Lucumon's Blood Angels Task Force

[Lucumon]

So, it's been a while. I've gotten a few games in with a couple making it over to Liber Victorum. Unfortunately, I've been playing "Red Marines" quite a bit... but the next list will feature Dante and some Sanguinary Guard.

In the meantime, I finished another 3 bolter marines. I was a little sloppy with the highlighting so I will have to be tighter about that in the future. I am continuing with my darker wash which creates an overall darker look... which I like.

Only 17 more until I can stop painting them as I will have completed an entire company.

Until then, however, I thought I would take a break to paint up Mephiston and a pair of supporting Librarians (you know, for my Red-Marine Librarian Conclave):

This will bring my total Librarian count to 5... One idea is to have a Librarian Conclave with Tigerius in a drop pod with Mephiston, a Sanguinary Priest, and a Tactical squad... Just think of the fun an invisible Mephiston could have!

[Moggimus]

Very nice reds, big fan of the black shoulder trims too, good job :)

[Lucumon]

So, this past month has been rough painting wise given the holidays... but, here is some progress:

I finally painted the Mephiston model I've owned for 10+ years along with pinned Reaper Miniature wings to represent how 'fast' he is and that old power that gave Blood Angel librarians psychic jump packs. Yeah, I've had him a while. Additionally, Tigerius showed up to hang out with the BA.... along with the newest Librarian model. In all, the newer models are amazeballs.

No update gaming-wise as I've been playing flavors of the Gladius... but every soon I may have a battle report that is total cheese as some Scat bikes team up with the Flesh Tearer Strike Force's meltacide squads in an alphastrike of awesomeness. (btw, this is not a friendly list... more to help buddies train for upcoming tournaments)

Also, here is a pic I tried to take of the librarian.... what a difference lighting makes:

[Lucumon]

I've completed a couple more drop pods and a razorback that has been primed white for more than 10 years:

As usual, a few thoughts:

1. I was pretty heavy on the metal coloring for the drop pods this time. If you look at my previous pods, they used a lot of black with grey highlights... now it is metal with a black wash... and I like it better. The look is more appropriate and it was stupidly each to put together. I dry brushed the metal parts metal and the red parts red.

2. Speaking of coloring... each of these vehicles was painted in a different manner:

a. The top left drop pod was drybrushed so the red would be accented... and it was slightly. I simply did edge highlights and that was it.

b. The top right drop pod was dry brushed do the red would be accented... then I put a coat of Mephiston Red over it before the edge highlights and that killed the shading.

c. The Razorback was primed white... Then the red was painted on in 2 or 3 coats because I'd already done some of the detail work years ago and didnt want to kill the finer details with more coats of paint. And this took a while...

And here is a snap of the pods with open ramps:

Anyway, back at it... probably a chaplain and captain after this. Or a squad of Sanguinary Guard...

[SM1981]

I am continuing with my darker wash which creates an overall darker look... which I like.

That dark red scheme is brilliant - is it your own wash mix, or a non citadel product?

[Lucumon]

Both... It is an equal mix of Imperial Primer, Water, and a product called "Future Floor Wax" that goes into the cracks after base coating the model red.

 

Why "Future Floor Wax"?  It's not a wax... it's basically an acrylic clear gloss coat that does the following:

 

1. It's great in washes as it uses negative tension to pull the wash into the cracks. (or something like that...)

2. It can serve as a clear gloss coat to protect your models.

3. I am testing it in the airbrush... supposedly makes the paint flow better, doesnt need mixing, adds protection against chips... but requires more intensive cleaning...

4. Tons of other model uses... 

[Lucumon]

I got a game in today where I used a Flesh Tearer Strike Force along with allies to play another BA in the meta in a game with a competitive slant.

 

Good news:  The FTSF's meltacide squads took his Imperial Knight down in the first turn.  Yay for dropping melta all around an IK for him to not know where to put his shield.

 

Bad news:  Well, head on over here to see...

 

 Please don't initiate Exterminatus on me... 

[BadDice0809]

Well at least one person in the bat rep tried to run Blood angels. The predictable result happened.

It's not often that the person posting a Blood Angels bat rep in the Blood Angels Forum runs them as second fiddle to the typical Eldar netlist.

Maybe let's keep it that way.

[Lucumon]

Ha, you've got a point. I am going to be pairing FTSF and Eldar for the competitive scene around here but will keep the Batreps to Dakka or somesuch.  A couple thoughts:

 

1. This batrep was over 50% Blood Angels.

 

2. One of the fun parts of this was playing against a force I normally play... and realizing how poor they are. It was amazing how 'easy' the battle became with the cheesiest list I could make. Like, the win was awesome to play a guy who is generally respected for running BA and beating the pants off people regularly... but it also irks me that after playing Eldar and a Gladius, they make BA look like ineffective wimps.

 

3. This was the first time playing an ITC format.  With only 3 Objectives (1, 2, and the relic) and other objectives to "kill stuff", it was a much simpler game than your normal Maelstorm.  

 

4. Mephiston was just bad.  Like it was nice he was a tank and was able to keep Dante tied up for a game turn.  But going from a Daemon Prince level to blunted beatstick... :(

[Lucumon]

So, a couple or three things:

1. Using a pair of meltacide squads and a couple tactical squads with flamers to the max to ruin a necron's day by popping his Ghost Arks and kiling off his harvest on top of turn 1: Gold

2. I put squad markings and based my three meltacide squads, pics below. My freehand is horrible, but the neat thing is that I was monkeying with the phone's camera settings and reducing the exposure to -2 made the pictures pop.

3. I figured this is a good time for an entire army shot... I should finish painting the entire thing next year:

Here are the squads with the supporting drop pods. One of the assault combat squads is off getting painted.

And here is everything else... maybe I should just prime it all and wait for this year's ETC... then kick out all the unpainted stuff from the pic.

[Lucumon]

If you want them black, why not give them a quick coat of black paint? There's just something about unpainted plastic that looks wrong on the table.

Or use Black "lavarock" (textured) paint.

It'll even the base out so the dice sits a bit smoother and it won't distract from the seriously awesome paint job you've done on those dead marines.

Fine, fine... how is this? I used some putty to smooth out the jagged edges where the die were cut in half... then used Martian Iron Earth to base the markers... and I added a couple other things.

Also, I got in a game against a Raider-Rush style Dark Eldar list: 2 Ravagers, Raiders filled with warriors and one with an Incubi squad and an Archon with a shadowfield.

At the end of turn 6, he had 3 warriors left while I had over 1,000 pts out of 1,850. I had 5 pods supported by 2 Stormravens, Cassor, and a Damocles Rhino. Some notes:

1. 2 squads of tac marines in drop pods with heavy flamers and hand flamers are fun when open-topped vehicles bunch together.

2. I love when an orbital bombardment does not scatter and takes out all but 4 incubi.

3. A librarian conclave attached to the same squad as the one that has a chaplain and sanguinary priest can cause problems for your opponent if there is no anti-psyker.

4. ITC rules make the game simpler.

5. Dropping 5 pods in the opponent's deployment zone allows you to set the tone of the battle... by putting pressure in their backfield to fix their forces on clearing you out... then smashing them the other things.

[Lucumon]

So, with ETL this year, here will be my first vow; 10 Scouts (hoping they get a boost with this upcoming supplement!) with a Heavy Bolter, 4 with bolters, and 5 with sniper rifles... I think this comes out to 123 points. When I snap the final pic, I will include the lone scout I completed for last year's ETL...

Future vows may consist of something like this:

Vow 2: 2x Techmarines with servo harnesses

Vow 3: 2x Imperial Knights (yikes!)

Vow 4: An old school 2nd Edition Chaplain

Vow 5: A tactical squad of bolter marines to finally have a 100% painted, marked, and based Angel's Fury Formation.

On the actual gaming front, I've been using the 5 drop pod core of heavy flamer tactical squads and meltacide assault squads... my big issue is that they are all expected to die pretty quickly. I am hoping this upcoming VA supplement will turn the BA back to the top of the Space Marine assault heap...

[Xenith]

Looking forward to the results...How is the rest of the company coming along? I waver between the desire to finish one, and self loathing.

[Lucumon]

Ha, I haven't touched any of the core 10 squads... I should do that soon to finish a couple of tactical squads. Maybe one of the later ETL V vows...

Speaking of ETL V vows, I've completed the Scouts:

At the far end you can see the single scout I painted during last year's ETL... but didn't count because it was a single model.

Next up... a pair of techmarines!

[Quixus]

Looking good. Did you do anything to the bases besides priming and painting on martian ironearth? I don't seem to get such big cracks. Maybe I should use a thicker coat of the crackle paint.

[Lucumon]

Quixus - yeah, glob that stuff on. You should feel wasteful putting it on, but the ending effect is so much better. The big issue is that this stuff flakes off, even with Testor's Dullcote. I've put drops of future floor wax on it, but it comes out shiney. TBD on a better way... I guess you could over coat, then drybrush, then seal... but that's way too much work.

Yeah, so, about me and commitments... since I vowed a pair of techmarines, I've done some to them... but then I got distracted with this:



I was planning on having these guys ready for the 3rd vow... you know, "Hey guys, I hear you like big vows, blam!" I've taken the "ZOMG MAGNETS!" approach (like I did with the dreadnought) for a few reasons:

i. Mixing and matching not just weapons, but bodies.
ii. Transport. It's easier to pack when you can break these guys down. The magnets are the 1/4" strongest ones, so it is no joke. Here is how some of the magnets are done:

1. The base was done with 4 magnets. This is, admittedly, excessive... but strong. I dont want to accidentally drop one given the value:

2. I also didnt wan to glue the torso to the legs, so I could rotate the torso for effect. I had to use some spare sprue bits to create a bit of scaffolding on the inside to get the magnet in the right place:

3. The carapace weapon was also magnetized in a similar manner:

I did the arms as well; Imperial Knights remind me of a T-Rex without the weapons on... will post pictures later. And will work on the Techmarines. I mean, I have to finish them before I start painting these big guys for them to count as part of the vows.... right?

Also, Pacific Rim

[marine7312000]

I love it. What house are you doing them as part of?

[CaptainHelion]

I disagree with any assertion of overkill on base magnets. Two per foot seems entirely reasonable to me!

[evildrcheese]

Looking good. I need pics and details on how you magnetised the arm/weapon options.

 

EDC

[Lucumon]

Marine - House Terryn because I like the color scheme. Same as the IK I did last year... but my airbrush skills have gotten better.

EDC - I will get to that shortly... but first, I had to complete an ETL IV vow. It was part of some 3x Thunderfire with Sgt Telion (so they have Rending along with Ignores Cover) along with Coteaz to have a spot of fun with a necron player that likes to deep strike blobs of warriors in front of me. The mission was successful. I had finished one of the techmarines before ETL, so only two of these counted:

This is the first time I used Creatix airbrushing:

1. Base was in black, then grey, then white... white being the upper most highlight.

2. Red was done with a maroon from below then red from above. I dont think the pictures really show how bright the red on the shoulders and helmet is compared to in the recessed areas

3. Base colors (metal, black,green, etc) were done before a black line on the cracks of the red armor and a black wash overtop of all non-red areas.

Next up: Imperial Knights & the airbrush... I am going to use the black/grey/white undercoat in combination from the bottom up with a dark blue base color and a light blue from the side.... more to follow... if this works, Den of Imagination better watch out or I will open up shop...

[Charlo]

Awesome!

[Helias_Tancred]

The combination you use to produce the darker, deeper, red for your Blood Angels looks extremely good! So good that I would like to replicate for my Blood Angels. Since coming back to BA I had to basically re-buy everything, so most of my Blood Angel army is primed and helmets based and that is all. 

 

Your models look great, some of my favorites on here.

 

PM inbound :)

[Lucumon]

So, here is my ETL V Update for the week:

Thanks to magnets, I am painting each section as if it were it's own model. A couple things of note:

1. See the missiles on the bases? Those are, unsurprisingly, magnetized to show the direction of the iron shields. The one on the right is the Baron with Sanctuary.... the piece of wargear that also counts as an ion shield... so there are 2 missiles to denote the extra shield. A very RAW reading of the wargear or was this a mis-writing on GWs part?

2. The blue parts were airbrushed so the colors go from black to grey to white (bottom to top) to create lighter spots. Then the base of the dark blue... then a blast of a lighter blue from the side. Here is a zoomed in picture so you can see the result better:

[Charlo]

Night Knights!

 

That is a really solid blue! 

[Lucumon]

Another ETL update:

How I magnetized the arms: Instead of assembing the model so the arms could twist, I assembled the shoulder joint seperately from the arm... then glued a magnet inside the weapon and on the end of the T-Rex like upper arm.

Then, after airbrushing the black/grey(from the left side) /metal (from the top), I taped the areas off to airbrush the blue:

So, now I only have the shin and ankle armor, a shoulder pad, and the base to finish before completion:

A closer look at the shoulder pads... the darker read was the knight I completed last year. This year, instead of Mephiston Red, I airbrushed the pads with Wicked Crimson and Wicked Red to get some color transition.... which isnt showing up on my cell phone pic:

Also, you can see how much more the color "pops"... not sure if I prefer the grim dark red or the "hey, look at me!" red

Also, you can see the difference in pads between the normal ones and the Forgeworld ones... which didnt fit perfectly, but you dont really notice unless you look underneath.

Anyway, hoping to finish up these dudes soon!