Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays or Whatever You Want

Here's an oldie that I came across the other day!

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.

Tooting My Own Horn!

Not in a flatulent sense, but I am tooting my own horn as GW just called me out on their first Advent Day Video! A couple of months ago, GW sent out a cry for assistance to help in ideas for what they can do on their excellent painting tutorials hosted by Duncan Rhodes. I threw quite a few ideas their way. Mainly, the ones that give most people problems or pause. One of the biggest painting bugaboos is White armor!

At about 24 seconds in, Duncan calls out my name in response to 'How to Paint White Scars Power Armor'. This is really good 'primer' video for painting white armor.

You could always cut a step and airbrush the armor in Ulthuan Grey as well. Then proceed with the wash into the recesses, mixed with acrylic medium, followed by the white edge highlighting. The main point to remember is, always water down your white to avoid the clunky, chalky look that can happen when it is too thick. Multiple coats of a thinned white will work.

Meanwhile, I should be getting back to painting soon. The excess work on the house is still not complete. The guy that will be doing, will not be available until January. Until then, I have reset part of the room to allow for some work to be done until then.

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. 

Another Blatant eBay Post

Sorry, the craft room is still under construction. The light is starting to grow at the end of the tunnel as we have a person who can/will complete the trim that the framers were unable to do satisfactorily. I am hoping by the time Thanksgiving comes around I can get back to work. I am getting a bit stir crazy, which is why I am putting stuff up on eBay. Please follow the link to see the sales.

Here are a few things that I have going up tonight that may interest some:

One of two classic Warpfire Throwers for sale

Rat Swarm

A Scibor sculpted Wood Elf Standard Banner

A Scibor sculpted Wood Elf Lord

Limited Edition Void Shield Generator

A set of 8 Dryads

The other set of 8 Dryads

I may post some more pictures of the Dryads. They were something that sat on my shelf for about a year as I just couldn't figure out how to finish them. Finally, I just pushed on and added paint letting things build and flow naturally.

Skaven Screaming Bell

This is another 'sale' post. 

I painted up the Screaming Bell not long after the Warp Lightning Cannon. I pretty much followed the same steps as that process. 

Currently it will be up for sale starting Wednesday of next week with a starting price of $20. 

The accompanying Grey Seer was painted up waay back in 2011 in the Action Poses post. He will not be included in the sale. I may sell him later on, but for now I am keeping him. The bell ringer is also staying in my household for now. 

A couple other items I will be posting are some Rat Ogres in groups of three. All of the rat ogres were done up back in 2011 for reference.

Here a few before pics of some of the beasties. The old rat ogre were such ugly sculpts. To add to their ugliness, GW hadn't really figured out a way to make hairy models fit properly with multi-poseable arms. That is why you see the greenstuff on the arms. I had to fit them on without looking so bad. 

GRRR!! I must eat the bunny! A small rabbit I made with leftover greenstuff for my wife. Which was then hastily eaten when by the monster when I turned away...

This guy was created by my wonderfully talented friend Mike. He just doesn't have the time to paint anymore, especially with a child now. This was his guy he built for Mordheim. Being that he was all metal, the extra arm from Ghazaghkull Thraka  and the spiked ball had him doubling his weight. I definitely should have weathered the shoulder pad more back then....

 

And the Doom Flayers I put together some time ago.