Blood Ravens Expeditionary Force Primaris

[Patrick Boyle]

Knowledge is Power, Guard it Well

So thanks to Dawn of War introducing me to Warhammer 40k however many years ago now, I've spent the last three painting Space Marine minis. I don't have a lot to show for that time, as I paint slowly and mostly only when the mood hits me, but I'm finally to the point where I feel good enough to share my work with the world at large rather than just my friends. So here now I'm unveiling the start of my attempt to complete not just an entire Company of marines, but a force even larger than that. The Blood Ravens, being a fleet based chapter, are constantly sending out forces in search of lost knowledge, particularly of their chapter's founding. My idea here is a post-DoW2:Retribution force, where now Chapter Master Gabriel Angelos is leading one such force consisting of the 4th Company, the marines who featured throughout DoW2, elements of the 1st, and then associated chapter command.

So, lets get started, with the first half of the IVth Company, 2nd Squad.



The Razorback isn't quite finished and will feature more in a later post, when I get all of my current transports completed and up to standard soonish.





I really like that there's a whole Beaky armor set in the new tactical box. I gave him one of the Phobos bolters I have laying around to add to the old-schoolness. Aside from that bolter and some purity seals from the Grey Knights box, the rest of those marines are purely bits from the new kit. I really like the newer marine minis, the new castings are so much cleaner than the old box was. [URL="http://www.flickr.com/photos/84497250@N06/sets/72157639664658456/"]There's a few more here at Flickr[/URL], including a shot of just the Sergeant, and a couple heavy weapon tacticals I also did in this batch.

Next on the block is going to be the other 5 marines to finish 2nd squad, as well as final touch ups(finally) on my 3 Rhino/Razorbacks and 3 Drop pods. After that it's a toss up. My Gabriel Angelos conversion is half assembled but I think I want to do a few things differently with him. I have another drop pod partially assembled(I want a total of 5 eventually). I've got a Mark IV Venerable Dreadnought who will eventually be Davian Thule, and I want to use the Sternguard kit I've got to make a Command Squad to go along with my Tigurius counts-as Librarian. So many choices...

[Patrick Boyle]

And here's a few of the Librarian hiding in the middle of that tactical squad, I decided against going with the creepy cherub, and instead fished out a servo skull from the Devastator kit I've had sitting around primed for ages. Rather conventiently said skull has a IV carved into it already, so it fits in nicely. I tend to use this guy as a Tigurius stand-in, given the Blood Ravens are known for having powerful, prescient Librarians. Works out nicely. Really liked how he turned out, especially the glowing eyes.

[SadisticMagician]

love the Librarian's eyes!

[Pauly Addams]

Wow, absolutely stunning work.

All the attention to detail is great, particularly the colour markings on the armour; e.g. company marking on the knee pad (I'm assuming that's what it's for), which a lot of folks seem to slack off on these days. And the full Mk VI armoured Marine.

Awesome, look forward to seeing more.

~Pauly

[Darren Richardson]

I agree, wonderful work and great personal detailing makes these stand out, and yeah, the beaky looks great

[Wolfshade]

Awewsome

[phil035]

Can't wait to see the rest of the squad and your take on Gabriel Angelos

[euansmith]

Nice clean paint job.

[Nurglesprince]

Stunning work there sir.

Dan

[Gingerpanda]

Great painting, I'm envious that you managed to paint the Blood Raven emblem, something I lack the skill to do.