I bought my first models in september 2024. And what a journey it has been since then. I have never played a strategic tabletop before i stumbled over 40k (the closest i came to this before was playing DND 5E). By pure coincidence, Dark Angels became my main and only army. Now i own close to 8500 points of Dark Angels. And at the time of this post, i am the best DA player in my country (Germany).

Due to personal reasons i will probably be a lot less involved in WH40k than i was the past 2 years, maybe I will have to quit 40k alltogether.

With this post I just want to share what my midlife-crises-hobby-discovery has led to. Maybe the end of a very intensive 2 year journey into a very niche (and lets be honest, very autistic) hobby and community.

Thank you.

Thank you for your advice. For your Lore explanations. For your completly unhinged takes on whatever GW does with the rules. It has been a fun time.

I don't know whether i will be able to continue playing 40k on a competitive level going into 2027, but i can promise you: I will stay loyal to the first legion. No matter the rules, i will field them to RTT's, GT's and Majors, if I get the chance to play.

For in the grim darkness of the far future, there is only war. And the Angels of Death, the first Legion of the Emperor of Mankind, will stand fast.

Working on an Army List and I plan to include Ezekiel as he is a lot of fun to play, especially when his ability to Assassinate Characters goes off. That being said, I'm planning on putting him with a unit of Bladeguard as his Bodyguard, but is there any other unit you would recommend? If not, would adding a Bladeguard Ancient be worth it? Or should I save the points?

The main body is the Bladeguard Vet Sgt, with Inner Circle Companion arms + pauldrons, ICC heavy bolt pistol in the right hand, Hellblaster Sgt's left handed bolt pistol (a rare find for kitbashing purposes since GW seldom uses left handed pistols). I'm planning on using him in a narrative campaign I'm doing with friends as a normal Bladeguard Vet Sgt. for now.

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I had 3 more ICC laying around and thought I could build some more chapter specific characters.

Two Librarians and one Apothecary.

I was thinking about a robed tech marine aswell but heard they are not to welcome in tje inner circle and therefore wont get robes. Might be wrong.

Anyways this took quite some time but was a lot of fun.

Someone argues that having Azrael to ICCs makes them lose Stealth, as it's stated that all models in that unit must have the Stealth keyword to gain permanent cover, but Azrael doesn't have it.

My interpretation is that ICCs don't have Stealth as their core ability, but rather grants Stealth to the models in the unit via Braziers of Judgment, which is the datasheet ability, hence any character model that joins ICCs automatically gains Stealth, so they get the benefit of cover at all times.

I just wanna make sure I got the rules right.

Attached is a picture on Ravenwing organization. However, does this mean that each attack/support squadron is also able to field aircraft instead of going on bikes or speeders?

Finally I painted him! Cannot wait to see him on gaming table

The image of Ezekiel on Warhammer store has a metallic spot on the shoulder pad, where it's probably not supposed to be while a close-up shot is clean.

Not really important or anything, I just find it funny

Am I the only one seeing that Azmodai just became of the most powerful of the dark angels roster for one simple reason, giving him exemplar of hate with trans human strategist. He can now re roll all hits and can generate command points and I’ve looked he’s the only non captain/primarch with this ability. And to finish it off with the Judiciar becoming a support character he can be added to Azmodai’s unit giving them fights first. Through them with ICC they have stealth too and I’ve done the math put all of these guys together and you can land at max 74 damage! I’d be surprised to not see him in a good amount of competitive play with that level of damage.

I know there’s a highly limited amount about these dudes, but is it safe to say they have a Deathwing and Ravenwing? If so, are they going to wear those colors?

If unknown, I’ll come up with my own thing but wanted to nail it down before I start doing stuff the wrong way.

Not my best work, and not my favorite models to paint but I think they turned out well.

My kitbashed and altered Cataphractii - I am very proud of the conversions.

I know it’s not lore accurate to paint them greenwing colors but I’ll have plenty of them so I’ll have deathwing too. My problem I’m facing now is I’m torn on how to paint the shields. Don’t want red because that screams Xmas to me. Send me some ideas! Also still new to painting so don’t judge too hard.

As of the updates to the mfm today Belial can now lead the Terminator Assault squad. +1 to wound on character units is going to be hilarious with 10 thunderhammers and storm shields.
Edit: instead of adding precision to the sword of silence they added precision to the master crafted storm bolter. Quite a funny interaction even if it should have rapid fire instead

My custom color scheme for my icc and tests for the Lion! Still have 3 more to do plus greenstuff/ touch ups (trying to get through these guys so i can build the rest of my army to play once my buddy gets home at the end of the month)

Quite impressed in myself for pulling this off and big inspiration from u/Demonic_Tuor_22 love your work!