Sammael Riding into Battle on His Skimmer — Print & Oil Painting

The prow is the picture. A great black wing spreads across the entire lower half of the frame, feathered in relief and edged in bronze, with four amber lamps burning along its face and armoured panelling stacked behind it. Whatever it is bolted to stays mostly hidden, which is what a prow is for.

The rider sits well back on the machine and leans into the direction of travel. Green shoulder plate, a cream cloak streaming out behind, a bone-coloured hood, a sword held up and back in the right hand at the very top of the frame. His head is turned to look along the line the craft is taking rather than out at us, which is a small decision that does a lot for the sense of speed.

Everything behind him is combustion. Grey-white smoke banked on the left, orange fire on the right, a black wall of it across the top, and enough soft edges everywhere that the only crisp shapes in the picture belong to the machine.

The Ravenwing is the Chapter's pursuit arm, mounted entirely on bikes, skimmers and aircraft, and its Grand Master rides at the head of it. Sammael is the three hundred and forty-eighth marine to hold that post, and the vehicles he uses are named, maintained and older than most of the warriors around him. Speed is not a preference in that formation, it is the entire doctrine: find, fix, and be gone again before anything heavy can be brought to bear. Part of our Warhammer 40.000 collection, beside the same commander in ornate golden Terminator armor.