Deathwing Build: Belial x 3 Done

Good morning (it's just after 1am in the UK). Just a very quick post tonight as I just finished gluing a whole bunch of Terminators including all three variants of Belial.

While I don't dislike the original model of Belial (holding is sword up) I do think he's a little too static in the legs and face for that. He needs to be striding forward or shouting...anything better than silently waving his sword in the air.

I gave the static body the Thunder Hammer and Storm shield combo. For the other two I used spare matching torso, head and legs from two of the Deathwing command sets. One got he resin arms, the sword now pointing down with him looking down the blade (at his defeated foe). The other is all plastic kitbash, he just look tear someone apart.

With the rest I have 15 of 20 regular Terminators done and dusted. The Land Raider is also built. 5 more Termies, the 6 bikes and 2 attack bikes by Sunday I'm hoping...

Cork Basing - The Beginners Guide

With 'Project Dark Angels' commencing in earnest this week during a break from work I thought I'd pop up a post about how I'm doing the bases for these guys.

All my previous (recent) models are based on gravel, sand, slate, or a combination. This works well and looks great - I just fancied a change for my next project.

At first I was going to do snow, but considering half the force is already in pale armour (Deathwing) I decided against it. Cork has been increasingly visible across various forums etc over recent months, with some really great effects coming from it. I wanted to use it to create sort of dessert or dry river bed type terrain for my bases. Here's how I went about it...

Incoming: Dark Angels

Hey all, just a quickie.

Picked up my order from the excellent Dark Sphere here in London today, saving myself a tidy £35 thanks to their webstore discount.

I got two Deathwing boxes, one Ravenwing box and my first ever Land Raider - not bad considering I've had a marine army since early third edition.

From the bits box I have ten DV Terminators, five standard assault Termies (now with their arms pulled off) and twelve bikes (six DV) and an old attack bike. All this will give me a force, if I've planned right, which will scale from 1,500 points, through 1,750 and up to 2,000

Preliminary list is:

Belial
10 Deathwing; assault cannon, cyclone, 2 x chainfist
5 Deathwing; Sgt 2 x lightning claw, 4 thunder hammer and shield, cyclone
Land Raider (standard or crusader - magnetised)
Ravenwing Squadron; 6 bikes, melta attack bike

No idea if it's any good. I'm avoiding net lists and the like as much as possible - want to try and form my own opinions about this one - at least at first.

The two new kits look super versatile and have a good share of spare bits. There'll be a few kit bashes to make those standard termies a bit more 'DA', and also to add some variety within the duplicated DV ones.

Watch this space.

Yet Another Deathwing Force

I'm surprised the net hasn't collapsed under the weight of Terminator armour this last week or two. Everyone and his mother has finally started work on the Dark Vengeance models and adding a smattering of the new Dark Angel releases.

The Grotto is no exception to this I'm afraid!

In the most traditional sense of bandwagon jumping, and having almost started this force at some point during each of the four codexes, I finally put (air)brush to paint last weekend.

I don't really want a new Marine army, if 'm honest, but that fact it's models/units I never currently use, an entirely different paint scheme and I have 10 DV Termies already, along with a bunch of old bikes, is about as much justification as I need.

I gave these guys a quick blast with Vallejo Radome Tan, then just quickly airbrushed a wash of brown over them. This is also a good project for me learning more techniques with this tool.

Next up is purchases. I want to run a 10 man squad of shooty, a 5 man of hitty blokes, 5 Knights and a mixed Command Squad. I though three boxes would cover this, added to the 10 DV models I will already have.

I then started thinking about all the bits in those kits, the duplicates of the standard Termie in the DV models and a couple of other things. In the end I planned it out in what can only really be described as a complicated mess:

You win 1,000 points if it is understandable to you...

Anyway, he good thing from that is that I actually only need two boxes of Deathwing. I'll probably go for a single box of the new Ravenwing in that case - I have about 6 bikes between my bit boxes so already have enough for a detachment.

Add to this order a good ol' Land Raider (will be my first EVER one) and, of course, Belial and I'll be good to go. Turn around on these needs to be pretty speedy. In future they'll mainly be used for ally detachments and Apoc Angels of Death lists.

Beyond that it's almost time for the Eldar to take centre stage in my world!

From The Chopping Board - Articulating a Dreadnought: Build Finished

Two posts below this, there's the first half of this article, so go read that first if you like (and haven't already).

Done that? Right, let's crack on...