The Horus Heresy: Betrayal at Cal… iban!!

Given that the theme of the project is the fight over and destruction of Caliban, I wanted the bases to reflect the detestation wrought.

The bases were textured with craters first. These were made using a Trench Warfare stamp from Happy Seppuku Model Works.

Then painted in dark ashen colours to represent cracked and burnt ground. I used mixes of Black and Bone colours for the harder surface.

To represent the ashes I used… ash. Cold ashes cleaned out of the fire place. Diluted PVA was applied to the base in patches, then dipped into a bucket of ash. When dry I brushed off the excess with an old brush.

The rim of the base was coated in matt black. The last step is to spray with a matt varnish to seal everything in and take the shine off the decals.

Dammit. I dropped the Heavy Bolter guy while cleaning him up…

He’ll be ‘right!

Fine details here: Metals done the same as the Heretic Squad; Bone colour the same as well. The only different colour introduced here will be on the wings of the Sergeant’s helmet.

Ravenwing White: a White that’s different from the bone white I use for DA. I just call it Ravenwing White, since I got it from GW back in the day where they used it for the white components of Ravenwing vehicles.

• Base: Army Painter Blue*
• 1st Highlight: Citadel Space Wolf Grey
• 2nd Highlight: Citadel Skull White

Base the area with the AP blue. Then the first stage is 1:1 AP Blue and Space Wolf Grey.

2nd stage is Space Wolf Grey. 3rd stage is 1:1 Space Wolf Grey and Skull White.

*Not a very descriptive name! It’s like an Ultramarine Blue. Though the original colour mix called for Shadow Grey, a dark blue-grey colour.

The next unit will be another Tactical Squad for the Loyalist Dark Angels. This is my current process for DA green. It has changed before, it will change again no doubt.

• Spray: Citadel Caliban Green
• Wash: Citadel Black Ink*
• 1st Highlight: 2 parts Citadel DA Green, 1 part Citadel Goblin Green
• 2nd Highlight: 1 part DA Green, 2 parts Goblin Green
• Glaze: Citadel Black Ink

*I had to revert to Citadel Black Ink since I ran out of Citadel Badab Black wash. There is a difference, the wash doesn’t dull the highlights nearly as much as the ink does when used as a glaze.

The steps look like this: 

As I said, the black ink does dull the highlights, but a black glaze keeps them looking somber and dark, just the way I like my Dark Angels. I missed one member of this unit, and it stands out:

Simple Iron

• Citadel Boltgun Metal
• Citadel Black In

Paint the parts you want to be metal, with the Boltgun Metal. Wash with the black ink. Highlight the high edges with Boltgun Metal. Done.

Sounds simple, but so so many little metal rivets…

The finals steps will be basing and transfers/ markings. I’m going to hold off and bring a second Squad to this point, then do them all together.

Bone White

• Vallejo German Camo Brown
• Citadel Brown Ink
• Army Painter Skeleton Bone
• Citadel Skull White

Base with German Camo Brown, wash with Brown Ink. Leave the dark colour in the recesses and crevices.

Using well thinned Skeleton Bone build the colour up about three layers, though each layer is smaller than the previous. The aim is that the highest area has the strongest colour.

When dry another two thin coats of Skull White to give the final highlight.

This works for the check patterns as well. They’re “drawn” in using German Camo Brown. Painted and highlighted up to white.  Then come back with the base black to tidy and square the lines and checks.

January isn’t a great month for hobby and me to get time together. These guys were started January 18, now Feb 11 and still not quite done. Nevermind, onwards!

I’ve assembled the unit, and based them with green stuff. This was textured with a base stamp from a little company called Happy Seppuku (http://www.happyseppuku.com)

They were then primed with a black primer, just a hardware store black, but it was a little too glossy. I dulled them down with a thin coat of Vallejo Model Colour Black. This would come back to bite me later, as this colour is too matt…

Red Eyes and Markings

• Vallaejo German Camo Brown
• Citadel Mechrite Red
• Citadel Blood Red
• Citadel Brown Ink

Paint on the stripe and the eye lenses in German Camo Brown.

Layer on Mechrite Red, thinned of course.

A thin layer of Blood Red to bring out the brightness.

Finish with a thin glaze of Brown Ink to mute the brightness a little, add some depth to the colour and tie the layers together.

I also went over the armour with a glaze of Citadel Black Ink to try and add a little of a satin sheen, so the black wasn’t so flat.

Black armour highlights:

• Army Painter Black
• Army Painter Skeleton Bone

Start with 1:2 Black to Bone. I prefer thin,  hard highlights for dark armour. Thin lines near the corners, on the high points and some edges.

I don’t really consider this edge highlighting, as I only want to catch the higher points, not every hard edge.

Then 1:3 or 1:4 Black to Bone. Thinner, smaller highlights.

Go back and tidy up any highlight lines that are too wide with pure black. Really make sure those lines are thin.

This is where the very matt Vallejo black got me… pic 4 is really the most obvious. In the right light the other paints reflect as more glossy. D’oh!

Once I’ve varnished this unit, I hope it will be less obvious. But I’ll chalk it up to experience and move on.

In pic 1 you may also see the start of the white on the Sergeants pauldron.

I’ve long been a fan of the Dark Angels. It really started with the first edition of Space Hulk. Specifically the Deathwing expansion.

When Betrayal at Calth was released I really wanted to have a copy for myself, but I have no interest in starting an army for either the Ultramarines or the Word Bearers. So what then? Well… I noticed that Calth changes quite well into Caliban…

So then: The Betrayal at Caliban

Half the forces would be painted to represent the forces of the betrayer, Luther. Half the forces will be loyal to the Lion. All forces will be able to be fielded in 40k as members of the Unforgiven, if not Dark Angels directly. I also want the option to be able to play the board game campaign itself, at least once.

Initially I was going to simply follow the division of forces as set by the game:

Loyalists:

• Terminator Captain
• 5 Cataphractii Terminators
• 10 Legion Tactical Veterans

Traitors:

• Chaplain
• 20 Legion Tactical Veterans
• 1 Contemptor Dreadnought.

But the problem that was sticking in my brain was this: I would have to paint the Cataphractii black (since canonically Deathwing Bone White came much later), and then match them with a squad of DA green tactical marines. It would look odd, and the traitors would also be black, so it would confuse the issue.

So, then what? That means I have to paint the “Traitor” forces of the board game in “Loyalist” colours?

I thought about the story of Calth. Ultramarines are defending their home turf against the attack by the Word Bearers… so then it becomes a game of Attackers vs Defenders.

So then the Defenders are with Luther, and the Attackers (trying to cleanse their own home) are with the Lion.

At the start of the Great Crusade the 1st Legion wore black armour:

After the Heresy comes the creation of the Imperium, the edicts of the Codex Astartes and the 2nd Founding, the creation of the Space Marine Chapters. The Dark Angels follow the ruling of the Codex and divide the legion into Chapters. Yet the chapter retaining the Legion name, without explanation, changes their heraldry to Dark Green.

After some digging around there seems to be two main reasons why the green cane about:

This topic has a fairly simple answer that can be sourced to two stories:

 

1. In “Call of the Lion”, Belath tells Astelan that, per the Lion’s orders, Calibanite Chapters “… are to wear the green of [their] home world’s forests … as a remembrance of the battles fought to tame Caliban …”

 

2. In the Cypher Dataslate, those Dark Angels on Caliban who refused to follow Luther into rebellion “… seem to have repainted their armour” green.

(Sourced from the Bolter and Chainsword forum, amongst others. LinkHere)

So, pre-Lutherian Heresy The Dark Angels of Caliban are adding the green to their armour. Now it seems those on Caliban that rejected Luther painted their entire armour green as well.

This then will be the basis on how the two armies will be painted.