Painting placement guide

Shoulders, company knees and squad identity

Marking a model

Left and right mean the model’s own sides. Chapter, company, battlefield role, squad and personal honours each identify a different aspect of the model. A unit attached to a mixed strike force does not automatically become Deathwing or Ravenwing. Start with the chapter map.

Placement

Standard power armour

Wearer-left

Chapter badge

Wearer-right

Role / squad

Terminator armour

Wearer-left

Crux Terminatus

Wearer-right

Chapter / wing badge

Power armour normally has Chapter identity model-left and squad insignia model-right. Terminators reserve the left for their Crux and shift identity right. Codex Astartes shoulder convention.

Armour exception

Studded shoulder exception: when Mark VI-style studs occupy the wearer's left pauldron, put Chapter identity on the right and relocate or reduce the role/squad device. The armour layout overrides the usual shoulder arrangement. GW's explanation of the studded pauldron.

Green Dark Angels use white Chapter identity, red role badges, and model-left company knees. Ely's Dark Angels placement guide.

Helmet and rim colours normally follow the armour, rather than Ultramarines-style rank helmets or company-coloured rims. Forehead ornaments, robes and personal heraldry add distinction. Ely's studio-convention checklist. This army’s sergeant shields add a rank marker alongside the company knee and squad identification.

The battle companies are 3–5. Ely’s isolated ‘2–5’ conflicts with the Ravenwing’s role as the 2nd Company.

Company knees: visual key

These patterns were checked against the diagrams linked from Lexicanum's individual company entries, citing Codex: Dark Angels (7th edition), p.13. Diagram-left/right below means looking directly at the badge, not the model's left/right limbs. Old scans are colour references only in the broad sense; pale fields may read white or bone. They are not paint swatches.

3rd Company

Red diagonal `/` band over dark green.

4th Company

Upper half black/white chequers; lower half pale.

5th Company

Quartered: pale upper-left/lower-right; dark green upper-right/lower-left.

6th Company

Vertical split: pale left, dark green right.

7th Company

Broad dark-green downward-pointing chevron on pale field.

8th Company

Diagonal split: black upper-left, dark green lower-right.

9th Company

Red horizontal band across pale field.

10th Company

Plain green; no separate patterned company knee.

Deathwing and Ravenwing identify their specialised companies through livery and badges; use their Deathwing and Ravenwing pages for exceptions and squad heraldry.

Battlefield roles

Dark Angels role devices: double-ended vertical arrow, Battleline; four-way arrow, Close Support; blast, Fire Support. Ely's Dark Angels guide.

Knotley’s 2026 codex review lists the following infantry roles. This is background organisation, not the game’s BATTLELINE keyword:

Battleline

Infantry examples

Intercessors, Heavy Intercessors, Infiltrators.

Close Support

Infantry examples

Assault Intercessors, including jump packs; Inceptors, Incursors, Reivers, Infernus.

Fire Support

Infantry examples

Aggressors, Desolation, Eliminators, Eradicators, Hellblasters.

For the full role list and discussion, see Knotley’s 2026 codex review. The historical notes cover older squad types and their markings.

Unresolved · Infernus

Infernus markings vary between sources. The printed categorisation says Close Support, while GW miniatures and earlier presentation display Fire Support. Lexicanum favours the studio markings and suggests a codex typo, but this is its interpretation. Close Support follows the printed category; Fire Support follows the studio miniatures. Conflict and citations.

Squad numbers and attachments

The usual battle-company plan is 1–6 Battleline, 7–8 Close Support, 9–10 Fire Support. Reserve squads can extend a reinforced company to 11–20, without repeating that fixed role allocation. The 10th's Vanguard numbering is also more flexible. A ten-man squad split into two combat squads can retain one squad number; two tabletop units do not necessarily mean two permanent organisational squads. Codex Astartes organisation and numbering.

Keep a roster recording parent company, attached company, squad number and chosen badge. Applying the generic attached-company heraldry convention to Dark Angels knees is a reasonable planning interpretation; it does not justify repainting Deathwing bone or Ravenwing black green. Retaining a reserve company's own identity is the more conservative option when no specific attachment example is being followed.

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Collection overview · Our army scheme