Old Stuff Day

Wow, it's been a year already? Time flies as they say, I guess. For you who don't know, Old Stuff Day was an idea Rob from the Warhammer 39,999 blog had. It got a lot of support last year and from me also since I thought it is a neat concept. Well, the previous time I went for some of my oldest posts that have largely gone unnoticed at the time of their original publishing.

This year I would like to present again the posts I did for my ongoing blood angels army.

I am talking about my Vanguard Veterans,

my Sanguinary Guard

and a bunch of Assault Marines. 

I am very happy on how these guys turned out and painting them marked a new chapter on my painting paradigm, mainly painting infantry with an airbrush. Haven't done much painting since then unfortunately but I want to start again very soon. Who knows, maybe in 6th edition, Jump Infantry armies could be good. Cheers to another year of blogging too!

What Does Your Army Say About You?

I was walking to my local net cafe today , thinking about the short story of Dark Angels i read in the Imperial Armor 5 book, siege of Vraks. When it struck me that, the army that i play and love (Dark Angels) actualy in a way represents me. So i found some time to make a compilation of what each army may say about its owner, from a fluff point of view!

Fact or Fiction: Mephiston

(http://castleage.wikia.com/wiki/Alpha_Mephistopheles)

We once again find ourselves amongst the servants of Darkness, however this time it is not the Dark Angels that we shall talk about, but the Blood Angels!

Needless to say , we all have read the story about how brother Calistarius was crushed beneath the rubble of an ecclisarium building on the hive world of Hades during the war for Armagedon. It is then said that for 6 days he fought off the black rage while fighting for his life under the debris of the rubble, and on the 7th day he burst our from that rubble, fully reborn.

BA failures so far

Yikes, I haven't posted in such a long time. I could say I have been busy of course, but that's not entirely the truth. It was my official "video games month" so I spent most of my (extensive) free time playing Wii and Xbox games. More recently I've been  playing a lot of Kill Team (I will do a review of it soon). 

Furthermore, my FLGS closed down (feels bad man) and I've been doing pretty bad (in gaming terms) with my Blood Angels, so I haven't been too eager for 40K. However I managed to attend two tournaments (you can read reports from the Invulnerable blog, here and here) and too badly as well. My battle score with my current list is: 6W-4D-8L which is pretty bad if you consider that with my IG it was : 14W-4D-2L for almost the same number of games.

Assault Squad reporting for duty, sir!

And I present you today the second part of my Assault Squad. I actually finished these guys a few days ago but I couldn't be bothered taking any pics. They were done pretty much like the last batch with the only difference being that I pre-highlighted them with white before I applied the red paint. The guy on the right looks a bit off since, if you remember, he was my test model. Ah, well, I hope nobody noticed him in the crowd. More pictures after the jump and don't forget to let me know what you think.

Blood Angels vs Eldar Battle Report

I got to play another game against my mate, the legendary Talos, yesterday. We have both started new armies in the last few months so this is a good way to put them to the test. Despite the awesome  thunderstorm we made it into Game Corps. store for our battle. Stavros was very eager to write a battle report (you will find out why after reading it) so without any permission or anything from him (like I need it) I am posting it here too. MUHAHAHAH!!! Enjoy!

Sanguinary Guard brief painting tutorial

Since I posted pictures of my Sanguinary Guard yesterday, a few people have been asking how did I go about and paint them. How how did I do the gold armour especially. I will try to explain after the jump. 

Sanguinary Guard Finished

Finally finished these glorious beasts. Only took me 5 weeks (sarcasm intended). I guess, they are my most elite unit so they deserve a super flash paint job. Since I don't like "gold" paints, I basecoated the models with chainmail and built up the colour using various filters. I think you get a nice result this way. More glamour shots after the jump and don't forget to tell me what you think:

Second Tournament with Blood Angels

After only one week from my first tournament with the red boys, it was high time to put them back to the test. I didn't do too well previously but now I had more games and experience under my (quite large) belt with the army. So how did I fare this time? And most importantly, what excuse can I use now that I'm not that green anymore.

First Tournament with Blood Angels

And it finally happened. I put these bad boys to the test, through fire and ice, toil and trouble, so I can see what they are made off. Turns out they are made of Raspberry fluff but that's a different story...

Games with my BA so far

I finally got to play a couple of games with my DoA BA list this week after months of collecting and painting (months to paint 15 models that is...). I must say that it is generally a very convenient army to carry around and use on the tabletop and since you don't do much in the first 3 player round and then you only have to move a round a few models, games are pretty quick. I am happy with how the army plays as well but the real test will be this Saturday when I am going to use them for a mini tournament.

Blood Angels Assault Combat Squad 1 finished

I haven't been idle this last few weeks if you wanna know. I've been painting almost every day (albeit with my slower than slow, usual pace). Hell, I even finished these guys almost 10 days ago but I couldn't be bothered taking any pictures until now. They didn't take as long as my Vanguard Veterans to complete (much less details you see which isn't necessarily a bad thing) but still took me about a week. I decided to use pre shading with the airbrush instead of highlighting with lighter colours and I think it works better. So, I hope you guys like them and check the individual pics after the jump (as always, click on the images for a larger versions). Let me know what you think!

The Green Tide

Good month everyone! The first of April is definitely one of my  favourite days of the year. Today, everyone can let their imagination run wild and come up with the most unfeasible stories they can imagine without running the risk of being called sneaky liars. Hooray! 

The warhammer community never fails to amuse me in this fashion. I've been reading entertaining stories all day long. Even Games Workshop chipped in with their own, unique style. However much I like this though, I won't conjure up any lies today. My life is far too exciting and eventful. I don't have to resort to figments of imagination in order to entertain and inform. Instead let me tell you how one of my (gaming) dreams came true.

Blood Hammer

Bloody Hammer by skeats

The wonderful thing about my "current" (when I get the models...) Blood Angels list is that it can easily change to a whole different kind of beastie with just a few tweaks. The main roster is based almost entirely in close combat. Sure, I got a few meltaguns in there, but they function mainly as can openers so that the Marines can get their hands on the squishy stuff inside their transports. But what would happened if a swifted the balance a little bit and introduced some more ranged firepower elements to the list? Enter the Blood Hammer!

Basically, the Blood Hammer is your standard DoA jumpers list with a good measure of Devastators for fire support. As you may know, Red Devs are very cost effective. A hundred and thirty points for a Signum and four Missile Launchers? Yes, please! Okay, still not as good as Longfangs but still much better than their Vanilla counterparts and all around excellent for their given job. Add in the fact that you can make them a lot more survivable than any other MEQ race out there and their value proliferates. But more on that little bit later.

Vanguard Veterans Finally Finished

At last! I put the final touches today and here they are for your viewing pleasure. I couldn't resist to give them some cheesy vampiresque storm shield. I think they look good enough with the rest of the model. But without further ado here they are in all their glory:

More Blood Angels WIP (still unpainted)

After spending a considerable amount of time painting my Vanguard Veterans (and being quite fed up), I decided to put some little guys together instead. I recently received my order from Games Workshop so I had some work to do. So, take a look at what I've planned for my Blood Angels for the near future and tell me what you think.

Blood Angel Vanguard Veterans WIP

Long time, no post. I know! I've been fairly busy with real life lately and also painting these little buggers on the above picture. I wish I could say that a had a good time while splashing some paint on them but I really didn't. They took me far longer to complete than I thought at the beginning, about one week on and off. Just for five guys! When I painted my first  Blood Angel test piece it seemed like a very fast and easy process. But I didn't take into account all the intricate details that the Death Company models have...

1st post for 2011 and it's about some lousy bases

Well not really. I actually like painting bases. Furthermore I think they are very important for the overall look of a model. A decent looking base can easily tip the scale in your favour. Taking this little extra time and actually basing your miniature can work wonders for your army. Nowadays it's a tournament standard anyway. Now, if you take a little bit care of them you will get an excellent end result.

I decided that I should paint the bases for my Blood Angels separate from the models. You see, I like to base the miniatures before I undercoat them. This makes the material extra sturdy so that pebbles won't start flying off when I begin drybrushing. Also, I will be using an airbrush to paint the little guys. This means that the base is going to be painted red and I will have to repaint it all over again. This can be time consuming and kinda frustrating to me. Furthermore I am a big fan of gluing the model on it's base after both are done. This gives the impression that the miniature is actually standing on the ground instead of sinking into it.

Blood Angels Test Model

I had a very particular way that I wanted to paint my upcoming Blood Angel army. I know I had to keep the paintjob simple and fast otherwise I will never get around to finish them. It's a small army but still if I kept adding more and more details it would take up ages to complete (if ever). There are a few things that speed up the painting process, mainly airbrushing and washing, so I was going to use them in good effect, I tried what I had in mind on a test piece I made from the Command Squad sprue (still waiting for the other stuff to arrive) and it worked the way I had imagines. So this is how I did it:

I succumbed to the Red Thirst!

First of all let me explain myself. I am not jumping on the Blood Angel bandwagon. If I wanted to do that it would have been six months ago, not now. Plus, I am not going to use a razorspam/predspam list at all. Nope! I am really tired of using mech heavy list so I want something that looks and plays totally different.

Don't get me wrong, I love my mech/hybrid Guard army. Fun to play and also really powerful. However I am fed up with having to carry 3 cases and having to set up 10+ vehicles and all the infantry. Also shooting with all these units is very time consuming. I want a new army that I can use for friendly, fast games and also that I could take to a tournament for a laugh. A Blood Angel jumper list seems ideal for this.

I looked around in the blogsphere (3++, C&F, ID etc) for some ideas and came up with the following three lists for 1750. Even though they are all based on the same principles (FC and FnP bubbles and jumpacks) they should play quite differently: