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So I've been thinking and doing all these Google searches for a few weeks to come up with a cool colour scheme for my CSM. My main idea was to create my own warband instead of an existing warband or legion.

Eventually I thought I settled for a red on black colour scheme -- I was aiming at the feel of red fire emerging from darkness; I thought that my marines could be dark, but at the same time somewhat about passion and rebellion against the Empire... Also, I thought it would be cool to avoid the bling of gold and silver which is in every other Chaos colour scheme.

I painted a test model and I was pretty happy with it, but then I put it in line with some of my older models, and the colour scheme kinda lost its appeal to me. Even the most ineptly painted, bulky Warzone miniatures felt more distinctive from arm's length with their vivid colours than my dark and dingy marine, despite his highlights and whatnot.

So, I was wondering:

-is there a way to make the fire scheme cool? I thought that one way could be far stronger highlights, something like the Other army in this GMM Studios post - but then I would be close to painting a very uniform army, with all the details in the same colours, and that seems like a boring thing to do.

-maybe it would be better to try with a completely new scheme? I'm still impressed by the "Jodorowsky's >Dune<" I recently watched, so I think a lot about Giger's and Moebius's designs and the trippy aesthetics of the 60's - Giger's art, though, is almost monochromatic (on miniatures, would his feel work with bronze or with shades of brown, tan, and bone with black and red elements for contrast?), and I'm not sure if there's a way to fit the other two to Chaos - to me, they seem very Eldar.

Would you have any advice for me?

The ones I did I based with Mephiston Red, then highlighted the shoulderpads with black, painting the helmet and kneepads black, then I super lightly drybrushed the red with black to darken it up. I lightly drybrushed the helmet with the red again to keep it from being straight black then washed the whole thing with the crimson wash from citadel.

The outcome was a darkened maroon model with a dark scheme. I really liked how they came out. Just another option.

Thanks, RJCarrot! In the end, though, I watched some colour Giger paintings (this was the first time I realized he did something in colour!) and tried a different technique - I started with black undercoat and highlighted the armour and trim using red glazes. Then I put some yellow and white on the armour trim, creating a kind of second undercoat, and painted over it with glazes of red and red ink. Looks pretty nice - the reds are visible at last! I will paint one more marine and I will post some photos.

I remember this thread having happened before. Someone else came on here asking if red and black was too cliche for his custom warband.

mabye make the orange pop out more, its to bland right now IMO and the details in the armour dont stand out, so on the arm the orange/gold peaice blends with the black, it would look better IMO to pop it out more

Quarterdime wrote:I remember this thread having happened before. Someone else came on here asking if red and black was too cliche for his custom warband.

I'd like to read this thread! I couldn't find it, though. Black and red is for sure an obvious scheme for CSM, and while it would be nice to have a distinctive warband, almost any cool colour schemes are already taken, and few feel as right as black and red. Still, I'm coming up with new schemes once in a while (the last one: black highlighted to blue with red trim and yellow zigzag patterns, with metal detailing and heavy weathering), and if you've got any ideas to share, you're welcome!

the_valeyard6: I think i fixed this a bit in the last two marines - and the orange is ditched now, I still wonder if I want it back.

And below: my marines # 2 and 3! I'm kind of more into the #3 (on the right) - the blue details seem to me at best very Tzeentchy (Tzeentchian?), and at worst, very much resembling something build of Lego bricks.