BA Painting - Assault Squad and Sergeant Banner

So it has been a while since I've posted any pictures, but there is good reason for this.  I've been working pretty diligently on the first five assault marines, as well as a free-hand job on the tactical sergeant's banner.  Pictures below!

I decided that the tactical squad would be squad number 5 in the fourth company of blood angels.  Hence the roman numeral 'V' that makes it way onto the sergeant's banner.  This banner was my first real free handing job, and I think it turned out really well!

I went with the yellow helmet for the assault marines (which is pretty standard for blood angels I think).  Quick overview of the painting, I basecoated Scorched Brown, followed by three coats of sunburst yellow.  I then gave it a wash with baal red.

Theres the whole squad painted.  I just got the next 5 assault marines in, so they are next...

Blood Angel Month 4 Purchases

As I found out from the combat patrol battle against the imperial guard, a five man squad of assault marines can die very quickly to some sub-par dice rolls.  Therefore, the first order of business for this month is to fill the squad out with another 5 marines.


For a bit of variety in deployment, I've also decided to get a drop pod.  I've never used any deep striking units before, and with a full assault squad that can deploy via deep strike as well as a drop pod I think I'm going to start to figure out if it works well with my play style.  And if not, drop pods still look sweet so its a win-win!

 

These two purchases cost $72 dollars in total from Great Canadian Miniatures, which (when combined with my extra $12 from last month) leaves me $10 in the hole for next month.  

Tactical Marine Painting - Finishing Touches

This post is a continuation of the tactical marine painting.  Part 1 can be found here, while Part 2 can be found here.

In this post I'll describe the process of basing and applying a transfer to the shoulder pads of my tactical marines.  I'll also show a picture of the completed squad!

Basing


The first step was to remove the marines from their bases, as I had used putty to temporarily hold them on the bases as I was painting.  I then used a modeling knife to remove the putty from the base and the bottom of the feet of my marines.

I then squirted a little bit of regular white glue (from 7-11 believe it or not) onto each of the bases.  I used an old-ish brush to spread the glue around evenly on the base, then dipped the base into a container full of sand from a beach.  After waiting about 20 minutes for the glue to dry, I undercoated the bases with Chaos Black undercoat.  This not only made painting the sand easier, but I found it also helped the sand stick onto the base better.  Once the undercoat was dry, I basecoated the top and sides of the bases Scorched Brown.  I then painted the sand with a 1:1 mix of Sunburst Yellow:Scorched Brown, then highlighted the sand with Bleached Bone.

After this, I used superglue to glue the marines back onto their bases, you can see the finished product below!

Applying Blood Drop Transfer

Applying the transfer to the shoulder pad of my marines was actually much easier than I thought it would be (I've never done a transfer before this).

I started off by cutting the transfers individually and then placing them on a wet paper towel.

I took each transfer individually and held it in my left hand.  In my right hand I used a damp paint brush to slide the transfer off its backing onto the shoulder pad of my marines.  I then brushed over it lightly to make sure it was flush with the surface of the shoulder pad.  Easy!

To round things off, here is a picture of the finished squad, defending a hill!

Tactical Marine Painting - Details

This post is a continuation of the tactical marine painting.  Part 1 can be found here.

In the armor painting post, I broke the painting into steps that were each well defined and timed.  However, with detail work that is not very easy to do, as each model will have slightly different details that you need to paint on them.  So instead of breaking the painting guide into steps, I will try to briefly describe how I painted some of the major details.

Skulls

There are skulls everywhere on marines - the armor, backpacks, and helmets.  I painted the skulls on my marines with a basecoat of Scorched Brown, and then a coat of Bleached Bone.  For the large skull on the flag carried by the sergeant, I highlighted it Skull White.

Wing Crest

For the wing crest on the chest of the marines, I basecoated it black, then drybrushed it with a 1:1 mix of Skull White:Chaos Black.  I do a lot of small mixtures like this because I don't have that great of a selection of paints, so I have to make my own a lot (in this case, a grey).  The drybrush gave it a nice, highlighted look.

Purity Seal

I painted the seal itself with two coats of Sunburst Yellow.  For the parchment, I basecoated it Scorched Brown then did a sort of drybrush with Bleached Bone to make it look kind of like worn paper.

Weapons

I used pretty much the same paint scheme on all of the weapons - a basecoat of a 1:1 mix of Boltgun Metal:Chaos Black followed by a highlight of Boltgun Metal.  For the meltagun barrel, I used a basecoat of a 1:1 mix of Shining Gold:Scorched Brown followed by a highlight of a 2:1 mix of the same paints.

Eyes

I painted the eyes yellow!


That pretty much sums up the detailing painting, now I just need to finish up the basing and the tactical marines are complete!  As for timing, the detailing took on average 45 minutes per marine, bringing the total time spent per marine up to 105 minutes.

BA 400 Point Army List

As this battle is very early on in the TOTG, I don't have much in the way of options.  For combat patrol missions, you only need 1 troop choice, and can't take any model with over 2 wounds, so that ruled the captain out.  Looking through my options, it seemed that taking a Sanguinary Priest would be a good idea, as it would give all models within 6" Feel no Pain, greatly increasing the durability of my army.  Without furthur ado, here is my list:

Sanguinary Priest - power sword, jump pack [90]

10 Tactical Marines - melta-gun, missile launcher [175]

5 Assault Marines - melta-gun, sergeant with power fist [135]

Total Points - 400

Battle Report 1

This battle is a continuation of this story.

BA Pre-game thoughts:


Well, my army choice was pretty limited for 400 points, but I managed to field a full tactical squad, a five man assault squad and also managed to sneak in a Sanguinary Priest (SP), which would give any squad within 6" feel no pain (see BA Combat Patrol army list for full details). With only 16 total models, getting that 4+ roll to keep each one alive is going to be huge. The SP will join the assault marines. The game plan - get into assault as soon as possible!

IG Pre-game thoughts:



Due to the postal strike in Canada, the stuff I had ordered off of ebay for Month 2 is STILL in the US (at time of battle), and I likely won't see it for a few more weeks. As such, my army was just barely able to make the 400 pt limit, and even then only with some mostly useless add ons (extra armour, HK missiles) that made up almost 10% of my points. In any case, I was really worried about fighting Space Marines with no AP 3 weapons (outside of my 3 meltas), until I realized I had almost double the models, including 2 armoured vehicles! Combined with orders, surely that would be able to at least chip away at the Marines. My plan was to use the combined firepower of all my squads to bring down the Assault squad, or at least make it a managable size, using the CCS's meltas to hopefully finish them. That would leave my army (hopefully fully) intact to take out the Tactical squad. I comtemplated outflanking the Sentinal to try to assault the Tac Squad and tie it up, but I figured it would probably die in the first Assault (later I would realized St 4 Marines wouldn't get penetrating hits...so it may have lived a turn and really helped out!) Now just not to forget to use the Hunter Killer Missiles...

Deployment

BA Turn 1

Not much excitement here, just moved the assault squad and tactical squad full speed ahead. Both got decent run rolls as well, to get as close as possible to the enemy.


IG Turn 1


Predictably the Space Marines had come straight at me, though alarmingly so. I would only get one turn of shooting before the Assault Squad would be able to assault my blog squad. I moved the Chimera into position and unloaded the CCS beside the Assault squad, ready to melta them to death. My orders went well, with all Squads passing their First Rank Fire, Second Rank Fire! without any issues, even getting a double one roll. I eagerly counted the blog squad's guns, amounting to 34 lasgun shots! The grenade launchers both connected for two hits each, while the lasgun and autocanon's combined for less than average but still decent hits. However unfortunately, poor roles and some incredibly lucky Feel No Pain rolls meant only one marine died. My PCC failed to do any damage, leaving the CCS to the task. Luck seemed to evade me still as only one melta wounded; the combined armour and FNP meant only two Assault Marines parished. As consolation the Sentinal took out one Tactical Marine, but I knew I was in big trouble now.

End of turn 1

BA Turn 2

Well, I'd managed to squeak out of turn 1 without taking too many losses, and both squads were poised to assault this turn! I assaulted his large troop squad with the assault squad and his command squad with the tactical squad. In both cases I chose not to shoot at the squads just incase I killed over 25% with my shooting and caused his squads to flee out of my assault range. With the assault marines I killed 4 guardsmen to 0 kills in return, causing that squad to flee off the board. The tactical marines did some good damage as well, killing every model except his commander... yet somehow he passed his leadership test and stuck around!

IG Turn 2


Yup big trouble. With the game already all but over, I was going to try to take out the Assault Marines at least. I repositioned the Chimera to use the Heavy Flamer, issued FRFSRF to the PCC and unloaded all I had. Again the armour and FNP saved the Assault Marines from the Chimera, however I got a bit lucky with the PCC and killed the Priest and Sergeant...if only I could have gotten so lucky on turn 1!

End of turn 2

BA Turn 3

Some somewhat lucky shooting meant that I would no longer be getting any FNP rolls, but it was too late for the guardsmen with his army in tatters and me having only lost 5 marines. The remainder of the assault squad assaulted and ran down the platoon command squad while the tactical marines opened up on the side armor of the chimera, taking it out. With only the sentinel left (albeit in cover in the corner) it was pretty much game over.

IG Turn 3

With only my Sentinal left, we ended the game. The Sentinal pilot had seen enough, and was ready to make his report about the scout platoons unfortunate demise.

End of turn 3

BA Post-game thoughts

I'd say that the SP was the man of the match. He was about average in close combat, but I made 5/6 FNP rolls before the priest succumbed to auto-cannon fire, which means that he saved 5 assault marines (which happens to be the entire squad) all by himself. Couldn't ask for much more from an 85 point model! In the end the marines higher toughness and armor was too much for the guardsmen to handle, with them needing a ridiculous amount of shots just to take one marine down... I have a feeling there will be much more AP3 weapons on their side for the next battle.



IG Post-game thoughts


I had figured the game would come down to me killing enough stuff on my first shooting turn, though I didnt' think it would be so drastic a defeat if I had failed. Obviously going first would have helped, though as my opponent pointed out after the game, it takes quite a bit to take down a FNP Marine with low Str/AP weapons (something like 36 lasgun shots?). Still, taking out even one or two more Assault Marines would have possibly allowed my blob squad to have survied combat a bit better...maybe? I think I really should have contemplated scouting the Sentinal and using it to tie up the Tac Squad, even had it failed it would have been a high reward had it worked out as my CCS may have survied to shoot another turn. It also would have helped to remember the HK missiles, the two of them could have accounted for another Assault Marine on Turn 1..maybe? Lot's of maybe's, in the end I was clearly outmatched. Time to get a Leman Russ!

An unfortunate encounter

Sergeant Cassiel had an uneasy feeling.


A small detachment of Blood Angels had been sent to Tanniloth Minor to investigate a series of gruesome killings in some of the smaller settlements on the edge of the wilds.  Although Cassiel hadn't seen them in person yet, he had heard recounts from his superiors of humans being found hung upside down from trees, completely drained of blood.  These events had the entire company on edge, as the humans of the Tanniloth system were a superstitious lot, and there were many urban legends of the Blood Angels having an unquenchable thirst for the holy liquid from which their chapter gets their name.  The company certainly didn't need the human's help in their quest for the artifact, but open hostilities would hamper the search effort.


"We've intercepted an imperial patrol", said Sergeant Machidiel, voice crackling over the intercom.


"Did they see you?" responded Cassiel.


"I'm afraid so, and they don't look all too friendly either", said Machidiel.  "Fired upon us as we were flying away."

Machidiel was the sergeant of an assault squad, the fearless jump-pack infantry of the Blood Angels.  They had been out scouting the countryside for any sign of the perpetrator of the gruesome acts of violence from the skies.


"Looks like they're following, I'm about a minute away from your position.  I suggest you prepare your men."

Tactical Marine Painting - Armour

So after some work, I've finally finished painting something worth posting!  Here's a step by step walk through (with pictures) of the process I did to paint the armor of my tactical marines.  I'll be adding a part 2 with the completed marines at a future date.

Step 1: Undercoat using Citadel black primer.

Step 2: Base coat with Mechrite Red.  I did two coats as the color is pretty thin.  Each coat took about 10 minutes per model, for a total of 20 minutes per model for step 2.


Step 3: Wash with Thraka Green. This was important because the Mechrite Red was really shiny, a thin Thraka Green wash toned the shiny down without loosing the red hue.  The wash took 5 minutes per model.  See the picture below of a marine (with a beak - my favorite helmet!) after step 3.

 

 Step 4: Paint all shaded areas with a 2:1 Blood Red:Water mixture.  This step took me around 20 minutes per model.  See the picture below for a tactical marine after step 4.

Step 5: Semi-highlight with a 2:1:1 mixture of Blood Red:Blazing Orange:Water.  To do this I basically looked at the marine top down and painted every surface I could see looking straight down.  Step 5 took about 10 minutes per marine.

Step 6: Highlight with Blazing Orange.  This was just adding an extra orange coat to the "shiny spots" on the marines.  Step 6 took about 5 minutes per marine.

Step 7: Wash with Baal Red.  Toned down the brightness a little bit.  Step 7 took under 5 minutes per marine.

The picture below shows a marine once completed step 7, which is all of the armor painting.  Steps 1-7 took just over an hour per marine, for a total of 10-11 hours for the squad of 10.  Pretty steep, but overall I'm happy with how they look.  If I could've changed anything I would have done a touch up coat of Blood Red:Water after step 4, as the Blood Red coat was a little thin.

Next up is to touch up then paint all of the details and the weapons!

Imperial Guard assembled army thus far

While I enjoy the idea of a massive hoard of footsloggers over running an enemy position, I hadn't realized that it would be me assembling that force. For less than 400 points, I assembled over thirty models!

From top left clockwise; infantry squad with two autocannon platoforms, two grenade launchers and a vox caster; Chimera with multi laser and heavy flamer; Sentinal (will have autocannon); Platoon command squad with autocannon and a vox; Company command squad with three meltaguns and a vox. Nothing special with gluing and assembling, a few minor conversions that I'll post up when I'm finished with the next twenty guardsmen now that they've finally come in!

Tanniloth History Part II : Origins of the 46th Division

When the Tanniloth system was just a few centuries old, and Tanniloth Minor barely established as an inhabited planet, a rather large Tyrnid invasion force passed undetected to within a day of the planet. The planet’s few fighting Companies scrambled together to form a rough division size consisting of all elements under the brilliant Col Otto Van Haarg, and formed a ragged defense as the aliens began their invasion. Fighting for almost a week straight, against an endless horde of Gaunts and Warriors, the defenders survived against all odds. But with no end of the tide in sight, and with their supplies running out, it seemed they would be overrun. However, a nearby branch of Dark Angel Space Marines had heard their pleas for help which the main Tanniloth worlds could not answer. A Deathwing company suddenly appeared when things looked bleakest, and with sheer weight of fire drove the aliens to a halt. A quick counter attack from the Imperial defenders coordinated with the Deathwing drove the aliens back, and eventually off the planet.
When the planet was fully established and the main military body on Tanniloth Prime initiated the 1st TAOS, the 46th were re-named the 46th Mechanized. Protests from the new division Colonel were initially ignored, however were finally considered when the newly promoted Gen Van Haarg added his voice and the feats of the defense of Tanniloth Minor were recounted. The TAOS planners agreed to the name of Mix Mechanized to honour the sacrifice of the division’s many branches who had fought in the defence of the planet. In addition, the division was allowed to keep it’s Dark Angel’s themed markings and colours to show respect to the Space Marines who had helped save the planet. While the Deathwing forbid the use of the pure bleached bone they bore, the green was allowed to be used. Divisional commanders throughout the years have striven to keep the relationship between the Dark Angels company, and in times of need help is still requested when the Imperial Guard cannot fight off an enemy alone. Though not recognized by the Tanniloth System as such, it is the Division’s greatest honour when the Dark Angels called upon them to help lead a force against an Eldar encampment believed to harbour some of The Fallen. Such a calling lends credibility to the prowess the division has strived to maintain to this day.

More recently another Space Marine Company of Blood Angels, hearing of the ability of the 46th has requested to conduct training exercises against the 46th in order to help train against insurrections and heretical uprisings. The 46th accepted, seeing this as a change to hone their own skills as well as an honour of being seen as a formidable enough opponent. The plan is to conduct a series of exercises, increasing in size to give junior officers a variety of scenarios to assist in command development.

Why so many Space Marine Chapters are interested in the Tanniloth system has never been questioned, as the interactions have been cordial and generally well received by the system’s ruling body.

Next up, A collection of short stories from some of the 46th's past and present notables.

Searching for a lost artifact...

The visions were particularly strong for Ramiel today.


All Blood Angels were beset by vivid hallucinations of their Primarch Sanguinius' final stand against the dark powers of Chaos.  These visions were so intense that they would eventually drive even the strongest of space marines insane.  Once this happened he was placed in stasis until the next battle, where he would slaughter as many enemies as he could before succumbing to final peace in death.


While all members of the 4th company of the Blood Angels dealt with the visions differently, Captain Ramiel preferred quiet meditation.  Apparently it was working, as he was nearing his 1000 birthday, making him one of the oldest in the company.


The hiss of an incoming transmission interrupted his meditation.


"Sir, this is Sergeant Cassiel.  We have made an important find in regards to the lost artifact.  Please make haste and join me on the bridge."


The words took a second to sink in to Ramiel, whose mind was still full of horrific images.  "I'll be right there," he responded after a short pause.


The bridge was a hub of activity, causing it to be much louder than its usual peaceful state.  Ramiel noticed that Bridge Commander Lucas seemed a little put off by all of the commotion as he strode into the room.  Lucas waved him over to the main sensor terminal, where he was standing with Cassiel.


"So, what is the news," asked Ramiel of Cassiel, "you mentioned something about the lost artifact?"


"Yes, I believe we have tracked the alien spacecraft that made off with it to the Tanniloth System," responded Cassiel.  "It is a system of four planets currently under Imperial control.  Unfortunately we weren't able to determine which planet it was heading for."


Ramiel pondered the news for a moment, "well, this helps to narrow our search... good work sergeant.  We will just have to deploy on all four planets and scour them all until we find the alien and reclaim what's rightfully ours!"


"There is one important thing to note captain," commander Lucas interjected.  "The people of the Tanniloth system are a prideful bunch, and they also are rumored to have ties with the dark angels... I don't know if they would appreciate having their system "scoured" for aliens.  They probably think they are so mighty that aliens would know better than to try to hide on their planets."


Despite his snippy tone, Lucas had a point.  "So we'll just have to make up a reason to be there..."

Tanniloth History Part I: Introduction to Tanniloth

On a recent vacation trip to BC, I had some time while relaxing to think about some sort of history for my Imperial Guard army. Below is a little introduction and history of the Tanniloth system!

The Tanniloth system is located in the south western portion of the universe, a few weeks travel from the Tanith System. Only a few centuries of habitation, and consisting of only six inhabitable planets plus a few mining colonies, the system’s inhabitants are generally well off. Though officially a Democracy, the high house is controlled by an elite few who are virtually untouchable. Elected Representatives give the system’s population the notion they have much more influence than they do in reality. The System is generally loyal to the Imperium, ensuring proper shipping of tithes and adhering for the most part to laws about psykers and heretics. Though having a relatively small and unestablished population, Tanniloth is still able to put forth a full fifty division, with ten reserves able to be called up if needed in times of war. This is partially due to Tanniloth being a major producer of arms, naturally leading to the creation and support of a larger than normal standing force.

When deployed as one force, Tanniloth is fielded as ten armies, each consisting of 5 total division; three infantry, one armoured and one mechanized. Divisions are named by their role (first number) and the army they belong to (second number), thus the 1st, 11th, 21st Divisions make up the infantry of the 1st Army, with the 31st making up the armoured and 41st the mechanized of the same army. Reserves are not assigned to an army, and train separately on their own. Though it has been proposed by the 4th Tanniloth Army Organization System (TAOS) to attach them to regular armies or division, the notion has faced stern opposition from top officers in the regular forces, too proud to let “part time” soldiers into their esteemed and historied ranks.

Traditionally the 1st - 5th Armies are kept on the main world of Tanniloth Prime as the main fighting force for the system. While this may seem to indicate they would see the most action, it is more common for the 6th and 7th Armies, as they are primarily responsible for maintaining order and peace and deflecting minor alien or pirate incursions from Tanniloth controlled space. The best example of this is found on the outlying planet of Tanniloth Minor, farthest from Tanniloth Prime and the rest of the Tanniloth system. Tanniloth Minor faces outwards towards a small, seemingly innocent but nonetheless important gap facing The Veiled Region in not only Tanniloth but Imperial power and control, making it a prime target for raiders and invasions to take place. These typically range from small Orc raiding parties or splinters of Tyrnid broods looking for quick spoils, to Chaos incursions or seemingly random Eldar attacks. Standing in their way is the perhaps the most storied division in all of Tanniloth, the 46th Tanniloth Mix Mechanized Division. In most Armies the mechanized division is used as both a quick response force (QRF) or strike team due to their mobility and versatility. Some consider them the best trained and most utilized. If this is not true for other mechanized divisions, it certainly is for the 46th.

The 46th is stationed on Tanniloth Minor, and being part of the 6th Army is primarily responsible for system defence. As Tanniloth Minor is not only the farthest away of the inhabited planets but also the system’s smallest, the 46th is the only regular division stationed there, meaning they are alone in their defence of the most vulnerable planet in the system. The division has fought off countless incursions, and is almost always kept at full readiness. Few envy the 46th, even as they respect their prowess and fighting ability. However if not for some timely allies they may not have ever gotten off the ground.

Next up Part 2, Origins of the 46th.

Assembled army thus far...

So after many hours of cutting and gluing, I have (mostly) finished the assembly of the first part of my army!

From left to right there is the death company, dreadnought (from AoBR), captain, assault squad, rhino, and tactical squad.  I tacked the models down to the bases so I can model the bases later on, I'm thinking of just gluing sand on top and then painting the side of the base dark brown.

Some initial modeling work

The battleforce and commander have come in, and I have made it through most of my assembly work.  Fortunately for myself, a couple years ago I started to have an interest in orcs and thus bought the Assault on Black Reach starter set for 5th edition 40k.  The space marines in the set had up until this point gone relatively untouched, however now I have taken the dreadnought as well as the missile launcher tactical marine.  I took the missile launcher marine because I have plans for the future to make the 10th man of the tactical squad into a multi-melta marine, but don't have the parts yet.

Anyways, onto some pictures of the modeling work I've done so far.  First I should say that I'm assembling the marines without bolters so I can access them with ease.  In order to still get the hand positions right, I put some putty (I use just the yellow part of green stuff) on the bottom of the boltgun so the marine could hold it in one arm and I could position the other arm just right.  Very simple, but effective.

Next I have picture of two of my favorite models so far.  The first is a pretty cool conversion of a tactical marine throwing a grenade.  The grenade holding arm normally comes really close to the body of the marine and thus looks more like he's just holding it rather than about to chuck it.  I filled the armpit in with green-stuff to make it look more like he's just about to pitch a strike!

The next model is the sergeant from the assault squad.  He looks like he's just about to punch someone out!

I'll update this post with the painted models once I'm done painting, which I am hoping to start sometime next week...

BA Month 3 Purchases

In an effort to get a functioning army going as quick as possible, my brother and I agreed that we could buy our first three months worth of models in the first or second month.  Therefore, even though I realize it is not even close to July yet, I have made purchases with most of my July money.

I decided to get a BA Sanguinary Priest and a Space Marine commander.  The priest gives all of your units within 6" of him furious charge and feel no pain, which increases their combat potential and can double their durability!  He is also an independent character, so he can move around from squad to squad when necessary.  The commander is a very reliable HQ choice, and again is an independent character which always helps your army's flexibility.

The priest and commander came out to about $38 due to a nice 10% discount at Revolution, the local gaming store in NW Calgary.  Nice little place with very helpful staff.  If you are in Calgary and are into wargames, magic cards, board games... check this place out!  Anyways, this leaves me with $12 extra for next month, which leaves me just about enough to get a tank...

Imperial Guard get a name!

One of the things I wasn't certain on when I started was a name to give my Imperial Guard army. Other armies can get away without a name, for instance Orks can get away with declaring they're a "WAAAAGH", 'Nids are just a swarm and even Marines mostly have a pre-given name to work with (XXth Ultramarine's army). But with a huge variety of Guard hive worlds out there, I wasn't sure where to start. A quick search on Librarium led me to this link, where I found a name which I quickly adapted to something I liked.

And thus was born;



As an aside, my girlfriend looked at it, and promptly noted that the acronym for my fearsome army was TMMID...pretty close to timid..and thus my division's nickname was born.

Imperial Guard - Month 1 (and 2)

We finally got our first set of models, Battle Forces for both the Blood Angels and Imperial Guard force I will be taking control of. Like my brother, I also used up most of my two month budget on the first purchase.

My Battle Force from GC Minis was slightly cheaper than my brother's, coming to about $95 with shipping and tax. It includes 20 Cadian shock troops, 3 Heavy Weapons teams, a Cadian Command Squad and a Sentinel. It doesn't quite allow for a legal army, but is a good step in the right direction and has units that are usable at any size.

For the honour of the Imperium!

I then went on ebay and got some great deals that gave me 20 Cadians and an extra Command Squad for a total of only $42 all inclusive (barring import tax from the States...). These units will bring me to legality, a full platoon of infantry as well well as Veteran Squad. We then went to our local game store, Revolution, where I ordered in a Chimera for my Vets for another $42, bringing my total so far to about $180. So I guess I went a little over, into my third month, but at least I can field a legal army now! Plus it'll probably take me into July to assemble and paint over 50 models.

If only I could paint this well...

But hey, that's what's the Guard are about...right?

Blood Angles - Month 1 (and 2)

Our session of the TOTG officially started in May, it is all but two hours through the first month and I still don't have any models!  However, I have made a rather large purchase that will take up my entire budget from months 1 and 2. 

I ordered the Blood Angels Battleforce boxset from Great Canadian Miniatures, a website which carries pretty much the entire games workshop range.  You can get some pretty decent discounts (about 20% off) if you purchase enough stuff to make the shipping negligible.  The boxset came out to about $100 tax and shipping included.  The boxset (shown below) comes with 10 marines, 5 assault marines, 5 death company, and a rhino.  All of the components are pretty standard for any Blood Angel army, so I feel like it is a really good base to start with - to see what I like and what I don't like.

Next month I plan on adding an HQ and an elite entry and will try to fit in some combat patrol battles in between all of the modeling and painting!