Reinforcements Have Arrived!



Well, here’s the first assault squad that I started.  It’s kitted out to deal more with hordes (twin flamers and power sword Sergeant.  This unit was original going to be a Templar assault squad, but I decided I wanted to get a jump start on this project and save a few bucks (not repurchasing the same kit when I have two of them sitting around in various states of assembly.)  So, the Sergeant ended up with a plasma pistol, more because I like the look and didn’t want to bother with taking the arm off.  I’ve had mixed luck with the weapon; it’s always nice to drop in that high strength, low AP shot (or shots with the plasma gun) but I seem to roll a lot of one’s when I’m shooting with them.

I must stress though that I’m painting this army to finish.  I’ve tried to cut corners by not blending near as much as I normaly would and doing single coat highlights (the silver and black area’s are examples of this) with the idea of trying to get things that look nice at several feet away (or even a foot or two in front of your face) and actually have a full army.  I’ll focus on the HQ’s and probably the vehicles since my list only has five (well four if you discount the drop pod.)  Anyway, I’ll try to update next week with more progress!  I picked the Stormraven up and plan to enter my local store’s painting contest with murals and such.  We’ll see how it goes!

March of the Imperials

So, after determining what scheme I was going to do, I had to then figure out how it was going to be laid out.  I had three examples on my Badab War poster from Forge World, though two were Devestators and one was a Tactical Marine.  With a Blood Angels army and a love of assault marines, I knew I’d defiantly have more of the assault marines and possibly no tactical if I could avoid it.  Having watched tactical get splattered all over my local gaming groups boards and my own single Templar troop choice achieve various levels of success and failure, I knew they really wouldn’t be for me unless I just had some points to spare and needed something to babysit a back objective.

It was after that a buddy let me borrow Imperial Armor X and I did a few searches on Google for images that I found the Assault Marine art for the Star Phantoms.  I’ve included the image here, but the black pauldrons were pretty neat and help make them stand out a little from the Storm trooper-esque look the chapter has going on.  The rest of the art was inspirational enough and gave me direction.  The final detail that I had to decide though was the eyes.  In the book they are described as red.  Red’s all fine and dandy, but I had decided I wanted to have glowing eyes on all my guys and I’d already done the test subject up in ice blue, glowing eyes similar to my Grey Knights.  It deviates a little, but I’m already going to play my Star Phantoms with Blood Angel rules, so I deviating just a little won’t hurt that much.

Now with a paint scheme decided, the next bit of business was determining a rough list that I’d like to pursue as I painted.  I started off with a core of assault marines (thirty total, twenty with jump packs, ten without) and at least one Devastator squad.  Now most Blood Angel players probably don’t bother with a Devestator unit, but since Devestators are kind of the Phantoms thing, I felt I needed to include them.  They are cheaper in the Blood Angel’s codex compared to the normal marines.  From there, I added a Stormraven and two Baal’s with flamestorm cannon.  I’ve seen both vehicles do amazing things at my local game store and decided I wanted to use them.  As I write up a bio of the Phantoms Fifth Company, I’m working on tackling the how and why a Codex chapter fights with “Blood Angels” gear.  Add in a Librarian and an Apothecary (aka Sanguinary Priest) and its right around 1500 points.

Finally, I wanted to stay away from the truly iconic Blood Angel’s stuff.  So at the moment, there’s won’t be any named special characters except for maybe a count’s as Tycho for the Company Captain, no Sanguinary Guard, no Death Company, no hand flamers, or Infernus pistols.  I figured there’s a few ways to get a hold of the vehicles and even a dreadnought so I didn’t feel the vehicles were as off limits as the iconic troops.  That said, I had though of doing a small squad of Death Company and Lemartes to count as the head Chaplin of the Star Phantoms visiting the Fifth Company, with the Death Company being “honor guard,” but that would be a future project for later on.   So for the moment, aside from the Baal’s, Stormraven, and a Furioso that makes an appearance later, I want to stick mainly to Codex gear and equipment.  This is as much a part of fluff as it is not liking all the bling on the models!

First Post!

This will be short and brief.  Just setting stuff up and all that.  I have this grand vision in my head that I'm going to have a fully painted army that I can stick with and keep adding towards until I feel I'm done.  Now, I've said this about my Templars and my Grey Knights, and due to various issues, such as being tired of the paint scheme (Templars) or annoyed that local players hate the new GK's so they have been shelved till something new comes out and makes people scream with rage to the new brokenness.

So what to do?  Funny story, but a friend of mine decided to do a small Star Phantom force for Kill Team games and possibly the Combat Patrol tournament at Adeptacon.  He'd asked what codex to use as we both agree Codex: Space Marine is rather, uh, well, not great.  After reading their stuff online, I posted back that Blood Angels might fill the "strike first" mentality of the chapter.  He ended up deciding to go with Space Wolves, but after that, I realized that my Badab War Poster had been yelling at me for awhile:  STAR PHANTOMS!  So, I decided then and there to start up Star Phantoms.  Thankfully my buddy liked the older scheme with the turquoise and smoky grays.  I liked the new Forge World schemes and have decided to run with them using the Blood Angel's Codex.

Now, before the Puritian's out there decide to burn me at the stake, I've wanted to do some Angels for awhile.  I LOVE assault marines, but unfortunately none of the codexes I own can do them all that well.  Of course the BA's make them troops and give them just enough tools to be dangerous to just about anything in the game.  So after that, I struggled with the right chapter.  I just don't want to paint red.  There's just no way I'd be able to paint a whole army red.  The article on the batch painted Flesh Tearer's in WD375 also really inspired me to look for something I could manage.  So the SP's win there again.

The final nail was the ease at which I was able to paint up my test model.  I got the whole thing done from unpainted miniature to finished product in about an hour and fifteen minutes, which for me is something amazing.  And to top it all off, I was actually happy with the figure!  Gone's the days (months) where I paint one Templar Squad and labor over the tiny details.  I completed my first jetpack equipped assault squad in two weeks (and it would have been shorter had school not been starting) while I did up a five man Devestator squad in two days.

While I have no photos at the moment, I plan to fix that once one of my friends comes through with decals so I can truly finish the 21 marines I've just about finished up!  Stay tuned!