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I've got these two Land Raiders for my CSM army. I'm replacing the tracks and doors with the FW ones to make them look suitably chaotic. On the back panel of said vehicles is a mechanicus symbol (the skull in the cog) so my question is this - would chaos mechanicus (I assume there are some) use this symbol? Or should I file it off and stick the standard pointy star chaos symbol in its place? (I may do this anyway - but I'd like to get my facts straight first)

This is the Dark Mechanicus symbol:

It's actually called the "Dark Mechanicus", and I don't know if we've actually gotten an 'official' symbol for them.

Thanks Toastedandy and Kanluwen. My next question is - can you get these, or am I going to have to create something?

You'd likely have to create something, but I sincerely doubt that the Land Raiders or other vehicles of a warband are going to have the Dark Mechanicus insignia.

If I had to hazard a guess, they would be on warmachines created by the Dark Mechanicus--which Land Raiders, Rhinos, Vindicators, and Predators are not. Those are usually 'looted' and then defiled for the Ruinous Powers with blasphemous glyphs of Chaos.

They might be on some of the "chaos vehicle upgrade sprue" bits, but you would probably have to make one yourself. And that is the official Dark Mechanicus symbol.

Where did you get the symbol from?

I've got nothing on a symbol. Especially not one that looks like someone just took a Chaos star and the AM skull, then just mirrored the image.

Kanluwen wrote:You'd likely have to create something, but I sincerely doubt that the Land Raiders or other vehicles of a warband are going to have the Dark Mechanicus insignia.

If I had to hazard a guess, they would be on warmachines created by the Dark Mechanicus--which Land Raiders, Rhinos, Vindicators, and Predators are not. Those are usually 'looted' and then defiled for the Ruinous Powers with blasphemous glyphs of Chaos.

We're getting into fluff here which is something I generally don't worry too much about - I just want it to look right, however, wouldn't there be chaos forge worlds churning out vehicles? Surely they don't loot everthing? Either way, I'll probaly just file off the symbol and put a chaos star there instead. Thanks for your input.

See, the thing is the 'Chaos Forge Worlds' aren't doing that much in the way of churning out STCs.

Many of them are doing weird and archaic things. Things like the Defiler, the Slaughterers, Brass Scorpions, and the Plague Drones.

The hallmark of the Dark Mechanicus isn't simply technology. It's technology blended with dark magicks.

I would imagine the Dark Mechanicus symbol would most likely be the skull-and-cog superimposed over the "eight-rayed star" of Chaos, or have the eight-rayed star on the brow of the skull.

the Dark Mechanicus will still use the Skull and Cog, just overlayed with spiky bits. They still serve the Omnissiah, just in a different way.

I would just use the normal Mechanicus symbol. the Dark Mechanicus doesn't serve Chaos proper, they are just aligned with it. the only possable Chaos connection would be to the Forge of Souls which we don't have much fluff on.


the Forge of Souls uses the "Three oaths of Iron" as the oath of loyality for Soul Grinders. perhaps the number 3 is the Sacred Number of the Forge? You could incorperate that into the Land Raider somehow.