Blue Blood Angels Successor

[Sun Reaver]

I have been playing BA for about 11 years now and have painted a ton of red and quite honestly, it's getting a little boring to paint. Furthermore, I have been getting an itch to paint an Ultramarine army. So instead of committing heresy to Sanguinius, I decided to combine the two and make a successor chapter that incorporates a lot of blue into it. Unfortunately, I am having trouble creating/selecting a color scheme. Any ideas gents? I came up with a few below, but feel free to post your own schemes or pictures of models that may help in this endeavor. Thanks!

[Aqui]

I'm in the middle of making a blue (with the eye lens red to represent the red rage or "seeing red") armoured BA successor too, the Sons of Cruor but the shade I'm using is a far "colder" blue if that makes sense? To me, the red in all of those schemes remind me of Crimson Fists, Brazen Claws etc. Perhaps a different shade of blue might make things a little easier for you?

In any case, it's nice to see others do blue successors too

[Rev. Tiberius Jackhammer]

Maybe ditch the red entirely? A BA successor without any red could be pretty refreshing! My first thought would be sky-blue helmet, chest and thighs and darker blue shins/arms/pauldrons, with some brass accents.

 

Edit: Or maybe turquoise/sea green colours, and give the chapter a nautical theme.

[ElectricPaladin]

I like the first and the third - the second looks a little bit too much like (Google fu don't fail me now...) the Angels Sanguine. While the first looks a lot like the Knights of Blood, blue seems more different (differenter?) from silver than from black, which makes it less of a problem. In that sense, I suppose, the third should be my favorite; to be honest, though, there's something inelegant about it. I can't explain it. Maybe I just don't like "body one color, lower arms and lower legs the other" as a scheme.

 

Which is all a roundabout way of saying "the third is my favorite."

 

That said, I do agree that there's nothing wrong with departing entirely from red when making a Blood Angels successor. Not even all the successors we know about are red - the Lamenters, for example, are entirely yellow. The Angels Encarmine and Templars of Blood also depart from the chapter's traditional colors by painting their death company and sanguinary guard white (for the former) or leaving their death company's colors unaltered (the latter).

 

As an aside, the all-white sanguinary guard and death company of the Angels Encarmine almost convinced me to do them instead of Knights of Blood when I decided to strip my Blood Angels and go with a successor instead. The idea of alabaster white Space Marines liberally coated with blood splatter effect - which would have shown up awesomely against the white background - was really striking. The only thing that changed my mind was finding the rest of their fluff uninspiring - they're basically just Blood Angels but grimmer - and the fact that the color scheme of the ordinary marines was just Blood Angels, but with black backpacks and shoulder pad trim.

 

Anyway, the point is that you don't need to be red to be a Son of Sanguinius. The Blood of the Angel flows through us all, whatever color we wear.

 

In fact... if you want to go blue, there are some interesting themes you could use for further inspiration. "Blue blood" refers to nobility or selective breeding. What if your chapter wears blue armor to reflect that they claim some distinguished lineage or a particular interest in the affairs of mortals? What if they are - Salamanders-style - directly involved in the leadership of their homeworld (though they rule from brooding, crumbling castles rather than as tribal leaders)? Alternately (or additionally) blue skin has connotations of death, especially in some Asian cultures. While Western zombies are usually depicted with rotten greenish skin, if I recall correctly (and I might not) zombies and ghosts in some Asian traditions are depicted with deep blue skin. What if, in addition to some kind of Chinese or Japanese or Korean or Tibetan stylings, they had some kind of mutation that made them appear dead, with blue skin on the old marines and blue lips on the newly initiated, and they wear blue armor as a way of "owning" that curse, rather than trying to hide it?

 

Another aside - the Event Organizer at my FLGS has an awesome Japanese-themed Space Marine army, who he plays as White Scars successors. They're gray and white with these really striking red rising-suns-with-rays freehanded on everything, and he's used third party bits to add samurai style helmets and back banners and it's awesome.

 

Blueness can also refer to sadness, and sadness - mourning for Sanguinius - is an important sub-theme for the Blood Angels. What if you took that direction? This chapter embodies the Blood Angels' mourning for Sanguinius and the lost glories of the pre-Heresy Imperium, with dour rites and a special focus on hunting down traitors and throwing themselves into nigh-hopeless battles to retake lost Imperial worlds.

 

Just a few thoughts... I hope my meandering post was helpful.

[Spinsanity]

If you're itching for blue, I'll suggest an idea that was presented by someone here on BnC a few years ago which had really piqued my interest, but which I never had the courage to pull myself (split shemes are something I'm uncomfortable with).

 

The Angels Porphyrs (see http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Angels_Porphyr ) are split white and blue, looking a lot like the Eagle Warriors (and Marines Errant by extension), but have no real fluff to speak of, other than the fact they were at Armageddon and had some 8 or 9 dreads there...

 

Why the Angels Porphyr? Porphyria (see http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/porphyria ) is a form of affliction which often results in a sort of "sunlight allergy" and of course Angels Porphyr could then easily be a referrence of sorts to a BA successor... Obviously, one of their advantages is that quite a few existing bits can be easily adapted to look like their chapter badge : the BA winged blood drops, the EC icon can be easily enough turned into a winged skull (lots of FW bits here, and the palatine blades are gorgeous!) and there's PuppetsWar's "Demon Children" shoulder pads that are a perfect fit too (see http://puppetswar.eu/product.php?id_product=154 )

[Spinsanity]

Here's the actual quote, by "The Emperor's Champion" (in an old tread regarding suspected UM successors...)

 

The Angels Porphyr don't have any actual noted traits or iconography that relates to anyone else, to my knowledge, but their colors are most similar to the Ultramarines.IF it was up to me, I'd make them a Blood Angels Successor, based on them having "Angels" in their name, and the idea that they were a branch of the Blood Angels who overcame their genetic curses but somehow ended up with an extreme Porphyria-esque condition instead that make them sizzle and burn in the sunlight. IMO, it'd be an interesting way to add another side of vampire mythology to the Blood Angels.

[ImperialTemplari]

I like the 2nd and 3rd, will you use the coloured helmets? yellow assault etc. 

[Sun Reaver]

@ Aquilanus - Glad to hear I'm not the only crazy blue successor haha. What colors are you using for your marines? I was thinking painting my marines the same color as Ultramarines.

@ Tiberius Jackhammer - I have been considering removing the red, but I still want people to be able to look at my marines and be like, "oh yeah, those are definitely BA successors."

@ ElectricPaladin - Thank you so much for the fluff ideas, I especially like the blue for mourning idea.

@ Player not found - The Angels Porphyr do look interesting, but I am not sure if I want to follow that fluff line. It's a lot more fun when you make you own fluff, you know? But none the less, thanks for feedback and ideas

@ ImperialTemplari - I don't think I will, I feel like it would take away from the blue.

I came up with 2 more schemes, tell me what y'all think! And also, thank you all for the feedback, I really wouldn't be as motivated to this if it weren't for y'all. Cheers guys!

[Aqui]

The base colour for my shade of blue is Thunderhawk blue, with a Drakenhof Nightshade wash and then Thunderhawk blue highlights

I only have one mini for the Chapter, who can be seen here:

http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/gallery/album/8579-sons-of-cruor/

As for the two new schemes - I do like them better, but the second ones eye lens seem to blend in with the blue quite a bit. I'm not sure if it's deliberate or not.

[ElectricPaladin]

Oooh... I rather like the "all blue but for the head and left arm." It's quite nice!

 

The only problem you may run into is being confused for Crimson Fists...

[Aqui]

Oooh... I rather like the "all blue but for the head and left arm." It's quite nice!

The only problem you may run into is being confused for Crimson Fists...

I thought that for a bit, but the CF's blue is darker ,whereas that shade is more Ultramarine (but not quite). I didn't say in the last post, but I prefer the red arm/helmet combo version

[appiah4]

This is the best of the lot, and I love halved schemes..

[ChapelXIII]

My favorite out of all these is probably the head and left arm bring blue.

 

Can't wait to see the actual colors on some marines.

[Aqui]

This is the best of the lot, and I love halved schemes..

I quite like the look of this one, plus the red arm one

[RenderDead]

Love 50/50 paint schemes.  Blue is a great color, hope to see some finished models!

[Quozzo]

This is the best of the lot, and I love halved schemes..

I quite like the look of this one, plus the red arm one

Use both and also have a red arm on the blue side, and perhaps blue arm on the red side.

[Spinsanity]

Use both and also have a red arm on the blue side, and perhaps blue arm on the red side.

That would look a wee it too much like the Brazen Claws, I think... (see http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Brazen_Claws )

[Brother Tyler]

Are you dead set on having red in the scheme? I think that you could simply include some Blood Angelsesque iconography (blood drops, "muscle" armour, death masks, and wings are sufficient) to evoke the relationship with the predecessor. This would leave you with more freedom for colors and distinctiveness. You could use the blue with colors other than red (two primary colors can be pretty jarring).

[Emperors Immortals]

If you want blue and red, the halved one looks better to me.

 

If its just blue you want, there's always the option of an UM Assault Force.

 

Though my vote is defiantly with Angels Porphyr.

[Remtek]

I painted one of my Lib's in a similar color theme. I belive it was Enchanted Blue, and a mix of mechrite red/bloodred.

 

http://www.remtek.be/lib.png

[Valerian]

I'll just drop these here. Please note that I didn't paint these guys; it was a bloke named Jeffrey Schiller, way back in 3e:

I've got more pictures, but you get the gist of the color scheme by now, I'm sure. Very striking blue and white, and looks great for a Blood Angels counts-as and/or successor.

Valerian

[appiah4]

Gotta love those Goblin Green base rims.  3e  was a magical time for me..

[Valerian]

Gotta love those Goblin Green base rims.  3e  was a magical time for me..

 

Yeah, true that.  In 10 years folks will be making fun of us basing with cork.  There will, no doubt, be some new-fangled way of doing it.  Maybe by then we'll have real anti-grav plates, and our models will be hovering an 1/8 inch off of the table.

 

V

[Sun Reaver]

Sorry for the hiatus, real life gets in the way sometimes. Anywho...

@ Valerian - Those models are amazing! Thanks for sharing!

Love 50/50 paint schemes. Blue is a great color, hope to see some finished models!

I am a big fan of them myself!

Use both and also have a red arm on the blue side, and perhaps blue arm on the red side.

That would look a wee it too much like the Brazen Claws, I think... (see http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Brazen_Claws )

Unfortunately, I think this is what has happened. I painted up a test model and before I even finished it, I realized that I didn't like the scheme.

Excuse the crappy photos, they are from my iPhone.

http://i400.photobucket.com/albums/pp87/Captain_Kael/IMG_0492.jpg

http://i400.photobucket.com/albums/pp87/Captain_Kael/IMG_0491.jpg

http://i400.photobucket.com/albums/pp87/Captain_Kael/IMG_0493.jpg

Are you dead set on having red in the scheme? I think that you could simply include some Blood Angelsesque iconography (blood drops, "muscle" armour, death masks, and wings are sufficient) to evoke the relationship with the predecessor. This would leave you with more freedom for colors and distinctiveness. You could use the blue with colors other than red (two primary colors can be pretty jarring).

After my test model, I would agree with you, the red and blue is pretty jarring. So I am going to take a step back from the red. Back to the drawing board! They are a bit of a play on the Flesh Tearers scheme, I'm a fan of that one.

What do y'all think?

[Spinsanity]

Unfortunately, I think this is what has happened. I painted up a test model and before I even finished it, I realized that I didn't like the scheme.

Sorry to hear you don't like it, it seemed pretty nice to me actually.

Of the 3 new schemes, I have to say the first one above is by far my favorite, but of course you're the one that gets to play with 'em so go with what you like best!