Immortal's "Death-(From-Above)-Star" WIP

Immortal here with a quick WIP that I've been working on for my Blood Angels Descent of Angels list (the truest to form way of playing Sanguinius' own, IMO)... a custom Dante, Sanguinary Guard, custom Librarian, Sanguinary Priest, and a free handed banner. All in all, this is my Blood Angel Death-(from-above)-Star. This is going to be my center-piece army in my Wargames Con 2000 point grand tournament army in Austin, TX July 9th and 10th.

Overall Paint Scheme-

The first thing you will notice about these models is that they are not gold. Personally, I'm not a fan of the gold. Yet, as many who have seen my other armies can a test to is that I like the color Bleached Bone... a lot. I thought it was very fitting for these models. I wanted them to look like their armor was old and weathered and I feel that it added an ancient feel to the model.

Dante (WIP)-

This model was made using almost exclusively from the Sanguinary Guard kit. As you may notice from the pics, the only thing NOT in the SG kit is the jump pack and wings... both from the Astrograth model. That being said, here is what I have done so far:

Librarian-

The model is pretty much done (minus the jump pack), and I am quite pleased with it. Its a combination of the SG kit and a GK kit bash. Most of the model is BA, but the head, hood, and force weapon are all GK. Additionally, the book on top of the jump pack and the servo-skull are GK. This kit is 100% plastic. The thing that I am most pleased with this model is the blade of the force weapon... and I fully intend to replicate this effect on the power weapons in the rest of my army. Its actually a very simple way of doing it... and doesn't require an airbrush. I will explain this further in a future article.

Sanguinary Priest-

Like the Librarian, this model is nearly complete. This is a bash of the SG and DC kits as well as the apothecary bits from a SM command squad. I chose to paint it white because I felt it made the model stand out as a medic character... the side effect of this being it is a prime target for my opponent and easy to tell where the priest is.

Sanguinary Guard:

Pretty standard here... nothing too fancy other then the already mentioned bone armor. I suppose its worth noting how I did the bone: Its simple actually. I primed the models white first (clearly) and then painted the bleached bone, slightly watered down, over the areas I wanted to make bone. I then took Gryphonnite Sepia wash and painted it directly to the recesses and finished with a light dry brush of bone again slightly mixed with white.

Free-handed Banner-

I personally don't like the idea of a deep striking DoA army falling from the skies with a banner shaped like a ship's sail, so I took the banner from the recent Dragon Princes WHF kit (loving the new HE kits) and converted the two-handed axe to be a banner pole. IMO, the banner looks like it is just landing on the ground, giving the unit a much more dynamic and far less static feel to it. I took the BA symbol from a few pieces of artwork from the codex (see pg 52). I felt it was cool and different, and as a bonus it fits the nonstandard banner shape well. I decided to not go overboard with the free hand, as I don't have a lot of experience with it, but I'm happy with how it came out.

So there you have it, my Death-(from-above)-Star. Overall, I'd say the unit is 60% complete... still needing basing, power weapons, other touch ups.

-Immortal Out

Thoughts? Comments? (Gripes, bitches, or moans?)