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Hello - I'm just getting back into the hobby and decided to run space marines in addition to my existing necrons (the new boxset pulled me in) - and would appreciate some help with my schemes

Spacemarines first as they've got a convenient colour painter - image attached.

I like the look of imperial fists, ravenguard, black templars and blood angels from a rules and playstyle perspective but wanted something a little more colourful. I was primarily thinking around the yellow / green / black / orange as a primary and i pulled together this orange one based partially off the blood ravens.

Feedback for this is - do you think it would look good and will it be particularly hard to paint?

Also any other ideas for schemes that would fit with the chapters above and using the colours i've listed would be appreciated.

I'll do the necrons in another post so as not to confuse myself

Thanks for the help.

I quite like it, but whether or not you'll be able to pull it off (and more importantly, enjoy painting them) depends a bit on your experience. If you haven't really painted that much before, orange or yellow can be really frustrating to paint. I think the new contrast paints have remedied this a little, but I haven't used them so I'm not so sure. But if you feel confident painting that much orange, then absolutely go for it. My only criticism would be the two kneepads, I personally think it would look better if you picked black or white and leave the other one orange.

Welcome to Dakka and the hobby.

Successor chapters can be in any color, and don’t need to call back to their founding chapter. You can paint orange and play with any rules.

My only experience with orange paints is that they don’t cover well, but that’s a couple decades out of date. Might be able to get a good base paint that covers.

It looks like that scheme would be fairly simple to paint. Basecoat tan, cover the non-tan bits orange, black and details. Done.

Painting experience wise i'm a novice but i'm decently capable, just a little slow... having said that I am a little concerned about the orange - i intend to do quite a bit of research on the paints before to make sure its possible to coat evenly and i'll do a test marine before i start the production line. Current plan is a neutral basecoat (white) followed by 2 coats of troll slayer orange, 1 coat of fuegan orange and finally highlight with kindleflame.

Agreed on the knee pads - i'll go black i think.

Thanks both.

I'll share a picture when i do the test marine

You will be able to get a nice orange, it just might take time and effort to achieve it consistently, which could be a challenge for a complete beginner. Personally, I find all over orange like that a little garish. I prefer orange as an accent colour. I would maybe inverse the 2 tones that you have.

I think its a fine line - i don't want it to be too garish - i tried inverting the colours but i think it ends up being a little generic and honestly, if i'm going that black i'd sooner user a red or white accent over the orange. I think you are right though i'd like to mute the orange slightly, perhaps look at a more 50/50 mix but i'm not sure how to do that without it both being a pain to paint and potentially looking a little disjointed.

i want to avoid things like 50/50 vertical splits as getting the line straight might be problematic but open to other ideas to increase the amount of black - thought about doing a chest/ legs split.

Slightly more black

One thing to consider is weathering. A brighter orange is going to be toned down a lot once you apply the grunge of the battlefield. But if you are doing parade ground clean, you are going to proudly show your heraldric colors for all to see.

I actually use this scheme for my own marines. I wanted something that was quick to paint, and gritty.

If you have an airbrush orange isn't too bad at all. Start with a base of deep red or brown and then the orange goes on easy. I'd also recommend leaving the shoulder pads off and painting them separately.

For the grime I used AK interactive Streaking Grime and some sponge chipping. Streaking Grime hides all manner of sins and is really quick and easy to use.

The armour is just a deep red, orange coat, grime pass and then a patchy highlight.

The shoulder pads are flat bone with a grime pass and that's it.

I have mine hit with a matt varnish because I prefer the more muted tones. If you use a gloss or satin varnish you'll get much more vibrant colours

I actually started out wanting to paint Imperial Fists, but after a test model and the yellow breaking my heart I decided it wasn't worth the effort, and wouldn't be quick like I wanted. Blood Ravens were my next idea, but I realised I didn't want to be tied down to a defined chapter, and so the "Solar Ravens" were born.

Thanks for that picture eased my concerns quite a lot. I don't have an airbrush but i'm thinking i can probably make do. Once i get to it i might come back and ask you for some tips but the models look good.

I was originally going to go imperial fists as i really like the yellow but similarly i didn't like tieing myself too hard to a chapter.

I might change my mind in the time between the models arriving but for now that looks like a good place to start and to paint up a test marine.

Nice scheme!

I have found orange to be a difficult color to paint but I've had a fair bit of success with the gryph-hound orange contrast paint. Not the cheapest method, but quick and doesn't require an airbrush.