Defenders of Imperium Nihilus - A New Blood Angels Force

[_Valten_]

Hi everyone!

 

As with a lot of people out there I've been bitten by the 'New Year, New Army' bug.  My local Warhammer store has started a 'Tale of Warlords' army building event, where every month you paint a character, squad, then big thing, month on month.

 

I've always loved Blood Angels, and I've attempted to start a force a few times over the years.  My problem in the past has always been buying too much plastic, enjoying playing with it, but never getting the motivation to paint it.  I'm not intending to play with any unpainted models in this force - I've got other forces to play with in 40k at the moment and I want to make sure I commit to getting things painted.

 

I've got a rough idea of where a 2k list is heading, and with that in mind I'm aiming to get the following painted over the next few months.

 

January - Primaris Lieutenant.

February - 5 Intercessors.

March - Repulsor.

 

Although this is the first post, I'm already a fair way through the Lieutenant.  Here's some pics WIP pics.

 

 

I've converted the model slightly - changing the blade on the power sword to one from an Encarmine blade.  I've also removed the left bag and added a new one a little bit more towards the front, leaving room for the helmet.  Finally, I added a new icon to the backpack - something a little more fitting for a Lieutenant.

 

 

The red I've unashamedly stolen from Blindhamster, who in turn got it from the guy at GW who painted the Blood Angels Intercessors.  The image above shows the base coat airbrushed on, with the recess wash added.  The full colour scheme is:

 

50/50 Mephiston Red / Evil Suns Scarlet

50/50 Khorne Red / Abbadon Black made into a wash and put in the recesses

Thick edge highlight of Evils Suns Scarlet

Thin edge highlight of Troll Slayer Orange

Extreme edge highlight of Fire Dragon Bright

Tau Light Ocre towards the corners.

Final dots of 50/50 Tau Light Ocre / White

 

Looks like a lot of steps but it didn't take too long to complete.

 

 

I'm going for 3rd company, so a diagonal red stripe on a yellow background - this took much longer than I wanted because of the curve of the shoulder pad.  Thank god Averland Sunset is a base paint!  I'm also getting used to writing tiny script.  I don't think I've done too bad a job with this one.

 

 

I really enjoy painting faces.  There's a lot of detail on the Lieutenant, and I'm really happy with how it's turned out.

 

 

This is a decent picture of the completed armour.  I've since redone the tabard, because I wasn't happy with the transitions.  The icon was a transfer that I'd then painted over to give it a little more depth.  The sword blade has also since been re-silvered, as I wasn't happy with the lightning effect I'd done.  This still needs to be done again.

 

 

And here's where we're currently at.  The tabard transitions are much nicer - I might stick another white highlight on there before reapplying another transfer.

 

That's all for the first post.  Please leave some C&C, I'm always looking to improve on my painting.

Edited January 8, 2018 by _Valten_

[StraightSilver]

That's looking really lovely, really nice red. Must admit always wanted to do a Blood Angels army, they do look very cool.

I think the tabard is looking OK as is, maybe just a couple of white spot highlights?

[Charlo]

That is very bloody nice. Really love the shades you've used on everything.

[Reyner]

Bloody lovely that is. 

[Anamnesis]

Solide stuff brother, welcome to the sons of the blood !

 

Keep it up!

 

Anamnesis

[Nineswords]

Really great job you've done here man.

[Bjorn Firewalker]

The Primaris looks great!

[Blindhamster]

Lovely work! Absolutely stunning!

[Bro Castiel]

What can I say that others haven't already? You have done some really nice work here.

[GrandAlf]

Now this is something I look forward to keeping an eye on. Bloody good show my friend. 

[Khornestar]

Damn, for someone who doesn’t always look forward to painting, you’re quite good at it. Noice!

[_Valten_]

Thanks for all of the great comments so far.

 

I've now finished the Lieutenant, some pics below.  I'm much happier with the Lightning effect, even though you can't see it too well on the images I've taken so far.

 

For basing I've followed what the GW Studio does - I managed to get the recipe from a guy on Facebook who had been speaking to someone from the studio. 

 

Here's the recipe:

 

Mournfang Brown, drybrushed Zamesi Dessert and then Ushabti Bone.

The rocks are Dawnstone, drybrushed with Administratum Grey, and then edge highlighted with white.

The rim is Steel Legion Drab.

 

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Excellent work.

[_Valten_]

So with the Lieutenant done, work can now begin on the first squad - a 5 man Intercessor squad.

 

 

There's been a little conversion work here - the Sergeant has his Bolt Rifle aimed out with the use of the Bolt Pistol arm, and cutting the Bolt Rifle away from the arm where the rifle is slung under a raised bolt pistol.  

 

I had originally intended to use this squad as my February contribution to the force, but as we've still only just started January I'm going to make a start on these and then maybe do another squad for February instead.

 

Bases will get done first on these, as I won't have time to get the airbrush out until the weekend.

[brother tycho]

Great paint job, keep up the momentum

[_Valten_]

A small update with some progess on the Intercessors. 

 

 

I've found the time over the weekend to get the airbrush out and lay down the base red for the full squad.  I'm still getting used to the airbrush - the brush itself is very basic and I only use it to put down basecoats; and it took longer to take the brush apart and clean it properly than it took me to lay down the paint!  Although I did have an incident where the sprue piece containing the 5 bodies fell onto the dusty floor in my garage (whilst the paint was wet...) and sent pieces of Intercessor flying everywhere.  I think I've been able to tidy the damage up enough that it shouldn't show once the models are completed.

 

The above is 3 layers of the 50:50 Mephiston Red:Evil Suns Scarlet mix that I used on the Lieutenant, and the results are pretty good.  I'm hoping to get some time this week in the evenings to get the armour completed, and then hopefully complete the squad by the end of this month.

 

I've also been going through my proposed 2k list, which now includes both a Relic Sicarian, and a Mortis Contemptor Dreadnought.  I'm thinking of painting either the Sicarian or the Contemptor before I purchase a Repulsor - that thing looks majorly complicated and I think I'm better off with something a little more simple for my first 'big thing' in the army.

Edited January 15, 2018 by _Valten_

[_Valten_]

More progress last night - I've been able to pin wash the armour and basecoat the black areas.  It doesn't sound like a lot but it's surprising how long it takes when you're batching 5 models.

 

 

I'm pretty happy with the results so far.  I get the feeling that the recesses are a little darker than on the Lieutenant, but it could just be because the Intercessors are unfinished.  I wish I was neater at this stage, but I have a tendency of rushing as the night goes on which affects the neatness of the wash.  Nothing a bit of tidying up will sort.

 

 Next up is going to be basing the silver parts and then washing the black and silver with Nuln Oil.  Once that is done I'll go back and tidy up the red and start the edge highlighting.