Hobbs' Angels

More snow and family things to tend to this week, so no new finished models to look at. So let's meet the second Killteam I have some models in the work for:

Founded sometime in the current millennium is the young Chapter of Space Marines known as the Guardian Angels. They are a fleet based chapter constantly on recruitment to fill their numbers. Due to these factors, they have a higher than normal number of scouts. This has cemented their reputation as a recon force among the imperium. 

The Guardian Angels lead the way!

The origins of the Guardians seems to be a secret. Some say they are successors of the Dark Angels; though that's likely due to their iconography and early actions with the founding chapter. Others point towards a successor of the Salamanders due to their high use of melta weapons and some lizard trophies carried amongst the brothers. There are even rumors they are some sort of experamental chapter by the High Lords of Terra founded by veterans of a few chapters. Whatever the truth may be, they are certainly founding their own place in history very quickly through their actions. 

My first Warhammer 40k army was Eldar, built and painted in the early days of 2nd edition. I expanded and played that army... right up until 3rd came out. The double change from 3 to 5 man units, and the release of new aspect warrior models, gutted any excitement I had in playing Eldar for a long time. I was also disappointed that the Genestealer cult no longer had rules... so I was out two armies. What could I do?

Fortunately, like anyone who's played a bit of 40k, I had a bunch of space marine models hanging around. We already had person with some Chrimson fists, and my Uncle had a Dark Angels army. I decided I'd make a supplemental force for the Dark Angels. Thus the Guardian Angels were born. 

The original inspiration is pretty apparent

So I don't really remember the timeline, but I do remember playing these guys a lot using the 40k in 40 minutes rules. It was also around this time that the new metal scout models came out. I liked the scouts so much I made a force around them, using a marine squad in a Rhino with scouts as support. I also remember the veteran sergeant with the power axe leading the squad. Ultimately, that's where the recon force background story came from.

Chaplain with Thunder Hammer and lizard skin shield. 

Later, they became a full army when I rushed to finish them for a tournament at my college store. It was at this point that the list was re-defined to use the rules for the Salamanders chapter. I kinda just liked the rules at the time. I really liked melta weapons, which they got plenty of, and I came up with this great idea for a chaplain with a thunder hammer as my commander. I don't think I did well in the tournament... in fact I remember losing to one guy who had a drop pod marine army. What made that stand out is he won first choice on setup, and passed on the drops so he could set the whole army up in one tall building on the corner of the table. The mass amounts of heavy weapons in his force decimated my army. At least I learned that tournament games just weren't for me. 

The scouts

I'm currently planning the second kill team around the scouts as a bit of a nostalgia force. I currently have four scout with sniper rifles, four with pistols and combat weapons, a scout sergeant, and a scout I converted to use an autocannon. For options I have two scouts with boltguns in the works, as well as a scout I converted to have a rocket launcher (why can't they have autocannons anymore?). I'm also working on a marine sergeant with auspex and a camo cloak. I'm not sure how well the team will perform, but a scout killteam sounds like a blast to me!