Hello all! I'm Ellie, and I've played Warhammer for about ten years now. And the entire time I've detested painting. I love building the models and I love playing the game, but the middle step has always been an issue for me. A couple of months ago I decided that I should try much harder to enjoy the painting side of the hobby, and actually improve my techniques. Most the paint I owned before this project were three-generations old screwcap Citadel paints, and typically I'd do most of painting with a spray can.
I've picked Blood Ravens for a few reasons. I very much enjoyed the Dawn of War games, and by playing the Blood Ravens I can play a recognisable chapter of Marines. Beyond the games however, they have very little development. This gives me plenty of room to make them my own - and on top of this, the number of relics they own is rather awesome. With so many bits of gear they really shouldn't have (Custodes armour?
Forgebreaker?!), I have opportunities to model them uniquely, and differentiate characters in other ways than just bare heads and cloaks. Also, BKZer0's fantastic army diary on B&C has been a very big source of inspiration, and I can't thank him enough for his work.
The goal is to end up with the entire 5th Company eventually, and to create armies to game with along the way. Thus, I will need:
Captain
Librarian
Chaplain
Standard Bearer
Apothecary
Six Tactical Squads
Ten Jump Pack Assault Marines
Six Assault Marine Bikers
Three Assault Centurions
Fifteen Devestator Marines
Three Devestator Centurions
One Dreadnought
Some squads will not be at full strength, in order to give a total of exactly one hundred Marines. At some point I also plan to make my Chapter Master - I plan to set my army in M42, and thus have totally original characters. I'd love a relic of Gabriel Angelos in the army, and I imagine he'll be wielding it. At some point I also need to get the Forge World transfers sheet for them, but that'll be later in the future - they don't add as much to my army as more guys do I think.
Currently working on: Five Devestator Marines, Five Tactical Marines.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Blood Ravens 5th Company, 1st Squad
So, before I started this diary I wanted to totally finish a squad, to see if I would actually get on with it. So many times I've bought loads of models, painted a few of them and then given up. This time I bought just one squad and didn't buy anything else until I finished them. Well...I did!
Brother Jerome, the first Marine painted. My mommy's been helping me name my guys, which has been great fun.
Likewise, my mommy also said I needed pink somewhere on at least one guy. It contrasts enough with the red armour, so I'm gonna use it for all the plasma coils/power cells I think.
Sergeant, front and back. With red already being used for the armour, I decided using bone, their secondary colour, was a codex-appropriate Sergeant marking.
The entire squad!
I've bought the next box of Marines, as well as a few bits online. The next ten will be five more Tactical Marines, and five Devestators, with two lascannons between them. Along with a Librarian and two Rhinos, I'll have my 500 point army!
