Painting Blood Angels Tactical Squad Tutorial

This Blood Angels painting tutorial is based off of my new, darker, colour scheme (although it's not too dark - they're still 'bangles' after all!). You had a taster of my next generation BA army with the Scouts, well here is a fully blown Blood Angels Tactical Squad. Sorry about lack of detail in the photos, I desperately need a new camera!

Blood Angels Tactical Squad

I don't confess to be an expert on painting, but I hope this little tutorial will help a few people get started without the experimentation I had to do first. I've tried to write this for beginners, but assume basic knowledge of painting (i.e. you know how to highlight, what a wash is, etc).

What you will need if you want to follow this tutorial exactly (although you don't have to follow my method to the letter if you don't have all the paints):

Models (duh) Chaos Black spray Mephiston Red spray Base: Mephiston Red Base: Mechanicus Standard Grey Base: Leadbelcher Base: Rakarth Flesh Base: Zandri Dust Base: Averland Sunset Base: Abaddon Black Base: Steel Legion Drab Base: Warplock Bronze Layer: Warpstone Glow Layer: Moot Gren Layer: Evil Sunz Scarlet Layer: Wild Rider Red

Layer: Runefang Steel Layer: Ushabti Bone Layer: Flash Gitz Yellow Layer: Dawnstone Layer: Pallid Wych Flesh Layer: Gehenna's Gold Layer: Auric Armour Gold Shade: Carroburg Crimson Shade: Nuln Oil Shade: Seraphim Sepia Shade: Biel-tan Green Shade: Agrax Earthshade Shade: Reikland Fleshshade Technical: Lahmian Medium Transfers A refreshing beer

Step 0: Construction

You know what to do here, but I just wanted to interject and say its really useful (especially if you're spraying the basecoat) to leave the boltguns detached. Leave the guns on their sprue if you want an easy time with painting too, although you should chop at least one out to use as a guide when assembling. It's useful to cut out the bits highlighted yellow in the image below before you undercoat the sprue, this will give you only two points (one of which will be covered up anyway) to touch up.

Boltgun sprue - bits to chop out.

Step 1: Undercoat and Basecoat

The easy bit, spray Chaos Black and leave to dry for ages. Spray Mephiston Red. These coats need to be really light, and make sure you hold the can more than 30cm away to prevent bobbling or it going on too thick (the red spray is especially touchy). Make sure the black is completely dry before you move on to the red.

Step 2: Base Colours and Washes

Wash the entire model with Carroburg Crimson and wait for it to completely dry. Paint the armour joints and chest eagle Mechanicus Standard Grey, and metal bits Leadbelcher. Wash both of these colours with Nuln Oil. Now you need to do the base and wash for the following things:

• Parchment/Cloth: base Rakarth Flesh then wash with Seraphim Sepia.
• Skulls: base Zandri Dust then wash with Seraphim Sepia.
• Wax/Eyes/Plasma: base Warpstone Glow then wash with Biel-tan Green.
• Gold: base Warplock Bronze followed by Gehenna's Gold then wash with Reikland Fleshshade.

Try and be neat with these but if you slip don't worry as we'll be touching them up.

Step 3: Basing

It may seem weird to be basing your model at this stage, but I've found you can get a much better drybrush if you don't have to worry about ruining your paint work, and you'll be touching up stray brush strokes in the next step anyway. Different people have different ways of basing, but for these models I've gone with a 'dead ash world' style. Water down some PVA and paint it onto the base. Dip the model in sand and leave it to dry for a few hours. Wash the sand with Nuln Oil, this also helps it stick. Once the wash is completely dry heavy drybrush Rakarth Flesh over the sand, then a very light drybrush of Pallid Wych Flesh.

Step 4: Layer Colours

Layer on Mephiston Red (water it down!), leaving the recesses and bits no one is going to see anyway. Layer the base colour back over the bits you washed in Step 2, leaving the recesses:

• Parchment/Cloth: Rakarth Flesh.
• Skulls: Zandri Dust.
• Wax/Eyes/Plasma: Warpstone Glow.
• Gold: Gehenna's Gold.

Step 5: Highlights

The time consuming step, but arguably the most important as it just makes your painting more 'real'. Highlight the edges of the red with Evil Sunz Scarlet. Have a beer (maybe a nap) to help reduce the pain of RSI. Then highlight just the corners with Wild Rider Red (this makes the armour pop). Then highlight the following:

• Grey: Mechanicus Standard Grey.
• Metal: Runefang Steel.
• Parchment/Cloth: Pallid Wych Flesh.
• Skulls: Ushabti Bone.
• Wax/Eyes/Plasma: Moot Green.
• Gold: Auric Armour Gold.

Step 6: Squad Markings (optional)

It depends on how you want to paint your squad, but I've chosen to detail squad markings on the knees in accordance with the BA codex. The pad is painted with watered down Averland Sunset and given a highlight of Flash Gitz Yellow. I've also used these colours to paint the blood drops on my Sergeant. The blood drop on the knee is Mephiston Red with a slight Evil Sunz Scarlet fleck. A good trick to painting blood drops is to paint an upside down cross, connect the tips, then fill it in.

Step 7: Boltguns

With the main model mostly done it's time to paint the weapons! Base the gun with Leadbelcher and give it a wash of Nuln Oil. Paint the 'case' of the gun with Abaddon Black. Highlight the metal with Runefang Steel and the black with Mechanicus Standard Grey. Finally, give the black corners a highlight of Dawnstone. Paint the rest of the gun (i.e. the hand and any skulls/purity seals) with the same colours you did in previous steps. Once your guns are dry, chop them out the sprue and tidy up the barrel end with Leadbelcher (or drill it out like I've done). Give the wrist a drop of super glue and stick it to the model.

Step 8 Transfers

My previous Blood Angels used sculpted metal pads, but as I didn't fancy the idea of the new finecast version (and didn't want to fork out £11.50 for a single squad's shoulder pads) I opted for transfers. I've heard great things about Microsol when working with transfers but I ended up trying the simple GW method.

Cut around the transfer as close as you can with a knife, leave to soak for 30 seconds then brush off the baking paper on to the shoulder pad. Once the transfers are dry, paint over them with a layer of Lahmian Medium to bring the gloss down and keep them stuck. Touch up the areas around the transfers with Mephiston Red. I also like to add 'battle damage' to the transfers to blend them in (see the second image below especially).

Step 9: Celebrate!

Finally, give the base rim a few coats of Steel Legion Drab. Pop the cork on a bottle of bubbly and wish yourselves well done!

Blood Angels Tactical Squad - FINISHED!

Sergeant Armand

If you found this tutorial helpful (or incomprehensible) leave a comment below!

Darth Meer

Blood Angels Honour Guard Kit Bash

I received a few sets of the new marine boxes over Christmas, and as I didn't really need a Sternguard squad I though I'd kit bash it up and build myself a proper traditional Honour Guard for my Blood Angels (i.e. one with all the trimmings, not just 4 special weapons).

Blood Angels Honour Guard Kit Bash

I've used a combination of Sternguard, Vanguard, Sanguinary Guard, Death Company and a few bits from my bits box with these models. I've purposefully gave them static poses to match with the plastic Chaplain and Librarian models (which I also received for Christmas and will be building soon!) The heads are blu-taced on at the moment, as i want to spray/paint these separately (being gold and all).

I've also built up a Vanguard and Sanguinary Guard squad too. Used both of them in my last game and they actually did fairly well, even against my friends Iron Warrior Terminator list... The Vanguard Vets survived a crash and burn from the Stormraven thanks to their fancy storm shields.

Can't wait to paint these up!

What a difference 5 years painting makes!

What a difference 5 years makes to your painting! The model on the left is from 2008 (I was 21, fresh from uni), the model on the right is one I've just painted - although I've yet to apply transfers.

If you need proof that practice makes perfect, here is is.

Blood Angels painting tutorial coming soon :-D

Darth Meer

Blood Angels Scouts with Sniper Rifles Painted

With the new marine dex hitting, my enthusiasm for marines has come around again. Originally I had planned to start a wholly new chapter (Iron Hands) and start an army from scratch. But then I remembered all those other, unfinished, armies I have and re-thought that plan... If you read my last post you'll see the Blood Angels supplement I've been using.

Blood Angels Scout Squad

So, I'm going to be painting a few new Blood Angels units to scratch that power armour itch. Using a new colour scheme with the new citadel paints. I'm working on a Tactical Squad painting tutorial (using Mephiston Red spray) as well, so keep an eye out for that. The new scheme is a bit darker, a bit more realistic than my old 'ARGH RED!' style.

Blood Angles Scouts - Back

These Scouts are the first unit I've painted of my Blood Angels: The Next Generation. I've tried to do a little conversion work on them as well. I fully admit I'm not the best at sculpting with green stuff but hopefully it's not too obvious...

Blood Angels Scout Sergeant - With green stuff trim!

I wanted to give the Scout Sergeant an armour trim to make him more spangly (I don't think that's a proper word) and gave him a hand and head swap to mark him out as more of a veteran than his squad.

The previous generation of my Blood Angels.

For those of you not following my blog, you can find posts of my previous generation of Blood Angels here (scroll down). They were painted using the old GW paints so expansion is impossible really. Also, I started to paint them a good 5 years ago now and my painting has improved somewhat since the heady days of yore (well... Uni). Hopefully Blood Angels Gen 2 will be an improvement!

Darth Meer

Homebrew Blood Angels Supplement - Warlord Traits, Chapter Relics

Learning that the soon to be released Blood Angels digital codex is literally just an errata update was very disappointing. So I had a quick brainstorm and gave the Blood Angels the 'Adepta Sororitas' treatment with warlord traits, relics, etc. I also wanted to update their points costs to 6th edition standard, the simplest way of doing this was to write a mini-supplement for the new Space Marine codex. The Blood Angels follow the Codex Astartes pretty well so it made sense. My usual gaming buddies are usually pretty happy with me trying these thing out so I'll report back once I've had a few games.

You can download a slightly prettier pdf version here.

BLOOD ANGELS

AN UNOFFICIAL CODEX: SPACE MARINES SUPPLEMENT

To use this unofficial supplement you will need both Codex: Space Marines and Codex: Blood Angels. A Blood Angels army is chosen using the army list presented in Codex: Space Marines. There are a number of supplemental rules found below, including rules that will dictate which units you may or may not take in a Blood Angels army.

CHAPTER TACTICS

When creating a Blood Angels army, all models with the Chapter Tactics special rule must use the Blood Angels Chapter Tactic with the following special rules:

Descent of Angels

A unit that entirely consists of models with Chapter Tactics (Blood Angels) with Jump Packs can re-roll failed reserve rolls if arriving by Deep Strike. Also, due to the precision of their descent, it scatters D6" less.

The Red Thirst

After forces have been deployed, but before any scout moves are taken, roll a D6 for each unit with Chapter Tactics (Blood Angels). On a 1 the unit gains the Furious Charge and Fearless special rules instead of the And They Shall Know No Fear special rule for the duration of the game.

WARLORD TRAITS

When generating his Warlord Traits, a Blood Angels Warlord may either roll on the Warlord Traits table in the Warhammer 40,000 rulebook or on the table below:

1. Blood of Sanguinius: The Warlord and his unit have the Fleet and Fear special rules whilst equipped with a Jump Pack. If your Warlord is not equipped with a Jump pack, re-roll this result.

2. Accuracy of Angels: The Warlord, and any unit he joins, does not scatter when arriving by Deep Strike. If your Warlord cannot Deep Strike, re-roll this result.

3. Champion of Baal: The Warlord may re-roll any To Hit rolls while taking part in a challenge.

4. Visions of the Primarch: All units with Chapter Tactics (Blood Angels) in the Warlord's detachment will succumb to its effects on a roll of 3 or less, rather than a roll of 1.

5. Masters of the Sky: The Warlord, and any unit he joins, gains the Skyfire special rule

6. The Rage Consumes: One use only. Declare your Warlord is using this ability at the start of one of your Assault phases. For the duration of the phase, the Warlord and his unit have the Rage special rule.

BLOOD ANGELS ARMOURY

The Blood Angels use a number of Chapter-unique items, and have access to their own Chapter Relics.

Add the following to the Ranged Weapons list:

   - Hand Flamer 10 pts

   - Infernus Pistol 15 pts

Add the following to the Melee Weapons list:

   - Glaive Encarmine 15 pts

Replace the Chapter Relics list with the following:

   - Blood of Heroes 20 pts

   - Wings of Saronath 25 pts

   - Standard of Sanguinius' Bane 50 pts

   - Spear of Telesto 60 pts

Blood of Heroes

It was during the first battles of the Greyhell front against the Tau that the Blood of Heroes was created. The Chapter records that a single Blood Angel, outnumbered and alone, stood against an entire cadre of alien warriors, blessed by a single drop of blood from each of his fallen brothers gathered in a vial. The Battle-Brother claimed his brothers spoke to him through their blood and strengthened his will to survive against his foes. 

A model bearing the Blood of Heroes gains the Adamantium Will and Fearless special rules.

Wings of Saronath

The Wings of Saronath is the jump pack of the legendary Sanguinary Guard Saronath. Saronath was killed by unknown alien attackers on Baraspine, in the Adrantis Nebula. When he was found, his body was a dry husk, his golden armour shattered into thousands of fragments. Only his winged jump pack was salvageable. 

The Wings of Saronath is a Jump Pack (and therefore may not be taken with a Space Marine Bike or Terminator armour). In addition, its wearer gains the Fleet special rule and may use its Jump Pack in both Movement and Assault phases if it wishes.

Spear of Telesto

The Spear of Telesto is said to have been wielded by Sanguinius during the Great Crusade. Its blade is shaped like an elongated tear with a hollow in the centre to represent the single drop of blood Sanguinius shed when he swore fealty to the Emperor. The haft is sculpted to show the primarch as a hooded angel of blood and beneath that is a Purity Seal handwritten by the Emperor.

The Spear of Telesto is a weapon with two profiles:

                Range S AP Type

Melee           - +1 3 Melee, Two-handed, Master-crafted, Primarch's Wrath

Shooting Template 5 3 Assault 1, Blood Memory

Primarch's Wrath: The bearer of this weapon has the Rampage and Fear special rules.

Blood Memory: The Spear of Telesto will never cause Wounds against a model with the Chapter Tactics (Blood Angels) special rule, and the template may be placed over friendly models with this rule in contradiction to the normal template rules.

Standard of Sanguinius' Bane

This Standard of Sanguinius' Bane is an ancient banner that usually resides within the Fortress-monastery on Baal, it depicts the fateful duel between Sanguinius and Horus during the Horus Heresy. All Blood Angels that look upon it are driven to near blood lust with anger.

Friendly units within 12" of the bearer with Chapter Tactics (Blood Angels) gain the Fearless, Rage and Hatred special rules.

BLOOD ANGELS UNITS

A Blood Angels detachment may use the following units from Codex: Blood Angels in addition to those found in Codex: Space Marines:

• Commander Dante
• Chapter Master Gabriel Seth
• Astorath the Grim
• The Sanguinor
• Mephiston
• Captain Tycho
• Sanguinary Guard
• Furioso Dreadnought
• Sanguinary Priest (and Brother Corbulo)
• Death Company (and Lemartes)
• Death Company Dreadnought
• Baal Predator

A Blood Angels detachment may not use the following units from Codex: Space Marines:

• Chapter Master (and therefore Honour Guard)
• Master of the Forge
• Ironclad Dreadnought
• Legion of the Damned
• Thunderfire Cannon

UNIT ADJUSTMENTS

A number of units in Codex: Space Marines are adjusted in the following ways:

Librarian

Librarians taken in a Blood Angels detachment must generate their powers from the Biomancy, Divination, Telepathy or Telekinesis disciplines instead of those stated in Codex Space Marines.

Chaplain

Chaplains are moved to the Elites section and gain the Blood Rage special rule. The Blood Rage special rule grants re-rolls to Wound in the first turn of combat for any Death Company unit the Chaplain/Reclusiarch joins. A Chaplain may be upgraded to a Reclusiarch for 40 points. A Reclusiarch is an HQ choice instead of Elite and gains +1 to his Wounds, Ballistic Skill, Initiative, and Attacks. A Reclusiarch may take an option a Chaplain can take.

Assault Squad

In a Blood Angels detachment, all Assault Squads are Troops choices instead of Fast Attack choices. Remove the 'Up to two Space Marines may replace their bolt pistols with one of the following:' option and replace with 'For every five models in the squad, one Space Marine may take one item from the Special Weapons list.'

Stormraven

A Stormraven replaces its Stormstrike Missiles with Bloodstrike Missiles.

Lucifer Engines

All models with the Tank unit type in a Blood Angels detachment, except for all variants of Land Raider, may purchase Lucifer Engines for 10 points. Lucifer Engines grant a vehicle the Fast unit type.

Land Raiders
All variants of Land Raider gain the Deep Strike special rule for free and are moved to the Dedicated Transport section. You may not take Land Raider variants as Heavy Support.

Hobby Update: Cultists, D&D, KR Cases, BFG, Kill Team

If you haven't noticed already, It's starting to become a long period between posts. I expect this to continue for the next few months while we move into our new house and plan wedding, but after all that hullabaloo service should be back to normal :-D. Until then I'll probably do a few Hobby Update posts like this one.

Cultists

I managed to grab a few hours last weekend to finish off one of my two squads of chaos cultists. Pics below:

Sect Momus - Chaos Cultists

Xenophon Momus - Chaos Cultist Champion

As you can see its not the usual quality of both painting and photography! After all, they're only cultists, and I have 30 of them to paint. Eventually I may go back over them and highlight but at the moment gaming standard will suffice. To be honest, I was still quite impressed what a simple layer and wash (well more like a dip really, as its all one shade) can accomplish in almost no time. It also means more time to paint more important models! Next on the desk will be one of the Chaos Space Marine squads I think.

Dungeons & Dragons

We've started a new D&D campaign using the playtest rules and I'm painting up a new model. My character is the mighty Thrulk the Barbarian.The model is from Avatars of War found here. I'm taking my time with him, especially the flesh (there is lots of it!)

We've had one D&D session so far and the new rules are pretty awesome. Much, much simpler than 4th edition, and focussed more on the 'what do you want to do?' aspect of RPGs rather than just a constricting narrative miniatures game that I found 4e to be. Although I don't think the difficulty is quite balanced yet, we struggled to survive a couple of Orcs but the Cleric managed to one-shot an Ogre...

KR Cases

I've decided to fully convert my old GW cases to new shiny KR ones. This, astonishingly, has been put forward by my fiancée who wants my armies out of the way in the new house! The card cases fit snuggly in an Ikea Billy bookcase if anyone wants to know.

I won't post a review (I did that previously), but I will say again that these cases are simply awesome. The custom cut ones are worth the extra few pounds, especially for vehicles. You can fit so much in! Check it out, 3000 points of vehicle heavy Blood Angels in 2 cases (plus an extra one for my Stormraven that I've had for a while):

KR Cases - Left has custom foam, right has core

Battlefleet Gothic

I won't lie, I'm disappointed in Games Workshop for suspending their Specialist Games line. I totally understand it from a business perspective, but they must still be making a little bit from the models - enough to keep the line selling and the fan boys happy perhaps. Of course this started a panic buy from the community and now hardly anything is available. Luckily I managed to place my order for a few bits before the rush! A few bits for BFG, mainly a Battle Barge and some Cobras to add to my fledgling Imperial Fleet that I still haven't got round to finishing. I'm going to have to try and have a few more games of BFG soon.

Kill Team

The new update for Kill Team (v1.7) was released a while ago, but I'll post the update log here for anyone doesn't check the forums or the Facebook group (which you can join here by the way, and is the easiest place to post your questions or comments - or just share your tactics and teams).

Kill Team v1.7 Update:

• Added Blasts and Real Terrain rules
• Added 'purchasing grenades' rules
• Clarified mission VP/EXP with Squads
• Clarified optional Injury rule with Squads
• Replaced Hostage mission with Breakthrough
• Replaced Grab & Run mission with Seize Ground
• Adjusted bonus EXP rewards for missions
• Only Special models may now become the banner bearer in Last Stand
• A load of rewording for clarification

A few updates have been released for the Kill Team lists, so check them out and see if your army has been updated  Of special note is the update for Tau (new codex) and new Black Templars and Deathwatch lists.

You can find all of the unofficial Kill Team rules here.

Thanks for reading, and happy hobbying!

- Darth Meer

Storm Reavers Chaos Bikers Unit Painted

Storm Reavers Chaos Biker Unit - Achlys' Marauders

Chaos Bikers are awesome both in-game and model wise. Unfortunately they are a bitch to paint! They have been the bane of my existence this last couple of months, I'm sure everyone has their 'painting dread' that they leave on the desk for an age in the hope it finishes painting itself. Anyway, they're finally done. That's it, no more bikes! Too... much... trim!

Achlys’ Marauders Background
One of the original Storm Hawks that fled through the warp gate at Vardia, Achlys had resisted the extreme mutative effects of Chaos for many decades of service in the Storm Reavers. That was until the battle of Davkon V against the Iron Warriors, where Achlys squad was slaughtered by sustained Havoc fire. Achyls turned and ran from the battle, infuriating Lord Moros, and inciting the wrath of the gods. Achyls was sealed within his armour and to his bike for all eternity, cursed to feed only on the tainted fuel of his motor and to feel only the cold steel of the bike's chassis. Although Achyls has been given command of another unit of bikers, he has vowed to Lord Moros to never again run from the enemy - if he does so, Achyls may face the terror that is spawndom.

Forge World Chaos Havocs
And here's the next project for my Chaos army! The autocannons are from the Forge World legion set, and are really, really good. Only a little liquid green stuff (I like to call I liquid awesome) to tidy up small gaps and miss-casts.

Forge World Chaos Havocs

A Note On Kill Team Support

Most of the people who this matters to will have probably already read my note on the Kill Team page, but I just want to reinforce it here. Development for Kill Team will not stop, but will slow down. A lot. Life is taking me in new and wonderful places, but as everyone knows this can leave little room for hobby. The hobby time I do get will be spend mostly painting (my way to relax) or socialising/gaming with friends. The time I used to use for working on, and answering emails about, Kill Team has been replaced with work and other things. I would like people who have questions to post them on the forums, and hopefully the community will be able answer and work out house rules for things I overlooked. If this is popular, I will compile a list of community house rules and incorporate them into Kill Team. I have enjoyed the last year of Kill Team development, but it has reached a point where the rules are stable enough that I can take a back seat. But please, please, please do not let this mean the end of your Kill Team enjoyment!

Darth Meer

Playing 1000 Point Mini 40k Campaigns

Last week me and my gaming buddy decided we would try something different in our usual weekly game, a mini campaign! Three story-driven 1000 point games played on three different boards. Amazingly we managed to play it after work, taking about 3 and a half hours in total (including lots of chat with on-lookers).

We played on a Tuesday at Warhammer World and it was pretty empty so we got to use two of the 'special' boards as well as the Zone Mortalis table in the last game. Really sorry there's no photos but I just wanted to share the rules for our little campaign, and hope to inspire some other players to create there own!

The campaign story follows the Storm Hawks (the codex I wrote a long time ago can be found here, although I didn't use it) last stand on Vardia and their eventual fall to chaos (see here for background on my Storm Reavers). There is a lot of background taken from the Vardia campaign book my friend is writing, so it may seem a little off-cuff to some readers.

The rules below are built specifically for our mini campaign (Space Marines vs Chaos), but it may give you ideas about how to write up your own. I kept the mission objectives simple as I knew we would be playing after work, but you can spice them up if you have a day to play.

GENERAL CAMPAIGN RULES

• Three different 1000pts armies. The third army may not have any Vehicles except for Walkers (and no Defilers!)
• The Storm Hawks must take Chapter Master Falco in every army: A Chapter Master with Terminator Armour and Twin Lightning Claws. In addition he gains the Fearless special rule.
• If Falco is killed during battle, at the end of the game roll a D6. On a 1 the model's Wound value is permanently reduced by 1. On a 6 the model permanently gains the Hatred special rule. If you roll a 6 again after future games, the model also gains Rage.
• If any of the Chaos HQ units are the same (both type and build) they may keep all of their rolls on the Chaos Boon table for all games.

GAME 1: RAPID ASSAULT

The Storm Hawks have arrived at Vardia, only to find it already lost to Chaos. Heedless of the Blood Angel requests to hold, the Storm Hawks race towards the planet in a daring attempt to break the enemy's back before it can reform to meet the incoming reinforcements.

In this game the Storm Hawks use a lot of fast moving transports such as Stormravens, Drop Pods and Land Speeder Storms, supported by Stormtalons and regular Land Speeders. The Chaos forces have lots of troops on the ground but not many 'linebreaker' units such as Obliterators or tanks.

Objective
The Storm Hawks must rush in and destroy the Chaos forces.

Deployment
The Chaos army deploys first, anywhere in the table that is more than 12" from a table edge. In addition, Chaos units must be placed more than 6" away from each other. The Storm Hawks will enter play on their first turn from any one table edge (in exactly the same way as arriving from reserve). In this mission, all units fall back to their nearest table edge. No Chaos unit may be placed in reserve. Any Storm Hawks units that do not arrive first turn are assumed to be in reserve. Storm Hawks always get first turn.

Special Rules

• Orbital Assault: Any Storm Hawks unit that can Deep Strike may arrive automatically on the first turn.
• Already Dug-in: All Chaos forces receive the Move Through Cover and Stubborn special rules.

Victory Conditions
Kill Points and Secondary Objectives.

GAME 2: THE ENDLESS TIDE

The warp portal has been unleashed upon Vardia and caught the Storm Hawks unawares The Storm Hawks have been pushed back by the chaos tide against the entrance to the ancient Vardian catacombs. Luckily, the marine forces have come across an abandoned PDF strong point and plan to use it to try and whittle down the enemy before they retreat further in.

In this game the Storm Hawks forces have no fast support units, but have managed to deploy artillery tanks such as Whirlwinds and Vindicators in order to support their defence. Most of the Chaos forces are transported in Rhinos or are equipped with Jump Packs.

Objective
The Chaos side must cause as much damage to the dwindling Storm Hawks as they can!

Deployment
The Storm Hawks deploy first, up to 12" from the edge of the table. They also get an Aegis Defence Line to set up for free (note: we actually used a Fortress of Redemption instead). The Chaos forces deploy anyway up to 24" from the Storm Hawks forces. Chaos automatically gets the first turn.

Special Rules

• Endless Tide: When a non-Vehicle Chaos unit is completely destroyed it automatically re-enters reserves. This counts as a new unit in all respects.
• Last Stand: All Storm Hawks units gain the Stubborn and Preferred Enemy special rules.

Victory Conditions
Kill Points and Secondary Objectives.

GAME 3: FALL BACK!

Chaos have overrun the Storm Hawks and Chapter Master Falco has ordered their retreat into the warp portal, through the underground catacombs. The trouble is some of the Storm Hawks are too stubborn to run! What the Storm Hawks do not know however, is that their Chapter Master has already succumbed to the will of chaos and is in the progress of being possessed!

Objective
The Storms Hawks must get as many units through the warp portal as possible before they are destroyed!

Army Restrictions
No vehicles may be used in this game except for Walkers.

Deployment
Played on a 4x4 board. A lot of terrain must be placed as the game is played within the Vardian catacombs (preferably on a Zone Mortalis board!). Both sides deploy within 12" of their board edge. Randomly determine who sets up and goes first. You may seize the Initiative. Only units which are described as being able to teleport or materialise from the Warp may use the Deep Strike special rules.

Special Rules

• Filled with Doubt: At the start of the Storm Hawks movement phase, any unit not within 24" of the Chapter Master must take a leadership test. If it fails, the unit may not move at all this turn (except to charge).
• Falling Back: The Storm Hawks are proper legging it! They may run 2d6 and choose the highest.
• Chosen of Chaos: Chapter Master Falco gains the Champion of Chaos special rule.

Victory Conditions
For every Storm Hawks unit that leaves the board via the Chaos board edge, they gain 1 VP. For every Storm Hawks unit that is completely killed, the Chaos player gains 1 VP.

Chaos Sorcerer Conversion - Plastic Kitbash

Chaos Sorcerer Conversion with Wings!

I've been wanted to convert a plastic Chaos Sorcerer for a while now but didn't seem to have the inspiration until recently. This beast is actually very simple to kitbash! The legs, arms and gun are from the new Raptor kit, the torso and wings are from the Possessed box, and the head, torso, staff, and miscellaneous gubbins are from the Terminator Lord sprues. Bung them all together with magic glue (Humbrol Liquid Poly actually) and viola!

I will be Jump Pack-ing him around the table in future games, but if this turns out to be folly the wings can simply count as 'excessive decoration'.

Some more shot below. Only minor green stuffing was required - mostly due to the MASSIVE Sorcerer head preventing the shoulder pads from sitting correctly. I've also repositioned his left foot slightly so he's pushing off the rock.

A simple, but effective alternative to the Finecast model I say. I'll be painting him up soon and writing up some more of my oh-so-popular background! Oh, and I'll just leave you with this parting shot or something I may be talking about a little but in the future...

Pew pew pew!

Darth Meer

Storm Reavers Chaos Helbrute Painted

Storm Reavers Chaos Helbrute

Meet Varea Metalla, the newest painted member of the Storm Reavers warband (see here for the army background). I've only been taking him in bigger games lately as he tends to die quickly unless the opponent has other threats to focus on, but I wanted to paint him up as I love the Dark Vegeance model - so much detail!

Paint wise, I wanted to go for quite a 'choppy' look when highlighting so the metal looks as though its chipped and scratched. The flesh red is simply Mephiston base, Carroburg Crimson shade, layer on the Mephiston, then an organic highlight of Evil Sunz.

Chaos Helbrute - Close Up

"Varea Metalla was once Brother Nisus, a well-respected veteran of the Storm Reavers Chapter. Nisus met his fate during the Vardia campaign against Chaos and was entombed in a mighty dreadnought. However, it was on his début battle in his metal sarcophagi that the Storm Hawks were overrun by daemons and fled into the warp with Chapter Master Falco. Nisus battled his way through the daemon hordes and followed his brothers into the warp rift. But when he re-appeared in material space, like his Storm Hawks brethren, Nisus was not the same being. Twisted by the warp and driven mad, Nisus became Varea Metalla, his metal body chained until his crazed fury can be unleashed on the eve of battle once more."

Darth Meer

Blood Angels Army Background Document

Bit of a random one today. I thought I'd share a little background document I've been working on today for my Blood Angels army. I've added the screenshots below, but you can download the PDF here (its only 6 pages). I'm planning to spend time on each of my armies background over the Chrimbo period as I doubt I'll have much chance to paint (we're here, there and everywhere next week). I think putting together a document like this really brings you closer to your models, and the background of the 40k setting. It also makes a neat 'leaflet' to give to your opponent before a game.

 

Chaos Lord Painted and Storm Reavers Background

Here's a photo of my newly painted Chaos Lord, complete with my colour scheme for the 'Storm Ravers' traitor chapter.

Chaos Lord Moros, Master of the Storm Reavers

Here's a bit of origin background for my home-brew traitor chapter. They're basically my old Storm Hawks (see my downloads for their codex) gone bad - I thought it would be a nice touch to continue their story:

"Once known as the Storm Hawks, a loyalist space marine chapter, the Storm Reavers began their descent into heresy on the world of Vardia during the close of M41. After a long campaign against the forces of chaos to free the Vardian sector, the entire Storm Hawks chapter met their enemy upon the capital planet itself to finally bring the campaign to a close. Although Captain Aphael of the Blood Angels requested the Storm Hawks to hold until they could be reinforced, Chapter Master Falco was impatient and over-confident and ordered the assault.

What the Storm Hawks did not know however, is that the Chaos insurgents upon Vardia were already in the process of breaching the warp and summoning a vast horde of daemons. Although the Storm Hawks were swift, without the aid of the Blood Angels they were still too late. The warp gate was opened and hell was unleashed upon the system.

Most of the Storm Hawks chapter was destroyed within the first moments of the warp breach, but a handful survived along with Chapter Master Falco deep within the catacombs of the planet. There must have been a chink in the defences of Falco's mind, or it could have been his proximity to the warp breach, but at some point the master of the Storm Hawks was possessed by a mighty daemon known as Moros.

The possessed Chapter Master requested his brothers join him in fleeing through the warp gate, he persuaded many that there was no other way to survive, and that they would take the fight to the enemy. Those that were left were soon overrun by daemons, but those that fled with Moros found themselves corrupted irreversibly by the warp. The Storm Hawks were propelled through the warp until they found themselves in the Eye of Terror, the journey twisting them so much that they held hardly any resemblance to their noble origins.

Lord Moros and his now named 'Storm Reavers' have left the Eye of Terror in search for recruits and commit to a never-ending war in order to gain glory and slake the unquenching thirst of their gods."

Darth Meer

First Game With New Chaos

I had a game (finally) with the new Chaos codex last night, against the new chaos codex! 1500 points. Guess what, Chaos won... Blood was certainly spilt for the Blood God, fortunately more of it was my opponents. In fact, I wiped him off the table! I didn't even think my list was that good to be honest, as I just grabbed a load of random bits of things I wanted to use and put them in the army. I wanted to give you a brief rundown on my feelings on my first game with the new codex. Fist of all, lists:

HQ
- Chaos Lord - Pair of Lightning Claws, Terminator Armour, MoK
- Sorceror

Troops
- Chaos Space Marines x15 - CCWs, Champion w/ Power Fist, MoK, IoW
- Chaos Space Marines x10 - Plasma Gun, Autocannon, Champion w/ Power Maul
- Chaos Cultists x25 - 11x Autoguns, Champion w/ Shotgun

Fast Attack
- Raptors x10 - 2x Meltagun, Champion w/ Pair of Lightning Claws
- Chaos Bikers x5 - Plasma Gun, Champion w/ Power Sword and Meltabomb
- Heldrake - Baleflamer

Heavy Support
- Forgefiend - Hades Autocannons

My opponent had a noise marine based list. Don't ask me what the acronyms stand for, I'm just copying from his email...:

HQ
- Chaos Lord - 5+i, PP, PW, VotLW, MoS

Elites
- Helbrute - Plasma Cannon

Troops
- Noise Marines x9 - CCW, Votlw, Rhino, IoS, PW+DS
- Noise Marines x10 - 8 SB, VotLW, Blastmaster, PW+BP
- Noise Marines x10 - 8 SB, VotLW, Blastmaster, PW+BP
- CSM x10 - VotLW, CCW, 2x Plasma Gun, Rhino, PS+BP

Heavy Support
- Havocs x5 - 3x Autocannon, 1x Lascannon
- Havocs x5 - 3x Autocannon, 1x Lascannon


The mission was The Scouring and we played the diagonal deployment. I will add that I rolled Infiltrate for my warlord trait, but forgot to actually deploy any infiltrators... although I did seize the Initiative! I won't go through the game itself, just how each unit did.

The Heldrake was awesome. Well worth the 170pts. I suppose it depends on if you have dedicated AA units (Tom only had 2 units of autocannon havocs which missed a lot). The S6 AP3 Torrent flamer is amazing at clearing out squads of marines, and laid waste to most of 2 squads of noise marines and a havoc squad during the game! He did day that he was going to add at least a defence line to his list after the decimation the Heldrake caused.

Cultists with the Endurance psychic power = win at holding objectives. They were shot down to about 10 by the end of the game, taking most of the brunt in the first couple of turns. Feel no Pain definitely helps against those sonic blaster ignore cover weapons! My loudout may not be the most efficient (was basing it off what models I had), but it was still fairly cheap and looked pretty chaotic.

Big blobs of CSM without Rhinos work if you're fairly lucky (and your opponent deploys fairly close to his deployment line). He had 3 turns of shooting at the MoK squad and whittled them down to about 7 (under half) due to his blast master AP3 blasts. But they had Mark of Khorne and Banner of Wrath so charged 10" into a full squad of marines and munched them down like Donkey Kong on a banana. I think this unit will be hit and miss though, depending on how much shooting it attracts during those first few turns.

Forgefiends are OK, not sure if they're worth their points though. It did wreck a Helbrute first turn due to hitting with 6 of its shots and using daemonforge to re-roll armour pen! But then it proceeding to not do much the rest of the game, except for glance a rhino to death over a few turns. I suppose its another random chaos unit! BS3 does hurt its damage output, I will have to have a few more game with it to see if its worth taking in future.

Raptors are great, very cheap for a Jump unit. Although they really need to get the charge off (or take MoK - but that will increase the points). The meltas didn't come into play so I can't comment on their loudout. Although I will say the boon Icy Aura did end up killing more marines than the champions lightning claws...

Bikes were killed turn 2 so didn't really do much, but they were a cheap distraction unit and did they're job, taking the AP3 shots away from the Raptors.

That's about it, overall I think the amount of stuff on the board at 1500 overwhelmed my opponent a little bit! He focussed on killing the Heldrake, Bikes and Cultists too much and let my assault units run across the board to hack him up and take objectives. I was worried about all those AP3 ignores cover guns at the beginning of the game, but thankfully blind luck prevailed!

Final score 7-0 VPs.

Darth Meer

Blood Angels 3000pts Painted Army Photo Dump

Its been a long time coming, but I've finally taken photos of the completed army. Over 3000 points of Blood Angels. This is my first time taking photos with a swanky SLR so quality may be dodgy (probably due to the flash, more probably due to my lack of knowledge), but you get the idea. I'll also include some of my background text for flavour.

Blood Angels 2d Company - Full Shot

"Known as ‘The Blooded’, the Blood Angels 2nd Battle Company is commanded by Captain Donatos Aphael, a veteran of hundreds of years of war. Strike Force Raging Demise represents Armand's command in the Blood Angels reinforcements in the Vardian campaign, their main aim to drive back the Chaos Lord Titus' latest Black Crusade."

"Brother-librarian Armand is Chief Librarians Mephiston's prodigy, studying under the Lord of Death for many centuries. Armand's most famous battle was against a mighty Avatar of Khaine. Almost crippled and his squad defeated, Armand channeled all his psychic might into Velorix - a force axe bestowed to him by Mephiston himself. With one last effort, Armand buried the axe into the Avatar's spine, releasing its tortured soul back into the warp."

"Khayman is a 1st Company Veteran that fought in the 13th Black Crusade, and distinguished himself during the assault on the Imperial Guard stronghold Victory Bay. It was also in this battle that Khayman lost many of his fellow 1st Company, which forever soured his vision of Guardsmen as traitors and weaklings."

"Avicus is a close friend of Captain Aphael, having met during the chapter trials when they were both aspirants, and battled with him for countless years. Although Librarians are usually not assigned to one specific company, Avicus accompanies the 2nd whenever possible."

"Sergeant Tarquin's tactical squad ascended to the rank of honour guard in the 2nd company while serving in the Midas campaign. The severely depleted squad managed to defend Codicier Avicus against a large number of Necron Immortals with their signature plasma weaponry. Avicus has proceeded to request Tarquin's squad as his personal honour guard on numerous occasions."

"Originally from Cretacia, the homeworld of the Flesh Tearer chapter, Sergeant Tanis was sent to Baal as part of a tithe of novitiates to supplement the devastating losses caused by Arkio's army on the planet Sabien. Cretacia is a planet to rival any Death World, and as such Tanis is regarded as brutal, even amongst his fellow Blood Angels."

"Brother Corvinus is a young Sergeant who served with his Assault Squad in the Vardian campaign. He is armed with a thunder hammer, the field generator of which failed during a pivotal battle against traitor guard on Vardia IV. Corvinus received a battlefield commendation for fighting on, destroying enemy tanks though sheer physical strength alone. The thunder hammer, now named Traitors Bane, was later repaired with the blood of the traitor being preserved forever beneath the field."

"Assault Squad Mael suffered heavy losses to the ork Waaagh Gitstompa, after their position was overwhelmed by hordes of greenskins. Still not back to full strength, Sergeant Mael eschews specialist weapons within his squad, and insists his marines carry only a chainsword - the perfect anti-infantry weapon. He has named his relic chainsword The Purgator."

"Killed in battle aboard the Space Hulk Buteo Imperialis, Brother Viktor once had the honour of being part of the Archangels, the 1st Company. Almost destroyed by a Tyranid Broodlord, Viktor managed to detonate a krak grenade within the monsters gullet before he succumbed to his wounds. His mortally wounded body was brought back to Baal and encased in the sarcophagus of a Dreadnought."

- Darth Meer