Welcome back to Blood of the Angel - a Warhammer 40,000 hobby project where I share my increasingly large Blood Angels Successor chapter, the Lament of Angels
2020 saw me add a staggering 81 miniatures to my Blood Angels, most of which were from my backlog/ hobby pile of shame! Thanks to the hard work last year I'm in a position to start adding (relatively!) new models to the collection... finally!
2020 was also a phenomenal year for the Blood Angels as a whole - a new Space Marine codex and a new codex supplement adding a plethora of new models to the range, and a new edition of Warhammer and new meta-game propelling the Blood Angels to the forefront of the competitive landscape!
It's a good time to be painting red!
Whilst Lockdown persists in the UK I'm not thinking too hard about the competitive meta, but I am trying to crack my way through some of the newer models - starting with the Indomitus box!
Read on to see the results...
The Indomitus Crusade
We can all agree the models in the Indomitus box were pretty amazing. With a very melee-focused set you'd think they'd be perfect for the Blood Angels, but the "Space Knight/ Templar" aesthetic gave me some pause with how to approach them.
There were some heavy conversion ideas running through my mind when planning the build, but in the end I opted for a few subtle headswaps here and there instead of more involved conversions.
I did briefly consider trying to get hold of some of the spears from the Horus heresy Dawnbringer Cohort box for the Bladeguard... but thought £55 for three spears was a tad excessive!
I also took the time to really consider where I wanted these models to fit within my Chapter Organisation. Regular readers of the blog will notice I've started a Genesis of the Chapter series for the Lament of Angels where I focus more heavily on the background, organisation and motivations of the Chapter ahead of developing their Narrative through Crusade/ Narrative games. As part of writing part 1 (and drafting part 2!) of that post I've been making notes about what unit's go where, how companies fight, etc and so had a pretty good idea about where I wanted the Indomitus Units to end up.
Surprise surprise - they'll not all in the same Company!
So allow me to present the Indomitus Crusade force in all it's glory, and walk you through the units Company by Company...
Hero's of the First Company
Despite their superhuman speed, strength and durability, Astartes die. The Emperor's Angels fight the wars no unmodified human could, wars that push even Astartes physiology beyond breaking point.
Those Astartes that survive, some for centuries, are elevated to the Chapters First Company - a humble brotherhood formed from the oldest, wisest and most experienced warriors.
The Indomitus saw the introduction of the first official Primaris Veteran unit - the Bladeguard Veterans
I don't think many people would disagree with me saying that we were all waiting for dedicated Primaris assault units, and the Bladeguard certainly lived up to expectation. The mini's were overflowing with the gothic "Space-knight" aesthetic the Primaris range had been missing. Whilst they certainly scream "Black Templar" more than "Blood Angel", the look damn good in red!
My Bladeguard Veterans have only one notable conversion - a headswap. I eschewed the plastic helm they come with in favour of three from the Forge World Blood Angel Head Upgrade kit. The small conversion really changes the look of the models, making them more obviously sons of the Angel.
The most notable, and unplanned, conversion is the back banner on the Squad Leader. I, regrettably, snapped the Iron Halo off his backpack whilst assembling the model and spilled it on to the carpet... never to be seen again! Fortunately I had a spare back banner so could make some minor repairs.
I'm weirdly glad I had the accident, because I think the squad looks really damn cool with the banner!
There are two small points I wanted to draw your attention to with these models.
The first point is the swords. If you remember way back to the beginning of this series you'll remember I used the the same scheme for my Sanguinary Guard. I wanted to keep some army symmetry in the collection, and this is a nice little head-nod to the other Veterans.
The second point is the model tilting shields. I've set myself a clear set of criteria for how each model's tilting will look, the core look shown below.
You should be able to see these motifs across all the the Bladeguard. Hopefully this gives my models a bit more of a "story" than simply just "being minis"!
. . .
Those Astartes that live longer, and fight harder, than even the most accomplished veterans are raised even higher up the Company, taking on the vaunted rank of Lieutenant, or being entrusted with the Company Standard.
Lieutenant Gadriel and Ancient Azaqiel are two such warriors.
Lieutenant Gadriel is probably my favourite model in the Indomitus box - great pose, great gear, just amazing!
By contrast... Ancient Azaqiel is one of my least favourite models. Sorry to say it, but it's just a little boring - stoically posed with no cool weapons or urgency to the model. Nevertheless I still tried to give the model as good a look as I could!
Both models received the same headswaps as the Bladeguard, taking some of the more decorated helms compared to the plainer ones I used for the Bladeguard.
The Ancient I painted in a similar way to the Bladeguard, the only major change being the tilting plate. For the Ancient I chose to forgo my normal heraldry conventions, instead painting the whole plate with the First Company heraldry. As an Ancient and keeper of the First Company Banner, Azaqiel has forgone his personal and former Company heraldry in favour of First Company heraldry.
For the Lieutenant I took a different approach to my other Bladeguard, painting the tabard a deep, royal blue with a central slash of bright red. I was considering painting the full "red-cross-on-blue" Heraldry on the chest, but the models midrift is pretty busy already and I didn't think it would be easily seen.
. . .
Standing at the head of the Company are the Captains - veterans of hundreds of battles, sublime warriors and unparalleled commanders.
Akrasiel, Captain of the First Company, stands atop them all - a Warrior King second only to the Chapter Master himself.
Akrasiel is an amazing model - one of my favorites in the box. Like the other models of the First Company, Akrasiel has a simple headswap to make him more "Blood Angel", this time swapping for a Death Mask of Sanguinius. I wasn't convinced the conversion worked before painting, but it looks pretty good after painting!
Like the Lieutenant, the Captain wears the same red/ blue banner, and he wears a red-black blade similar to that of the other veterans. I tried to push myself a little more with the blade on the Captain, inverting the blending on the halves of the blade rather than just blending from the base up.
First of a new Breed - The Third Company
One of the key questions I wanted to answer when address when building my Chapter was "What happened to the Greyshields".
The Blood Angels and their successors are far from being Codex divergent, despite their penchant for melee combat, and so the former-Greyshields could slot in to any Company.
In the Lament of Angels I've decided that the majority of the Greyshields are based in the Third Company. Having crusaded half way across the Galaxy and fought beneath Gulliman for nigh on a century before coming to Baal, the Greyshield way of war, and internal culture, was very different to that of the Angels.
As time, combat attrition and new recruits change the dynamic of the Lament of Angels the Greyshields have found themselves more and more in the minority. At the request of the Third Captain the remaining Greshields have been reassigned into his company, creating a subculture of their own within the Chapter .
Many of the "Core" units within the Indomitus box have found their way into my Third Company, providing some well needed reinforcements to the contents of Dark Imperium!
Assault Squads Netzach and Harut were the first squads added to the Third
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Assault Squad Netzach |
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| Assault Squad Harut |
Let's start with Assault Squad Harut.
One piece of narrative I decided quite early was that Sergeant Harut (also known as "Blackwing") would be the first Greyshield in the Company to fall victim to the Red Thirst, almost succumbing to the Black Rage in the process. As a result, Harut wears the red saltire of the Death Company as part of his heraldry, and wears a black wing (instead of the normal white wing), marking himself for the dark future he knows will come.
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| Harut proudly wears the Death Company markings on his tilting plate and chainsword |
Sergeant Netzach was one such disciple, having gained enough control of the Rage himself to lead a squad of his own.
. . .
Whilst some members of the Company have embraced the inner rage that burns within all of Sanguinius's sons others have taken up the blessings of Belisarius Cawl, embracing the gifts of Mars and bringing new and powerful weaponry to battle.
Squad Barachiel were the first Greyshields to take up the new weapons, becoming the Company's first Eradicators.
The Eradicators are fairly plain when compared to the rest of the mini's in the box. Big and bulky with great guns and insane rules, the Eradicators are a go-to for many (many!) Space Marine players.
Whether I take them in a list or not is still to be decided, but they'll bring some welcome fire power to the Third!
. . .
Most of the Third Company Command have already been painted up in previous posts, but the Indomitus box introduced a great new pseudo-Command unit - the Judiciar.
Judiciar Cassiel strides to war in robes of dark crimson over his black battle plate. Unlike the Chaplains, who never show their faces to anyone outside the Chapter command (a tradition inherited from the Blood Angels), the Judiciar proudly goes to war bare faced. He methodically butchers his way through the enemy in grim silence, his Executioner Relic Blade rising and falling as he looks for a notable commander to slay. The twin skulls flanking his Chapter Badge denote the two enemy commanders he has slain. One more will see him elevated from Judiciar to a full Chaplain.
Cassiel ended up being a much more enjoyable model to paint than I first thought - the robes, segmented armor and blade offering a real difference to the rest of the force.
Like every other person on the planet, I swapped Cassiel's head for one from the Intercessor box - the half-masked one it came with was... pretty uninspiring.
Regrettably the shape of the left pauldron meant I couldn't fit a full sized Chapter Badge on the model. The small one looked a little... odd... on it's own, so I decided to add the skulls to break up the black. The end result is pretty unique within my collection, but hopefully works given the unique role the Unit plays in the army.
Unstoppable force - The Eighth Assault Company
Despite the changes Guilliman bought to the Codex upon his resurrection, I want the Lament of Angels to follow a similar structure to the old Codex.
With that decided, I didn't have the space in the Third Company for the last unit from Indomitus - the Outriders (both my close support squad slots are taken up with assault intercessors)
The logical place for the models to end up was the 8th Company - the Assault Company.
Squad Baraqiel often find themselves fulfilling a flank-assault role in when deployed, utilising their speed and durability to range beyond the bulk of the Angels fighting force before swinging in to deliver a hammer blow from the side.
. . .
And that's the box done! The keen-eyed readers among you may have noticed I didn't cover the Chaplain. Whilst the Chaplain is a great model, I already have one of the older models in the Third Company and don't see a place for another one. Instead I've started to convert him up to be my second Celestial Serpent... if I ever get around to that project!!
With Indomitus complete I bring my total Lament of Angels collection up to about 6.6k (7k if you include Gulliman), which is pretty staggering.
But I'm far from finished!
I still need to add a decent chunk of the Phobos Marines to the list - I'm definitely lacking Vanguard units!
(and that's before we consider the Firstborn Backlog I still need to crack through!)
Plenty still to do, so expect some more soon!
With that I'll sign off.
Thanks all,
Until next time, stay safe and happy hobby!
Medge
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