Elijah's Dark Angels

[Chaplain Elijah]

This thread is going to be about my first 40K army : Dark Angels (surprise !).

I'm a beginner at 40K and painting but i started following this hobby and especially GW's fluff ~20 years ago so i have a good idea about what i want to achieve :

- Firstborn army. I do not intend to collect or play Primaris that much (maybe Aggressors but we'll see about that later).
- Stay true to the (old ?) fluff. A balanced collection Greenwing/Deathwing/Ravenwing is my long term goal.
- Get some Forgeworld sweet DA models. It's expensive but i want to put my fingers on these models, the first should be the DA's contemptor !
- Win some games. Because it's a game and i like to win like anyone, i'll look at rules too.
- Improve as a painter and a player. For that your feedback will be greatly apreciated !
 

 

 

I'm currently in the process of buying some extra models so this is what my collection should be at the end of the year :

 

/// HQ ///

Chaplain Dreadnought (Forgeworld OOP)

Chaplain (Dark Vengeance)

Librarian (Dark Vengeance)

Lieutenant with Heavenfall Blade (Dark Vengeance)

Terminator Captain (Start Collecting)

Interrogator Chaplain with Power Fist

MKIV Techmarine (Forgeworld)

 

/// TROOPS ///

10 Tactical with Missile Launcher + 10 MKIV Tactical with Missile Launcher + 1 Sergeant (Dark Vengeance) to play 3 squads of 7 Marines.

 

/// ELITES ///

5 Terminators (Dark Vengeance)

1 Dreadnought with Twin Lascannon (Start Collecting)

1 Venerable Dreadnought with Assault Cannon (Dark Angels version OOP)

 

/// FAST ATTACK ///

3 Bikers (Dark Vengeance)

 

/// HEAVY SUPPORT ///

Devastator Squad with Plasma Cannons + Devastator Squad with Missile Launchers

Contemptor Dreadnought with Quad Lascannon (Dark Angels version)

 

 

 

For the Lion !

Edited December 3, 2019 by Elijah

[Chaplain Elijah]

First picture :

 

http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2019/49/2/1575402463-chaplain-dread.jpg

 

 

My Chaplain Dreadnought in front of my paints.

The poor lad doesn't have any arms yet because i purchased him some time ago before he got OOP and unfortunately FW do not sell the arms anymore.

So i'm planning to get a pair of these instead :

 

https://www.forgeworld.co.uk/en-GB/Dreadfire-Close-Combat-Arm-Right-Arm

https://www.forgeworld.co.uk/en-GB/Dreadfire-Close-Combat-Arm-Left-Arm

[Greenz]

Welcome to the Rock Elijah. That’s a solid start you have there. I’m looking forward to seeing your progress. As for pointers and tips, you’ve come to the right place. The B&C in general is an amazing site for help, and the DA sub forum has tons of members willing to give helpful advice.

[Chaplain Elijah]

Welcome to the Rock Elijah. That’s a solid start you have there. I’m looking forward to seeing your progress. As for pointers and tips, you’ve come to the right place. The B&C in general is an amazing site for help, and the DA sub forum has tons of members willing to give helpful advice.

 

Thank you for your welcome !

I hope to improve a lot with your advices :)

[Interrogator Stobz]

Looking forward to seeing your work Brother.

Welcome to the Rock.

[Berzul]

Same here. Welcome, and looking forward to more pictures.

[Chaplain Elijah]

Thanks brothers

 

http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2019/49/3/1575485849-test.jpg

 

 

Here's a little test i have done for the base color of the power amor : on the right regular Caliban Green, on the left Warpstone Glow + Drakenhof Nightshade.

Pictures with my smartphone doesn't have a great quality unfortunately

Edited December 4, 2019 by Elijah

[G8Keeper]

From the pic I like the look of Warpstone Glow + Drakenhof Nightshade! There's a picture taking guide on warhammer community https://www.warhammer-community.com/2018/03/06/the-model-photo-how-to-photograph-models-for-display/ if that helps?

 

P.S I tried using html on that url to just insert a href but it didn't work... hmm

[Chaplain Elijah]

From the pic I like the look of Warpstone Glow + Drakenhof Nightshade! There's a picture taking guide on warhammer community https://www.warhammer-community.com/2018/03/06/the-model-photo-how-to-photograph-models-for-display/ if that helps?

 

P.S I tried using html on that url to just insert a href but it didn't work... hmm

Thanks ! When struggling to take a good picture i found this article too, it's of great help. I'll try again tomorrow with a better camera.

 

Today i've brought 2 of this :

 

 

With special LED light bulb.

Compared to before it's night and day (literally speaking lol). I should be able to paint in much better conditions now.

 

http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2019/49/4/1575564744-bureau.jpg

[Chaplain Elijah]

Warpstone Glow on the left, Caliban Green in the middle, Kabalite Green on the right :

http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2019/49/4/1575576424-001.jpg

 

Then Coelia Greenshade on these sides of both miniatures (i found the left to be too green and the right to be too blue) :

http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2019/49/4/1575576430-002.jpg
 

 

Or Drakenhof Nightshade on the left and because i didn't used it yet and was curious i tested a glaze on the right (Waywatcher Green) :
 
http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2019/49/4/1575576435-003.jpg
 

 

Of these the Warpstone Glow + Drakenhof Nightshade is the closest of what i try to achieve but it's maybe too light green.

I'll try again the combo tomorrow but this time i'll dry brush the Warpstone Glow to keep some of the first layer of the darker Caliban Green.

[The Gentle Axeman]

I like your tests so far, it's good to see someone doing the ground work before launching into a project.

 

I like your choice so far too, if ever you want to darken I've recently found that very thin caliban green glazes very nicely over highlighted armour.

[Chaplain Elijah]

I like your tests so far, it's good to see someone doing the ground work before launching into a project.

 

I like your choice so far too, if ever you want to darken I've recently found that very thin caliban green glazes very nicely over highlighted armour.

 

Thanks, it's going to be a long road and i don't want to rush it :)

 

How do you achieve that with the Caliban Green ? By mixing it heavily with medium or water ?

[Chaplain Elijah]

Prototype done !

 

http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2019/49/5/1575648176-004.jpg

 

Armor = Caliban Green + Warpstone Glow (Dry Brush) + Drakenhof Nightshade

Emblem = Balthasar Gold + Seraphim Sepia

Leather = Baneblade Brown + Seraphim Sepia

Boltgun = Khorne Red + Ironbreaker + Agrax Earthshade

[Chaplain Elijah]

I got a better camera than my smartphone

Edited December 18, 2019 by Elijah

[painting.for.my.sanity]

Well done - I'm excited to see progress on the rest (especially your chaplain dreadnought).

[Chaplain Elijah]

Well done - I'm excited to see progress on the rest (especially your chaplain dreadnought).

Thanks brother !

I was eager to see what i could do with a fully painted model so i kinda rushed it...

Few lessons that i learnt :

 

 

- thin your paint !

- highlight with Warpstone Glow drybrushing is a good technique for speed painting but doesn't lighten the Caliban Green that much

- applying the Drakenhof Nightshade after drybrushing quite darken the miniature

- considering the previous 2 points either i drybrush more with more paint (faster) or i actually highlight after applying the shade (better)

- i'm not quite sold on what to do on the lenses yet, what Duncan can achieve is great but i don't have the precision yet

 

 

If i'm happy with the next prototype's result i'll start to paint my first squad with DA's torsos/heads/pauldrons.

Characters like the Chaplain Dreadnought would come much latter, i don't want to ruin the model with bad painting

Edited December 19, 2019 by Elijah

[Grotsmasha]

Another alternative would be to mix the Nightshade with Lahmian Medium (around 50/50) to lessen it's strength whilst maintaining a similar result :tu:

[G8Keeper]

One quick tip for eye lenses is a metallic colour basecoat followed by one of the gem technical paints (soulstone blue, spiritstone red etc).  There's tutorials by Duncan on which metallic to use etc and it's a quick, easy and pretty decent technique.

[Chaplain Elijah]

Another alternative would be to mix the Nightshade with Lahmian Medium (around 50/50) to lessen it's strength whilst maintaining a similar result

 

One quick tip for eye lenses is a metallic colour basecoat followed by one of the gem technical paints (soulstone blue, spiritstone red etc).  There's tutorials by Duncan on which metallic to use etc and it's a quick, easy and pretty decent technique.

 

 

I haven't though about that, thanks brothers, i'll try it on my next prototype !

[Chaplain Elijah]

Finally got the time to install those :

Now i have to fill them with painted Dark Angels miniatures :p

[Chaplain Elijah]

Happy new year everyone ! May the paint be with you ;)

 

So looking to what i got already and what i'm going to receive this month i should be busy for quite some time :

 

 

 

New minis

 

Tactical Squad MK3 + FW upgrade set
Tactical Squad MK4 + FW upgrade set
Tactical Squad MK7 + GW upgrade set
Devastator Squad
Jump Pack Chaplain (BA)
Drop Pod

 

Did you receive some nice stuff too ? :)

[Chaplain Elijah]

I'll finish it tomorrow to deep strike right in the middle of those Taus

[Chaplain Elijah]

Like Death raining from the Skies, here comes the Dark Angels

Ok i'll stop there and will paint it before finishing gluing it together...

Some of it was quite challenging to assemble (the part in the middle especially), am I in for a lot of trouble the day i'll buy a Land Raider or something like that ?

Edited January 3, 2020 by Chaplain Elijah

[Isiah]

This is going well. Loving your colour testing process and method. Personally, I preferred my DAs to be darker rather than lighter. Nowadays one can use a wash (or washes) to achieve this. But back in the day adding a bit of black to standard DA green did the trick

[Chaplain Elijah]

This is going well. Loving your colour testing process and method. Personally, I preferred my DAs to be darker rather than lighter. Nowadays one can use a wash (or washes) to achieve this. But back in the day adding a bit of black to standard DA green did the trick .

 

Looking forwards to following progress in 2020.

 

Cheers

I

 

Thanks brother

I was not home for two weeks and my LGS won't be open before Tuesday, but then i'll get some paint and the second prototype rolling...

I hope i'll achieve a better result than the first one.