Sing, Choirs of Blood Angels

Who needs repainting? We've got eyes and weapon markings already!

Okay, this is starting to feel personal. I don't know when I tabled Santa (although he plays Ynnari, so he clearly deserved it), but he's just hitting and hitting with the Naughty List now.


Quite at what point I decided to put this squad of original plastic Space Hulk Terminators on the list, I don't now recall. The spirit of self-flagellation was clearly hard upon me at the time. Here they are, having of course turned up on the random roll.

There was an intention of finishing my Space Hulk collection, now I think about it. Getting the Genestealers done was always the big blocker, but now they number amongst the Painted, slapping a coat on the last unpainted squad I had was probably just a matter of time.

I have three in total, the ten you got with the first box and another seven from expansions and, er, not sure, really. These five had never seen a lick of paint, they were in their original dark blue plastic still. Showing up their Blood Angel and Ultramarine cousins really badly, too. The Librarian is a repaint, I should declare, one my brother did in pretty good Blood Angels slap, which I've just updated with gems and blue bits.

They're Blood Angels, what with them being flavour of the week and getting a new Codex. Also because the first campaign in Space Hulk was originally Blood Angelic, so it's historical.

So let's consider these models for a moment, okay, before we unlease the predicable bile on them. Yes, they are clearly ghastly models. But let us not forget that without them, we wouldn't have Terminators in their modern, multi-part, dynamically-posed form. These guys took the hit for their children.

This guy was actually a separate result on the List, I realised later! Oops. So that will cost me another 2 CPs to add him to this haul, but worth it to get him done all the same. 

The helmet is actually all there, that slightly bulldog look. And the power fist looks fine, even if its dangling derpily to one side. Even the two-headed Imperial eagle isn't bad moulding, really, just a little crude compared to modern stuff. I think it's the big 80s shoulder pads that really ruin the model, giving it that brain-damaged easter egg look. Lucky they didn't have pop socks and parachute pants, really.

The sergeant has still got, incredibly, his original banner pole! Another design flaw, the rest are long long gone. And this one isn't long for this world, it's already loose. Putting an actual banner on it was a step too far for this Advent, though. Maybe next year.

Painting Guide:

• Red - Mephiston Red basecoat, Agrax Earthshade, Evil Suns and Wild Rider layers
• Blue - Guilliman Blue, Drakenhof Nightshade, Altdorf Guard Blue and Lothern Blue layers
• Gold - Balthasar Gold, Agrax, Gehenna's Gold and Auric Armour Gold layers
• Yellow - Averland Sunset, Agrax, Hexos Palesun drybrush
• Eyes and Gems - Black, Warpstone Glow, Moot Green, Nurgling Green, White Scar
• Guns - Leadbelcher, Nuln Oil, Stormhost Silver
• Blood Angels Emblem - Outline done in Black, gem with Khorne Red and Wazdakka Red (the Sarge got a green blood drop done with the same colours as the gems), Wings in Pallid Wychflesh, Gehenna's Gold trim, White Scar dot
• Crux Terminatus - Why on earth did I freehand these, what was I thinking? Black outline, Eshin Grey, Dawnstone and Ulthuan Grey for the cross, Steel Legion Drab, Ushabti Bone and Pallid Wychflesh for the Skull, Gehenna's Gold for the Sergeant's stripe

Come on, dice. Nice List, Nice List, Nice List, Nice List...