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

[Majkhel]

Thanks Bjorn! As always you're positive feedback is appreciated

Most of my hobby time in the last couple of days has been taken by the Inquisitor project, but I want to use as TT-ready models as possible during the tourney on Sunday. To that end I set the Suppressors on the bases with drill, paper clip and glue. Not overly happy with the bases, but they will do for now.

What I most like about them are those numerals and fragments of GW scripture I left on the resin blocks. When properly aged, I believe they will look really nice and add some character and depth of unremembered history.

Edited January 24, 2020 by Majkhel

[Majkhel]

Just a small update.
I made Suppressors to TT - basic colors applied and guns glued just so they don't come off from a sneeze. Nothing to show. I will be breaking them again for some proper paintjob at some time in the future.

I did came back to my Infiltrators though. Sergeant and pistol-guy are almost ready in terms of armor and I'm working on the third one. Grenades, eye-lenses, purity seals and pouches highlights and bases will be done for the whole squad.

Yes, Sergeant will have this "Saruman's mark" on his faceplate Because I used an EtB Reiver to fill out the squad and he got an Infiltrator helmet, I chose to use the leftover Reiver helmet for the sergeant instead of running him bare-headed. I decided to capitalise on the skull-faceplate further with the idea that this particular Primaris marine inherited some of Asir Amit's spirit and ferocity. He embraces the rage and fury within him and chooses to show it openly.
I also added a knife to his belt but only the hilt is visible under his elbow from this angle.

As a break from painting, I've built another Fist Guard:


Cheers!

Edited January 28, 2020 by Majkhel

[Majkhel]

Another small update.
Firstly, I've decided my Plodding Along project - a Stormraven I've acquired some time ago and never really sat down to finish it

Time for my slow vow:

I, MAJKHEL of the Blood Angels, embark on the 12 Months of Hobby Challenge, and for the PLODDING ALONG vow pledge to complete 1 Stormraven gunship to the defence of the IMPERIUM Faction by year's end.

Might not look like much, but it has been sitting in my cupboard for almost a year now and some parts are missing. I plan to complete building, magnetize weapon options and of course paint it. Right now I consider this primed as my painting scheme is different.

Secondly, highlights on the Infiltrators continue in the background.

Thirdly, something seemed odd for me in the posing of the last SG with a Fist I made. Namely, the arm with the Angelus boltgun was bent strangely and looked awkward. After some deliberations I cut and rotated it in 2 places to get this:

I like him much more now with the fist-fighter/brawler stance. I think that the fact that his breastplate does not have the usual gorget adds to this feel. Now he looks like he really means business and better not to be on the receiving end of his fist :)

[Majkhel]

Another small update to follow up on my hobby progress. Right now I'm working on a Techmarine. It's a little rescue-job as I bought him with a broken servo-harness and painted to a fast TT level. Fortunately the paint layer is not thick. I did fit him him in several games as a bare-bones Techmarine is one of the cheapest HQ choices. Because of that, I want to give him both proper paintjob to match my force as well as a WYSIWYG look.

To that end I have magnetised his servo-harness and built a second option of the servo-arm. His Axe-holding hand is also magnetised and soon he will have a Chainsword option. I'm leaving the bolter for now as it's cheap and I'm still not sure how to magnetise it.

Just a small update from me - I've magnetised my Techmarine's accessories apart from the bolter. At first I could not find the missing smaller servo-arm, so I magnetized the plasma cutter to act as one for the servo-arm bacpack. Then I found the missing part and magnetized it also just for fun to honor the Omnissiah.

****

High above the rain-washed plains, Brother Kadmos worked meticulously deep in the forges aboard the 'Chalice'. His brothers has already gone to wage war against the heretic and the xeno weeks before. That did not trouble him. He didn't need his enhanced calculation and logic capabilities to know that he wold join them soon enough. War was his purpose just it was theirs. And war was never far. One might say, that In the grim darkness that surrounded and permeated the Imperium of Man there was only war. That did not trouble him either. The task at hand was taking all his focus right now.

Completing the latest adjustment he connected the power cable and canted a short binaric tune that borne with it an encoded status/test querry, a benediction and a welcome for an old friend. A familiar machine spirit of his servo-arm answered eagerly. Kadmos was pleased.

****

Also, thank you very much for the Artificer recognition
And congratulations Jolemi for the January Favourite! The Librarian indeed was really cool

Edited February 4, 2020 by Majkhel

[Majkhel]

It took me some time but Techmarine Kadmos is ready

This is the set-up I'm using him with - Bolter&Chainsword

But I also made available for him his full panoply of war and techno-craft:

Admittedly, I could still work more on the servo-harness, but I want to move to other projects and this is sufficient for the moment.

I didn't bring his highlights to the usual brightness of the edges. I reckoned there is already a lot going on on him in terms of color, but also wanted to mute him out a bit with a more Mechanicus red feel (not that it will matter much in an otherwise red army, but it's sufficient that I know :P )

Edited February 10, 2020 by Majkhel

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Excellent work on the Techmarine.

[Kolgrim DeathHowl]

Excellent work so far!!

[Majkhel]

Small update - chugging at my half-finished models:

Ha, at last they are completed. I declare my third vow complete:

Some second-hand scouts. Not happy with the helmeted heads, especially since they each come from a different world. I will be changing them at some point to the helmetless ones, but for now they are TT-ready and that's what matters :)

Those 3 were needed in order to field 2 5-man bolter scouts squads. The odd CC one will bring the choppy scouts squad to 7. Plan is to have a 10-man CC squad.

I still have some scouts bodies and weapons left, but I think I will be taking a break from scouts for a moment.

Cheers! :)

[Quixus]

I like the helmeted heads, they look much better than the ones GW provides. Where's the one of the guy with boltgun and combat blade from?

[Majkhel]

It's from Spellcrow. I believe those are called: Shock Troops Helmets.

They do look just right for the Scouts' scale but I don't have enough to make a whole squad. I need to ponder more on this :)

[Loishy]

I like your scout's heads. Especially the one without helmet. Did you cut some part of the head to put it on the scout's torso ? 

[Majkhel]

Cheers Loishy!
Actually, the most important thing is to enlarge and deepen the space between the scouts shoulders where the head will go. The neck of the head needs some trimming too in order to look right.

As for Scouts, the most important thing I did, was to swap most of their heads for those from the Marines and even Primaris range. This required some tinkering: enlarging and deepening of the place where the head normally would go. Quite a bit in fact. Additionally each new head had to have its neck "stump" filed quite a bit as well.

But this is definitely worth it in my opinion. I left 2 guys with their old heads for comparison.

Edited March 3, 2020 by Majkhel

[Loishy]

 

Cheers Loishy!

Actually, the most important thing is to enlarge and deepen the space between the scouts shoulders where the head will go. The neck of the head needs some trimming too in order to look right. 

 

 

 

Thanks ! I never thought to modify the body on my previous scouts. I tried to cut the neck of the space marine head in the right way, but it was almost every time a failure. 

[Majkhel]

Yeah, the standard base for the head on the scout's torso forces the head forward. A lot.
Don't be afraid to cut into the top plate of the bacpack itself a little while widening. The more you move the head back, the more pronounced the chest will be. I like to move some of my heads forward for that a bit hunched, forward pose. Some however look great when having the head straight and back a little, giving them the feel of nobility. Generally you can do a lot with them using standard heads
The stump of the head also needs trimming as otherwise it ends up being too high.

Edited March 4, 2020 by Majkhel

[Spagunk]

The BA heads aren't that bad on the old scout bodies IMO. I've always steered clear because I wouldn't want them to be too "bobble head" like but it's actually quite in scale.

 

Your scouts look real good, btw.

[Loishy]

 Your scouts are awesome ! I don't know when I'm going to start mine but I will definitely use this techinique.

[Majkhel]

Thank you Loishy! That is a high praise from someone of your painting skill!

On a painting front, I motivated myself to get back to Infiltrators - managed to complete the armour highlights and applied chapter icon decals.

Now onto other details, the one bare head and finally bases.

[Majkhel]

Reporting Infiltrators complete:

Aaaand they're ready!

And a group shot of a complete 10-man squad and Helix Adept:

Plans for the nearest future:
- Suppresors (to complete already built 3-man squad)

- Incursors (2-3 x 5-man squads)

- Intercessors (Auto-Bolt Rifles)
- Mephiston (although I'm holding him for ETL)

Cheers!

Edited April 23, 2020 by Majkhel

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Excellent work on the Infiltrators.

[Majkhel]

So Incursors it is.

I have sorted out how I want them to look like and here is the first 5-man squad:

Apart from the one with the Haywire mine, all are from the multipart box with some additional bits here and there.

The most obvious conversion are the helmets. I have basically chopped off the scopes from the Incursors' heads and attached them to the Infiltrators' helmets in the place previously occupied by the antennae (those went to the Incursors' heads and I plan to use those on the Scout Bikers at one point).

I also wanted to show off the usage of knives as much as possible, which wasn't that easy with the original kit as there is only the throwing-knife-arm available (and I don't really like it).

Luckily this is where the Reivers' kit came to the rescue and my plan is to include at least one of their blades in each squad (3x5-man squads planned). Their knives are obviously bigger than the Infiltrators' scabbards (as is any other knife out there and funnily enough, Reivers' own scabbards are also noticeably smaller than their blades), but I should have enough spare Scout Bikers scabbarded knives to cover that. Other more standard size drawn knives would be coming from kits like Intercessors and Tacticals.

Not happy with the fact that scabbards on the one wielding two knives are facing different directions (knife edges toward each other). I will change that if I can find another scabbard. I generally dislike the direction the double-scabbards are pointing but that's just the way they are cast, so no point in grumbling too much. Personally, if possible I would be placing them like I did it with the Haywire mine-guy or one on the hip, one on the back.

Cheers!

[OriginPainting]

You have a very enjoyable log to look through, great work throughout.

I especially love the SG swords, really nice but not too loud.

Also, I wish I had seen this before I did my Infiltrators. I really like the choice of the green grenades to get some pop against the armor.

Im looking forward to seeing more!

 

[Majkhel]

Cheers OriginPainting, nice of you to drop by! And thank you for kind words.

I agree that green grenades work well with red armour. Decision to use this colour was rather intuitional as that's simply the way I remembered grenades being painted in the ol' days of yore - green for frag, red for krak. This means that kraks tend to get lot bit though. I'm working around this a bit by not giving them as much shading as I do for the armour, but still.

On the painting front, I'm slowly getting those Incursors completed.

All squad members are at the same stage now, meaning one more highlights on the armour's edges, highlights of all the leather straps, pouches and scabbards, eye lenses, scopes' lenses, all the other lenses (seriously, Incursors must have ALL the lenses!), grenades' highlights, purity seals and other gubbinz, squad markings, decals and bases

I'm a but torn regarding the colour of the backpack targetting arrays' lens. I'm already using green for the bolters' targeters and eye lenses. I'm worried if another green lens (or two) above the head won't be too much. I'm contemplating dull yellow. Blue or violet would probably look too out of place. I might do some comparison testing.

Cheers!

[Quixus]

What is that device on top of the bolter?

[Xenith]

What is that device on top of the bolter?

 

It's the standard Incursor bolter attachment, the Occulus bolt rifle or whatever. Between that and the slaved scope on the backpack, it's additional spectral sensors that let incursors shoot through walls.

 

Seems whoever came up with the fluff forgot that SM already have various lens filters for things like heat, magnetism, etc. 

[Quixus]

Yeah, in proper PA, maybe Cawl forgot that in the Primaris armours.