Hands of Sacrifice WIP

[Bonzi]

I swore that the day I actually had a fully completed unit for my Blood Angel army that they would get a WIP page.  Ten plus years after I started collecting Blood Angels I have finally produced a fully modeled, painted, and based unit.  Yes, ten years and four different paint schemes (Flesh Tearers, Knights of Blood, Ugly Home Brew, and Current).

 

I present for your consideration, the BA successor chapter Hands of Sacrifice (not sold on the name yet, just the idea).  HoS are based around the mythos of sacrifice, starting with Sanguinius ultimate sacrifice which then allowed the Emperor to defeat Horus.  This is partly an ironic choice because in my gaming circle this army is known as my 'Fail Angels' due to the astonishingly bad rolls I have suffered while playing them.  The basic paint scheme is a pure white tinted slightly with diluted Sepia wash (a bright bone color) on the whole body, metalic bronze trimming and ornamentation, and wazdaka red for the right hand weapon, arm, and shoulder pad.  The red arm represents sacrifice and honors the last action of the Primarch, reminding every brother what they strive for and the ultimate price that must be paid.  Death Company are painted entirely red with their right arm being painted black, representing brothers who are making their final sacrifice to attain redemption.

 

The following represent the units I have that have been completed.  I have several dreadnoughts, terminators, tacticals, and characters already painted but they are not yet based. 

 

Jump Captain & two squads of Intercessors

 

 

 

Sorry about the image quality.  Between my phone, my drop box, my computer, and my upload things seem to have gotten very small and fuzzy.

 

 

 

 

[Shiboinky]

Love the paint scheme! I just finished airbrushing all my primaris red, and I'm almost wishing you would have posted this a week or so ago so I could have shamelessly stolen It!

 

I tried something similar in the past with bone white marines and wasn't satisfied with the results I was getting. What did you use to thin the wash, and to what ratio?

 

I'm excited to see the next additions to their chapter.

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Beautiful models. The name "Hands of Sacrifice" is acceptable. Edited January 23, 2018 by Bjorn Firewalker

[Firepower]

Ohh, neat color scheme. :)

[Lord_Caerolion]

Is that a marble effect on the armour? If so, that's awesome!

[Bonzi]

Love the paint scheme! I just finished airbrushing all my primaris red, and I'm almost wishing you would have posted this a week or so ago so I could have shamelessly stolen It!

 

I tried something similar in the past with bone white marines and wasn't satisfied with the results I was getting. What did you use to thin the wash, and to what ratio?

 

I'm excited to see the next additions to their chapter.

Base is GW white primer. Then I airbrush coat a pure white (because a little grey always shows through the primer). After that I take sepia wash and dilute with acrylic thinner to maybe one drop wash to five drops thinner and I airbrush it on. I don't shoot for an even coat, I just wet the whole model and stop. The goal is to 'liven' the white and create subtle color gradients on the model (perfectly consistent and even colors look fake). The effect is that some surfaces of the armor take on a lightly toasted marshmallow look. After that I take a thin line brush and apply sepia wash to all the cracks, armor joints, and depressions only. I will occasionally got back with white airbrush paint and hit raised edges for highlights.

 

The end effect is what I call 'beer goggles' painting. It looks good on a table top while your playing, but close up photos or holding it right up to your eye reveals that it isn't a very clean method.

 

The models appear slightly more white than they actually are in the pictures because I was using natural sunlight during a snow storm which is pretty intense and bright.

Edited January 23, 2018 by Bonzi

[Ekfud]

Good colour on the mechanicus bases too - better contrast than the standard leadbelcher/rust combo

[Bonzi]

Good colour on the mechanicus bases too - better contrast than the standard leadbelcher/rust combo

Thank you all for the positive replies. Here is a pic that shows the bases before I put the models on.

Edited January 23, 2018 by Bonzi

[keeblerartillery]

I didn't like how my carmine blades death company turned out - felt too raven guard-y. Definitely stealing this for their scheme. Great work

[Panzer]

Really like that color scheme. I was thinking about painting my Deathcompany red as well (my guys are mostly metalic silver aka the Knights of Blood color scheme) if we ever get Primaris DC. :D

[Bonzi]

Some of you have mentioned the Death Company color scheme so I snapped a pic of my test bed fig for my HoS Death Company.  I had to punch up the brightness on the photo due to lighting, the real color is deeper, closer to a burgundy red rather than the traditional orange red associated with BA.

 

This is the next model in line to be finished.  Its a venerable dred I was given as a gift.  Obviously BA don't have venerables so I am using it as a blinged out standard BA dred.  The Lascannon, CCW arm, and base are all done but the main body only has a first coloring done.  No touchup or washes have been done yet and a lot of detail colors are missing.  This guy plus captain smash and the intercessors represent the PL 24 base list I'm using in a local escalation league which I have vowed to have all my models painted for.

 

The Landraider is actually the next unit that needs to be done for the second week of the escalation league.  Yes, a Landraider Crusader at PL 40....because I'm that guy.  In reality my list for the league was mostly a bucket list of models I wanted to built and or paint.  When I'm painting I have a pretty ADD method...if I get bored with something I'll go paint a small part of a different model just to break things up.  The dred above got both of its arms painted before I had even primed the body because I got bored of the Intercessors.  On the Landraider  you're seeing the base level I prep a model to before I start painting with a brush (that is primed white, airbrushed whiter, and then tinted slightly with airbrushed sepia wash.)  I've started picking off small parts of the raider for fun (assault cannon turret and the left side bolter array).  The right side/trackguard of the vehicle still needs to be painted to red.

 

And finally a teaser image!  It's a Relic Leviathan Drednought I just got in today.  This is for the final week of the escalation league because who needs friends.  I've finished clipping and washing, so now I need to start dry fitting and magnetizing tomorrow (I've got 2 storm cannons, a CCW arm, and the cyclonic melta lance).  This guy is gonna be an army centerpiece so I'm not sure I'll get it done in time, I'm not willing to rush this one.

 

[Bjorn Firewalker]

The Assault Marine looks great! But why is your Death Company in red armor, instead of the traditional black? To let these doomed Marines be closer to Sanguinius in spirit, before their inevitable sacrifice?

[Bonzi]

The Assault Marine looks great! But why is your Death Company in red armor, instead of the traditional black? To let these doomed Marines be closer to Sanguinius in spirit, before their inevitable sacrifice?

I did it as as inversion color scheme of sorts. In the regular units the bodies are white with a red arm representing the Primarchs sacrifice. In my Death Company I paint the body entirely red and the right arm black. It is to represent that effectively Death Company are themselves a sacrifice so their entire body is red and their arm is black to represent a brother who has passed from the chapter.

 

In practical terms I do it so my army isn't just primarily black and white. The red bridges the color schemes and ties the army together better.

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Good reasons.

[Bonzi]

PL 24 Escalation League models complete. That's week one finished up.

A busy day of laying out main colors with the airbrush. Finished prepping all of my mechanicus bases so I can detail and add to models as I complete them. Leviathan and Crusader both got their base colors as well.

The Leviathan stomps closer and closer to the finish line. All arm weapons and torso have been magnetized and primed. I also have to red and base white colors on but no sepia toning yet.

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Good job on the new models. The vehicles' paint scheme is interesting- will flyers have their right wings painted red?

[sockwithaticket]

Cool scheme, the red DC idea is a good one and probably pretty unique.

[Bonzi]

It's been a busy weekend for the hobby. I got a game against a friend's possible DA escalation list. We played PL 50.

 

DA list was:

 

Azrael

Librarian

 

X3 5 Intercessors

 

5 Devastators: X2 lascannon, x2 grav, combigrav, cheribum

 

DA Bomber Flyer

 

My List

 

Captain: thunderhammer/storm shield

 

X2 5 Intercessors: power sword, grenade launcher

5 Tactical Marines: lascannon

 

Dreadnought: twin lascannon, storm Bolter

 

Landspeeder: dual h. flamers

 

Landraider Crusader

 

It was a good game but captain smash and a landraider are a lot to deal with at low PL. Captain dropped in a destroyed the bomber in melee turn 1. After that he killed a dev turn 2 but got smited, hit with a powerfist and a force sword and was out of the game. My friend rolled 4 4++ saves when I hit his devs with the captain. I bogged most of his army by locking them up with the raider. The dred sniped Azrael with a lascannon shot, the Intercessors ganked his Libby and my speeder was flaming and pinballing through his back line. He called the game after turn four having just one or two Intercessors left from each squad and just a couple devs. I lost captain, all the Tacticals, half of one Intercessor squad, and my Landraider and Landspeeder were both below half health.

 

It was a good game but we all agree that Captain Smash is a pretty big crutch for BA models and Azrael is the same for DA.

 

I got a second PL 104 game vs a friend's new Custodes today because he just got the book. I can say Custodes are tough as nails and hit like a bag of hammers. They do have a there critical weaknesses though. A crippling lack of psychic defense, weakness to mortal wounds, and they can be stymied by invuln saves.

 

I had Mephiston and Inquisitor Greyfax and the Custodes inability to stop my buff spells and blocking smite wounds only on a 6 gave me a huge advantage. Unleash Rage on Assault Terminators and Smite were deadly this game. Greyfax also used Dominate on his Captain and made him attack a banner bearer. The Custodes were powerless to stop any of this.

 

The real gem was how much Custodes struggle against high invuln saves. I matched his Custodes with Assault Terminators, Captain Smash, and the Terminator Ancient with the Banner of Sacrifice. We were both getting through very few unsaved wounds, but the hammers were doing three damage each time vs his D3 damage. I don't think any Marine army but BA has the chops to stand toe to toe with Custodes in drawn out battle. It was a pretty glorious showing for the BA. The big meat grinder melee ended up involving in total: Captain Smash, two squads of Assault Terminators, a Drednought, and the Terminator Ancient vs Valoris Trajan, a Custodes Captain, a 3 man Custodes Squad, and two Vexilla (one the banner of +1 attack, the other the banner of -1 to hit in shooting). The BA walked out of the fight victorious with 4 Assault Terminators and the Terminator Ancient still standing.

 

I tabled the Custodes in the bottom of turn 7 with 4 Assault Terminators, the Terminator Ancient, Greyfax with one wound left, one Tactical marine, 5 Intercessors, a Sanguinary Novieate, and a Levithan Dred on its last two wounds still standing on the table.

Edited January 28, 2018 by Bonzi

[Crimson Ghost IX]

...

The real gem was how much Custodes struggle against high invuln saves. I matched his Custodes with Assault Terminators, Captain Smash, and the Terminator Ancient with the Banner of Sacrifice. We were both getting through very few unsaved wounds, but the hammers were doing three damage each time vs his D3 damage. I don't think any Marine army but BA has the chops to stand toe to toe with Custodes in drawn out battle. It was a pretty glorious showing for the BA. The big meat grinder melee ended up involving in total: Captain Smash, two squads of Assault Terminators, a Drednought, and the Terminator Ancient vs Valoris Trajan, a Custodes Captain, a 3 man Custodes Squad, and two Vexilla (one the banner of +1 attack, the other the banner of -1 to hit in shooting). The BA walked out of the fight victorious with 4 Assault Terminators and the Terminator Ancient still standing.

 

I tabled the Custodes in the bottom of turn 7 with 4 Assault Terminators, the Terminator Ancient, Greyfax with one wound left, one Tactical marine, 5 Intercessors, a Sanguinary Novieate, and a Levithan Dred on its last two wounds still standing on the table.

 

Outstanding !! 

 

Our Assault Termies and Ancient are such great looking models for added bonus too.

You have just bumped them and my Termie Librarian back up the -to be repainted some and used- queue here.

 

As an aside I am very tempted by your DC color scheme and background reasoning also.

Good stuff Bonzi !!

[Panzer]

Just a reminder, our Terminators are only better than others during the turn they got charged/charged themselves. After that they not different than vanilla Terminators. Tho the Standard of Sacrifice is quite good but that doesn't apply to just the Terminators. ^^

[Bonzi]

Just a reminder, our Terminators are only better than others during the turn they got charged/charged themselves. After that they not different than vanilla Terminators. Tho the Standard of Sacrifice is quite good but that doesn't apply to just the Terminators. ^^

This is true, but the great meatgrinder melees often involve several units over multiple turns, with each time BA charge or get charged refreshing the +1 to wound. That little rule also makes opponents have to really consider if they want to pile more units in to a critical melee.

 

My opponent was bitterly cursing the BA rule every time my squads got a bump from being charged. He plays BA too, and he said it was a totally different experience facing the BA and their CT instead of playing them.

[Bonzi]

An update. The landraider is all done but a touch of weathering, however, it killed my desire to paint vehicles. In the meantime I decided to do a couple new character models and base up a couple that I had already done.

They are: a Primaris Libby 'converted' to mephiston (I gave him a plasma pistol and a BA shoulder), a Primaris chaplain converted to a death company chaplain, a Terminator Libby, and a Sanguinary Noviet.

We've stepped up another 15PL in our escalation league. I've added a Landraider Crusader because I had banked points from the first week. The dred reputation of Captain Smash grows to near mythical level. I played a game where I intentionally did very little with the Captain, held him back and used him as a buffer. My opponent basically ignored all my other units trying to get to the Captain. My Dreadnought alone wrecked half of his army and he never considered it a threat. Even at the end of the game when it was all over and Captain had only killed Marbo, all my opponent talked about was how broken the Captain is. It was interesting.

Edited February 12, 2018 by Bonzi

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Good job.

[Bonzi]

Escalation League Week 3 standing by for deployment. Five Tacticals with grav & combigrav, Mephiston, and a Sanguinary Noviet.

This will finally get me a total of 6 CP for Captain Smash to snack on. Mephiston and the Tacticals will likely catch a ride in the Landraider, while the Noviet will hang back and heal or resurrect Intercessors.

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Good job on the Tactical Squad.