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I am a bit confused over the Death Company and the affect of Black Rage. I want to know some fluff about Death Company so I can plan an appealing way of customizing my own Blood Angels force.

As far as I know, on the eve of battle the BA and their successor chapters essentially meditate to ward off the Black Rage. Those that succumb to the Rage become frenzied and near uncontrollable assault marines who are then segregated from the rest of the chapter and formed into the Death Company. In battle these marines attack relentlessly until either they are slain by the opponent or they are victorious, in which case they the Rage kills them anyway.

As I can tell there is little time for a member of the Death Company to do much else but fight. So my quirky question is: where is the time for a Death Company member to get a shiny new DC paint job on their armor. Do BA chapters have a stock of one-size-fits-all DC suits of power armor laying around?

I plan on starting BA and was thinking I would represent DC in my own way. Maybe by painting a black "X" across the shoulder pads and armor to mimic a quick spray paint job. Or perhaps slapping black paint over the red BA armor. Whatever I choose, the goal would be to represent a normal BA having fallen to the Rage and then a chaplain or some other orderly giving notice to all that the marine is a DC by the addition of some post-hoc designation.

What I need to know is why the armor is different and how they got it like that. If there is no fluff to support reason and it was simply an aesthetic decision by the GW design team then I will do my own version. If however there is a good fluff based explanation on the how and why, then I will stick to DC as GW designed.

I think that when the rage takes over, the armour changes color on its own. But more likely, when Death Company are slain in battle, the rest of the Blood Angels probably just salvage the armour. After all, the flaw in their geneseed is well known - and it is also known that SOME of their number will succumb for sure - so I am sure that the armour of the fallen is kept both as a reminder and for practical reasons (ie, it will be used again).

IIRC the old minidex said they repaint it. Wouldn't be different from other marines, deathwatch was also : "painted it black but left shoulderpad in chapter colors" explanation.

But i for one, would wait for the new dex.

Well I will be waiting for the new dex.

If they do repaint the armor then I think I more ambulatory paint job would be appropriate and hopefully very interesting to look at.

It's repainted. Presumably the Death Company are sedated, and there would be chapter serfs and servitors to actually carry out the repainting...

Further, if they survive, they get the Red Thirst, which is EVEN WORSE, and become proper vampire. At which point they get locked up in the Tower of Angels...

Well, I don't think they've donned their armour when they do the mediation. I certainly wouldn't want weapons around either if some of my fellows were going to go into that state. Companies will repaint their armour in camouflage patterns for certain engagements and they'd have to touch up paint jobs after repairs, so they'd have to have servitors that were designed for that job. I can imagine ones with spray guns for arms. It'd be a pretty simple and quick job, all black and then simple red crosses. Funerary wear. Then the chaplains bundle the new Death Co marines into their recoloured armour just before they get dropped down.

Morgrim wrote:Well, I don't think they've donned their armour when they do the mediation. I certainly wouldn't want weapons around either if some of my fellows were going to go into that state. Companies will repaint their armour in camouflage patterns for certain engagements and they'd have to touch up paint jobs after repairs, so they'd have to have servitors that were designed for that job. I can imagine ones with spray guns for arms. It'd be a pretty simple and quick job, all black and then simple red crosses. Funerary wear. Then the chaplains bundle the new Death Co marines into their recoloured armour just before they get dropped down.

Hmmmm so my idea would actually be dumbing down 39 millenia worth of technological advancement, wouldn't it?

Darn it!

ArbitorIan pretty much has it as far as BA Death Company go.

But that's not to say you're still confined to the Black Scheme. You -could- do a homebrew Successor chapter that use another colour as their funeral garb.

Oh, in an emergency or planetside then I can see a very quick rush job. Not quite at the level of 'toss a bucket of paint at them', but close. I think the Death Company colours serve several purposes: part funeral garb, since they are heading into battle to die and their brothers would respect and mourn this in equal measures. Part identification, so the Death Co are easy to pick out because they are going to be directed to different tasks than their brothers. And part identification so everyone else can recognise them and make sure to keep out of their way or risk being torn limb from limb.

Morgrim wrote:Oh, in an emergency or planetside then I can see a very quick rush job. Not quite at the level of 'toss a bucket of paint at them', but close. I think the Death Company colours serve several purposes: part funeral garb, since they are heading into battle to die and their brothers would respect and mourn this in equal measures. Part identification, so the Death Co are easy to pick out because they are going to be directed to different tasks than their brothers. And part identification so everyone else can recognise them and make sure to keep out of their way or risk being torn limb from limb.

how very "British Red-coat" of them