Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Death Wing Veteran Sergeant and Good Pics of the Command Squad


Old School here with some pics of my latest member of the Inner Circle; my Death Wing Command Squad Veteran Sergeant. For right now, this guy is filling in for Belial while I build the 1st Company Grand Master. Like any good senior enlisted man, he is ready to fill the boots of his officer at any time! I also included in this post, some pics of the Death Wing I have painted so far, but this time ... I used a good camera! Enjoy the pics.

I wanted the sergeant to stand out as the Veteran Sergeant of the 1st squad of an illustrious company, so I went with the helmetless look. I picked a Blood Angel head, since it had the Catholic Schoolboy haircut I imagine the Dark Angels having and I also wanted an augmetic eye, so this was the head for me. While I just realized that I forgot to paint the power cable that leads to the eye (that is why we post pics after all, to catch stuff like this!), I also wanted this grizzled veteran to look, well, grizzled. That being said, I gave hime a five o'clock shadow and used the old comic book trick of highlighting black hair with dark blue colors.


From the table-top perspective, it came together perfectly. I gave him a tabard from the Raven Wing kit and painted it with a Death Wing symbol decending through clouds, while the bottom (visible from the back), includes script. I used the Iron Halo from the Space Marine Commander kit to help him fill in Belial's spot and because I think somebody wo is the second most badass person in a company of heroes has earned one! I also used the space wolf crossed knives bit (I modified the wolf skull to be a human skull) to represent the fact that this will be the guy who does the torturing when a chaplain isn't present to interogate the fallen!


I used Vallejo Burnt Sienna powders to add the dust to his leg armor, which ties straight into the Dark Flesh I used to paint the rock he is standing on.


There is that script from the back I was talking about ...


All-in-all, the Death Wing continues to be a fun project for me and each time I paint one, I get them all together to look at the overall effect and to make sure I am on the right path.


Seeing them together keeps me motivated and excites me for the next model!


Alright, so we have seen all the next terminators already, but you haven't seen them photographed with a good camera. So here is the Company Standard Bearer!


As mentioned before, that is just a Chaos Knight shield heavily modified and free-handed for the Death Wing.



I thought about going for a more elaborate banner, but I really like how this one turned out in the end.


next up is the Apothecary. He has saved so many command squad members and has held the sway of combat in the Death Wing's favor so many times. He has broken the backs of many a witch squad, beastmaster pack, tyranid swarm and Ork Horde. His name is cursed by the lips of xenos scum and heretic alike and because of his many great deeds, I will never field the Wing without him!


I hold the chief medical officer of the Death Wing in high regard, so I gave him a hammer from the Space wolf bits and left it fairly wolfy (a token of respect for winning several duels of The Wolf and Lion during campaigns that the chapters fought together during).


I also made him a former member of the Ordos Xenos, which is fitting since he is so proficient at protecting his allies from the Xenos scum! One time I failed an armor save on each of my terminators during Ard Boyz (due to wound allocation), but I lost none of them because they each made their Feel No Pain!


I caught some flack from folks when I made this guy because I made his hammer arm the arm his reductor is mounted on. I did this because I always pictured the apothecary using his shield arm to shelter the wounded as he works, placing his hammer next to him as we either heals them or gives them the Emperor's Mercy.



Next up is Brother Janus, the first Death Wing Terminator I painted in this redo of my old army.




I have gotten so many compliments on the missile rack, but I have to admit that I have seen the idea in many other places and I am merely walking in the shadows of the giants who came before me.


The inner circle could never be whole without Master Librarian Ezekiel. Not only is his model badass, but this guy knows the sins and secret guilt of any being he meets ... pretty damn impressive!


He is actually a recent re-paint from my old Death Wing, as I kept him to tie the old with the new.


I even left his old school power pack in place.


I always liked his Batter-up pose, though I know some folks are not fans of it. I hope they keep him in the book when the next codex comes around as I think he is really a great character and there is a lot they can do with him and expand upon. Right now, this model hold the record for craziest random psyker moment (for me anyway). During Ard Boyz Round 2, he cast Hell Fire on Strength 10 and AP1!

Well, that's it for now. I am batch painting most of the Death Wing terminators up to the highlight and detail steps, then I will break them off by threes and finish them, so it may be a little bit before we see more painted Death Wing. I am searching for a few more random bits before I finish the construction of Belial and I am collecting and selecting bits for the Fallen right now to use as my objective markers. I am still undecided whether or not I want to enter in the 40k GT at Adepticon or not. I might join in the light Fantasy Tourney, since I am a new jack in Fantasy and I think I could use the experience (then again the Big Brawl could really step up my game, lol!).

Anyway, I hope you like the Command Squad so far. Comments are always welcome!

6 comments:

  1. I think the apothecary having the narthecium on that arm makes total sense. Love your use of sprue bits? to make the vials on the top of his armour too.

    Still agreed about the missile launcher bit, easily the best/cheapest/easiest CML conversion.

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  2. Looking really good! The spot colors really make the models pop, and the standard bearer is particularly awesome. Keep up the great work!

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  3. Everything looks very nice. Makes me so sad to see the whole unit forced to have thunderhammers and storm shields though. Really strips some of the available character from the army when only 1 of 4 different weapon combo choices is seen as viable. Only 1 heavy weapon now also.

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  4. Thanks for the compliments guys. It means a lot to me on this one.

    Eriochrome, you just haven't seen my shooty terminators yet! I took them to Ard Boyz round two and haven't played without them since. I also have some magnetic termies with Lightning claws and a few with chain fists. As the paint gets laid down, you will begin to see some variation in the force, but terminators really don't have a ton of options to begin with. Prior to the FAQ, nothing was really viable in even a pick-up game sense.

    I think whenever the Dark Angels get a new codex, they should look to experiment with some terminator variants previously not seen in other imperial forces. I think this would work fluff-wise due to the unique mission of the Death Wing and the fact that, aside from the Space Wolves, the Dark Angels are one of the most divergent chapters from the Codex Astartes.

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  5. By far my favorite model is the apothecary. You did such a fantastic job adding both character and the apothecary look to that model.
    I am also a fan of Ezekiel....board wide LD 10 hood? Yes please!

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  6. Thanks Mags. I am hoping that Belial will live up to the badassery of the apothicary! So far I am using Luft Huron's body (FW model), his shoulder pads, some magnets for weapon swaps, a grey knight daemon hammer (for the long, cavalry style shaft), Chaos Lord Lightning Claws, a modified storm bolter I have been working on, the head from the FW Raven Guard model ... and I am working with a couple different shield concepts.

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