Heresy Era Dark Angels - Army ready for NOVA!

As of the last post, the heresy era Dark Angels are essentially as done as they are going to get, and everything required for use at NOVA coming up at the end of August is ready to roll! I rather liked how the recent pics with the white background turned out, so figured I'd take the opportunity to reshoot the rest of the force similarly! Already droned on enough about them in previous posts, so we'll let the pictures flow:

HQ

TROOPS

ELITES

FAST ATTACK

HEAVY SUPPORT

A big ol' box of joy arrived from Battlefoam yesterday - took advantage of the 4th of July sale and re-upped my selection of pluckfoam trays. Now to fix the little niggling details that taking/reviewing/posting these pics have shown me (ain't that always the way?) and get 'em packed up for NOVA!

Heresy Era Dark Angels - Vigilator and tanks painted!

Pressing on towards the finish line on the army for NOVA 2018! The last of the infantry models completed with the Vigilator, and the three tanks intended for the force as well. There's still a few more vehicles on deck, but as they're not part of any the NOVA army lists they can wait for a rainy day!

The Vigilator was made from the new Cypher model, with some admittedly ham-fisted greenstuff to clean up the areas where the Lion's Sword was carved away. Went with a dusty dirty cloak in the same colors as on the bases for his Cameleoline. Haven't had a chance to put him on the table, he's very much there just to make up points in a couple lists.

On to the tanks! Tried something a little different on the treads and included some Agrellan Badlands texture paint to add a little extra oomph to the weathering, and really like how it turned out. Going to have to do the same to the Termites next!

One of two Land Raiders with the awesome Blood and Skulls wrap-around treads. Still gotta add a little more decoration to the green areas on the hulls, and then a second pass of weathering. They need a little something extra.

Can't do Dark Angels without doing some crazy plasma! The Sicaran Omega Tank Destroyer may look a litle ungainly but it has really performed well for me on the table so far. Possibly my favorite Sicaran variant thus far!

Also went with a white background for the tanks and quite like how it looks. I think the back background with the black miniatures may be a little too dark. Time to re-shoot the whole army!

Heresy Era Dark Angels - A tidal wave of resin and plastic!

Earlier in the week the first wave of bits and kits for the Dark Angels arrived, and after a flurry of soaking, scrubbing, rinsing and drying I've been merrily building stuff for the force!

All sorts of goodies await - Several tanks and a whole mess of infantry upgrade kits! Everything went into the wash and was laid out to dry, then it was all whisked up to the hobby loft where I couldn't wait to get cracking!

While it's tempting to jump in and build all the "cool stuff", I try to get the basic Troops choices out of the way up front, and save the more interesting models for later on once I've gotten my eye in on the builds. So, first things first - cranking out thirty Tac marines. Oof.

Once I got rolling they went together very easily. I had spent a bunch of time clipping and organizing several sets worth of plastic bits from the Betrayal at Calth and Burning of Prospero boxes a while back and it's made it a snap to build infantry. The sergeants were pretty fun to build, going combi-plasma and Calibanite warblades as a change-up from the usual Powerfist-and-boltpistol loadout. May not be as effective, but feels more aesthetically pleasing!

Dun dun DUNNNN! I've been dreading this moment. The last Spartan I'd built back in 2014 was a copper-plated bastard of a build and was, until I had the 'joy' of building a Storm Eagle, the least fun I'd had building a Forge World kit to date. I'd heard they'd re-sculpted the kit and approached the box with trepidation...

The re-cut model looked promising, I'll admit - Though there was some wonky bending to some of the pieces, my trusty heat gun sorted them out right quick. I'll tell ya, when it comes to working with resin, this heat gun was the best $30 I've spent on hobby tools. Highly recommended!

Turns out my fears were unfounded, and the kit went together incredibly quickly! The addition of some Dark Angels doors and magnetized sponsons were the only real tweaks of the model - I'm not a huge fan of the "put masonry and candles on everything" aesthetic of the modern-day Dark Angel vehicles, and plan to keep the builds a bit more restrained on the Heresy side.

Still undecided what I'm going to fill it with, I'm hesitant to build terminators for the force, knowing that once the book drops they'll likely get a bespoke terminator unit. In the interim it'll likely sit on the sidelines, or perhaps ferry a full 20-man tac squad around.

I had picked up a trio of the new wrap-around track upgrade kits form Blood and Skulls Industry, originally planning to use all three on the Sons of Horus. While the spiky "Oppressor" pattern treads worked well for the traitors, I thought I'd save the "Liberator" pattern sets for a future project. I had forgotten that I'd already gotten the track housings about 3/4ths done when I made the call, so they were a snap to finish off!

Having built one for the Sons of Horus already, I had a good idea of the challenges and pitfalls of the kit so the following two flew together! I really like the look of the Mk.IIb Land Raider, and wrap-around treads really give it that Heresy vibe.

Managed to get all of this stuff primered after work and am looking forward to getting some paint on 'em!

Updated the painting chart - It's getting colorful now! Started the test painting on the squad of Plasma Repeaters but it's too early to tell how they're going to turn out. Also got the next batch of bits and kits on order from FW - Some more shoulder pads and heads (mis-counted what I'd needed in the first order), the Volkite Calivers for the second support squad, and a pair of special weapons variant Sicarans, which I think fits in with the Dark Angels using rare and esoteric weaponry in the Heresy. The plan has already gotten out of hand on paper (5500 points is a little excessive), so some of this may get dialed back, likely starting with the Glaive. While I'd love to build and paint one for the force, I don't really ever play games where a Superheavy is required...

Heresy Era Thousand Sons - Spartan painting complete!

After leaving the new computer running all night to update and upload, I finally have a wodge of new pics to show! Leading off with what has become the must-have tank of the Heresy, the Spartan has been detailed, weathered and sealed (taking advantage of a narrow window of nice weather we had last week):

  

Added a further rune to the front section, and gave the tracks another layer of washes to give them a bit more dirty and oily look. Once that dried I went in with a sponge and added some charred brown followed by boltgun metal to represent a little battle damage. The extreme edges of the exposed metal was then given an edge highlight in silver. Generally speaking I go with the 'less is more' approach and just add a little weathering here and there. It's always easier to add more later than it is to try and clean up an overzealous application after all!

  

Never fails that once I think I'm done and have the models sealed that I notice that I forgot a step. Generally speaking I give the exhaust stacks on the vehicles a little heat distortion/soot which I'll have to go back in and add. Doh! Nevertheless overall I'm quite happy with how the giant brick of a tank has turned out. In game it'll carry a big ol' squad of Terminators, and likely ol' One Eye himself as well!

Heresy-Era Thousand Sons - Spartan lumbers towards completion, and some more build time

Took a little time and laid in some hull markings on the Spartan yesterday evening, the legion symbol and some decorative text on the upper hatch, and continuing the theme from the Vanquishers, an eldritch rune on the side doors.

 

At this point I think it's ready for weathering - time to break out the sponges!

  

Along with the rotor cannons and other spireguard-y bits in the box from Victoria Lamb a few weeks back was another fun piece of kit that can be used to turn a Taurox into a 4x4. I had no idea how tiny the taurox was, for some reason I had this vision that it was battlewagon-sized. Not even remotely, it turns out! I do think it'll be a fun little Centaur counts-as for the Geno Five-Two army I'm in the process of collecting bits for...

Heresy Era Thousand Sons - Spartan painting in progress

I hadn't been feeling the painting mojo recently (hence the flurry of building) but managed to get back in the saddle over the last couple days! With the Las Vegas Open rapidly approaching I needed to come up with a list and finish off whatever unpainted models I may need to do. Figured I'd start with a big one and attacked the Spartan!

 

Started off with Vallejo Dark Flesh and just went to town getting the base red on it. ...And my hands and the desk.

 

Next up was successive drybrushes of Red Gore and Blood Red, followed by an all-over wash of Carroburg Crimson, at which point I called it a session and let it completely dry overnight.

 

This morning I blocked in all of the metal parts in Gunmetal, and tidied things up a bit.

 

I blocked in the areas that would be bone-colored in Leather Brown, then gave the tracks a Strong Tone wash and the weapons and engines a Dark Tone wash. Had to let it sit for an hour or so for the washes to dry at this point. Lunchtime and chores await!

 

Once things were squared away and lunch was consumed, it was time to block in the bone color. Many thin coats were required to get any semblance of smooth coverage, the paint just wasn't behaving today. Think it's time to get a new bottle.

 

The lascannon coils got the Ice Blue/Guilliman Blue treatment, and then came the interminable rivet-painting session. It does add a needed bit of gold to the scheme, though! Next up will be laying on the hull markings - the side doors are going to get some runic script similar to what I'd done on the Vanquishers, and I'm trying to decide if I should do a bone-colored nova on the red front top hatch, or a red nova on the bone colored armor band just in front of the heavy bolters. Thoughts?