Hi all, back with another review. This time, to compliment GW's release of the Blood Angels, we're going to look at the Blood Angels Sanguinary Guard.

The Sanguinary Guard comes as 2 frames, for 5 jump-packed marines. The box comes with options for melee weapons and specialized ranged weaponry, and quite a number of heads and shoulder pads, but does not come with standard backpacks and bolters. The box is thus meant to be built as a Sanguinary Guard unit.

I have to admit, GW really outdone itself. The amount of details is astonishing, with sculpted bodies and wings with details that is really very nice. Lots of iconography, which makes it harder to adapt elsewhere.

The wings, incidentally, are not suitable for use with natural bodies; they are very hard-edged and artificial in nature, so would not fit well with natural bodies. However, I believe they would fit well with other "winged" marine or even Chaos Marines. The way they are jointed to the body is rather clever and I *think* they can work well with standard backpacks. I'm not too sure if they can work with Adepta Sororitas units though, as the pose/ posture might not work out.

Speaking of the backpacks, I'm a bit disappointed with the Sanguinary Guard's jump pack. A single exhuast jump pack doesn't look quite right. It ends up looking too much like Ork Stormboyz jump packs, not quite the right look.



Frame B above has more of the weapons, which bears some mentioning. As these are two-handed weapons, these are keyed specifically to each other, so make sure you separate and store them in proper sets -- it'll be annoying to have to test fit them if you mix them up. Since these are specific keyed set, the poses are rather limited, so you might want to consider carefully before utiliing them elsewhere.

Ranged weapons include wrist-mounted bolters similar to the Grey Knight's storm bolters, but the smaller size of the bolter makes it much more "together" as sculpt. One thing I don't like is the separate hands, but that is understandable as detailing would be lost if they went with a single-piece cast. On the plus side, detailed separated hands are always useful.

Shoulder pads are excellently detailed, but with BA iconology on them. However, if you are doing a "winged" Marine chapter, it is possible to remove the BA specific markings and green stuff you own. It is a bit of work, but the pads do give you some savings there.

Overall, the Sanguinary Guard box is of limited use outside of BA, but that is to be expected. Weaponry and wings can be utilized elsewhere with a bit of work, while bodies and shoulder pads would likely require a bit more. For those who intends to build a Ancient Greek/ Spartan inspired company, Immortal Miniatures is coming out with a Greek Hoplites box soon, and at 28mm, the parts may be sufficiently compatible for that vision to actually happen.