Hobby Diary Part 8: Dark Angels Master WIP

 

Hi folks,

Me: Paint a 50 PL Dark Angels army in two weeks using speed painting techniques!

Also Me: Spend a whole week painting one model!

Ahhh, well 😂

During the first week of my challenge I spent a lot of time planning conversions and paint schemes. I wanted to use the Lazarus figure as a basis for a custom Company Master, but really wanted him to have a similar visual impact as Lazarus (he is ridiculously cool looking). Because my plan involved a bolt carbine hanging from a strap and an extra cloak, I had to plan the construction and paint job in layers. That included some sub-assemblies of sub-assemblies; I had to paint the bolter before attaching it to the arm, then paint the arm before attaching it to the body. All of this has taken a lot of time, but has been highly enjoyable.

Next on the agenda is to paint the head, which I am going to keep helmeted, the right shoulder with 3rd company markings and the Heavenfall blade, which I am hoping to giving some lightning effects. I have never done this effect successfully, sooo...

See you across the table,

Marc

Dark Angels Whirlwind: An eBay Win

 

Hi folks,

I saw this Whirlwind on eBay a few months ago and had to resist mightily to not buy it immediately. I don't often buy miniatures just for the sake of owning them; I prefer to strip them and paint them myself, but this figure just looked so good. I knew that I wouldn't really have to do anything with it. Beautiful, bright, 2nd Edition style paint job and amazing care taken on the decals.

Anyways, I let it go. The seller dropped the price significantly. I let it go again and tried to forget about it. The price returned to normal, then dropped again. I had it up on my screen and my son saw it, and he said "woah, are you going to get that tank Dad, it looks sick!". Wifey gave me the look and I said no. My daughter piped up saying "nawww, let him have the tank", and my son started chanting "let him have it, let him have it!". It was bizarre.

Anyways, it arrived last week from Canada. I used to love using Whirlwinds in 2nd Edition, but never came close to affording one back in the day. If I get some games in, I'll definitely try to fit this one in my list. Otherwise, it has a place of honour in my 2nd Edition collection. Whoever painted this beauty, I salute you.

 

See you across the table,

Marc

Hobby Diary Lockdown Edition: Unforgiven Crusade Army

 

Hi folks,

We have just started the school holidays here in Australia and another wave of COVID-19 has just hit our shores. We had planned to take the kids to North Queensland, to explore the Daintree Rainforest and go snorkelling on the Great Barrier Reef, but that has been cancelled. We knew the risks when we booked everything; the tickets were purchased using credits from our last cancelled holiday! Now, I am stuck at home for two weeks in lockdown. To keep my mind off what could have been, I have resolved to make some serious progress on my 9th Edition Dark Angels. I have decided to build a Crusade army, using Power Levels instead of points, in the hope that my group of gaming mates can get a rolling campaign going at some point. After much (much) consideration, considering both my playing style and the narrative I want to tell with my army, here is the list I am going to start working on:

Dark Angels Patrol Detachment 49 PL (2CP)

HQ

Primaris Captain (Warlord)

Wargear: Special Issue Bolt Carbine, Heavenfall Blade

Rites of Initiation (Deathwing)

Warlord Traits: Rites of War, Brilliant Strategist (Paragon of the Chapter)

I am going to use this Captain to represent the Master of the 3rd Company. Both weapon choices are fairly efficient, with the option of upgrading the bolt carbine for the Lion's Roar combi-plasma during the campaign. I am also going to model him with the Mantle of the Seneschal, which may be wishful thinking on my part! Such a cool relic though. I have chosen the Rites of War trait, which grants Objective Secured to CORE and CHARACTER units within 6". It seems like the kind of thing the Master of the 3rd Company would be able to do (he didn't get to his position by losing objectives). I look forward to running him around with a blob of Hellblasters. I also burned a CP on Paragon of the Chapter, to give him the trait Brilliant Strategist as well. This will give me another turn of Tactical Doctrine (and another turn of Fire Discipline...).

Troops

Infiltrators x 5

Wargear: Helix gauntlet

I'll be expanding this squad to make it bigger, and hopefully adding some Intercessors or Tactical Marines as well. At the moment it looks like a bit of a Troops tax kind of situation, but that will change. With my Warlord handing out ObSec, it is not so much of a problem at this stage.

Elites

Deathwing Terminators x 5

Wargear: power sword, 2 x chainfists, 2 x powerfists, cyclone missile launcher, stormbolters.

It wouldn't be a Dark Angels army without Deathwing support. I have these five built, primed and ready to go. 

Ravenwing Black Knights x 6

Wargear: power sword, corvus hammers and plasma talons

It wouldn't be much a Dark Angels army without some Ravenwing bikes either. I have had these floating around on sprues for seven years or so, gradually being sacrificed for parts (arms especially).

Heavy Support

Hellblasters x 10

Wargear: Assault plasma incinerators

I have always been a sucker for plasma. After receiving these for Christmas (from myself) last year, I have been chomping at the bit to run them in a game. 

Work has already started, with some big builds scheduled over the next couple of days. Let's see if I can get this done, so that I can look back on this holiday a little more favourably!

See you across the table,

Marc

2nd Edition Army Challenge: Devastator Squad TO-DONE!!!

 

Hi folks,

Today is the first day of the winter school holidays. You may already know that Sydney is in the grips of a third wave of COVID-19, which has forced us to cancel our holiday to Queensland. The plan would have been to head up North to escape winter for a bit and spend some time exploring the Daintree Rainforest and the Great Barrier Reef. Instead, it look like we are going to get some much needed jobs done around the house and spend some time doing simpler things.

Last night, to unwind from the Term, I spent a good couple of hours working on my June project for the 2nd Ed. Challenge. The final construction of the heavy weapons marines was pretty hectic: it took a considerable amount of superglue and prayers. One of them just would not fit; I couldn't get the backpack to fit into the cavity in the heavy bolter. Knowing that I would need to either reposition the whole right arm or cut the backpack, I left it for the night. In the morning I ended up cutting the backpack, but submitted the final post an hour or so late to the challenge. That will probably mean no stamp for me this month, but I was very glad to get the squad finished, which is really the aim of the whole challenge in the first place! 

I have tried to convert a mix of arm options for the left arm, including a bolt pistol (for when the heavy bolter inevitably jams), a combat knife (guns are for show, knives are for pros), an auspex scanner ("That's not possible; that's in the room!") and an empty fist. In the good old days, I used to use Hellfire shells with these guys.

I keep forgetting to use my To-Do list stamps, but these guys certainly deserve something, they took so much out of me to finish 😂

See you across the table,

Marc