Upgrading My Angels

It would be hard to tell from the blog, but I've been putting a lot of time into my Angels of Absolution the last month. I've been painting on an almost daily basis but not all of it has been about completing models. I've been in the process of upgrading the models I have to be more visually interesting and to better represent how they are organized. One of the things I have felt in recent years is that my models are too clean and pristine. They needed some mud, scratches, and battle damage. Additionally, bases have come a long way since I started this army in 1994 when all bases were Goblin Green with either Green Flock or a layer of sand painted Goblin Green and drybrushed with either Rotting Flesh or Sunburst Yellow. Oof. What a mundane look that was? Over time we've branched out into new colors, textures, flocking materials, water effects, and now even elaborate resin cast bases. Needless to say, though newly painted models can be granted these luxuries, they just won't match the old bases unless everyone gets some upgrading to link them together.

One of the 1st orders of business this month has been the abolishment of the 7th Squad Tactical Squad of the 5th company. You see, when I created the 7th Squad over 10 years ago I didn't understand the organization of the Dark Angels well enough to pick up on the fact that the 7th Squad of the 5th company wouldn't be a Tactical squad, they would be an Assault squad. This

has been a huge black mark on my army for the last 10 years that I had been meaning to erase. Today I'm going to go explain briefly how I erased that stain.

The above model details the offensive 7th Tactical squad marking.

Here I have taken Bleached Bone and thinned it down to a watery consistency so that I can cover the black in multiple successive layers without globbing up my model.

After 2 coats.

And here it is completely erased on the 4th coat. I didn't bother to stage by stage it, but I did the exact same process with Mechrite Red until I had a pristine Tactical symbol to work with. Then I went in with watered down Chaos Black and painted new numbers onto a handful of these 7th squad rejects. Here is the end result.

You might also notice that he has mud splatter and chips in his armor added. His base got upgraded with broom bristle, gravel, and taller static grass tufts.

All of my Angels of Absolution are named. This Meltagunner is Trojin.

Gravis was another 7th squad member. I still love the rivet mohawk I gave him years ago.

Folin was also a 7th squad member. He has a black knee pad with script to indicate that he is a Chaplain Apprenta.

Many campaigns ago Holgin was actually Veteran Sergeant Midas of the 5th Squad. One of his original arms was removed and attached to a different model and his name was changed and his rank lost. If you look closely you can tell he's an older model because his Bleached Bone is not as opaque as later models.

Crace was pictured last post. Unlike the others he wasn't reassigned to 2nd Squad, he was painted specifically to complete the Combat Squad.

One final note. On Saturday night I sat down to paint and discovered my Fine Detail Brush was past its days. It couldn't hold enough paint to reasonably coat an elbow pad on a marine. Completely bummed because my girlfriend had the laptop we've been sharing with her at work and unable to make an emergency order, I sat down to spend a full evening of cutting Space Marine bitz off of sprues. Sunday morning I ordered my new brush and some other supplies including the new Liquid Green Stuff. Hopefully my package will arrive tomorrow afternoon. Today was all basing and photography because I was crippled without that damned brush. Its funny how important our hobbies can be to our daily lives, but they are. Thanks for reading.

-Nick