Dark Angels strikeforce
by Brother Michael
One comes across really well painted Deathwing armies and one comes across really well painted greenwing armies, but, a combination of both in one army is unusual.
Brother Michael has something to keep everyone happy. The battered looking Deathwing with their paint chipped battle plate and grim expressions, a hulking battle scarred Dreadnought, a very characterful winged Champion, a Veteran and a Tactical squad. It's difficult to know where to start.
Inevitably perhaps my own favourites are Raziel and the Deathwing squad where a great deal of skill has been lavished upon very smooth colour blends and clever use of subtle personal heraldry — no two are exactly identical. Check out the blends on the barrels of the assault cannon, and the termies glowing eyes. Raziel himself has a convincing haggard look. On the dust-covered legs, the dust is actually not color but weathering pigments. Brother Michael layered some rust pigments on the bases to create the impression of a red desert and then applied the same pigments to the legs by drybrush.
The Dreadnought is nicely dirty — he's been on campaign a long time — and his green armour is nice and dark, exactly how Dark Angels should look in my opinion. Check his optics and lenses, really nicely painted. The Champion is an interesting model, it uses Eldar Swooping Hawk wings and in order to accommodate these his power pack has been put on upside down with the bulbous vents removed. Very creative bit of modelling. He features personalised heraldry on his dark battle plate and has been beautifully based on a 40mm base.
The Veteran's base is even more imposing, he's standing on an outcrop of rock that exaggerates his extended sword arm pose. The plasma pistol and power weapon armament look awesome on him, if this model isn't used as a Veteran then he'd make a great Company Master centrepiece for any DA army.
Last but not least the 5-man tactical squad. Smoothly highlighted dark green armour, 5th Battle Company livery and a bit less of the personalised heraldry give the squad a unified look without them becoming too boring. Great to see all the bolter barrels drilled out too.
I'd love to see how Brother Michael would tackle the Ravenwing.
