Angels Fatalis - The Ashen Host [Semi-Newbie Painting Blog]

[Lyphisar]

Hi folks,

Returning to the hobby for the first time since about when we first graduated from a magazine PDF to an actual codex (10-12 years?). I've always been a BA player but I decided this time around I'm going for a homebrew successor, my Angels Fatalis! I'll be running this army as a counts-as-Blood Angels chapter rather than with successor rules.

Some buddies and I have started building armies during COVID, with a big game table coming together, as well as solar system maps and accompanying BFG fleets. We're planning to do a Crusade-BFG hybrid campaign with territory control, bonuses for world capture, etc. Mostly to keep myself accountable and motivated to keep painting, I'm going to be blogging my army building and the narrative that plays out as a result of our games. We'll be started with 500 point matches and 1000 point unit pools - I haven't quite figured out what I'm going to be running yet because god damn, we have so much to pick from.

I've picked up the BA Combat Patrol box (and even assembled the whole thing in a week, which is a record for me) and from the depths of my old room at my parent's place, retrieved an embarrassing amount of 5E battle brothers and bits in various states of completion.

This isn't a budget project, but where I can I'll be aiming to keep costs down. I have access to 3D printing for models of any scale and a decent-sized inventory to get me started. I'm not sure what I need to add, but I'm looking very longingly at inceptors, eradicators, bladeguard veterans, and a company champion.

Here's the inventory we're starting with:

 

New Models:
- 10 intercessors
- 5 incursors
- 3 aggressors

- 1 Primaris Librarian

- 1 Impulsor

- 5 Sanguinary Guard

 

From the dustbin:

- 3-4 Rhinos

- 2 Razorbacks

- 1 Landraider Crusader

- 1 Dreadnought

- 1 Baal Predator

- 1 Vindicator

- 1 Whirlwind

- Upwards of 20 firstborn Assault Marines

- Upwards of 20 firstborn Tactical Marines

- At least 1 firstborn Devastator Squad

- several untouched 5e Death Company sprues

- large variety of BA upgrade bits from the various 5e kits (you know the ones, extremely ornate armor with all sorts of gems and gubbins)

 

I've got a couple test marines done so far as I teach myself how to paint all over again - pictures at the bottom without more to come this week. But first... the fluff!

+++ THE ANGELS FATALIS +++

Founding Chapter: Blood Angels

 

Chapter Master: Thadeon Kul

 

Homeworld: Kokkedan IV (Secondary tithe rights to Kokkedan Secondus and the Kokkedan Shardworlds)

 

Fortress-Monastery: Antemurale Argentum (Orbital)

 

Muster Strength: Approximately 600 Astartes, including 200 Primaris Space Marines, divided up between 6 companies

 

Imperial records documenting the origin of the Angels Fatalis are scant at best. What little that has not been redacted, destroyed, or simply lost to the perils of Imperial bureaucracy indicates the chapter was raised from the Blood Angels gene-seed to support the Dark Paladins' holy crusade against the Necron machines of Jarrman Primus. Surviving records of the chapter's first centuries suggest the Angels Fatalis suffered devastating losses that coincide chronologically with the disastrous end of the Dark Paladins' ill-fated crusade, but collected reports from Rogue Trader vessels in the vicinity of the Jarrman system provide no evidence to indicate the Angels Fatalis were ever present in the Jarrman conflict.

Their numbers reduced and their estimation in the eyes of the Highlords of Terra now diminished for reasons lost to Imperial records, the brothers of the Angels Fatalis embarked on a lengthy series of penitent crusades, culminating in the brutal Kokkedan campaign.

In the minds of many among the chapter, the Kokkedan Campaign marks the true beginning of the chapter's history. The campaign saw the chapter drive a tendril of Hive Fleet Kraken from the Kokkedan system, at great cost. The forgeworld of Kokkedan Prime, once an unrivalled supplier of Munitorum atomics, was almost entirely obliterated, reduced to constituent particles and space dust. The refinery and refueling world of Kokkedan III was rent asunder, casting staggeringly massive shards of the ruined world into an irregular orbit around the system star.

The only Imperial-populated world left in the system in the wake of this apocalyptic conflict was Kokkedan IV, a peculiar planet the chapter's scholiasts suspect was once enveloped in a globe-spanning ocean long-since stripped away. Beneath the corpse-dunes of the Kokkedan system's fourth planet, the Mechanicus harvested a rare radioisotope used in the manufacture and operation of miniaturized atomics, both bombs and reactors. 

While the Angels Fatalis will tell you they were tithed the title to the world of Kokkedan IV to honor their sacrifice in the defense of Kokkedan against the Tyrannic threat, wiser Imperial onlookers may suggest that in the wake of the world-shattering war, it was simply more logical to offload the burden of governance and logistics for a radioactive hell world filled with refugees to the Astartes, who were all to happy to allow Mechanicus radioisotope extraction operations to continue on the surface.

From the remains of ruined orbital drydocks and stations, the chapter raised a great glimmering orbital-monastery, the Antemurale Argentum, which quickly became a storied paradise in the heavens to the ash-wasters, refugees, and mining gangs of Kokkedan IV. 

Like so many other chapters birthed from Sanguinius' gene-seed, the reality of this 'paradise' was anything but. 

 

After centuries of brutal, unceasing warfare and little support from other Chapters of the Blood, the Angels Fatalis' hold over the Flaw, the spiritual curse of Sanguinius' gene-sons, had deteriorated greatly. The Antemurale Argentum was more prison for the mad and damned than it was fortress-monastery, whole sections of the orbital dedicated to restraining and safeguarding those brothers who had fallen to the Black Rage in the preceding conflicts, with more joining their ranks every day even in the aftermath of the war.

 

The chapter's fortunes outwardly appeared to be improving, but they stood on a knife-edge precipice with annihilation on both sides. Lord Commander Tithian, the second to lead the Angels, decreed that new Astartes would be recruited from the population of Kokkedan IV, be they honour-tithed champions from the syndicate mining families or warlords out of the irradiated corpse-dune wastelands. So desperate were the Angels Fatalis to replenish their ranks that few who survived the perilous trials were turned away, and to this day many veteran brothers of the Chapter come from mortal past lives as blood-soaked as their existence as sons of Sanguinius.

 

It was close to a century later when the chapter's Sanguinary Priesthood discovered that among those mortals who had lived a great deal of their lives on Kokkedan IV, a not-insignificant amount of the radioisotope so treasured by the Mechanicus could be found in the blood. The Priesthood followed this discovery to the conclusion that an as-yet unknown interaction between the elemental substance and the vitae of Sanguinius' gene-seed had a modulating effect on the Flaw, suppressing the likelihood of total collapse into the Black Rage but elevating violent, predator instinct and impulse. Like a burner below a cauldron, keeping it always at a roil but not quite spilling over, it seemed a morbid hope for the survival of the chapter.

Tithian's successor, Imrakos, instituted the practice of the Blood Tithe, still in place today. During the annual festival of Sanguinalia, celebrated across Imperial space to honor the sacrifice of the Lord Sanguinius before the Arch-Traitor, all citizens report to processing sites overseen by the Priesthood, now the Keepers of the Ashen Blood. Through this blood-tithe, the Angels Fatalis collect annual stocks of irradiated blood, carefully mixed with the distillation of their progenitor's vitae to control the Flaw. Dark rumors abound among Imperial observers about the long term effects this has on the veterans and ancients of the chapter, whose faces are clad always in the ash-blasted, bone-hued ceramite helm worn by the chapter's most-capable warriors.

 

As the chapter's numbers have swelled, so too has the need for the Ashen Blood, and a black market of sorts of risen in result. So-called "drainer" gangs, warlords, and sometimes even desperate syndicate families engage in kidnappings and forced-exsanguination of enemies or sometimes just the unlucky, the spoils of their bloody harvest being discretely traded to chapter's priesthood for supplies and Imperial scrip. Officially, the chapter forbids this practice, but the present-day chapter master, the Lord Commander Thadeon Kul, has seen fit to look the other way with no indication he intends to put an end to it.

Now, in systems neighboring the chapter's far-flung throneworld, new threats rear their heads, and old ones creep back from dark places. Reports of entire Astra Militarum legions, including a storied detachment from Krieg turning traitor, send nervous murmurs through the ranks of the Kokkedan penal battalions. Rogue Traders increasingly speak of Aeldari pirates, striking like warp lightning and vanishing just as quickly. Elsewhere in the sector, brutish Orks raise a great Waaaagh and perfidious Tau probe Imperial defenses with expeditionary forces.

Lord Commander Kul's attention is called to myriad threats, none of which can be ignored if Imperial control over the sector is to be retained.

 

+ CHAPTER COMMAND +

 

Lord Commander Thadeon Kul, the Light Undying, Master of the Ashen Host

 

Sanguinary Guard Lyander, Exalted Herald of the Ashen Host

 

Brother Ivecter, Master of the Blade

 

Alizar, the Black Angel, the Ashen Fury, High Chaplain of the Angels Fatalis

 

Grailbearer Faustus, High Priest of the Ashen Blood

 

Lyphisar, the Doom at Kokkedan, Master of the Librarius

 

Brother Acharnus, Warden of the Antemurale Argentum

 

 

+ FLEET COMMAND +

 

Brother Captain Baelor, the Coriolis Wind, First Wing of the Ashen Host, Captain of the Strike Cruiser Wingbeat Shadow

 

Brother Captain Traxus, Second Wing of the Ashen Host, Captain of the Strike Cruiser Fist of Imrakos

+++ END RECORD +++

 

Time for pictures of what I've got so far! I'm a big fan of the Flesh Tearers scheme and wanted to do something derivative so this is what I've opted for. I'm trying to learn Blender/Solidworks so I can model some pauldrons with the chapter emblem, which will replace the generic BA pauldrons I'm using currently.

 

 

Brother Sergeant Zakarias - Intercessor

I know, I need to drill the bolters! I'm not a particularly skilled or disciplined painter, so I need my paint scheme to be relatively fast and easy, and hold up at least a little bit on the table. I've started by spraying the models with Army Painter Dragon Red, which is so much better than the AP sprays we had 10-12 years ago, which came out really rough and destroyed any detail the model had. After that, the whole model gets covered in Flesh Tearers Red Constrast, and then I go in and hit anything that will be black or metallic with two thinned coats of Abaddon Black. All metallic sections get hit with Leadbelcher, while whites are Wraithbone.


Brother Antrifos - Intercessor
After applying the colors in the previous step, I attempt (not particularly successfully) some drybrushed highlights with leadbelcher and Administratrum Grey on black edges. This is something I'm still learning and both these models are going to be retouched as I improve on this. At this point, I hit the whole model with Nuln Oil, or Agrax Earthshade/Seraphim Sepia depending on the base tone. 

 

Some of the lads

I'm working out my basing process, but I think I'm getting close to a finished product I'm happy with, pictured on Brother Antrifos' base. I want this base to look like an ash waste, with subtle hints of green to contrast with the red armor. To start, I cover the base in Armageddon Earth, and add some Army Painter gravel flock to taste. Once this has dried, the entire thing gets washed with Coelia Greenshade, which dries a dark blue-green. If I've used more basing flock, this step usually takes two coats as the tiny wood chips absorb a good amount of the contrast wash. After this, I dab on Nuln Oil, Agrax Earthshade, and just a tiny bit of Warp Lightning Contrast paint to give the regolith a foul, mottled hue. After this, I try to look at how the texture of the base has dried, and fill in gaps and rivulets with Waywatcher Green Glaze, which will dry semi-glossy and catch the light a bit more.

Finally, I drybrush the regolith with Stormvermin Fur and Administratum Grey, to give it that ashen lunar look. I just picked up some GS9 Ash Flock and I'm going to be experimenting with that to see what sort of results I get as well.

 

 

Hoping to be able to share a completed and based Intercessor squad this week, and then some Aggressors or Sanguinary Guard. Thoughts, feedback, and tips appreciated!

Edited February 17, 2021 by Lyphisar

[Majkhel]

Welcome Lyphisar! 
I really like the story behind your chapter. Colour scheme also looks nice.
One thing comes to my mind though about your Chapter Icon - it look like it can cause some challenges to properly set on the shoulder pad. It's similar to the BA Icon in that regard it's based on an inverted triangle, while the shoulder pad is kind of the opposite. This may cause you troubles and it will be rather small (try drawing the shoulder pad shape around it and you will see what I mean)
I just got an idea - how would you like a modified BA icon? I mean you could change the blood drop or one of the wings for something else. We do not have many (any?) halved chapter badges in the BA successors so it would be pretty interesting. You could also easily (potentially) modify existing BA sculpted shoulder pads.
Another option is to find someone who could design and print you some shoulder pads with the icon of you choice.

About painting - after the final wash step, I would recommend to come back to the model with touch-up highlights on selected edges to give a little more more pop and contrast on the overall muted scheme.

Good luck with your army! It looks like a lot of fun especially since it's coming together during an actual campaign 

[cretacianborn]

Nice lore, nice scheme, hope to see more soon! 

[Xenith]

Really liking that scheme - I think the basing colour is maybe too similar to the dark grey/black legs/feet, so they kind of merge - a lighter brown or grey on the base might make them pop!

 

Also, loving the campaign plan - will you be using the Crusade Rules from the BRB?

Edited February 17, 2021 by Xenith

[Lyphisar]

Welcome Lyphisar! 

I really like the story behind your chapter. Colour scheme also looks nice.

One thing comes to my mind though about your Chapter Icon - it look like it can cause some challenges to properly set on the shoulder pad. It's similar to the BA Icon in that regard it's based on an inverted triangle, while the shoulder pad is kind of the opposite. This may cause you troubles and it will be rather small (try drawing the shoulder pad shape around it and you will see what I mean)

I just got an idea - how would you like a modified BA icon? I mean you could change the blood drop or one of the wings for something else. We do not have many (any?) halved chapter badges in the BA successors so it would be pretty interesting. You could also easily (potentially) modify existing BA sculpted shoulder pads.

Another option is to find someone who could design and print you some shoulder pads with the icon of you choice.

 

About painting - after the final wash step, I would recommend to come back to the model with touch-up highlights on selected edges to give a little more more pop and contrast on the overall muted scheme.

 

Good luck with your army! It looks like a lot of fun especially since it's coming together during an actual campaign 

 

Great point with the shoulder icon. Playing with it in #D, it wraps around the curve of the pauldron fairly easily but does come out quite small. I actually quite like the idea of maybe doing a halved badge with a wing trailing backwards, like the kneepad transfers. I'll play with it and share what I come up with!

 

Good tip on touching up the colors as well, I definitely need to do more work to make some details pop.

 

Nice lore, nice scheme, hope to see more soon! 

Thank you! I've got more than a few of your models saved in my inspo drive!

 

 

Really liking that scheme - I think the basing colour is maybe too similar to the dark grey/black legs/feet, so they kind of merge - a lighter brown or grey on the base might make them pop!

 

Also, loving the campaign plan - will you be using the Crusade Rules from the BRB?

 

I'm thinking you're right, I've picked up a tin of this stuff and I'm going to do some base experimenting this evening. I want to preserve a layered texture to the base, with blacks and greys greys and whites but I think I could do more to bring out green undertones and add more contrast.

 

We'll be using some modified rules similar to Goonhammer's Koronus Expanse game, I'll post them up here when we've finalized them. For BFG, we'll be working off the XR release. I'm excited to be able to model the entire fleet of the chapter in less time than it takes to do an intercessor squad!

 

We're talking about maybe doing an actual website to blog and share short fiction or other projects related to the campaign - our gaming group's current thing is a Witcher TTRPG that gets novelized and turned into a fiction podcast. We started the week the US started locking down and have garnered a decent subscriber base but that campaign is coming to an end and we need narrative content!

 

 

Thank you for input so far, it keeps me moving!

Edited February 17, 2021 by Lyphisar

[Lyphisar]

Made some progress on my intercessor squad (pictures when I finish the last two marines!) and played a remote game with a buddy yesterday to test some more list ideas. I won 40-32!

 

I don't think it's kosher to share the pics but here's some thoughts/notes from the game:

 

We played 2k points No Man's Land on Prismatica Mining Colony, which features a large multi-level terrain piece in the center of the board that divides the no mans' land into left and right lanes with catwalks on either side.

 

I ran:

HQ:
Commander Dante

Sanguinary Priest (Chief Apothecary, Icon of the Angel, Selfless Healer, Jump Pack, Hero of the Chapter)

 

TROOPS:
Assault Intercessor (Sgt w/ Pfist and Hand Flamer)

Assault Intercessor (Sgt w/ Pfist and Hand Flamer)

Intercessors (Stalker rifles, Plasma Pistol)

 

ELITES:
Company Champion (Warlord, Gift of Foresight, Martial Exemplar, Chapter Champion, Visage of Death

 

Sanguinary Ancient (Rites of War, Wrath of Baal)

 

10 x Sanguinary Guard (All swords)

 

10 x Sanguinary Guard (All swords)

 

FAST ATTACK:

5x Inceptors (Plasma Exterminators)

 

HEAVY SUPPORT:

Thunderfire Cannon

 

Whirlwind (Vengeance Launcher, PSB, HK Missile)

 

Opponent was playing Kraken Tyrannids, I believe! From the start of the game, assault intercessors foot slogged up the left and right lanes, they successfully tied up genestealers and gargoyles that were rushing up in advance of two nasty packages on either side composed of a carnifex, a haruspex, a lictor, a broodlord, and in the case of the right lane, a swarmlord and some warriors.

Regular intercessors plinked wounds from an elevated position holding down my deployment objective and the artillery parked behind a wall in a corner and fired suppression fire and tremor rounds at gargoyles and genestealers and the two biovores in the center of my opponent's deployment of the course of the game. I'm not sold on their utility for the cost, but it was nice to be able to mess with his charges and reliably put wounds on any target on the board with no risk of retaliation beyond biovores or spore mines.

 

The main thing that happened here is that Dante and the Inceptors spent my first turn moving up to the center of the board but only one inceptor was able to shoot. From the right lane, the Swarmlord and friends bee-lined for Dante but due to the way Look Out Sir! is written (a character must be both visible AND the closest model to be shot) he couldn't do much, as the inceptors were closer but not visible.

This effort to take out Dante in the beginning of the game cost nids the whole game. On my second turn, the inceptors were able to dump a full volley into the haruspex and chunk 10 wounds, and Dante was able to charge the Swarmlord. Sanguinary Guard, Champion, Priest, and Ancient were able to land behind the monster mash and charge the lictor, a carnifex, and what was left of the haruspex from the rear and killed all three. For reasons unclear to me, my opponent used his next turn to train everything on the Sanguinary Guard instead of Dante, so the Priest put the golden boys back together while Dante finished off the Swarmlord to nab me points for the dueling objective.

Everything from that point onward was clean-up, with the second Sanguinary Guard unit rolling into the left lane and making 'nid soup of the remainder of his list with a series of very nice rolls.

In the interest of fluff and still having friends, I definitely don't think I will be running such a large blob of SG in Crusade, but I am strongly considering the inclusion of the Thunderfire and Whirlwind as an option against the Krieg and Tau players.

Edited February 22, 2021 by Lyphisar

[Son of Sacrifice]

Really nice thread, painting looks good to me to. I'll be following along, sounds like you've got the perfect gaming group.

[Lyphisar]

They're not done but they're at a level that constitutes table-ready for me. For the first time in 13+ years of on-off 40k painting I've actually done a whole squad!

I'm waiting for the Armageddon Dust to dry on the last base to finish it up and as I improve my painting on the rest of the army I'll be revisiting these to fix mistakes and touch them up.

My next goal is to do an Eradicator Squad, the Indomitus Lieutenant, and then try to tackle a Sanguinary Guard unit so I've got 500 points ready to start Crusade.
 

Edited March 4, 2021 by Lyphisar

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Excellent work on the Intercessors.

[Majkhel]

Congratulations on the squad completed!
I like their bases a lot :)

[Lyphisar]

Made some progress on the Bladeguard Lieutenant today before I dumped a pot of Wraithbone on myself. I think I'm going to remove his head and replace it because I'm not pleased with how it's turning out and the wraithbone came out really chunky no matter what mix of water I used.
 

Edited March 5, 2021 by Lyphisar

[Majkhel]

... the wraithbone came out really chunky no matter what mix of water I used.

Shake it more. And shake it some more again. You might want to add a steel ball inside to enhance mixing. You can also add a bit of the airbrush thinner while adding water. Or just buy Vallejo Game Colour: White

 

So sorry for you that it came out this way. White can be a really frustrating colour - particles of it's pigments are one of the biggest there are. They often come out chunky.

[DistractionTacMarine]

Buy Vallejo White Glaze or a Titanium White Ink. Most white paints come out chunky as a result of the pigment used, and GW’s whites are worse than most.

[Xenith]

They're not done but they're at a level that constitutes table-ready for me. For the first time in 13+ years of on-off 40k painting I've actually done a whole squad!

 

I'm waiting for the Armageddon Dust to dry on the last base to finish it up and as I improve my painting on the rest of the army I'll be revisiting these to fix mistakes and touch them up.

 

My next goal is to do an Eradicator Squad, the Indomitus Lieutenant, and then try to tackle a Sanguinary Guard unit so I've got 500 points ready to start Crusade.

 

 

These guys look amazing, love the scheme!