Dark Angels/Knightly Heraldry guides

[Inquisitor Eisenhorn]

I'm looking to really go hard on the lion rampant/check patterns/knightly heraldry on knee and shoulder pads for the small Dark Angels force I'm currently building. 

 

Does anyone have a really thorough guide of that sort of thing for Dark Angels, or something that would be similarly helpful to reference? 

[WrathOfTheLion]

The 4th company marking incorporates some of the checkered patterns into it, located on the left knee of the armor. The company designs should be something you can find online or in the codex.

 

GW hasn't really gone that hard on the iconography like that for the 40k Dark Angels, however, there's quite a bit to take in on the Horus Heresy artwork.

Here's an image Forge World posted a while back, which has some good inspiration I think. A lot of times, they will do these checkered patterns on the wristguard, this will work very well with the newer Primaris kits with the added vambrace on them. Otherwise, I would look at the Dark Angel kits available on the Forge World site. The Dreadwing interemptors show a checkered pattern on the MK III greaves which would translate quite well to the Primaris MK X greave. The various dreadnoughts and all also feature a good bit of checkered patterns and different colored fields. The most recent black book, Crusade, has more iconography, but I think you can easily reference what's publicly out there.

 

So from what I've gathered, vambraces, greaves and shoulderpads are all fine places, as are vehicle panels, dreadnought legs, etc. Typically the colors used will be black, white, bone and red. The checkers and fields all can be added to taste, the more varied the better I think.

With the 40k dark green, I think it might be better to do a field of black instead of green on the parts you want checkers on, but it might work out dark green/red squares. I'll do some experimentation later as I try to merge some of this iconography in as well.

Edited September 29, 2020 by WrathOfTheLion

[Sete]

Oh im interested on this thread.

Any more of them pics?

[Brother Tyler]

I doubt this is exactly what you're looking for, but here's a quick guide to the modern Dark Angels Chapter company markings.

The .pdf version doesn't look nearly as crappy.

[WrathOfTheLion]

There's a reason Dorn said Sigismund wasn't his son 

 

Not certain if I'm allowed to post an image from Book 9: Crusade, but there's a page with various shoulder insignia as well.

 

The two that standout as different are one which shows black/red smaller checkers across the shoulderpad, with the Dark Angels legion icon on top of it. Then another, split fields of black and red on the left and right respectively, with a golden lion decal on top of that. This lion heraldry was used for command staff, so it would work really well for an ancient or a champion.

 

Some of this iconography can be acquired off of the Forge World Dark Angels decal sheet. It has some nice lions, crosses, weird symbols, keys, etc. that would translate quite well to spruce up some 40k models.

https://www.forgeworld.co.uk/en-US/FW-Dark-Angels-Legion-Transfer-Sheet-2020

 

Good examples of painted models on the FW website are:
https://www.forgeworld.co.uk/en-US/Dark-Angels-Legion-Leviathan-Siege-Dreadnought-2019
https://www.forgeworld.co.uk/en-US/Dark-Angels-Legion-Interemptors-2020

https://www.forgeworld.co.uk/en-US/Space-Marine-Legion-Sabre-Tank-Hull-2019

https://www.forgeworld.co.uk/en-US/Legion-Bombard-With-Grav-Cannon-2020

 

I can take some pictures of some Horus Heresy models that I've painted with this sort of iconography, along with some models with the 4th company insignia that Brother Tyler posted above after work if you want.

Edited September 29, 2020 by WrathOfTheLion

[Brother Tyler]

An explanation of the picture shown by WrathOfTheLion from the color plates in Crusade:

 

Individual:

 

White plating segments signify a warrior of the Deathwing that has taken a mortal wound meant for another and survived. A votive ceramite plug marks the breach in the armor where the individual took the wound.

 

Crossed keys (scarlet, on the left greave) mark a warrior who is master in the arts of the Deathwing.

 

The Deathwing initiation icon (I’m guessing the reference here is to the white key and hourglass on either side of the scarlet blade in the lower corner, but it could be the basic Deathwatch icon of the scarlet crossed swords over the circlet) mark a warrior who is master in the arts of the Deathwing.

 

Banners:

 

Left:

The later banner of the Lion’s Dark Angels, incorporating the winged sword device with lightning bolts (a symbol of the Great Crusade) over renditions of the Hexagrammaton, with the Legion number within a laurel at the top.

 

Right:

The original winged reaper insignia of the old Terran First Legion.

 

Shoulder Pads:

 

Top left:

Not explained in the book, but it’s a simple Tactical icon within the common circlet. The form of the circlet is common in the later Legion (subsequent to the restoration of the Lion and the evolution of the Wings from the Hosts).

 

Top middle:

Unknown, but it looks like personal heraldry that incorporates the red/white checks (common device) next to the scarlet winged sword icon of the later Legion; below are a white hourglass and key (Deathwatch initiate?) on either side of a black “M” (unknown), over a scarlet/gold field (also unknown).

 

Top right:

Not explained in the book, but the lion rampant holding a sword was probably something that entered the Legion’s livery with the finding of the Lion. The seven-pointed star isn’t shown or described in the book.

 

Bottom left:

The Reaper (hooded skull, both scarlet) is an honour mark often associated with the Legion’s Terran veterans, whose who had served during the conquest of the Sol System.

 

Bottom middle:

Bearing the ornate mark of the First Legion and of the Hexagrammaton, this MkII pauldron belongs to a warrior of the Great Crusade.

 

Bottom right:

This MkII pauldron bears the mark of a lesser initiate of the Firewing, and despite its low station, it belongs to a Consul Invigilator of the 9^th Order.

 

Of note – the top three shoulder pads in the image above aren’t shown in the book.

 

Additional shoulder pads shown in the book:

 

The Golden Lion emblem marks the command staff of the 48^th Order (the split black/scarlet field shown on the shoulder plate may signify this Order), all of whom were drawn from Caliban.

 

The mark of the Stormwing was a winged lightning bolt [within the common red circlet described previously].

 

The mark of the Deathwing was scarlet crossed swords, often over the common circlet described previously.

 

The scarlet winged sword (wings upraised) became the standard Legion icon.

 

An example of personal heraldry was a white winged sword with wings at rest over a field of black/red checks.

[WrathOfTheLion]

It's a subtlety, but the page with the banners in Book 9 passively says that the 7 pointed star is the original insignia of the Terran Hosts, the predecessor to the hexagrammaton. It says this when describing the banners, as it states, "Of particular note is the emblem of the Hexagrammaton in conjunction with the winged sword, while the facing banner shows the original symbol of the old Hosts of the First." Since it shows the winged reaper over top of a seven-pointed star, we can conclude that is what they are describing as the symbol of the Hosts. So it could be used interchangeably with the six pointed star of the hexagrammaton.

 

I think the "M" is being used a numeral in gothic script for something such as the order he's assigned to, or something like that.

Edited September 30, 2020 by WrathOfTheLion