On Angels Wings (Or I'm back to my Dark Angels)

[Castlerook]

"The Compliance of Hemrien took far longer than Imperial strategists and tacticians had predicted, due in part to the erratic weather of the planet and the appearance of an Orkoid invasion force, codenamed "Waaaagh Gitsnappa" in the system lead to the defenders of Hemrien having ample time to construct numerous defences to confound and stymied Imperial Forces. The 78th Expeditionary Force, consisting of the 1384th Solar Auxilia Cohort and other elements found themselves caught in trench warfare, constantly under battery fire from the heavily fortified cities. Imperial air elements was unable to provide support due to atmospheric conditions and dense anti-air fire. 

 

Compliance had been expected to take one month at the most. The defences laid against them slowed them down to six months, with Imperial casualties numbered in 10,000 a day. The Siege of Hemrien was finally broken in the opening days of 003.M31 when elements of the 3rd Grand Company of the Dark Angels Legion arrived. Compliance was achieved in 3 days."

- On Angels Wings, A History of the Great Crusade, by Remembrancer Artem Halir.

 

So long, long ago, I used to play Dark Angels and then I got rid of most of my collection to make space for things and because life was getting in the way of me having a hobby. Long story short, life can back off because I need a hobby and around the same time I realised this, Age of Darkness was released. I always wanted to do a Heresy Era Dark Angels army and I had quickly bought some stuff to start working on an army. 

 

Then a co-worker quit and I was working half his hours for the better part of 6 months. (Jerk)

 

Anyway, I'm finally in a position where I can work on my Dark Angels.

 

Legion Praetor, just a quick kitbash with the AoD Praetor and bits from the Dark Angels Upgrade kit and some 3d printed shoulderpads. 

 

Paladin of the Hekatonystika, using Fafnir Rann as the base, again with some bits from the Dark Angels upgrade kit and the sword coming from the Legion Praetor. (I might have a Watcher in the Dark carry a shield for him)

 

While the characters were first done, I wanted to get the bases done before mounting any minis on them. General idea is that units will have a more basic base, while characters and the like will have trenches. The bases were done using a combination of cork-board height and stability. The planks were coffee stirrers (got a bag of 1000 of them for like €8). Texture paint for, well, texture and some snow paint to make it look like the end of winter and the snow was melting. The large base is for a Contemptor Dreadnought.

 

The Contemptor Dreadnought. Wanted to give the impression that it's just landed or jumped into a trench and it's lifting it's claw hand to blast some poor dumb idiot while swinging its plasma cannon around to clear the rest of the trench. I imagine this dreadnought might have been the previous commander of the force and it wants to charge into the fray once more.

 

 

Comments and criticisms are always welcome.

[ZeroWolf]

I like the Contemptors posing, looking forward to seeing more work 

[Castlerook]

2 hours ago, ZeroWolf said:

I like the Contemptors posing, looking forward to seeing more work 

Thank you. Yeah, it was a fun one to do.

[Grotsmasha]

Most excellent, will a joy to watch this force progress

[Castlerook]

Thanks. 

 

As much as I like the Inner Circle Knights Cenobium minis, really just some of the best and sinister looking Terminators of the last 20 years, but they are also incredibly expensive.

I figure I have 3 options if I wanted a unit of these. 

 

Option 1 - Buy them. Not likely, because as much as I like them, that's still a ridiculous amount for a 5 man unit.

Option 2 - Print them. Yes, I have a 3d printer and as much as I love what I can produce, I would still like to be able to bring this unit to my local store and not pretend it was legal.

Option 3 - Kitbash them. Which is what I've done. Don't know if I'll keep them though.

 

 

Kits used are the Deathwing Knights (heads and torsos), Grey Knights terminators (weapons and arms) and the AoD Cataphractii Terminators for the legs. I do have some DA Cataphractii-style shoulder pads printed up, but they'll wait until I have them and the unit painted. The Plasma casters for the gauntlets, well, I'm pretty sure I have some plasma pistols in my bits box. I just need to find it. 

 

I wasn't going to just go out and buy the two kits, as the point was to cut down on costs, so I went scouring bits sites and ebay and I had the AoD boxed sets for cheap (I have 2 boxed sets from Ebay that half price). The bits probably cost about €20 in the end.

 

That being said, I'm not too sure about keeping the unit. I like the unit and the conversion, but I'm not quite sure they scream "Scary elite monster killers". 

 

Comments and criticisms are welcome as always.

[Firedrake Cordova]

Nice work. I think the characters will look great when painted!

 

I think your Inner Circle knights look just fine  

Edited June 20, 2023 by Firedrake Cordova

[Urauloth]

Yeah, those kitbashes are good; the GK swords are a nice choice for inner circle, and the cataphractii legs give them a heresy-era look and help set their silhouettes apart from standard Deathwing knight models. I think they'll look the part once they have their final components.

[Xenith]

 

Great start so far, love the feathery helmets

 

On 6/19/2023 at 9:08 PM, Castlerook said:

Option 3 - Kitbash them. Which is what I've done. Don't know if I'll keep them though.

 

Ah yes, the old buy 2x£35 boxes to convert in the £75 box of models trick  They're looking really good though - what type of shoulderpad will you be using? Cataphractii? Grey knight arms might work well, with space for the wrist mounted weapons and elbow armour plates. 

Edited June 21, 2023 by Xenith

[Castlerook]

3 hours ago, Xenith said:

 

Great start so far, love the feathery helmets

 

 

Ah yes, the old buy 2x£35 boxes to convert in the £75 box of models trick  They're looking really good though - what type of shoulderpad will you be using? Cataphractii? Grey knight arms might work well, with space for the wrist mounted weapons and elbow armour plates. 

Look, if you're going Dark Angels, you need to have the feathery helmets.

 

Yeah, but it only cost me €20 for the bits. And the Grey Knight arms were exactly what I used, specifically for the space to mount a weapon on the wrist. 

 

The shoulderpads are Cataphractii, found a good 3d printable file online and they came out well enough.

[Castlerook]

Belated Happy 10th Launch Weekend.

 

I celebrated by going to my local Warhammer store and bought some kits for my 10th edition army, which will only be a small force, about 1000 to 1500 points. But that's for another thread. Oh and then I ordered the 10th edition Rulebook online.

 

The rest of my weekend consisted of some building, rather than painting because it is ridiculously humid here and I didn't have the patience for that right now.

 

I'm not planning on having a lot of apothecaries in my force, but this was a fun and quickly little kitbash. Part of me just wants to have my apothecaries in MKIII armour, not just because its my favourite armour mark, but because I imagine them being the curmudgeons of the legion, not wanting to upgrade to that fancy, new fangled MKVI. "My MKIII served me during the Vesper Desolation, and it'll do me fine now!"

 

Legion Tactical Support Squad (BTW, the characters and units will get background and fluff after they're painted up).

Of course I was going to give the unit of Dark Angels the plasma guns. Its just such an iconic look. Bases will be done to look a supply or communications line of the trench, think pipes and wires. The shoulder pads are going to be printed up.

The squad's sergeant isn't done yet, as I'm still considering the Sword or Power fist (and no, I'm not magnetising). 

 

That's the update, comments and criticism are welcome as always.

 

[BadgersinHills]

Great work so far! Looking forward to seeing more. 

 

The converted Inner Circle terminators look rather good. It would likely be tricky and definitely would need some effort, but integrating cataphractii shoulder pads with the pteruges would make it clear that it's a 30k unit. 

[Castlerook]

4 hours ago, BadgersinHills said:

The converted Inner Circle terminators look rather good. It would likely be tricky and definitely would need some effort, but integrating cataphractii shoulder pads with the pteruges would make it clear that it's a 30k unit. 

Oh the ones I have 3d printed are cataphractii style.

 

Honestly, I should get to painting them over the weekend.