Monthly Archives: August 2017

Dark Angels: 7th Squad (Assault), 2nd Octavius Crusade Company.

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Dark Angels Space Marine Assault Squad.

Assault Squad Terath is the third of my Dark Angel squads that I built back during 3rd edition Warhammer 40k. Originally 8-men strong, I’ve recently painted an additional pair of models to bring them to full strength for 8th edition.

Dark Angels Space Marine Assault Squad Sergeant, 3rd Edition Death Company

Dark Angels Space Marine Assault Squad Sergeant, 3rd Edition Death Company

Dark Angels Space Marine Assault Squad Sergeant, 3rd Edition Death Company

The Sergeant is originally from the second range of Blood Angels Death Company figures, specifically #5  – These were created via Mike McVey’s sculpting of additional details over the top of Jes Goodwin’s plastic marines, recast into metals. I chose him as he was clearly an assault-style marine, was different to the one (or two) “standard” Assault Sergeants of the day, had some bling and was easily armed with whatever I wanted due to separate arms. I gave him a Power Fist and Bolt Pistol/Combat Shield Combi, which I decorated with the Company badge.

Dark Angels Space Marine Assault Squad, 40k Second Edition, Plasma Pistol

Dark Angels Space Marine Assault Squad, 40k Second Edition, Plasma Pistol

The “special” weapons of those squad are a pair of Plasma Pistols. My next Assault Squad (for whichever Astartes force) may well have a bit more variety in it in terms of Flamers and Eviscerators, but like most all of my “resurrected” squads, these guys remain armed with what they were armed with originally.

Dark Angels Space Marine Assault Squad

Dark Angels Space Marine Assault Squad

Dark Angels Space Marine Assault Squad

The Squad Corporal is one of the two models I built and painted recently. In game terms he’s identical to the troopers in the rest of the unit. In the event that I (or anyone else playing them) decides to split the 10-man Squad into 5-man Combat Squads, he’ll be the one to lead them. No functional difference of course, but the model follows the lore – which is how I like to do things. He’s built from a mix of plastic Marine Vanguard and Assault parts with a metal DA shoulder pad and a Templar “knight” style head.

Dark Angels Space Marine Assault Squad, 40k Second Edition

Dark Angels Space Marine Assault Squad, 40k Third Edition

The troopers are made up of two trios of figures. First there’s the 2nd Ed Assault Marines with 3rd Ed arms and weaponry, and then there’s the 3rd Ed Assault Marines, using Tactical (standing) legs in order to fit in better with the 2nd Edition models. (And to free up some running legs for the “charging forward” element of 3rd Squad!) The central figure with the 3rd ed helm is the second of the 2nd edition metal Sergeants released, with a headswap to a plastic marine. He would have been the squad Corporal, except I preferred to incorporate the metal shoulder pad as well as the pad with the nameplate, and both in black – and I didn’t want to mess with this figure beyond rebasing him as he was completed back in the day and I’ve always been quite happy with him. The second of the figures painted to bring this squad up to 10 men is one of the 2nd Edition metals above. If it’s not obvious which model it is of the three, then I’ve done my job of making the new guys fit in with the old.

Dark Angels Space Marine Assault Squad, 40k Third Edition

Hunting the Fallen…

 

Legion of the Damned #4: Sgt. Centurius and Legionnaire.

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Legion of the Damned, 2nd Edition, Sgt. Centurius

Somewhat recently, I showed off my Legion of the Damned models, updated for 40k 8th edition on nice new scenic 32mm bases. When I took that series of photographs, I somehow forgot(!) to take pics of Sgt. Centurius and the above Bolter Marine. They were residing on a separate shelf at the time, and it was some time before I noticed, let alone got back to take the photos with this pair.

Sgt. Centurius in this case was not painted by myself, but by my friend, Matt F. He was lucky enough to get one from a friend in GW when they were released as part of the “Apocalypse 100” celebration of Games Workshop’s 100th store worldwide, back in March 1996, with rules in that White Dwarf. Of course, there were no GW stores in Melbourne at that time, so for almost all of us, we were SOL. I think Matt was mostly interested in it as a painting exercise, so having done that he was kind enough to pass it on to myself, as I played LotD.

Centurius’ offsider here is another Blood Angels Death Company marine, added to the squad because of the sculpted skulls and scrolls on his armour. (Imagine that! a time where you had to actively seek out Marine models that had some extra skulls and bling on them!~) The flaming-skull shoulder pad is of course freehand. 🙂

The only changes I’ve made to Sgt. Centurius over the years have been to rebase him to fit in with my models (twice now) and replace the plastic backpack with a metal Legion of the Damned one.

The skull-design on the Legionnaire’s MKIV Corvus helmet is also freehand. Corvus helms are my favourite mark for painting Legion of the Damned models. The shape and extra space really lend themselves to the design. The Aquila is a transfer, originally just a white outline, I overpainted it with the shading and details. He has 2nd Edition marine arms and a 2nd Edition Boltgun, which has probably now been retconned into being a Phobos-pattern variant. Pretty chunky!

Unfortunately, Sgt. Centurius today suffers today from being an unavailable figure of a named character from a previous edition of the game. Meaning that there are no rules for him or the Animus Malorum (the skull he he holds aloft) , and barring a remake of him in plastic (Slambo!) there will not be rules for him in 8th edition. With that in mind, I’ll have to “Kitbash” some rules for him, based on the other 8th edition Marine and LotD profiles for use in friendly games here. We’re currently using Power Ratings anyway in a friendly-rather-than-exploitative-way, so niggling over a few points isn’t going to be an issue. I’ll do the same with the Librarian when I finish painting him. Yes, LotD had a full army list – in White Dwarf 224 (August ’98).

To cap it all off, we have a group photo of all of my completed Legion of the Damned models. I’ve got a couple more classic Rogue Trader models on the paint desk to join them one day sooner or later, and once they (and a bunch of the other unfinished Power Armour on my desk) are done, I can look at some of the later “proper” LotD models.