DVD librarian on foot for my 5th company, and will have a rhino and two razorbacks ready to add to the companies drop pods for transport options. Now to get more time to paint the stuff. Just have to finish up the work for these next two weeks of art classes the. I get a week of no classes before next semester. Plan to paint my tail off that week, so just trying to get some of the prep work done before that week. My goal that week will be focusing on getting this second land speeder assembled and painted plus a chunk of the 5th company.

 

Also that's my chapter master (azrael) conversion not my company master.