Lately, picking up anything hobby related has felt a bit more like a chore than an enjoyment – part of why the art has been coming thick and fast compared to hobby related stuff. I walk past my Blood Guard army several times a day and each time I feel a mixture of guilt, for not working on them and angry as most of the models now feel obsolete. (First Born Marines aren’t obsolete, but they certainly feel like it.) This obsolete feeling is also because some of the models are the ones I painted whilst I was still at University and I have improved and my painting style has adapted since then.

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So when talking – yet again – about Games Workshop and our future within the hobby, it was decided that I’ll be trimming down my collection of Blood Guard models and moving them on from where they currently stand. A lot of my older models will be put away in a box and the collection – which is currently an entire company – will be thinned down to models that I’d either still like to paint or am still happy with. I don’t intend for all the models in the collection to be Primaris Marines, but it’s certainly a way to embrace them.

There was another conundrum to doing this. Why? What reason could there be to decimate my Blood Guard Chapter/Company. I have a written history for the Blood Guard. So thinking something up do make this happen canonly for them as well, felt important.

Then I remember that I’d recently read The Devastation of Baal and that the Blood Guard (although they’ve never admitted it until now) are Blood Angels successors. I can easily imagine that they responded to the call for aid in the defence of Baal and a lot of the members of the Blood Guard were killed in action, leaving the Chapter decimated and in dire need of reinforcements. Seeing as the Chapter Master is reclusive but has been being mentored back to sanity by Librarian Praeximus Nulis. I think that the Chapter Master will have been on Baal and killed in action (redemption) with the most of his troops. Leaving Uthor Exemplaris, to finally take over the Blood Guard chapter properly – but not without going through some changes himself. (I intend on getting a Primaris Chaplain model for him in the future)

Of course, I shall update the History text file and put this into better writing when I have settled on which models I’d like to keep and which are going into the box of shame! It’ll be a sad time in a lot of respects as I have grown attached to a lot of the characters in the Blood Guard, but I suppose it’s the nature of Space Marine characters, they die.

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There are still some models that I would like to replace. The scouts in the right corner are amongst some of the first I painted and I’d like to replace them with some Reivers. There is also a disturbing lack of assault marine in this force now, but with the recent announcement from Games Workshop I am hoping that this will change in the near future.

Another replacement is the Chaplain Model, as again, the Terminator is an old metal one painted in the early days. I’ve always seen the Blood Guard led by a Chaplain though and as stated earlier, the leader of the Chapter is going to go through yet another transformation; though this one is more physical than spiritual (like his last transformation was!)

Either way, exciting things to come and I am trying my best to get and stay enthusiastic!

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And while the shelf was empty I figured I’d take a picture of my Chaos Daemon army. It’s not quite where I’d like it to be yet, either. I have visions of getting some of the bigger models for this army as well as filling in some of the gaps. The Khorne side of it I think I have covered now – maybe a Bloodthirster would finish them off nicely?

But aside that, filling out the other Chaos Daemons would be nice as at the moment things look a little… unbalanced!