The year is 2011. It is now four years since the site was last updated and nearly seven years since I last made a single model. The heydays of the third edition and its udates for the Dark Angels have long since passed. An entire edition (Fourth) has come with much promise with the Dark Angels Codex heralding a new approach by Games Workshop, then followed rapidly by the current fifth edition of 40K leading to the Unforgiven being placed on a back foot. More recently an udated official FAQ has provided a much eneded ease of life to the unforgiven brethren, especially the Deathwing and Ravenwing.
This, along with the progressively accumulating collection of unmade models as well as the recent release by Frge World of the two Imperial Armour volumes covering the Badab war with details of a large number of spacemarine chapters has managed to jolt me out of my complacency. The Librarium Painting Chammenge gave me the impetus and for the first time in my life I eneterd such a challenge.
My vow was made on the 5th of February 2011 and is as follows:
"I, Shadowguard of the Dark Angels Forum, vow on the honour of my Chapter to paint and present at least Five squads of Deathwing terminators led by a Master of Deathwing in TDA as part of a 1500 point DW army on or before the 31st of March, 2011. I promise to provide at least two WIP updates, preferably with pictures, in that time. I vow that if I should fail, I will provide the Librarium with an article and wear the Signature of Shame until my penitence period is done."
AMRY LIST AND PLAN:
The plan is to create a game-ready Deathwing Army consisting entirely of terminators. After a lot of discussion on the B+C, rought drafts and reading a large number of comments by experienced players of the B+C I decided to go for a middle of the road list which would be fun, but also keep with the spirit of the DW and allow me to model each terminator differently. I wanted to make use of each and every metal and plastic terminator model to give me the much needed variety.
very soon however, as I laid out the model parts I realised that the old metal terminator models looked woefully undersized next to the new plastic ones. I had to make the hard decision not to use the metal ones except for some hybrid work for the characters.
Hence the army would be made up of five squads of five DW terminators and Belial accompanied by an Interrogator Chaplain. The standard DW squads will be made up of four terminators with SB and PF with one carrying a Th and SS. These will have a single cyclone ML. The fourth squad would accompany the Int Chaplain and would be similar to the first three except for a seconf TH & SS terminator. The fifth squad would be Belial's command squad which would be made up of one Assault Cannon terminator, three Th and SS terminator and an apothecary with PF & SB.
I armed myself with the following:
2 boxes of plastic standard terminators
2 boxes of plastic assault terminators
2 boxes of plastic wolfguard terminators
1 box of spacehulk (3rd edition) terminators
Commander Culn (Red Scorpions) model from Forgeworld
Luft Huron (Astral Claws) model from Forgeworld
Tyberos the Red Wake (Carcherodons) model from Forgeworld
Dark Angels veterans Squad box (for its icons and terminator parts)
Spacemarine Command Squad (for its apothecary parts)
Dark Angel Shoulder Pads from Forgeworld
Dark Angels Icon PAcks model from Forgeworld
PHILOSOPHY:
I wanted to create an army of DW where each terminator was posed differently to the others. I also wanted to make them look dynamic and in realistic poses rather than simply standing still with their arms by their side or waving both arms out as if calling out to the emperor.
PROGRESS NOTES:
Phase 1: completely model the five squads
Phase 2: Add icons and additional paraphernelia to the models; Commence work on the two characters.
Phase 3: Paint the squads
Phase 4: paint the characters
PHASE I:
Commenced: 13 February 2011. Completed: 20 february 2011
This phase consisted of all the five squads being put together. I essentially hacked, ripped, swapped and glued to my hearts content. Only the two cyclone launchers were not glued on to allow painting. The rest I will paint as the models are. below are the completed squads.
