For Holy Terra Because space is scary

Blood Angels 8-5 Assault

I’ve actually got Blood Angels to show you! This is the 5th Assault Squad of the 8th Company. They are obviously a work in progress, but there’s definitely some progress to show:

Click for larger view

Unless I’m running an all-mech list, the 5th will likely be my dedicated jump squad because they’ll be the first with jump packs painted. The 3rd and 8th squads are currently sporting regular backpacks, but all of my assault troops have been magnetized to give me the option of either.

Here’s a close-up view of the sergeant:

Click for a larger view

He’s sporting a power fist and bolt pistol and the blood drop halo cut off a back pack. I’m probably going to paint all of the power fists with the hazard striping, because it gives it a really cool effect.

The power fist from the Death Company box is at a really weird angle. Getting the pauldron to look right under normal circumstances was a pain in the neck, but that fist is magnetized, and the pauldron itself is magnetized. I think I’m going to give up and glue the pauldron in place and deal with it if I need to switch load-outs. While I have a few extra power fists from other sets, I really liked the idea of using an Angelus bolter as a bolt pistol, as suggested in the Codex itself. Since all of the Angelus bolters are left-handed, I’m restricted to right-handed power fists, and all of my spares are left-handed.

The Death Company box also presents a painting problem for a lot of models. Notice the white on the right leg – that’s actually the 5th company symbol, a white saltire on black. Of course, that’s supposed to be in a small circle on the right greave, but the styling on the greaves doesn’t leave a lot of space for that. At least for the sarge, I decided to go with the whole leg to really capture his connection to the squad.

On some of the other models, this is much less of a problem. Some of them already have the saltire molded in due to the Death Company regalia. They’ve also got it on other parts, particularly pauldrons, so I’ve been painting them with the squad symbol as well.

I’ll be missing AU’s October tournament, but I’m hoping to get a few games in before November, and I’m really hoping to have a solidly painted 2000 point list complete by then. We’ll see what happens, though.