Dark Angels Transfers and Honours
Formation, collectionhonours and personal heraldry
Use transfers to identify formation, role, rank, honours or campaign service. Establish which job a symbol is doing before assigning it to a model. A decorative variant can add individuality without creating a new army-wide rank.
← Collection overviewRead a transfer sheet by purpose
Chapter and wing badges: choose Dark Angels, Deathwing or Ravenwing for the model's formation. Sizes accommodate infantry and vehicles; alternate outlines and embellishments do not come with a complete published rank key.
Role badges and numbers: identify the squad's battlefield role and number. Apply the armour-specific placement guide, including the Deathwing shoulder reversal.
Swords: red swords appear on Lieutenants and in older veteran examples. Sword colour or point direction alone cannot settle the wearer's rank.
Keys, chains, script and small shields: suitable personal heraldry; do not invent precise promotions or secret-circle grades for symbols whose meanings are unpublished.
Placement conflict · resolved by armour type
These are the useful distinctions in Ely's transfer-sheet survey. His non-Terminator Crux placement conflicts with his shoulder guide; the Deathwing page follows the armour-specific explanation. His preferences for ornate or gold badges are options, not mandatory officer colours.
Honours have meanings beyond rank
Supported
meaningExceptional valour contributing to victory; associated with proven standard bearers.
Supported
meaningDistinguished shooting skill, often represented by a bolt-shell talisman.
Supported
meaningHonour and, as physical wargear, a protective device; chapter practices differ. A halo-like decal does not itself prove a particular force-field rule.
Supported
meaningTerminator Honours, with armour-specific display conventions. Do not use it as a universal badge for every experienced company veteran.
Avoid transferring a chapter-specific relic-origin story to the Dark Angels without evidence. The same motif may be an honour, sculpted equipment or decorative heraldry in different contexts.
Campaign badges and vehicles
A campaign badge identifies forces serving together, rather than their permanent company or rank. It may later survive as an earned honour. Sources vary on leg placement: Ely describes the right greave, while Lexicanum's older Codex-derived summary describes the left. Neither makes the other position universally wrong; choose and record a consistent army practice.
Vehicle surfaces allow chapter or wing badges, company devices, vehicle identification and campaign marks. Ely offers a common layout, but does not establish a universal compulsory tank-number position. Distinguish a transport's parentage from its passengers and from any game keyword.
Owner-approved
Keep· ourSergeant rank cue unambiguous
Our approved red skull on a sergeant's tilt shield is a deliberate army convention. Do not reinterpret every skull decal elsewhere as that rank marker. The selected shield backgrounds and remaining decisions are on history and army variations.
For physical application, follow the current painting recipe's transfer preparation, sealing and finish sequence. This reference adds meanings and placement guidance; it does not introduce a second varnishing recipe.
Continue exploring