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This will be a log primarily for the 4th company of my current custom chapter, the Void Angels. I've just got a few pics to post today, but hopefully I'll have a lot more very soon! I'm stuck using phone cameras for the most part, but I think the pictures are coming out ok.

Here is a before and after of my counts as Lias Issodon and his "sniper" Sternguard bodyguard.





As you can see, Issodon and the squad sergeant didn't make the second picture. They're not quite done yet. Veterans of this chapter will be primarily black with red and silver accents. The regular rank and file marines will be the opposite - primarily red armor with black pauldrons and helmets and silver accents. Yes - it's basically the flesh tearers heraldry... In my defense tho I'd already picked out the colors before I ever saw the flesh tearers.

I envision the Void Angels as a slightly non-compliant crusader chapter of space marines. I first planned on the Void Angels using Ravenguard chapter tactics - quite simply because I like Jump Packs, and no one ever seems to use those tactics. After researching Ravenguard successor chapters for paint scheme ideas, I started to really like the fluff of the Raptors. Specifically the idea of space marines seeding themselves into IG formations to make the Guard much more capable than they otherwise would be. That just made a lot of sense to me. And thus the Void Angels were born. They're flashier than the Raptors, but they are still very reasonable. They deviate from the Codex in their widespread use of and integration with chapter auxiliaries. Basically, the idea is that if you're going to bother piloting giant ships with hundreds of thousands of people in them through the vastness of space - you may as well have more than a few hundred of them actually fight when they get where they're going.

Eventually I'll include Guardsmen in this army, but at the moment I'm just focusing on the space marine side of things.

Here is Jaria Lazarus - Captain of the Void Angels 4th Company.


I converted him when I was still planning on including a lot of jump infantry in my force to take advantage of the Ravenguard chapter tactics. Now that I've switched to Raptor tactics, there's not as clear a place for him in the army at present. Oh well. he's too cool of a mini not to be included some how. I'll get some shots up of a regular tactical squad when I get home just to show the contrast between the chapter veterans and the regular marines. However, I did promise a sprinkling of eldar as well. So to fulfill that pledge, here is something else I've been working on. I got him from Ghost Miniatures in Russia. Ordering was tricky, but worth it. The mini almost got lost in the US post, but thankfully found his way to my door. He's supposed to be Baron Sathonyx, but I'm going to use him as a counts as Laughing Autarch. I even ripped a fusion gun off of an old storm guardian and stuck it to the bottom of his board so he'd be a little more wysiwyg.

However I end up using the mini, it's a really beautiful figure. (My paintjob not withstanding)


Thanks for taking the time to take a look!

These guys are really cool! I love the dark red and black combo, especially on the winged captain. Subbing to see more of both the Eldar and the SM.

That's really nice work. Could you use the Captain as a Librarian instead? I don't know if the jump pack is useful to go from unit to unit with psychic support.

Thanks for the kind words. I hadn't considered running the captain as a librarian as I actually have another model for a librarian - also rocking the winged sanguinary guard jump pack. He too is in need of a place in this list...Hmmmm....

Anyhow - here are some WIP shots of my Void Angel Tactical squad. As a reminder, the basic paint scheme for the chapter is red armor, black helmet and pauldrons, with silver accents. It's only the special dudes who get kitted out in all black. Up first is a group shot of where I'm at right now. That's a half finished rhino in the back.


These guys aren't finished, but they're also not going to be as clean as my sternguard. I "rescued" most of these models from a fate worse than death, and was able to save them from their corrupt fate only with a thorough soul scouring and re-autohypnosis regimen. Alas, I was not able to expunge all the taint from their inner most recesses. So if a few of them seem like they've been painted with a spatula, that's why. I'll put a close up pic of the melta-gun marine later on - he's probably the worst of the lot.

This guy was the test model for the squad, and in the end I gave him a red helmet. it's a bit of a departure from the standard, but the black helmet under the black robe just looked bad. I'm mixing dark angel and blood angel bits quite liberally - and I think I'm in love with the dark angel veteran sprue. It's fantastic. I think I'm going to adopt the single unsheathed sword as the chapter icon - that way I can use these shoulder pads from the DA box. It's a little hard to see in the picture, but there's one on the robed guy.



I'm also pretty pleased with the sergeant. The plan is to have roman numeral IV for their company next to the tactical squad arrow on their right shoulder pads. I haven't decided where I'm going to put the number for their squad number yet. Ideas? If you look close you can see some black diagonal lines on the inside of his chainsword. I was flirting with doing some "hazard" style markings, but thought better of it. He obviously needs another coat of paint on that chainsword though.

Finally - here is a regular marine where you can see the whole scheme more or less complete.


So what do you think of the different color schemes for veterans vs regular marines? Are they cohesive? Or do they clash? Would it help if I painted a few of my sergeants in the "veteran" colors to introduce the idea of black armor and tie the units together better? Thanks for taking a look!

I really like the robed guy, he looks great. I think your idea of having sergeants in veterans colours could work too. Have you considered using the knee pads to denote squad number. If you painted them black and used a white of silver number it could work well?

 Edreynaline wrote:
I really like the robed guy, he looks great. I think your idea of having sergeants in veterans colours could work too. Have you considered using the knee pads to denote squad number. If you painted them black and used a white of silver number it could work well?

Thanks - I like that robed dude a lot. I'm probably going to pick up another dark angel vet box this week. If I had all the money I would make each tactical squad at least half and half robe/nonrobe. Oh, well. I'll get there. One squad at a time... I think I'll experiment with the kneepad thing. It might help make them look slightly less like blood angels as well.

But! What's an army without a board to march across?! I have something a little different today for you. Here is where I'm at on this 2x2 section for my table. Once I get this one done, I'll only need 5 more like it...one squad at a time right?

Here is how it looked earlier this morning.



And here it is after a coating of blue primer paint and a dusting of black spray paint.



I used the blue paint simply because I had it hanging around in the basement. I needed a thick coat of latex so that I could come back and use spray paint without melting the foam board. Also, I'm going to be putting a river in that riverbed using a product called E-Z Water. You have to heat it to a liquid and then pour it. It sounds simple - which I like. But it also sounds like it could melt through my foamboard. Which I don't like. I'll post the results either way, because there should be a certain amount of humor value to me melting the foamboard that I spent 5 hours cutting cobble stone streets into. I know most people use the two part resin, but hey - this was cheap and I think it will work out.

Hopefully the primer is enough to hold everything together.

I'd like some commentary on the colors I've got down from anyone with some experience painting scenery. I plan for about half of the table to be fairly urban, so I wanted the darker base to paint a concrete/stone color on top of. The rest of the board will be more hills/forests/outlying structures though. As I look at the blue basecoat and black splotchy overspray I kind of like what I see. How could I use that starting point on less urban parts of the board? The cool tones make me start thinking snow and winter, and I'm not opposed to that. Does anyone have any examples of natural terrain with a cooler blue or black base? Do my insane rantings make sense?

Thanks for taking the time.

Sadly I'm not an expert on scenery-building, so I'm afraid I can't help you with your (pretty cool-looking) terrain

I like the colour scheme for your marines a lot, especially on the Sternguard, those guys look great

Also, kudos to you for saving some Marines from a fate worse than death, may the Emperor's light shine on you today!

Whelp - here we are. Six months later.

The Void Angels are chugging along, but I'll post some updates for them later. My hope is to post updates once a week, and thereby get something of a rhythm going to my painting. We'll see how successful I am. Anyhow - I've been sidetracked by a small Inquisition project. I've been raiding the old bits box, and ebaying a bit, and I've knocked together what I think is a pretty cool version of Coteaz. Check him out!





The basic bits of the model are pretty easy to identify. It's the lower half of a Dark Angels veteran with the upper half of a Vampire Lord from the terrorgheist kit. I decided to do the conversion when I saw the falcon on ebay. I'm not sure which Bretonnian knight kit it comes from, but when I saw it I knew that I had to have it. I've wanted to make a smallish inquisitorial warband for a while but discovering that falcon sealed the deal. All the other bits are odds and ends from both Grey Knight infantry boxes.

At the moment I think he still looks a bit too "fantasy" for my tastes. I think he needs a servo-skull or something more overtly mechanical. Thoughts?

No paint on Coteaz yet - but his warband is starting to come together. Just as I salvaged the vampire lord bits for coteaz from an earlier project, these two psykers are also from a previous stab at getting into fantasy that didn't pan out. That's why the models are primed and the staves aren't. I'm on the fence about the shields. I think they look pretty cool, but again I think I need to add some more obviously sci-fi bits to them to pull them away from their fantasy heritage.

Time for my quarterly update to this thread!

Here are the proof of concepts for the Gilead Fusiliers - my own personal take on the IG and what will probably morph into the house serf guard for my Void Angels space marine chapter.

Mostly, I just like the word Fusilier. As you can tell, these are a mix of Bretonian Men at Arms Heads, Cadian torsos and bits, Flagellant lower halves, and Skitarii rifles.

Working on a number of things currently. First - as a bit of an addendum to my post from 5 months ago, here are two new characters for the house guard IG contingent. A priest and a primaris psyker.





They're almost done. Bases need to be finished, and there are still a few touch ups to be made, but they're looking pretty good. My very silly plan for these guys is to use Issodon to infiltrate a 40 man blob squad - sergeants wielding axes of course - along with some infiltrating TH/SS terminators in a land raider. As I said - very silly. But unexpected!

So to go along with this infiltrate alpha strike, I'm also working on a shadowstrike kill team. One of the scout squads is basically done - again I need basing here. The other is getting base colors. And finally the Vanguard Vets are just barely assembled.




I'm a really painfully slow at painting, so I'm experimenting on trying to speed up with these scouts by sticking to a straight tabletop standard. These guys are basically just a layer or two of base colors - silver, red, black, and some brown for the leather pouches and straps - with a wash on all the metallic parts and the leather. I think they're looking fine - but it's taking an effort of will to avoid going in and highlighting. Hopefully I can stay strong.



Load out is x3 Double lighting claw guys, one axe, and one naked guy just to eat overwatch. I with I knew if the "only one grenade per squad in assault' rule is going to stick. I want to glue some melta bombs on, but not if they're going to end up being mostly decorative.