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Poll
which color scheme should I use?
Option 1 (vertical split colors)
Option 2 (horizontal split colors, grey on top)
Option 3 (horizontal split colors, teal on top)
Split the Schemes between shooty and choppy

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Made in us
Screamin' Stormboy






first things first: I'm unsure if this kind of post goes here, or if it belongs in the P&M section.

Hey All,

I've been developing the background or a Space Marine Chapter and am stuck on which variation of the color scheme I've come up with so far to use.
long story short so you get an Idea of why the colors are what they are: the chapter operates on the basis that each marine is shooty or choppy with VERY little in between and live on an Ocean planet. both to represent the shooty/choppy nature of combat and of the stormy/ calm nature of their planet, they paint themselves half grey and half teal. i'm just struggling with how the colors are divided, and whether or not two separations of the colors should be used to represent each group of the chapter.

thanks for the help!
[Thumb - Stalking Krakens 1.jpg]
option 1, the first idea I had for them, this would probably be the one I chose if I went for a single scheme throughout.

[Thumb - Stalking Krakens 2.jpg]
Option 2, If i decided on separate shooty/choppy colors, this would be choppy

[Thumb - Stalking Krakens 3.jpg]
Option 3, these would be shooty dudes if I split the groups.


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Made in us
Powerful Phoenix Lord





Dallas area, TX

I am not a big fan of having 4 main colors on the same model like that, but if I had to choose, it would have to be the vertical split. the Horizontally split models just look like the Marine put on the wrong pants when he got up in the morning.

As for the colors, why the cream and red? Why not keep the split, but on the tiel & cream side make the cream color grey and on the grey and red side, make the red teal?

   
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I agree with Galef. A horizontal split has a tendency to look like the Marine has mismatched gear. The vertical split has a lot of precedence in existing successor chapters, too.

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England

The grey and red pair well, as do the black and grey.

However, four colours like that just seems too much. I would humbly suggest a vertical teal/grey split. Then perhaps use bone for one shoulder pad with the chapter symbol in the red.

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Made in us
Screamin' Stormboy






Thank you for the feedback. The "wrong pants" comment helped me see what you were getting at, lol.
Honestly, i wasn't trying to go for 4 main colors, just to remind myseld the red and bone were highlight colors.
Here's a more basic version of the scheme without the business of the highlight colors (as souleater suggested)
[Thumb - spacemarine.jpg]


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Powerful Phoenix Lord





Dallas area, TX

That's much better.

   
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The Dog-house

If you made the top a darker gray-blue and the bottom a little whiter, they could look like Great white sharks

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England

As a general rule, what might look good on an army painter program might not translate well to the tabletop. You may not enjoy painting that many colours repeatedly, and that's when it stops being a hobby and becomes a chore. All I can say is test it out on a single test figure, and then decide if you want to go for that scheme, or pick a different one.

I'd also say that less complex colour schemes can look more effective than a more complex scheme. For example, there may be too much going on the model for it to look effective, whereas if you just did the grey and red like you did on the right side of the Marine it would look a lot better, and you'll probably get through them quicker too.

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Canada

You could try more like the howling griffons and do an alternate quarter split if you want to stick with your present colour scheme.

BUT

I would suggest using the colour wheel: a "split complimentary" might work.

Main colours are "blue-green" (Teal) and "yellow green" (Chartreuse) with the direct complimentary colour of plain old "red" used for the shoulder pads, gun and purity seals.
I promise the model will look more balanced.
Since the colours are somewhat complimentary, you will not have the "wearing the wrong gear" quite so much but the split down the middle seems to work.

I honestly think this will better reflect the land and sea aspect you are trying to portray.

Since the main colours bracket "green" it still has a bit of a military camouflage feel to it.

You could always have their motto: "Q: What do you offer the sea and the land? A: The blood of life."

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2016/10/26 21:07:26


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At the risk of sounding like a party pooper, I'm not sure there's enough tonal contrast between the teal/green and the grey. of course, it's hard to tell for sure without seeing it with the actual paints.
   
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Florida

 Nazrak wrote:
At the risk of sounding like a party pooper, I'm not sure there's enough tonal contrast between the teal/green and the grey. of course, it's hard to tell for sure without seeing it with the actual paints.


I have to agree here. You need more contrast. I think white and teal split would look good.

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A lot of this just depends upon how good you are at painting. As someone who's not particularly good at painting, here are my thoughts:

The vertical split is going to be difficult to do. It's going to be difficult to get an exactly straight line down the center of your space marine's body. At least, it would be difficult for me to do.

It's a lot easier to give colors to different parts than painting the same part in different colors.

But then, you might just be a much better painter than I am (which isn't hard to accomplish).

   
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I think it would look spectacular as a checker-board scheme rather than a split down the middle. Just food for thought.
   
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Just the Bare Metal






Australia

If you wanted to go top and bottom but without the wrong pants feel you could try something like the Imperial Castellans



--Gallery:2016/10/29/835674_sm.jpg--
[Thumb - castellan.jpg]

This message was edited 3 times. Last update was at 2016/10/31 08:54:02


 
   
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Mutating Changebringer





New Hampshire, USA

You could always make it a quartered pattern.

This is a friend of mines. He painted it in 12 hours from start to finish.


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Sioux Falls, SD

Honestly, I would get one of the $10 kits of 3 snap-fit marines and paint one of them up as the color scheme you are leaning toward. Then imagine painting two hundred of those. That is why I didn't choose Novamarines and chose the much-easier-to-paint Crimson Fists (ended up liking the fluff better too, otherwise I probably would have went with Dark Hunters because their rules are a lot better).

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England

I second the idea of grabbing some snap-fit or using spare marines as test models.

The half-and-half scheme looks better IMO.

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