RT101 “Brother Napier”, Fallen Dark Angel – 40k Rogue Trader (1988)

RT101 "Brother Napier", Fallen Dark Angel - 40k Rogue Trader (1988)

I’ve recently painted the second of my “Oldhammer” style Fallen Dark Angels. “Brother Napier” this time – as named in the old catalogue. Unlike many other models, this guy wasn’t really started. Having some black on the model doesn’t really count as part-painted, unless I’m doing a drive of “only finishing models that have been started in some way”, but either way I needed to re-prime him anyway.

RT101 "Brother Napier", Fallen Dark Angel - 40k Rogue Trader (1988)

For his markings, I’ve applied some really old (RT-era, natch) transfers. I could have tried to freehand, but I do like my chapter iconography to be perfect. He’s rocking the old-school RT-sergeant’s stripes on his pauldron, which I did colour-fill from the transfer’s original plain white. Full chapter bade on his (understated by today’s standards) powerfist – power glove in those days!

RT101 "Brother Napier", Fallen Dark Angel - 40k Rogue Trader (1988)

Something I really noticed on this figure is just how easy it was to paint. Seriously. Black armour, a grey lining, then careful sort-of drybrushing on wear points and the odd thin line for scratches over the armour. Really quick and easy, and it looks effective. Just got to keep the messiness looking neat and focused rather than like the model’s simply been randomly drybrushed with silver. I likely will continue to keep most of my marine models “clean”, but I’ll retain this colour scheme across all of my Fallen and it should be a doddle to get the painting done while giving them a unique look amongst all my power armoured models.

RT101 "Brother Napier", Fallen Dark Angel - 40k Rogue Trader (1988)

What’s not old, scratched-up armour is a dark brown leather. A less-glowing skin tone with some scar tissue and requisite 5-o-clock shadow, and black-to-greying hair completes the look. The greying sides is a particular note to the original Brother Napier.

RT101 "Brother Napier", Fallen Dark Angel - 40k Rogue Trader (1988)

Since I only have the pair of these done so far, I thought a 2-shot was in order. Both of these guys have rather hunched postures, something that was common to the original RT-101 line. I’ve got a few other original metals to allocate here and there. The hardest part is working out which ones to use in which army. I’d love to set up a full squad of RT-101 marines for The Fallen, but I’ve got a couple of them earmarked for Legion of the Damned and Iron Warriors, as well as my RT-inspired Crimson Fists project. There’s just not enough to go around – I need some more old metal beakies!

Dark Angels: 1 Section, 4th Squad (Tactical), 2nd Octavius Crusade Company.

Dark Angels Space Marine Tactical Squad

After a bit of a delay (lots of Diablo III recently!) I’ve finally completed the Dark Angels Veteran Sergeant figure, thus completing 1 Section, and therefore 4th Squad. As you can see, I’ve opted for dark green robes with a deep red inner. I never liked it when GW changed that element of their DA scheme from dark green robes to bone coloured ones – so I’m simply ignoring it and painting them my way, but in more of a black-green with a desaturated highlight to help distinguish them visually from the armour.

Dark Angels Space Marine Tactical Squad

He is one hell of a fiddly figure. While the robes are simple enough, he’s just dripping with extra details, sculpted rather finely as well. This is a figure I picked up a few years ago, rather than having purchased at release. His base tab seems to say “GW01” but 2001 seems a bit old for this model, and he’s not in any of the catalogues I can find over at Stuff of Legends until 2010 – though there’s only abiout thee useful catalogues there covering figures in the Noughties. Maybe the sculptor had a dyslexic moment, or perhaps it was sculpted for some time before being released. I don’t recognise the sculptor, either – perhaps Diaz? That’s something you could do with hand-sculpted metal figures, and as much as I enjoy the new digitally-sculpted plastics, it’s a nice little thing to be able to look at a model and recognise who the sculptor was. Something still very possible with smaller companies, of course. EDIT: Thanks to Alex informing me via the comments, the figure is Dark Angels Veteran Sergeant 1, and was released in 2004. That’s a decent amount of time from the date on the Tab to release, but as we know, it happens.

Dark Angels Space Marine Tactical Squad

His offsider here with the plasma gun is a metal torso married to a pair of plastic 3rd edition legs. The torso of course came from the Space Marine Bike Squadron, which appealed to me as a cool looking “plasma gun at rest” – as opposed to the limited MKVII armour options at the time this guy was built (there was not yet a plastic plasma gun in the modern style.) …you kids today, you have it so easy. Everything in plastic. Back in my day we had to walk to school uphill, in the snow, barefoot, backwards

Dark Angels Space Marine Tactical Squad

Ahem.

Two of these three are simply plastic 3rd edition marines (with a few pouches added), while their squadmate is the metal MKVIII model with plastic arms. He’s here essentially because of the Sergeant in MKVIII armour that I used in the other squad. It only took 20+ years for us to get the DeathWatch models in proper, multipart MKVIII armour, but I’m sure a few of those could be built and incorporated easily into regular marine squads. Hm….

Dark Angels Space Marine Tactical Squad

And here’s the back of them.

Dark Angels Space Marine Tactical Squad

And here’s the entire squad, finally complete with both sections fully manned now that I’ve finished their new Sergeant.