Jules' various Blood Angels conversions

One of my favourite parts of the hobby has always been converting models.

Subsequently painting and playing with the bastards always seems like hard work compared to the fun of conversions.

A selection of photos & captions follows.



The Space Marine Scouts dont come standard with a Multi-Melta heavy weapon (last time i looked anyway).

Meltaguns of all kinds are really big in the Blood Angels way of doing things, plus the ability of an infiltrator to cook a tank would be handy in battle. For these reasons I attached a Sisters of Battle hand-held Multi-melta to the HeavyBolter scout. I'm quite pleased with the result.

The model on the left isnt strictly a conversion, however i'm quite pleased with how the desert camoflage cape turned out. It was always going to be tricky to reconcile bright red armour with green camo ("what's the point of that?" etc) but I think red (martian?) armor and other desert colours is more visually palatable.

This is a fairly simple conversion consisting of "that pointing power fist marine sergent" with the plasma/bolter combi-weapon from the "Dark Angels Chapter Master" model.

I figued that veteran sergents would use their wargear card to equip themselves with fairly basic equipment from the chapter armorers to boost their own firepower and thereby help their troops.

The gaming boost is of course two "special weapons" in a tactical squad.

I've always found it a bit cheesy when people field a veteran sergent who carries "one of the only vortex grenades in the galaxy" to mess up your dreadnaught. Doesn't seem consistent with Mabo, the Vibe etc.

[Of course my comments relate to Gen 2 rules. I'll still need to finish reading the current stuff to see if such conversions are still permitted/effective. If not the conversion will have to be for decorative purposes only]

The Gen 2 rules on dreadnaught armament allow an assault-cannon and also Twin-linked Lascannon on the same dreadnaught however both weapons were right-hand only.

Your left-hand options were limited to:-

- PowerFist/Storm Bolter
- Lightning Claw / Heavy Flamer
- Missile Launcher

The above conversion uses the missile launcher box with Lascannon barrells and optical sight attached to make a "left hand twin-linked lascannon".

The base dreadnaught is from the Dark Angels.

In my opinion the result makes for a deadly battlefield dreadnaught for ranged attacks with a neat-looking conversion.

Anyone who knows my army will know that jump-packs are a big part of its mojo.

The above picture is the jump-mobile command element with veteran assault bodyguard.

(obviously not necesarrily played in exactly that grouping).

The on-field advantage is increased mobility for characters who provide the most benefit when they are exchanging business cards with the opposition face-to-face. They can also lead/join jump-pack squads without slowing them down.

The conversions are of course the jump packs on the Apocathery special character, chaplain and librarian. Obviosuly no creativity awards will be given out for such a simple conversion, however i am pleased with how the end result almost looks standard for the army.

This jump-pack business has raised its share of controversy in its time, however my retorts are:-

- the conversions are actually made to the model and are plain to see;

- jump pack assault is a big part of the Blood Angel philosophy (ie - we're not trying to field a wood-elf army with no archers or anything here);

- ALL of those characters have a spare wargear card entitlement which they are spending on jump packs;

- Even though there is only one "jump pack" wargear card in the boxed game (gen 2) I submit that for certain armies, certain items of wargear are common (eg marines with jump packs, master-crafted bolters etc) and their armory would have shitloads available for characters. On the other hand; loads of jump packs for characters in an Imperial Guard army would raise more eyebrows. You would expect that the piece of gear would be a rare one-off piece in those circles. Likewise I would be justifiably called a cheat if my characters all loaded up on Eldar wargear cards (or if even one used an alien bit of gear). I've read an article in White Dwarf supporting my interpretation of the finite wargear cards (however don't expect me to be able to dig it up!).


Of course, the above comments relate to gen 2 rules. I'll need to read a bit to find out if this stuff will work under the latest rules.

This is my main party piece - a very large Death Company with Jump Packs.

On the field they are a deadly but somewhat unpredictable force (hence the two Chaplains in the squad - once the chaplain/s dies they tend to run around belting whoever they see instead of following orders, which could have mixed results).

The conversions are adding the jump packs and also scattering in a few veteran sergent models as DC troopers so we can have a few no-helmet crazy people among the squad.

See also the John Woo-inspired "twin pistols" trooper on the front-left of screen.

I'm pretty sure adding jump packs is legal under the rules (at a cost of x points per model per gen 2 codex) but I would need to dig up the old codex if someone wanted to argue the point. Once again, i submit that it is consistent with the nature of the army - why wouldn't the chapter armorers allocate some jump packs to the troops who are most itching to get stuck-in?

If I had used more brains when putting this squad together i would have just given them all chainswords and bolt pistols rather than all those expensive power weapons (which I assume are verboten for regular troops after gen 2 rules finished).

I have a sneaking suspision that a later (or the latest?) codex really messes with my Death Company squad idea (eg insisting on determining DC squad size randomly before a game. I.e. depleting your existing squads for the "benefit" of forming a depleted DC squad - bad news all around), but we'll see.

If so, hopefully those who I will play against will be good natured enough to work something out.

For shits and giggles this is my "Death Company dreadnaught"

The conversion is mainly the battle-damage and painting.

This was originally Bjorn the Fell-handed (Space Wolves Special Character Dreadnaught) with a multi-melta in place of the assault cannon. The varous Space Wolves dangly bits (some as modified) do an ok job of representing a bones-decorated "bloodlust crazy" dreadnaught.

The weapon choice is consistent with:-

- the Blood Angels penchant for melta weapons;
- the "up close and personal" philosophy of a crazy dreadnaught; and
- my woody for up to two heavy flamer templates (The lightning claw on the other arm has a heavy flamer underneathn. In gen 2 rules a dreadnaught multi-melta could be used with the same effect as a heavy flamer if the firer so chooses.)

My intention is to play it as a normal dreadnaught (albiet painted differently) however if any opponent wants to entertain the idea of a "frenzied" dreadnaught we could probably agree on some rules in advance. Such a thing would probably be an unreliable liability with few net benefits to its army, although the concept could be entertaining. I'm reminded of the big fight at the end of Robocop 2 now for some reason...

Probably an anti-climax to the rest - an unfinished Dark Angels skimmer in Blood Angels colours.

The point of posting is to show the left hand of the vehicle commander.

On the picture on the box he holds a bolt pistol, which I think is stupid when you have a fast skimmer to fly and a big gattling-gun to fire.

A clenched fist holding nothing would also be a bit daft.

Accordingly, I've converted the plastic hand to be pointing at some target or terrain feature, presumably for the benefit of the gunner in the other seat. Much more consistent behaviour for a pilot. The tiny plastic fingers weren't easy to work with and i'm pleased with the result.

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First off, you and your army are whores. Second, well done it all looks great...

And I can't believe I'm writing this but your command squad is mostly legal. You can't take Captain AND Librarian AND Chaplain as they're individual characters and you have a limit of two command/hq units. Jump packs on the characters is fine though - standard power armour upgrade for them... Except for Librarian who can't take it in Codex Blood Angels but can in Codex Space Marines? I'd wait to see what the new 'dex says next month.

DC CAN take jump packs... Oh. My. Gawd.

...And for only 5 POINTS EACH!!!!! AAAARRRRGGGGHHHH!!!!! Now I'm getting that damn blood rage...

Still you can only take up to 10 DC with random numbers, and only the 1 chappy...

Cheers Chris

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When you say:- "I'd wait to see what the new 'dex says next month."

Do you mean that there is a new Blood Angels codex coming out next month and i should sit tight until it becomes available?

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I dont think i've ever attempted (or wanted) to play with all of the characters in the same unit so i'm not too worried about that.

It does make a nice group photo however :p

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I'm not looking forward to this new way of working out how many DC troopers you can get just before the game starts.

As we all know; small units are usually worse off than big units. I wouldnt be a fan of losing valuable regular troops from their squads for the purpose of forming a small/weak DC squad

Jules wrote:

Cheers Chris

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When you say:- "I'd wait to see what the new 'dex says next month."

Do you mean that there is a new Blood Angels codex coming out next month and i should sit tight until it becomes available?

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I dont think i've ever attempted (or wanted) to play with all of the characters in the same unit so i'm not too worried about that.

It does make a nice group photo however :p

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I'm not looking forward to this new way of working out how many DC troopers you can get just before the game starts.

As we all know; small units are usually worse off than big units. I wouldnt be a fan of losing valuable regular troops from their squads for the purpose of forming a small/weak DC squad

Jules there is a range of new Blood Angels stuff coming including a new Codex.

I would wait if I was you.

Angus