Zadkiel, Blood Angels Librarian

I had some extra bits laying around and had the sudden urge to do some kit-bashing.  I'm in the middle of reading the Horus Heresy novel Fear to Tread, and reading about the Blood Angels always makes me want to use a Psyker model in my army.

So I present my 3rd Company Librarian, Zadkiel, Sage of the Bloody Sky.

He's composed entirely of extra parts but in the end came out looking super cool.

Head - Dark Angels upgrade kit
Torso, legs, and Staff - Grey Knights
Infernus pistol and left shoulder pad - Death Company kit
Jump pack - Assault marines pack
Right shoulder pad - Chapter House Studios aftermarket pad


Base coated with Kantor Blue
Then entirely washed with Drakkenhoff Nightshade
1st Layer - Kantor Blue + Altdorf Guard Blue 50/50
2nd Layer - Altdorf Guard blue
3rd Layer - Altdorf Guard blue + Space Wolf Grey 50/50
4th Layer - Space WOlf Grey
Glaze - Guilleman Blue (about 4 times)

Minor updates

It's been a while since I've posted anything.  To be honest I completely forgot I had this blog in the first place.  So here are a couple projects I've been working on.  

First is a Forge World Storm Eagle painted up in Blood Angels colors.  Despite the Blood Angels not being able to field one of these beauties, I bring it on as an allied contingent of Codex Marines. It's still nary a work in progress but I'm having a lot of fun painting this thing despite its shortcomings.  And there are many shortcomings.  I've never had a problem with Forge World items until I received this model.  Almost none of the parts fit properly and apparently that was a common theme with many of the first waves of this model.  I've heard that subsequent waves have parts that fit better though, and this model is simply too gorgeous.

My other project is the Gamesday 2012 Blood Angels captain.  While my painting skills are nowhere near that of Joe Tomaszewski (or any other 'Eavy Metal painter for that matter), it's still a challenge to try and replicate their accomplishments.  For me, it's been a great way to learn how they accomplish certain effects through glazes, shading, blending, etc.  Mr. Tomaszewski uses glazes quite liberally for awesome effects.

I still need to touch up the face to smooth it out, highlight the armor, base it among other things.  I'd say it's about 60% done.

Armies on Parade

After toiling for about 2 months and not sleeping Friday night due to the pending Saturday 4pm deadline, looks like all that work paid off.  I won the Mission Viejo Games Workshop Armies on Parade display competition with my Blood Angels Crusade-era display board.

Blood Angels leaving Baal to embark on the Great Crusade and enlighten the Imperium of Man.

Ok so the Stormtalon doesn't exactly fit Crusade era chronology but it's a cool looking model.

Contemptor and Relic Contemptor.  Definitely Crusade era.

Baal is a rad-wasteland.  What wasteland would be complete without a little toxic runoff.

Toxic drain pipe.

Terminator Librarian leading a squad of Tartaros and Cataphractii Terminators

Big man on a big tank with a tiny gun.

Blood Angels led by Azkaellon, Herald of Sanguinius wielding the Spear of Telesto.

Blood Angels Fellblade

Tartaros and Cataphractii Terminators disembarking from a Stormraven

Mark II "Crusade" pattern power armor Assault Marines accompanied by an Assault Sanguinary Priest

Blood Angels Caestus

Mk II "Crusade" and Mk IV "Maximus" Tactical Marines

Land Raider Redeemer

Completed Tartaros Terminators

Finally completed my first squad of Tartaros Terminators.  Building these was a love/hate relationship with the models.  I utterly love the models, but the resin that Forge World used for these, at first impression, felt like they were a similar blend to that of the Finecast resin.  Given that Finecast is a GW trademark, it's understandable why Forge World states they do not use Finecast for their models.

When I first received them, due to the popularity of the models (and the Stormeagle I purchased) the order took about 3 weeks to arrive.  upon arrival, I set to working on them right away, but I was disappointed in that the quality I normally came to expect from Forge World was woefully absent.  The torsos were off-centered, as if the mold had shifted, there were air bubbles in the helmets and the mold lines were super abundant.  Furthermore, due to the molding process, there was a ton of flash to clean off.  But I needed to get these completed for my Armies on Parade diorama which is to be a Crusade-era Blood Angels display; so every Heresy-era model was needed.

I had to liberally use a lot of Greenstuff to patch up some of the problems.  For example, the front facing disc on the shoulder guards were missing on 3 of the shoulders.  So I had to make some out of Greenstuff.  It worked in the interim, but I felt it was not the workmanship I had paid for.

I had contacted Forge World after waiting 2 1/2 weeks for an email reply as it was obvious they were so incredibly impacted that it was simply better to call.  I had spoken to an individual named Simon who was incredibly helpful.  He apologized for the delay in replying to my email and would take care of the problem immediately.  It is also worth noting that I had a Mk IV Apothecary that had a mis-cast apron that needed to be replaced.

During this time, I did my best to paint the current Tartaros Terminators I had on hand, but if you note the shoulders you can see where there are a lot of air bubbles and mold lines.

However, the light at the end was that Forge World has changed the kind of resin they make their Tartaros Terminators with and the replacement kit they sent me is simply and utterly flawless.  It blew me away how amazing the replacements are.  After Armies on Parade is done with, I plan on taking my time and painting them very very slowly.  These Terminators are definitely not my best work.

Terminator Size Comparison

Just a size comparison between various Terminator patterns:

Indomitus vs. Tartaros:

"Cataphractii" vs. Tartaros:

Weathered Stormshield of a Cataphractii:

One big happy Tactical Dreadnought family:

Blood Angels Stormtalon

As many know, I love Space Marine vehicles.  Their unrealistic boxy aesthetics is something I find appealing.  Maybe it's because I drive a Honda Element which looks like something a Space Marine woudl drive.  In any case, last weekend the Stormtalon was released from GW for Codex: Space Marines.  It fills a Fast Attack slot on the FOC and has some fairly interesting rules.  It's essentially a squished down, one-man Stormraven.  While it doesn't have Power of the Machine Spirit nor does it have the nose-mounted multi-melta/heavy bolter/typhoon missile weapon pod, it does mount a twin-linked assault cannon as standard with your choice of twin-linked heavy bolter, twin-linked lascannon, typhoon missile launcher, or the new Skyhammer missile launcher which is a 60" S7 AP4 Heavy 3 option.  

So needless to say, I had to get one and paint it in the colors of Great Sanguinius - RED ALL THE THINGS!  Even though Blood Angels don't get to use this beautiful flying potato, our group is pretty casual and tend to let things slide within reason.  As soon as I got it home, I went to work.  There are only two sprues and the vehicle is very easy to assemble.  I was able to put it together in about 30 mins.  I also magentized the side weapon pods so I can swap out for the Lascannon or Skyhammer options.

Once the model was built, I primed it black using GW Chaos Black.  

Here's a size comparison between the Stormtalon (left) and its bigger sibling, the Stormraven (right)

Now that dextrous control over my airbrush is increasing, I felt comfortable to try and use a pre-shading technique on this vehicle.  After the black primer has dried, using my Iwata CS airbrush, I carefully sprayed watered down Administratum Grey on to the raised or exposed areas, leaving the black primed areas in the recesses.  This gives the model an appearance of shadowed recesses and also allows for some depth. 

Once the highlights have dried, I take thinned down Blood Red (50/50 Blood Red and Isopropyl Alcohol) and spray a thin layer over the entire model.  The goal is to apply the layer thin enough where the grey highlights only just absorb enough red but not enough to blot out the shaded details.  This gives the model a very cool layered appearance while the black maintains the look of having been shaded.  Unfortunately the poor resolution of my iPhone camera doesn't allow for all the shading to appear clearly so I tried using the HDR feature and only marginally was able to capture some of the shading.  

I painted the Techmarine Pilot using Khorne Red base, Carroburg Crimson shade, then highlighted with Wazdakka Red and finally Squig Orange to give it a darker, rusted red of Mars look.  The cockpit was painted and the canopy was glued down.  The rest of the details were then painted in.

Finally, I decided to test my potato out against some Orks in a 2500pt match.  Unfortunately my opponent didn't want it getting near him so he kept it on lockdown all night until finally the potato was baked.

I know it's not canonical, but I absolutely love the Forge World Caestus.  I had to have one as soon as I saw it on Forge World's website, but it needed to be in the crimson colors of the glorious Sanguinius.

Painting the Lamenters chapter symbol

I've taken on a personal project. My favorite Space Marine chapter is definitely the Blood Angels, but I'm always fascinated with the fluff and stories behind the various Successor Chapters. I sympathize with the savagery of the Flesh Tearers, the poor circumstances of the Lamenters, etc. So I figured I'd pay homage to good ol Sanguinius by painting one model from each of the Successor Chapters.

I've painted one Flesh Tearer Tactical Marine so far, using the new GW transfer seals that are available.



The next model is a Tactical Marine from the Lamenters chapter. Obviously the most challenging parts of this chapter are the checkered shoulder pad and the sickly pale yellow of their armor.

I was able to make the Lamenters yellow from mixing Iyanden Darksun, Skull White, and Goblin Green in varying amounts to end up with a hue I felt matched the artwork in the Forge World Imperial Armour 9 Badab War book.



Next was painting the checkered shoulder pad that is iconic of the Lamenters chapter. So being the impatient bastard that I am, I decided to try and paint the Lamenters checkered shoulder pad first.

Starting with just the yellow shoulder, I base coated it with watered down Ceramite White base paint.  Then using Abaddon Black, I drew in the lines for the checkers.

Using watered down Abaddon Black, I painted in the squares. I would’ve used a micron pen but I couldn’t find it so I used a super fine detail brush.

Once the checkering was done, I cleaned up any stray black marks with Ceramite White.

Using Ceramite White, I drew a circle for the center of the Chapter’s symbol. Then I outlined it with Abaddon Black.

Finally I drew in the heart and blood drop of the chapter using Evil Sunz Scarlet.

I’m so glad I’m only painting one of these. This was a huge pain in the ass. Ironically the most difficult part was drawing the heart.

Step by step of a Blood Angels Terminator with the new GW paints

This was a rather rushed paint job in order to just illustrate how the new GW paints work when painting red for Blood Angels.  The new paints create a much more gradient approach to painting minis.  Whereas previously you had to do some mixing of paints to create certain gradient colors, but the new paints offer pre-made increments that make the process relatively straight forward.

My previous process was to use Mechrite Red as the Foundation paint, Blood Red as a base, shaded with Devlan Mud wash, then re-highlighted with Blood Red.  The next highlight was done with Blazing Orange then an extreme highlight with Vomit Brown concluded with a watered down Baal Red wash to re-center the blends.

With the new paints the process went as follows:

1. Assembled the Terminator

2. Primed with Chaos Black primer

3. Base coated with Mephiston Red Base. This base paint is a little different in hue that Mechrite Red. It's closer to the former Blood Red than it is Mechrite Red.

4. A coat of Wild Rider Red was used to 'redden' the hue a little more.  This gave it a slightly orange tone.

5.  Carroburg Crimson was then used to shade the model.  This color is between Baal Red and Devlan Mud. IT is a much more appropriate shade for red models like Blood Angels.

6.  Wild Rider Red was then used to re-layer the raised surfaces.

7.  Wazdakka Red was then layered in smaller areas.

8.  Troll Slayer Orange was then used to highlight the raised surfaces.

9.  The Drybrush paint Eldar Flesh was used to drybrush the edges.  Normally this would've been layered by Vomit Brown but the drybrush paint seemed a bit more apropos.  I would've loved to have used Kindleflame which is recommended by GW but I forgot to pick up a pot and they're closed on Easter.

10.  Finally, Bloodletter Glaze was used to tone down the highlights and re-center the colors.

Custodes Terminator

After looking high and low for one of these rare models, I was finally able to get my hands on a Legio Custodes Terminator model.

It'll serve no purpose in my army but will just look really cool with the rest of my Pre-Heresy minis.