Blood Angls Burning Skies: A Heresy Blood Angels Project

[Filkarion]

"For six days we saw the signs: lights in the skies, forms of winged beings, fire burning. Then the seventh day they came down as angels. All those who opposed them were silent or death. We did not simply surrender, we started worshipping them. Then they lifted the veil from our eyes and patiently thought us the difference between faith, that requires no god and makes you stronger, and superstition, that makes you weak: all so that no one could do us the same thing they have done. Such sweet paradox"

 

Constantia Meville, Philosopher an Iterator of the Imperial Truth 

 

This post will be edited as I add some more details and decide more stuff/number/names etc. This is, after all, a Work in Progress.

 

The Origin

 

I have wanted to do a Legion since long ago. I have both Calth and Prospero boxes, plus some Ryza Lascannon I brought in my last visit to Warhammer World in...2017...(writing about this makes me think I had the idea of doing some 30k for more time that I thought!).

Then 3 years ago I brought Sanguinius, finally deciding to go for the IX.

I started 40k as a Tyranid and even when I started chaos I choose Slaanesh and noise weapons, more than Fulgrim and Emperor's Children, so I had no favorite Legion/Primarch, liking all as an "external" viewer. Finally I chose Love, and went for my wife's favorite. The more I dig in the background of the IX, the more I realize that, once again, Love was the right choice.

 

The Postulates

 

I usually go full GW in my projects, avoiding even 3rd party bits. This time it is not the case.

3D printed parts were a necessity this time, for economic reason and also creative freedom issues. Simply put I finally started this project for real because of that and the fact that I suddenly found a local community, even if a bit dysfunctional.

And I ended up using 3d printed stuff a lot more that expected for the great number of Assault Marines I decided to use. I expected to use Calth marines in mk4+Jump Packs and assault hands, but boys, those legs are static.

I briefly considered Truescale, but it would have been a lot of hassle and I wanted to use parts of some old marines kits and fully enjoy their compatibility. But I also decided for the characters to be sometimes bigger. That is accurate to the lore, that describes marines with quite variated heights, sometimes even "Primarch-like", cool to see and convenient in game!

As every Blood Angels player knows, there are no rules for Sanguinary Guard in 30k. I actually liked this fact as for my force I assumed the all the QG Charachters with Jump Packs to be Sanguinary Guards. I converted 5 of them to double as a command unit, if needed (Then I noticed I only needed 3, but that's fine.

 

That's all for now, I will create  some placeholders and put some WIP photos out

 

 

[Filkarion]

The Tactical Squad

 

20 men tactical squad in mark III armour, with nuntio vox, Augury scanner and mixed bayonets. Also, an Apotecary.

I like the mk3 and I wanted my Tacts to be a little bit more Revenant than Angels. Manly Prospero marines with a few extra bits and conversion work. I especially like how the nuntio vox came out, more pictures of him later 

 

The Sergeant: Damian Cassio

"It was a lot simpler back then..."

A Terra Veteran, never raised above sergeant rank, Cassio is nicknamed "the Devil" in contrast with his angelic superiors. He is ruthless used to loose men to complete a mission and born and raised into violence and bloodshed.

The model was converted from a Death Guard Plague Marine that was "denurglified", but still buttered. I got the idea from various sources and I am very happy how he turned out. I decided to keep the spikes to give him a more gritty and "demonic" look (that is also the reason for the moring star/spiked mace). One thing that I really like about the heresy is that Traitors are not so chaosy and Loyalist are somehow a bit more so, as some designs are not yet being associated with Chaos and labeled as "Heresy"

[StratoKhan]

Nice work, I really like the Death Guard models as a base for MkIII conversions. One day I'd like to try that myself.

Did you print the components yourself?

As you say, the Heresy period is interesting exactly because Loyalists and Traitors are more like different sides of the same coin, and the distinction between 'bad' guys and 'good' guys is a bit blurry.

[Filkarion]

Thanks for the reply!

I think denurglified death guard are cool and very good with in the context of heresy/mark III units. Obviously good for any truescale project, I think they are also great as sergeants or generally addition to any "Prospero marines" squad in general! They are a bit higher, but not so much, it is perfect for me, as I love a little difference between my marines, as evidenced in fluff and while I comprehend that scale creep kills the suspension of disbelief for some people, I am of different tastes and go with this epic picture as my mantra 

 

Anyway yes, the 3d parts were printed my me. It was a massive issues remover. I introduced all type of cool bits because I wanted my squads to look homogenous from  a distance but also quite diverse upon closer inspection. I wanted mine to be a buttered force, as slightly different at individual level as possible

 

So I aimed for some of my angles to be "Holy" (especially with the "sanguinary guard characters") and some others to be more brutal, unholy ones like clerics of the same god but with different alignment

 

Edited November 6, 2022 by Filkarion

[Filkarion]

The Assault Squad

 

 

When I fist planned my Heresy force, it should have been almost all with jump packs. The idea was to add a sanguinary guard like pack with no wings to all Calth mk4 bodies. Well, I found this excellent, excellent printable body with legs an jetpack in mk4.... so I overdid. I really like for this squad the idea of mixing armours, as I figure flying assault guys to have high casualty rate, so mixed armor parts are one of the defining feature of this squad.

Also chance helped me with another idea: some prints failed and i found myself with some legless marines. So I had an idea

 

So I put some artificial legs and arms in the squad, again in the spirit of "heavy casualties" squad. I also put there one of my very few helmetless marine...guess he loosed it in battle just minutes before.

They are 20, with 4 axes and 4 inferno pistols. I hope they will be also good on the battlefield, but they look cool to me and I am proud, and that was the important thing.

 

The Sergeant: Baenedicto Alatriste

"You receive the Gift, then you Become, then you Fly, then you Die, then you become the Gift"

A Sergeant of unknow origin, bearing the name of an ancient family of Europa. It is hinted that he is the result of a long line of Revenant/Angels consuming their fallen. It is difficoult to understand this poetic, damaged, angelic and very effective warrior, everlasting sacrifice of an unquestionable cause.

The model was converted from a stormcast prosecutor (the winged ones) from the first AoS starting set, the pectoral plate, jumpack and power fist of a sanguinary guard and the claw of MK III prospero set. I love him, for some reasons

I do not like parchment on my heresy marines, but I made an exception for him because of the pose, as I really do not like transparent flying stands

 

 

[Majkhel]

Very nice project! I love the variety in looks you're introducing and really agree with the idea of a battered force constantly in flux as casualties are taken and new recruits are inducted. Also the mix of dirty brutality and angelicness all in a single force. I believe it really sells the duality of Blood Angels   

 

Really interested to see how this endeavor of yours develops!

[Filkarion]

Thanks! I am basically submerged in work right now, so I do not have the time to proceed on the project now, but nonetheless I have some other things "done" to show(big quotes, as a lot of those WIPs need great doses of greenstuff and love)

 

Pristine forces are ok, but my tastes are more for messy looks. My balance for space marines and other is uniformity of colors and diversity in shapes. then weathering to introduce a level of individuality also in color. that at least is the plan

[Filkarion]

The Vigilator Consul

Ligeo Falconi

"Words can go where bullets cannot. But the opposite is also true"

 

It is not clear if Ligeo was created on purpose different from his brothers or if he was a quirk of the geneseed. Anyway his incredibile height for an Astartes is a great asset for his work.He is, in fact around 1.80 m (~6ft) and without armour can easily pass for a well built human. This is unbelievably convenient for both his main assignments, as he is able infiltrate human societies disguised as a common mortal and to move stealty even in armour when performing sniper missions.

Some laughted at his "small" frame, but he knows he was able to archive at least 3 bloodless compliances by infiltrating, studing local religions an apocalyptic myths and delivering to his brothers the information needed for flawless day of revelation decapitation strikes

 

This idea came to me from the fact that the old plastic marine ccommanderI used as the base of this conversion is ultra small, scale creep at its finest! But now I am happy with both model and background