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Okay so here's my latest problem. I'm planning out my Blood Angels captain and I'm going to give him a helm (I mean its kinda reasonable to wear a helmet to war right?).

The problem, however, is that Blood Angels color code their helmets (yellow = assault, blue = devastator, gold = veteran, red = everyone else) and I can't decide if the captain's helm would be red or gold. Normally I would turn to artwork for an answer but I haven't been able to find any that would apply.

What do you guys think?

Personally, I'd probably go with gold (they do like their bling, those Blood Angels). Don't have anything to add fluff-wise, but after doing a bit of a google I think they look better than the red. Just my opinion though.

He is also a veteran, when you think about it.

The answer appears to be either. I have a copy of the Chapter Approved Annual 2003 book. Inside the front cover is a picture of Blood Angels Assaulting Orcs. One of the Sargent's has a gold helmet(or face mask in this case), while the terminators do not. I also have a friend's Blood Angels army at the moment. One of the tactical marine Sargent's has a gold helmet, but that is it. If I find an old codex with more information, I will let you know. My friend left a lot of old books with the army.

You could do something different and go with a black core of the helmet and gold on the crest/frame/details to make it stand out a little.

Could also consider, if you have the idea, making him a Deathwatch veteran.. could give him the left arm in gunmetal. There's a Deathwatch pad in the Command Squad box if I recall.

Hey guys, thanks for all the help! Its really gotten me thinking.

As 3orangewhips mentioned, he is technically a veteran and just looking at their artwork tells me Quanar is definitely right they do love some bling so I think I'm gonna go with gold.

Also RockoRobotics thanks for taking a look for me, any additional info you could find would be greatly appreciated. I find the terminators to be something of a conundrum, along with the sanguinary priests. Neither of them seem to follow predetermined schemes (what with terminators having red helms despite being veterans and priests being in cream armor with crimson robes but novitiate's and Corbulo having more of a traditional apothecary scheme).

Sauragnmon I really wish I had thought of that or posted here before I purchased the model I'm using, the space marine chapter master of executions just screamed blood angels to me and unfortunately his shoulder guards are sculpted on and I lack the skill to remove them... that said my next project is a dark angels captain from scratch and I will definitely keep that in mind.

The important thing to consider is; veteran, or Veteran?

Veteran (capital V) is a specific status that designates an official member of the first company, occassionally seconded to another company as Sergeant or promoted to Captain of a Company. Then you have simple "veteran" with a small v, which is just a description that implies a wealth of experience. It could apply to any member of the chapter, even to a Scout Sergeant that just never moved on because he was so good at Scouting.

Think of a backstory of your Captain. If he was an esteemed First Company member, then promoted to Captain of the Nth company, he would maybe have a gold helm. If he were just promoted through the ranks (seniormost Sergeant in the company when predecessor died?) then stick with red.

With regards to Terminators, there is more flexibility. UM Terminators have white helms because it looks good, with Sergeants having Red with a white stripe, or just red. The flexibility is because all TDA wearers are Veterans. The Codex Astartes makes First Company Veteran Status a requirement for Terminator Training, hence why all Captains don't just rock up in TDA all the time, because they don't have the right qualifications. Thus, if they are always Veterans, the Gold helm is unnecessary. It would be like the regular army/US Marines being told that the SEALS are coming to help, who procede to rock up in their Navy SEAL uniforms and also carrying a big neon sign that reads "NAVY SEALS HERE, HAPPY FREEDOM MOTHERFETHERS" over their heads.

Terminators seem to be exempt from standard helmet color conventions. Otherwise the helmets would be gold, or assault terminator helmets would be yellow.

The sanguinary priest model is new. The old one was similar to Corbulo/novitiates.

 Quanar wrote:
Personally, I'd probably go with gold (they do like their bling, those Blood Angels). Don't have anything to add fluff-wise, but after doing a bit of a google I think they look better than the red. Just my opinion though.

Blood Angels seem to have quite a lot of leeway when it comes to personal heraldry (Tycho wore gold armour, the guy off the cover of 2nd edition had black flames on his armour and a big yellow power fist, Mephiston's armour is red and members of the 1st company can wear personal heraldy that replaces the Chapter badge completely). Whatever you think looks cool will be acceptable.

Blood Angels are pretty Vain (not like, Fulgrim vain, but yeah). So Karlean, Astorath , Mephiston, and Corbulo don't wear a helm to show off who they are, Tyco wore gold mask to hide his ugly scars, Death Company wear helms to hide their shame, and Chapter Master Dante wears a gold helm to hide his age and scarring along with showing his connection to the first BAs. I would suggest Gold and I would suggest figuring out why he is hiding his face from his brothers and his enemy.

 doomdreamer wrote:
Blood Angels are pretty Vain (not like, Fulgrim vain, but yeah). So Karlean, Astorath , Mephiston, and Corbulo don't wear a helm to show off who they are, Tyco wore gold mask to hide his ugly scars, Death Company wear helms to hide their shame, and Chapter Master Dante wears a gold helm to hide his age and scarring along with showing his connection to the first BAs. I would suggest Gold and I would suggest figuring out why he is hiding his face from his brothers and his enemy.

Dante's a a special case though, as he wears the Death Mask of Sanguinius, a mask made of their Primarch's features that scares the living gak out of those who see it. It's both a symbolic relic and useful wargear that the Chapter Master should wear, not dissimilar to the Gauntlets of Ultramar or the Titansword, that is only wielded by the CM and shows their status.

The others you mentioned are just heroes and as we know, real heroes don't wear helmets.

doomdreamer...I really have no idea where you get your information. It's conjecture/headcannon.

Named characters (from GW, not FW) typically don't wear helmets. Tyco was vain in the fluff, there is nothing to suggest the others are. BA in general are vain in their artistry, helmet or no helmet has nothing to do with that (and in fact a helmet allows more ornamentation). Don't mistake modeling choices for fluff. Lastly...DC typically do not know shame, they are too far gone to care by that point (and plenty of them don't wear helmets either). Again, nothing I've ever seen in fluff indicates that even the chapter mandates helmets on them to "hide the chapter's shame" either.

Go with either color, red or gold. A Captain typically has heraldry on his right shoulder, which consists of either personal heraldry or company heraldry.

My captain is wearing the Crown Angelic, so I went with a Death Mask painted gold. A powered armored helmet (suitably ornate) painted gold, or red would be perfectly acceptable. It'll really depend on how you want your captain to look.

Take it easy.

-Red__Thirst-