Blood Angels: Mephiston the Lord of Death

Recently, my graduating cohort of trainee teachers gifted me with a £25 GW voucher. There wasn't anything Ork shaped that I had my eye on so I decided to use it to get Mephiston for £1! Ordinarily, I wouldn't spend such a ridiculous price for a single plastic miniature (£26) but the voucher was basically free money so it seemed a sensible idea. 

Anyway, Mephiston is an excellent miniature and I had a great time painting him. There are a lot of soft materials present (capes and robes etc...) so I worked hard to develop my skills around wet blending and glazing to get the smooth transitions in the cloth. I agonised over the free hand details on the robes but decided to give it a go in the end. I'm glad I did because I think the model might have been a tad dull otherwise. The glowing eyes also came off better than my previous attempts at glowing effects so that's good too. 

These images are not of the complete model. All that was left to do at this point was add some grass tufts and paint the edge of the base. Onwards and upwards.

Blood Angels: Death Company

I have been able to pick up another 10 snap-fit Primaris marines from eBay for a reasonable price to bolster the original 5 I had painted. This left me with 5 spare so I decided to build and paint them as death company members.

It was a nice painting challenge as I've never been all that confident painting black. I decided to highlight the armour using cool blues and greys as a contrast to the warm reds and oranges of their less deranged brothers. Hopefully, this allows them to stand out a bit from the others, which is something that the death company have always done in Blood Angel armies. 

Only one has been completed so far, with another 2 almost complete. I'll paint all 5 backpacks at the end, which is why it is missing. Overall, I'm quite pleased with how this one turned out and I'm looking forward to eventually having a full squad charging around causing mayhem! 

Blood Angels: Second Company

I have recently been keeping half an eye out for useful issues of Imperium magazine, which my local Forbidden Planet store stocks. By 'useful' I am referring to any issues with Primaris Space Marines on the front! 

Recently, my son was born and so I came up with the idea of starting a little collection for him that I can build and work on over time. When he's old enough, he'll have his own army that he can begin using right away. My own dad did something similar for me when I was younger when he made me a train set and also helped me with painting my Airfix aircraft models. 

Anyway, I love the Blood Angels painting scheme so I've also used this as an excuse to really push myself and learn some new painting techniques. I present to you some examples of a small squad of assault intercessors that have now been completed.

I've been using contrasts, washes and blends to get the smooth transitions of colour on the armour, which is then sharpened with extreme edge highlighting. I really pushed myself on the sword, which was wet blended. This was a really useful technique to learn and I'm really pleased with the results. 

I love the clean, uncluttered look of the Primaris marines. I think Space Marines became far too busy with trinkets and details etc... Blood Angels were amongst the worst offenders for this! These new Primaris marines have allowed me to go right back to the original 2nd Edition colour schemes so I have tried to be faithful to these (including the squad markings). The heraldry on the models is a new addition, which is giving me an opportunity to get creative without adding loads of fussy trinkets. 

I've completed this squad of five now and have recently moved on to a Lieutenant. Hopefully, he'll be competed soon! 

Blood Angels army up for sale!

Dear readers,

The time has come for me to move my Blood Angels army onto another loving home. I've had some great games with this army and came second in the student nationals 2012 with it. Painting this army was especially challenging! Painting all those gems really took some effort but in the end I was really happy with the results. Another lovely touch with this army is that all the figures come with bases from dragonforge's urban rubble range! So without further ado, please feast your eyes on what's available in the lot. The auction can be found here.

The Chaplain, sanguinary priest and assault terminators

Some extra characters: Chapter master Seth, Commander Dante and a captain with lightning claws

 There is also a WIP honour guard squad

Assault squad one with razorback transport

Assault squad 2 with razorback

Assault squad three and two storm ravens

Finally, the whole army fits into this custom pull and pluck army case!

To top it all off, I will also include some blood angels sprus I have left! If you have any further questions about the lot, or you would like to see some more pictures then please get in touch either via ebay or through leaving a comment below. Once again the auction can be found here.

Good luck and best wishes!

 

Sons of Sanguinius: The Sanguine Skies

As of 9.45AM Friday 13th of April, the army is now complete. It has been a long and hard road studded with bouts of violence and insanity. But despite all my dispare, I now own a complete 1,500pt Blood Angels army.

The army was completed in time for the student nationals, which was hosted in Cardiff this year. The event was very good fun and I managed to achieve 2nd place overall (getting 2 perfect scores in 2 games including a wipeout and a concession (on turn 4 no less! I only lost 1 terminator in the whole game!)). Sadly I lost my last game to a cheese filled Grey Knights force...typical!

I have left out some pictures of the other storm raven and razorback because they are pretty similar to the others I have already posted.

Anywho, without further chit chat, here are some pics of the completed force. Do please enjoy :)

 Chaplains are badass!

Priests keep the host alive quite nicely and furious charge keeps them killing!

The terminators really are the stars! Everything they touch dies! Especially when led by the chaplain.

Finally some pictures are the 3rd squad. These guys fly about in one of the storm ravens.

Sons of Sanguinius: The Halfway Mark

Something of an update this time around. After returning from Japan only to realise that time is seriously running out with regards to getting these models ready for the student nationals in April, I have been somewhat busy! Caught in a furious painting frenzy I have managed to make the rough halfway mark! I do hope you enjoy the new figs. Especially you darthfishbag!

The storm raven is pretty much done now. One down, one to go!

Some more guys from the second assault squad. Just one left to go!

Finally, one of two las-plas razorbacks. I love these things in game!