STRIKE FORCE AZRAEL By Sean Patten |
BATTLE COMPANY STRIKE FORCES |
Sean Patten is the Webmaster of the amazing "Necromundicon" web site, which covers a lot of modelling and scenary creation. One of the uniques features is the completely scratch-built Dark Angels Thunderhawk Gunship you see below. |
Tactical Squad One of the first really nice Dark Angels specific models to come out was this Sergeant. No conversions here- just your standard paint job on a fine miniature. I seem to be one of the few "beardy" Dark Angels fans that actually prefers the "dark green" color scheme to the original black colors. I find you can get more color depth with a green drybrush than with a grey one. Besides, there are plenty of black chapters to go around nowadays... My Dark Angels were done around 40K 2nd Edition, so many of them are conversions of, ironically enough, Space Wolf models (the nicest models available at the time). This is an old Space Wolf scout sergeant with a haircut and a Dark Angels paint job. Gold, red and white are fair trim colors for Dark Angels. |
Heavy Weapons Specialist - Plasma Cannon Devastator The new Devastator models are awesome, as are the new Dark Angels veterans. So I combined the two! I added the new Heavy Plasma Gun, arms and pack to a Veteran torso, complete with metal shoulder pad. Aside from the Purity seal on his shoulder, this is an all-metal conversion! The picture below is a front view of this model. This is the first time I felt like I had made a Space Marine model that captured the feel of John Blanche's paintings. Menacing, gritty, and unique- not just a "stamp-em-out" clone of every other marine. I painted the armor dark green and the robes white with a brown wash. The plasma gun is dark grey, with dark brown, steel, red, and blue. The shoulder trim is brass with a dark brown wash to tone it down. |
Heavy Weapons Specialist - Missile Launcher Devastator My veteran Missile Launcher model is a standard veteran body and shoulder, with a special missile launcher added on similar to the one I made for the Iron Hands.made The dagger is from the plastic Berzerker sprue. Even while bearing heavy weapons, the veteran models still have a classy yet formidable look to them |
Deathwing The Dark Angels have no less than three color schemes (the greedy bastards)- Dark Green, Black (Ravenwing) and White (Deathwing). I do like the look of a white terminator though. This sergeant has a back banner top added to his back, but is otherwise stock. I primed the model in white, used a brown wash for shading, and painted other details black, red, or gold for contrast. My favorite "old" Marine model has to be the old Terminator Captain. |
Supreme Grandmaster Azrael in Terminator Armour I'm very happy with the paint on this model. I primed it white, but instead of just doing a light brown wash in the cracks, I did a wash over the whole armor, then went back with a wet brush and "washed away" areas to lighten them. This works great with enamels since the white primer is tough and won't dissolve. The robe was painted black and "wetbrushed" dark green (drybrushing was too hard to control and lifted the black paint off the white primer). I used a dark brown wash in the cracks and to shade the gold details. After doing all my veteran models, I was not satisfied with my existing terminator Captain, and I wanted to field Azrael with the rest of the Deathwing. So I did this simple conversion! Azrael's hands (with weapons) have replaced the hands on the new terminator captain model. I used a Dark Angels banner top in place of the back banner- gives character without getting caught on that space hulk terrain... |
Weapon Specialist with Plasmagun : Another all metal veteran conversion, this time starting with a metal Plasma Gun Biker upper torso attached to a veteran lower torso. The sword arm is from the Master of the Ravenwing. The under robe is painted black for contrast, the outer robe white with brown wash. Otherwise this is my standard color scheme for Dark Angels. Another shot of the plasma gunner. You can see the purity seal added to the shoulder. The grips on the plasma gun were painted leather and drybrushed tan for that classic "wooden" look. The "Dirt" along the bottom of the robes was done with a dark brown wash- much more realistic looking than perfectly clean marines. |
Even though my Deathwing Terminators were new style, I went ahead and painted this classic model in deathwing colors. When washed with dark brown, gold is actually a nice color for parts like the grenade launcher.Black and red stripes on the leg and power glove add even more contrast detail to an already nicely detailed model. |
