Vermintide's Blood Drinkers- The Soul Reavers

[Vermintide]

Hello Sons of Sanguinius! I'm a newbie poster, though I have been lurking a little while. This will be one of those painting/blogging threads about my dudes, and what I've been working on, providing people are interested of course.

 

I got back into the hobby a little over a year ago, after a long break. Like many of you I got into 40k when I was a kid, and pretty much abandoned it throughout my teens and 20s. Yet somewhere in the back of my mind there was always an ambition to get back onboard. By sheer coincidence I ended up painting Blood Drinkers- I'd decided on the colour scheme long before I realised they were an "official" chapter. This was how I set up my guy in the Space Marine video game, where you could customise your armour in multiplayer By a happy accident, however, their fluff suits me perfectly, so here we are!

 

What I'm aiming for with these guys is to make them reminiscent of how an old school Blood Angels army would have looked. I think GW went a little OTT with the whole zealous crusader-knight thing for a few years- I preferred it when that was a much more subtle undertone. I wanted to go for the classic Marine vibe, but bring it up to date with the newer models. I love the Primaris minis, I think seeing those is what really made me dive back into 40k- Their fluff is another matter, though, so I'm thoroughly hand waving that in my personal head-canon

 

My work so far: (Pictures in following post)

 

The scout korps. These are amongst the oldest models I own, stripping them down and re-painting them was a very zen experience.

 

 

 

The main troops. Sarge there has a Necron power sword, but the Chaplains said it's not heresy as long as he uses it to kill more xenos. Which is fortunate, because this particular fragment of the chapter finds itself trapped in a Necron sector, where there are no shortage of tomb-worlds to cleanse.

 

 

Ranged support. I have five more of these primed and ready to paint.

 

 

The unit no Blood Angels army can go without. The whole Space Hulk thing means I have to have these guys, even if people tell me they are in a pretty bad spot rules wise right now. I'm planning on adding another squad of these and a full compliment of Terminator armoured HQ units to go with them

 

 

The command squad. That Terminator Chaplain is just one of the best minis around, and when I'm planning to go big on assault termies I figure I'll need him. The Captain is a conversion of one of the Lieutenants with a few bits from the old "Force Commander" kit- That eagle backpack and cape are just too iconic for me to leave out.

 

 

This Predator is another ancient model. I rescued it from my parent's attic in about four pieces, half painted by my 13 year old self. I think I did a pretty decent job rescuing it!

 

 

As for these guys... They're pretty much Dreadnoughts, but they have a giant chainsaw and they can move fast enough to make use of it. Rule of cool though mostly, I just love mechs with chicken legs.

 

 

And... The money shot

 

 

And as a bonus- Here's Bob, the first dude I ever painted. I think you can see my painting has come on a long way since I was a kid He now serves proudly as the Company Ancient. Back in his day, ya got one shot at 12 inches and you liked it! Damn kids!

Edited April 25, 2020 by Vermintide

[Vermintide]

So what am I working on presently? I have a list of models I'd love to add, but all in good time. Never buy more than you can paint, a wise man once told me. For the time being, here's a preview of my most ambitious project so far.
 

 

Yup. That's some Primaris Death Company. All of them rocking power swords, cause why not. Come back in a month or two and I might have even painted them

Edited April 23, 2019 by Vermintide

[The Ergonomic Enginseer]

love the look of your force particularly the Predator.

[Slothysaur]

YEEEAAAA Blood Drinkers! Love me some red and gold! I particularly like the shade of red you've got going on; the subtle highlights on the armor are excellent, it's very warm and blood-like.

[Majkhel]

Welcome back Brother! Nice little force you've got there.

If you need painting motivation, there will be an ETL painting event. Probably in May.

[Xenith]

Good work so far, keep them coming! Nice to see another successor on the loose!

 

 

Never buy more than you can paint, a wise man once told me. 

 

 

[Ekfud]

I thought the quote was “never buy more than you can paint in your children’s and grandchildren’s lifetimes”.

 

If there is still a surface or storage space in your house that doesn’t have grey plastic sprues there is still room...

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Excellent work.

[Vermintide]

Thanks for the kind words guys, I'm glad you like 'em :)

 

YEEEAAAA Blood Drinkers! Love me some red and gold! I particularly like the shade of red you've got going on; the subtle highlights on the armor are excellent, it's very warm and blood-like.

 

Thanks dude! Yeah, much nicer than a certain blue and gold colour scheme we're used to seeing, right?

 

I thought the quote was “never buy more than you can paint in your children’s and grandchildren’s lifetimes”.

If there is still a surface or storage space in your house that doesn’t have grey plastic sprues there is still room...

 

Working at my pace that's maybe three boxes of tactical marines, then ;)

[Vermintide]

Alas, there is progress! I've mostly been spending time on my Necrons lately, (mainly because they're a lot less labour intensive ) but the new rules and Space Marine releases have naturally got me back on a power armour hype.

 

So. I Frankenstein'd this Lieutenant up out of spare parts. I was intending to just using him as a disposable colour scheme test for my Death Company, but in the process of painting, wouldn't you know, I've become somewhat attached to the chap. Any ideas to fluff up a chainsword-wielding black-armoured Lieutenant on the table? Chaplain in training, maybe...

 

 

Black is still a very hard colour to paint for me. I've only ever done one other model in black, and boy are those highlights unforgiving. When I finish the basing and touch up the mistakes, I think it will look decent enough, but painting another dozen guys like this is going to be a challenge.

 

More importantly though I think the colour scheme works well- I won't be going for all the red saltires and traditional Blood Angels bling- my army is intentionally minimalist with all that stuff. But it still has to look and feel like Death Company. The red bolter casing is pretty much the most vital part, I discovered. I was going to leave it black, in case it clashed with the blue power swords on the other guys, but something just seemed off, unfinished. Then I touched it up in red and suddenly... Yup. That's Death Company.

Anyway, I think I'll be getting back on track with my Blood Angels, since I have some competition now. My other half finally became curious enough to pick up some Dark Eldar, and she has truly caught the bug. Soon, I shall crush her without mercy... But I'll have to finish the army first

Edited August 29, 2019 by Vermintide

[Bjorn Firewalker]

The LT is well-painted. His exposed face is too calm for a Death Company member's, though. A "Chaplain in training" is an acceptable backstory, though he should have a suitable rank/title, with markings on his armor and Chaplain-specific wargear to show this.

[Jønke]

He looks good. 

 

Reason i can find for his black armor would be if you butchered a shoulder pad and gave him DW pad. Joinning your strike force to bring the hurt to the filthy dark eldars :P

[Thoridon]

One of the newest marines in his Company played a practical joke on him and told the Chaplains he was muttering things about the Siege of Terra in his sleep. He woke up to find they'd already painted his armour black and were about to add the red crosses and haul him off to the tower when an urgent call to arms came over the vox. He convinced the reclusiarchy that he was indeed still sane but didn't have time to get the armour fixed before hopping into the Thunderhawk.

 

His slight frown rather than anger signifies that he's slightly miffed but calmly thinking of an appropriate punishment for the Marine who caused it.

[Bjorn Firewalker]

His slight frown rather than anger signifies that he's slightly miffed but calmly thinking of an appropriate punishment for the Marine who caused it.

My suggestion: Force the joker to fight alongside the Death Company for a battle. If the Death Company Marines mistake him for Horus and kill him in their madness... well, he got what he deserved. (I have little tolerance for practical jokes.)

[Vermintide]

One of the newest marines in his Company played a practical joke on him and told the Chaplains he was muttering things about the Siege of Terra in his sleep. He woke up to find they'd already painted his armour black and were about to add the red crosses and haul him off to the tower when an urgent call to arms came over the vox. He convinced the reclusiarchy that he was indeed still sane but didn't have time to get the armour fixed before hopping into the Thunderhawk.

 

His slight frown rather than anger signifies that he's slightly miffed but calmly thinking of an appropriate punishment for the Marine who caused it.

Heh, this is an amusing thought I'll give you that.

 

Just striding into battle with his Stallone grimace, muttering to himself under his breath, with the other Marines ripping him like "What's wrong mate, can't handle the BANTZ? Maybe you should be in that black stormraven after all!"

 

"Careful lads, he thinks he's Sanguinius, better not make him too angry..."

 

"I DO NOT HAVE THE ****** ******* BLACK ******* RAGE YOU **** ***** SONS OF ******!!!!"

 

(All of them together) "Oooooooooh!"

[Vermintide]

Finished up the Hellblasters I mentioned in my original post.

I saw a speed-painting video where a guy paints space marines in under 30 minutes each. These took me 6 months. Good job I didn't enter that ETL

And tidied up this guy. I'll be playing him as a regular Primaris Lieutenant, but I'm sticking with the Chaplain in training story. He's on a secondment.

Things I have left to paint:

10 Death Company

5 Assault Terminators

Terminator Librarian

Terminator Captain

Things I want to buy:

More Intercessors

Couple Dreadnoughts

Couple Stormtalons

Pray that I don't give in to temptation brothers

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Good job on the Hellblasters and the Apprentice Chaplain.

[Vermintide]

Finally got to work on those Death Company. I think I've figured out 3 is about my optimum batch size. I don't have the attention span to work in 5s or 10s, but working on single models (apart from HQ centrepieces) is just way to slow, not to mention inconsistent.

Black is still a pain in the ass, but I think I'm getting a handle on it. Pretty impressed with the jet pack glow, skull masks and eye radiance here. Photo isn't great for now, but I'll take better ones when I have the rest of the unit finished :)

 

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Good job on the Death Company Reivers.

[Vermintide]

Many thanks

[Demoulius]

Liking those Primaris DC :) lovely conversions!

[Jønke]

Cool conversions. The jumppack seems to fit pretty well.

 

The power weapons and jump pack exausts looks great!  

[Vermintide]

Five more Thunder Hammer Terminators, ready for action.
 

 

I should really work on those Death Company, but man I just wanna paint the rest of my Terminator HQ's so I can run all of them in one list, deep strike nearly 750 points worth of hilarious overkill up someone's ass, and then fail every single charge roll.

Edited September 26, 2019 by Vermintide

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Good job on the Assault Terminators.

[Jønke]

Know the feeling. Terminators might no be any good atm but theres something majestic abouth them. Loved them since 2nd edition.

 

Great paintjob. So atleast your terminators will look great when they fail their charge and die ;)