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Why do some Space Marine chapters have terminators and some other specialised troops with white helmets?
I am painting up some bikes at the moment, would they have white helmets seeing as they are not your run of the mill trooper?

White helmets usually indicate veteran status.

What about White Scars? Their Apothecaries are red... but red helmets mean it's a Sargeant...

Sam__theRelentless wrote:What about White Scars? Their Apothecaries are red... but red helmets mean it's a Sargeant...

Not every chapter is the same when it comes to insignia and rank denotation.

I've never seen anything about the Why's in 3 generation of Codex.

I guess you can give any of them white helmets then? I wondered if there was strict rules.

The latest edition of the Space Marine Codex, page 21. Most common way of doing things is thus: Red helmet indicates a sergeant. Veteran status is either indicated by a white laurel on a standard helmet, or a white helmet with a standard color laurel. Hope this helps.

because it refers to veterancy and rank. And it differs from different chapters, and since there are a lot of chapter you get differences

Barrington wrote:Why do some Space Marine chapters have terminators and some other specialised troops with white helmets?

To be shot easily.

haha yeah i had thought of that aswell. Lets not start on the guys with no helmet on!

thenoobbomb wrote:

Barrington wrote:Why do some Space Marine chapters have terminators and some other specialised troops with white helmets?

To be shot easily.

That doesn't exactly work when the entirety of the squad is wearing a white helmet.

Under the way the Codex Astartes was organized, every member of a Veteran Company wears a white helmet.

Sergeants can choose to have a red stripe down the center(for identification purposes during combat, so the troops know who to look for) or just stick with the plain white helmet.

its just that white is a traditional way of marking veteran status.

most chapter colors also contrast with white(or red) so its a good stand out.



My chapter is slightly different.

basic color is Codex Grey with silver trim.

Veterans wear Black armor with Silver helmets(Veterans are called Silver Helms) its actually quite striking.

Grey Templar wrote:its just that white is a traditional way of marking veteran status.

most chapter colors also contrast with white(or red) so its a good stand out.



My chapter is slightly different.

basic color is Codex Grey with silver trim.

Veterans wear Black armor with Silver helmets(Veterans are called Silver Helms) its actually quite striking.

Lol Silver Helms..... High Elves in WHFB lol.

Yes the white helmets represeant veterency and if the marine is in the 1st company or not.

Its quite intimidating having jet black armor with a silver face with glowing red eyes coming at you. I havn't checked, but i might have a complete 1st company.

yeah but how do you mark a vet. when they all hace centuries of warfare?

white helmets is one of the codex astartes schemes.
> insignium astartes ( colors and markings following the codex )
> space marine hobby compendium / page 94,95 ( examples of markings for all the chapters )
non-codex or only partially codex adherent chapters may mark vets totally different.

In heraldry, white is silver, and yellow is gold. So Grey Templars choice of silver is following the codices suggestion of white.
Otoh, the BA and yellow and gold marking different dutys is a bit wierd.

Veterans may have :
- different helmet color/design
- different shoulderpad markings
- older marks of armor or artificer armor
- additional bling, related to the chapters name like wings, heads of mystical creatures, etc

Because they are better than purple helmets...

The full skinny on the colors and markings for ranks was given waaaaaaaaay back in the 2nd Edition Space Marine Codex (or was it called 'Codex Ultramarines'? Can't remember...). There was a breakdown of each company, how many squads in each, and what type they were, how many dreadnaughts, predators, etc. Also listed the company colors and where they should be represented on a model. They stated that since white was the color of the veteran company, white was used to denote veteran status, accross all companies. So sargeant had red helmets, unless they were veteran sargeants (an upgrade that is no longer available) then they would have red helmets with white vertical stripes. First company had all white helmets, though sargeants could have a vertical red stripe to denote rank. Terminators, being first company only, would have white helmets. And so on and so forth, but only for Codex Chapters. Blood Angels, Dark Angels, and Space Wolves (and the other divergent Chapters that never got their own codexes) have their own way of denoting veteran/rank status.

Some of this fluff has recently made it way back into the current crop of codexes, but not in as much detail as the 2nd edition books.

Shows experience and veteran status

squidhills wrote:The full skinny on the colors and markings for ranks was given waaaaaaaaay back in the 2nd Edition Space Marine Codex (or was it called 'Codex Ultramarines'? Can't remember...). There was a breakdown of each company, how many squads in each, and what type they were, how many dreadnaughts, predators, etc. Also listed the company colors and where they should be represented on a model. They stated that since white was the color of the veteran company, white was used to denote veteran status, accross all companies. So sargeant had red helmets, unless they were veteran sargeants (an upgrade that is no longer available) then they would have red helmets with white vertical stripes. First company had all white helmets, though sargeants could have a vertical red stripe to denote rank. Terminators, being first company only, would have white helmets. And so on and so forth, but only for Codex Chapters. Blood Angels, Dark Angels, and Space Wolves (and the other divergent Chapters that never got their own codexes) have their own way of denoting veteran/rank status.

Some of this fluff has recently made it way back into the current crop of codexes, but not in as much detail as the 2nd edition books.

5th edition codex has the same info if you use a legal copy and not a pirated point cost download. Look to the front of the book.