Are Apothecaries White in 30k?

[Emperor's Furor]

I'm planning on painting a Dark Angels apothecary soon and I started thinking how it should be painted, in 40k apothecaries are usually white, I was thinking about how they are presented in 30k. Are they white or should I paint them in the same colours of the legion but add a white shoulder pad/arm or a head etc, what do you think?

[Charlo]

It's a lot more flexible in 30k. They've been shown as both just a shoulder and full white in the books and painted example mini's etc.

[Major_Gilbear]

The colour-coding of speciality officers is something that Guilliman came up with up for the Codex Astartes IIRC.

 

However, many the various badges and symbols of office were around during the 30k era, as was some of the colour-coding.

 

Chaplains were initially a Word Bearers concept (although some Legions had their own equivalents) and quickly spread to other Legions post-Nikkea. Therefore those chaplains in other Legions were initially often either "borrowed from", trained by, or had partial training with the WB.

 

Similarly, many Librarians in Legions were part of an "exchange program" of training with the Thousand Sons.

 

It is therefore not unreasonable for Guilliman to have taken what may have begun as honorific colours or symbols as inspiration and formalised them in his Codex.

 

In either case, I think having the "prime helix" logo in red, possibly either on a white field or outlined in white (to provide contrast) is a good starting point for your 30k Apothecaries. Beyond that, you can add as much white as you like without conflicting with any modern canon that I am aware of. You can even leave the model in the Legion colours and use a colour-coded robe or tabard if you prefer (and indeed, this is also a legitimate suggestion for their 40k counterparts if it fits the Chapter's colour scheme better from a model aesthetics point of view).

 

For Legions where a white shoulder pad may not be especially visible against the regular Legion colours, there is precedence from the Rogue Trader-era lore in having varying amounts of red as well as white in an apothecary's scheme (for example, the White Scars who were almost entirely red, and the Salamanders who had a red left arm and pad and a white left arm and pad).

 

Combining these things together, you could perhaps give a 30k apothecary a white shoulder pad (or put the Prime Helix on a white circle) and give him a red tabard too. On the pre-heresy DA scheme of all-black-all-the-time, this would look very striking! :)