Monday, February 27, 2017

Like a shot out of left field!

o/

On the red sand, this guy's actually camouflaged!

Here's my Blood Angels test model. This is one of five (sounds like something from the Borg's collective, lol) Chinese recruits, purchased via ebay back around the time that the Betrayal of Calth had just been released. I wanted Mk III marines, more than Mk IV's, but couldn't afford the Forgeworld originals. The quality was decent enough at the time, but I never actually built any of them as I was working on the Mk IV's.

Then the Burning of Prospero came out, and I bought a single Mk III mini via ebay and yeah…side-by-side, the quality of the plastic mini vs. my Chinese knockoffs was startling. As such, they were punted out of the 'to-build' queue and all but forgotten until I drew up an army for my 30k game with Bob. In double checking my numbers, I found I was one mini short, and so I built this one to fill that hole in my roster. 

The Chinese recruit prior to his first death in combat...

Following that game, I went back to build the rest. I knew they had issues, but figured I could get 2-3 more out the remaining four, but they were so poorly cast that during my attempted assembly I threw them all out in a fit of nerd rage! In hindsight, I ought to have kept the helmets to decorate bases, but oh well. That's my only regret at this point.

At the time of purchase I wanted something cheap, and that is exactly what I got.

Skipping back to the present, I figured I'd paint this mini up as a squad of plastic Mk III's was just purchased via ebay. Had this mini not been painted prior to their arrival its likely to have joined its brethren in the trash dump! That said (and for whatever stupid reason), I didn't want this mini mixed in (again) with my Alpha Legionnaires. Thus, on a whim I painted him as a Blood Angel. 

Old, fugly pic. This mini will
be rebased and get a BA decal.
The intent was to give my non-denominational Techmarine a new lease on life as a BA Forgelord. Add in a tac squad and possibly my half-painted predator redone in BA colors (more on that in a later post) and that would make for a nice little loyalist allied contingent to back up my Outremar. 

I lack the numbers necessary to siphon models off of my Alpha Legion army to build a new faction, however if I put the bolter grunts to the back of the painting queue, as bare plastic marines they can fight for either Legion. Works for me since I have close to 20 tactical support and devastator Alpha Legionnaires to paint anyways.

*****

For my personal reference: this paint recipe is waaaay simpler than the one for my Alpha Legionnaires. Indeed, I was able to match my Techmarine which was originally painted who knows how long ago!

Blood Angel paint recipe:

Base coat of Mephiston Red, trimmed in whatever bolt gun metal is called now.

Then slather on Agrax Earthshade. 

Once dry dirty & touch up as normal. 

7 comments:

greggles said...

Love mk3 marines so much. Such brutal looking guys!

Da Masta Cheef said...

Aesthetically yes, I agree the Mk IIIs look better. However after assembling several of the plastic Mk IIIs, the 2-piece leg assembly seems unnecessary in comparison to the Mk IVs, and if anything the results are more statically posed than the Mk IVs.

greggles said...

I agree that the mk3 could have been constructed better. The 2 piece leg and the UGGGG two piece backpacks aggravate me...as do the mould lines which always run down the center of one of the legs. (which is really hard to clean up due to the rivets).

Da Masta Cheef said...

Ah yes, the backpacks are another gripe. Seriously, why was THAT necessary? I've given up on those mold lines as they're not as noticeable as all of the rivets I'd lose removing them would be...

greggles said...

I have no idea why. Drives me nuts. I gave up trying to fill them. It's nearly impossible without spending 10x the amount of time on one backpack as the rest of the model!

neverness said...

I have always admired that Techmarine with the Pit Fighter bionic arm. So damned cool. Glad to see he finally has a home Chapter.

Da Masta Cheef said...

@Greg: Its mind boggling.

@Neverness: Yes he's an old favorite, and I finished him up (again) this afternoon!