Conquered

I really should have learned by now that there is absolutely no point in trying to plan my projects ahead of time. I've gotten pretty good at seeing projects through to completion, but when it comes time to choose a new project it's going to be whatever feels most exciting at the time, no matter what I may have thought before hand.

After I got finished with my English Civil War companies, my Shadow War campaign was still underway*, but keeping the kill-teams up to date really didn't take much time, so I was at a loose end. At about that time Warhammer 40,000 Conquest came out.

For anyone not paying attention, Warhammer 40,000 Conquest is a weekly part work magazine published by Hachette Publishing under licence from Games Workshop. Over the course of the magazines run, you can collect two armies for 40K, Plague Marines and Space Marines, plus scenery, paints and brushes. The collection leans heavily on Games Workshops "easy-to-build" range as well the contents of the Dark Imperium boxed set.

I snapped up the first issue, because it was priced at a ridiculous £1.99 as introductory offer and came with three Primaris Space Marines, three pots of paint and a starter brush. I snapped up two copies, but didn't have any plans to do anything with them.

Having decided I didn't want to subscribe, I grabbed issue 2, because it was £4.99, but then ignored things until issue 6 when the £7.99 magazine came with a Primaris Librarian, a model for which Games Workshop charge £22.50.

Blood Angel Scouts Shadow War Kill-Team

I had enjoyed painting my Shadow War Scouts as Blood Angels and that prompted me to pick up the Blood Angels Primaris upgrade sprue. Between the sprue and some chopping and repositioning I was able to put together a five man Blood Angel Primaris Squad, who I quickly set about painting.

I haven't had much success paitning Space Marines over the years, so I was pleased with how these came out. I kept things simple, giving them an all over base coat of Mephiston Red, followed by a Carroburg Crimson ink wash and then a lot of edge highlighting. After that I just picked out some details using Abaddon Black (which came with Conquest issue 1) and highlighting that with Vallejo Black Grey and painting the metal areas in Vallejo Natural Steel with a Nuln Ink wash.

I gave my Librarian a little more time and attention. He also gave me a good opportunity to use my Macragge Blue and Retributor Amour (Gold) which also came with Conquest Issue 1. That £3.98 has already gone a long way.

By the time I had my Librarian finished, Issue 11, with its easy-to-build Agressors was out. I already had the appropriate Blood Angel Agressor shoulder pads (though I had to cut away the easy to build ones to make them fit), so I could hardly resist.

Three units down, four if I use my Shadow War Kill-Team. Of course Space Marines are not the only army available through Warhammer 40,000 Conquest, but more about that another time.

* It still is underway, but I don't really have anything left to paint for it. I'm planning a big finale game, but it will take a fair bit of time and space so I'm holding out for when I have a long weekend or something.