Massive reorganization and rebuilding of my Blood Angels

It all starts with a spark.

When I started painting my Land Raider Crusader I was still undecided on a decision to revamp my entire Blood Angels army. I believe the noticeable difference in color from the original Land Raider and the Crusader helped provide the spark. The Devastator squad has since been paint stripped of all original color to match the new red color of the Crusader. If the Crusader provided the spark and the Devastators provided the fuel, then the original Land Raider provided the flame as it is now being paint stripped completely. The original Land Raider will be rebuilt and repainted to match along side the Crusader.

The Land Raider Crusader is almost done and it will make its blog and game debut soon. In the meantime I am working on the Devastator Squad which is painting up rather fast. With this added speed in mind I am beginning to look ahead for the best candidate.

I am strongly considering the Assault Marines, but I want to reorganize and rebuild them to suit dual roles which will require a lot of magnets. I have a large over thought document to help me plan the squads out, but I must post about them later to layout my plans and get some feedback as to good or bad ideas. The biggest reason to  work on the Assault Marines is to get rid of the Leman Russ box which has been their home for the past decade or so. The Leman Russ box and some bits are from a long abandoned, never used, and sold Imperial Army. I would have never known allies were in the mix back in 2009.

The other night I examined the inside of the Leman Russ box which is the current home to a bunch of models and bits and to my surprise I discovered the following. I knew of most of the items in the box, but was surprised at how many of certain items were in the box. I usually bring this box every time I go to a game.

The Leman Russ box contents

3 Forgeworld Blood Angel Rhino door sets 

Forgeworld errors in my favor.

1 Pewter Chaplain with jump pack

Received free from a friend and serves as the current Reclusiarch when needed.

3 Pewter Sanguinary Priests

1 is from the old 3rd edition Blood Angel Honor Guard box set who served as Sanguinary Priest and then a Captain with twin lightning claws which were eventually removed. The other 2 were ordered to serve as Sanguinay priests never releasing they were the same.

1 Pewter Emperor's Champion

Purchased long ago and serves as the current librarian who is prone to dying often.

5 Assault Marines

The remnants of an old 3rd edition Blood Angel Honor Guard and now serves as Assault Marines or Vanguard Veteran Marines when needed.

10 Tactical Marines with the same leg, chest, and backpack pattern and no heads.

Purchased during 3rd edition when Tactical Squads were in abundance. All of my Tactical Squads were built with a theme in mind. I have since abandoned the themes I suppose, but I could make this Tactical Squad a hazardous operations squad since they have all the vents and coils.

4 Tactical Marines with various leg, chest, arm, or head, but none are complete.

Spares and duds which never made it into any squad.

16 Tactical Marine legs glued to bases

10 Must be from another Tactical Squad or perhaps extra Assault Squad legs. I never knew I had so many unused without purpose. I know I fight Masta Cheef constantly with no heads and sometimes no arms or other missing equipment, but I don't think I have ever attacked with just metal underwear. I could take five of them to make some normal Devastator marines. Whether this is a good idea or a waste is undecided.

1 Tactical Marine sergeant with pinned Pewter Storm Bolter and chainsword

This was an attempt to copy the same sergeant from the 3rd edition Blood Angel codex. This one needs to be paint stripped and rebuilt with a power sword.

3 Pewter Blood Angel shoulder pads

The stocks are too low sire.

1 Pewter 3rd edition Blood Angel Honor Guard helmet

Unused gem I suppose.

10 Jump Packs

Sounds about right as I have the other five Assault Marines in another box magnetized for Meltaguns.

7 Small infantry bases

No idea.

2 Small slotted infantry bases

No idea.

1 Large infantry base

Probably from a Tyranid model who eventually moved on.

Various Land Raider bits

This Land Raider finally went into a simple green bath so these parts will be assimilated into it.

Various Landspeeder bits

These models will follow suit with the Land Raider, but possibly before or after the Assault Marines.

3 Primed Space Marine helmets, two being pinned

No memory of why they were pinned, unless they were for the Heavy Bolter marines which have no heads.

1 Bolter

Missing the clip.

1 Meltagun

Rare, valuable, has a role with one Tactical Squad which serves as a Sterguard squad.

Various Tactical Marine arms

Some of this might have been moved as spares for magnetizing the Meltaguns.

22 Space Marine helmets

You have NO idea!

It is sad to say I have been carrying all this extra crap with me every game, lol.

The most likely candidate to paint next would be the Baal Predator. This would build and paint the Baal and remove it from the storage box so I can finally be rid of it. The other option is to create the six extra normal bolter Devastator marines.

The main goal is to continue and not get stuck and if the color doesn't match, bath it in simple green.

Land Raider WIP Part 6

Working, working, working on the Land Raider ...

This will be the final WIP post for this Land Raider so the next post with be the finished model with better pictures as I took these pictures in low light. Keep in mind I do not intend to dirty or weather this model. I have such a huge back log it not in my interest. This model is taking longer, but the amount of paint recipes I have attained will hasten the next model. Anything you might suggest or tip me off to please feel free to.

The Multi-Melta mount has a few details to fix on the back panels, but it is otherwise finished. This I will never allow anyone to touch as it can snap if pulled off in a hurry due to a weapon destroyed result. The magical bond of plastic, pin, and metal I hope will last a long time with care.

I have finished painting the Assault cannons and assembled them to the cupola. The Assault cannon molds were so bad I had to create a plastic card spacer and even then they are slightly bent. The right Assault cannon's top and lower barrel don't even look like barrels. I glued the upper shield to the Assault cannons, but perhaps I should have glued them to the mounting pegs as well. I highly doubt I will bend them to a target during a game.

I painted and washed the tank treads before gluing them to the hull. They are still shiny as I noticed they had black primer showing though so I added a think layer to stop the black primer show through. I will add two layers of wash to the treads to dull them like all the other metal parts. I also found out this glue is great as it is strong and won't give much of a haze at all.

I believe I hate painting yellow and to add to the pile of yellow hate I hate painting black bars on yellow lights. I skipped the yellow bars on the search light which is blue in color, I wonder if I could have done the same with the yellow lights. Much light the search light the small glass view points on the various cupolas are painted using  combination of inks and washes.

The Hurricane bolters are painted and placed in the sponsor mounts along with the sensors glued to the tops of the sponsor mounts. I think the Hurricane bolters came out well how I painted them and I have started to add a thin highlight to the black to bring some more focus to the weapons. I am debating on whether to paint the square portions of the ammo bins metal to take more black away, but would this bring attention away from the weapons. The shields which are below need to be added as well.

Oh all the skulls I have painted on this model, the skull on the right access point is the best of them all. I need to clean up the wings a bit more to finish that piece off.

The Frag assault launchers I used some inks and washes to help bring out the individual launcher hatches. They need a bit of clean up, but otherwise they are looking good.

The goal is to have this Land Raider finished by the end of the month or earlier. All of the difficult parts are done its now a lot of clean ups and touch ups and a bit of assembly. Plus a final foam piece for it to be stored in. 

Past the Land Raider

Continuing on my current Blood Angel painting whim I examined all of my models to see what would be a good next contender. I thought heavily on the Assault squad, but I have a working one for now. The Ball was the next, but to my demise half of the bits are not cleaned yet. The Landspeeders might be a good one, but I am considering a large paint stripping job to match the new red color. 

My final choice was the small Devastator squad. The sergeant and the four missile launchers marines all have easy chest armor to paint and I will mostly paint black and metal. The sergeant has a few other details and his skin color to paint, but otherwise they all should paint up nicely. Oh course there are the eyes in the marines heads, however this thought comes to mind.

I'll skip the heads. Into the stripping progress the Devastator squad went.

Between the Land Raider

In the meantime in between working on the Land Raider and waiting for the Devastator squad I pulled out this lovely and started happily working on it. I was working on my Hive Guard models, but the primer I used was complete crap and it keeps coming off so I will need to strip them and use an auto white primer for a better hold on the metal models.

I have thought about bringing my Tyranids out for a game and this Trygon model usually makes the cut so it was a good choice to try and catch up were I left off. I focused on painting the rest of main grey skin color and the green inner flesh portions ending with lower arm work. I am running out of Badab Black wash so I will need to get a replacement soon in order to wash the grey skin color. It has a head and this particular head is one of the best painted heads I have so far.

This week will end on a good note as Masta Cheef and I are going to have a nice game of Battletech were we casually try to blow the smithereens out of each other's forces. Will BBQ squad show, who knows, stay tuned.

Till next time.

Blood Angels Battle Report

THREATCON: COREY

In regards to the my local game group.

DEFCON: COREY status has now been lowered to THREATCON: COREY status.

Assassins were sent, missiles were fired, and even the local game space had to be moved to a new location.

The new location is much better and it appears the attached shop has some love coming for our local game group in the form of useful terrain. If this reveals to be true I think it is really cool and they will get continued support from me in the form of my money.

Battle Report

I did get to play a game last Saturday and I thought I might have been able to encounter Rogue Trader's mysterious Dark Eldar representing the Cabal of the Black Primer. Instead I encountered Eldar representing the Craftworld of the White Primer with attached * Flare Boys squads with "Heeey!" shields.

* Flare Boys = Harlequins
* "Hey!" = Advanced

Army Lists

Blood Angel army list


Headquarters
(Warlord)
Librarian w/ JP w/ Psychic Powers - Biomancy x 2
(Joined to Assault squad)

Elites
Sanguinary Priest w/ JP
(Joined to Assault squad)

Troops
Assault Squad w/ 2x Melta guns, PW
Tactical Squad w/ Lascannon, Plasma Rifle, PW
Death Company x5 w/ PW
Dedicated Transport - Land Raider w/ Multi-Melta

Fast Attack
Baal Predator w/ HB Sponsors, Dozer blades
Landspeeder Squadron x2 w/ x2 Tornado pattern HB
Landspeeder Typhoon

Heavy Support
Devastator Squad w/ x4 ML

Two ideas which continue to cross my mind are

Only two scoring units and one of the scoring units is the most aggressive units.
If the Land Raider is switched to a Land Raider Crusader, how much will change.

Eldar army list

What follows are the units I can remember.

Farseer (Warlord)

Warlock (I think)

Avatar

Striking Scorpions

Harlequins x 2 (Flare Boys w/ "Heeey" shields)

Guardians ???

Guardians with a gun platform of the utmost uselessness

Rangers x 2 Snipers

War Walkers

The game was kind of one sided due to the Eldar's codex and lack of anti-vehicle support. The eldar in this fight could hold their own to an extent in close combat, but against vehicles, they were hopeless to stop them. I have no idea what Rogue Trader's Eldar unit inventory consists of nor do I understand the problems plaguing the Eldar. The Eldar army was almost entirely made of infantry units except a small squadron of war walkers. No Tanks, Vyphers, or Jet Bikes suprised me since his Dark Eldar army is full of them.

Deployment, lol.

In accident I nuked the deployment picture.

Speaking of deployment, last game Kushial's Marine army was crowned "Bucket of Marines".This game Masta Cheef brought a huge Gretchin based army and deployed it with a different perspective using his new "Box of Gretchin" deployment style. Go here if you would like to see an army of Gretchin woop a marine army good and best of all they brought the Space Choo Choo!

Gretchin deploy using the experimental "Box of Gretchin" deployment method.

Now on to the hopeless engagement of a Blood Angel headless beat down of Eldar. The game had six objective of various point values to capture.

Blood Angels Warlord trait was WIN.

Eldar Warlord trait was FAIL. A re-roll of -1 was awarded. The Warlord trait re-roll was another Fail.

Blood Angels win the first turn.

Turn 1

Blood Angel

All units advanced except the Devastator and Tactical squads. The Baal Predator advanced around the front of the far right Harlequin squad. The Land Raider advanced to the Striking Scorpions and opened the assault ramps to let the Death Company inside have some fun. The Assault squad advanced to the other side of the Striking Scorpions position in support. The Landspeeder squadron advanced from behind a building to an open fire lane to the guardian squad next to the Avatar. The Typhoon advanced from behind a building to an open fire lane to the center Harlequin squad.

The Baal combined with the Tactical squad and the Devastators could not harm the Harlequins. The Typhoon proved no use either. 

Stupid amount of fire power = Stupid cover save power

The Assault squad soften up the rear of the Striking Scorpions for the Death Company upcoming assault. The Landspeeders chewed up the Eldar near the Avatar while the Land Raider managed to kill a single ranger above them.

The Death Company after making a risky assault move assaulted and completely annihilated the Striking Scorpions.

"A warrior doesn't need a head, just a good strong body."  -  Megatron

Eldar

In response to the Blood Angel's first turn the Eldar were like LOL, while the Harleguins were like "Heeey". The rest of the Eldar which had range to the Death Company shot the Death Company to bits leaving only the lone Death Company with a power weapon alive. The middle rangers moved closer to the Devastator squad and the War Walkers ran behind buildings.

The Blood Angel's Tactical squad claimed a mysterious objective and received a grav field severely limiting enemy assault distance to their position.

The Eldar claimed a mysterious objective and received a skyfire bonus. FAIL
The Eldar claimed another mysterious objective and received another skyfire bonus. Another FAIL

End of Turn 1

Turn 2

Blood Angels

The Assault Squad and all of the Land Speeders advanced slightly while the Baal Predator back peddle slightly in case the Harlequins move with intentions of assault. The lone Death Company marine advanced towards the Eldar with courage.

The Landspeeders chewed up the remaining Eldar near the Avatar while the Land Raider made the rangers above them go to ground. The Devastators killed a single ranger in the center.

Eldar

The Avatar was like you don't scare me bro and walked past the lone Death Company marine and hid behind a building near the advancing Assault squad. Both Harlequin squads advanced along with the War Walkers running behind a building again. 

The center Rangers fired at the Devastator squad with much hate for Sergeant Sir point to nothing useful, killed Sergeant Sir point to nothing useful and a missile launcher marine.

End of Turn 2

Turn 3

Blood Angels

The lone Death Company marine advanced to the Rangers on the left. The Assault squad advanced to the Harlequin squad in the center. The landspeeders advanced next to the Land Raider and the Typhoon advanced slightly as well.

The Land Raider shot the Avatar a bit with little success. The Landspeeders outright murdered the lone Warlock below the rangers.

The Tactical Squad killed a single Harlequin. The happy Harlequins responded with "Heeey". The Baal Predator killed the rest of the Harlequins. The happy Harlequins responded with "Heeeeeey". The Typhoon was left without a target. :(

The Lone Death Company marine assaulted the rangers on the left and wiped them out. The Assault squad assault the harlequins in the center and wiped them out losing only a single assault marine to the Eldar initiative.

Eldar

The Eldar might have got some firing in, but I believe at this point the game was hopeless for the Eldar. The Eldars's closely guarded Keeblar recipes were now in the hands of the Blood Angels's.

End of Turn 3

End Game

Rogue Trader folded and I can't blame him for doing so. Rogue Trader mentioned the Death Company who have no heads must kill to get heads. The taken heads from kill provide vital knowledge through their possession. Chaos winds indeed.

Death Company enemy head count total.

Striking Scorpions - 7

Rangers - 4

Despite the endless flaming against one's own army codex the game was fun and it was nice to try out the new camera on my new iPhone which is superb to my much older Droid 1.

DEFCON: COREY, Enter Saint, Starter to Apocalypse

What is DEFCON: COREY?

DEFCON: COREY is a threat status raised by our local gaming group. All is well though. I find it hilarious and plan to run with it as far and as long as I can to spread the word of truth.

Enter Saint

Saint had approached me through my blog and I took the liberty of inviting him to join the local game group. Saint was able to get some time off last Saturday and he drove to join our group to play some 40K.

Upon parking his vehicle at the shop last Saturday, Saint heard the following passage through his radio.

Turn off you engine and surrender your models.
We are the local gaming group.
We will add your biological and technical distinctiveness to our own.
Resistance to 40K is futile.

Starter

It was the intent to play a 1 versus 1 starter game with Saint so he could get a hang of the rules, but it turned out to be much more. He had thoughts of what kind of units to field, but I told him to not worry and bring a good 1500 point list. He did just that and brought a good 1500 point list full of all kinds of Ork goodness.

I consider Ork goodness in the form of what models he had. He had some, Gretchin, Boyz, a truck, Lootas, a flyer, a loba, Tank Bustas. I think he had a good mind set, bring em, roll the dice, go for broke, and hope for 5's.

(Spoilers Start)

He played mostly against Screech with some of his unit near my units. Screech is slightly better with rules so I think it was a bonus and he held his side quite well having his boyz hold an objective and launch assaults against the Chaos units. I think he got a good feel how some Ork units can work and not work as their was a variable cornucopia of enemy units.

(Spoilers End)

I brought some of my own terrain and also noticed there was some nice ruined buildings to use as well. We grabbed a table and started making a table full of good terrain. This is when it all happened.

Apocalypse

Rogue Trader asked what we were up to and somehow he got added into the game. Now we had a 2 versus 1 game. I think Rogue Trader wanted to get a game started as Kushial was quietly moving about aimlessly, Masta Cheef was waiting unproductively for Screech who was all blah, blah, blah and stuff. I think 2 versus 1 would leave someone without an opponent so Kushial being the master of dropping an entire company of marines on the fly joined the game. The 2 versus 1 game was now 3 versus 1 and the 6 by 4 table mutated to a 12 by 4 table. Masta Cheef with an army ready to deploy and ready for a game was still waiting for Screech, lol. Masta Cheef joined the fray making the game 4 versus 1 along with Screech who finally realized Saturday was for gaming and took Kushial's side making the game 4 versus 2. The little 1 versus 1 starter game had mutated into a minor apocalypse game.

Breakdown of armies and points.

Saint - Orks - 1500 Points
Masta Cheef - Storm Wardens (Marines) - 1500 Points
Hive Angel - Blood Angels - 2000 Points
Rogue Trader - Dark Eldar - 2000 Points

Screech - Thousand Sons of Bitches - 1500 Points
Kushial - Bucket of Marines Green Army Men style * - 5500 Points

* Not really in a bucket and not really green army men. However if they were in said bucket, the models would empty from their bucket transport hitting the table and snap to attention.

Here is a few shots of the deployment

Top: Ork and Bottom: Thousand Sons

Top: Dark Eldar and Marines and Bottom: Kushial's Marines

Damn! Look at those sweet trenches!

Top: Blood Angels and others and Bottom: More of Kushial's Marines

The game was too large for a battle report. However I cannot forgo the telling of the highlights of some hilarious climatic,  pure nonsense, blasphemous details.

Here goes ...

February Ninth Two Thousand Thirteen, a day which shall live in "Ah Shit".

Kushial

"First Turn, Drop Pod Assault!"

* Hive Angel and his coalition believe they deployed well and set to invade Kushial's right flank from behind. Kushial had first turn which he turned around for a moment and announces "Drop Pod Assault" with luxurios "Got you" grin. Bye bye Land Raider, the Sterguard inside were not hurt.

* Masta Cheef was most displeased with the placement of his Predator behind his Razorback in the far corner which became immobilized on the first turn.

* Kushial manages to immobilize many Dark Eldar vehicles on multiple accounts littering the field with Dark Eldar gun platforms.

* Masta Cheef succeeded in creating a Land Raider versus Land Raider parking lot duel.

* Blood Angel Sterguard marines were witnessed providing cover fire for a gretchin mob moving to seize an objective.

* Saint releases the only flyer from the Orks edge to run amok.

* Kushial's lightning claw terminator squad gets assaulted by an Ork dreadnought. The Terminators go slice slice while the Ork dreadnought goes snippy snippy. Terminators do die.

* The middle section terrain between the trenches had an objective and by turn three it was swelling with marines and Dark Eldar. Plus an Ork dreadnaught. :)

* Kushial teleports in eleven Terminators with thunder hammer and shields which survive a stupid amount of firepower. The coalition sicks the Death Company accompanied by Lemartes upon them who have a feeding frenzy.

* Saint's Killer Kans prevail in their assault against Chaos and manage to remove a hull point from their Land Rainder. Chaos in return recognizes their bravery and spares the ork's life by removing the close combat weapon. Screech the Chaos god placed a weapon destroyed chip upon the Killer Kan thereby granting the Ork the Choas gift of cookie.

* Sounds effects were made, but probably only Masta Cheef knows the whispers of Chaos.

* There was way more details than I can remember and some I missed out on.

Best of all ...

*Neverness stopped by and sad to say missed the chance to take part in this glorious game. Without worry or shame, he donned his Ork cap and summoned a pizza and all was well.

The game ended at the end of turn 3 with some reserve units not yet deployed. Thanks a lot Kushial and your Warlord -1 to opponents reserves, lol. Saint had to leave, but I believe he left having a good game with a bunch of lunatics. I rolled for my Warlord trait in turn 2 as I forgot and received a trait to redeploy, FAIL. To say the most, this was fun. To say more, we can do this again easy and we should. Keep the game fair and fun and everyone will have a blast. Just don't blow someone's Land Raider to smithereens on the first turn when he is out getting a soda, lol. 

Till next time.

Land Raider WIP Part 5

Land Raider WIP Part 5

Finally I can post pictures of paint on my Land Raider Crusader. To be honest I am a slow painter right now, but I am enjoying the painting aspect of this vehicle a lot and am looking forward to its completion. I should have maybe one more WIP post of painting and then a final post. I would like to finish this vehicle perhaps this coming weekend if I can.

I have applied black paint to all of the areas I am sure will need it. Speaking of black paint I am using a bottle of Valejo Game Color. I do waste some, but I like the dropper compared to the GW pot just so I can get amounts of various quantities for one color. Plus black is really universal. The same goes for white which I would like to acquire another a new bottle of.

I am probably going to paint the front hull Aquila gold instead of white like I first thought. The skulls and all of the skulls on the model are all at the same stage of a delvan mud wash. I tried something new by painting certain antenna and vents spots all black instead of picking out individual pieces. I believe this idea is proving well. The rear vent area I was pondering an idea of painting the entire vent area, but just went with the individual vents instead. Some of the bolt gun metal portions have a badab black wash.

The frag launchers look good. They will look even better once the skulls are done. I thought of using a carefully applied badab black wash down the sides. This should help define the frag launchers more and bring them out, but not away from the red of the vehicle. There is always the option to just paint the frag launchers metal as well, but I was not sold on the idea.

I am very pleased on how the skull and wings on the side door are turning out. The white was built up from a few layers of lighter grey and a badab black wash. The white has been painstakingly applied brush by brush on each wing to not disturb the previous wash. From a lower angle it appears slightly messy, but from the view of where it will naturally rest on the vehicle it looks superior. The other side door is progressing nice as well, however I am wondering about the handle hold at the bottom.

I am most proud of myself for the work so far on the side sponsor shields. The gold trim idea worked out great and the wings using the same method as the side door look great. I am finding I am able to fix minor mistakes very easily. I have a bottle of Army Painter Pure Read which is a match to the spray paint. With this and a thin layer of ink mix I should be able to correct mistakes and apply touch up work.

The weapon parts are being slowly worked on at this point. I believe I have a good idea on what to paint on the assault cannons and maybe even brightening the barrels with silver perhaps. One of the assault cannons lower and upper barrels are a horrible example of a bad mold. The gun barrels are flat and thinner than the other barrels. I first thought they were part of the housing.

The hurrican bolters I am not sure yet on what parts to paint. I have drilled the barrels quite nicely to help bring out the metal painting on them. I will keep the housing assembly black, but what to paint on the weapons themselves, the ammo feeds, and the ammo hoppers is still a mystery.

I am still waiting on the Multi-Melta cupola which needs to be primed. Due to dull and mismatch in overall color I had to strip the assault cannon shield and the upper sponsor assemblies. All of these parts should paint up easily and fast. Once all are primed, they will be inked and pushed to painting after a days drying. The tracks are in the same boat waiting prime time as well. Tracks are easy though.

I will hold off attaching the side sponsors until I no longer need to continuously lift the model for painting purposes. The tracks is undecided, but perhaps yes for the upper portions so i can attach the frag launchers. The assault cannons can be assembled easily once they are ready.

I'll work on better pictures for next time. I am using a daylight bulb against a shiny surface which does not help all too well.

Please let me know what you think so far. I leave here for now and work to get another update before the weekend.