How to Paint Blood Angels Death Company

Merry Christmas everyone... I hope you were able to spend some quality time with the important people in your life and perhaps use some of your holidays to catch up on some hobby projects.

I finally got around to making a video for these guys... I painted them back when the Blood Angels book was new, but never made a video.

Death Company Dreadnought video

Here's the video that goes along with the Death Company Dreadnought. I've included the conversion part that shows how I cut up an Assault on Black Reach Dreadnought with extra bits from the Furioso dread kit.

Blood Angels Death Company Dreadnought

Here's some pictures of the finished Blood Angels Dreadnought that I converted using left over bits from the Furioso kit and an assault on black reach dreadnought. I'll be making a video of this soon and posting it.

Death Company Dread

Here's a couple work in progress shots of the new Blood Angels kit... actually, this is the Assault on Black Reach dreadnought converted to with some of the left over bits from the Blood Angels kit. The conversion is shown at the end of the assembly video here

Death Company Dread conversion

Here's a quick pictorial tutorial about how I combined left over bits from the new Furioso kit with an Assault on Black Reach Dreadnought to make a Death Company Dreadnought. You can use this method to make any of the variants, but I already have a Furioso and I used the new kit to make the Librarian version (pics coming soon).

First off I used the razor saw to cut along the top of the front piece of the AOBR dreadnought.




Next I cut the front off. I could only go so far with the razor saw, then had to go from the bottom. Its a little tricky, but I cleaned things up with the exacto knife after.



Sorry this one is blurry, but here I'm cutting from the bottom trying to align the angles with the other front.



Here's what I'm left with. I had to make sure the little bits on either side were left in place. There's also a bit that goes in the middle at the top that I had to preserve.





Next off I worked on the left shin armour. This had to be carved off and prepared for the replacement one from the Furioso kit.


Here's what it looks like now:








I'll be sure to post pictures of it when I paint it up.

Death Company painted

Here's those same death company guys all painted up. Nothing too fancy, but speed is the name of the game here. These guys will load out at 260 points in the new codex, which is a little steep if you ask me. I'll have to get some guys with no upgrades to give them a little more killing power for lower average points per model. I'm thinking bolt guns since they are relentless (rapid fire before charging).

Full work in progress shots as well as a complete list of steps and paints used can be found here [miniwargaming.com]

Preview: Death Company

Check these guys out... the new Blood Angels Death Company. I was fortunate enough to get to assemble them for miniwargaming.com, and I will be painting them up shortly. I've posted an article already (here) with lots of pictures and some of my comments. They are also up for preorder at MWG for 10% off and will ship when they are released on April 3rd (here).

Some of my thoughts... the death company kit is awesome, however its not the same as the upgrade sprues you get with other chapters. A lot of the stuff is death company specific (the X's are etched in), and you don't get stuff for dreadnoughts or vehicles. That said, there is still lots of stuff you can use with other squads, and you can mix this stuff with other tactical or assault stuff to make a larger death company.

One of the biggest improvements is that the jump packs actually fit together nicely, and there is no gap like the other ones. The mold lines are also the best I've seen on marines, and the details are fantastic.