A thousand angels

Happy New Year! I came so close to getting the initial 1k points of Legions Imperialis done before the year clocked over, but missed by the narrowest of margins with just four units of assault marines to finish. But they are done now and I can finally show the Blood Angels legion demi-company and armoured company formations in full. So much fun to paint and oh so very smol.

When I last painted epic scale, I was a somewhat younger fellow with somewhat better eyesight! Luckily the miniatures have equally evolved and the Legions kits are just gorgeous to paint.

Since Legions Imperialis launched last month, my goal has been to build and paint 1k points as quickly as possible for gaming in the new year. The sense of relief having achieved that is real, especially as I made a few mistakes along the way by not adjusting my painting process enough. Painting epic scale requires an adjustment if you have any hope of painting a gaming sized force. It’s not just about streamlining, but also emphasising aspects to help the miniatures pop when viewed on the tabletop. It has been so long since I last painted this scale I didn’t adjust my painting approach anywhere near enough. Luckily I learned a lot whilst painting these which I am already taking forward into the next Legions project.

The key: Simplify as much as possible. Especially the infantry. Both the legion demi-company and legion armoured formations can be found in the Legions Imperialis gallery from the main menu. I talk more on how I approached the painting there, so please take a look if you want to know more.

Until the next wave of miniatures and the first expansion comes out, I’m quite limited what I can take formation wise to legion demi-company and armoured company. The air assault formation I want to park for now and do in the future when some of the flyers are re-released. That leaves me with taking one of each formation to fill out the 1k points. Even more impressively I didn’t need to squeeze in a Knight or war engine to achieve it, so they can go straight into larger games.

Really starting to like how the army building process works, it’s actually a lot more flexible that I think was initially realised. As new formations and units come into play my feeling is this will only get better.

For now though, I’m working with a nicely mobile demi-company with Dreadnought support and some swift assault units to make use of the Thunderhawks mobility. The Thunderhawk is especially exciting as assault detachments don’t require it to drop into hover to deploy. They can simply air-drop in flight. Now that is cool. I can squeeze in six squads into the list, but have room for eight in the Thunderhawk so potential to paint some more.

As the assault detachments are sort of my ‘themed unit’ for the Blood Angels, I added some extra base details to help them stand out. It also gets around the issue of the bases being a bit cramped for units like the jump pack troops.

Keeping the theme going, nobody needs to walk anywhere in this formation. I’ve supplied enough Rhino for the tactical detachments, commander and support weapon squads. The extra cover the Rhinos will provide won’t go amiss either. Lots of vroom!

Rounding out the optional support slots are a pair of Dreadnought talons. I could probably deploy these more efficiently as a single upgraded detachment, but I’m not really into min-max and like how two detachments look. It also gives me an additional activation, which I know from past experience is worth way more.

Soaking up a big chunk of the points are the tanks. I could only afford to field the core detachments from the legion armoured company formation. Two basic Sicaran battle tank squadrons and an upgraded Kratos heavy tank squadron. These kits are absolutely sublime, both to build and to paint. I had so much fun losing myself in all that detail.

I went with a mix of sponson weapon loadouts on both types, even though I suspect it will make gaming a bit more fiddly with so many different weapon profiles in play. Will see how it goes after the first few games and may simplify for future detachments.

Bases and magnets

The elephant in the room I suspect will be the bases for the tanks. I won’t lie, I spent a long time weighing up whether to or not. The decider in the end was practicality. I use a magnetic transport solution for my Heresy and Titanicus models and it was a no-brainer for Legions Imperialis as you can fit a huge amount of models on even a single tray compared to foam trays.

There’s also the fact I like the consistency and aesthetics across the army and I’ve already assessed how delicate and prone to breaking some of those sponsons are. Basing them also helps reduce likelihood of snapping off a weapon if they are handled using the base instead. For the Blood Angels I’ve used select 2mm rectangular bases from Sarissa Precision, each with a 5mm x 1mm disk magnet flush on the underside. The ones I used are strong enough to hold the models safely in place, but not so strong they cannot be peeled off easily with no risk to the model. Works like a charm.

Now I have a 1000 points ready to go, more if I throw in a Titan or Knight banner as well, or some allied air support I’m in a good shape for some gaming action. While I scare up a few learning games this month, it’s time to start work on the next set of detachments. This is how I think I’ll proceed with Legions Imperialis, with a detachment at a time rather than just isolated models. That way I can grow the loyalist (and traitor) forces so they are immediately usable.

I’ll take a break from red now and work on some, yes you guessed it yellow sons of Dorn.

Remember those Predators I mentioned a while back? That’s where they are going. Although they can’t be taken as part of an Imperial Fists legion garrison formation, they do make up two core slots for an armoured company. Another box of Kratos, this time for the VIIth legion and I have the making of both an armoured company and the flexibility to use the Kratos as part of a Garrison Force alongside the Deredeo and other Bastion units when they get released.

Clearly a plan has been formed that even Dorn himself would be proud of. Nothing is going to waste as I build up my defence of terra forces. Can’t wait to add some of the other Dreadnought’s and artillery in the colours of the VIIth.

While I wait for those, I’ll work on some infantry to come up with a fast process for the yellow that works with the flyers I have done to date. Have a great week.