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."