Blood Hammers: Sanguinary Guard

Blood Hammers: Sanguinary Guard

Here's my first Sanguinary Guard completed. Now that I have the pics, I can see it can use a little more highlights on the red, but overall, I like how the scheme came out.

Blood Hammers: Assault Marine

Assault marine for the Blood Hammers. This mini displays the scheme of the army nicely. 

Next Friday: Sanguinary Guard. 

Help name my chapter.

I'm torn between....

Bloody Hammers

Blood Hammers

Hammers of Blood. 

Any input is welcomed. The mini above is part of my Death Company. I gave him a magnetic jump pack / back pack. 

Evolution of a home brew Chapter

So I've been kicking around making my own space marines chapter for quite some time.  To design ones own space marine chapter including a cool name, color scheme, chapter icon, and background is  For myself (and I believe others) the culmination of the creative aspect of this hobby. I think I have finally come up with something that works for me. So before the big reveal I'll run down how I got there.

So my first idea was.....

Space Knights!!!

Cool name, or too cheesy? Kind of like space wolves but Knights! For a while I've been thinking along the lines of a knightly order similar to black templars or something. So I had the split shoulder pad (like a bretonnian grail knights shield) with a dragon as the icon. 

Here's a W.I.P. chapter master  (this is as far as I got)

I thought of an entire background (home planet of Avalon) with icons for all the squads and, names for all of the company captains.

Brother Captain Malakhi of the 3rd company 

Then I got side tracked with other projects like space wolves and my own chapter got put on the back burner, until recently. 

So with the coming of the Blood angels codex, once again I thought of my chapter, as possibly a counts as blood angels chapter. But something wasn't right with the Space Knights. The name, color scheme, icon, just wasn't all jiving for me. So back to the drawing board. 

I'm still thinking Knightly, and I liked the split shoulder pad, but wanted to go more Knightly...like knights in shinning armor style, and came up with this...

 Not bad. I liked the split color,  so I thought how about a split color scheme, and came up with......Blood Knights!! 

No not Knights of blood...this is something totally original (sarcasm) 

So I have an icon (which looks vaguely similar to angels encarmine) a name (original?...not really) and a color scheme, that I kind of like, but not 100%. I want it darker and more gritty! like a space marine, not a candy coated plastic man. 

I started experimenting with my split colors and how I paint red. and came up with this...

Instantly I'm in love with how the Red came out. This is completely different then how I normally paint red. 

Old way: base of mechrite red, blood red over this, with highlight of firey orange.

New way: Base of Dark angels green, followed by successive colors of Scab red, red gore, blood red, blazing orange. 

The yellow, I don't hate, but it's ok. Something is still not 100% sold for me, until yesterday when,  I'm in the car listening to one of my favorite artists and this track come on. 

And it hit me. This was my chapter. Name, check. Blood angels successors, check. on to colors and Icon. 

I was in love with the Red I came up with, and still kind of digging the split thing but wanted to come up with something new and original, here is what I came up with...

(dark angel icon as place holder)

I have to say that I'm liking this 100%. Just need a cool icon...

And I decided to switch the bloody (hammer) arm to the weapon arm.

I give you the Emperors' Bloody Hammers.

 (the main color is hawk turquoise, though it came out pretty blue in the pics)

And there you have it. I have an army to paint now. 

100th post - New army test mini

So this is my 100th post. Fancy. I was planning on posting pics of my completed Lucas the trickster, but well...I got side tracked. It happens often. When federal tax refund comes, I'm getting some brand spanking new mini's and starting a new army! I'm going to be working on a "counts as" Blood Angels force that I like to call.....

Blood Knights!

Below are test mini pics of what I believe to be my final color scheme.

I settled on a split scheme, because I think it gives it the knightly quality the army needs, with the metallic side like shinny knightly armor and the left side dipped in blood. 

Here is my first attempt at a scheme.

I had the knight thing going on, but not the Blood thing! 

And for giggles, here's some old blood angel figures I painted over 20 years ago (I've always been a fan). Maybe some of these will get the repaint treatment and appear in my new army.

This poor guy came out more pink then red. 

 Stay tuned for more from the Blood Knights!

BATREP: Space Wolves vs. Sun Crushers

Space Wolves vs. Sun Crushers (counts as Blood Angels)

This should be fun. I'm not very great at remembering the key details of battle after the fact. I did a quick video of deployment (which you can hear my daughter in)

Mission: Seize ground (3 objectives rolled)
Deployment:  Spear head
Space Wolves goes first

Turn 1:
Space wolves Drop pod deploys in an attempt to take out (counts as) Mephiston with Arjac, but my drop pod deviated to far away. this put Logan, the multimelta long fangs and arjac, in prime range to pop the land raider (immobilized it), but also in a bad spot to get assaulted next turn by terminators and the death company inside the land raider.

My Rune priest with jump pack and skyclaws moved into the center of the battlefield to be taken out by Sun crusher jump troops.

(I was hoping to pull off an Arjack / Jaws of the world wolf strike on Mephiston, but it did not work out)

Sun Crushers dropped 2 death company dreads near my objectives.

Pic below is the top of Turn Two

Turn 2: 

Long fang missile launchers softened up the mid field jump troops, they were then assaulted by Bloodclaws w/ wolf priest & Lucas in the land raider. Jump troops were destroyed, mephiston remained. 

Lone wolf took out one of the Death company dreads but took 1 wound. 

My Logan strike force was taken out by the termies and Death company. 

Top of turn Three

Turn 3:

Details get sketchy here.....

Blood claws took out the death company with a little help from the long fangs, but were then taken out by the termies and another death company dreadnaught (via drop pod) Mephiston moved in closer to my objective, lone wolf coming after mephiston. 

At this point Sun crushers hold 1 objective, Space wolves hold 2.

Turn 4:

Jump troops move closer to my mid field objective, along with mephiston and a death company dread, my transport is popped and some wolf gaurd come out. to hold the objective, 

Turn 5, for all the marbles.

Wolf gaurd destroy the Death company Dred, Jump troops take out the wolf gaurd (not sure if that happed turn 4 or 5). My lone wolf eventually came in to contest the objective, but was killed by mephiston. 

Sun Crushers win. 2 objectives to 1. 

End of turn 5

All in all, it was a pretty fun even paced game. Mephiston was a pain in my butt, and Death company are no joke! The Arjac/Jaws of the world wolf trick just did not pay off, and Lucas was probably a waste of points.

What worked?
Lone wolf did his job, took out a dread, I only wish he could have done more (and I forgot to take his Fenrisinan wolf wargear. oops)
BloodClaws were excellent, their sheer numbers and the re-roll with the priest was just awesome.
Long Fangs w/ missile launchers put out lots of reliable damage. Next time I'll stick with my usual 3 units of long fangs!

Happy New Year

Happy New year gamers! 

there is a lot in store for 2011. Here's a break down of what I currently have planned / in the works:

1. I've been working diligently on my Khador Army

2. Soon I'll have most of Khador painted and I'll be switching gears to WFB and starting to paint up my Skaven army. Can't wait for the new mini's this month

3. I'm reading Prospero Burns right now which is really getting me in the mood for some Space Wolves. I also picked up a few classic Space wolves blister packs today at the FLGS. The sons of Russ should be getting some love soon!

4. At some point, I need to put the finishing touches on Tzeentch army.

5. Need to assemble and paint my Circle of Orboros army.

6. I just aquired a starter for a Skorne army.


7. And finally, I've been thinking of starting something new....Maybe Blood Angeles or Grey Knights....Well that should be plenty to keep me busy. For a while at least......