Angels Sanguine...

[KAINE-77]

Evening!

 

Been thinkin for awhile now about re-starting my Angels Sanguine, and coming back to the Blood Angels what with all the lovely new models, but have hit on a possible snag...

 

I really enjoy painting the faces of my models, and tend to have a high number of helmet-less Marines in squads (To Hell with health & Safety in 40K), but have just seen the relatively new bit about The Angels Sanguine never removing their Helmets except in seclusion.

 

It then naturally got me thinking about exactly why they would hide their faces, possibly a mutation in their Gene-Seed, and the acceleration of possible Vampiric tendencies... Nothing like bursting into flames to put a downer on your blood lust!

 

Now, I know that the Vampire sub-text is a bit like Marmite (Love or hate), but I really like this aspect of the Blood Angels and was thinking of about reflecting this in the painting by having my Marines very pale to almost blue/white skin tones... How much stick would I encounter, bearing in mind I would want to be able to play socially with them and not get too hassled.

 

Anyone else wanna throw in their two cents?

 

Cheers.

[Rybnick]

I don't see any trouble with you wanting to paint your marines faces in a more gaunt/pale manner. It boils down to them being you're marines paint them how you like. Personally I like the idea of very pale Blood Angels.

[Judaz]

I for one don't like the vampiric undertones the BA have. Either they should go all in and really play the vampire marine or they should have left it out of the new codex. Now it's kinda vague and I think it's to please the players thats jumping on the bandwagon and don't really wan't to play space vamps.

The way the codex is written now, we get bullied in the same way a gay person thats still in the closet is bullied. If that same person steps out of the closet it just ain't as fun to bully him/her (it's mostly him). Now people throw Twilight on us and we try to deny. If they had made the new codew hardcore vamp we could throw True blood in their faces instead. :)

 

So, if you go vamp, do it all the way!

 

I'm not in it for the vampiric theme, I'm just here for the Dreads. :D

[KAINE-77]

Well, sure won't be painting them with glittery skin!!

 

The arguments for and against the Vampire fluff's been covered a lot in other threads, but I like it...

 

Guess I'd also like to hear other peoples theories about why The Angels Sanguine hide their faces, and any interesting possibilities for modeling, I mean the vampire thing has been done before, but it does seem to get peoples backs up!

 

So, are they hideous under their helms? Or is it a bad hair day? ^_^

[WarpWalker]

The white pale skin with pinkish tones under the eyes. Makes them look ill or close to dead one. Ether way if done halfway right they look good.

[The Crimson Cartel]

And cue OMG.....

 

Seriously, you wanna see REALLY well done Ang Sang marines..?.. find his. He Mods most of the painting/tut sub forums, so finding his gallery should be pretty easy.

[SamaNagol]

I'd personally disagree with having them helmetless if the fluff explicitly says they never remove them but hey they are your toy soldiers

[Cpt. Salvatore]

I'd personally disagree with having them helmetless if the fluff explicitly says they never remove them but hey they are your toy soldiers

 

Agreed. Though, if you want to paint some pale faces and stay fluffy, hood is your friend. Because, as far as I know, they do not necesarilly wear helmets, they cover their faces somehow so I guess hood is okay. And the model still has the face to paint.

[MikeD]

I will agree with WarpWalker and Cpt. Salvatore. I am against the same question in my Sanguine army. What do you do with scouts? I am one of those who will stick to the fluff and have all my armored marines in helmets, and those that don't have helmets (pewter, etc) I've tried to add hoods with greenstuff. (sometimes poorly and comical). Scouts overall in codex and canon don't use helmets, and for the AS do they make exception, or would they use hoods? Adding hoods still allow eyes to be painted and a bit of brow. You can use that to suggest your pale vampy theme perhaps, and still stick to the No exposed face fluff, as the only people that close to see them are either brothers, or dead.

 

As far as I know, the only noted Angels Sanguine who uses no helmet regularly is Ashok the Librarian (C.S. Goto) and he was given the Shroud of Lemartes, and is so Bad*** that he needs no psychic hood, and of course Master Sentikan-he gets to do what he wants.

 

If you want to go with the light skinned fluff, I agree to go all the way, but avoid the fangs IMO.

 

 

-MikeD

http://mikedthreeb.blogspot.com/

[skawolf]

My theory as to why they dont remove their helmets is this:

The entire chapter has an unusual reaction to the gene seed of sanguinius and as a result they all have his divine features, they would not like their cousin chapters to learn of this.

[Quixus]

Just put a broken helmet on the base of the model. There you have a fluffy reason for the marine to remove his helmet in battle.

 

I just find removing the helmet in battle is stupid, and that's for all armies.

[RebG]

It's a tricky one. When that fluff came through I went and retro fitted my few helmet-less troops so I now have zero bare heads, then again I've never been a huge fan of a lack of head protection on Marines.

 

If you want to keep them like that the I'd go with the damaged helmet theory. Also, if they're fighting Tyranids, Necrons, Orks etc I doubt they'd care much. I'm not a huge fan of the hoods though - the fluff part states they "never remove their helms", not that they go to war in cosplay as Dark Angels :drool: so I personally avoided that.

 

As for their actual appearance the two obvious routes have been covered - either they're very angelic/Sanguinius-like or there's physical signs showing through there gene seed linked to the flaw. I prefer the latter myself, I'd see everyone looking a bit like Sanguinius as something more to be celebrated than hidden. Maybe they are turning into vampires, maybe they're all into ritual scarring or tattooing... I was tempted to do an over the top captain conversion using a Warhammer Fantasy Vampire head, though more through fun than fluff link. If you're going to go with them I'd go with pale translucent skin, shaowed eyes and I'd stick to bald head rather than the new BA ones.

 

Your level of vampiric (?) influence (if any) is up to you. Your army, your paints (and a big fluff mystery from GW so you're not really going to be wrong)

[shatter]

Or maybe their faces are ghastly looking all covered in veins, pulsing and throbbing heavily making them somewhat ugly and apparently mutated by the holy blood running rampant. I'd hide that as it's almost blasphemous for a holy space marine of Sanguinius to be ugly. Tears of blood...

[MikeD]

For the reason they wear helmets? I figure, and prefer the fact that they have the Black/Red duality. <<Warning: Fluff and nerd deep dive with C.S.Goto>>

 

In a C.S. Goto short story, the Blood of Angels, he covers the idea and here is what I take of it (from a post I did on my blog a while back concerning this very fluff):

 

The short story The Blood of Angles was written by C.S. Gotto and published in Inferno! 42, in 2004. This short story talks a bit about Baal Triune and includes Librarian Ashok as he returns to the homeworld for the first time after he has been with the Deathwatch for a few decades, to help investigate trouble brewing involving the First Company and Death Company Chaplin, Tenjin and the Chapter's Sanguine High Priest, Ansatsu.

 

Interestingly enough this short story, for me anyway, helped give me a bit of insght into the background and secrets within the Angels Sanguine that helps illuminate their dual nature. As quoted at the beginning of the story:

 

'Would you really want to meet an angel? With the tip of one wing in Heaven, and the other dripping with blood, could there be any soul more tortured?'

-Angels Sanguine Chaplin, addressing aspirant Baalite warriors.

 

You can start to feel a slight push C.S. Gotto has toward the fact that Angels Sanguine may be more inclined to succumb to the Black Rage and being more in need of Chaplins to control and embrace the Death Companies, yet the Angels Sanguine are not so in-your-face like the Flesh Tearers chapter.

 

The imagery from the Chaplin comment above is what colors it for me...I think the AS are more prone to the rage, thus in their face they look feral and savage and fighting the rage more then other Blood Angels. It is also touched on in the Deathwatch series later with Ashok as the narration explains how the Deathwatch captain notices an unbridled fury in his eyes...signs of the conquered rage and its permanent toll on his nature.

 

I like to think that all AS teeter closer to the edge of the rage then others, thus hide their face from their curious cousins and nosey inquisition. You can find that story from Goto's site here.

 

-MikeD

[OwlandMoonGuy]

And cue OMG.....

 

Seriously, you wanna see REALLY well done Ang Sang marines..?.. find his. He Mods most of the painting/tut sub forums, so finding his gallery should be pretty easy.

He, ahem, excuse me; I, also keep links in my signature for ease of use. Like the very neglected OMGBlog link.

 

But then again, I still employ AS marines who at times remove their helmets. - I consider myself an equal opportunity gamer.

 

Cheers, -OMG