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They would clean their armour, it is important to do so.

1. Unclean armour could be taken as a sign that the Chapter is sliding towards heresy. The =I= would certainly think so.

2. Unclean armour causes infected wounds, whatever muck was on the outside passes through to the inside if the armour is breached.

3. Unclean armour will cross contaminate different places you visit. Some things *MUST* be cleaned off namely:
ork spores
any chaos tainted filth, especially Nurgle tainted filth
all Tyranid body fluids.

The Imperium does know about cross contamination.



However your chapter neded to restore armiour to a pristine state. If armour is clawed by a beast, clean off the remains and wash out the claw marks, but the claw marks could remain once sealed.

You could have burn marks from energy and flamer weapons on your armour. The armour is cleaned, but the scorch marks are not painted over.

The staining of old use remains, the armour could be cleaned, and disinfected when necessary, but not given any stain remover. A bit like doing your washing with cheap powder and no fabric conditioner. Your clothes are now clean and good to wear, but are not restored to whiteness. Mud would go but patina and tarnish would not, besides fresh mud would acrue quickly enough. Large cracks and holes would need to be filled, but not finished.

It would be all too east for a chapter to maintain and clean its armour, and still come to the next battle looking worn and dirty. You just ignore the extra polishing and buffing procedures other chapters do. Most chapters go for a 'showroom' look, possible because they operate from large mobile bases. Your chapter instantly cuts a difference without bothering with that, this would not mean the armour is filthy, nor would it mean the armour is in poor state of repair.

TO WEAR SACKCLOTH AND ASHES - "To be contrite, penitent or chagrined over something one has done. It was an ancient Hebrew custom to wear sackcloth dusted with or accompanied by ashes as a sign of humbleness in religious ceremonies." From "The Dictionary of Cliches" by James Rogers (Ballantine Books, New York, 1985).

Perhaps verdigris armor is the marine eqivalent of sackcloth and ashes. Call them the Penitent Sons.

Don't listen to the naysayers. The 40k universe is broader than the narrow minds of the background facists. It is found that a good paint job and well executed modeling go a long way towards bridgeing the background gaps.

Who would have everthought that the =I= would have ever intentionally have destroyed a loyal marine chapter? See also the Celestial Lions.

And maybe they just maintain the verdigris as the color of their chapter. I mean, all you need is the thinnest layers of copper atop your ceramite armor to get that nice color.

How about making the Chapter one of the Unforgiven Progeny ?

Something along the lines of

" As [long as] the honour of our forebears remains tarnished, so too are we. Let those who gaze upon us see the stain of that dishonour, that they may know... ...WE WILL NOT FAIL ! "

The armor could be recovered from a sacred battle where many battle brothers fell many years ago. Cleaning the blood and rust off the armor would be against the beliefs of the chapter as they would refuse to wash the stains off their armor or properly repair them until the previous wearers were avenged. So every marine would be wearing a constant reminder of a wrong that needs to be righted.

In the movie Drunken Monkey the main character was thought to be mute until he came across the man who killed his father and told him he was going to kill him, or something like that I might be thinking of a different movie. Any way the man made a vow of silence until he found the man he intend to kill so he could explain why to him why he was going to die. Perhaps the marines are doing something similar.

Best I could think of

Hey guys, here is a link to the finished army:

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/216665.page#358257

Thanks so much for all the input you gave me! It helped a lot.

You could always give it some sort of symbolic significance, like the grime and blood and gunk somehow containing their battles and experiences, and cleaning it away would be like cutting off your nads or something.

...just a thought.

If they don't wash or otherwise maintain their equipment then it is likely to fail them when they need it most.

However, maybe they paint and otherwise decorate their gear in such a way as to mimic rust etc to commemorate a great battle.

Maybe they failed to save a planet they had pledged to protect. Why they failed could be that the planet was cut off, maybe communications were lost, whatever.
When they arrive they find the rusted remains of a broken world.

In penance they make their armour and weapons look rusted and blasted until the day comes when they have made up for their failure. Until then they cannot have clean looking stuff and even the ceremonial cape of the Chapter Master must be replaced by a worn dirty one until the time of repentance is over.