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Nice! Since I'm doing a successor chapter, I'm getting some good vicarious pure dark angels action over here

Combat squad 1 section is cool, nice feeling to be dusting off older models?

And I freaking love your vikings... they are choice!

Thanks mate! Indeed it's nice to get the old models out and ready for 8th. And I've got some more Vikings today! More Dark Angels in a couple of days.

Cheers Grim - We Unforgiven have to stick together, after all!

I'm hoping to get that Assassin onto the table as well - just need to finish off Be'Lakor to give him someone to go up again.

The funny thing is my Dark Angels have only ever seen the table a few times. Once I get them up and running I think 8th will finally be their time - when they can take their enemies out back and give them a right good rogering. So to speak.

Ahem. Anyway, those Vikings:



Another pair of Vikings today! Not a whole lot to write about them – one model is duplicated from the ones shown last time, and the other is nothing special, and has an annoyingly awkward hand/shield boss hole.



Having completed these two, I’m left with only another five to go from the sixteen Perry Vikings I picked up from Wargames Foundry. Of course, the final five are my favourites from the set, which is why they’ve been bumped to the back so much, and also why they’ve barely got anything past their chainmail done to date.



On one hand, while the models themselves are nothing too exciting, on the other hand I’m quite happy with the shield designs on both of this pair. I haven’t really done anything especially like them before. Next up for the vikings will be a “Book Two so far” post. Hopefully not too far behind that will be the rest of these Perry Vikings.

Amazing work on the shields again. Most people just go for straight colors or a pattern, but your freehand is amazing. When your done with them all you need to send pics to the perrys. I can see them putting the pics on the website.

Thanks Theo - high compliments indeed. I might possibly do that and see what (if anything) they have to say...

Here we have the newly-raised second 2 Section of 3rd Squad. Having previously been a seven-man squad, it necessitated the addition of three more models to being the unit up to legal 8th Edition. The first of these is the Corporal. I know that officially Corporals aren’t a thing in 40k, but then, Lieutenants were missing for 20-odd years before magically reappearing a month or so ago! The Corporals in my marine forces are the guys who run the other combat squads – usually the fire support bit. I’m giving the Dark Angels Corporals a metal should pad with a simple, embossed chapter badge, and black pauldrons.



This corporal is one of the three new builds for this squad – MkIV legs and helm, MkVIII torso, MkVII arms, a DA Backpack and a Tigrus pattern bolt gun. I wanted to give him a look of being a bit special with the archaic armour and weapon, yet tie him to his Sergeant via the MkVIII torso with its distinctive gorget.



The Heavy Bolter trooper is one of my originals from this unit and one of the older models available in this form factor, the metal-plastic hybrids. So his arms and backpack are (heavy) metal on 3rd edition plastic legs and torso. Having washers underneath the bases of models like this is very necessary for their stability. He has the shouty “sergeant” head from the 3rd edition sprue as I felt it looked cinematically appropriate for a nutter advancing while firing a hip-carried heavy machinegun



These three marines include the other pair of models added to the squad. The central model is one of the originals. The two flanking him here are 2nd edition Tactical marines. Since the rest of the squad is old-school and minimally-blinged, what better models to use in it than 2e Tactical marines. I have given them more modern arms and bolters – because frankly outside of a specific use, the chunky arms and bolters from those days just don’t work for me these days and those older base models look just fine with them.



Here we have 2 Section of 3rd Squad. Prepared to hunker down and give their brethren supporting fire so they can advance, or join them in the forward advance as needed.



Finally, the entire squad with both sections combined. Rebased, reinforced and ready for battle in Warhammer 40k 8th Edition. To find action on the table very soon if all goes to plan.

4th Squad has a member drying from finally being able to spray outside, and the Sergeant nears completion on my desk - hopefully this weekend for the Sgt? 7th Squad also has guys drying out there...

That's a great unit. It's nice to see those older models getting some love.

Love that unit. Love the red period nods with the yellow details, the bases also complement the models very well!

Your Dark Angels look great! I'd love to get my hands on some of the older metal models. I'm kicking myself for not getting Sgt. Naaman when GW was doing those rerelease models.

The dark green with red is such a definitive color pattern and you have nailed it. The remind me of all my old White dwarf issues, very studio style from the 90s.

Thanks guys! The photos of the Dark Angels aren't that great (I may take them again) The chest aquilas are actually bone rather than yellow. Ok, it's yellow-ish, but... and the focus and exposure is a little dodgy as well. I never got Naaman either. I think he was one of Mike McVey's dodgy sculpts that they released? I tried to avoid a lot of them, though I have a bunch of his Death Company. I think I manged to avoid his Lemartes as well. But yeah, they're very much inspired by the '90s studio style. If I were to start them again today they might (have) ended up with black bolter cases instead, but then again maybe not. I'll have other armies for a more muted scheme, after all...



Somewhat recently, I showed off my Legion of the Damned models, updated for 40k 8th edition on nice new scenic 32mm bases. When I took that series of photographs, I somehow forgot(!) to take pics of Sgt. Centurius and the above Bolter Marine. They were residing on a separate shelf at the time, and it was some time before I noticed, let alone got back to take the photos with this pair.



Sgt. Centurius in this case was not painted by myself, but by my friend, Matt F. He was lucky enough to get one from a friend in GW when they were released as part of the “Apocalypse 100” celebration of Games Workshop’s 100th store worldwide, back in March 1996, with rules in that White Dwarf. Of course, there were no GW stores in Melbourne at that time, so for almost all of us, we were SOL. I think Matt was mostly interested in it as a painting exercise, so having done that he was kind enough to pass it on to myself, as I played LotD.



Centurius’ offsider here is another Blood Angels Death Company marine, added to the squad because of the sculpted skulls and scrolls on his armour. (Imagine that! a time where you had to actively seek out Marine models that had some extra skulls and bling on them!~) The flaming-skull shoulder pad is of course freehand. Corvus helms are my favourite mark for painting Legion of the Damned models. The shape and extra space really lend themselves to the design. The Aquila is a transfer, originally just a white outline, I overpainted it with the shading and details. He has 2nd Edition marine arms and a 2nd Edition Boltgun, which has probably now been retconned into being a Phobos-pattern variant. Pretty chunky!

Unfortunately, Sgt. Centurius today suffers today from being an unavailable figure of a named character from a previous edition of the game. Meaning that there are no rules for him or the Animus Malorum (the skull he he holds aloft) , and barring a remake of him in plastic (Slambo!) there will not be rules for him in 8th edition. With that in mind, I’ll have to “Kitbash” some rules for him, based on the other 8th edition Marine and LotD profiles for use in friendly games here. We’re currently using Power Ratings anyway in a friendly-rather-than-exploitative-way, so niggling over a few points isn’t going to be an issue. I’ll do the same with the Librarian when I finish painting him. Yes, LotD had a full army list – in White Dwarf 224 (August ’98).



To cap it all off, we have a group photo of all of my completed Legion of the Damned models. I’ve got a couple more classic Rogue Trader models on the paint desk to join them one day sooner or later, and once they (and a bunch of the other unfinished Power Armour on my desk) are done, I can look at some of the later “proper” LotD models.

Ooo more dangels and Vikings AND LotD . Awesome! Those damned legionnaires really go well with the regular old greenwing guys. I've always wanted to make some LotD but with how cheap storm shields are these days...just seems like company vets could do the job.

Excellent work lately

Thanks Grim! A question on that - how often do you/do you see yourself playing? If it's not all that frequently - or your games are at least as many friendly as WAAC PUGs, then you may as well do yourself a squad of them for the enjoyment of painting them, even if they're not the most optimised or points-efficient models in the Imperium.

Wow those Lotd really pop!

I get in a game once or twice a month these days, but there's no guarantee 40k will make it into that rotation. My brain is happiest when making things that are both cool and useful (even if that use is rare at best), but LotD may be cool enough to skip worrying. I'd have to actively embed bones to paint for my guys, can't freehand like a certain someone.

I always loved that Sgt. Centurius model, I had plenty of opportunity to buy him when he came out, but never pulled the trigger .

Love how your friend painted the bluish glow to his face.

Centurius and his crew look awesome. Straight out of an 'Eavy Metal spread.

Wow... those Legion of the Damned look great!

I reckon some of the viking freehand work you have done would look good on a 40k storm shield or two

Thanks guys! I'm quite happy with the old Cent-man and my LotD overall.

Theo - that's the same kinda thing I was talking about in your plog.

I'll no doubt do some Viking-esque freehand once I start on my Space Wolves. And some Polynesian-inspired stuff on my (squad or two worth of) Carcharodons. I've got about 50 dudes in power armour to get through first before I get to red or grey marines - Mostly more Minotaurs, Dark Angels, Templars and Iron Warriors first up. I've got 6 almost-done Minotaurs on my desk right now that I need to finish first up, but I'm about out of steam to do the fiddly bits of detail right now...

Maybe I need to spend next weekend putting the queue entirely to the side and doing something cool from start to finish to recharge my painting mojo. Maybe a Rapier & crew for the Iron Warriors or something?

While the nostalgic models are cool and I want t see more of your older models refreshed, I'd love to see you tackle some newer stuff as well.

The next few posts will be Dark Angels that I've queued up. I just need to find something cool to paint that will keep me interested but not be too fiddly.

Maybe a FW Praetor, etc model as an IW character or something like that?

Very nice LotD mate. You do know how to bring back those memories with your painting style, very golden age of 'eavy metal.

Assault Squad Terath is the third of my Dark Angel squads that I built back during 3rd edition Warhammer 40k. Originally 8-men strong, I’ve recently painted an additional pair of models to bring them to full strength for 8th edition.





The Sergeant is originally from the second range of Blood Angels Death Company figures, specifically #5 – These were created via Mike McVey’s sculpting of additional details over the top of Jes Goodwin’s plastic marines, recast into metals. I chose him as he was clearly an assault-style marine, was different to the one (or two) “standard” Assault Sergeants of the day, had some bling and was easily armed with whatever I wanted due to separate arms. I gave him a Power Fist and Bolt Pistol/Combat Shield Combi, which I decorated with the Company badge.



The “special” weapons of those squad are a pair of Plasma Pistols. My next Assault Squad (for whichever Astartes force) may well have a bit more variety in it in terms of Flamers and Eviscerators, but like most all of my “resurrected” squads, these guys remain armed with what they were armed with originally.



The Squad Corporal is one of the two models I built and painted recently. In game terms he’s identical to the troopers in the rest of the unit. In the event that I (or anyone else playing them) decides to split the 10-man Squad into 5-man Combat Squads, he’ll be the one to lead them. No functional difference of course, but the model follows the lore – which is how I like to do things. He’s built from a mix of plastic Marine Vanguard and Assault parts with a metal DA shoulder pad and a Templar “knight” style head.





The troopers are made up of two trios of figures. First there’s the 2nd Ed Assault Marines with 3rd Ed arms and weaponry, and then there’s the 3rd Ed Assault Marines, using Tactical (standing) legs in order to fit in better with the 2nd Edition models. (And to free up some running legs for the “charging forward” element of 3rd Squad!) The central figure with the 3rd ed helm is the second of the 2nd edition metal Sergeants released, with a headswap to a plastic marine. He would have been the squad Corporal, except I preferred to incorporate the metal shoulder pad as well as the pad with the nameplate, and both in black – and I didn’t want to mess with this figure beyond rebasing him as he was completed back in the day and I’ve always been quite happy with him. The second of the figures painted to bring this squad up to 10 men is one of the 2nd Edition metals above. If it’s not obvious which model it is of the three, then I’ve done my job of making the new guys fit in with the old. I'm still not entirely happy with the photographs of these guys, though.


Hunting the Fallen…

Auspex screen looks good!

Very nice yet again! I really quite like the Dark Angels but can't connect with the fluff of the unforgiven and all the secrecy or i'd do some myself! one of my first painted mini's was a DA sarge holding the chainsword up :-) didn't look as good as yours by a long shot.

Glorious! I quite like these guys. I hadn't given them s name but I usually designate a specific marine to lead the second combat squad too. Corporal it is

Yet more awesome Dark Angels! I love that sarge with the cool shield especially! The Lion would be proud of these.

The 2nd ed metals fit quite well with the 3rd ed plastics, especially with the newer arms and weapons. You've probably already said this, but what green are you using for these models? I seem to recally that DA green is much darker than this.

Thank you James, Slinky and Zerg. I'm pushing to get my old DA battle-legal ASAP, with a few additions and (it turns out) a lot of subtractions. The old-school RT-era armour is being given to another army, so I'll need to rebuild these guys some more modern tanks and such. At some stage.

Thanks Nerdy - I went for them based on aesthetics over everything else. The Fallen fluff is convoluted but the concept of a SM chapter with a dark secret that they'll abandon or even assassinate their own allies makes them a bit more interesting than the default in a lot of ways.

Grim - I'm using Corporals leading Sections since they reflect the AU and UK military organisation a little. Of course, Squads with Sergeants leading them are based on the US military, so there's that mix in there, though both do "fit" together.

Josh - I'm using my old school recipe, of black undercoat, then DA Green over the top, then highlighted with some scorpion green (old school white flip-top hex-pot) mixed with DA green. The lighting (3 diffused lamps + ambient) brightens them up a fair bit, they're a bit darker in hand.

You are really pumping these Dark Angels out Az, and they look great. I like how the 32mm bases help to modernise some of the older sculpts a well. The pauldrons and combat shield colours on the jump sergeant are especially cool.

And those LOTD look great, I was not even aware of the existence of some of those sculpts.

Good luck with getting your DA into a legal army.