In our How to Paint Everything series, we take a look at different armies of the Warhammer universe, examine their history and heraldry, and look at several different methods for painting them. Dark Angels are the first legion and are very, very loyal. Today we will look at how to paint them and their specialists, Deathwing and Ravenwing.

Look guys. Here at Goonhammer dot com, Dark Angels get a bit of a bad rap. Most of it can probably be directly traced back to the fact that Dark Angels are the army of Greg “ANAmal.net” Chiasson but still, they endure and deserve our mockery.

I’m here today to tell you that these people that have disparaged the most loyal of loyal boys are wrong. Extra wrong even. In fact, Dark Angels are actually the best loyal legion. No, don’t laugh I’m serious. I’ll prove it in this article.

Who Are The Dark Angels?

Dark Angels are haughty, proud, and hide a heck of a secret. One that they protect at all costs from the Imperium at large, with no act being beneath them in their quest to seek redemption. As we all know, keeping secrets is a cool and good crime.

See once upon a time, back in the Great Crusade, the Dark Angels were loyal and stalwart defenders of humanity, fighting to expand the Imperium and reclaim lost planets. Then the Horus Heresy hit and while the Dark Angels fought on the side of the Emperor across the galaxy, back home, half the legion, led by Lion’el Johnson’s closest brother, Luthor, defected. They swore allegiance to Horus and fell in with the powers of Chaos. When the Dark Angels returned to Caliban, they had to fight a whole civil war that ended in Lion’el Johnson getting murdered and the planet being destroyed. They kept the secret of their legion’s defection from everyone, and now relentlessly hunt the remaining Fallen Angels who escaped and made their way to the Eye of Terror. So we can all agree that keeping this a secret was cool and good.

So cool and good that the Dark Angels have dedicated two entire companies towards it.

The 1st company goes by the name “Deathwing” and always fight entirely in Terminator armor – which is rad – that’s bone-colored because a single squad survived a literal planet of Genestealer cultists, which is even radder. Clad in black is the 2nd company, the Ravenwing, who take up the fight on bikes and in speeders or flyers. The two companies work in tandem: the Ravenwing finds secrets (enemy targets) for the Deathwing to keep (kill, capture). Backing those boys up is a fairly normal chapter, that people on the internet call Greenwing for some silly reason.

The Dark Angels are also the First Legion and therefore can dunk on all the others by pulling the classic older brother move of “I did that before you did”. They also have the best toys because of this, literally hiding away weapons and tools from the Dark Age of Technology while other legions got their hand-me-downs. None of these toys really get used in 40k, because the rules writers seem to love disappointing us, but it’s nice that, at least in the fluff, we can Big Time every other chapter by laying down the classic line of “If you’re not first, your last”.

As you can see, all of this makes the Dark Angels the most loyal legion. In fact, we would even say that they’re twice as loyal as the Space Wolves, a chapter that:

Attacked a loyal son of the Emperor for no reason no less than 3 times. Seriously, Leman Russ is out of control, someone should stop him! Think of the children!

should stop him! Think of the children! Harbors mutants in their ranks.

Has no green power armor, the shame.

Has too many wolf-named items.

No cool robes.

Compare this to the noble (and loyal) Dark Angels:

Only attacked in self-defense.

Zero mutants! (please ignore the Watchers in the Dark for the sake of this)

Mostly green power armour.

ZERO WOLVES.

As many cool robes as you want, friend.

Damn. 5/5 for the Dark Angels on loyalty, versus the obviously treacherous Space Wolves.

Playing With Dark Angels:

Last time we published this I had to talk about how sorry the Dark Angels and their rules were and at times it was honestly tough to play them in the brave new world of Marine Dex 2.0. Since then, they’ve gotten a huge makeover with Psychic Awakening 4: Ritual of the Damned, which brings them into the “Space Marines Supplement” level, giving them access to the Angels of Death special rule, Combat Doctrines, and a host of cool new stratagems that make them pretty good! You can check out our review of Ritual of the Damned here, and if you want our take on how Dark Angels used to play, our Start/Stop Competing on them is here, but note that we are going to update it soon.

Coda’s Take On How To Paint A Dark Angel, One Of The Green Ones:

Ok, so I grew up with the 3rd edition ‘dex, so this picture is peak DA for me:

As you can see here, gold and green looks kickin’ rad. So let’s paint our boys like them. Below, I’ll tell you how to do it, by traditional and contrast methods:

Here’s how I do it:

Traditional paints:

You will need: