Sword Bearers and the Unforgiven (Updated 1/07/23: Angels Redeemed)

[Shaneos]

Nice new Lieutenant! I love that chained shield/gun look so much.

I had a little go with the candles/skulls backpack look you showcase in here that I asked you about:

https://imgur.com/gallery/FKb1Z7r

Can I ask of a good source to get those knightly sort of looking shields?

[Pearson73]

What a cracking pose, lovely choice of head too, fits the Angels to a tee.

 

 

@ Pearson73: Thanks brother!

The size discrepancy really bothered me when Primaris were first released, but I'm ok with it now. Strangely, I went through a phase of initially hating Primaris, then learning to appreciate the models and better proportioned sculpts, to the point of losing interest in the classic marine range, but now I'm at the stage where I honestly enjoy working on both.

I think it helped (for me at least) to remember that Astartes aren't human any more, they're genetically engineered bio-weapons. So there's no reason why different types (and different sizes) shouldn't co-exist. We don't really question that the Primarchs dwarfed the Legionnaires they led into the Great Crusade, so I've just accepted that there are now different types of Space Marines.

Not criticising anyone who feels differently. Like I said, I felt the same way myself. Just trying to explain my choices for this army.

Of course, the size difference is even more pronounced with these models, as the Dark Vengeance marines are on 28mm bases, and the Primaris Lieutenant is on a raised 40mm base.
 

 

I think I'm still at the point where I'm unenthused by the regular marines, though the nicer options in the Heresy range are helping with that. That's an interesting viewpoint to take regarding the Primarchs and Astartes being bio-engineered and that different shapes and sizes will be produced as required.

[Spaced Hulk]

@ Aulus: Cheers brother! Really liking your Lieutenant model as well. The skulls & candles turned out nicely, and that particular Primaris sculpt is probably my favourite in the current range (I've actually got four copies of it - so far ). I have to admit, the chains are a bit of a chore to do, but I do really like the look.

The shields are out of production now unfortunately. If I had to source something similar, I'd look for old Warhammer Fantasy plastic shields (probably on Ebay). The Empire or High/Dark Elves ranges might be the best bet.

@ Pearson73: Thanks mate! The Black Shield parts from the Deathwatch kit are indeed perfect for the Unforgiven. I'd say the DW kit is probably the best 'Old Marine' kit currently in production. The legs in particular are slightly longer (as well as in more upright, walking poses) which can help regular marines seem far better proportioned.

* * *

Just a quick update today. I've been tinkering with the Primaris Captain I posted a while back (the Kromlech one, not the plasma pistol conversion). I decided I wasn't happy with the pose, so using this artwork as inspiration:

This model:

Has now become this:

I also gave him a more Dark Angel-y power sword, and replaced his bolt rifle with a master crafted bolt carbine:

Obviously he's not intended to be a carbon copy of the artwork, but more of a homage to it:

Thanks for looking, C&C are always welcome!

[Spaced Hulk]

So the weather decided to be a bit more accommodating this week (well, more accurately, it didn't rain every single day. I'm sure anybody from the UK can see where the inspiration for Mire, the Sword Bearers water sodden home world came from.) Anyway, I managed to get some models primed, so here's this week's update on my slowly progressing DA army :

First of all, five more Tac marines (including their sergeant), to take that first squad up to full strength:

Although I do have more Dark Vengeance marines boxed up somewhere, I decided to make the squad a bit more visually interesting. In addition, the Dark Angels, perhaps more than any other Chapter, feel like they should still be using older armour marks. The missile launcher also adds to that old school imagery.

Next up we have a Devastor Combat Squad:

I've always liked the idea that Devastators represent the most heavily armed type of Space Marine squad, rather than just long range fire support. This particular unit specialises in urban combat and tunnel fighting, using overwhelming firepower to defeat enemies cowering behind cover. The second combat squad will have two multi-meltas to burn through particularly strong barricades and obstacles.

I'm also particularly pleased with the Devastator Sergeant:

I must admit, I've never really liked the look of normal storm bolters on regular marines. They look fine on Terminators, but seem too wide and bulky for normal power armour. As other combi-weapons use the over-under configuration, I decided to do the same with this storm bolter, converting it from a Betrayal at Calth combi-melta. The helmet targeter represents the sergeant's signum, which seems much practical than walking around with a speed camera box on your back pack.

Finally, and just to prove I am still painting as well, I started base coating two more Lieutenants and an Intercessor sergeant:

Thanks for looking!

Edited February 10, 2019 by Spaced Hulk

[Interrogator Stobz]

Excellent work Brother!

 

Love the stormbolter conversion too :tu:

[Pearson73]

Solid work on the new builds; I particularly like the Dev sergeant, the MKVII helm makes him look very chunky and robust with the MKIII plate. I much prefer your take on the storm bolter too.

[Spaced Hulk]

@ Stobz & Pearson73: Cheers brothers! Appreciate the feedback.

Nearly finished the second DA Primaris Lieutenant:

As his knee pads are covered by the robes, I decided to paint his company insignia on the tilt shield attached to his belt.

Just need to paint the base rim black and apply decals, which I'll do when I have a few more models finished to the same stage.

Thanks for looking!

[Greenz]

Aw man, I’ve missed a TON of your updates!!! I think I used the last of my likes today hahaha

 

Great to see you churning out your stellar kitbashes Hulk! I’m reeeeeeally loving what you’ve done with the Primaris Captain, the one that the DA cover inspired. Beautiful work on him! And you’re nailing the DA green, awesome highlighting man!

 

While I’m a little heartbroken to hear you’re putting your Sword Bearers on the back burner, I can totally understand. I’ve shelved my AoA for the time being as well, for various reasons. Keep it up buddy!

[Spaced Hulk]

Cheers Greenz! ☺ Glad you like them, and really appreciate the comment about the highlighting. It's much more time consuming than my old painting methods, but I think it's worth it.

As for the Sword Bearers, I dare say they might reappear in the future, but I'm really enjoying painting normal DA at the moment ☺ I am still working on the Revenants though, and there should hopefully be an update for them later in the week.

However, for today here are my latest completed Dark Angels.

Intercessor Sergeant Araphael, 2nd Squad, Dark Angels Third Company:

Gilead, First Lieutenant, Dark Angels Third Company:

[Bryan Blaire]

Spaced Hulk, I really like Araphael and Gilead!

 

One suggestion you might consider on the candles that's making them look a bit less like actual candles - there's none of the "internal glow" that a candle with a flame that close to the candle body has: you might consider putting a brighter orange near the top to fake the glow. Right now a couple of the candles actually look darkest near the flame and it looks a little unnatural.

 

That said, I really like Gilead's helm, it looks like the sword actually almost continues down due to the highlight on the lower part of the helm, and the rest of him is beautifully done. Araphael is just all over well painted! Awesome looking minis!

[Spaced Hulk]

Cheers Bryan, appreciate the feedback! ☺ You're absolutely right about the candles, I knew something wasn't quite right about them. I don't have any orange paint unfortunately, so I mixed some red and yellow to create the effect. I think it's definitely an improvement, and finishes the model off nicely:

Finally for today, here's a kitbashed Master in Phobos armour to join the ranks of the Revenants.

More Revenants (painted ones this time ☺) over the next few days. Thanks for looking!

[Bryan Blaire]

Candles look beautiful! Good job!

[JJD]

Really great work. Your edge hi lights looks great and seem to have come out of nowhere. I always like to see someone improving.

 

Good advice from Bryan too. It made the candles look much more alight.

Edited April 2, 2019 by JJD

[Galloway]

Look great, and amazing how that little extra highlight adds so much depth to those candles.

[Spaced Hulk]

Cheers brothers, and thanks again Bryan, the advice on the candles was spot on! ☺

Final update for this week: a complete 5 man squad of Revenant Reivers:

Three of these models were painted a while back, but I've gone back to them to improve the highlights and apply decals. For simplicity's sake, I've also changed the chapter icon on the left pad from a freehand single sword to the standard DA winged sword.

In many ways, Reivers perfectly represent my original concept for the Revenants, eg,: skull helmed assault troops that use fear itself as a weapon. Here's my first description of them (incredibly from March 2013 - where has all the time gone?! ☺)

It was the tenth and final day of the muster when the black ships arrived. Two strike cruisers, identical in aspect, each as dark as the void itself. After days spent idly waiting while the Chapter prepared itself for war, the new arrivals were a welcome excitement. I already knew their identity of course, for their reputation has spread far outside the Ultima Segmentum. The Celerum Mortem, the infamous Second Company of the Sword Bearers. The Revenants.

In my youth, I had fought alongside several of the Unforgiven Chapters, and thought I knew what to expect from these grim warriors. I knew, for example, that like their Dark Angel forbears, the Second Company of the Swords are a dedicated fast attack formation, excelling in the use of bikes and land speeders. I also knew that unlike their predecessors, the Revenants are known to use jump packs when the need arises, and are said to be particularly adept in void combat. Even their company colours are the same matt black as the Ravenwing. There would be no surprises here.

I could not have been more mistaken. Even before the first Revenant thunderhawk had touched down, an icy chill spread insidiously across the entire flight deck. An aura of doom and despair seemed to take hold of us, numbing our senses, clouding our thoughts. Then the embarkation ramp descended, and I caught my first sight of them. Their armour was indeed as black as night, but death itself had shaped their visage. Every warrior wore a helm crafted as a grinning steel skull. In my time in the Ordo Xenos I have served with many Astartes Chapters, so I am familiar with the Reclusiarchs that minister to the Space Marine's spiritual needs. That was what the Revenants reminded me of, an entire company of Chaplains, arrayed as one for war. But while the spiritual leaders of other Chapters preach faith and purity through battle, the warriors of the Celerum Mortem seemed to embody only the darkness of mortality. Angels of death in the truest sense. Amongst their ranks I could see the tell tale psychic hoods of the battle psykers, Librarians permanently attached to the Company, and it was from them that the aura of despair seemed to emanate. Even after they left the flight deck, like a funeral procession marching silently into the depths of the flagship, the sense of unease lingered for some time

The Revenants have changed, or evolved, considerably since then of course. They're exclusively Primaris for a start, and while their armour is still black they don't all wear skull helms now. They've also become more akin to a Battle Company, while originally they were simply my version of the Ravenwing. However, the basic, underlying concept is still there. The Revenants represent Space Marines purely as terror troops - instruments of destruction whose sole duty is the eradication of the Emperor's enemies. They're a company of killers, rather than a brotherhood of Knights. It's a perception of the Adeptus Astartes that was perhaps more prevalent in Rogue Trader, before the lore of the different Chapters/Legions was expanded on, and creates, in my mind at least, a nice counter point to the usual characteristics of the Unforgiven. In 30k terms, they have more in common with the original, Terran First Legion than with the Knightly Orders of Caliban.

And of course, the colour scheme of the Revenants is also a direct link to the original, Rogue Trader era Dark Angels scheme.

Anyway, I think that's quite enough rambling and waxing lyrical from me for now ☺ As always thanks for looking, there will be more Dark Angels, and Revenants, to come.

[Spaced Hulk]

This week's painting projects:

Revenant Company Champion:

Dark Angels Tactical Combat Squad:

[Shaneos]

I love that company champion kitbash!!!!  
Incorporating more servitors, skull-drones, cherubs and what not, is something I'm always keen to do but just haven't done yet. You see that kind of stuff everywhere in the art and it is just so grim dark and cool, but the space marine range generally doesn't have a lot of that kind of stuff going on! Yours is definitely a massive step in that direction and is super inspiring once again! I even bought greenstuff world's cable and tentacle rolling kit so I could make my own cables and stuff and attach skulls to them, but I just haven't got around to it yet...

I've been steadily painting away each day the last month. I had a turbulent few months at the start of the year moving house and other stressful life events, but my hobby habits are building back now and I'm getting projects done.
You've inspired me so much I might actually pull my thumb out and actually post my own hobby progress thread this weekend when I have the time. It is time I join my brothers on this forum in a more committed way.

May I ask where you source the parts and inspiration for kitbash? All the 30k and knightly looking stuff, is it all just forgeworld? Please PM me if you prefer not to share.
I'm in Australia so getting parts for a reasonable price can be difficult and I am on a budget.

[Spaced Hulk]

I love that company champion kitbash!!!!  

Incorporating more servitors, skull-drones, cherubs and what not, is something I'm always keen to do but just haven't done yet. You see that kind of stuff everywhere in the art and it is just so grim dark and cool, but the space marine range generally doesn't have a lot of that kind of stuff going on! Yours is definitely a massive step in that direction and is super inspiring once again! I even bought greenstuff world's cable and tentacle rolling kit so I could make my own cables and stuff and attach skulls to them, but I just haven't got around to it yet...

 

I've been steadily painting away each day the last month. I had a turbulent few months at the start of the year moving house and other stressful life events, but my hobby habits are building back now and I'm getting projects done.

You've inspired me so much I might actually pull my thumb out and actually post my own hobby progress thread this weekend when I have the time. It is time I join my brothers on this forum in a more committed way.

 

May I ask where you source the parts and inspiration for kitbash? All the 30k and knightly looking stuff, is it all just forgeworld? Please PM me if you prefer not to share.

I'm in Australia so getting parts for a reasonable price can be difficult and I am on a budget.

 

Cheers brother!  The servo skull is actually a GW piece, I think from the Devastator Squad box. The lore for the Revenants is that they can't/won't speak to anyone outside their Order, and instead use servo skulls, vox servitors etc with mechanical speakers to communicate with outsiders. There's not a huge number of models to represent these sort of familiars, so making your own with green stuff is a cool idea. I look forward to seeing your creations! 

 

Glad to hear you're still involved with the hobby, and I think you'd probably find starting your own WIP thread to be worthwhile. Personally I find trying to post (fairly) regular updates here is a good way to keep myself motivated, as I'm far from the quickest painter in the world and find it very easy to get distracted. Posting my progress in this thread has helped me to actually finish a few projects.

 

I use a variety of different sources for parts to be honest. I've actually been involved in the hobby for about 23 years(!) and have bought a lot of GW kits in that time, so my bits box is really well stocked. I also started a 30K DA army a few years back, and still have a fair bit of Forge World resin still waiting to be used. Other miniature companies I've bought from are Anvil Industry, Kromlech and Spellcrow, which can all help to make your models more individual. You can also find a good range of bits (both GW and others) on Ebay, but you do end up paying considerably more per item. If there's a particular bit you're interested in please let me know and I'll tell you where it probably originated from. 

[Chaplain Raeven]

Great stuff mate, the conversions and painting are on point!

[Spaced Hulk]

Cheers brother!

[Interrogator Stobz]

Nice!

[Spaced Hulk]

So...progress has been slow I'm afraid. Real life has taken it's toll on my time and motivation for the hobby recently, but hopefully the ETL will help get things moving again. I've vowed this Primaris Master (the one based on the DA cover art) to begin with, and I'll see how things go from there.

Here are the last models I painted, both at a stage of near completion, so I'd like to finish them as well (but obviously can't include them in an ETL vow):

Revenant Lieutenant/Company Champion. Just need decals and his base finished.

Dark Angels Lieutenant. Still needs some additional shadows & highlights on his hood/cloak, + decals/base.

Thanks for looking!

[Brother Captain Arkley]

Looking really nice SH.... That Master looks ace.

[Interrogator Stobz]

I agree with Brother Arkley, the Master is great.

As usual your choice of bits is top notch.

Refind your motivation Brother, stay the course.

[Spaced Hulk]

Cheers Arkley  I suspect he's going to be a real pain in the **** to paint though, which is another reason I'm only vowing one model to begin with.

 

Btw, it's nice to see some Red Unforgiven on the forum again.  There were rumours you'd emigrated to Rynn's World for a while