# Salamanders - 4th Company



## Xisor (Oct 1, 2011)

The Lord of the Burning Skies (& friends)

Hi all. I've had many of these models for very many years now. I've finally got around to touching up the painting on them, unifying them and tidying them. More'n that, I've organised them into some sort of consistent, recognisable force.

What's more, I've named a lot of them and got (what I feel to be) a good theme for them. The conceit: Fourth Company Salamanders, but not the entire company. Captain Dac'tyr's here, the titular Lord of the Burning Skies, but then so is Forgemaster Argos and a lot of the First and Seventh (Scout) companies.

A brief recap for the Salamanders: Seven Companies. 2-4 are battle companies, 5-6 are reserves, 1st Vets and 7th Scouts. Each company 1-6 has twelve squads, not 10. There are only six scout squads in Company 7.

So for the fourth, there'd be: 7 Tacticals, 3 Devastators and 2 Assault Squads. Of the models I have, I'll be showcasing:
4 Tactical Squads
1 Devastator Squad
1 Assault Squad
2 Firedrake Squads
3 Scout Squads
1 Command Squad.

Plus the 'HQ' staff of: Captain, Chaplain, Librarian, 3 Techmarines, some servitors and two Dreadnoughts!


As you'll see in the pictures, most of them lack any sort of squad/company marking. What they do have, however, is there 'flame' motif! I'm particularly happy with my attempt on that, given how terribly crude it is. (You can see from my painting I'm very far away from being 'something special'.)

Simplicity itself:
1- Crude 'whole flame' in Mechrite Red
2- Crue slightly smaller flame in 'blood red'
3- Again in Macharius Solar Orange
4- Again in thingamy yellow
5- Again for the 'heart of the flame' in simple Skull White.

It's a bit untidy and very simple (no blending), but I think it works nicely. Due to this bit of work, most of the following pictures are focussed on these flames. Some of the pictures are slightly older and you will certainly spot 'work in progress' bits of models. Nevertheless!

Anyway, without further ado...

*The Lord of the Burning Skies (& friends)*









*Tactical Squad #5*

















*Tactical Squad #4*

































*Tactical Squad #7 & Devastators #3*

















































*Tactical Squad #2*

















*Assault Squad #2*









*Assorted Firedrakes*

















*Vulkan ???*
& the Circle of Fire!

















*Chaplain Regon*
& Vulkan's Sigil

















*Codicier Ikon*

























*Techmarine Venitor*









*The Lord of the Burning Skies and his Command Squad*

































*Assorted Team Photographs*

































*Firedrakes - The Saviours of Gehenna*

















































*Firedrakes - The Abortionists*

























































































































*Firedrakes - "The Talons of the Night"*









































*A better look at some skin/eyes*









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Cheers, anyone who manages to get this far! Advice/comments always appreciated.


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## fatmantis (Jun 26, 2009)

holy crap thats a massive army! well done


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## Carna (Mar 13, 2008)

Great job! The flames look good to me too. Well done on getting a sizable amount of your collection painted!


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## Dicrel Seijin (Apr 2, 2011)

Every time I see one of these, I get the urge to paint my own army (I also play Salamanders). I just wish my painting ability matched my desire. 

I'm curious, what paint did you use for the Salamander green?


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## Varakir (Sep 2, 2009)

Crikey that's a lot of lizards! Can we get a pulled back shot of everything ranked up?

I really like the pose of the termie without the helmet, looks proper badass.


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## Orochi (Jan 28, 2009)

My only dig is that I see the green as a little flat. 

However, The base colour (in my experience) is always the hardest to bring to life. But I commend your army size, and I enjoy your freehand on the shoulder pads/banners.

Keep it up sir!


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## CLT40k (Jun 18, 2010)

Nice work! +rep


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## jams (Sep 19, 2009)

excellent work, have some rep sir!


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## Djinn24 (Jan 12, 2008)

Wow big army! I would love a full army shot as well!


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## Skari (Dec 20, 2011)

Nice work. Keep it up!


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## Xisor (Oct 1, 2011)

Hello all,

I'm very humbled by the positive response. It means a lot. 

@Dicrel: For the green, it's a Chaos Black basecoat with a poorly applied layer of Snot Green over the top. Though it ends up patchy and awful-looking when inspected closely, I find it 'looks the part' from even a short distance, offering a slightly marbled feel to the colour, almost deeper than a thicker/proper coat. I'm too incompetent to do multiple layers with any skill. On a few of the models they've had a wee drybrush of snot/scorpion green to pick out edges.

Varakir: I particularly like those poses too, makes them a good bit more dynamic in feel. I hope you'll like what follows in this post. :wink:

Orochi: Absolutely, it's probably my weakest area of all the 'basic' techniques which I've only partially learned. Once I get around to highlighting (or just drybrushing) and then ink-washing them, they should hopefully show a lot less...flatness on the basic green.

Djinn & Varakir both: I'll see about getting a good picture of the whole lot. I seem to only be able to take close-ups of reasonable quality. My phone won't sit easily to take a 'big group' photo...yet!

Anyhow, 'on with the show'. Same techniques as before, though this time (due to what had already been done on them), I used Dwarf Bronze more than Shining Gold for the eagles & gilding. I intend to go back over these and bring them to a better state, but even with (mainly the storm shields) being shoddy, I think they convey the right idea for 'how things should be'.

Similarly, with highlighting/drybrushing and a bit of ink, this should all look a whole lot better.

And basing, of course. _That_ should seal the deal!

The Talons of the Night

_An archaic designation, stemming from late M35 and the conclusion of the Nova Terra Interregnum. The Firedrakes of the Salamanders chapter had been almost spent throughout near-constant deployment for the preceding eight centuries, only the present company commander (the presiding Regent of Prometheus, de-facto Chapter Master) and a barely three operational combat squads were spread across the deployments of the reserve companies. With the Chapter at a whole acting at less than three-quarters strength, casualty rates were gradually increasing in the face of relentless engagement with the opposing empire.

With the Casterboran sector finally broken and the Interregnum at an end, the companies could finally begin to properly resupply and consider elevations beyond company remits and support. The firedrakes, numbering only nine including the Regent scoured the warriors of the other companies for those who had proved themselves worthies of the company of Vulkan, as master combatants and exemplars of all venerated by the Promethean creed.

The five survivors of the fifth company's eighth squad had been on extended tour on the Casterboran capital world, working to marshal the citizenry prepared to fight for Terra. After coherent and consistent stratagems were established on the part of the humans, the Salamanders of the eighth squad began to deploy obfuscatory roles, ensuring that attempts to disrupt the schismatics could not destabilise the planet. These five Salamanders were promptly elevated to Firedrakes upon the re-assembly of the chapter. The tale of their defence against the schismastics, known in the time after as 'the Five Talons of the Night,' tells of their competent and timely re-purposing of scavenged enemy weapons and resources across the planet and the application of these; a pertinent lesson in pragmatism and patience despite the near collapse of Imperial rule and the approaching ruin of the Chapter. It remained a well-explored parable for several centuries after wards before eventual eclipse by more pertinent and illustrative accounts of other actions.

At the height of the Age of Apostasy, Er'gest Aruk of the 11th Firedrake was made a sole-survivor after his formation was effectively obliterated in a strike by Eldar forces on Varnen V, an act which also saw the Forge-Father of the day, Vulkan Epictetus, mortally wounded. After prolonged rumination and castigation, Aruk settled on a particular aspect of the Salamanders history with which he was barely familiar but had been made quite aware in his youth - the five elevated from 5th company's eighth squad half a millennium before: pragmatism in the face of collapse of all you knew. Finding solace in this symbolic focus, Aruk forged a legacy and reputation anew for his formation - the name of which became once more, albeit if only for a while, synonymous with actively seeking to test oneself in the most apocalyptic of situations.

After now many millennia, the name *Talons of the Night* remains in place as honoured for the 11th Firedrake squad, though it is rare that any outside the squad itself pay particular heed to the name save its curiosity within the titles of the Promethean creed. Even the philosophy and outlook guided by Aruk are now, approaching the cusp of M42, no longer paramount within the squad's school of thought, instead it serves only loosely as a group for those often described as more radically minded amidst Prometheans._



























































































































*Discussion*

As you can see, I not only (mostly) painted up my Assault Terminators, I also put a wee bit of thought into what I want them to be thematically. Their history is one which broadly accounts for them being a bit 'a-Salamandery', especially in name, but though it's not exactly well thought out, it strikes me as a reasonable way of framing their history. And also shows why I should not write when horrifically sleep deprived - sorry if anyone's eyes are melting or have recently melted.

So there we are, some Firedrakes. You'll notice the yellow. I'm hoping to revive a proper 'yellow marking' scheme for a handful of Marines, marking them as having been on a particular campaign together. Not sure what it'll be or who'll have been on it, but the black/yellow marking is a bit of a throwback to one of the oldest Salamanders paintschemes, so I'm happy to echo it if only slightly.


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