XBA: The Spear of Telesto

[Xenith]

Little advice, if you can't take non-blurry pictures it's better to post smaller ones. Big blurry pictures are not that great to look at.

 

Haha, maybe that's the reason I didn't post them in the first place! I'll have to go back and get some more.

 

 

I need to ask it... 

 

What does Marsellus LOOK LIKE?

 

He's bald and angry, and will strike you down with great vengeance and furious anger!

Edited February 15, 2018 by Xenith

[Bjorn Firewalker]

The Assault Marines look great, Xenith.

[brother_b]

Lovely miniatures. You painted the bottom of the feet. I've often considered that due to my weird OCD.

 

You've pulled it off quite nicely.

[Xenith]

The Assault Marines look great, Xenith.

 

Thanks Bjorn!

 

 

Lovely miniatures. You painted the bottom of the feet. I've often considered that due to my weird OCD.

 

You've pulled it off quite nicely.

 

I don't think that's OCD - If you can see it on the model, it gets painted! 'Feet flat on the ground' marines don't get their feet painted for obvious reasons, however assault marines do.

[Xenith]

So today I pulled out all the Blood Angels I have with me in Switzerland to take a look, and it's a decent amount. I thought it was them all, however I forgot to bring over my land raider, the old metal characters etc. I took some photos, and made a list of what I need to get each model to a finished state, mainly basing them properly in the case of my older stuff. Will upload the photos tomorrow.

[Xenith]

As promised, the army shots. Please excuse the poor lighting, the light bulb above the table was making everything yellow so I had to use the camera flash...

Army Shost:

1st Company

4th Company

7th and 8th Company

10th Company

Death Company

Golden Company

The army doesn't have a model painted before 2009 in it, and represents when I started repainting my BA when my skills had improved, and represents about a decade of collecting. It's grown a lot over the past couple of years, and will continue to do so. I particular I note my dearth of priests and librarians. I thought I'd collected all of my BA from the UK when I was last over, but it seems like I'm missing from these photos:

2 attack bikes (I have 4 total)

Land raider crusader

Metal Mephiston, Corbulo and Tycho

10 second ed push fit tactical marines.

I'll have to work out where these went

Thanks for looking!

Edited February 19, 2018 by Xenith

[brother_b]

Wow what an amazing army and collection!

[Panzer]

That's a whole lot of models you forgot in another country ... how?! :D

[Xenith]

Wow what an amazing army and collection!

 

Thanks! It's taken a long time, but sharing stuff on the forum helped my motivation a lot, just keep painting!

 

That's a whole lot of models you forgot in another country ... how?!

 

Haha, I'm unsure, really,  I moved to Switzerland in 2015 and brought nothing but bare plastic with me - I painted the units I wanted which didnt really make an army, so this Christmas I brought my BA figure case back from the UK, but my land raider must have been in another case - I left the old metals back home as I had converted a new plastic Mephiston and Corbulo, but they're not painted yet so didn't make the photo.

 

Good job I have two more unpainted ones with me to work on 

[Bjorn Firewalker]

A fine-looking army. Good job.

[Xenith]

Thanks Bjorn, it's a boost to see people like yourelf following the plog!

 

In other news, I picked up Dark Imperium last night, and will probably put the Primaris marines in the 5th company, so devastated after the events of the 13th Black Crusade. 

 

I'm going to go red/black/gold with these guys, compared to the red/white/yellow I chose for my 4th company, and have them look like more traditional BA. 

[dread05]

Really nice collection ! Can I ask a question since I saw your models? Does Dante and the Sanguinor feel different to the other models? Are they smaller? Are they finecast or Metal? I cant decide if I should buy them, or convert them :).

[Xenith]

So I have another 5 man tactical squad with melta and combi melta assembled for blood and zeal. Eventually these guys will be bulked up to 10 men. Also, 5 more scouts!

[Xenith]

So Squad Terranostra have been undercoated, then their backpacks removed for better brush access:

Squad

Sergeant Terranostra

I've also made a start on the Dark Imperium models, these are indeed, lovely. I am asof yet unsure whether to go with the standard MkX helms, or go with MkVII eagle helms, with the mouth grille, as they are so 40k and brutal looking.

So far I have 6 basic marines, 2 sergeants made, with the sergeants receiving subtle conversions to power swords. When all these are assembled, I'll BA-ify them a little more.

For what it's worth, the Dark Imperium box is actually incredible. It's really well presented, and the models kick ass. I do think they could have reorganised the units a little so all the repeat models werent in the same one, however that's a minor gripe. I'm really looking forward to getting some paint on these, however not at the expense of the 4th co.

In my own timeline, the 4th Co were also present at the third war for Armageddon as unofficial Tycho-Handlers. This means that the 5th co, rebuilt with Primaris, will be of a different timeline, so I'm considering a different basing style for the army, possibly using the imperial sector bases - mixed with a little stirland battlemire so there is an overlap with my older BA bases.

[dread05]

I was looking at your previous pictures again and I just noticed one of your DC has a death mask. Is he a fallen guard? I really like that idea.

[Thoridon]

That's a great collection :) I'm in a very similar position, having moved across to mainland Europe a couple of years ago and then decided to revive my 15+ year old collection. Each time I take a trip back to the UK I still find bits and pieces to bring back - and keep wondering where certain things are. I never did find my old metal Dante and Mephiston (though I found Dante's pistol in my bits box) so I bought and painted resin replacements instead. Still hoping I come across the old cardboard Ork dreadnought at some point...

 

Anyhow, I digress, great looking army you have there :) It reminds me to update my own pictures, though I'm some way behind you on completed models. I have a fair few black primed units that haven't seen the table yet until I get round to painting them.

 

I notice you've changed your red over the years. Do you plan to update them all to a matching shade or are you keeping them as they were? I have that 'issue' as I use completely different paints now.

[Xenith]

I was looking at your previous pictures again and I just noticed one of your DC has a death mask. Is he a fallen guard? I really like that idea.

Hey Dread, indeed he's a fallen Sanguinary Guard - he doesn't have name as of yet, but I was basically playing around with bits and came up with him - the gold on black makes him stand out!

Unnamed fallen Sanguinary Guardian

I notice you've changed your red over the years. Do you plan to update them all to a matching shade or are you keeping them as they were? I have that 'issue' as I use completely different paints now.

Thanks Thoridon! I don't think I could bring myself to repaint the other guys again - they've already been repainted once! The older guys I started repainting in around 2008, and were essentially:

Black undercoat -> mechrite red -> multiple drybrushes of blood red until a solid coat -> red ink -> optional stages for characters -> thraka green point hade -> blazing orange highlight -> vomit brown highlight.

With the release of the new paints, I followed the GW method of painting BA, which was originally

Black -> Meph red -> carroburg wash-> evil sunz scarlett (multiple coats until solid)

However I didn't stick with this for long, painting that bright red was a nightmare.

My scheme is now the much simpler GW scheme:

Black -> meph red until solid covering -> agrax earthshade point shade -> evil sunz broad highlight -> wild rider fine highlight -> (optional stages for characters) -> fire dragon bright -> ungor flesh

All the stuff I've painted in the last 3 years has followed that recipe, and although sometimes I long for a vibrant red base, these guys get pretty bright when all highlighted up, so I'm happy with it.

[Buggane]

Where did you get the sword for that primaris sergeant? I've also got the DI box and was trying to work out whether a sword would fit in his hand (looks like it would!). Did you have to do any cutting to get it in there or did it just fit in?

[Xenith]

Where did you get the sword for that primaris sergeant? I've also got the DI box and was trying to work out whether a sword would fit in his hand (looks like it would!). Did you have to do any cutting to get it in there or did it just fit in?

 

Which one? 

 

The top one is a spatula sword from the Ravenwing black knight box, with the spatula bits sanded down, and the second is the standard BA Gladius from the BA tactical squad box.

 

In both cases, I just cut off the Primaris hand at the wrist (and kept it for later) then glued the sword hand right onto the stump.

[dread05]

Oh I've used that ravenwing sword on one of my captains as a relic blade, the spatula made it look more like a relic if anything :P It's a shame you shaved it.

[Xenith]

Haha, I disagree and remove them where I can. I think the spatula makes them too obviously stolen from the DA. I really like the wing and claw icons, and used a RW sword on my captain as a relic blade also.

[Xenith]

So on a trip from south to North of the UK, the GF suggested breaking the trip up in Nottingham...at WHW.

The haul was pretty varied due to my indecision and feeling the call of my thousand sons again, but I got:

- Realm of chaos reprint

- Perturabo

- Deredeo dread with autocannons and missiles

- Osiron dread with autocannons

That's my hobby budget done for a while!

[Xenith]

ETL Prep begins!

 

Last night I put together 3 easy build aggressors, and 3 inceptors from Know No Fear.

 

All went together super fast and with virtually no mould lines, particularly the aggressors, which was sweet relief.

 

One thing, the aggressors heads don't fit through the gap in the gravis armour once it's glues together, even if you cut the pegs off. This makes it slightly harder for BA with different helm colours. 

 

Inceptors have an easier build and the top of the helms connect to the packs and can be glued on later.

 

Other things to build include the other HQ choices from Dark imperium, maybe some sang guard, and a StormHawk.

Edited April 23, 2018 by Xenith

[Xenith]

Still massively unsure whether to have my Primaris as a new BA company or paint them as Mentors...

[Jolemai]

Still massively unsure whether to have my Primaris as a new BA company or paint them as Mentors...

 

Well you know how I feel about that, but if you want them as Mentors maybe start them on the 2nd August? ;)

 

At the end of the day it's up to you. What's making you dither?