Or, How I Started, Failed, and Restarted Working on My Dark Angels for 40k
Well, I had gone and done it. I had fucked up again. Imagine that. I have talked recently about the evacuation of both my hobby room and miniature games in general, plus how I have tried to get myself going again. I had a little success with a few Heresy models and thought “we’re back, baby!” I should have known better, but, I mean, I have told friends (and those I conspire to drag into the hobby) that I am a walking talking cautionary tale. So, what did I do? Or not do?
There was a rough but finished unit up on the website. A game of 11th edition was played, which I will go into next time. The stage was set. I cracked open the door to the hobby room and decided that since I had purchased the Armageddon box set to get the new models and rules for 11th, I needed to paint the included models. Some plastic glue fumes, then some spray paint fumes, followed by some air brush particulates in the air and I had a heaping pile of Dark Angels ready to paint.
To make it easier to get my ass in gear, I had a hobby night, where Ian worked on Rough Riders to go along with the near infinite amount of tanks I helped him paint and Ryan worked on Black Orcs for his dangerous and continually escalating Old World obsession. With buddies over to distract me, I set about blocking in colors. Brown for leather, red for 90s style guns, grey for bases and soft seals to make them pop our and look like I had done something.
Then it hit me. I had bitten off more than I could chew. What was I thinking? I had barely even started painting again and true to an old form, like nothing had happened, I plopped half of an army down on the table to paint. I wasn’t that guy anymore, and maybe I would be again, but it straight up ruined me in the short-term and I abandoned the project on the table. Would those models sit there forever? Well, no. Rampaging through those dark places in my brain, I conjured up the original idea behind the Projects page: an opportunity to work on small parts of a large project to find success, thereby utilizing those dopamine hits to keep going.
Hellblasters
There was the contents of the 11th edition Warhammer 40k box on the table. Several models from the 10th ed box were amongst them. The Deathwing Assault box set was also built, primed and airbrushed awaiting some attention. Of all the models I had on the table, I realized that the Hellblasters were the most practical answer. Five models to accompany others I had painted years ago to complete a ten-man squad. They were nicely self contained and would work well in the new edition with the plasma based detachment rules that made me giggle in excitement.
Base colors were already set for the red of the gun casings and eye lenses of my Hellblaster squad expansion. I painted the leather, then, realized when I went to find a Hellblaster I painted back at the launch of 8th ed, that I had painted the leather the wrong color and repainted the holsters and shit on each guy. I got the purity seals painted up as I had since before I painted my original Hellblaster models and the tan chest insignia on them all. I hit these features up with washes.
Once dried, I took care of the metallics, covered the bases with the gritty basing paint and once dried, washed both the gunmetal paints and the grey bases with nuln oil. After that I used a mid-range color mixed from the dark green of the dark angel armor and the bright green of the edge highlight to clean up any messes and add some body where the light would catch along flat panels to add some variety. Then came the tedious process of edge highlights on the armor.
After a liberal dry brush was applied to the bases, the transfers were applied using microset and microsol, then protected with a few layers of medium over them to dull them down and keep them there. Voila and shit. Five completed models. Just didn’t seem like enough. I knew it wouldn’t be, so…
Azrael
Although I was attempting to keep my current project as contained as possible, I am still me, so I was dissatisfied with only painting five normal marines. Whom better to accompany them than Azrael, the Supreme Grant Master of the Dark Angels, wielder of the Sword of Secrets and bearer of the Lion Helm! He was a much more imposing figure before the Lion returned. At the same time he has some great rules still and packing a full 10-man Hellblaster squad and an apothecary within the 4+ invulnerable save bubble the Lion Helm supplied. It was good last edition and I believe the same will hold out this edition.
When I plucked Azrael from the primed and ready pile, he was in a handful of sub-assemblies: first was a foot and the underlayer of his cloak and a watcher in the dark attached to a base. Next was the rest of his body minus his gun arm, and his backpack and banner took me a second to find. While I was painting the wings of the Lion Helm, I found that his head was not glued in, but merely set in place. These all went on pill cases attached by poster putty.
The first thing to do was the burgundy under layer, which I washed with purple, then brought back the burgundy color and layered with a mix of screamer pink and then topped off with pure pink. I got most of the tan cloak and the body of the Watcher complete before putting some basing material under where Azrael would stand, and then glued him to the base on top of the base sub-assembly. Once set I finished the bone colors across the model and focused on the small details on the armor, such as chest symbols, shoulder insignia and other armor markings, and used the opportunity do do a mid range green between the base and the highlight to clean up the inevitable fuck ups across the armor, then hit the top most edges to add dimension to the armor.
The whole thing was time consuming but easy and came together well, all except for the banner. How in the fuck was I going to do that? Well, I set my brain to figure it out while the wife and I had lunch while watching the Might Nein and low and behold, I had my answer when I sat down at the hobby table. I drybrushed the image on the banner ever so slightly to bring forth the details. When that worked, I did a little more. Using the lightly painted edges as a guide, I added the red and white details on the flag. Wishing I had thought of it earlier, I used green contrast paint over the highlighted edges to get the green cloak done. After a few moments of touching up the edges, I called it done. Six completed models. I’ll take it.
Having finished the new(ish) Primaris scale Azrael, it seemed only reasonable to dig out my old school metal Azrael miniature that has been in my collection since High School in the late 90s. Fuck, I am old. Anyway, I rolled out the stacked and zipped together Battlefoam cases and dug him out like the fucking fossil he is. As I pulled the diminutive model from the protective foam I literally laughed out loud and felt a little embarrassed for the old-ass model. It’s alright, he was mighty cool back in the day when I got him.
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Tyson
Obsessive and neurotic collector of little plastic men, novels about the same little plastic men and paints to make the little plastic men pretty. Married to Kera, who puts up with him and pretends that she doesn’t hear him speaking to the little plastic men in between making pew pew noises in the hobby room. Requires adult supervision. A menace to himself but rarely to others. More beard than man
