From the dark void, salvation came in the guise of argent stars.

Jarnail Solarion of the Inheritors chapter

The Silver Stars chapter are a creation of my good friend and regular opponent, Apologist. They are the instigators of the War of the False Primarch and the leaders of the Partisan faction, in opposition to my Flesh Eaters and the other Orthodox chapters sent to eradicate this threat to the High Lords of Terra. When I was building my Armies on Parade 2023 entry, “Interregnum at Interlude Quay”, I knew that I wanted some antagonists on the board for the Flesh Eaters to be fighting. So what better choice than the Silver Stars?

Modelling

Before anything else, it’s worth making the point that the Silver Stars are (out-of-universe) intentionally slightly unclear, and this has been intentionally built into their marking scheme. They are, after all, supposedly the returned Legion of a lost or forgotten Primarch; or possibly a renegade Chapter masquerading as such behind an abomination; or perhaps the time- or dimensionally-displaced results of some Other event.

Apologist on the Silver Stars

The Silver Stars are intended to look like they’ve stepped straight out of the 31st Millennium (the War of the False Primarch being set in the 34th Millennium), so I wanted to create a MkII or MkIII look for their armour. I also needed to ensure they measured-up to the Flesh Eaters, which are based on Primaris Marines converted to look like they are wearing MkVI armour.

There were a number of ways I could have gone about this, including using third party 3D printable ’embiggened’ MkII legs and torso, or using Cataphractii Terminator legs. But in the end I decided to use what was already in my ‘bits box’, which was a lot of Primaris spares and some sprues of the old plastic MkIII armour.

These Silver Stars are built around Primaris legs and bodies, plus the older plastic MkIII arms, pauldrons, backpacks, bolters and heads. To give the legs a more “antiquated” look, I added Mixed Micro Glass Balls from Green Stuff World as armour studs. I’d be the first to admit this isn’t perfect, and if I hadn’t been up against the Armies on Parade submission deadline, I may have spent a bit more time converting the legs. Still, I don’t think it looks too bad, and as Apologist says in the quote above, the provenance of their armour is supposed to be intentionally unclear.

To make the LED effects, from left to right in the image above, I used the techniques detailed in my LED Muzzle Flare tutorial, Simple LED Muzzle Flare tutorial, and LED Eye Lens tutorial, respectively. The ‘dead’ Silver Star has no LEDs – his armour systems have powered down!

Painting

The basics of the scheme are armour as white as bone, as green as the ocean, as rose as coral; and with gold accents.

Apologist on the Silver Stars

Apologist has published a couple of guides to painting the Silver Stars on his website, including an article on their paint scheme and another on insignia and heraldry. Apologist and I have slightly different painting styles, so I used his guides as a starting point for my own, slightly tweaked interpretation which I have shared below.

All paints listed are from the Citadel range, unless stated otherwise. The miniatures were primed with Halfords Primer Grey, which is a good quality and cost effective undercoat spray for those based in the UK.

• White Armour
• Ulthuan Grey basecoat (two thin coats)
• Apothecary White Contrast shade
• Ulthuan Grey layer (one thin coat, but I didn’t worry about getting a super smooth finish, as it added to the battle worn look)
• Corax White highlight
• Skull White fine highlight

• Blue Armour
• Sotek Green
• Talassar Blue Contrast shade
• 50:50 Sotek Green:Corax White hightlight

• Gold Trim
• Retributor Armour
• Reikland Fleshshade shade
• Druchii Violet shade (applied to deepest recesses while previous shade is still wet)
• Runefang Steel highlight

• Rose Helmet Crest
• Screamer Pink basecoat
• Nuln Oil shade
• Screamer Pink layer
• 50:50 Scream Pink:Corax White highlight

• Rose Shoulder Banding
• Screamer Pink layer

• Silver Equipment
• Black Templar Contrast basecoat
• Leadbelcher layer
• Nuln Oil shade
• Runefang Steel highlight

• Rubber Undersuit
• Black Templar Contrast basecoat

• Dark Leather
• Dryad Bark basecoat
• Nuln Oil shade
• Gothor Brown highlight
• Karak Stone fine highlight

• Chapter Insignia & Squad Markings
• Corax White layer

• Pale Skin
• My Space Marine Skin Tones (Pale) recipe

Silver Stars bear what appear to be Legion symbols both on their left pauldron (as typical for Space Marines), and on the centre of their torso. The marking is a white, four-pointed star made up of four small, unconnected right-angled triangles. They typically appears to be rotating anti-clockwise on the pauldron and clockwise on the torso (both suggesting forward movement); but occasionally run in the opposite direction, which indicates a form of intra-Legion specialism or honorific termed Manawa.

Whatever the direction of travel, and wherever it appears, the Silver Star symbol is near-universally rendered in white (that is, heraldic silver). 

Apologist on the Silver Stars

The chapter insignia and squad markings were painted freehand with a slightly thinned down Corax White. Once you’ve practised it a few times, it’s a fairly easy chapter symbol to freehand compared to many others. If this article has inspired you to have a go at painting your own Silver Stars, then I would definitely recommend reading Apologist’s article on insignia and heraldry.

So, there we have it, the mysterious Silver Stars! Are they saviours of mankind or an existential threat to the Imperium? That’s a question I will leave to the reader. In any case, these miniatures were great fun to make and paint, a real palate cleanser from the Flesh Eaters. In fact, now their job on the display board is done, I thought it might be fun to expand these three into a six-man Intercessor squad for games of Kill Team. Otherwise it seems a shame for them to languish in a box somewhere not getting used. So keep an eye out for a few more Silver Stars over the coming months – reporting all sightings to the proper authorities in you sector, of course! And if this has piqued your interest in this enigmatic chapter, then I encourage you to check out Apologist’s excellent blog on the War of the False Primarch project.

Thanks very much for reading today’s post, and please remember if you’re on Instagram, Threads, Twitter/X, Bluesky or Mastodon you can also find me posting my work there.