Dark Angels History and Army Variations
Sergeant markings in this army
Our army scheme · 17 October 2026
Our sergeant scheme, chosen 17 October 2026: sergeants, including veteran sergeants, follow their normal unit and formation recipe everywhere. Their rank identifier is a red skull waterslide decal on a tilt shield.
Greenwing: armour-green shield; optional vertical bone centre stripe.
Deathwing: armour-bone shield; optional vertical green centre stripe—the inverse arrangement.
Normal unit treatment
Helmets, rims, aquilas, and other details: normal unit treatment. Sergeant-specific bone-helmet recolouring and extra gold rank details are superseded; normal Deathwing bone helmets remain normal formation livery.
This is a personal army scheme. Higher-officer markings and Ravenwing-specific shield designs are still undecided, as is the complete Deathwing armour recipe. Painting steps and selected paints are in the Intercessor guide.
Planning a unit: choose its chapter, company and era, then combine its documented markings with the personal heraldry chosen for the army.
How to read these differences
Published history, an author’s interpretation, and our approved army conventions serve different purposes. An authentic older scheme is not automatically the current chapter standard. This page explains those differences; the companion organization and markings pages provide the working reference.
Historical schemes: genuine, but tied to their edition
Ely’s publication survey traces black armour in Rogue Trader (1987), a seventh-company “Raven Wing” in White Dwarf 96, the 1989 Deathwing expansion’s white Terminators, and green studio miniatures by WD123 (1990).
WD129–130 also depicts Deathwing power armour and company-coloured chest eagles and shoulder trim. Those are historical precedents, rather than instructions to add coloured rims to our models. By WD166 (1993), the familiar green armour, bone chest eagles, red weapons, and plain shoulder trim appear. Codex: Angels of Death (1996) consolidates the Fallen, Unforgiven, and robed aesthetic. These publication references come from Ely’s 2021 survey.
Interpretation: why black became green
The change is documented; the story that studio painters misunderstood green reflections in Jim Burns’s artwork is unconfirmed hearsay, acknowledged as such by Ely. His earlier article apparently confuses Angels of Absolution with the black-armoured Angels of Vengeance. Ely’s black-to-green article.
Successors: check their own heraldry
Shared ancestry does not require identical colours or specialist-company names. Angels of Absolution wear bone throughout, including vehicles; Angels of Vengeance retain black and have Dreadwing and Raptorwing formations; Angels of Redemption call their first two companies Redwings. These examples prevent the parent chapter’s green/bone/black arrangement being imposed on every successor. Absolution, Vengeance, Redemption
Ely also offers homebrew suggestions alongside the named successors. His Angels of Defiance quadrant description repeats a left-side label, making that passage unreliable for exact placement. Successor article.
Worked example: Ely’s personal fourth company
Personal collection choices and the era-specific commander roster
His “The Feared” demonstrates six battleline, two close-support, and two fire-support squads using a particular selection of modern units. It is an example allocation, not a compulsory shopping list. His commander Larathiel Adellum, named Lieutenants, bare-headed sergeants, flowers identifying sergeant bases, helmet-sword combat-squad leaders, and right-greave crusade badges belong to his collection. Personal fourth company
The uploaded chapter chart instead names Korahael, a published fourth-company commander associated with the 13th Black Crusade. That makes its named roster era-specific, not a timeless list of incumbents. Korahael and publication references
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