MBA++Blood Angels 5th Company - into the Leviathan's maw

[SnorriSnorrison]

That's a pretty impressive job you've done there, brother! Nice work on the NMM armour! I like the pose as well, good use of the Chaplain model. :)

[Majkhel]

Thanks, brother! I'm happy you like him :)

[Majkhel]

So, feasting time finally coming to an end an I hopefully will be able to still complete some things before year-end.

First - another 5 Incursors. This time from the 10th Coy and featuring yellow helmets. TT-standard quality, although I would like to revisit them at one point as the squad contains some of the more interesting poses I have achieved so far with this kit. They definitely still need decals.

Net up will be 2 DC Intercessors I pledged for the Boxing Day Bash

I, Majkhel of the Blood Angels, accept The Boxing Day Challenge and vow to Build, Paint, and Base 2 Death Company Intercessors for the honour of the Blood Angels sub-forum within the 24hrs time limit.

These will be again fairly simple and more a testing ground the black scheme. For the moment I plan to limit the level of bling on them, but we'll see. They already got DC shoulder pads. Edited December 28, 2020 by Majkhel

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Good job on the Incursors.

[Majkhel]

Ok, did it for the glory of the Angel, but speed-painting while testing things is not for me

And it's done:

I'm happy with the posing. Armour needs still more love to look good. While I'm happy with the darkness of the red, I think I need to enhance it a bit, to make it pop more. Especially the freehand saltires. Not sure about the bone-coloured Imperialis. Also, I think they they lack bling. I should add more purity seals at the very least.

Nevertheless, a fun project and has given me lots to think about.

Edited December 29, 2020 by Majkhel

[Spyros]

I like the pistol and rifle combo, I did once on a firstborn. It was ok but this is much better looking.

[Majkhel]

Thanks Spyros! Yeah, I like that one too. I thought that extra 'dakka' should help express the over-excessive aggressiveness of the Death Company :)

[Majkhel]

A last-minute completion of the year - Inceptors.

An old build that got broken several times since I got it. Only TT-standard for now and I will be replacing the flying stems with some terrain pieces at one point.

And with the excellent 12 MOnths of Hooby event coming to an end along with the final hours of the year 2020, here are is the group picture of all the models I managed to paint this year :)

That's exactly 100 models of circa 2780pts value + 14 barrels and one objective marker.
I have to say, I'm proud :)

Happy New Year, everyone!!

[Redrandy93]

Brother Majkhel well done!            Wish i could do as well.      

 

May the New Year be a much better one for everyone!

[Majkhel]

Brother Majkhel well done!            Wish i could do as well.      

 

May the New Year be a much better one for everyone!

Cheers, brother! Thank you kindly for praise and wishes and welcome to the thread :)

Fear not the brush, for it is but a tool and we are it's masters! ;) 

[Majkhel]

Starting 2021 slowly in terms of painting (count-as Callidus on my desk atm), but completed the building part of an Impulsor.
I used it as a testing ground for mould-casting additions:

I find it very appropriate to decorate an Impulsor with Rhino decorations.

And my personal favourite - the Angel-pattern shield dome:

I would use a statue of the Emperor (if I had one), but the dome gives only a 5++

Sponsons are magnetized as is the housing for the shield dome. If I get my hands on proper parts, I plan to make a Gladiator upgrade for it too at one point.
For the moment it's ready to prime and I might get to painting it to test/develop a painting scheme with ETL (fingers crossed!) in mind. I still have a Repulsor and Repulsor Executioner that I could pledge.

Cheers!

Edited January 4, 2021 by Majkhel

[Xenith]

And my personal favourite - the Angel-pattern shield dome:

I would use a statue of the Emperor (if I had one), but the dome gives only a 5++

Sponsons are magnetized as is the housing for the shield dome. If I get my hands on proper parts, I plan to make a Gladiator upgrade for it too at one point.

For the moment it's ready to prime and I might get to painting it to test/develop a painting scheme with ETL (fingers crossed!) in mind. I still have a Repulsor and Repulsor Executioner that I could pledge.

Cheers!

Very nice! Can I ask what you used to make the mould for the angel? And is that milliput? I could never get good results using rapidmold sticks/oyumaru and green stuff. I think Milliput can give crisper details?

[Majkhel]

Mould was made from oyoumaru and material of the cast is miliput. I find simple press-moulds work best that way for me. Muliput does not require the mould to be covered with grease and is later easy to file. That grease also means that GS is prone to moving a bit inside the mould during pressing.

As far as detail quality of a good cast is concerned, I do not see much difference between GS and miliput. The former is flexible, but harder to work with if there are any imperfections. Thats why I usually prefer muliput unless I need that flexibility.

 

The most important factor is the quality of the mould. I use really hot water and then I try to ensure that the other part of the mould is made flat. This later helps with pressing the casting material into it.

 

Edit: that particular lil'angel would probably be even crisper if it wasn't primed when I took the mould.

Edited January 4, 2021 by Majkhel

[Xenith]

Great, thanks! I think it might be my moulds then, I made copies of all the BA gubbins from the Terminator set when I was pretty new to it, I might have to redo them. So no grease needed with milliput? I found I needed it with my textured base roller/moulds, and havent dared to use it with complex press moulds in case the stuff gunked up the detail - will give it a go on a sacrificial press mould!

[Majkhel]

If you get any residue from the miliput left in the mould, it will probably be only if some of the material breaks off during removal from the mould. Even if that happens, those are easy to remove.


On another note, I've set on my goals for 2021:
Number 1 priority. Complete the 5th Company core:
13 marines. However it might be just 12, might be 18. All because of some Primaris units being 3-6 for a full squad. The easiest way would be to build 9 Heavy Intercessors (once they are released)(done), 3-man unit of something (Outriders perhaps) and call it a day at 99 marines. The alternative is to do some juggling - remove a marine here add somewhere else to reach 100. But I don't think I'm that Codex-compliant and prefer to have full squads or combat squads instead.

2. Complete 5th Company Command:
- 1 Lieutenant (done) and an Ancient at the minimum.
- bonus points for: another Captain, 2nd Lieutenant, Apothecary (done), Company Champion, 2+ Company Veterans

3. Learn to paint banners and good-looking heraldry.
To this end, I've recently acquired several back-banners which I intend to add to my existing 5th Coy Sergeants.

4. 5th Company vehicle park (any of the below):
- Repulsor (ETL)

- Repulsor Executioner (ETL)

- 1-2 Impulsors (1 done)

- Drop pod (repaint)
- 1-2 Stormravens (1 to finish)
- Sicaran battle-tank (to finish)
- Leviathan Dreadnought (done)
- 1-2 Contemptor dreadnoughts (repaint)

- Castraferrum Dreadnought

5*. Optional:
Unification of squad designation markings across the 5th

Other various characters (any of the below):
- Mephiston
- Primaris Chaplain (done)
- Primaris Chaplain on bike (done)
- Corbulo (done)
- Callidus assassin (done)
- 1-2 Primaris Captains
- BG Ancient

Other various units:
- 3-9 Bladeguard (ETL) (5 done)
- 3-6 Outriders (ETL)
- 3-5 Eradicators (ETL)

- 3 Eliminators (ETL)
- DC Intercessors (5 done)
- Veteran Intercessors
- 5 Relic Terminators (ETL)
- .... (Storm Speeder - done)

Now I fully expect to mostly be drawn towards the "Optional/Other various" part, but I want to at least try to focus on the first 3 points. Really hoping for ETL to help me with motivation, especially on the vehicles and troops. I also joined the 12 Months Hobby Challenge 2021 to work on those things, that are either not eligible or not effort/outcome efficient enough for the ETL.

So far I'm mostly into assessing resources and building. Yesterday I worked on the Repulsor Executioner I got recently in exchange for an Impulsor from the BA Patrol box

Bought the fella already assembled and pretty well at that, which definitely saved a lot of time. The main repulsor plates are not glued and can be removed quite freely.
The turret was mostly just put together without glue, which initially seemed like a good enough idea for swapping weapons. However after just one day of working around it applying bits and generally getting to know the kit, I noticed it's really easy to forget it's not actually glued. As a result, I managed to drop the turret twice already. Fortunately nothing important got broken apart from the small flap covers from the main gun's optics and smoke launcher.
After that I decided to magnetise the main gun, seal the turret and attach it to the hull with the magnet to avoid accidents and for future transportation. Also the main gun was prone to tilting downwards under it's own weight which looked awkward. The gunner on top got a magnet too just because. As the gatling is a standard, nonexchangeable armament in the datasheet, I think I might just glue down?

Bits added to the canon, turret and hull. Sword and wings came from the DA icon (after all proper re-sanctification).

The hull got a big BA icon onto the front, a big wing onto the left hatch (visible), a small thingie and purity seal onto the right hatch and a smaller BA icon to the rear ramp. I'm thinking something small still on the front and some purity seals later on on the sides and then off to the priming chamber.

I also added some bits onto the Primaris Chaplain on bike conversion, which for the most part is ready now for painting (ETL).

Cheers!

Edited January 1, 2022 by Majkhel

[Majkhel]

Building phase continues. Put aside the RepExe for a moment and started assembling a generic Repulsor. I've stumbled upon the turret... It's so small and cluttered with all those guns and launchers! 
Not sure what I'm going to do, but some changes are needed. If I had some materials, I could try rebuilding it. So far I decided to move the Auto launchers (I think) to the front of the hull in a Land Raider Crusader style. On I did move one, the other I somehow managed to destroy in the process. I will need to make a replacement. Krakstorm grenade launchers will probably be moved somewhere else as well.

Edited January 6, 2021 by Majkhel

[Xenith]

Agree on the turret, such a bad design.

 

I'm a fan of this kind of solve:

 

 

From here

http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/topic/356073-sons-of-corax-show-off-your-pre-etl-vow-models/?p=5317272

 

It just tidies it up a lot and still looks functional. 

[Majkhel]

Ooooh, I've been looking for that one, thanks for sharing! :)
I dropped a PM to good MajorNese if he has any pictures of a completed project.

I really like moving of the Krakstorm launcher (I'm guessing that's what it is :P ) to the side of the turret and will probably copy this solution one way or another. I have a set of Land Speeder launchers, that could work. I think that would set me for the various launchers the kit has. However I still need to find a place for the additional Stubber/Gatling.
And the Hunter-Slayer missile. I think that one was previously just a piece of equipment attached to the tank's side, but now it's a weapon of its own.

For the moment I think I could put the standard stubber somehow to the side (or to the top hatch if it can;t be avoided). The optional stubber/gatling would end up on the front next to the main gun. Then I would need a way of making the turret itself longer as it's seriously too small. If I could get my hands on another Executioner turret... I've seen Hexy has made one, but it's almost half the price that the whole tank cost me.
It seems however that if I add Land Speeder's launchers onto the existing rear extension of the turret and then add something more, that should do the trick.
Well see, but thanks for helping with the brainstorming! :D

[Majkhel]

Works on the turret continue. Here is the latest iteration:


And with the Impulsor's antenna instead of the hatch:


What I did, was to add the Land Speeder's missile racks on top of the turrets' rear box-thing with additional pieces of plastic for extra height. Under those went a piece of MDF I had on hand and lastly I added a spare Predator Annihilator turret' power banks to the rear.

Then added a cluster of antennas and masked all the holes with milliput et voila!

Once this is fully cured I will smooth it out a bit more.

Now the additional guns. For the moment I think one stubber will go to it's designated place at the front while the optional one will go to the side plate next to it and opposite the main gun.

Looking at it now, I think I might have gone a bit too far with the modern looks. While I like the sleek look I have now, I expect some effort will be needed to bring more of the 40k feel to it (lots and lots of purity seals ).

Cheers!

Edited August 29, 2021 by Majkhel

[Nomus Sardauk]

I like those Missile Pods! The way you mounted them reminds me of the old Mammoth Tanks from the Command & Conquer series. Ah, good times...

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Beautiful work on the Repulsor turret!

[Majkhel]

I like those Missile Pods! The way you mounted them reminds me of the old Mammoth Tanks from the Command & Conquer series. Ah, good times...

Thanks, brother! Oh yes, the Mammoth :D If those were added to the big Executioner variant's turret, the only thing missing would be the twin-barrel main gun!

 

Beautiful work on the Repulsor turret!

Thanks Bjorn!

 

I've finished magnetising both tanks (at least the most essential options) and added much bling. I'll post some pictures once all the glue and milliput is dry and the hulls are primed.

Then hopefully I will get my motivation to pick up the brush back. I miss painting, but with those tanks there is always something to clean, glue or magnetise and my working station is not big enough to accommodate both building and painting phases. That may be fortunate as building and converting tends to be messy enough on its own :P

[Majkhel]

So I'm struggling with motivation to paint anything at the moment. Can't really tell what's the matter - I want to paint, but find myself unable to focus and imagine what I want to do and how. Despite that I'm not idle hobby-wise. I turned towards cutting and gluing instead to force my imagination to work.

I have completed building and adornment of both Repulsors and managed to prime them

I'm really happy with how the Repulsor and am all the more sad that Executioner came to me already mostly assembled. I would really like to be able to free it's turret from all those launchers, but unfortunately those were glued with plastic cement. Still, I did moved the turret slightly towards the rear which corrected the tank's proportions a bit.

Yesterday I played with the idea of building some more Bladeguard Veterans and especially the Indomitus Lieutenant. I wanted to change his shooting stance to something less heroic and more efficient. Here is what I came up with:

There is an obvious connection between his pose and those of the Legion Breachers :)

That has given me an idea to play a bit more with the Bladeguard and try to achieve something similar with them - more behind-the-shield stances than the original ones. I started looking through the Internet for inspirations on the sword&shield stances and sure enough I found some nice treaties on those

All the better that those show the type of holding a shield the BGV seem to be using as well.

After that it was a frenzy of blades and drills and glue and I'm really happy to present my shield-wall:

Obviously those are still WIPs and many parts are not glued properly, require filling/trimming and embellishment to make them proper sons of Sanguinius, but I'm really happy with the poses I got.
Oh and I got some axes as you can see They come from the Legion Tartaros Terminators power axe set. I've been eyeing those for some time now specifically with BG in mind.

The Tail Guard:

The Middle Guard:

That one is not "proper", but I wanted a more dynamic look than the Middle Guard offers.

The High Guard:


Obviously these deviate from the original forms mostly due to the pre-defined positions of the legs - classic Guards assume a torso is facing the opponent and with Bladeguard it's much easier to achieve a side-facing stances. Which is also not that bad thing, as side-facing is a preferred way for the Astartes to fight as they are then presenting their reinforced pauldrons to the enemy.

A nice little project all in all. I still need to fill-in and smooth some places and then devise place for adding BA iconograpy and bling.Then decide which parts I will leave unglued for easier painting.
Not sure if I want to make the Lieutenant a Lieutenant or BGV Sergeant. He fits quite nicely with the shield-wall now and I think I'd like to distinguish a Lieutenant a bit more from the BGV. But I guess I still have lots of time to decide this before I start painting them.

Cheers!

[Bjorn Firewalker]

I appreciate your attention to detail, regarding the infantry models' poses.

[Alcyon]

It always drives me crazy to see beautiful brushwork on a weirdly posed mini so I also deeply appreciate the attention to detail. Posing looks really lifelike, great job!