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Hi all

I've been looking through the painting forums, and there are some amazingly painted and weathered SM vehicles, but it just doesn't seem 'right' to me lol.

Here we go (deep breath)...

I remember reading some GW fluff years ago saying that, in most cases, SM are used for 'surgical strikes' - maybe in theatre for a matter of weeks, as opposed to the IG who can be in theatre for years or decades, although there are exceptions (Armageddon etc).

SM are so proud of their chapter colours, refusing to hide them or to wear camouflage, so I have always thought they would have made planetfall with pristine armour and vehicles, and although they will get muddy and battle damaged, carry out the battle as required, then back up to the battle barge for the techmarines to restore the paintwork and appease the machine spirit but they wouldn't show the rust shown on some vehicles.

I'm not slating painters for showing weathering and rust on their vehicles, some could have been on extended patrols etc, but to me, SM vehicles should be bright and shiny.

Rant over. lol

Well how nice is your 10,000 year old car. Most of the stuff is so old, it likely takes all there down time keeping them running. That the paint jobs is the least of there worries.

You'd be surprised how fast something gets muddy and scraped up driving across muddy fields with shells exploding around you.

Short of being safely aboard the battle barge, SM vehicles should show signs of use. Paint chips easily, and 50 ton metal boxes on tracks get muddy.

There is NEVER such a thing as "too dirty."

It's not the mud and scrapes I'm talking about, it's the rust and bits hanging off.

And precisely because they are 10,000 years old that they are treated with utmost reverence and chapter colours kept looking their best.

There was some fluff when the original Space Hulk came out about some termie armour that was given to a different chapter and the artificers painted it in the new chapter colours but it failed the marines who wore it until the new paint was removed.

If the spirit of termie armour reacts like that, how will a machine spirit react if it's allowed to go rusty?

It's just personal taste. I know two very good painters who are on complete opposite ends of the spectrum of this very debate.

One likes the bright/clean/even cartoony stuff, the other likes a more realistic weathered look.

I say you paid for them, paint them however you want.

I don't have much of an opinion on rust and bits, but I like a bit of mud/scrapes on my models myself. Especially my vehicles

My whirlwind has mud splatters all around the tracks and a big splatter of blood on the front. Doesn't make much sense considering they fire long range missiles, but hey, it looks cool.

doc21 wrote:It's not the mud and scrapes I'm talking about, it's the rust and bits hanging off.

And precisely because they are 10,000 years old that they are treated with utmost reverence and chapter colours kept looking their best.

Space Marines are also soldiers. They drive those tanks hard and fast through gakky terrain being shot at my people who want very much to kill them. Paint is going to be chipped, parts are going to be severely damaged, and in the right circumstances rust will appear quickly.

Yes, they like their equipment to look its best and have the utmost reverence for it - at home. When they're in the middle of a fight, they don't have time to tip-toe around mud in fear of getting their armour dirty, and they don't have servitors following them around with cans of paint ready to paint of those chips in their armour.

Now, when they hit the field they will be pretty bright and clean. After even a few days of running through mud, blood and being shot at with explosions all around them, they're not going to look quite so pretty anymore.

They do surgical strikes whenever they can...
All too often they are drawn into prolonged conflicts where they are fighting for weeks at a time.

I can see where doc21 is coming from. The tehcpriests/marines that look after these vehicles would have an absolute fit if there was rust or damage on the vehicles. I play IG so my stuff is pretty worn and weathered and dirty with paint peeling off and such, weathered and wearing thin but rust and obvious damage? Even the Guard would risk the techpriest's ire for that.

Some Chaos marines on the other hand may not have the resources to keep their stuff in good condition.....

Speaking of rust, while we don't know the properties of ceramite and adamantium, leave a single piece of steel one night outside and on the next morning it'll be starting to rust.

A battle that endures more than a single day can cause tanks and armours to rust where the paint was chipped or scrapped.