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I'm working on a See But Dont Be Seen marine list right now (posted in army list section) and I've hit a slight snag.  Marines are huge, bulky hunks of armor: not exactly the sort of shape that screams "sneaky".  On a few I've modeled some painfully amateurish rags that i painted light tan, and by slapping them on normally shiny parts it does look as though the marines have SOME knowledge of blending into the background.  However, my army is also painted almost solid green, and the rags (if frequent enough) will make them look like slightly off and poorly kept Dark Angels.  So, to the point, does anyone know some other ways to make marines that look at least mildly concerned about being spotted?  I'm inexperienced with conversions, and my greenstuff skills are equally untrained, so go easy on me.  If you can, include instructions or how-to's with your ideas.  Most likely, Ill end up practicing my skills with easier ideas and if i get cocky enough, try any more challenging conversions that might get mentioned. It would make assembling this army much more interesting (and make for a much better looking finished product). Thanks in advance.

you can always go the silly route- i'll try and find pics but a friend of mine has each of his marines holding a branch from a tree (made from dryad bits)

This includes some marines "hiding" where they basically put this tiny twig in front of their face. Actually looks quite funny

The simplist way, aside from a camo paintjob (which can be tricky enough) would be to model scenery on their bases and have them skulking around it. Hunching over and walking along a low wall, camped out in some bushes, popping up out of a manhole, anything you can think of to represent infiltrating. You don't have to convert much, though you do need to have the ability to make more advanced bases. The easiest way to do this would be to cut up some CoD walls and use those, or get some aquarium plants and use those if you prefer a jungle theme.

Well that is a good start, but it does bring up a question: how do you make a marine crouch/skulk/kneel and perform other various acts of sneakiness?  I'm assuming it is as simple as reposturing the legs, but I'm not sure how, and I don't have spare sets laying around to figure it out with.  As for the scenery, my only issue is that certain sceneries (for example, trees) will look ridiculous on certain tables (like a city field).  BUT, some simple obstacles like sandbags and stone walls are universal enough that I can play around with it.  So anyway, yeah, how do you sneakify the oh so rigidly upright marines?

I always figured marines wouldn't be very 'skulky' if you catch my drift. My idea of a jungle type stealth marine actually comes from jungle camouflaged tanks more than troops. What you do is look at some old vietnam and WWII tanks and you'll see them just covered with nets with fake leaves colored brown and green.

If I were making a jungle like stealth marine army I would do that. Find a way to either buy or just make tiny nets and buts of tapastry maybe, and cover them in it. Have it hanging over shoulderpads, out of the bottoms. Use them as loincloths and overtop their helmets and such. The best way to blend in with nature is to just be sloppy basically, because natures sloppy but marines are not.

Other than that I guess paint camo if you can, or if not, just paint green marking across their faces like jungle commandos.

Other than that, I dont really know.

To a mouse, people probably aren't very sneaky, but we give our soldiers camouflage and teach them how to infiltrate battlefields...

It's all relative. Besides, as big as a marine may be, there's always a rock that's bigger to hide behind.

Just use camo, or black armour that's matte coated to remove any shine. Primary concerns are breaking up the silhouette and removing things that might glint in the light, giving away your position.

 

*Marines in gilly suits : some netting with strips of cloth to break up the outline. Japanese marines had a poorer version of it in WWII. Here's a bad copy:

*also, you can model bases with terrain piled up and just a bolter barrel sticking out. A comrade did that for his infiltrating Tau and it worked very well.

well i gess i'lrun my 2 bits up the flag pole and lets see hwo slutes it. buy the new DA vetren squad paint the robes camo so its like a paunco or camo neting looted from IG tanks

pleas note (as silly as it sounds) the new digital camo works better then the rest of the stiles. idont expect you to even try to pant somthing like this im just put ing it out there

some thing diffrent migte be that they have some sourt of color changing armor based on the data its fed by the marine. sadly i have no idea as to how to modle it

ooh what if there just realy good at hideing!!!

4" Wide First Aid Gauze is your friend. Cut off a few inches, bunch it up a bit, and paint it with some PVA. When it dries, you can fold it over, and cut a hole for the head with a hobby knife. Put it on the model, position it how you want, and add a second coat of PVA.

Now you can very easily paint it for your camo scheme that you want. I recommend doing some internet image searches for "pattern breaker" designs. They don't so much blend in, as make it hard to tell what it is, might work better for marines.

Best part is, that the gauze is so cheap if the first (or second or third) doesn't turn out, you can toss it.

You can use the same technique for camo cloaks, ghillie suits, camo netting on vehicles, even some army specific terrain, and have a very unified look.

Good suggestion.

"Camouflage is the color of fear"

Gilly suits are only to be used by snipers, they are great camouflage lying down, but less is more goes for a standard infantryman.

The best excuse for not camouflaging marines, except with cameleoline cloaks, is that they dont know where they will be sent next, and with how little notice. One day they are fighting in a forest, the next the Thunderhawk drops them off on an ice field.

Hey,

"marines that look at least mildly concerned about being spotted?  I'm inexperienced with conversions"

Easy - just use some bitsbox fobs to model Space Ghost 'Rolexes' on each Marine's wrist.

Bling! Imperial holofield projectors that also show the Lunar phase as seen over Cairo.

In the words of the first Predator "Don't leave the Dropship without it!"


Playa

Ok, so here's what I've done.  The chapter colors are green and white (white helmets, knees, and background behind chapter emblem on one shoulder).  Since marines don't change their paint jobs every other fight, instead, i did go with the added-camo approach.  What i found, thanks to the good advice here, is a pattern breaker urban camouflage scheme (which works surprisingly well) that i paint over lots of greenstuff rags, cloaks, etc.  So, the armor stays the same, but they have the good sense to cover up when it helps.  On top of that, gray scale camouflage also works well with some mildly important background fluff for the chapter: boggy/swampy homeworld and a penchant for smoke screens.  The only problem here is the command squad and commander (which also have infiltration) are not only un-camouflaged, but have big shiny look-how-important-we-are gold bitz too, since i made them well before i even drew up a army list (whoops).  Maybe the centuries of experience is enough to make up for the handicap....

As for the Medical Gauss idea, I love it, but it seems like it would make soldier sized models too rough/undefined. Granted this is the point of camouflage, but Im trying to walk the line between   Instead, Im planning on using it for a camo-netting whenever i get around to building the Predator for the army.

So far, the camo effect looks awesome, and despite the fact you can still SEE the marine, it really does confuse the eyes at a glance (accept for the big white helmets and shoulders...).  it doesn't even cover much of the model either, just a shoulder or the backpack or across a leg and POOF, stealthy marine...who knew?  it should look even better once i base the models, considering they'll actually have something to blend in with then.  
Thanks much for all the help and any to come!

P.S: My greenstuff skills are still pretty noobish, does anyone have a how-to for modeling hoods/rags/robes/capes they'd recommend?  The only thing making mine look decent is the eye-boggling camo.

again i point to the new DA vetrens set it comes with 4 hooded heads and 4 robed bodies (i also sujest this set to all who think SMs are bald)