Dark Angels - Belial, and more Deathwing painted

Nearing the finish line on the initial Adepticon army - two more squads of Terminators are ready to deploy! Of course, no Deathwing army is possible without Belial:

Not being a fan of the new finecast version, he's been put together using leftover bits from the Deathwing kit. I have to say I was thoroughly surprised to see how many bits they packed onto those sprues! Took another run at the 'fake reflective' blade, this time in shades of black and grey - Belial's sword is described as being hewn from an onyx-like meteorite so I didn't want to do the standard blue power sword look.

The second 'tactical' squad of terminators got a plasma cannon, and a couple guys with chainfists. I really like the plasma cannon option, with the Deathwing's ability to split fire coupled with the twin-linked fire they get when they deep strike it makes the unit rather flexible.

The squad of assault terminators worked out fairly well. While I love the aesthetics of the Deathwing Knights, they seem a bit underwhelming rules-wise. A 'vanilla' squad of thunder hammer/storm shield bearing terminators led by a sergeant with lightning claws seems a good choice. Both this unit and the one above are a bit of a mish-mash of bits from the Deathwing terminator boxes and spare legs, torsos and occasional arms from the Closet of Doom. When the dust settled, I managed to build 27 terminators out of three of the new kits - quite possible the most points-to-price efficient GW purchase I've made in a long time... Heh.

Next up on the painting desk are the assault marines. So far they're just at the "blocking in the main colors" stage, but I snapped a quick pic anyway. I'm rather pleased with the sanguinary guard jump packs, it definitely ties them in aesthetically with the rest of the army. I'm a little disappointed that the veteran squads can't take jump packs, as I think it would make more sense for these to be a veteran unit, but they'll do just fine as vanilla assault marines too!

Dark Angels - Army Planning for Adepticon and a mass build

My very favorite part of the hobby is building the models - I've been pretty good about painting the stuff I already have built recently and not adding to the pile of unpainted minis (much). Of course that all changed over this past weekend! I've often thought it would be fun to do a Dark Angels army over the years but I'd never taken the plunge - with the new release of the codex though, I jumped right in! As usual, I started off by saying "It'll just be a little boutique army, I'll keep it reasonable and relatively inexpensive."

NOTE: THAT NEVER WORKS OUT LIKE I PLANNED.

After the dust cleared, and I started tallying up the units I'd bought it turns out that it's going to be another 3500 point monster. Argh. So the next step was to narrow it down to what I'd theoretically be taking to Adepticon and just focus on working on those models for now (mostly).

1850 points doesn't go nearly as far with the Dark Angels as it did with the guard, but that means I'm no longer on the hook to transport 100+ infantry and a half dozen vehicles. The first draft of the new list was centered around a Deathwing detachment, backed up by a few 'vanilla' Dark Angels squads and one of the Nephilim fighters for light air cover.

I wasn't particularly impressed with the finecast Belial released alongside the DA, so I figured I'd build one of my own using bits from the Deathwing terminators kit and some miscellaneous bits from the Closet of Doom. All in all a simple little kitbash and I'm rather happy with it. It should stand out enough with the back banner that there is no confusion about who he's supposed to represent.

The first Deathwing terminator Squad built from the new plastics was a relatively straightforward 'tactical' squad armed with Power/Chain fists and Storm Bolters. I did want to build out the squad with a Plasma Cannon in lieu of the standard Assault Cannon, which will help distinguish them from the terminators that came with the Dark Vengeance kit. I'm thinking I may swap out one of the SB/PF terminators from this squad with one of the 'repeats' from the DV squad so each model in both units are unique.

The second Deathwing terminator Squad was built as an 'assault' squad, armed with Thunder Hammers and Storm Shields for the base troopers and a sergeant with Lightning Claws. I did have to use one Thunder Hammer from a 'vanilla' terminator as I only had 3 of the DA hammers that came with the Deathwing terminator boxes. There were plenty of Storm Shields though, so they all got the fancy DA versions!

I'm not entirely sold on the Deathwing Knights - love the aesthetic but the rules are somewhat underwhelming. If there are to be any major changes to the army list for Adepticon, it will be the removal of this unit in favor of something else, maybe another Tac squad, or some scouts and another tank. Plenty of possibilities!

The Nephilim Fighter is getting some derision heaped upon it on the blogs and forums it seems, but for me it's a must-have based solely on the Rule of Cool. I love how it looks, so it goes in the army! There are times when it is better to LOOK marvelous than to actually BE marvelous... Hah!

 

To give the army a little tank-y goodness, the ever popular Vindicator is the choice du jour. I dug up some old Dark Angel upgrade frames I had lying around and spent some time playing "Pimp My Rhino Variant". The siege shield is magnetized for easy modification (and painting).

I had enough leftover bits from the Deathwing boxes to make a number of other models, though I needed to do a bit of a delve in the Closet of Doom to come up with sufficient legs and rear torsos. This Deathwing Librarian is a mish-mash of Grey Knights, Deathwing, and 'vanilla' terminator bits, plus some books and purity seals. Not totally sold on the use of the GK head, I'm thinking I may replace it with a more traditional terminator helmet.

Another unit built in the frenzy that isn't intended for use in the Adepticon list is a Deathwing Terminator Command Squad. Again, this unit is built with the leftovers from the build of the three squads of Terminators shown above, plus a mish-mash of other bits from the CoD. 22 Terminators built from 3 boxes of the new Deathwing kit - not too shabby!

I'm waiting for a few bits to arrive in the mail intended for the Assault squad, but other than that I just need to get a break in the cold weather so I can get these units primed and painted. I have 3 months from today to get the army finished. Should be doable, but it does mean I need to get in gear and start cranking through 'em!

Dark Angels - Deathwing Terminators painted

Hope everyone has had a great holiday!

Had a few days off and got some hobby time in over the long weekend. I was starting to feel army painter's fatigue coming on with the guard (having painted quite a few of late), and was casting about for something to paint when my eye fell on the Dark Angels that came with the Dark Vengeance set. With the release of the new rumor pics out there, my interest was piqued - not enough to want to kick off a whole new army, but enough to prompt me to try my hand at a marine chapter I've never painted before using minis I happened to already have on-hand...

Of course I had to start off with the Deathwing terminators! I was impressed with the models from the DV set (though I think the Blood Angel terminators from the Space Hulk set are superior), and I'm looking forward to getting my hands on the upcoming Knights and terminator command squads. From what I understand there's supposed to be a plasma cannon option in the upcoming codex, which I rather like the sound of!

 

My buddy Dave got me a new camera for Christmas (the old digital camera I'd been using was shockingly mediocre by today's standards, thanks Dave!) so I decided to give the macro settings a go and shot some individual pics of each of the models. I'm not totally sold on the aesthetics of the terminator sergeant, but it's growing on me...

 

Only one model with my favorite terminator upgrade, the terrifying chainfist. I like all the fine details on the models, but I'd hoped they would have pushed the native american-esqe vibe a bit more than they did.

 

I really do like this model's pose. It's a nice change from the "blasting away" poses most of the multi-pose kits are restricted to unless you do some serious re-modeling.

 

There were two of the same pose, so I just snipped off the pegs and altered the angle of the storm bolters which changes the silhouette enough that they're not clones on the tabletop. So far so good! The plan is not to do a full-blown Dark Angels army, but rather just do a compact little allied force to complement the guard (we'll see how that works out). I'm thinking I might even try a plasma-themed Mordian 7th/Dark Angel army at Adepticon!