Dark Angels give you three distinct looks in one army - the green-armoured battle companies, the bone-white Deathwing terminators and the black Ravenwing bikers - so they stay interesting to paint across a whole force.
The signature look
The core scheme is a deep, slightly muted green armour with bone or off-white robes and gold/brass trim. The green should be dark and sombre, not bright, to match the brooding, secretive character of the chapter.
Painting the green armour
The recipe above gives the ramp. Keep the green desaturated - a touch of the shade mixed into the layer stops it looking too vivid. Edge highlight sparingly so the armour stays dark and grim.
The Deathwing and Ravenwing
- Deathwing terminators are bone/ivory. Build bone up from a brown base through cream to near-white, and shade with a thin brown wash in the recesses - avoid heavy black washes that dirty the bone.
- Ravenwing bikes and speeders are black with white/bone details and red lenses. Use a blue-grey edge highlight to lift the black so it reads as armour, not a silhouette.
Tips and common mistakes
- Don't go too bright on the green. Saturated green looks more Salamanders than Dark Angels.
- Bone needs warmth, not grey. Shade robes with brown, not black, or they look dirty rather than aged.
- Lots of trim. Dark Angels models are covered in iconography - a careful brown wash over gold trim does most of the work.