Dark Angels 6th Company

The 4th Company is complete, what now? Well, I have zero grav weaponry. It's something that is really needed in a modern list. I am not one to delete a squad just to make room for another. So, I have decided to bring in some reserves! Now begins the start of the 6th Company Reserves.

I have gone with a complete grav load out for this squad. If you're gonna do it, do it right, yeah? I have decided to carry over the weathering effects from my vehicles into the the squad level. I will say the brown filter for Dark Green from Mig is quite wonderful! Just like a tank, I painted them up nice an neat with decals, sealed them, and went to town. Just remember, their scale usually means, that less is more. Going overboard is easy and can be too much.

                     

 

Entire Dark Angels 4th Company with Reserves

Long time no post. Well, here is a quick one! Best of all, it's fun of pictures!! I was asked to bring my Dark Angels 4th Company to our local Warhammer store in Winter Park. It is a really good store with a large following and always something going on. I am very pleased with the store. Just needs more room and table now. 

Anyway, I have been building these guys up for about 13 years now. I finally finished all the troops, just not the transports. So after a quick rush to paint up 4 Rhinos/Razorbacks, a dedicated Razorback, and a Command Landraider, I brought every Dark Angel I had to the store. The 4x4 table was not big enough without cramming everything onto it. So, all but my 3 and a half squads, got onto the board. Thanks to Jason and his staff for the opportunity and the photos, via Facebook.

I have totaled the points without upgrades, coming to 9909pts. 

Dark Angels 4th Company Devastator Squads

I have always loved weapons that do not allow for armor saves. It takes one less chance to escape, away from the enemy. My 9th ad 10th Squads reflect that idea with their armaments.

Back in the day, my first Devastator squad was armed with one lascannon and three plasma cannons. It didn't cause any issues on the field, because I rarely played them. So, I never expanded them beyond the requisite sergeant and the gunners. Back in the 3rd edition days, the Devastator squads had to pay double for their heavy weapons. That is the main reason why they almost never saw the field among Space Marine players.

I slowly expanded the one squad into two 5 man squads, one with lascannons, and the other with just plasma. Even then, they were still underarmed as I never added the fourth plasma cannon. It wasn't until much later that I added an extra 5 guys to each squad to make them full 10 man squads.

Half of the two squads are my wave one guys. The rest are all wave two marines, but backed down to fit in with the rest of the unit. If you look at the plasma cannons, you can probably figure out which one is the newest. You may also figure out which las cannon gunner is the original.

Anyway, in play, I rarely field them without combat squadding them. The plasma cannons do great when operating in two units of two cannons in each. Four in a single squad really is overkill. With them split up, they really can cover each other pretty well and add a real deterrent to deep striking units or denying objectives. 

The lascannon squad can go multiple ways. Leaving them as a single 10 man squad leaves quite a few ablative wounds to make the four lascannons even more durable and dangerous to Riptides, Land Raiders, etc. Splitting them up again makes for two squads of practically twin-linked lascannons  for when you absolutely want to hit them hard. Even squadding one into just 5 standard marines can allow for them to advance and capture or even harass the enemy, while the four lascannons wreak havoc.

Dark Angels 4th Company Fast Attack Squads

So, I have showcased my 4th Company Tactical Squads. This week it is the turn of the Fast Attack Squads. As a former Imperial Guard Player, I always feared hated Assault Squads! They could always get in on my guys in a turn or two. With them jumping from cover to cover, there was little I could do to them, until they showed themselves. When I started making my Dark Angels, I knew I had to have a squad of them.

My first Squad was part of my wave 2 of painting. Not as basic as my first wave Marines, the second wave tended to have more experimentation involved with them. I still created a unified look with these Marines with the same markings and insignia among them. I did mix in some running legs and standing legs, to break up the monotony.

The main thing that sets them apart from my other squads was the Company marking on top of the jet pack and with some of them standing among flat pieces of slate. The Sergeant is actually pinned onto the piece of slate down through to the base. The superglue did not hold well, if at all, with the slate. At this point in time, the Updated Dark Angels Codex had just come out at the end of 3rd edition 40k, so no other options available beyond plasma pistols. Not long after, the 4th edition Marines came out with the flamer option.

The chainswords are actually quite easy to replicate. Paint the entire casing yellow, how ever you want to do it. I then use a Micron pen and coordinate with the teeth of the blade, I markk a spot on the top of the casing and match it up at the bottom of the casing. I step over two more teeth and do the same thing. I then draw a line from the top mark to the one just a couple steps over. I then fill in the space with the pen.

                                                              XX*XX*XX*XX

                                                                      \       \       \

                                                                        \       \        \

                                                              XX*XX*XX*XX

The other squad of Assaut Marines are part of my third wave of painting. Third wave figures cover the period after the Dark Vengeance release. Among the first releases for 6th Edition, the Unforgiven finally got a much needed update to help them catch up with the standard Marine, which later again bypassed them and left them as a poor choice for some time. 

I wanted to take advantage of a safe delivery system for my Assault Squad as I added flamers to this squad. By removing the jump packs and getting a drop pod for free, I have an even better chance to position the flamers in a prime position for damage. The enemy must then allocate forces to deal with them immediately, else they have the potential to wreak havoc in their backfield.

My 8th Squad sergeant has a banner where the 7th Squad does not. The reason is due to aerodynamics. I would imagine a banner causing too much drag, hence the gold static standard on the 7th sergeant.

In gameplay, I love the maneuverability of the jump packs, yet most of the terrain in my area is not conducive for them. The 8th squad has really shined with them dropping right next to the enemy via drop pod, unloading the flamers then holding out for quick reinforcements.

As far as being colorblind, a case in point is the symbol on the right shoulder showing their unit designation, is practically invisible to me. The red symbol is extremely difficult for me to pick out. Looking at just a moment ago, I thought I accidentally left it blank.

Dark Angels 4th Company

The Dark Angels

I keep talking about and mentioning my Dark Angels. I've shown snippets of them and such, but not much else. In my downtime, I have taken a few pics of my 4th Company Marines. This is the beginning of their time on the blog.

I started my Dark Angels way back in 2003, after finally giving in and doing a Marine Company. I had been completely sick of Marines being everywhere and beating up on my Mordian Imperial Guard and Order of the Martyred Lady: Adepta Sororitas. I did paint up a squad of Deathwatch Marines previously that I used alongside those two armies, but otherwise I had no Marines at all.

Why the Angels? Everybody had blue, black, grey, or red Marines at the time. I thought about Salamanders, but I just didn't dig their background as much as the Dark Angels. Besides, the Dark Angels give the option of three different armies if wanted, with the Deathwing and Ravenwing added on.

My Marines have been painted in three waves. The first wave was done in fairly generic GW form, painted Dark Angels green, with varying light greens for highlighting. This was when I was starting to really hate painting bleached bone... It's coverage was so bad, yet I persevered. All the guns were done in black as I couldn't stand the red guns that were shown in the original pictures. Anything laser or plasma got a red cowling around the barrel. The first wave Marines were to get me a functional 1500pt army on the table.

No matter what, each squad was equipped with the same armor, helmets, and backpacks. This was chosen to add uniformity. Every member had their company emblem painted into their kneepad. I don't remember why I chose the right knee. At some point it came about that it was supposed to be their left knee pad, no matter. 

A majority of the banners are from The Dark Fortress. A wonderful website for almost anything regarding the Dark Angels. In this case, I printed the PDFs and sprayed the entire back of the page with an old can of GW Bleached Bone. The banners were then cut out and attached from there.

My second wave of Marines started to get brighter and a bit sharper highlights. This wave was to begin to fill in holes that I found in my army. When I build a squad, I don't go for the magnet route. If I need a Marine to have 'x' weapon, I will build a guy with that item. Or in these cases, I just build another squad. 

With the fourth squad I started to give the individual members different items or emblems. While keeping to the same helmet, chest, and backpack, I switched up the squad insignia. I stretched myself some with this squad, the Marine with the empty bolter using his pistol. One with a bolter strapped around him. The fourth squad is probably my best but not my latest.

The third wave of my Marines came about with the Dark Vengeance box set. At its release I had completed squads 1st thru 4th, 7th, and half of 9th and 10th, a little over half. Painting up the Dark Angel Squad from the box put me close to finishing a complete company.

When the box set came out, Games Workshop had already dropped their Dark Angels Green paint. Since they couldn't trademark the name, they created a new color, Caliban Green. These guys re not painted in that color. I found it too 'off'. I used the Army Painter Dark Green for the third wave models. Still, it does not match up. I was also more subtle with the edge highlighting; that could have been a mistake. Especially with the 6th Squad, where the highlights are too subtle. The sergeant for the 6th Squad is an old special release that GW had for a while. 

Scythes of the Emperor and Black Library

GW's Black Library has just released a short story as part of their Summer of Reading. Their first release of the second week is The Shadow of the Beast, featuring the Scythes of the Emperor! Think of this as a beginning to their encounter with hive Fleet Kraken.

Completely used without GW's consent, but all credit goes to them!!

It is a short story. But being as it is about the Scythes, I am getting it. Add it to the other published Scythes story Orphans of the Kraken, in the now called Space Marines: The Omnibus. Excuse me, I have some reading to accomplish...

Storm Talons of the Scythes

Saving the best of my Scythes for last, I present my Storm Talons. These are the last pieces I have done for my Scythes as of now. Working in my usual style, I built and painted the pair at the same time. The two even are armed the same. Painting is where there are some differences.

                        

 

Talon number 1 on the left received some stripes and more of a yellow tail. I just wanted to experiment with striping a tad. It came out pretty good. Like all my other Scythe models, they were primed white to give the yellow more of a pop when it gets airbrushed on. Anything to remain yellow was then carefully taped off to completely painted separately, i.e. the cockpit. Black was then sprayed onto them. The black was given a stippling of blue/black that I had to soften it some. I had not yet gotten into using weathering powders yet that can be used to 'fade' the paint.

                 

 

The cockpit was fully detailed. A Techmarine is piloting the vehicle with accompanying Scythian shoulder pad. The canopy was taped over with the trusty Tamiya tape. Which was then slightly cut away in the corners of the glass to expose the framework. The entire glass piece then sprayed yellow, tape removed, and a clean piece was left behind. Regular PVA glue was used to attach the canopy. Use of superglue or plastic glue can cause the clear pice to 'fog' up, especially if it isn't given the ability to let the fumes escape.

The biggest experiment with these was on the bases. Number 5 was done in normal fashion of glue and sand after placing the wall. This resulted in a very flat piece even with a few rocks on it. On Talon number 1, I put some light modeling paste down (Golden). Wetting it, I added sand to the putty and molded a small crater into the base. This gives the ground a more realistic feel to it. Some undulations and even moving it up against the wall to show the build up of debris as you would see naturally. For large base like the guys use, the light modeling paste was much better in achieving realistic results. 

                    

 

The only drawback I had was with the clear stand. I taped it up with regular masking tape so I could save my Tamiya tape. During the gloss coating and dull coating, the tape failed in spots. I went ahead and sprayed the rest of it to avoid the splotchiness of the effect. Why not just glue the flying stand on afterward? By getting it attached in the first place you get the strong bond of plastic to plastic melting together. It's more work, but going the easy way in this case would not be the best way. Lesson learned that I did not hold back with the Tamiya tape when I painted up my Ravenwing aircraft in an earlier post.

Each time I do a project whether it be a squad, a tank, or terrain. I always want to add something new to the repertoire of techniques. The technique can be something simple like the striping on here, or using the modeling paste. I recommend trying something new each time you work on a project.