Welcome back to Blood of the Angel - a #BashtheBacklog project chronicling my progress towards having a competitive Blood Angels army, and a slightly tidier hobby space!
In my last few posts I set myself the goal of completing models towards a simple "on-meta" competitive army.
Since my last post we've had a huge amount of new information from Games Workshop about 9th Edition; scenery rules, CP and army build changes, overwatch & tri-pointing/wrapping changes and FAQ's, not to mention the full "leaked" points updates for 9th Editon!
To twist a old saying, "The best laid plans seldom survive first contact with a new Edition"
Nevertheless, my Blood Angels enthusiasm has never been higher. I was one of the lucky few to secure a copy of Indomitus (thank you to my FLGS for that one!). The Space Marine content in the new box looks great for a Blood Angel player, with Assault Intercessors and Outriders looking to dominate from the start of 9th Edition.
Before I jump into the newer models, however, I wanted to focus on getting through even more of my Blood Angel Backlog.
This last month I've been pretty busy catching up with the Characters from my backlog.
Let's see how I've done...
When we last caught up...
At the start of the project I identified a number of models I absolutely needed to get done for my competitive list (or at least, to provide competitive options for list building), which you can see below
Primaris Chaplain - Incomplete
Primaris Mephiston - Incomplete
Converted Lemartes - Incomplete
Sanguinary Ancient - Incomplete
Converted Sanguinor - Incomplete
In my last update I went pretty off piste, bashing a load of Primaris Backlog and only really completing my Slam-Captain from this list. As you can see from the photo above, I've done a lot better this time!
Company Commanders
As Indomitus was teased and more and more content was released for the new Edition I was inspired to really get to grips with my BA backlog, which meant turning to the pile of shame and digging out all the little bits a pieces I've bought over the last three years and never gotten around to.
First on the list were a pair of Space Marine Captains.
On the left you can see the "vanilla" Primaris Captain with Stalker Bolt Rifle and Power Sword. I've made a few minor conversions, includin a bare Blood Angels headswap, Blood Angels Shoulderpads, a Death Company Chainsword in place of the power sword and a Blood Angels back icon.
On the right we have the store birthday Primaris Captain with Plasma Pistol and Power Fist; possible my (second) favourite Blood Angels mini. Two minor conversions help reinforce the model as a Blood Angel; a headswap and replacing the blank tilting plate with the teardrop version from the Primaris BA upgrade sprue.
Both models were great to paint, with the store birthday Captain definitely shooting to the top of my list for awesome models! Overall I'm pretty happy with the painting, excluding the faces. I'm really hit and miss on bare headed models... and these were very much a miss.
Random fact - these two were the first bare headed marines in my BA collection with non-blonde hair... true story.
To accompany these new Company Commanders I needed new lieutenants; fortunately my backlog had an answer!
Fans of the BA lore will know that each Captain has a pair of lieutenants with a different balance of humors; The Warden of the Blood, who embodies a more tactical and patient mindset, and the Sword of Sanguinius, whose aggressive and heroic mentality see's him lead the vanguard on the most dangerous of missions.
I feel this pair accurately represent these two faces of the Blood Angels!
On the left we have a minor conversion of the Dark Imperium lieutenant with Bolt Pistol and Powersword; a headswap and back banner brings some much needed BA iconography to the model, whilst the paired Chainswords represents this characters aggressive, assault-minded temperament (never mind that the configuration isn't rules legal... it looks cool!)
On the right we have another converted limited edition model; this time the 500th Store Opening limited edition Captain. As with my other models, a quick headswap makes all the difference! I also swapped out the left arm for a chainsword; another "rules illegal" conversion, but one I think shows the BA's tendency to favour melee.
With the Company's senior command sorted (almost twice over!) it was time to add some supporting elements to the command structure.
The Primaris Chaplain, Librarian and Apothecary (below) are all stock models; no conversions necessary!
The Chaplain gave me the opportunity to try "Black-highlighted-brown" when painting leather, and I think it turned out pretty well. I could probably go back and add some tiny scratches here and there if I wanted to make the leather look more realistic.
With the Librarian I followed the painting guide in the Sons of Sanguinius book from Games Workshop (a Blood Angels Painting Guide, sadly discontinued), which suggested painting the robes from a Averland Sunset base coat. Not something I've done before, but it turned out really nicely; the warm yellowy robes really complementing the cold blue armour
For the Apothecary I tried out the new Apothecary White contrast paint over a White Scar base. Game changing!
Most of my white painting has looked very "anime" in the past - super high contrast between dark and light because of the Nuln Oil wash. Apothecary white is almost a Celestra Grey/ Dawnstone colour, and provides a softer grey shade. Very nice!
The Lord of Death
What Blood Angels army is complete without the Lord of Death; Mephitson. Having crossed the Rubicon Primaris, Mephiston has beaten death twice and and rewarded with a gorgeous new Primaris Model
Definitely my favourite model in the range, Primaris Mephiston is (or a least was) a beast on the tabletop and will make a great addition to my lists. I know he's gone up a fair few points in the 9th Ed Chapter Approved, but I'll still give him a run out in the new edition to see what he's capable of.
Purists will probably complain that my Mephiston has a blue gem teardrop on his left shoulderpad instead of the Blood Angels red/ black one. I've chosen to make this minor painting deviation to keep him visually consistent with my Successor paint scheme. What I may do in the future is convert up a replacement model to act as the Chief Librarian for my Successor Chapter, and then have both models in case an opponent isn't happy with my conversion.
The Firstborn
Whilst my character collection has been seriously boosted by these Primaris Characters, we should never forget the Firstborn Astartes upon whose shoulders the new breed stand.
The Blood Angels have a great range of Firstborn models and Characters, and I've managed to complete a few more of these this month too.
Up first - my converted Lemartes.
Based on the Jump Pack Chaplain, I've made a few conversions to really disrupt the silhouette and make the character stand out against it's "normal" cousin.
The base features a dead Chaos Marine (consistent with my AdMech forces, for a little cross-army synergy!). Swapping the Crozius head, Jump Pack and bolt pistol arm makes the shape of the model radically different, which is hopefully enough to make the models stand out.
As a last concession to making Lemartes different, I've painted his Crozius Silver, so he stands out on the tabletop from the Jump Chaplain in the event I use them both.
Lemartes on the right vs the stock Jump Chaplain on the left
Besides the Death Company, the other stand-out Blood Angel unit that hasn't crossed the Rubicon yet are the Sanguinary Guard. Whilst I've shown off the pretty large number of SG I own, this last month I've completed the Sanguinary Ancient to go with them.
Having already completed 14 Sanguinary Guard before the Ancient, there's not really much to say about him!
Taking Stock
If we revisit my list from earlier in the post things are starting to look pretty great!
Converted Sanguinor - Destroyed
With the exception of my Converted Sangunior, everything is complete (with plenty of extra's added around the edges!).
Truth be told, I'm also taking the Sanguinor off this list. When I sat down to paint him I realised I really didn't like the conversion, so I sent him straight to the bin.
The good news is that my Blood Angels backlog is now almost completely bashed! A small victory in Lockdown!
I've got a few more pieces to get done before I get started with Indomitus, and they'll likely be covered in Augusts update.
Until then I'll have plenty of content coming, with our Xenos on Crusade series kicking into high gear when 9th Edition is properly released next week!
Until next time, stay safe and keep hobbying!
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