Things are never quite the way they seem

I've been enjoying ploughing through my Horus Heresy backlog recently. I've been painting whilst listening to the audiobooks on Audible, I'm currently on The Mark of Calth, and so I'm knee deep in enthusiasm for the whole project.

There's just a slight problem...I'm bored of painting things red.

If only there was a way to continue with my Blood Angels whilst doing something a bit different...

Enter the Reconnaissance Marines, sneaky infiltrator types armed with something equivalent to sniper rifles (but boltguns) and therefore being the perfect unit to experiment with camouflage on for a bit of a palette cleanser.

Space Marines don't usually go for camouflage (barring camo-cloaks on Scouts), but I was inspired to do this by an extremely old source.

Although I didn't play 40k back in the day, the completionist part of me did insist on getting the Spacewar Combat Cards to complete the set and I vividly remember Lt Commander Chavez of the Blood Angels in all his badly camouflaged glory.

"Why would I camouflage my accessories, brother?"

For me, this card (combined with a White Dwarf featuring a similarly camouflaged Land Raider from the 'Assault on Bantax', which doesn't have fixed date) is enough to prove that Blood Angels in camo is 'canon' and allowed in the occasionally button counting world of Horus Heresy. He's even in Mark VI armour for goodness' sake! What more proof do you need?

Here is my homage to Lt Commander Chavez, who clearly rose through the ranks during the Horus Heresy as he's only a Sergeant here.

I really enjoyed piecing him together using different bits from the Mark VI Tactical Marine sprue, with the only variation being that my bits box delivered up the necessary pieces for his Nemesis Bolter.

The camouflage was done with the help of a handy guide on an decade old blog page HERE. I originally had the camouflage a bit closer to the image on the card, but opted to highlight the yellow a bit more to provide more contrast because they were looking just brown from a distance.

The Nemesis Bolters are a fairly common conversion which simply add longer barrels to the Bolters in the kit. This was done by drilling a small length of brass rod into the Bolter and adding a wider piece on the end as a silencer.

The silencer and sights were simply trimmed lengths from old Bretonnian plastic polearms. I think some folk use more specific and detailed bits, but my 40k bits box isn't very deep.

For the shoulder insignia I first used Crimson Fist and Imperial Fist transfers to make out the circles and painted over them before adding smaller Blood Angels icons. This design needing smaller symbols was convenient as I've run out of the size I've been using for the rest of the infantry.

I've ensured that all the necessary equipment is present and correct for the squad for WYSIWYG purposes. Specifically the Augury Scanner and Melta Bombs for sniping fliers and sabotaging vehicles respectively.

All in all I'm really pleased with them (although I can't shake their resemblance to bruised bananas) and I'm childishly pleased with the nonsensical red boots and gloves (I drew the line at doing the belts red too). There's something very Space Marine about not trying too hard to not be seen.

It wouldn't be a Blood Angels post without at least a few blokes in red and this one is no exception. I've finally got round to adding chain bayonets to my smaller unit of Tactical Marines.

I've been deliberating about this for a while and had considered giving them chainswords (for added choppiness) or keeping them cheap for camping on objectives.

However, having increased the size of the other unit, this one is now destined to be transported in a Rhino, which means they are going to get up close and personal with the enemy. I've opted for chain bayonets over chainswords as their cheaper (in both points and pounds) but still add a good amount of killiness for storming enemy strong points.

I still have five more Mark VI bodies to use, but my attention is now turning towards doing something a bit chunkier to make quicker progress towards 3000 points.

Acquired: 81
Painted: 214
Lead Mountain: 468