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I guess this is a two part question, but let's go.

Blood Angels use helmet coloring to denote the role of a marine (red for tactical or battleline, blue for devastator or f.e. hellblasters, yellow for assault and gold for veterans.

40k:
Is the helmet coloring based on the role of the whole squad?
Is the helmet of a tactical marine squad sergeant gold or red?
Is the helmet of a heavy weapon marine in tactical squad red or blue?
Is the helmet of devastator squad sergeant gold or blue?
I see both pure red pauldron edges and gold edged pauldrons, which is correct or is this me confusing 30k and 40k coloring?

30k:
Do the heresy Blood Angels use the same style of role, squad and company markings as 40k BA or they have different markings?

pesusieni999 wrote:
40k:
Is the helmet coloring based on the role of the whole squad?

Yes, so the whole tactical squad is red, even the heavy weapons guy. Whereas the whole devestator squad has blue helmets.

Is the helmet of a tactical marine squad sergeant gold or red?

Red but presumably gold if he is a veteran sergeant - that's up to you really. Also, the shoulder pads of sergeants are traditionally black with yellow chapter insignia instead of black.

Is the helmet of a heavy weapon marine in tactical squad red or blue?

See above!

Is the helmet of devastator squad sergeant gold or blue?

Blue. Unless he is a veteran sergeant, then gold.

I see both pure red pauldron edges and gold edged pauldrons, which is correct or is this me confusing 30k and 40k coloring?

Red or black would be the usual edge colours. Gold I think is for a different chapter like Blood Drinkers (?). I don't have a codex to hand and not familiar with 30K at all.

The important thing is that you can modify these in any way you like. For example, I don't like the black shoulder pads on sergeants and I'm running fifth company (black blood drop company insignia) so I'm doing the sergeants with bone coloured shoulder pads instead.

Also, I don't know why Blood Angels terminators have red helmets when they're veterans?

Gold trim shoulder pads is more of a 30k element.

The way bladeguards have been painted up seem to delve away in part from typical paint ethos for blood angels and I would argue should not be used as a basis for their colour scheme. I wonder if they were painted by a member of the painting team for GW that wasn't either invested in the typical design ethos or wasn't aware of it.

Typically you would not expect the gold trim on the shoulder pads but also the white helmets (they should be gold really).

Also, it seems to be painter preference if they paint the Aquila as yellow or gold, a bit like how some people paint ultramarine second company with yellow or gold trim.

endlesswaltz123 wrote:
Typically you would not expect the gold trim on the shoulder pads but also the white helmets (they should be gold really).

I hadn't seen those studio versions of BA vets with the white helmets. There was an image where they do have gold helmets but you're right about the gold trim, I hadn't noticed that before. I think it's largely to give them a more ornate look - maybe to tie in with the Blood Angels' interest in art?

My bad, the ones I was thinking of with white helmets aren't eavy metal.

The 30K Blood Angels were mostly dark red, white, black, and gold. The Legions had a variety of color schemes that would change dramatically based on the time period. The Unification Wars, The Great Crusade, the coming of the Primarchs, the Heresy, and Post Heresy would all influence a Legions heraldry. Sometimes, a particular campaign or battle would see new colors as well. In the 30K Horus Heresy Book VIII: Malevolence, there is a picture of a Blood Angels Veteran Sergeant in overall dark red with a lot of gold trim, his right knee guard in black, both shoulders in black with gold trim, and his helmet is 50/50 red and gold. Later in the book, there is a Legionnaire from the BA Silver Host in a brighter red, with silver gauntlets, silver knee guard, silver helmet, and silver trim. Then there is a Rhino in Dark Red and white, with gold trim. In 30K, the color schemes are much more... loose and varied then their 40K counterparts. I think Forge World did that on purpose so you could paint up your Legion just about however you wanted and then claim they are on some kind of campaign.

TLDR; The Blood Angels Chapter in 40K has a rigid color scheme they follow. In 30K, the Blood Angels Legion is much less formalized in their heraldry.

 Tamwulf wrote:
The 30K Blood Angels were mostly dark red, white, black, and gold. The Legions had a variety of color schemes that would change dramatically based on the time period. The Unification Wars, The Great Crusade, the coming of the Primarchs, the Heresy, and Post Heresy would all influence a Legions heraldry. Sometimes, a particular campaign or battle would see new colors as well. In the 30K Horus Heresy Book VIII: Malevolence, there is a picture of a Blood Angels Veteran Sergeant in overall dark red with a lot of gold trim, his right knee guard in black, both shoulders in black with gold trim, and his helmet is 50/50 red and gold. Later in the book, there is a Legionnaire from the BA Silver Host in a brighter red, with silver gauntlets, silver knee guard, silver helmet, and silver trim. Then there is a Rhino in Dark Red and white, with gold trim. In 30K, the color schemes are much more... loose and varied then their 40K counterparts. I think Forge World did that on purpose so you could paint up your Legion just about however you wanted and then claim they are on some kind of campaign.

TLDR; The Blood Angels Chapter in 40K has a rigid color scheme they follow. In 30K, the Blood Angels Legion is much less formalized in their heraldry.

Thanks for the info. I am wondering about tipping my toes into heresy and Blood Angels are kinda tickling my fancy. I was under the impression that the HH people can be a bit more rigid on the authenticity of color, unit and model choices. Good to know that the coloring could differ even during a specific period such as heresy.

pesusieni999 wrote:


Thanks for the info. I am wondering about tipping my toes into heresy and Blood Angels are kinda tickling my fancy. I was under the impression that the HH people can be a bit more rigid on the authenticity of color, unit and model choices. Good to know that the coloring could differ even during a specific period such as heresy.

Look up the Sons of Horus at some point, and check out how many different versions there are of their "sea foam green" armor.

I do think authenticity is important(in the Horus Heresy), but I've also personally gotten to the point where I don't think we(the 30k community) can afford to gatekeep based off whether or not somebody's miniatures have the right helmets or the exact proper shade of blue on their armor. If someone wanted to try out and play some 30k but all they had was a Primaris or 40K Ultramarine army, that's ok by me.

Protip: if you search for "Blood Angels Horus Heresy" or "30k Blood Angels" or variants thereof, you'll very often come across images of the actual black book pages that people have scanned and uploaded to Pinterest or whatever. Good way to see what the color schemes are.

Looking at that Bladeguard model Horla showed the photo of, I don't think that the pauldron rims are gold because that's how Blood Angels show that rank - it's because that particular guy likes gold pauldron rims, so thats how he paints his armour. If you want, you could paint the whole squad like that, or just one of them; up to you.

The Blood Angels have been described as liking to decorate their armour to a greater degree than other Chapters. An example of this is the Terminators shown in the 3rd and 4th editions of Space Hulk; all of those troopers (and perhaps by extension, the rest of the first company) display their own personal heraldry on their armour, to the extent that they don't display the Chapter badge at all. If one were sufficiently imaginative, one might follow that idea across all Blood Angels veterans in a force. Linked by the colours of red with black, white and gold details, and the typical iconography of blood drops, chalices, wings and skulls.