WIP: Blood Angels tactical squad

I've always hated Blood Angels. That's probably not the best way to start a project that involves painting a whole bunch of them, but it's true. When I got into the hobby in 1992, they seemed to be the most common space marine chapter. They were everywhere. Ultramarines have since replaced them as the space marine poster boys, but even now there's still something about them. I think it's the colour red. It's overused. All that being said, in recent years, the models have improved a lot. Just a month or two ago Games Workshop released a new tactical squad, which makes the boys in red look better than ever. I finally cracked...

I have seventeen Blood Angel models. One of my targets for this year is to paint as many as I can. I figured the best place to start would be with a tactical squad: the rank and file foot troops of the army. In this post I'm looking at the early stages of my first test piece.

The components for the first marine, cleaned and ready to assemble.

To start with I'm assembling and painting one model just to get used to the colour scheme and make sure I can do it efficiently. I'll be going for an all-over coat of Mepheston Red, shaded with Agrax Earthshade as my starting point but beyond that I'm open to experimentation. I really liked the guide Stahly posted on Tale of Painters, so I'll likely use that as a starting point. On previous projects I've used sub-assemlies: building small sections of the model that I'd paint to completion before gluing together. With this one I'm gluing most of the model together before painting. The fact that it's mostly the same colour should mean this makes for a faster approach. It means I can use plastic glue for most of it too, which gives a stronger bond than super glue. For this test model I'm also using a decoration from the Warhammer 40,000 basing kit. I normally just glue rocks on, but as this is the first model for a new army, I thought I'd mark it in some way. A resin piece that has a crux terminatus (the mark of a veteran) seemed fitting.

The initial assembly.

I'm leaving the boltgun separate so I can paint the chest more easily. These models are slightly different to most previous space marine kits in that the pistol grip hand is attached to the gun rather than the arm. I'll therefore have to remember to paint the hand at the same time as the rest. The kit also comes with the brand new 32mm round bases as opposed to the usual 25mm. I've heard some criticism of this but I'm actually a big fan. I've always been slightly annoyed that larger models, like space marines, hang over the edges of their 25mm bases. On the 32mm bases they look much more comfortable. I have no plans to re-base my other armies now the new bases are available, and any new models for those same armies will be on 25mm bases too, but I like the idea of having all of my Blood Angels on the new size.

Based and read for undercoating.

This is as far as I've got with this first model. The next stage for me is to spray it with black primer before I start painting. I'll post more updates as and when I have them. What do you think of the new Blood Angels?