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Hey there, new user here trying to start off with a subject that took a lot of my attention lately, much to the detriment of my work: I decided to build a Fallen Dark Angels army out of the Dark Vengeance minis and play them with the rules of the CSM codex. Heres what I got so far (I realize that this post is a little bit of a mixup in terms of classification, so mods please feel free to move it to a more appropriate place).

I'm by no means a fluff freak, but I like to set a frame for the armies I'm working on because it gives me a feeling of immersion and it's making the entire painting process less painless if I can relate to the minis somehow. Here's what I just drew up this morning:

A Dark Mind
Quietly sitting in the room the heretic guardsmen had prepared for him, Aziel focused his thoughts on memories of battles long ago, of fallen brothers and of secrets too grim to talk about openly. From time to time, he had to organize his mind, forge a connection to the time it all began, to avoid losing control. To remember why he was on the run for thousands of years. It began something like this …

The battle around me burns brightly. The fortress trembles from a multitude of explosions. I am a regular Space Marine of the Legio Astartes, serving in the legion of the Dark Angels. Caliban. My Homeworld. The counter attack happened suddenly. When we opened fire on our own space ships, some of my brothers were surprised. I fend off a chain sword blow and continue advancing, while brother fights brother around me. I have known Luther for years. Fought side by side with him. Back then, I still was a librarian. When Lion El’Jonson sent us back to Caliban, the old man was furious. Hurt. A few feet away, an attacker managed to wrestle brother Gabriel to the ground. I empty my bolt pistol while freeing Gabriel of his burden. He nods in my direction and gets back into the battle. An explosion nearby causes the ground to shake, but the battle continues. It is grim and merciless. I can sense the anger on both sides. When the Primarch returned after many years, Luther began to ask uncomfortable questions: Why had Lion El’Jonson waited so long before rushing to the aid of the Emperor? Wasn’t his ability to move quickly legendary? There could be only one answer: That he waited for one side to win before doing anything. That he was a traitor by heart. That he fell prey to the Chaos Gods.

Aziel opened his dark eyes, which had seen so much pain, with a strong feeling of rage and anger. He still could feel the psionic discharge that scattered his surviving brothers through the warp so long ago. It was since then that he wandered from place to place, always hoping for a chance for revenge. For justice. For the truth.

It took over eight thousand years full of wars and battles, treachery and honor, betrayal and sincerity, until he finally found the young Cypher. Until he discovered that others had also been able to follow the psionic trace that lead to him, even unconsciously. The Cypher seemed to have a plan, and even if he remained cryptic when explaining their next moves, he always seemed to know what to do next, how their little group of fallen angels could act for the best of the Empire and of the true Dark Angels. That is why they followed him. And that is why Aziel knew deep inside him that the true heretics would be punished in the end. And that Aziel would do anything to make it happen. Anything.


So far so good, now for a few pictures. I simply did a little kitbashing to make the Dark Angels a little more chaosy without going all out. A saw some pics once of a Fallen Angels squad with mutations and all, but I like to form my army kind of half way between regular Marines and their Chaos brethren, as I'm pretty sure has also been done a lot of times before.


The Chosen, the Sorcerer and Cypher.


The Terminators.


The Bikes. Unfortunately I took a really gakky picture of those.


The CSM Squad.


Cultists 1. Really not much special about them.


Cultists 2. Not much converting done here either.


So much for those. Any comments? Suggestions how to make them look better?


Lastly, I almost finished painting the first of the minis, the sorcerer. Here's two pics:





As you can see, the paintjob's a little sloppy at best. My question now for all those pro painters out there: Judging from my painting skills displayed in the picture above, do you think I can pull off OSL from the fireball or will it just look as awful as I fear it will?

The future will hold a lot of painting. Then, mid 2013 I hope to be ready with them and to complete the army with an allied Imperial Army, probably with a tank or four and some heavy weapons, build from Cadians and the Forgeworld heretics kits. There aren't a whole lot of Fallen Dark Angels after all!

So much from me, thanks for having me and please don't refrain from critique and comments. I'd really appreciate it!

Your painting over is not bad. Just work on your detail lines and brush control. But i would not attempt OSL yet. And dont feel about jot being able to do OSL. I do commission work and i wont even attempt OSL.

But really cool fire ball?

I like your theme. It's been ages since I've seen anyone run a Fallen Angels army. Your psyker looks very nice, I would just suggest adding some white to the tip of the fireball, and maybe along the flame, only because you can see the green of the greenstuff at the tip of the ball.

Thanks for the input guys. Looks like I'm staying away from OSL for now - I figured I could just try it on the arm, but I'm afraid of ruining it and I really can't be bothered with stripping the paint and doing it all over again. I guess I'm going to try it on some insignificant plasma pistol first and work my way up from there.

As for the fireball, the compliments for sculpting it should be directed towards GW. It's actually just a Spore Mine. Any green edges can only be caused by dubious lighting and my smart phone cam. I might just add that white to the tip of the ball though, I think it's going to add a feeling of hotness. High temperature. You know what I mean.