Dark Angels Veteran sergeant - Sleepless nights

Hi Readers,

Last night I had a bad case of staring at the ceiling wide awake despite best efforts to enter the land of nod. So, enthused at 2am I got up and started to paint the veteran sergeant for my Dark Angels squad developing the colour scheme as I went along. As I discussed in previous posts and their comments, I wasn't sure how to style the robe section of the Dark Angel aesthetic as I dislike the traditional cream. 

Below is my decision and I would absolutely love feedback on how this guy looks. I received an exciting parcel today from Anvil Industries with lots of goodies to make my first Inner Circle Veteran squad. The veteran sergeant below has not yet passed through the Rite of Unshackling and thus still has his arms aux natural as they say (possibly).

I plan to work on these and my idea for thematic basing over the weekend and get something to you lovely people to peruse. Tonight I'm playing my final narrative game at 3000 points so it should be a doozy! Expect the report on that late next week along with plans for further games.

Pictures!!

EDIT - A couple of pictures with no flash (I also apologise if anyone was offended by the background of these pictures before I cropped them for content)

Peace out,

Rob

Dark Angels Squad

Hi Readers,

Today is just a quick hobby update regarding my Dark Angels. In my last post with them I showed off some slightly toned down highlights with Warpstone Glow, since then I have made the highlights smaller but in the same colour and a little more spread out. I've also not used white to highlight the angel relief on the shoulder pad any more and just left it with grey. The red highlights are uniformly Wadakka red as its just that bit softer.

Tomorrow will be my final game in my narrative game series with a 3000 point purge the alien game. We have about 6 hours scheduled for this so I'm hoping its a cracker. My low model count should (finally) play into my favour as well.

All my chat today, here have some picture.

PS - sorry for the poor quality, shaky hand day due to some meds and didn't have patience to clear desk to stand the phone properly... I have tomorrow off work and will be painting my sergeant so will get better pictures of the full squad!

Peace out,

Rob

The Black Hands of Caliban - Army Fluff

Hi Readers,

Today I'm going to just be writing out a short bit of fluff for my Dark Angels, as I've decided to run them as a successor chapter of my own design. After a little bit of fluff I will explain how some of this back story will be conveyed in the modelling of the army and hopefully make you excited to see what I produce over the coming months!


THE FLUFF


The black hands of Caliban are notoriously secretive, even when measured against the clandestine benchmark of their progenitors the Dark angels. They are known for accepting missions that all but guarantee their isolation from other imperial forces and have seldom allied with others barring the notable exception of the Blood Angels Death Companies for reasons unknown. Some say that is because beneath the raging thirst and destruction that the demented and lost Blood Angels scatter about themselves in the field of battle, the Black Hand can remain focussed on a more personal sinister objective that such crazed minds cannot remember and even then are unlikely to remain alive should they be able too.

They are however always amongst the first wave of chapters to answer the clarion call of their progenitors when it comes to matters of hunting the Fallen Angels. This eagerness to reclaim those that were lost and subject them to the dark rites of interromancy generates a sick zeal and frenzy that even other Dark Angel Successor chapters find borders on the disturbing... Their feverish pursuit of these traitors appears to have given rise to a pale paranoid aesthetic for these Astartes that sets them apart from their iron chinned grim brothers.

Like all Dark Angel successor chapters, the secrets of the first legion and the fallen angels betrayal are kept from the youngest astartes and are only revealed to the veterans of the chapter, once all question of disloyalty has been silenced by decades if not centruies of servitude to the cause of the emperor. Despite this even the neophytes of the Black Hands exhibit this hightened paranoia, with wild accusing eyes and pale waxen skin; limp black hair laid across their heads like tendrils of insanity drenched in fever sweat.

To know the minds and heart of these Astartes and to discover the driving force behind their devotion to eradicating the fallen, you must go back to their very inception in a maligned Cursed founding. While all successor chapters are derived from the gene seed of their heirs, the illustrious Dark Angels, the Black Hands of Caliban are unique, in so much as their genetic lineage is derived from a single source of gene seed. And like so many of the cursed founding, their current fate lies interlocked within the helices of their genesis.

The black hands gene seed was derived from none other than Attias, a member of the Fallen. Attias, also known as Attias the untamed was said to have been at the side of Luther during the Great Betrayal of their Primarch Lion El'Johnson on Caliban. It is not known how his gene seed came to survive in the vaults of holy terra, nor is it known how it was this gene seed, and this gene seed alone that gave rise to the Black Hands of Caliban, but it is a shame they are burdened with, that leaves little reprieve for forgiveness. This secret of the Black Hands is known only to the Black Hands own inner circle and the inner circle of the Dark Angels, who keep a watchful eye on their successors, in particular the fervent gaze of both Asmodai and Sammael.

The inner circle of the Black Hands encompasses all veterans that pass the Rite of Unshackling. It is not known what catalyst gave rise to the Black Hands becoming aware of their origins but it is known that this gave rise to the current name of the chapter, with their original chapter name now expunged from all Imperial records. But this name is the foreboding of their livery and their initiation into the inner circle. All Black hands Astartes wear their armour black on their hands in the pre-heresy colours of the Dark Angels, as acknowledgement of the taint that lives within them. Those veterans who have lead squads to victory on the battlefield time and time again are hand selected every quarter century by the chapter master and must submit to the Unshackling.

The unshackling is an extension of the split that rent the Dark Angels in two with the traitorous Luther at its core, then as now the Angels shed themselves of their foul brethren and were made as new. Black Hands veterans must submit to interrogation, must have their minds scryed one final time for any hint or sibilant whisper of suspicion; and then surviving this horror, they are given a simple scouts combat blade. With this edge they must unshackle themselves from their past, like the Lion they must cut the wheat from the chaff and be reborn through its pain. All inner circle veterans of the Black Hands must forcibly cut off their own right arm.

This act of willing sacrifice represents the removal of their fear, and symoblises the death of their heritage, the death of the traitor their cells call father. In its place, bionics are driven into the flesh, neuromotors whirring into life as the gritted shallow breath of the applicant steadies himself to live and be reborn as one of the inner circle. The veterans of the black hands that have been inducted into the inner circle after surviving the unshackling are formed into veteran squads and company command squads that hold the line in battle and never falter, and never forgive. For they are the Unforgiven.


END FLUFF

I do love writing. I've entered a few competitions here and there and not done too badly out of them, but I often fall foul due to my "flowery" language. Which a judge once described as "the writer has clearly sat with a thesaurus out using it for every word". Sadly that is just how I write! I've always had a love of words, the sound and the shape and the feel on your tongue and so flowery descriptive language comes very naturally, unfortunately at the expense of any great substance.

I would really welcome any comments on the fluff that would be constructive. I'm considering writing some more fluff about this but I'm not sure how it sounds to others so if its a bit pants, I might just tidy this up and then let it slide slowly into the abyss :P Comments below!

Needless to say that I also have some nice conversions planned for my veteran squads/company command squad.... tease tease tease...


Other news

In relation to an entirely arbitrary milestone, this is my 50th post!!! I know this blog is very young but I didn't honestly think I'd stick with it this long let alone every have 50 posts out there on the intertubes for people to look at! I get approximately 100 views a day at the moment which is small fry but still blows my mind a little to think, especially when so many of these come from all over the world.

In addition, its been fantastic to get to know more people in the blogopshere as you are all a great bunch and its a wonderful community that has helped me a lot in enthusiasm, inspiration and encouragement. I hope I'm doing some things right and I hope to improve other areas, not lest my painting and modelling. For those of you in the UK I hope very much to make your acquaintance at some point and to those elsewhere I wish I could get a game in with you all as well!

Till next time,

Peace out,

Rob

Updated Dark Angels test model and Death Company Completed

Hi readers!

Today is just an update on my projects and which ones I'm going to do next.

So after some feedback from loads of very helpful lovely people, I went over the warboss green highlight on my test model with warpstone glow, it still makes it pop but in less of a late 90's manchester hacienda clubbing way. I still have the option of taking that right back to the dark highlight but I wanted some more feedback on it first! (I apologise for the flash problems).

And here are three other marines that are just at the Abaddon black and then Warpstone Glow. Nice and Dark.

Death Company

Here are two batches of Death Company that are finished, really happy with them, but a little bit sick of them now!!

And here are a couple of shots of all the Death Company so far, again apologies for the poor lighting!

Anyway comments always appreciated :)

Peace out,

Rob

Dark Angels colour scheme - test model

Hi Readers,

I've had a hell of a long hobby day which has done my back no good, but I've finished of the 5 Death company that were nearly done and I've just got the gems and jump pack glow to paint on the other 5 before basing them. I have another 5 Death Company primed which I am hoping to get painted up before Thursday in the coming week so that I can use them in my final narrative game with 2 squads of 10 rampaging into the Ork lines!

However in between washes drying I put together a test model for my recently obtained Dark Angels. I wanted the scheme to be very dark as I don't like the normal green that is used for the greenwing and the red I also find too bright. I have heard this referred to as the "christmas tree effect" which I agree with and so wished to avoid it and make them worthy of their grim dark reputation as the first legion. 

The models I received were base coated in Caliban green and I did the following to them:

- Heavy drybrush with Abaddon black

- Medium drybrush with Warpstone green

- Heavy wash with Nuln oil

- Edge highlight with Dark Angels green (this is a hexagonal pot I've had since the late 90's...)

- Tiny highlight with Warboss green

The white was painted using:

- Administratum grey basecoat

- Nuln oil wash

- Administratum grey highlight

- Ceramite white highlight

- light wash with nuln oil to blend.

The red was painted using:

- Khorne red basecoat

- Nuln oil wash

- Wazdakka highlight

- ligt nuln oil wash on right shoulder pad.

I can't remember the blue off the top of my head as I type but its the same as the paint I use for the Death Company jump pack engines, if anyone asks I will type it out. 

Anyway, here are the pictures, I'd greatly appreciate any feedback on it. please ignore the base as I will be removing all the models from their 25mm bases and re-basing them on 32mm resin bases with sculpted detail. Pictures!!!

I'm keen to avoid the cream colour in general as I feel it dominates a bit too much but I'm not sure what colour to paint the robes when I come to them, if anyone has any suggestions?

Till next time,

Peace out,

Rob

Allied Angels and MORE Death Company

Hi Readers,

Allying Blood Angels and Dark Angels

Today I will be discussing my new Dark Angels purchase and how I am thinking of allying them with my Blood Angels. I won't be making any concrete decisions here but I'll be typing out loud and taking any feedback into consideration as well. In the coming weeks I will review some select parts of the Dark Angels codex that have a direct link to how I will personally play them, rather than reviewing all sections of the books, as that has been done very well elsewhere such as St Andrews Wargaming Blog.

This will also be talked about in the context of competitive gaming. I hope that the general impression from my blog is one of fun and narrative gaming that has quite a strong fluff bias in my Blood Angels and Black Templars forces. However I am very keen to start attending tournaments on a regular basis, aiming to get up to 5 or 6 a year and make sure some of these are the big competitive ones like Caledonia Uprising here in the UK. 

My local tournament which is 70-100 people has a competitive edge to it that will be perfect for this, it allows full forgeworld armies but awards "soft" points for variety in the list rather than banning a spam list out right, so it strikes a nice balance for me. This tournament is in April most years so I have till then to get my full Dark Angel/Blood Angel army up to snuff.

Demi-Company

Today I wanted to start of fairly heavy and talk about the Demi-company. I have all the mandatory units for the demi company bar a squad of devastators. These will be purchased next month and will be rocking grav cannons in a drop pod. They will be my hard counter to high armour save monster deathstars and things like the dreaded Wraithknight. These are not perfect and they have many weaknesses and can be suicidal but I am aware of this and hope that my list will contain both duality and redundancy to counter these.

Currently I have the the following set up in the Demi-company:

1 Company Master

2 x 7 man tactical squads with Plasma cannon and veteran sergeant

1 x 5 man tactical squad with plasma gun and veteran sergeant

10 x assault marines with 2 x flamers and a veteran sergeant with a power maul

Now I also have the option of some veterans that came with my buy, but these aren't Dark Angel specific models (but they are very cool and pictures will be coming of all these models) so I won't be using them in this force and actually plan to build some Dark Angel veterans using a mixture of third party bits and the soon to be released forgeworld Dark Angel upgrade.

For those that don't know, the benefits of this formation are absolutely enormous. Firstly, any model that has the grim resolve special rule and isn't jinking (i.e. everything in the above list) will resolve its overwatch at ballistic skill 3. That is hitting on a 4+ people. That is huge. And it also reinforces that Dark Angels want to be charged not to charge themselves, there special rules are very geared to strong fire support play style.

Secondly, all the units in the formation have objective secured. So that is assault marines and devastators, veterans and the company master as well. In the world of Maelstrom this is ideal. Especially with the mobility of the assault squad, but also it means that when you drop in those devastators with their drop pod, it means you can deny maelstrom points with them, meaning that both the squad and the drop pod, potentially, have to be dealt with immediately. This can provide valuable distraction from the rest of your army. In my case this would be the advancing Blood Angels.

The Demi-company allows a strong fire base with a mobile element, and I plan to add a razorback for the plasma gun squad for extra mobility, and this fire base should be able cover the arrival of my death company. This would include a ten man squad of Death Company, Cassor the damned drop podding in and Raphen's Death Company. Taken as a Combined arms detachment this would add another 2 objective secured units into the fray (Cassor can't take a transport so the drop pod is fast attack).

This is currently my rough plan for how to synergise these two armies BUT I am open to suggestions and will be discussing other ideas over the coming days. I also have a Nephelim Dark Talon, 5 Ravenwing bikers plus a ravenwing attack bike and the big boss Sammael that came in my purchase (Sammael was sold by the same guy and fits into the custom foam of the KR multicase so I snapped him up for 18 pounds!). So I could go double mobile? But right now the enhanced overwatch and objective secured seem strongest to me. 

Thoughts?

Death Company!

Back on to normal fare!!

I have nearly completed another 5 death company and have begun painting 5 more. I have also received so eBay bought items that will allow me to build 20 more Death company. 10 of these will be built with some vintage metal death company bodies that have turned out some remarkably dynamic poses!

Anyway, see below for the nearly completed squad (just jump pack glow and base to do), the just begun squad and then the vintage death company assembled so far!

Anyway, till next time.

Peace out,

Rob