The Bloodied Knight

So, some new space marines are on their way and some people – myself included – are terribly excited about it all. It’s been a while since I did anything with my Angels Mortis but since seeing the new models revealed at the weekend I’m feeling the temptation to dig out some of my neglected power armour (and not the chaotic kind for once!). Also, it’s time for a quick break from painting Cawdor gangers before all those fiddly robes drive me utterly bonkers. Pretty much every 40k fan, I would argue, has a favourite space marine chapter. You need not necessarily be that keen on space marines – I myself am a foul heretic at heart – but they’re so ubiquitous that we’ve all had that “name your favourite chapter” conversation at one point or another. For myself there are a few contenders, all at the more obscure end of the spectrum (because I’m a 41st Millennium hipster). I don’t have any particular beef with the Ultramarines, Imperial Fists or Blood Angels (but don’t get me started on the Space Wolves and the Sillymanders!) but I prefer the Carcharodons, Minotaurs, Exorcists, Angels Penitent and Star Phantoms.

However when push comes to shove I’d have to pick the Knights of Blood as the one for me. The first time I saw the Knights of Blood was back in the old 4^th Edition Chaos Codex (which was given to me by a good friend and which set me on the path to damnation). Back then they were clearly fighting for Khorne, their shoulder pad icon shown as a Juggernaught’s head and their sole scrap of descriptive text describing them as “frenzied warriors”. As two word entries go I suppose it beats “mostly harmless”.

A Chaos Knight of Blood from the 4th Edition Chaos Marines Codex, trying to look as though he’s mostly harmless…

After that they reappeared on my radar as successors to the Blood Angels which lurked on the edge of the background, with only a few scattered lines and a single short-story to their name, as far as I could discover, until their untimely extinction during the Siege of Baal. Much like the Flesh Tearers (and various other Blood Angel’s successors over the millennia) they fell foul of their own inner daemons and repeatedly ran amok, butchering allied troops and civilian populations alike, until the Imperium finally tired of their antics and declared them heretics. So far so standard, and many chapters before and since have suffered a similar fate, either hunted down and slaughtered for their crimes or driven into the always welcoming arms of the dark gods. The Knights of Blood however were having none of it, swore that they were still loyal to the Imperium and continued to fight in the Emperor’s name, even doing any other loyalist troops in the area the favour of not fighting directly alongside them – thus going some way towards protecting those other troops from both the Knight’s violent excesses and the wrath of the Inquisition. According to the novel The Devastation of Baal by Guy Haley they even managed to nullify some of the effects of the Black Rage (admittedly by preying vampirically on unfortunate Imperial serfs but nobody’s perfect eh). Without spoiling too much of an excellent novel (although if you really don’t want to know don’t highlight the following text) they went out like bosses taking on Khornate daemons and tyranid monsters at the same time and allowing the Flesh Tearers to escape (so anyone out there with a Flesh Tearers army – you’re welcome).

A “loyalist” Knight of Blood – planning to devour the next hapless soul to pass his way.

I’ve had a bit of a soft spot for these berserk vampires since I first encountered them but I’ve never actually painted one, nor have I ever seen a painted army of them (so if you’ve painted one or you know of one please put a link in the comments – I’d be very curious to see it, us excommunicated heroes of the Imperium need to stick together!). I was thinking about this the other day and decided that it was past time to try painting one for myself so I had a dig around in the pile of shame and found this space marine, assembled (and slightly kitbashed into something suitably aggressive looking) but unpainted. When I built him I didn’t intend him to be a Knight of Blood, if I had I would have used a Blood Angel’s shoulderpad rather than the slim reaver-style shoulderpad I gave him, and I would have covered his head (the Knights tending to avoid showing their faces, partly – I’m sure – because that made them seem more awesome and sinister and partly because they didn’t want people to know that they were becoming increasingly gnarly, red and – dare I say it – Khornate in appearance as the years passed). Perhaps this Knight pre-dates the later years of their fall from grace, or perhaps he’s just not been as badly affected as his battle brothers.

I also didn’t get bogged down in painting the chapter icon on his shoulderpad, instead leaving a blank space where I can paint it on later if I feel inclined. I know that’s the height of laziness, but the aim of the exercise here was to play around with the colour-scheme and give myself a break from Cawdor, not to get bogged down. If I decide to tackle more of these then I’ll come back to him and add in a little iconography, but for now he’s a quick sketch and that means painting him to a level I’m happy with and moving on, rather than obsessing over any details.

No matter what I do, or how many photographs I take, his left shoulderpad (his left, our right) comes out looking really flat. I’m sure this is something familiar to all bloggers, you slave away getting the highlights looking right (and is there anything on earth harder to highlight than the shoulderpad of a space marine?) and the photos just don’t capture it and part of you always thinks “does anyone believe me? Perhaps they all think I just couldn’t be arsed to highlight it and I’m just making excuses!”. Ah well, you’ll just have to trust me.

He was a fun little diversion to tackle and for the moment that’s all I’m intending, although at some point I may – or may not – put together a few more. As ever I’m also curious to get your thoughts on the model, whether or not the Knights were filthy heretics or hard-pressed heroes doing a difficult job in a dangerous time and of course, for the 40k fans amongst you, if you had to pick a favourite space marine chapter which one would you declare your loyalty to?

Lone Wolf Winter

Recently I was sorting through a box of old models given to me by a friend when I stumbled upon this old Space Marine. I might have just passed over him but something about his hairdo and aggressive pose made me think of the Space Wolves, which in turn made me think of fellow blogger Alex of Leadballoony, who’s been working on some of these grey-armoured space barbarians recently as part of his Wolf Time project. Over the last several months Alex has been lovingly, and with outstanding attention to detail, crafting a horde of Orks and Space Wolves in order to recreate the Wolf Time campaign from the Rogue Trader era of 40k – a project that’s well worth taking a look at and being inspired by!

Anyway, given my aversion to the Space Wolves (something I could go into the whys and wherefores of but which I think I’ll save for whenever I get around to my long planned Space Wolf kill team), and my close and long-standing affiliation with the Orks, you would have assumed that this would inspire me to paint something green – all very logical but you’d be dead wrong in this case. Instead, in the kind of headlong, spur-of-the-moment charge often associated with the Sons of Leman Russ, I found myself painting my first ever Space Wolf. Plus, it gave me the chance to use some of the vast drifts of modelling snow I was given by another friend who was having a clear out and, given my tendency to base my models in a grubby, Underhive and distinctly precipitation free style, hasn’t really done very much apart from sit on the shelf making me look like I might be a cocaine dealer.

I went for a darker grey scheme than is usually associated with post-Heresy Space Wolves, partly because I think that suits a scout better and partly because I feel the baby-blue scheme is just a tiny bit naff. Throughout painting him I kept thinking that I recognised the colour choices I was making, and sure enough it’s exactly the same as the scheme I used for my first Van Saar (another project I must get around to working on again soon…).

Surprisingly, given that work remains flat out at the moment, I found the time to work on a couple of other models over the weekend as well so, all being well, I should be able to finish them off, get them photographed and string together some words about them over the next few days.

The Emperor’s Angels – Part 13

Never let it be said that the Imperium fails to respond to an escalating Ork threat on its borders. Why the part of the display shelf given over to the greenskins is positively groaning under all those models, and less said about the Chaos area the better – whilst the Imperials have only a handful of Guardsmen and a few Space Marines. To be honest that’s not going to change significantly any time soon but at least the marines can now identify the guy in charge by something more than just “he’s the one pointing”.

Here’s the whole squad ready to smite heretics!

And of course this makes for a victory in Azazel’s challenge, to complete a squad of models in October, although I have plans to finish off a few more by the end of the month.

The Emperor’s Angels – Part 12

I take it you’re all familiar with Azazel’s monthly challenges by now? I mean really, if not – where have you been? For those who are completely new to the idea, blogger extraordinaire and prolific hobbyist Azazel has been encouraging his readers to take part in a series of monthly challenges throughout 2018. The nice thing about these is they are generally aimed at encouraging us to complete existing projects rather than simply being an excuse to start new ones.

Last time Azazel ran a community challenge to complete a unit of models, the aptly named Junit, I took it as an opportunity to complete my first five space marines based on the Primaris models. Since then I’ve added a couple more so this month’s challenge -again calling for a unit to be completed – seems like a fine opportunity to round out the full squad of ten.

I made this one as a test model back when I was first exploring this project but somehow I ended up never painting him, so getting him finished was my first priority.

Alongside him we have his battle brother, ready to send any heretics that turn up packing with a quick blast from a flamer.

That just leaves me with the squad’s Sergeant to paint and the acting Sergeant to be demoted to the ranks, which I should be able to manage before the end of the month.

The Emperor’s Angels – Part 11

As well as getting two more space marines painted for my nascent force I’ve also been kitbashing away, getting some more of the Emperor’s finest built. First up here’s the Captain who’ll be leading the army (at least until I get around to making a suitably imposing Chapter Master). At the moment I’m still working on a name and suitably pugnacious background for him, and indeed for the chapter as a whole. I’ve got a few ideas sloshing around in my head however and I’m planning to write them out soon as they’ll feed into the development of the army as it grows.

I’ve also tried to add a bit of gothic flair to the company ancient. The warrior given the honour of carrying the battle standard should be dressed to impress both the brave warriors of the Imperium and the craven scum they face and the base model is just a little bit plain for my taste.

Even though I doubt I’ll have many war engines in the army (beyond a Dreadnought or two of course because as every sane person knows Dreadnought are amazing) I knew from the get-go that I’d have to include a tech-marine. To me this is one of the most iconic units in 40k and the chance to include one was one of the things that attracted me to the space marines in the first place.

As it stands these are all still WIPs so as ever I’m all ears for feedback if there’s any improvements you think are called for before they go under the brush.

The Emperor’s Angels – Part 10

My space marines haven’t been entirely abandoned since their first appearance back in June. Admittedly they haven’t been my first priority recently either but now a couple more battle brothers have managed to sneak across the painting desk to completion.

This one was almost finished alongside the others in June but didn’t make it whilst I swithered to a complete stall over the, fairly minor in the grand scheme of things, question of what colour to paint his hair. In the end however is unfinished state annoyed me enough to make me get on with it and so he’s able to join his brothers at last.

His squad mate on the other hand I kitbashed just a few days ago and was sufficiently pleased with that I got him painted up in no time flat.

It’ll take more than these two to hold vack the enemies of the Imperium however so I’ve also been busy kitbashing some more champions and heroes for the nascent chapter. They’re not quite ready to show off yet but I’ll try to get something done this week.

The Emperor’s Angels – Part 9

One more for the road! I’m going to be focussing my creative energies onto Necromunda for the next little while, barring one smaller project that I should get finished tonight, but whilst pondering all things Goliath I found myself kitbashing another space marine. Most likely he’ll end up serving as the veteran sergeant of one of the tactical squads.

As usual nothing is set in stone at this stage so if you’ve got any feedback I’m all ears.

The Emperor’s Angels – Part 8

So enthused am I by all things Space Marine following the successful completion of my first tactical squad that I decided to break into the bits box and assemble the rest of the assault marines. Last time we saw them (back in – gulp – November) two of the assault squad were done and looking for paint. By way of a quick reminder here they are;

And here we have the new additions, starting with this chap in his traditional assault marine corvus pattern helm.

Here’s another of his battle brothers.

Finally here’s the squads sergeant, a suitably bellicose and angry looking man ready to dish out the Emperor’s mercy with a damn big sword.

No promises on when these chaps will see paint, as I’m juggling quite a few other projects (as per usual) but having the whole squad ready to go may help give me a push.

Rodents Of Unusual Size And The Junit Round-Up

Rejoice, rejoice! If you own any bells now is the time to ring them! The ugly plague monks are done at last!

I’ll admit that by the end I was sick to the eye-teeth of them and more than happy just to call them done. The result of this is, sadly, that they’re not the best painted models in my collection, but then again they’re not the best sculpted models in GW’s catalogue either. I will however happily meet them half-way, if they make me some better plague monks I’ll put more effort into painting them.

I used a bit of greenstuff to make this one look even more diseased and to break up the otherwise rather flat and bare surfaces, with mixed results in my opinion.

Here’s the whole unit, complete with banner, musician and Bearer of the Word (although if that’s what a Bearer of the Word looks like these days Lorgar has really let his standards slip…).

The way units rank up in Warhammer means you can’t actually see all of them that well but to my mind that’s actually something of a blessing.

Anyway, in spite of my moaning, that’s another unit done and a definite cause for celebration. Furthermore it occurred to me that as we’re now roughly half-way through 2018, that this would be a fine time to take a look at the progress my Skaven army has made so far this year. Here’s how it was looking back at New Year;

…and here it is now.

Solid progress, I hope you’ll agree! Now arguably the rats didn’t quite make it under the wire for Azazel’s Junit challenge, sneaking in last night which is technically July, but I don’t think Azazel’s that strict and anyway I’m just glad to get them finished. Certainly I wouldn’t have had the push to finish them, at least not for a while, without the challenge so, as I’ve been saying here regularly over the last little while, Azazel deserves another resounding “thank you” from me for conjuring and shepherding these little excursions of collaborative encouragement.

Two units that definitely did meet the Junit criteria however were my Space Marines and Imperial Guard squads. When I posted the marines last week I realised I was pretty unhappy with the highlighting on the acting sergeant’s legs and, although you were all too polite to comment on it, it pained me sufficiently that I went back and gave him a quick repaint. Again hopefully you agree that this is an improvement.

And, whilst we’re turning our attention away from fantasy rat-men and onto the defenders of humanity in the far future, I realised after I posted the most recent two guardsmen that I hadn’t added a group shot of the whole squad so here they are, the completed (J)unit of rag-tag serfs, plus a Catachan who’s still on the phone.

Indeed, by way of a pallet cleanser after struggling with the monks, I went ahead and kitbashed another addition to the Guard regiment. I tend to try and keep updates to a theme but as this one is proving to be very much a grab-bag of general updates, here’s a couple of WIP images of the newest recruit.

I know there are a lot of Chaos and Ork models garrisoning the shelves of my house but humanity need not loose hope whilst this little lot stands in their defence.

Having seen the progress that the Skaven army has made in 2018 it occurred to me that it would also be worth taking a look at all the other things I’ve painted this year so here they are, every model I’ve finished in 2018 (minus the Skaven as that made everything too confusing, and also not including the little gang of genestealer infested civilians that I sent off into the northern wilds in search of Big Boss Redskullz). It’s not an unimpressive pile either if I may say so myself, with everything from plague zombies to unicorn-men, and goblin warbosses to skull-faced birds putting in an appearance.

Sadly there’s still only one painted Necromunda ganger in there but expect to see that situation rectified over the next few months. Of course that’s not all I’ve got planned so here’s to plenty more projects over the next six months!

The Emperor’s Angels – Part 7

With not a lot of month left to go the Space Marine squad I pledged to complete for Azazel’s Junit challenge is done. First off here’s a battle-brother with a heavy bolter ready to lay waste to the enemies of the Emperor.

I tried to get him looking battle-worn and battered, and indeed almost got too carried away, so that in the end considerable time was wasted cleaning him up again.

Alongside him here’s the squad’s sergeant to lead them into battle.

With this one I wanted to deliberately reference (perhaps even pastiche) some of the clichés about space marine sergeants. It’s become something of a running gag, unfortunately emphasised by GW with every release, that the one without his helmet who’s pointing at something must be in charge. Thus this was something I couldn’t resist referencing here, hopefully with tongue firmly in cheek rather than just reiterating the cliché.

In the long term I’m planning to expand the squad to ten and create a more elaborate sergeant to lead them, at which point this chap is hopefully generic enough to be demoted to the line without looking overdressed.

Before I called the squad done I also went back and, as suggested by the inimitable KrautScientist, added a blue glow to the gizmos on their arms, plus a little more in the way of freehand livery by adding their squad designation to their knees.

Of course now I find myself very short on time to get those pesky plague monks finished and I’m less than convinced that, even with the best will in the world, I’ll be able to make it. At least I can take up my brushes safe in the knowledge that humanity’s most stalwart defenders are at hand. All together now; “For The Emperor!”