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This blog will mainly be about my new Blood Angels Successor Chapter, The Sable Brotherhood, but may occasionally feature models from my Vostroyan Guard army when I want to showcase them.

Here's some of the models I'm working on so far, I only really have two "done" so far, though some small touch ups are possible (or even likely) in the future:







This Reiver is the first model of the chapter that I painted, as I was just going through a set each of the easy to build Reivers and Intercessors painting each model a different colour scheme. I decided I rather liked this one, so I also painted the intercessor below to match, and I'm currently working on a second Reiver to go along with this one.



I decided that they would use somewhat similar marking systems to the blood angels, though they would move them to different locations. The right shoulder pad displays the marin's company, like the BAs, but the squad markings and/or additional adornments take up the rest. Then, the marine's specialization/squad type is represented by a small symbol on the right knee. Assault/close combat troops have a skull, tactical type units (there are no true tactical units in this chapter, each marine is trained and prepared for close combat if need be) have a diamond, and fire support/heavy weapons marines have a heart (I don't have any yet, so this is subject to change).





Here they are together.

The one other unit I've really started working on is a primaris chaplain, who will be one of the main leaders for my forces on the ground, while the main force of my company will be flying overhead via jumppacks.



Here he is, unprimed. I wasn't a fan of the pimpstick look of his crozius, and felt that the scythe better fit the theme of my chapter (more on that later) so I replaced it with one from the Empire Wizards kit I got years ago while I was trying to build an Empire army for Warhammer Fantasy.







He's still not done (obviously,) as I still need to finish the backpack and scythe details, apply transfers, and otherwise tidy him up.

Please excuse my poor photography skills, I'll try to improve as I continue posting.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Just fixed the images, I didn't insert them correctly last time.

Looking good so far. Digging the Grim Reaper chaplain.

 youwashock wrote:
Looking good so far. Digging the Grim Reaper chaplain.

Thanks. It was a fairly easy conversion, I just cut the part at the top of the staff that keys into the spiked skull off, then trimmed the four spikes that ran around the collar at the top off to make room for the vine that hangs down and the other plastic that wraps around. Then I cut the contact tab on the scythe head off, and drilled and scored away the plastic on the inside of that final wrap of the vine off until I had a space inside large enough for the top collar on the staff. Glue that and the vine onto the top of the staff, angled to really show off the huge blade and skull, and voilà. Mr. Reaper is ready for business.

Part of the fluff for my chapter is that they've really bought into the whole "angels of death" thing. The chapter was formed from the Astartes that served in the Order of the Angel's Tears, the Blood Angel's version of Destroyer Squads. I'm working on how to write out all the fluff and post it on here in a way that won't seem like a huge, boring wall of text. I can't do any modeling right now, since I'm on vacation, and after that I want to order in the last few things I need to really start working on my 1000 pt. army I have planned. All I need are two boxes of DC, a Sanguinor who I intend to steal the wings and jumppack off of for my Slamguinius build, and the jump chap. that I intend to use as my Lemartes.

The thread I have been asking for advice on for my list is here: https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/777076.page

Update:

I've ordered in and received all the models I need to make my army, with the exception of the aggressors and possibly tactical marines. I've started work on several models and kits, so here are some pictures of how things are coming along:



This was my second riever as of last Friday. Since then, I've highlighted him and put a fair bit of work into cleaning him up:







I've been greatly enjoying painting these guys up, and being able to add the little details, for example, the feathered cuts and scrapes in the leather equipmont pouches and holsters on their belts.





Here's my Primaris Lieutenant. I don;t have him in my current list, but I can swap the chaplain out for him and save a couple points, and improve the shootyness of my ground squads.





Here's the first of my Vanguard Vets squad, He's one of the two chainsword/stormshield ablative wounds. Even for a guy who's supposed to beat back chaff unites and protect more expensive models, I'd say I'm pretty pleased with how he ended up. I had to do a tiny bit of trimming to get his head to fit, I've got a set of heads from the sanguinary guard kit that I'm scattering around my unites to add some flavor. I'm still deciding on what shoulder pad to stick on his right arm, and weather or not these Vanguard Vets, who serve as this companies company veteran squad, should have crux terminatus' on their right shoulder pads, or just regular decorative ones.





Finally, my smash captain. I'm pretty pleased with how this guy turned out, though there are a few things I'd change about him if I could start over. Better posing, perhaps a different shoulder pad for his right shoulder, etc. All in all, I'd say I'm happy with how this force is turning out. As promised, here's some fluff to explain why I made some of the choices I did:

“Founded from the original legion during the 2nd founding in the early 31st millenium, The Sable Brotherhood are a fleet-based successor of the Blood Angels. Known for their terrifying rage and rapid jump assaults in battle, and their dour and humorless personalities outside combat, the chapter has few allies outside a handful other chapters of the Adeptus Astartes who have learned to respect them. Those who fight alongside them have have seen for themselves that there are few things more deadly in close combat that a member of The Brotherhood with a power weapon in his hands.

The brothers of the chapter universally have pale, nearly transparent skin, beneath which their blue veins can be seen to trace across their flesh. The older members of the chapter also begin to lose the signature blond hair color of the sons of Sanguinius much sooner than any of the other chapters of the blood, as their hair gradually lightens to white. The reason for these mutations lie in the origin of the founding Sable Brotherhood astartes.

The chapter was founded by nearly all of the astartes within the IXth legion that had served more than a few times in the Order of the Angel’s Tears, the Blood Angels’ equivalent of destroyer squads. Armed with rad missiles, phospex grenades, and melta bombs, the astartes who served in these squads and brought utter destruction on the orders of their Primarch were exposed to high doses of the toxic payloads their weapons carried. Those that served in these squads more than once or twice were permanently marked by the changes in their bodies, as their skin and hair lost pigmentation. These astartes were often shunned and isolated, as the use of rad and phosphex weapons was seen as a cowardly and immoral necessity in most legions, including the Blood Angels. When the legion was broken into chapters following the Siege of Terra and the end of the heresy, the astartes who served in the Order of the Angel’s Tears grouped together, forming a chapter of their own. They were also joined by other Blood Angels who were inclined towards the mindset of the chapter, which involves striking quickly and annihilating the foe utterly before they have a chance to respond. These included several elite terminator squads, including members of the honored Crimson Paladins order.

The Chapter continued to don the black and red armor of the destroyers, with a few changes over the millennium since. They carry the same blood drop and vial relics, and winged blood drop markings most other chapters of the blood do, and decorate their armor with sculpted details and painted murals. Their chapter symbol, the spade, is an ancient symbol of death and the warrior caste. Much of their war gear has been passed down from brother to brother, and many of the more ancient jump packs, armors, and weapons even bear traces of the old legion iconography.”

Most of my lore is scraped together from lore I found in The Devastation of Baal and online from the Wiki, the Fandom Wiki, 1D4chan, etc. that I've incorporated into my designs, or reversely wrote to explain why I did something. A good deal of it just seemed to fall into place, including my discovery that my chapter's colour scheme closely resembles that of the Angel's Tears squads, after I had already come up with the colour scheme and idea of them being thier descendants. I choose to believe that all these coincidences are a sign that the Emperor himself approves of my work, so I'll just keep trucking along and working with it.

I'm not sure how my posts are going to go over the next week or two, since I'll likely post tomorrow, and then not have time for the next week or two. I'm heading into Uni, and moving into residence as I do. We'll see how it goes.

Hey guys! I'm not dead (yet), I've just been a bit busy moving in and adjusting to dorm life. I haven't had much time to really get down and paint, and I only brought a small handful of minis with me. However, here's my meager progress since my last update:



The chaplain is coming along. I've layered the ribs, ribbons, and some other details, and done some work to start tidying him up. Not very exiting, but he'll get his day soon enough...





The lieutenant has been primed, and I've started on his layering. Mostly though, I've been trying to get his power sword blade to look really good using the glazing technique I saw on the Warhammer painting youtube channel on painting hell-forged blades. It's a bit of a struggle, I'm not quite sure how it's going to turn out, but I'm pleased so far.







Finally, I've really started in on my BA jump chaplain. I converted him so I can run him as Lemartes, since I'm not a fan of the finecast version. I've worked with a lot of resin before, both good and bad, but GW finecast is by far some of the most brittle and bubbly stuff I've ever had to fix up. Anyways, I wanted to give him a bolt pistol, but didn't want to just cut his hand off at the wrist and leave a huge visible joint. I've done that with my DC (I'll show you them later) but I had ways of hiding that with them that just wouldn't work on this beautiful and ornate armor and still look natural. I couldn't just switch out the arm, as the shoulder was specially designed to key together, and the shoulderpads were also likewise designed to key in with specific blocks cut out of the shoulders and moved inside the shoulderpads so the fit just so. So, naturally, I took his arm off just under the shoulder. I used an arm from the DC kit, and spliced them together just where the shoulder armor turns into the upper arm. The shoulderpad hides most of the joint, and the rest is pressed up against his torso where no one will ever see. I find that it all fits together rather well, and I'm pretty happy with it. The jump pack's wings have been glazed over on the front side, and the back side will be done soon enough. I've kept the jump pack and arm separate from the rest of the model for ease of painting, and I really can't complain with how easy the model is to paint this way.

Anyways, there's my update. I'll be back when I have enough stuff built up to be worth sharing. As an aside, is anyone actually following or otherwise interested in this series? I'm just curious if all the views I've received are people dropping in when this is on the newest page of the P&M section, or if people are actually invested in me hurrying up and giving them content.

Have a nice day, I'll be back when I can. Cheers.