Acolyte's Blood Angels - Chapter 2: Awaiting New Codex

[TheAcolyte]

Chapter 1: Lockdown Hustle

 

Hello all! It's been a long time since I had a proper Warhammer project, and longer since I played any games. I have assorted Chaos Space Marine faction bits, but nothing too cohesive. I'm packing up my stuff because I'm moving on the 12th - and have uncovered a bunch of Space Marine bits from my lifetime. Along with the Firstborn being promised a buff, this was the inspiration I needed to try and throw together a semi-competitive army, and between now and the 12th I have some time!

 

I've chosen Blood Angels because I've never collected them before, and I'm a big fan of hand-to-hand man-fighting. Plus I like painting red. Not a huge amount of thought went into the decision really, Blood Angels are just pretty cool 

 

I have the majority of the Indomitus box available to me, along with a lot of Tactical and Assault Marines in various stages of construction. I plan to wait for the codex release in October before deciding whether to make the Firstborn Marines Death Company or not, so the focus in the meantime will be Indomitus bits and characters.

 

Here's my first model - a Bladeguard Veteran [named Tarquin by my girlfriend]. 

 

I've never been a great painter, and I can't say I enjoy it much either - an army done to this standard would make me perfectly happy [though now I've taken the photo I realise I need to redo his base rim.]

 

More photos coming later today, when I organise my piles of sprues!

Edited September 28, 2020 by TheAcolyte

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Excellent work on Tarquin. Is he named after Nale and Elan's father, from The Order of the Stick? Or the legendary King of Rome who is the character's namesake?

[TheAcolyte]

Excellent work on Tarquin. Is he named after Nale and Elan's father, from The Order of the Stick? Or the legendary King of Rome who is the character's namesake?

 

To quote my partner - "he looks neat and it's a nice name." She's very sweet, and also very much not a gamer or a history buff, hehe. Thank you!

[TheAcolyte]

Right, post 2 for today!

 

 

Excuse the messy desk! I have 15 Assault on Black Reach Marines, and 20 Assault Marines just needing new bases before they're ready to paint, with an amount of Assault Marine bits left over after. Sadly I'm gonna be waiting off on painting my Assault Intercessors too, in case they get access to the Death Company too.

 

Instead, today's focus is on building some characters. A smash captain and a chaplain to be exact. Let's get digging!

 

 

In the end, I used some of my left over Assault Marine bits, a [badly] converted Primaris chaplain from the dawn of 8th edition and the Vanguard Veteran and Deathwatch Kill Team sprues for my models, as well as a secret weapon...

 

 

Yes, I bought more Warhammer to use the Warhammer I already have. I know I have a problem. I can quit any time, I just don't want to.

 

Right, my chaplain!

 

 

The head from this is from a Legion of the Damned model - resin on plastic, it popped off from the body nicely. I replaced the head of the power maul with the winged backpack topper from the BA upgrade sprue, prised the BT pauldron off and replaced it with a BA one and stuck him together. I used a little Miliputt to move the crozius arm away from the body somewhat.

 

 

 

He looks a little plain, but I'm hoping that transfers and Death Company markings will make up for that. Now the captain:

 

 

I used the back half of my previous-chaplain's torso for the billowing cloak, and bent it back somewhat to make the legs fit. The legs are from the Kill Team box, which I used because of the skull on the greave. Otherwise, bits were from the Vanguard Vet or BA upgrade sprues.

 

 

 

I'm not amazingly happy with his pose - I wanted him to look like he was taking a blow on the shield while winding up with his power fist - I might redo this guy in the near future, especially if thunder hammers are still the way to go competitively.

 

For now, back to painting - finishing my Bladeguard squad tonight. Thank you all!

 

 

[TheAcolyte]

Goal achieved for today! Took four hours to paint the other two members of this squad, which is a time I'm happy with. I imagine on basic Marines I'll be able to paint one in half an hour. The gold was the longest step, at over an hour by itself.

 

 

Tomorrow, I'm painting my chaplain!

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Excellent work on the Bladeguard.

[Custom Hero]

Nice work. Excellent reuse of old parts too!

[TheAcolyte]

Thank you guys!

 

Quick update today - my chaplain is done! The plan is to use him as a generic chaplain, but I'd be happy to say he's Lemartes too I think, as the model has a rather "default" look to him.

 

 

The transfer on his knee will need some jigging with to make it lie flat, but we'll get there. That brings me to 210 points painted! Next up tomorrow is my captain.

[TheAcolyte]

Another quick update!

 

Today we finished the captain - named Mister Fisty by my partner - and brought my painted points to 325pts. 

 

 

 

And here's a shot of my small army so far!

 

 

Tomorrow's model is the Judiciar from Indomitus!

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Fine works.

[Thousand Eyes]

Good stuff. Lockdown has proved handy in getting models done at least, silver linings. Liking how it all is coming together.

[TheAcolyte]

Thank you very much guys!

 

Judiciar done [and named Spooks by the girlfriend] right before bedtime today! That brings my painted points to 410 points.

 

 

 

Tomorrow I enroll at my new university and Saturday I'm going out with friends - so my goal is to do five tactical Marines by Saturday. Initially I was going to hold off painting these until the Space Marine codex drops, but I can't see a situation where I would want Death Company with bolters and without jump packs, and they're likely to be the cheapest troops choice available. 

Edited September 4, 2020 by TheAcolyte

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Good job on the Judiciar.

[TheAcolyte]

Well hello insomnia, thank you for helping with that Saturday deadline for these boys.

 

These Assault on Black Reach Marines are very plain and default...and honestly I love that. It reminds me of being a kid again. I'm excited to have an army of these fairly homogeneous guys because young teenage me would have loved it.

 

 

 

These were done in just barely over 2 hours - including drying time for the washes, so active painting time was less than 2 hours. Given my goal was 30 mins per Marine, to get below that in my first small batch makes me happy. It also feels freeing to be painting to "just" a battle-ready level, rather than the detail I've tried to put into past armies.

 

Here's a shot of the now-legal army!

 

 

I have ten more tactical Marines left to paint, however I've ran out of 32mm bases to put them on. So next up will probably be the Outrider sergeant!

[TheAcolyte]

Well, I had a lovely night out and now I'm set up for a week of university work in my old house before I move on Saturday. I've scrounged up some 32mm bases, so the goal is to finish my Outriders and Tactical Marines before Saturday.

 

Outrider Sergeant is finished - named Vroomy by my partner. 

 

 

 

I've not attached his chainsword yet in case the codex gives the option to take power weapons.

 

Next up, the other two bikers!

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Good job on "Vroomy". Have you decided on a more formal name, e.g., Sergeant Elev Knievel?

[TheAcolyte]

Good job on "Vroomy". Have you decided on a more formal name, e.g., Sergeant Elev Knievel?

 

But when what will I call the Primaris chaplain on bike when he arrives? Thank you for the reply once again.

 

My net went down for a few hours earlier - was the perfect excuse to finish these dudes!

 

 

 

These were a lot of fun to paint - one of my first ever models was a Chaos Space Marine bike, purchased for £5 from GW Oxford. Always liked painting bikes because of that. Total points painted now is 620 points!

 

We're approaching my moving day, at which point my painting will slow down. The last thing I want to get done before Saturday is 10 more Tactical Marines, which I should be able to easily do. 

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Again, good job on the Outriders.

 

Good job on "Vroomy". Have you decided on a more formal name, e.g., Sergeant Elev Knievel?

But when what will I call the Primaris chaplain on bike when he arrives?

Ragnall Seamus Dio atop his customized bike "Holy Diver"- a name earned because the Emperor's blessings protect its rider as he "dives" into the enemy hosts, and the literal oceans of blood spilling forth as the Chaplain kills all who oppose the Emperor- of course!

[TheAcolyte]

The final post for this chapter! My stuff is now being loaded into boxes for my move, but I got what I wanted painted done!

 

 

Tactical squads #2 and #3 bring this to 770 points and a legal battalion.

 

 

And here's what I've painted in the past few days. Even though the standard isn't amazingly high, I'm proud to have gotten through this in this time.

[Thousand Eyes]

Good work, love the classics. I plan on doing a marine army in time, with no Primaris.

[TheAcolyte]

Chapter 2: Holdin' Out for a Hero New Codex

 

Well, I had a few weeks of acclimatisation in my new flat, with my new uni course in a new city, and I finally got some of my Warhammer out! On Saturday I had my first game of 9th edition, as well as my first game at all with my Custodes. Only 1,000 points, but was a doozy.

 

 

The game ended up 42-42 and a draw, my Vexilla bearer dying to Eradicators on the bottom of turn 5 and giving my opponent 3 more points due to his Assassinate secondary. Was a tense ending to a fun game!

 

But back to the Blood Angels. I present this evidence as to why it took so long to start painting again:

 

 

The War(hammer)drobe was kinda intimidating to unpack, I'll be honest. But I did set aside the paints for my Blood Angels separate from the rest of the paints - oh boy I didn't realise how much paint I own - and I finally got cracking on the next model.

 

 

This was a lot of fun to paint. I love how Black Templar looks, it does black so much better than I could by hand and also doesn't take hours. My only complaint is how delicate the model is in Finecast, but there's not much I can do about that. 

 

I have some Aggressors I picked up very cheaply to paint next, but after that it's a case of waiting for the new codex - I would like to buy a brace of Contemptor dreads as I love the models, and they're listed in the contents page of the new SM codex it seems, but I want to see their rules and points cost before I make that dive into some quite expensive models. However, with a release date of the 10th of October it seems I won't have to wait long! It's nice to be back and hobbying again, and I'll see you guys soon.

[TheAcolyte]

Long time no see, B&C!

 

So, university is so much work. Trying to find some time for me, and I'm working on it. However, with the codex release I have bought myself a small backlog to get along with, as well as cracking some older bits out of storage...but for now, here's some Terminators!

 

 

 

All of their right arms are magnetised, to let me change between claws or storm bolters - relic terminators with storm bolter and lightning claw in 40k sound really fun right now. But also, one fellow has both his arms magnetised to let him go TH/SS - using them as a squad of Assault Terminators in that case. Was fun, setting them up to be usable in 30k and 40k. I haven't magnetised either of their heavy weapons, but there's nothing from stopping me from adding them in the future.