u/arramzy

So as per imperial armour volume 10

Besides the official command chain, there sit the unofficial links of respect and tradition; the wisdom of the chapter's Venerable Dreadnoughts and their Techmarines, who group themselves together as the "Chamber Ferrum." The Chamber Ferrum not only advises the War Clan leaders, it keeps direct control over essential chapter resources such as the forges and apothecarion. This ensures chapter unity in focus, philosophy and materiel.

So as I read it and understood from other blurbs and wikis the apothecaries for the Sons of Medusa are under the command of the Chamber Ferrum, the Techmarines, basically they have a supercharged Armoury part of chapter command, not only that, but if they maintain the Iron Father rank the Iron Hands have, combining the roles of the Chaplain and Techmarine (Which seems reasonable to me), this body would effectively control the Armoury, Apothecarion, and Reclusiam of the chapter.

Now we know how the Iron Fathers look because of the Iron hands, but I'm interested in the idea of the Techmarines/Apothercary combination.

How would you depict this (if at all)?

Would you change anything about the symbols or color schemes they use?

I personally think the Chapter command through the Chamber Ferrum and Iron Thanes are some of the most interesting snippets of SoM lore we have. Have any of you guys played around with the concept?

I've recently started my Sons of Medusa army with a first test model for the Desert World Support Squad color scheme (2nd image).

I love this scheme, I think it looks awesome and I want a lot of them in my army (though I'll paint up some regular SoM too), but I want to do so in a lore sensible way (I hesitate to say lore accurate as things change and some sources contradict)

I think it is reasonable to include the DWSS as the entire 9th company of the Lachesis War Clan because:
The 9th company is part of Lachesis, in Codex Compliant chapters 9th Company is the Fire Support Reserve and Fire Support includes Eradicators, Devastators, Eliminators etc. Which lines up with the rules for the DWSS in the 2005 Campaing Weekends for the Badab War (4th image). Aside from that in the Imperial Armour Volume Ten Lachesis is described as using a Silver-Steel trim (same as the old Badab War DWSS depiction) which in more recent work has been changed to a dull gold (which, if we're thinking camo would make slightly more sense than silver on a desert world). As far as I could find each clan has one Battle Company, one Tactical Company, one Support Company (composed of Devastator, Assault and Veteran Squads) The standard Fire Support part of the usual 9th companies probably fall within the Devastator part of that lineup.

Assuming it is the entire 9th company has the advantage of also having a Captain, Chaplain, Apothecary, Standard Bearer, Dreadnoughts and Tanks, and because of how the SoM treat their Support Companies also Devastator, Assault and Veteran Squads to paint up in the amazing scheme as well as the ever present Techmarines (aside from the red shoulder pads). Reading it this way would mean that Lachesis wouldn't have regular green coloured terminators as the terminators are typically veteran only and those are part of the Support Company. But I kinda like that, I can always paint up terminators for Mageara or Atropos if I want them green anyway.

But now come my questions:

How would you paint up a librarian tagging along, as librarians aren't part of the company (I think)? Blue as per the codex? Yellow Desert Camo with a blue shoulder pad? No blue?
Same question but for the apothecary or chaplain, They are actually part of the Company so maybe it'd make more sense for them to deviate from their codex colours than it would for a librarian.
How to denote the ranks with their helmets? Codex says Sargeants Red, Veterans White, Lieutenant Red+White but that feels out of place here, but I'd imagine it would still be visible somehow. This actually also goes for the regular SoM because they already have white helmets as their base kit (I suppose maybe that is just flexing on other chapters that they're all veterans, but I assume people have ways to paint up helmets to indicate the different ranks)
Silver Aquilla and accents or dull gold? I'm a bit torn as I think dull gold might look better as camo and fits with my choice to include them as part of Lachesis, but silver is what is used in the old Badab War DWSS depiction which is the whole inspiration for this scheme to begin with.
Does my general reasoning make any sense? Have I missed anything lore wise?

Chamber Ferrum and Apothecaries

Lore Sensibe Desert World Support Squad