Anyway I digress, I've spent a lot of time deliberating over the exact nature and layout of company colours, squad and rank markings; a lot has changed for the Blood Drinkers over the years and I wanted to bring the look of my army up to date but also keep some sense of the old order, in recognition of the fact that the Drinkers have served with me since the Rogue Trader days.
Using an old Veteran Assault Squad as my test subjects (I was never happy with the white on them), I set out to produce the 1st Assault Squad of the 4th Company, not quite sure why I started with the 4th but there you go.
I used the Insignium Astartes book as my guide for the 'strict codex' adherence; this statement about the Chapters look, being one of the few definitive pieces of information written about the Blood Drinkers.
The book is still available via The Black Library's print on demand service and whilst being slightly dated and primarily for Ultra Marines; it still contains a wealth of information on markings and heraldry for codex Chapters.
I also referred to the Blood Angel codex past and present, being a dyed in the wool supporter of the Drinkers remaining 2nd Founding; I wanted to maintain the feeling that the Chapter had carried over various themes from the dissolution of the Legion. Finally I used reference material from my old White Dwarf clippings regarding the old rank structure and markings.
I've kept the original RT Chapter symbol but updated it to be black as per the new codex with the help of an excellent psd file sent to me by Dzer0 which enabled me to print my own transfer sheets. I used this Custom Decal tutorial by Bigred over on BoLS as a guide in their production and they work like a charm.
As you can see from the pictures I've stuck to the codex company colour trim on the pauldrons and the assault symbol. I've also placed the squad number as directed by the codex on the right knee, although instead of roman numerals, I've gone with the Blood Angels style numbers (I'm at a loss to remember the name of the font).
On the jump packs I've again placed the squad number to the right and displayed the company colour in a blood drop (another nod to the BA's) on the left. The Sergeant has a codex skull, rank marking on his pack, again in company colour and the old RT rank insignia on his powerfist in the old Blood Drinker yellow for old times sake.
I did away with the black boots, an idea I'd taken from the old medic colours, also the green jump packs; painting both these areas red balanced the squad and gave them a far bolder, uniform look. I kept the green for their weapons, this is to honour their home planet San Guisuga; the colour signifying the Enclaves bountiful life, twinned with the weapon, revealing that life's lethal nature.
Lastly I used Ron's tutorial on Painting Space Marine helmet lenses over in the FTW archives, to clean up and improve my old black lens efforts.
I'm very satisfied with the overall result and hopefully with the basic template for my Chapter colours now ironed out I can press on with some more squads.
8 comments:
That's a pretty nicely painted wave of chainsword death. Brings back memories, I still have the old Assault Squad miniatures stashed away somewhere, still in that terrible, thick coat of Dark Angel Green.
Cheers Marcin and a warm welcome to The Veil's Edge :)
I don't think the red coat on these guys is much thinner, they've been painted over quite a few times; besides thick paint saves varnishing and protects against mass reactive rounds! Lol
Yeah these Assault guys are quite old now and their poses are so rigid compared to the new plastics. But I never leave a man behind, so in the army they stay.
They're nicely done, that's a beautiful red you've done, they bring back memories.
Great to see some old assault squad miniatures again. I think the colours that you went with work really well.
Nice one on keep the RT chapter Symbol.
@Angry, thank you. Yes I'm very happy with the red and seem to be able to keep this mix consistent at the mo. The only drawback is it makes my other old stuff look oh so orange.
@T.P. Cheers, it's a relief to finally settle on a colour combination. I finally feel like I'm making progress again. The next test will be seeing how it works with some other company colours.
The 1st Co vets are going to be a headache, the white just makes them look too much like Priests, so I may have to go for the other codex colour option for 1st Co, which is silver.
I love the old models and the classic style terrain. Good stuff!
Nice looking army you have there, the vibrant mix of colors really looks well put together especially with the older models. How do they perform on the table?
@Dylangould, appreciate the feedback :)
The building is one of the very few remaining pieces in our gaming group from a very talented guy we used to know called Nobby. He was a wizard when it came to scenery and built a whole host of stuff for us over the years. The collection has been broken up as people have gone their separate ways, but I've managed to hold onto this; I like to think of it as an Arbites Section House, it's in need of a little TLC but still looks good.
Oh & I can’t believe I haven’t been following your blog, big oversight on my part, not sure how it happened but I’m working my way back through your posts; it is full of old school goodness and win!
@Dzer0, thanks (I'm trying to get my output up to your envied rate but still lagging behind lol). Yeah I'm an old timer with regards bright & bold colours. I may try adding a bit of battle damage to some other pieces, but I'm not sure I'll ever venture down the more muted realistic route; stuff like that is great, just not for me. Too stuck in my ways.
As for performance, Idus has had mixed luck of late, the meltas haven't earned their keep, but that’s more down to some surprise choices by my opponents not taking much mech. But backed up by a Priest they have taken down their fair share in CC.
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