BA and ornamentation

[Inquisitor_Lensoven]

A while back when the new BA were revealed we had quite the discussion about ornamentation on BA armor.

 

i think this new model is beautiful, but represents the extreme end of the decoration and ornamentation to be found on BA armor meaning that your standard battle brother would likely be closer to the unornamented end of the spectrum, with veterans and officers generally a few notches beneath this.

 

https://www.warhammer-community.com/en-gb/articles/08jlpgr0/heresy-thursday-aster-crohne-is-the-immovable-object-of-the-ix-legion/

Edited Friday at 01:25 AM by Inquisitor_Lensoven

[Sky Potato]

I have 30k, 40k and LI Blood Angels army, and this is how I approach it.

 

My 30k Blood Angels are generally devoid of any ornamentation at low levels. Vehicles, Praetors, Consuls etc are all appropriate bejazzled, but the average battle brother is effectively a red Astartes. 

 

My 40k Blood Angels are almost all made from the old Tactical kits, so even the lowest level dudes have tabards, blood drop ornaments, ornate helmets and everything else that goes with that. I've tried to carry that through with using as many BA specific parts as possible across the Assault and Devastator squads as well.

 

I will probably say that I use more black and gold with my 30k BA than I do in my 40k army. Battle Brothers in 40k have red pauldrons, red trim and black decals - the classic paint scheme from the codex. In 30k, the pauldrons are black trimmed instead. Squad Sergeants get black pauldrons with red trim and yellow decals in 40k. In 30k, black pauldrons, gold trim and gold decals.

 

I guess what I'm saying is my 40k force has more ornamentation and maybe some fancier armour bits, but my 30k dudes are probably simpler models but the paint scheme is maybe a little bit fancier.

[DemonGSides]

10 hours ago, Sky Potato said:

I have 30k, 40k and LI Blood Angels army, and this is how I approach it.

 

My 30k Blood Angels are generally devoid of any ornamentation at low levels. Vehicles, Praetors, Consuls etc are all appropriate bejazzled, but the average battle brother is effectively a red Astartes. 

 

My 40k Blood Angels are almost all made from the old Tactical kits, so even the lowest level dudes have tabards, blood drop ornaments, ornate helmets and everything else that goes with that. I've tried to carry that through with using as many BA specific parts as possible across the Assault and Devastator squads as well.

 

I will probably say that I use more black and gold with my 30k BA than I do in my 40k army. Battle Brothers in 40k have red pauldrons, red trim and black decals - the classic paint scheme from the codex. In 30k, the pauldrons are black trimmed instead. Squad Sergeants get black pauldrons with red trim and yellow decals in 40k. In 30k, black pauldrons, gold trim and gold decals.

 

I guess what I'm saying is my 40k force has more ornamentation and maybe some fancier armour bits, but my 30k dudes are probably simpler models but the paint scheme is maybe a little bit fancier.

 

This makes sense to me.

Every BA model should have some bling; hell, most 40k Space marines should probably have some bling unless you're coming from a chapter like the Raptors or maybe like Iron Hands, where "bling" is replaced with the glory of steel.  I'm not saying everyone's gotta look like Aster, but as noted in like, every codex, our faction is big on artifice and art and that manifests in models that are more likely to have non-standard ornamentation.  Combined with the habit of passing down fallen battle brothers unique pieces to another battle brother (As referenced in previous argument), having at least a little bit of bling makes lore sense for 40k units.

 

Not everyone needs to be fully dripped out, but no one should be drip-less.  We aren't ascetics, as that wouldn't help control the rage whereas the art and artifice portion is easy to represent as bedecked models.

[Karhedron]

On 3/7/2025 at 9:04 PM, DemonGSides said:

Not everyone needs to be fully dripped out, but no one should be drip-less.  We aren't ascetics, as that wouldn't help control the rage whereas the art and artifice portion is easy to represent as bedecked models.

 

This is a bit harder with Primaris. The new upgrade sprue goes some way to helping with decoration but only to the sort of levels I would expect for Battleline units. They is not enough bling for elite units IMHO. 

[Inquisitor_Lensoven]

19 minutes ago, Karhedron said:

 

This is a bit harder with Primaris. The new upgrade sprue goes some way to helping with decoration but only to the sort of levels I would expect for Battleline units. They is not enough bling for elite units IMHO. 

I think part of it is how do we define ornamentation.

 

for the elite units, we currently only really have HQs, and SG.

 

for SG, I would say they are fairly well ornamented. Not to the level of their FB predecessors, but they have like 9-10 blood drops, fancy cross guards on their weapons, and the muscular armor, plus the embossed wings on the jump packs.

one SG has a blingy belt ornament, one has a decorative vial of blood hanging from his belt.

[DemonGSides]

37 minutes ago, Karhedron said:

 

This is a bit harder with Primaris. The new upgrade sprue goes some way to helping with decoration but only to the sort of levels I would expect for Battleline units. They is not enough bling for elite units IMHO. 

 

I 100% agree. One of my many complaints with the upgrade sprue that we got was that it should've traded half the bare heads for some actual decorations.

[Inquisitor_Lensoven]

17 minutes ago, DemonGSides said:

 

I 100% agree. One of my many complaints with the upgrade sprue that we got was that it should've traded half the bare heads for some actual decorations.

 

I definitely think 2 or 3 more helmets with blood drops and/or minor filigree would have been better than all those bare heads.

 

honestly I think there’s very little reason to have that many bare heads at all.

0 bare heads 2 more tacticus helmets, 1 more gravis helmet, and 2 more torsos, maybe 1 or 2 special backpacks.

Edited 14 hours ago by Inquisitor_Lensoven

[DemonGSides]

I can appreciate a couple of heads that have windswept hair or snarling vampire fangs; those aren't traditional space marine style and should be exactly what a upgrade sprue wants.

 

I just think they overdid the layout with Bare heads and way overdid it with belt bling; very easily could've had a couple of vambraces or some ornate tilt shields or greave updates and it would've felt more like an actual upgrade sprue and not a "Heres some shoulder pads and snarling heads and some keychains, also this is a Death Company Sprue." Weird amalgamation that we ended up with. 

[Karhedron]

1 hour ago, Inquisitor_Lensoven said:

for the elite units, we currently only really have HQs, and SG.

 

We also have the generic SM stuff like Terminators and the 3 flavours of PA veterans. Maybe we were spoiled in the past with our own dedicated Terminator kit but going from that to just a single torso piece and a couple of weapon arms for the new Terminators is a big step down.

[DemonGSides]

I built ten assault Terminators just as 9th was winding down and they look so wee compared to the new terminators. I saved all the unused bits so when new Assault termies come out I'll at least have SOME bling to throw at them. 

[Inquisitor_Lensoven]

1 hour ago, Karhedron said:

 

We also have the generic SM stuff like Terminators and the 3 flavours of PA veterans. Maybe we were spoiled in the past with our own dedicated Terminator kit but going from that to just a single torso piece and a couple of weapon arms for the new Terminators is a big step down.

And we got the upgrade sprue for those…

[Karhedron]

47 minutes ago, Inquisitor_Lensoven said:

And we got the upgrade sprue for those…

 

Yes, but the sprue only contains enough parts to make one slightly decorated Terminator Sargent.

[Inquisitor_Lensoven]

15 minutes ago, Karhedron said:

 

Yes, but the sprue only contains enough parts to make one slightly decorated Terminator Sargent.

Eh, there’s bits and bobs, and bits from other kits should be able to make up the difference.