Paint it black like it is 1998 - reviving the Blood Angels Death Company
More and more of the classic Space Marines seem to be passing the "Rubicon Primaris", which is corporate lingo for "the kids want the new stuff". But I find myself eternally stuck in the closing months of 1998 and the release of Codex: Blood Angels.
Chaplain Sangrael of the Death Company chants litanies as his battle brothers charge the Xenos threat. Primus Tergum, dry zone, 3453999.M41.
“I have seen the infamous Death Company: wild-eyed and foam-mouthed berserkers who tear their enemies limb from limb, crush skulls with a single blow, snap spines and rip out inner organs.”
December 1998 saw the first release of a chapter-specific Codex for Warhammer 40,000 third edition, which had been released a few months earlier. Codex: Blood Angels was a fairly thin publication of only 24 pages, and you still needed the Space Marines codex to use it. On the other hand, it only cost £4. I never bought a copy as it would be a few more years before I actually tried to play the game. The sons of Sanguinius had shared a codex with the Dark Angels in 2nd edition (amazing cover, Google it) and they had been around since the earliest iterations of 40k. Plus, many of their characters and special troops already had models. Their lore was well established as a first founding chapter whose primarch Sanguinius sacrificed himself to save the Emperor at the height of the Horus Heresy. 10,000 years later, the boys in red are still kicking arse and taking names even though a dark secret burdens them.
The Black Rage and the Death Company
Central to the Blood Angels lore is the Black Rage, which is the memory of their Primarch's violent death. This exists among all Blood Angels, and the rage makes them excellent close combat fighters - or berserkers, as the Inquisitor called them above. Some Blood Angels succumb completely to the Black Rage, haunted by visions of their Primarch's death, and these are interred into the Death Company. Today, the Blood Angels have a strong vampire feel to them, from the drinking of blood in the lore to the sharp teeth of some models. This does not exist in 3rd edition, although there are mentions of the Red Thirst in the codex, but this seems to be more figuratively speaking. And sure, there is ritualistic drinking of blood from grails, but this is obviously a Christian reference and not a Bram Stoker one.
An unnamed Blood Angels Chaplain taken from Chapter Approved 2001.
However bloodthirsty the Death Company may be, they are a must in a 3rd edition Blood Angels army, so I thought that's what I'd have to paint next after my tactical squads. And when I say "must", I don't mean that because they are so good you need a unit of them; I mean the rules are you MUST have a unit of them. Before each game, you roll dice for each of your squads and see how many of them succumb to the Black Rage and are placed in the Death Company. If you roll dice like me, the odds are that you won't end up with very many of them though.
Enough with the rules and on to the models. There had been Death Company models before, released in 1993 and designed by Jes Goodwin. The ones released alongside the new codex had a more updated look, less squat and more mean-looking with clearer iconography of the Death Company. They were designed by Mike McVey, and I still think they hold up pretty nicely today, although they are a bit thin compared to the plastic marines. I managed to track down 10 unpainted marines on eBay, although I had to scavenge a bit to collect all the parts. The separate plastic assault marine arms were especially hard to find.
Paint It Black
So, the Death Company is black, a colour that can be pretty hard to get right. I'm not a fan of grey edge highlights; that's not really how black looks (I use it on weapons though). Luckily, I had already used a nice black recipe on the other marines. Their chest eagles were painted with Incubi Darkness, a dark teal colour; this contrasts very well with the red, so I thought it would work well on the Death Company too.
After basecoating the miniatures, I gave them a full coat of Vallejo Model Air Black to have a solid black to start with. I then mixed a little black into the Incubi Darkness to make it just a little bit darker; the mix was around 3:1. I then used the airbrush to highlight the models, imagining a light source hitting them from around 45 degrees above from the right. I then added a small amount of Vallejo Air Aged White to the mix to create a slightly lighter colour. This was then used as an even tighter highlight on the areas already painted. After this, I thought they ended up a little bit too bright, looking more dark teal than actually black. So I went back over the model with Vallejo Model Air Black, tightening up the highlights and making sure they didn't spill over on too much of the armour. I then used a gloss varnish all over the model and then blacklined the armour using Tamiya's black panel liner. Even though most of the armour is pure black, this last step really helps to bring out the definition in certain areas.
From left to right: GW's Khorne Red & Wazdakka Red, Vallejo Model Colour Flat Red, AK Interactive Reddish Grey & Warm Grey and finally GW's Skeleton Horde.
A prominent feature of the Death Company is the red crosses on their shoulder pads. Unfortunately, I couldn't use the same recipe for red as the tactical squad, as this was heavily dependent on airbrushing and the areas here were too small for masking. Instead, I started with a layer of Games Workshop's Khorne Red as a basecoat. I then used Nuln Oil, also from Games Workshop, to wash recesses and areas in shadow, following the already airbrushed armour as a guide. I cleaned up the wash with the Khorne Red again and then highlighted this with Wazdakka Red from Games Workshop. As a final highlight, I used Vallejo Model Colour Flat Red. I used the same recipe for the sculpted blood drops and also the lenses on the helmets.
There are also a lot of details in a bone colour, like skulls, bones and most importantly the chest eagle. These details were basecoated with Reddish Grey from AK Interactive, then washed with a Games Workshop contrast paint, Skeleton Horde. They were then highlighted first with Reddish Grey and finally Warm Grey, also from AK Interactive. Finally, I painted the wings of the chapter symbol in white. I basecoated them with Games Workshop's Ulthuan Grey, washed this a little with the contrast paint Apothecary White. I reapplied some Ulthuan Grey and then finished them with just a flat white. The colours for chainswords, bolt pistols, leather, metal and gold I covered in the previous article.
Five of the finished models.
Just as with the tactical marines, the mission here was to make models that 12-year-old me would be proud of and 37-year-old me teary-eyed with nostalgia for. To be honest, I'm not that nostalgic about the Death Company; they were never really on my radar when I was younger. But I think these turned out really well. They are quite minimalistic, which I like, and they contrast well with their blood-red battle brothers.
Filled with the Black Rage members of the Death Company disembark their Rhino transport. Primus Tergum, subtropical zone, 3453999.M41.
Footsore Miniatures range of early medieval Welsh are a joy to paint so here is a quick guide on how I painted mine trying to do the most of these beautiful sculpts.