I have always collected Blood Angels, and my only completed army is a Blood Angel one with RTB001 Beakies and so, when Horus Heresy – Age of Darkness – was released I decided I would start a new armour of the little chaps.

I have decided to take the whole Age of Darkness box and assemble and use them as Blood Angels. That’s a whole lot of toys!

Unique amongst starter sets because this to Space Marine against Space Marine, the whole box set is a great start to any Horus Heresy Army. Sure, there may be a few too many Tactical marines, but I’ll make it work… plus I have a plan.

Heavy Weapons…

Games Workshop also released some weapon upgrade sets alongside the starter set. The Missile Launchers are from my childhood, so I had to pick up a set of these as well. I’m told that Heavy Weapons are taken in squads in Horus Heresy, and I didn’t want to make too many. So 5 Heavy Bolters and 5 Missile Launchers and splitting the box was a great option!

This would leave me with 30 Tactical Marines, which I’ve assembled in 3 units of 10. And the Terminators with Lightning Claws so my Blood Angel army actually has some close combat ability. 10 of these should mess with anything they get to – as long as they can get across the table!

Test Scheme

I was to make these as easy as possible to paint. I’m just looking for table top standard, and not Golden Deamon, so I needed something quick.

I’ve picked up some sprays, so I’m doing Black, Red, then back to the Citadel colour options – based around Mephiston Red.

A test model, who was quick to do with some highlights on only a few places for speed. I need to do a little work on making the guns look cleaner, but I’m happy with the overall result.

I’ll go into the scheme in more detail when I do a few of the actual models, but it’s spray paints, Nuln Oil, Mephiston Red and Wild Rider Red highlight and then black for the ‘non-red’ bits!

All that remains is for me to paint 40 marines, 10 terminators, 2 praetors, a dreadnought and land-raider! ouch. I’ll be sure to keep you all updated on my progress.

— Declan