Assault Squads on the Painting Bench

Well hello all!

I just wanted to share a couple of pictures showing what I have been up to today and to prove to Mordian 7th that I do indeed still remember how to paint (it has been years since I have picked up a paint brush in earnest).

Here are several views of the 38 Blood Angel Assault Marines that I am currently powering my way through. I had to take a break as I lost the natural light and I am waiting for a wash/glaze to dry. Tomorrow will see the final highlight on the yellow helmets then the under armor/tubing then the various stuff on the armor (eagles, purity seals, etc). I am still not sure what color I want to paint the bolt pistol and chainsword housings (the non-metallic areas of the weapons) any suggestions?

The goal to get these done this year should still be doable. Take care all and thanks for looking!

Final Assembly and Sanginius WIP

First off I would like to wish everyone a Happy Holidays and a wonderful New Years!

I have had some time off lately and it has allowed me to finish up the assembly process on the Blood Angels needed for my trip to England. I wanted to include a 'normal' Tactical squad to allow me to hold any 'rearward' objectives or another option to charge forward in their Rhino. I have a bunch of the old metal Death Company minis and I wanted to make use of them somehow (given that the new plastic Death Company minis are awesome). The old metal Death Company minis are full of Blood Angel Icons and some Death Company Icons, so with a little work shaving off some of the more obvious Death Company Icons I achieved some 'blinged out' Blood Angel Marines. Here I present Tactical Squad Pellario:

I also managed to work on some Combi-Plasma Guns for use with my Vanguard Vets (Heresy-era Vanguard Vets carry Bolters/Combi-Bolters as well as Chainsword/Bolt Pistol). I had one actual Combi-Plasma to go off of so I set out to make four more. I went at with standard Marine Bolters and Plasma Pistols:

Here is a view of them attached to the Vanguard Vets:

If that was not enough for you I took a stab at making a Sanguinius based around the Scibor SciFi Angel model. There are several things I really like about the model (scale, wings, holding a Daemon head) and several things I don't like (obvious press mold sculpture with pieces just placed on to with little reason for them other than to fill a gap, flimsy/broken sword, silly looking Daemon head) so I went at it with some concern on how it would all turn out. I had to change the sword (due to it being destroyed in shipping) and I wanted to add some various GW bits to help tie it in with the rest of the Blood Angels. Here he is in his unprimered state:

A closeup view:

Next week is a full week off from work for me so I fully plan on getting a bunch of painting done next week. First up on the painting table will be a whole mess of Assault Marines! Take care all and thanks for looking! As always comments are always welcome, I would love to hear what people think.

The Skies Fill with Angels

Well it has been a busy time in my life lately but I have managed to get some Hobby Time in. The preparations for the trip to England continue with assembly of the main portion of the army: the Assault Squads. The weekend event that the fine folks at the Tempus Fugitives are putting on in March is set during the Great Crusade and has a mission that seems right up the Blood Angels alley. The Skyhook Mission found in the Hammer of the Gods Campaign Pack is perfect for the way I play Blood Angels.

I knew that I wanted to do big 20man Assault Squads which was the norm during the Great Crusade but I didn't want to make 'special Crusade-era only minis' so I went ahead and assembled my Assault Squads as normal 40k-era Marines and I will have to deal with any flak I might get for not having exact Crusade-era models. Here is a couple of views of the assembled mass of jump troops:

Here is a close up view of the 2 Chainsword wielding Squad Leaders (for when I want to save some points by not having power weapon equipped Squad Leaders):

Blood Angel Assault Squads are allowed 2 Meltaguns per Squad and while that is a nice anti-armor punch I think 2 is a bit expensive points-wise. I have 1 Meltagun per Assault Squad and I wanted to make them all a little different; I even managed to use one of my old metal Assault Marines as a Meltagunner. Here is the 'anti-armor' punch for the 4 Assault Squads:

Here are a couple of shots of some of the actual trooper minis (I love the dynamic poses you can achieve with the Marine Assault bodies):

During the Crusade the Blood Angels had a pair of biological twin brothers (Perada & Lorator). Their *fluff* reads as:

 Though they would separately go on after the Siege of Terra to carve out their own separate legends for the Sons of Sanguinius, it was during the Great Crusade that these two biological twin brothers were inducted into the Legion. Each mirrored the other in aspect and finesse and it is said that only the Primarch could tell them apart. While he was alive, Sanguinius never separated the brothers, calling them his muse vitae.
  I knew that I wanted to make these guys look like twins as much as possible so I used exactly the same pieces to put these guys together. However I did not want them to be in the exact same pose so it was a bit of a challenge to make them look similar but not exactly the same (as that would be boring). Here is a look at what I came up with for Perada and Lorator:

If that was not enough jump troops to fill the skies I decided to add a couple of jump Sanguinary Priests. I have at least 5 of the Blood Angel Sanguinary Priest Minis so I wanted to make a 'right-handed' and a 'left-handed' version using the same mini. I think they turned out fairly decent especially for being the same  exact metal mini. Here is a look:

Well that is all the assembled and primered troops; the skies will be filled with a sea of Blood Red Vengeance. I will leave you with a couple of looks at what is currently on the workbench (Vanguard Vets and Combi-Plasma guns):

As always thank you for taking the time to take a look! Comments are always welcome!