The Vermillion Tears: A Personalized Chapter

[Dont-Be-Haten]

Hey Guys,

Since I've joined, I've really enjoyed a lot of the commentary and ideas shot back and forth and all the inspiration in BA Today: Etc. I am personally more of a Narrative Player ( I don't like the fluff bunny title) although I have been a Competitive player in the past, I focus mostly on campaigns and continuing the story of my own personal chapter of the Blood Angels.

I would like to give you all a bit of insight to my chapter and how it came to be through the many campaigns I've been a part of and a few of the people I play against regularly within my hobby circles. I really want you guys to get a feel for my army, passion and how I feel about the Blood Angels in particular.

Now, my own personal lore has some conflicting time lines with some of the newer canon material; so, I haven't been able to change some of the time frame yet to coincide with the real 40k Universe. Anyways, Here we go!

The Vermillion Tears:

In the early days of the M37 when the flaw seemed to be all but culled in the mass reproduced Gene-Seed created more than one Blood Angels succession. Like the Lamenters, and others the Vermillion Tears were created at a rapid pace with little time to view any mutations that might be involved with further reproduction. The most notable of the mutations: blonde hair, gray pupils, and an almost mirrored images of each member. The transformed  Astartes took on an uncanny visage of one another, almost as if they were clones more than men. These mutations were of little concern because they showed no significant signs of mutation, more minor glitches that played no true factor to the chapter as a whole.

At first their armor was chosen to follow in their newly christened brothers the Lamenters, but as years passed they were actually mistaken for the cursed battle companies, and through superstitions of other codex chapters were doomed to face insurmountable odds on several occasions.

It was in their early years of M37 that the newly founded chapter would be forever changed. Upon the Paradise world of Caprica III the call was heard. The Common Wealth of the planet, known by many as "The Pearl of the Southern Fringe" had come under an attack from within. Unbeknownst to the Imperium's upper class that settled there years before, was the sleeping dynasty of the Cayast Dynasty: A strong vibrant Necron Homeworld, that had received the call of awakening. Within one month the forces of Caprica III were over run and annihilated, the urban fighters las pistols seemed to do little to the Iron Men that walked as huge metallic regiments; exterminating all humans with no remorse, no quarter.

It was the Vermillion Tears to first answer,  and Blood Hawks the second. The full chapter strength of the battle barge Symphony of Redemption & Blood Hawks' own battle company that made land fall within the City of Legiolas. The battles lasted for months and the sweltering numbers of the Necron forces only seemed to grow in number. As battles were won and lost the Blood Hawks remained in orbit watching sending little to no aid to the beleaguered Vermillion Tears. The Vermillion Tears began to double back to the inner sanctum of the city as The Cayast Storm Lord surged forth with renewed ranks and even greater monstrosities. The full strength of the Blood Hawks abandoned the Vermillion Tears, leaving the battle brothers to fight down to only a few regiments. By the third month all seemed lost, the brothers armor now stained with the blood of their own, as well as that of the people they meant to save made the ultimate decision. The planet was lost. With the remaining conscripted citizens, imperial guard, and battle brothers, they used what was left of the planets defense missiles combined with their own to blast the continent with as much heavy fire power as they could to screen their escape. As the last of their nuclear war heads detonated the ships retreated back into orbit. With more red upon their armor than yellow, from that day forward they decided to paint their armor red to forever remind themselves of Caprica and the fallen they were unable to protect.

In the years to follow they would fight in smaller conflicts to help the imperium of man. Carefully selecting who they would trust from other Codex astartes they would come into contact. By the second century of M38 the chapter would again meet a fate with the undead hordes of Magainus Primus. Legions of necrotic corpses drudged towards the battle brothers, as the sanguinary priest Damocles found a beacon of light from ancient times. A golden chalice was found deep in the archaic ruins of a forgotten urban city. As the artifact was received, the necrotic plague began to take a strangle hold on the 9 billion residents of the planet. The Vermillion tears fought hard, but whenever one abomination would die, three more seemed to take their place. Even their own genetic make-up could not fight back the virus, and thus brother fought undead-brother, in what would become in their halls of lament, the War of the Golden Chalice.

They alongside the begrudging Crimson Fists and Black Templars fought the Hive Fleet Dianoga on Tristen Primus and Secundus. The Vermillon tears focused greater numbers on Secundus where the strength of the Crimson Fists and Black Templars fought on Primus. A war that raged for many great battles caused many battle brothers lives. It was a hard fought stalemate until reinforcements could arrive, but not before Secundus fed the Hive and the mutating evolution forced the Vermillion tears to the brink of annihilation. Sucundus was given the order of full retreat, and the planet was ultimately purged.

It was then in the later years of M38 that they faced yet another twists of fate. For nearly 1,500 years there was almost no taint of the Black Rage. Until the fateful encounter  one with Abbaddon. As the Vermillion tears neared the blasphemous ritual portals they came unto the Warmaster, and then something happened. Almost as the black winged angel came to the aid of Vermillion Tears, almost the entire company fell into savagery and mouth foaming bewilderment, it was as if the Asorath drawn to the Vermillion Tears. It was as if upon a glance of the Claw of the Warmaster awoke some dark flaw within the Brothers. It took two Captains,  Chaplains,  two Priests, all but one squad succumbed as they were lead by Astorath. Even the whispered Sanguinor came to aid as they fought back the Great Evil that poured forth in front of them.

Now their story sits between the Craftworld of Alastair, and a great rivalry company of Space Marines.

To Be Continued:
I will post in a while about how each of these small stories came to be, it is actually quite neat! Hope you all have enjoyed so far!

[Dont-Be-Haten]

To give you all a brief history on this army I bought it second hand, and it was painted bright yellow, that was supposed to be a lamenters army. I hated the bright yellow it was painted so I stripped it. I have before and after pictures on my older phone that I will update later. This ties into the history of the army changing its armor scheme.

The first campaign I played in was with my cousin who had just started the flying circus necron army with loads and loads of warriors. He had something like 4-5k points at the time and a mutual friend who played his own space marine chapter the Blood Hawks was suppose to join in our campaign and ended up bowing out after only 2 games and thus the betrayal and slaughter of my precious boys in red. However in a kill team game I managed to hold off the horde of warriors and was able to detonate the nukes for the finally as a last ditch effort.

Next was a Halloween event that started out as a kill team game against a horde of zombies that followed with playing against some plague marines and then a Nurgle dedicated warband. It was a lot of fun and we had some great kicks.

The next campaign was with a few friends playing Crimson Fist and Black Templars against a couple of brothers that played tyranids and a gene stealer cult. We had a lot of conflicting times games so I only ever played against the younger tyranids' player who was a more unbound list because he wanted to play what he had and I was okay with that.

What's really awesome is we were playing a game and my buddy dropped abbaddon down and I had joked about how my boys never succumbed to the red thirst (for when you had to roll for it) and I kid you guys not, (I have a picture too!) I rolled 1s on 5 different squads and a 2 on the 6th squad. It was hilarious, at this point. The CSM's new codex had just dropped and of course the new claw rules just made it even sweeter. It is a moment in war gaming I will never forget and thus I have written it into my chapters story arch.

There have been loads of battles but these are iconic moments I remember fondly and have the most enjoyment out of. Right now I'm in a campaign with my cousin who is now playing vanilla marines and my good friend who plays his own flavor of craftworld eldar that worship she who thirsts. And that's where I'm at so far. In the 3 years I've played blood Angels those have been some of my most favorite games and how I wrote them into their story thus far. I will add some pictures of before and after a and give a little history on how I've changed the army around due to the codex changes. Hope you all have enjoyed it all so far.

[Dont-Be-Haten]

Here's a few pictures of how the army looked when I bought them. You can't really tell from these pictures, but the paint job was very sub-par. And even though I love the Lamenters fluff, I just hated the way the paint scheme looked. (It didn't help that it got called the Taxi-Cab Marines, and Magic School Bus Marines) But I also wasn't as confident in my painting skills to work with yellow back then. (I'm still not 100% confident but I am much more proud of my stuff now than from 3 years ago haha!) 

http://i1190.photobucket.com/albums/z460/Dont-be-Haten/675db481-491e-4217-878c-74a48e489c1a_zpscyyntpbz.jpg

http://i1190.photobucket.com/albums/z460/Dont-be-Haten/2ce47e65-5ee9-46a2-8498-72b86e93436a_zpszmsxkokr.jpg

http://i1190.photobucket.com/albums/z460/Dont-be-Haten/6a070b40-2d19-460f-b213-1765aae4754f_zps3n3cfasz.jpg

http://i1190.photobucket.com/albums/z460/Dont-be-Haten/2d13576b-407c-49ad-aba5-6d3bba347019_zpsvy2sdoe2.jpg

http://i1190.photobucket.com/albums/z460/Dont-be-Haten/3175d9d9-fca4-4f1f-92d1-829cbfa96ec0_zpswztptva8.jpg

[Dont-Be-Haten]

So looking back at the time line from some of these pictures time has escaped me. It has really been closer to the 3.5-4 year mark since I first started this endeavor. I've had a lot of ups and downs with this army. It took me several months to strip all the yellow, from these models. And every now and again I will still find a marine with bits of yellow flaked paint still in the recesses. It has been overwhelming at times and at others down right frustrating. In a lot of the previous pictures, you can't see where some areas of paint were much thicker than others, and in some areas, it was so thin you could still see the white primer used.

There were thousands of mold lines left, and in some areas there were still bits of flash. I've also had several models that were just deemed unsalvageable and others that went the way of less respectable opponents with no care for other peoples property. Some things have been shelved due to lack of inspiration, time restraints or even taking a full break from the hobby for months at a time.

Many of you know what I'm talking about, and hopefully can sympathize. I have also repainted many of these marines due in part to increased skill and in part to I just felt like they wasn't enough of me in the army.  Unfortunately I had to  remodeled all of them when the new codex dropped. I only had Assault Marines, and no tactical squads.

This was extremely frustrating on two fronts. The First reason was I was in the middle of a life changing decision to get married, thus did not have the available resources to purchase new models, women and their diamonds are expensive. Second: I lost several other models that were bonded together (that I didn't know about at the time) when trying to break off the chain swords and pistols to include bolters on my marines so I could have a functioning army. 

At first I attempted to play with the perverse "U" word. But for whatever reason many in the community treated it like the plague and would have nothing to do with wanting to play when I would say, "Oh hey sorry my army is unbound is that okay?" The responses were all pretty much the same and it was a big issue with me for about three to four months.

Anyways: Here is my current WIP pictures of the once yellow marines. You will note that not all of the paint came off some of the vehicles; and try as I might (I've ruined a few chassis trying to get rid of the deviled yellow & white paint!) I ultimately decided to give into the "3-foot-rule"

I have worked hard on a lot of this stuff, while it isn't formally complete, it is what I've resorted to since the new codex drop. (Some of my newer stuff is either still on sprue, or cleaned and primed with a base layer of red)

I hope you  all continue to enjoy;

http://i1190.photobucket.com/albums/z460/Dont-be-Haten/81af7479-e3e5-4162-b5c1-a5aa6b101978_zpsczhnhmqh.jpg

http://i1190.photobucket.com/albums/z460/Dont-be-Haten/b6a5a773-53d4-4ab3-ab7f-926174e25dfd_zps2gtgry1g.jpg

http://i1190.photobucket.com/albums/z460/Dont-be-Haten/97726b87-9282-46b7-866e-7ae369768e80_zpssfjaf3mv.jpg

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http://i1190.photobucket.com/albums/z460/Dont-be-Haten/F04C5A50-A648-457C-964E-ED2EC5810489_zps8bjmm3bm.jpg


 

[evildrcheese]

Wicked. I love the freehand on the rhino top hatch. Really inspiring.

 

EDC

[Boudan]

Wow, what a quality jump in paint. Great job on the Vermillions.

 

Regarding the Lamenters, I sincerely think a more muted tone is essential to avoid looking like a taxi cab. I like the mustard style in the FW Badab books and have painted accordingly with no regret.

[Charlo]

Boom! Sweet force :)

[Bukimimaru]

It looks like I have a new kindred Spirit!

I love the fluff you've come up with here, it warms my heart to see someone else that incorperates stuff that happens on the tabletop into their armies history.

 

I've done a similar thing with my Redeemers, (albeit in a much sillier way) but I've not done many updates recently.

 

Keep up the great work, your models look great and the fluff was very interesting.

[Dont-Be-Haten]

Thanks for all the kind words guys! I've got some more stuff brewing But it will take a little bit of time before I update it and some more of the models i've painted.

[Dont-Be-Haten]

Instead of BA Today: I figure I should just turn this into my WIP Page.  Introducing Jareth. All that's left is to slap some paint around the rim of  his base and touch up a few details here and there. Hope you all enjoy.

http://i1190.photobucket.com/albums/z460/Dont-be-Haten/c3e697e5-8296-407b-8a55-4362260c6a7d_zps3ibwes09.jpg

[LutherMax]

"Come at me bro!" :D

[Dont-Be-Haten]

"Come at me bro!" :D

Do you even sanguinius?

[Dont-Be-Haten]

Just an update.

http://i1190.photobucket.com/albums/z460/Dont-be-Haten/33536560-E64E-4EB7-A07F-8958A3859859_zps0fl4vl4p.jpg

Working on a 10 man squad of death company. The white armored one is special and he has a back story that is pretty cool. The reason I chose to paint him white is due in part to my own back story. He is unnamed at the moment, but he is known as the ash bringer or bringer of ashes.

 

I also started working on the new chaplain and I'm going with the Fury of Baal for his pistol

 

http://i1190.photobucket.com/albums/z460/Dont-be-Haten/1576C791-ED50-413D-9D00-70800B7E9735_zps2faotqoc.jpg

[Grazcruzk]

I really like those white dreads. Keep it up!

[Nomus Sardauk]

 

"Come at me bro!" :D

Do you even sanguinius?

http://treasure.diylol.com/uploads/post/image/509948/resized_joseph-ducreux-meme-generator-advance-towards-me-brethren-46e205.jpg

[Dont-Be-Haten]

Today I would like to introduce you all to my Chapter Master. This is one of my first ever conversions and he has a little worse for wear lately. (He took a fall and shattered, and I'm just now getting him pieced back together) He also needs a bit of touch up paint work, but I still love this model. He counts as Malakim Phoros.

Elisha Gair Chapter Master of the Vermillion Tears
The Crimson Bolt, Defender of the Shattered World
Wielder of Aetherius and Incerius

http://i1190.photobucket.com/albums/z460/Dont-be-Haten/6227d2e2-6b66-492b-9a48-33658ad08037_zpsx3swb5tx.jpg

 

[fivepointedstar]

nice looking models you've got. I really dig the bone colored helmets on your sternguards(? ). Awesome work on your Malakim count as :) 

[Dont-Be-Haten]

nice looking models you've got. I really dig the bone colored helmets on your sternguards(? ). Awesome work on your Malakim count as

Thanks mate. Yes, Bone helmets on the Sternguard, people mistake them for the new Carmine Blades sometimes, though.

Edit: Elisha looks much better in person versus the camera. I've been aching to field him again, but He's just now been pieced back together and ready for battle. I've joked and said he's been in stasis healing, and will have an honor guard retinue to protect him next go round.