SHOWCASE: Blood Angels Baal predator

Warhammer 40,000: Blood Angels Baal predator

It's finished! My new (and very small) Blood Angels force can now call upon some serious mobile firepower when they go to war in the far future. For various reasons, this has taken longer than I originally expected, but I'm glad to see it finished.

This is the first tank I've painted in a while and the first ever for a Blood Angels army. In my twenty-plus years in the hobby, I've painted several tanks, but most of them have been blue. Painting one red wasn't a big challenge. I used the same colours I've used on my tactical squad so far, though I applied the basecoat (Mephiston Red) from a spray can to speed up the process and get a more even coverage.

Front view

I've been working on this one on and off for quite a while now. Had I not stopped several times to work on other projects, I could probably have turned it around in a matter of days. Alas that's not how I work. I'm planning to add two more tanks to this army—a rhino APC to transport a tactical squad and possibly another rhino APC (in black) to transport a death company squad. I'm also considering a drop pod for a second tactical squad. I don't have any of these yet though, so they'll have to wait.

Side view

The weathering was applied in a couple of stages. Firstly I sponged on some battle damage (chips and dirt) using Dryad Bark and Leadbelcher. I focused this on the lower portions of the tank, but made sure to get any edges too, especially those that would see a lot of wear. Next up I applied some weathering powder to various parts of the tank, again focusing on the lower portions. The tank tracks received most of this, taking a liberal helping of both dark and light earth coloured powders. This was sealed with some matt varnish.

Rear view

Now that the tank is finally done, I have a lot more space on my desk. I don't plan to fill that with anything new just yet, but I have a number of other projects in the vicinity that I'd like to get done. The tricky part, for me, is deciding what to work on next...