Hobby Progress Challenge - May Completed

I managed to pick up quite a bit of steam, May is completed before the end of April. I've finally stopped being afraid of messing everything up with my airbrush and started using it, saving me hours and giving me a quality of finish that is hard to emulate with a brush.

Death Company Dreadnoughts

Death Company Dreadnought (125 pts)
Death Company Dreadnought (150 pts)
- Heavy flamer
- Magna-grapple

Hobby Progress Challenge - May Commitment

Death Company Dreadnought (125 pts) 

Death Company Dreadnought (150 pts)
- Heavy flamer
- Magna-grapple

Hobby Progress Challenge - March Completed

I've tested the black armour highlight with both Eshin grey and Dawnstone and I've sticked with mostly Dawnstone everywhere except where I wanted some contrast but very little as I didn't wanted to draw the eyes theres, the fingers for example.

Flesh Tearers Death Company with jump packs

They took me quite a while and I could have done a third layer of red on some part but I had to keep moving to the next squad. I still need to apply 2 Flesh Tearers decals on the bare shoulder pads but that will have to wait until the end, probably when I'll base everything.

Hobby Progress Challenge - March goal progression

Here the progress I've managed to accomplish since the beginning of the month, I'm still very busy from the move to the new house but things are starting to settle down. I forgot how long Death Company is to paint as every model is almost as detailled as an HQ model.

Jump pack Death Company got some base colors

Just to give some perspective on how much paint steps are is still needed, here's a side by side shoot.

Finished Death Company vs Current progress

Hobby Progress Challenge - March commitment

Expensive Jump Pack Death Company of primed awesomeness

10x Death Company (420 pts)
- 10x Jump packs
- 1x Power sword
- 2x Infernus pistols
- 1x Power fist

I'm gonna try working with more subtile highlights than the ones I've previously painted, I like the look on the tabletop but on camera the lack of blending does show.

Death Company, Is it worth it ?

If you ever played with them in 5th edition, you know how the Black Rage made them susceptible to be kited around the board. It made them hard to justify for a lot of players, you had to plan around that by making sure that once they were out of a transport, they were in a position to cause havoc.  

6th Edition came around, they lost Initiative 5 but gained another attack on the charge, the torrent of bolter fire is harder to resist has Feel No Pain will save you 33% of the time (5+ against anything except instant death) instead of 50% (4+ against anything but AP1 and AP2, instant death, power weapons). It's harder for infantry in general to get into assault range, no more assault out of a vehicule that didn't move. It's a bit more tactically challenging to get the charge which I believe is where the fun starts.

Blood Angels Death Company works really well as a counter assault unit with 4-5x WS5 S5 attacks per models. They will flood the enemy troops with wounds especially if they have a Reclusiarch to get them rerolls on hit and wounds. You can deck them out with AP2 weapons but the sheer amount of wounds should take care of 2+ armour, equipping power fists simply is an insurance against the volatility of dices or the presence of vehicles.

I've yet to use them with jump packs and Lemartes, they seem rather expensive for what they can hope to accomplish but in support to a deepstriking assault squad I guess they could be decent. I'm not convince that 5x DC with a power fist, jump packs and Lemartes is an efficient 350 points.

The cost is the downfall of the unit and that's why I try to keep mine as bare bone as possible for the task they are meant to accomplish, keeping that in mind will ensure you don't overkit them or try to make them do things that they aren't meant to.

Hobby Progress - Terminator Sergeant

I've manage to do little in terms of painting but I did manage to crank out my assault terminator sergeant as a test model for the rest of the squad.

Assault Terminator Sergeant

I've use the same technique mentionned in a White Dwarf army workshop article about Flesh Tearers, where the black in the color scheme was to draw the eye in. It's in part why I think the Death Company models are so striking, they're loaded with details and the black armour only emphasis them, besides the black being awesome on his own right.

Time to get busy on the rest of the squad...

Hobby Progress - Death Company and Ultramarines ... !?!

An Ultramarine ? have I left the harsh conditions of Cretacia for the hope of greener pastures on Maccrage ? Let's not be silly shall we, it's simply objective markers time !

Objective markers for me should be set pieces that tells a small narrative, while being quite basic, will contribute to the cinematic aspect of your games.

The idea behind those two markers are meant to illustrate the duality of the Flesh Tearers, they are space marine who serves the will of the Imperium but the rage they suffer sometimes blends the line between friends and foe as they are consumed by the visions of their dying primarch. 

I often play with an Ultramarines player either as an ally or a foe, so selecting the chapter was an easy choice, being the poster boys of 40k didn't hurt either. 

The first one is an heroic last stand versus overwhelming odds. The restriction of the 40mm base is to my benefit here as it's suggesting that the models are forced to be close together, implying the fact that they would be surrounded.

The second one showcase an Ultramarine trying to report with his dying breaths the massacre of his squad by the Flesh Tearers.

Once painted, the scene will be quite gruesome. You can see the entrails if you zoom.

In both cases, my forces have a reason to rush forward to those points. One to save Battle-Brothers, one to keep the incident far from the eyes of the Inquisition. The backpack flags will boost up the visibility of the markers without distracting with the intent of the set piece.

Here's something more subtentiel as far as painting goes. I'm really liking how the one of the far left came out. I must also prepare my winter of painting by finding the motivation to prime everything before it's too late.

Assault Death Company with special weapon (Still need to do the edge highlighting)

Still so much to prime

Flesh Tearers WIP

I didn't feel like waiting on my lightbox to make it's way to my doorstep so I've improvised one with a box and a sheet of paper. Result is better than anticipated and might be overkill as these are only work in progress shoot so seeing my work desk in the background wouldn't have been a big deal.

None of these miniatures are finished even tho they're pretty close, still need to base, apply decals and probably tidy up some highlight if I feel like it. In the meantime, here's my Flesh Tearers.

Gabriel Seth

Two Sanguinary Priests

Assault Squad (Magnetized backpacks)

Tactical squad (Still need to figure out what to paint on the banner)

Heavy weapon options for the Tactical squad \ Devastator

Reclusiarch (First conversion with green stuff)

Death Company + Reclusiarch

That's around 70% of what I've painted so far, I really need to get moving with the primer as the days are getting colder around here (optimal priming weather is roughly around 15 - 25 Celcius)