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Jan, 29th 2013
I originally started this painting blog for my DW army, now that they are almost finished I am expanding this to include my regular DA as well. A lot of my DA army was painted a long time ago so it needs some updating and this is good motivation to get it finished. My color scheme is a little different than the usual DA colors. When I first came up with it, way back when 3rd ed started, I just wanted a DA successor chapter that was a little difference than the rest. My story line for them has always been that their chapter’s mission within the DA is to stop/eliminate any members of the Inquisition that may get too close to the DA secret. Since the last book came out I think they are close to the Disciples of Caliban scheme so that is what I usually field them as. Now in the new book the Disciples of Caliban also have the hunt for Cypher as their main mission, so I just combine GW fluff with my own. Hopefully you enjoy.


Feb, 19th 2012
Well Dakka fans, I have taken a break from my Arbites to work on my on going Deathwing project. I have been working on these guys off and on since dark angels came out in 3rd. The original goal was to build 14 squads of termies because in the 3rd edition codex termies could be taken for all force org slots, I was going to save elites for dreadnoughts. Then the new plastic terminators came out and I though why not do the whole company. Eventually I had 20 squads, hooray goal complete. Then the current codex came out and we lost our ability to take 2 heavy weapons per squad so they boys had to be re-organized. So after the reorganization and some arm swaps I was down to 18 squads. I had planned to finish off the boys but the project has stalled for the past few years. A few months ago I dusted the boys out and decided that they needed an update, their old goblin green bases just weren’t cutting it anymore. So I started the slow process of re-basing them. My new bases are a multiple gray dry brush over sand with black edges. So far I have managed to rebase my dreads, Belial, the yet un-named librarian, and 7 terminator squads. Of the current group I still have 2 squads to paint and 7 more to rebase after that. I also need to throw in a chaplain. I would like to have all of these guys done before the next codex comes out, if the rumors are to be true and maybe there will be some cool new plastic termies to fill the last few spots. Even if the new codex is a long way off it will be nice to have the whole army finished.
So here we go.
The army as of right now 2/19/12


My Belial. I know a lot of people are fans of the thunder hammer storm shield variant, but given his week stats I preffer the extra attack and re-rolls of the lightning claws.


Here is my Librarian. Originally this guy was my Grand Master, back in 3rd all you had to do to play deathwing was take a grand master in terminator armour. For a generic character they were not bad with terminator honors they had 4 attacks, and you could give one model in the army a sword of secrets so strength 6 was nice. But those days are gone and this guy has filled the roll of librarian well, plus I love the conversion I did on him. He is Stern from the GK with a hood and face plate made from green stuff, he also has a force halberd from a GK and the storm bolter arm from the old metal GK sergeant.


Next up Belials Command Squad. I wanted these guys to have an elite look so I continued to use metal stern models for everyone but the apothecary. For most of them I used sterns body and a variety of plastic terminator arms. They also have regular termi heads and hoods out of green stuff.


My Standard bearer. I wish I could paint that well, but the banner is printed. The banner pole itself is from the old metal DA dreadnought, I think.


This assault cannon guys is my favorite model in the army. He just has the “come get some” look to him.


Apothecary Jim, the only non-Stern model in the unit. Originally I was going to get another Sten for him, but somebody gave me a GK so I thought he worked because his armour matched but he still stood out enough.


Next we have the Librarians Command Squad. I kind of still consider this unit in development. I want the whole squad to be made out of old metal terminator captain. I like the look of the robes for these guys as a librarians body guard. So far I have an assault cannon, a lightning claw and a storm bolter & power fist. The other two I don’t think are going to be permanent members of the squad. Whenever I get around to getting two more of the old captains I think I will make one with a thunder hammer and one regular with the storm bolter and power sword. For now though they will do the way they are.


A close up on the assault cannon.


Regular terminator


Lightning Claws


This guy was an early Belial conversion when the current codex first came out. I was never really happy with him as an army commander, but he is ok for a squad leader.


Here is old reliable, my Venerable dreadnought. He is the old metal dread, the back banner is from the old blood angel honor guard. The BA symbols were ground off with a dremel and I added a DA icon from forge world.


Dread #2 w/assault cannon.


With a surprise.


A group shot of some sergeants


My favorite sergeants



I am not great at free hand, but I like differentiate squads with unit markings. I put company and squad number on each squad. This squad for instance is I-II, first company second squad.


When these boys are not teleporting they ride in style. 4 Land raiders and 1 crusader. I am hoping to add a Prometheus and an Achilles to them this year, but that will take some smooth talking to the wife.
My rides






It has been a while, but these guys have won a few awards, but that was back in 4th edition. With family and work my tourney days are behind me, but I am still proud of what they have won. The un-marked one in the middle is a “Best General”. I felt cheated with this one, though. The company that my local GW had making the labels for the plaque went out of business and they wouldn’t pay for anyone else to make them. A whole bunch of us lost out on this one. Oh well, they then switched to the clear ones, which I like better.


I hope to have some more for you guys soon. Comments welcome.

Hello all,
I had some free time and decided to work on a Land Raider Prometheus for these guys. Some major xenos killing power was needed. My projects are kind of limited these days. It is over 100 degrees in my part of the country with high humidity so priming anything is out for the next few weeks. I had the parts to work on this for a while, but just hadn’t gotten around to it. In all it turned out well.







Instead of buying another land raider I decided to convert this out of a regular land raider I already had. I just did a little work on the sponsons and top hatch. Saving a few pennies is a good thing in light of GW price hicks.


I also decided to magnetize the sponson weapons so that I could change it back to a regular land raider if I need a 4th set of lascannons.




Separate hull weapons too.


After rummaging through the bitz bin I found most of the parts I would need to make a Land Raider Ares. I always liked the idea of having one for some heavy fire power. So this land raider will be three tanks in one, once I get all of the weapons magnetized.


An extra removable demolisher cannon.





For now the Prometheus is all done, other than maybe touching up some lights and such. I am waiting on more magnets to come in the mail in order to complete the regular land raider. For the Ares all I need is the assault cannon and dozer blade. I think I have the dozer blade but might have to shop around for the assault cannon. Once the others are done I will share some more pics.

Well I have taken a break from painting Arbites for a while. In hopes that the rumors are true and the DA will be getting a new codex in the next few months I want to get some more done on my Deathwing army so I will be ready to go, plus I want to play a few games of 6th with them in the mean time.

I decided that I need more characters on the table than just Belial. I have had both of these guys around for a while but never got around to painting them until now.

First up my Interrogator Chaplain. He is becoming my favorite in the army. It is the standard terminator chaplain body, however I never liked the arms that he came with. To me they looked too chunky. So I replaced them with the arms from a metal GK terminator. The crozius is from the old 2nd ed terminator chaplain. I like it I think it looks beefy and appropriate for a terminator chaplain to have a massive double handed crozius







I also managed to finish my librarian. I have had this guys since he came out. I am hoping the new codex will have some better powers to go along with how cool the model is. The force staff head has been replaced with an axe. I think originally I clipped it off to use on my Arbites. I had the axe head laying around and like how it went with the rest of the model.




So these guys and Belial will give me 3 HQs, I think that will be enough for now until I see what is in the new book. I am hoping to get a game in with these guys sometime over the next 2 weeks. I can’t wait.

Comments and questions are welcome.

That's a lot of termies! Rather clever use of some of the GK parts, and I like the overall look. Did you earned the rewards with this particular army? I would think you'de be rather outnumbered in most cases...

 Lord_J wrote:
That's a lot of termies! Rather clever use of some of the GK parts, and I like the overall look. Did you earned the rewards with this particular army? I would think you'de be rather outnumbered in most cases...

Yeah GK parts offer some variation and more ornate options for heroes. If there is not new Deathwing bits with the new codex I may have to pick up the GK apothecary bits.

All 3 of the awards were for the Deathwing army, back in the days of the end of 3rd beginning of 4th. Eldar and Chaos were popular back then and both expensive and low numbers. The only swarm armies you had to worry about were nids and orks. Few people played IG back then because there were no vet squads and you had to fill out platoons for troops. Also back then you could have 2 heavy weapons per squad and termies could take drop pods. Oh for those days again. Back then most of my squads were rocking 2 assault cannons plus storm bolters so they dished out a lot of firepower. All you had to do was drop from the skies and unloatd those assault cannons and very little was left standing when the smoke cleared.

It was a fun time. I think 6th will give the army a shot in the arm.

Ah, assault cannons! I'm still rather found of the 2:nd ed. rules for the assault cannon, with the rapid fire dice. If I remember correctly you could ditch out between 3-9 S8 hits... or be jammed and not be able to fire for the next tree rounds... Any thoughts abaut assault cannon vs. cyclone missile launcher? I've got a couple of termies who needs ther'e gear sorted out

I usually run a few squads with each. I usually try to fit at least 4 squads in a list. Most of the time I have 2 assault cannon squads, 2 CML squads and I will add more with various heavy weapons depending on what the game is.

If I was only fielding one or two squads it would depend on what I was facing. Against lots of light infantry I would go with the assault cannon, S6 AP4 rending. Against marines or tanks the CML is good with two crack missile shots. With the current rules for blast weapons I don’t really put much stock in frag missiles these days. For now I would say the best all around weapon is the assault cannon the rending ability even makes it useful against heavy tanks. But time will see the CML might become better when more codex’ have the ability to fire flak missiles, for now I would go assault cannon.

Well it has been a while since I updated this, but since we found out last week that the new codex is confirmed for January 12th, I decided to start finishing these guys. I am trying to finish the re-basing before I start any more squads. This week I did manage to get 5 squads of the old school metal termies updated and looking good.


The old boys clean up well, I think.


Up close they look a little small next to the current ones, but I will only be using them in really big games. So on a battlefield with that many terminators it won’t be that noticeable.



So with 5 squads down I only have 2 more left of the old guys. For my full company I still need to paint 6 more squads. I have two squads of the current plastics buried in the basement that I need to prime. I also have two squads of Dark Vengeance terminators coming in the mail, via eBay. So I think to complete things I will get two Deathwing boxes when they come out. I hope to finish everything soone. My buddy wants to play a game against the full company. Since we have no idea of how the point will work out until the book comes out we don’t know how big of a game it is going to be. Though I think it may be Deathwing against either his Dark Eldar or his orks. Either way I can’t wait to see the whole company on the table at once.

Hopefully my basement will be back together by the time I am finished so we can play the game. My basement was wrecked due to hurricane Sandy and the contractors still are not finished yet. They had to take out the steps and replace them. If any of you have ever experience this you will understand where I am coming from. Apparently it takes a long time to build stairs. I am going on a month with only a ladder to get into my basement.


We are thankful that no one was hurt during the storm, even if it puts a cramp in my hobby time. I can only paint at the kitchen table when my kids are asleep and I can’t find anything because it has all been backed up for the work. Though they tell me the stairs will be in and finished this week and hopefully things will get back to normal. Best I can do for now is keep painting and wait for the codex

Well I was hoping to get all of my squads done in time for the new codex to come out, and I didn’t make it. However I am still plugging away. I finished this squad the other night.


I have decided not to do the squad numbers on the shoulder pads, due to the need to switch out weapon combos. I will be removing the numbers from the rest of the army as well.


Postman Pat brought a special delivery, via eBay, the other day. Here are two squads of Dark Vengeance Terminators to add to the group. I think these guys have some potential for good conversions.


I decided to leave one squad the way they came.


The second squad I did a little converting to change things up a bit.


I had an extra cyclone missile launcher in the bitz bin so I put it to some good use.


This model that is supposed to have the assault cannon, but he almost looks cooler with the storm bolter.


I didn’t want two of the same Sgt models in that pose so I added a thunder Hammer and Storm shield to him and I think he turned out good. I think I may use this guy in one of my Deathwing command squads.


So that is all of the progress I have so far. As of right now I have 75 terminators painted. I own 15 more that I have to prime and paint, that number includes the DV models above. That gives me 90. I was going to by 2 boxes of the new DW Terminators, but instead I decided to get a Land Raider Achilles Hopefully it will arrive in the mail soon. Right now I am not sure what I want the last 10 termies to be so I think I will hold off on getting them until I know for sure. I figure I will play a few games to get a feel for what I need and don’t have yet, like either plasma cannons or Knights.

So that’s all for now. Hope you enjoy.

Well some more progress this week. I finished 2 more squads of terminators. For game play I will eventually be mixing these guys up with other squads but for now they are just grouped for photos and the fact that they are easier to paint 5 at a time.

Some assault terminators.


My first squad of Dark Vengeance terminators. These guys paint up well, though I think the sculptor went a little nuts with purity seals on the power fist guy. He has 6 separate clusters of seals, which to me is a little much.


I like how this guy turned out. He will be in my Chaplain’s command squad, though I think in a pinch he could be used a Belial with TH/SS.


Some other DV conversion pics:




That’s all for now, I still have one squad left to paint for now. I have a land raider Achilles coming in the mail that I think the post office is using an ox cart to deliver. I can’t wait for it to get here, I will be adding some DA etched brass to help it fit into the rest of army.

So I finished another squad of termies this week. This is my second squad from DV and put me up to 90 finished terminators.
Here they are


A good shot at the sergeant


IT’S FINALLY HERE My land raider Achilles arrived in the mail today. I am so glad to see it, the post office took forever to deliver it. I hope to get it primed and painted this weekend, but we will see if the weather cooperates. Before I can paint it I need to take the Adeptus Mechanicus symbol off the front. DA and the Ad Mechs don’t work that well together. I think I will be adding some DA etched brass from FW.





Hopefully the Achilles will be done this weekend. After that I think I need a break from marines for a while. I need 10 more terminators for a full company, but I am not sure if I want knights of another squad. So I am going to play some more games and see what I need more of. Though I defiantly think I want a plasma cannon or two. So we shall see.
That’s all for now.

My wife and I are finally finished with all of our basement wows for now. This weekend we worked hard to get it put back together and I even got to put my new table together. I picked up a ping pong table from Wal-Mart for only $25. It will be great for big games, at full size it is 9x5. A big plus is I can fit my 6x4 game board on it for regular games and we will have plenty of extra room for dice, tapes, and models without crowding the playing field. But remember no drinks on the table, beer foul is unacceptable


After all of this I did manage to find time to finish my newest acquisition, the Land Raider Achilles I am very pleased with how it turned out and the etched brass looks nice. I have some more brass, but I don’t want it to look cluttered. This guy is going to be a great addition to the army.








I am a sucker for full army picks, so with everything I have finished I thought I would get a shot of the entire DW. It is not a full company yet, only 90 terminators so far, but I am going to wait until I get a feel on the codex before I add anything else.




Now that the DW is nearly finished I thought this blog would be a good opportunity to spruce up my PA DA army.


I have a good bit there:
Company Master
Chaplain
Techmarine
Command Squad
6x Tactical Squads
2x Devastators (4x missile launcher & 4x Plasma Cannon)
1x Vet Squad
1x Assault Squad
2x bike squads
2x Land speeder tornados
Dread
In all I think its 110 marines plus characters & vehicles.

Company Master



Company Banner



Chaplain



Most of the army arrives via Drop pod. Back in the day when I started this army GW didn’t make drop pods and FW hadn’t started selling them either, so you had to make your own. The only restriction back then was that it had to fit on a large blast template for a base. They are made out of old Gator Aid bottles. With a little paint and some icons I like how they look and they are a lot cheaper, plus you get to drink the Gator Aid. I will be keeping them even with the new kit out. I don’t like the idea of paying $40 a pop for something that is basically scenery the moment it hits the table. I still have 3 more to paint, I think I will be having a drop pod weekend coming up soon I need to build 3 more for my DW army’s Dreads and my buddy wants 7 for his BA.
Drop Pods:





When DA were stuck in the dumps with the old codex I used the army as regular marines for a while. I built this dread as an Ironclad. Now I am not sure what he will be, I might use him as a chaplain dread. I need to look up the latest rules for siege dreads that might work too.



On the painting table:



In all the years I have had this army I have never had a Librarian in it. I think this poor old guy was so glad to be rescued from the bits bin.

Right now my biggest dilemma is what to do about the bases? There is nothing wrong with the goblin green & flock bases, but after seeing how well the DW turned out I am tempted to redo them. Though I am only 3 drop pods and a librarian away from having a full company finished it is a little disheartening to think about rebasing the whole thing. It is not really necessary because I never field the two companies together so there is no conflict there. But it would look nice. I guess I will think on it over the week, I am a little tired of painting marines for a while though.


The whole family: