Blood Angels 5th Edition Codex Artwork Question

[Gawain Veteris]

I've been gazing in wonder at the Grey Knights for the past month and fantasising about the ridiculous amount of money I'm going to spend on them, but then at an indeterminate moment in the course of planning my lovely Grey Knights list I became drawn for the first time to collecting Blood Angels!

 

The plan is to create a list who's models can easily represent codex marines as well as Blood Angels and Vice Versa.

 

When I make an army I do extensive research and plan every last detail for weeks before even buying the models. During this Blood Angels research however a piece of artwork in the Blood Angels 5th Edition codex caught my eye as a little bit odd.

 

The piece is by Adrian Smith and is found on page 4 of the Codex. While on the face of it the characters in the piece look distinctly Blood Angels esque there are some features that I am curious about. They have led me to believe that the piece may not even be of Blood Angels at all!

 

1: The Banner in the back ground of the piece vaguely resembles Blood Angel Banners I have seen before but at the same time looks different. The symbol in the centre of the Banner has the same blood drop icon but instead of it being winged it seems to be surrounded by some sort of laurel of thorns. The Banner's design resembles a kite with a Blood drop wreathed in thorns to me. The same thorns are present on the chalice icon on the captain's cod piece (extreme foreground). One might argue that they are stylized wings.

 

2: The chapter symbol displayed on the shoulder plates of the astartes in the foreground follow the same description as the banner. It could simply be a stylized version of the Blood Angels traditional chapter symbol but it is different enough for me to resemble a different chapter all together.

 

3: I am a great fan of Adrian Smith's work and from what I can gather he puts extensive research into his pieces. Therefore I refuse to believe that the placement of three heavy weapons on what appears to be the front line of the battle portrayed in the piece was an accident. This could be interpreted as an illustration of the desperation of the blood angels to join direct battle rather than standing back and shooting. Alternatively it could be the illustration of a different chapter and their doctrine all together. The presence of an Honour Guard squad and a Reclusiarch in the foreground (possibly with a space marine captain also) standing right next to what can only be a Devastator squad could be confirmation of the latter theory. it seems unusual to me to have the honour guard in the same fight as a devastator squad.

 

4: The fallen statue is in my opinion almost certainly an image of Sanguinius which implies that the world on which these space marines are fighting the orks is in the Baal system, or it is a world brought to heel by the Blood Angels. Nevertheless the Blood Angels and all their successor chapters have extensive history when fighting the Orks in particular it seems, thus I am not willing to rule out the possibility that the chapter could be a Blood Angels successor rather than the Blood Angels themselves. That said the chapter portrayed in the piece is almost certainly of Blood Angels patronage as displayed by the extensive use of Blood drop gems and chalices and angelic wings on the armour and wargear.

 

5: On the shield of the honour guard armed with Thunder hammer and Storm shield (extreme right foreground) is the unmistakable image of Sanguinius. However the blood drop which is often depicted coming from his left eye is not present but seems to be on his forehead. Could this be an image of another blood angels hero then? Representing the centre blood drop often found on Blood Angels helmets perhaps?

 

6: There are some signs that the image is pre heresy. The extremely baroque nature of the armour is in alignment with blood angels fluff but there is a high presence of pre heresy marks of armour. The winged figure in the top left of the piece therefore could be Sanguinius himself! The Landraider in the extreme background of the piece looks like the MkI version seen in earlier editions of Warhammer 40,000. At the same time however there are a number of mark seven helmets in the piece and a hand held Plasma Cannon which leads me to believe that it is infact post heresy. So bang goes the theory of it being a representation of IX Legionnes Astartes Blood Angels.

 

 

As you who have the time to have read the above can probably tell I've been going round in circles and short of asking the man himself (Adrian Smith) I'm not sure where better to pose the query than here.

 

So I leave it to you Blood Angels experts and fanatics. Is it a stylized interpretation of the Blood Angels Chapter or is it a successor chapter? What do you think?

[Brother Nathan]

simply its just the style of the artist. many of us hate painting wings everywhere and like his version of the 'wings' which seems either to be a new style, or even just that its a ba successor chapter. and yea because of the plasma cannon its post herasy. ba do still have lots of old marks and stuff as our techmarines are extremely gifted(though differently to the salamanders who i would say are the master forgers, we more seem to improve on what we have whilst they scratch make their stuff... theres also far more ba blood drop icons than are even on the horrible cover. if you look at the images in the dex of the shoulderpads they seem to come from different editions of the game and the winged motif seems to change quite a bit, like on page 11, 6 21(if you can make it out)22 and 24. they are all done with diferent styles and levels of simplicity. and i would say likely in the future you will continue to see different styles of doig it. would possibly get boring if it didnt...

[Gawain Veteris]

I would agree 'Brother Nathan' yea. It's certainly more likely that it's a stylized chapter symbol than a successor chapter.

 

It is I think just the idea that they're a different chapter. Smith's work on Blood Angels is irresistible food for model making in my opinion. The forthcoming list I'm constructing right down to the banner will be based on this piece of artwork. It's brilliant.

[Brother Nathan]

agreed i do like his artwork throughout the codex. in my opinion any of his pics would have made a better front cover. would love to see the originals though in their real colours(not the just inked in ones youve probably seen on the net, awsome though they are)they are far more detailed than the older special character sketches for some reason. (dantes sketch is a joke, should have stuck with the old one, mephs aintmuch better, though his new tycho :) ) an army of models done like these would be awsome, but time consuming as there is soo much details. also if i were you id want to probably do it in such a way that you dont get complaints of codex jumping, using ba models as ultras for example. saying that if you did them model wise as they appear you could probably say they are blood ravens, though id recomend just comming up witha slightly different colour scheme(otherwise the same to get it to look like those in the art) and say its a succesor so you can use either codex without fear of complaint. not that id complain... arnt the lamentors in both dexes for example? if i had the skills id love to incorperate some of his ideas into my storm angels. maby some day...

 

also just noticed his death company pic on page 44, behind the death co, is that a chaos jump trooper with a heavy weapon? think the chaos guys might like that if so...

[Volcatus]

I really like the interpretation of the Blood Angels insignia you're referring to, Gawain. I free-handed one like it onto the jump pack of one of my Sang Priests, and I'm planning on using it in a few more areas on other models where it makes sense to do so.

[LordOfSkyfall]

Its a stylized interpretation of the Blood Angels Chapter ... your reading way too much into the artwork, like everything else in 40k its up to the artists interpretation of how they think the blood angels would look ... or even stranger interpretations on how the chapter behaves *cough* james swallow *cough*

[Gawain Veteris]

I find that if one models one's army based on a strong and personal design it physically looks better to people. You're right LordofSkyfall that I read a lot into the art but I only do so because I hope someone will do the same to my miniatures and subconsciously or otherwise, I hope they'll take all the little details on board :D

 

I appreciate everyone's replies B) It has been nice to have this sort of discussion.

[Judaz]

And I'm just pointing out that it doesn't have to be a Dev squad, it might be Sternguards. It should be sternguards.

[Gawain Veteris]

Stern Guards can't have three heavy weapons in one squad.

[Judaz]

Can't find the third heavy weapon. Where is it? I see a plasma cannon and a multi melta.

[Spagunk]

The style you are referring to for the wings/blood drop is similar to an old piece of artwork from 2nd Ed days. I wanna say it was in the AoD codex but I don't know for sure. However, there was a piece with a BA marine who had a power fist with the stylized wing/blood drop similar to the marines in the latest codex. I wish I could find the picture but alas google images fails me today.

[Chapter Master Ignis Domus]

Judaz, according to the army list, yes, they can't take three heavy weapons. However, the Codex encourages flexibility based on the situation, and casualties will also cause units to vary from paper strength.

[Judaz]

First, I said it should be a Sternguard, not a Dev squad.

Second, I still can't find the third heavy weapon on the pic.

[Chapter Master Ignis Domus]

Oops, I went Gawain Veteris. Sorry. :)

[Gawain Veteris]

There is a heavy flamer, middle ground, a plasma cannon, foreground, and the heavy bolter is sneakily placed in the left of the piece on the front line. The ammo belt and muzzle flash are clearly visible

[Judaz]

Ah, now I see it! :teehee:

[ReachOnyx2552]

I do not think it is Sanguinius. If you look on page 7, where Horus is standing over his dead body, his wings are black. The figure on page four has white wings. I dont think Smith would just change something like that cause he wanted to.

[Gawain Veteris]

Realistically you're right it couldn't be Sanguinius given the post Heresy equipment which the astartes are armed with. Although white wings are portrayed on sanguinius in the horus heresy novels and the collected visions book. The by the way amazing painting to which you refer is by adrian smith aswell so for all intents and purposes he can change what he likes :P