Blood Ravens - Secondborn

[SkimaskMohawk]

It's been a week and longer than I thought it would take; some debilitating pain from a toothache set me back a few days. But Gabriel Angelos is completed.

 

 

                                         "I command in the Emperor's name"

 

 

Wow, what a journey. This model had a lot going against it, from the (previously noted) flaws in the sculpt to the less than flattering official paint-scheme. But I absolutely love it now. The choice to lean into the game's scheme gave me a much needed contrast with the easily overpowering red of the armour, as well as really selling that he's the Chapter Master from a distance. I was a little hesitant about the copper on the haft-skulls and how it might clash with the gold, but the new gw air colours have been amazing to use and I can't recommend them enough; the golds in particular photographed extremely well. The only deviations other than the border that appears on his wrist and elbow guards was the lack of a red jewel at the end of his hammer, though not without an attempt. I just wasn't able to leverage the space for a reflecting light effect to make it actually look like a gem in the first place. Otherwise, the main obstacle was leveraging the damage to the model from shipping; some of the embroidery broke off the cloak and I couldn't glue it back together due to the size. Instead, I tried painting around the area so it looks like the threads got torn on something and theres a few still hanging on to the cloak; I also painted the hem of the cloak and tabard to try and imitate a fraying effect, but I might have to revisit that so it doesn't look like grey weathering. And the chipping on the cream is washed out again, oh well.

 

However I really, really wish the model was bigger. He's supposed to be this calgar-esq bionically rebuilt chapter master in terminator armour; we've seen him in the game and he's this giant who one hand punts lesser warriors with Godsplitter and frontflips and everything. And while he's not disproportionate in terms of marine scaling, he just feels really tiny next to primaris.

 

Next up is either those intercessors, 3 more infiltrators to round out the squad to fully painted or a redemptor dreadnought *cough*Thule*cough*.

Thanks for looking!

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

Great job bringing that figure back from both the shipping damage and the mistakes of its sculpt. Despite his size next for the Primaris, you should be proud of your results.

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Excellent work on Gabriel Angelos.

[SkimaskMohawk]

Thanks guys!

 

Brother Chaplain Kage, the model will always give me "if only" feelings, but I am reconciled with its short comings. It still suffers from forgeworld character series pricing, but I don't regret the money I spent on it at all. And the primaris size issue is also pretty widespread when comparing them to the original style, so that's just another thing I'll try and get used to.

[Raziel-TX]

Solid work! Definitely some motivating posts.

[SkimaskMohawk]

Thanks raziel!

 

I realized that out of my primaris infantry, the eliminators had the most work done on them so they're the next up on the queue. Their armour was done at the same time as Gabriel so it's just...well everything else; some metallics, a whole lot of black cloth, optics.

 

But with all the faqs today I'm just really excited to paint up a whole bunch of different units. The infiltrator 6s with fists Tactics is really cool, as is all the index bike units with white scars and their successor stuff. The Blood Ravens being both able to pick any chapter tactic in the codex and an unknown founding lets me really play around with all sorts of weird combinations of stuff.

 

What's threatened to sideline building anything new is the Chaplain dreadnought getting access to litanies and the potential that opens up for a solid distraction unit. But what makes it so interesting is that I could model it as Davian Thule as a "Captain" Venerable Dreadnought. I certainly feel like his strength in dow2 is well represented by a mantra of strength-boosted turn with 6 str 16 attacks that do 4 damage each, as well as being nicely resilient with his 5++ 6+++. The 6" move could be better, but he was pretty ponderous in the game so at least it's fitting. In terms of modelling, from what I can tell his front torso and shins are based from forgeworlds now discontinued venerable dreadnought, which is a bit small on the whole. But if I can combine the core elements with the venerable dreadnought kit, I think I might be able to get a decent sized dread that looks extremely similar to the in game model.

 

Lots of stuff to think about, let me know if theres anything I'm missing or alternatives to the dreadnought issue.

[Viridia]

There is some amazingly funky work going on with these Blood Ravens, and I love the fact you've redeemed the Angelos model!

[SkimaskMohawk]

There is some amazingly funky work going on with these Blood Ravens, and I love the fact you've redeemed the Angelos model!

Hey thanks a lot!

 

I'm starting to get lost in what I want to work on next; all these supplements change things up so much.