Sooo … Update! I have finally decided to go with the Blood Angels. I already wrote down the 10 most important reasons for that, but I want to add final one: The Blood Angels Community of Players is very constructive and kind. So … before buying and building and painting and playing, I’d like to write down some thought regarding my own Force. It’s mostly for myself, to have a place where I can go and see again what my plan was. … as I had to realize: I don’t like paintine Blood Angels. But I keep this post online anyway …
There are some major inspirations and red lines I wanted to follow …
Old, bearded Men
The Common Space Marine is always perfectly shaved and the Blood Angels are known to be especially handsome Killing Machines. I’d like to contrast that with using several Minis without Helmets that wear Beards. There are two cases I want to use them for … at first for Officers or Sergeants. They shall get a Sean Connery Look as Nicolas R. Giacondino showd in his portrait of Jaq Draco, who as well could have been a great Blood Angels Sergeant, just from his look. They shall come with well trimmed beards and haircuts. And second some Members of the Death Company shall get beards. I think it’s quite reasonable, that someone who is caught in eternal battle rage doesn’t care about shaving.
Young, androgyn Men
I like playing around with Gender Stereotypes and as I mentioned above, the Blood Angels are – just like their Primarch – known to be exceptional handsome. So I will try and dive into that theme by using Heads with long Hair and androgyn Faces. I want to try some kitbashing with Elven Bits here and see, where that leads me. Together with the bearded Men, I think both styles might fit okay together, as they represent both sides of the Chapter: The noble Artisans and the blood drinking Savages.
Feral appearance
I stil love the furs and teeth the Space Wolves wear and I am willing to try an introduce that – carefully – into my Blood Angels Army. I think I’ll carefully try some of the techniques the Space Wolves Community has developed to create Wolf Socuts, which means kitbashing Fantasy-Minis into 40k. Actually Furs are not uncommon in depictions of the Blood Angels, often as white Furs. I think, I’ll stick more with light brown and beige colors, but we’ll see that.
The official Sanguinius with a Thunder Wolf some sort of once seemingly pretty wild, now pretty dead beast over his shoulder.
Tribal Markings and Warpaint
One of the most impressing ideas in the whole area of Warfare is Warpaint. It just looks awesome, be it from celtic, african, maori oder native america cultures … it just looks awesome. Always. I know it really isn’t the Blood Angels Way … but I want to give it a try. Dan Morison has depicted an Emperor’s Hawk Assault Marine with asymetric Stripes on his Helmet, which go a bit into that direction and would also suite a Blood Angels well.
Painting, not Ornaments
This is a bit a continuation of the last point: I still love the “Do you know, that while you are shaving and polishing your armour, we fight …?!” attitude, and I want to apply that – as far as possible – on my Blood Angels. This means especially, that I try to avoid ornamented Armour in favor of plain Armour. I know, I know, this is pretty un-blood-angelic, buuut I want to replace the sculpted ornaments on the Armour by painted ornaments. I think that suites every Astartes better than running around like a rococo porcelain statuette. Let’s see where this takes me …
Spartan lookalike Contest
I also love Helmet Crest, especially those that go alongside the Helmet. One of the great things about the Blood Angels – compared to the Space Wolves – is, that you can use all the roman and greek Minis. I think that the 2004 limited Edition Veteran Sergeant is the cooles Power Armour Mini ever (his crest is far cooler than the newer ones).
I want to use that style within some Squads, but I am still a bit unsure how.
2nd Edition Colour Scheme
I can’t help it, but I love the bright colour schemes of the 2nd Edition. So I’ll try to stick to it a little bit: Especially adding more yellow to my Marines.
Less colours, focus on few details
I was very, very, very impressed by Bruticus’ Stormcast Eternals of the Immortal Tribunal on Ex Profundis. I even thought abount applying that look-and-feel on Blood Angels, but finally disbanded the Idea, although I still think, it would work out well. But it doesn’t fit with my other Ideas. Buuut … what I learned from Bruticus is, that less colours really, really focuses the details. If the whole Mini is more or less white and silver, than one or two elements in bright red really stick out. I’ll try and apply that to my colour scheme also, but I am yet unaware how exactly.
Never mind the retcons, never mind the competition
One thing that stuck out in the Blood Angels Community is their optimism regarding the Edition Changes and badly written Fluff. My Impression is, that Blood Angels Players are used to have a non-competitive, and not as fluffy Codex, as they once had. But they play neither to be first at Tournaments, nor do they bitch around about their official fluff. They play because they like the Blood Angels and the general Idea how the Army is played. And they accept what it given to them and make the best out of it. I consider this as the best way – for me – to approach the Hobby and the Game, and I don’t want to forget that.
Infantry, Infantry, Infantry … and Terminators
I like Tactical Marines, Scouts, Devastors, Assault Marines and Terminators. So I’ll really want to focus on the single Marine. It’s totally okay, if my force stays small. Space Hulk, Kill Team and Shadow War Armageddon are attractive Alternatives to “regular 40k” for me.
Primaris and Stormcast Kitbashing
The Stormcast Eternals with their death- mask-esque Helmet are perfect kitbashing material for Blood Angels, or better said, “would be”, because the Stormcasts are a good head higher than an average Marine … until the Primaris arrived! Now they should fit together nicely. I am more than tempted of build a Squad of Primaris Marines on Gryph-Chargers … 🙂
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