Ravenguard Attack Bike and Bladeguard

With the return of the Lion it was time to swing back into finishing my Dark Angels.

First up was an attack bike with heavy bolter and two Bladeguard.

All three minis used a leadbelcher undercoat.

The attack bike was then covered with a black speed paint with highlights using grey and white.  This was my first attempt so have a few lessons learnt for the next bikes I have in the pile of shame.

I tried weathering effects for the first time that are not really visible in these pics.

The most important lesson is to get a decent dull coat to tone down the shiny armour. 

Overall I am happy with the finish but when I have time I will need to do some extra work on the head of the marine without a helmet.

Next up are my first Bladeguard.  I want all of these bros to be unique so used various parts from the primaris upgrade and eliminators sprues.

The white power armour is a combination of bone and white Vallejo paints with a watered down flesh wash and more highlights with white.

The shield and body came from multiples of the Primaris lieutenant included witj issue 1 of the Warhammer Imperium magazine.

I have a few more to do and then it’s time to get the Lion himself.

Alpha Legion Defiler

 This daemon engine known as the defiler is the latest edition for my Alpha Legion force.

I wanted the skin to be full of contrast hence the red skin and yellow/green muscles that is a new approach for me. 

Painting the various parts used the following paints over a lead belcher undercoat.

Muscles were a combination of the following.

Armour used the metal base and then the following paints to achieve the alpha blue. I tried a new technique ofusing the same gun metal to scratch up the “hard” of the blue edges due to battle damage.

Based on my old fantasy dragon ogre shaggoth I wanted red skin for this bro and used these paints for the defiler.

The finish of the skin is very chaotic and fitting for this awesome mini. In game terms I wanted the defiler to represent the mini and be built for close combat with the defiler scourge, cannon and reaper autocannon.

The cannon is from the ogre iron blaster kit and the autocannon comes from a necron heavy weapon. The cabling across the defiler is whipper snipper/ line trimmer cable.

Previous unpainted versions of the defiler have done pretty well so now it is painted I expect even better outcomes but as always I expect it will be destroyed on the first turn during its first game against Ad Mech this week.

Putrid Blightkings command group update

With a 1600 point WAP tournament coming up I decided I needed to add a command group to my existing blightkings.

Two bros volunteered for the task. The standard comes from the first edition warhammer nurgle palaquin that I had some bits of floating around.

The muso drum is from the old black orc plastic kit and fits in well. I had run out bells so a drum seemed appropriate for these walking behemoths.

Here’s the full unit together - I have squeezed in a unit of five for the tournament rocking the festering shroud.

Primaris Lieutenant and Eliminators

 With my first 40k tournament out of the way it is time to refocus on reducing the pile of shame aka the plastic krak I have accumulated for my Dark Angels.

I have always been a fan of the Eliminators and so decided to paint them next along with the primaris lieutenant that came with issue 1 of the imperium magazine.

The lieutenant was a fun model to paint with lots of interesting features - the storm shield being my favourite. His action pose is just screaming to be unleashed against my enemies.

Given his rank his trim includes retributive gold along with the stormhost silver that features throughout the rest of the army.

With the new balance update I think he will find a place in my next 2000 point army.

For the eliminators I always envisioned their camo cloaks being painted to match the colour of the bases being a mix of Vallejo beast brown, snakebite leather and bleached bone with random black rocks.

The kit has some cool rubble for the bros to stand on and some extras that I wanted to paint in off whites to contrast with the eliminators power armour and cloaks.

I built the bros with my intended weapon, the bolt sniper rifle. The option for different ammo will hopefully give me options depending on the enemy in front.

I am very happy with the finished minis and look forward to getting them onto the gaming table.

40K Hellblasters

This plastic kit may have almost broken me during assembly but here is my hellblasters unit for my Dark Angels.

I used a six man squad in my recent 1000 point tournament and am happy how they have been going. 

They attracted a lot of enemy attention and usually die in games but are worth the investment. They are even better with the weapons of a dark age stratagem and a helpful reroll of 1s when supercharging close to the warlord.

Painting followed my usual Dark Angel approach but damn this kit had so many mould lines to file down and piss poor assembly instructions.  I also added in a mix of left should pads from the primaris upgrade kit. These included a number of pads with the chapter symbol moulded on rather than applying transfers. 

I decided to add in a mix of other different transfers from the space marine transfer sheets as I think of these dudes as veterans permitted to use our beloved plasma weapons.  Random skulls and other symbols from battles long forgotten are spread over the unit.

Despite the challenges of assembling, they will be a regular feature in my armies as I am happy with how they turned out and their first tournament outing1 I just need to remember to keep them in cover but also be brave and venture out when the time calls for it.

40k tournament armies

 These are some of the amazing 1000 point armies from a tournament I attended.

An amazing selection of different armies.

My write up from the day will come out shortly but in the meantime here are some of the best in show.