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I recently started painting an IG Guardsman squad. I decided the base colors would be black with red trim and gold detailing on most of the metal parts, but for some reason when I had my veteran painter friend take a look at it to see what he thought he was adamant that any sort of gold whatsoever on an Imperial Guard army was practically heresy. Now I'm not trying to match a fluff army, I just thought the scheme looked cool, but am I missing something here in the fluff pertaining to gold colors on IG? All I painted gold was the lasgun barrel tip, the aquila, the lasgun 'clip,' and a few little minute details on the belt, but still... Is there some special regiment that uses gold color or something?

Vostroyan First Born.

Space Russians... I knew I was forgetting a regiment style somewhere. Are they really supposed to be the only ones with a gold scheme?

Nothing in the codex about no gold. Can't remember seeing/reading anything in fluff anywhere saying that.

You could put gold on anything, but make things reasonable.

How many thousands of souls are sacrificed every day to the Astronomican? How many billions of soldiers are conscripted each day? The IG isn't known for being reasonable when it comes to moderation. That being said laughingly, in all seriousness I won't overdo it. About the closest thing to excess would be the bayonet. On my prototype guardsman I did the bayonet on his lasgun gold also but I think it looks okay. A bit odd from some angles, but still fine. On the topic of possible taboos of the IG... I've never come across any sort of black/African-American Guardsman. Ever. But I really am tempted to model a sergeant after the sergeants from Aliens, Predator, and of course Sergeant Johnson. The IG are space racists to an extent but it's justified. Why haven't I seen any non-European looking guards before?

Yipyioh wrote:How many thousands of souls are sacrificed every day to the Astronomican? How many billions of soldiers are conscripted each day? The IG isn't known for being reasonable when it comes to moderation. That being said laughingly, in all seriousness I won't overdo it. About the closest thing to excess would be the bayonet. On my prototype guardsman I did the bayonet on his lasgun gold also but I think it looks okay. A bit odd from some angles, but still fine. On the topic of possible taboos of the IG... I've never come across any sort of black/African-American Guardsman. Ever. But I really am tempted to model a sergeant after the sergeants from Aliens, Predator, and of course Sergeant Johnson. The IG are space racists to an extent but it's justified. Why haven't I seen any non-European looking guards before?

Tallarn Desert raiders have a middle Eastern guy

Right, one line of middle eastern-style desert fighters with their captain. My main question was would I get kicked out of my local game if we had a few fluff-lawyers and I showed up with a few guard sergeants that looks like Carl Weathers from the 80's?

Of course not, the Imperial Guard do not care about skin color, they only care if you can fight. That said, it is just that some people imangine themselves as guardsmen, others find some skin tones hard to paint, and also at the time 40k was thought of, most of the gamers and early GW were caucasian and imangined themselves as stated above.

There used to be a colour called Forgeworld Bronze. It appeared in the old Epic rulebook: Armies of the Imperium. The colour was meant to be used on planets with high radiation exposure, slag wastes and Forgeworlds.

From what I remember, it was mixed up using a combination of Brazen Brass and Shining Gold.

Yipyioh wrote: Why haven't I seen any non-European looking guards before?

It's been covered before.
The game is written by some pasty-skinned Englishmen.
The game is mostly played by pasty-skinned whiteboys.

It's not that they were deliberately left out. It's just that caucasians don't generally think of it.

um... i dont think the color you paint your army matters. paint it gold pink and more gold if you want. its YOUR army. and who the heck cares what color they are? as long as its (3 i think? - so pink gold and green) colors and based tournaments won't have issue either.

1) Doesn't necessarily have to be gold (Au). It's in space. It could be a heretofore undiscovered element.

2) The regiment could be from a planet where gold is as common as, say, iron.

3) Your friend kinda sounds like a jerk. They're your dollies, you can paint them however you want.

I agree wholeheartedly with your right to use whatever colour scheme you wish.

But even if gold were as common as iron it'd make for naff bayonets

And griping about the aquilas?! It's the symbol of your Imperium soldier, you wear it with pride. Army cap badges are gold (coloured), cite precedence!

First of all, you paid for the models, so you should paint them how you want. Paint them as Rainbow Guard if you want. Second, anyone protesting against non-white skin tones in an army is talking nonsense. I have some black soldiers in my Guard army - I do find it difficult to paint darker tones convincingly but there are plenty of guides online. Finally, it's interesting to see someone else talking about a gold colour scheme, as I'm thinking of trying that with my Orks. Would you consider posting some pictures of your painted models?

DakkaDakka wrote:

Fezman wrote:First of all, you paid for the models, so you should paint them how you want. Paint them as Rainbow Guard if you want. Second, anyone protesting against non-white skin tones in an army is talking nonsense. I have some black soldiers in my Guard army - I do find it difficult to paint darker tones convincingly but there are plenty of guides online. Finally, it's interesting to see someone else talking about a gold colour scheme, as I'm thinking of trying that with my Orks. Would you consider posting some pictures of your painted models?

Rainbow Guard... Now I'm getting even more ridiculous ideas. Well, good to see someone thinks out of the box too, both of my local stores have practically no Guard color schemes except the Cadian 8th and it bugs me from time to time.

I hardly have any time to paint whatsoever with all the school work I'm doing but I have nearly finished one model, I just need to paint the face and I literally just started painting (my friends and I use rippy bits of paper to play without models. C for Conscript.) so I only have the colors black, red, and gold and I expect that my painting skills are very very low. I have been looking for opinions and advice on where to go next though, creative detail-wise, so I guess I could post a pic of the one model. I'm an architect, not a painter.

Perhaps get a Lord Solar Macharius to lead the army and add in even more gold then?


Would make sense for most aquillas, unless painted/decals, to be made of some precious metal in my opinion.

Actually, the lasgun parts being gold makes a fair bit of sense, as it would help to prevent overheating. If you had enough gold kicking around to make it financially viable, I see no reason that parts of a lasgun wouldn't be made out of gold. Have to have some nice and strong Guardsmen to heft them around though.

Sorry for low quality. Again it's a work in progress and I'm planning on putting a bit more gold but not sure where. Shoulders definitely, I'm going to mark each guardsman's rank in gold on the shoulder inside the red, so going by American standards one gold chevron for this private. I also wanted to put some on the helmet aside from the aquila.

Perhaps get a Lord Solar Macharius to lead the army and add in even more gold then?

My army (1st Sol Shadowrunners) is going to be an artillery-supported armored regiment with high-cost low-numbers of Guardsman to fill in the gaps between tanks (think WW2 Desert Rats+Patton vs Rommel) so My HQ is no matter what going to be either a Lord Commissar or an Enginseer. I really like cogboys and we threw out the rule of 'vehicles in a unit that are immobilized count as destroyed' because Russes don't carry their promethium in their treads. If immobilized they can just keep fighting. Enginseers are useful now.

Your gonna have to go with Lord Commissar then, since Enginseers aren't HQ choices. I like the colour scheme, and the gold really pops with the black and red... but if I might throw out some suggestions.

1) Clean off your sprue lines before painting, it makes a world of difference.

2) If the metal is meant to be actual gold, as Sattasmassagana said, those bayonets are going to be bendy and rubbish. It might be worth inventing a new metal for it to be, if you're set on keeping the blades that colour.

I don't really figure it's really gold, yeah that did pop into my head too. I figured it was merely decorative with some sort of gold overlay for a purpose like the anti-heat/radiation mentioned above. I'd like to see a guard impale a termagaunt with a gold bayonet and have it bend at an angle on the thing's exoskeleton.

Like I said it was my first go so rather than throwing everything into making the perfect model I just wanted to do nothing but paint a basic color scheme. I don't plan on using this guy, I might keep him as a trophy like a first dollar sort of thing. Once I get the scheme DOWN then I'll start working on slicing and dicing the rest of my models and adding in more bitz and such.

As far as the scheme goes, any additions to detail or anything that could be made? The helmet looks a bit bland to me, but I tried a few different patterns like outlining the ridges and a simple gold or red stripe but I couldn't think anything up. On the back also all I have is the little stripe going from the belt up the armor painted red... I don't have much of a creative mind for painting.

Hmm, I think the helmet will stand out a lot more when the flesh tones are painted. But I would suggest either painting the 'ears' and back thingey red, or a plain red strip down the centre of the helmet, like Cadian conscripts have.

Mould lines aside, that's a striking colourscheme. Though I've always assumed that the Imperium's "gold" is in fact the far-future equivalent of anodised aluminium, the golden bayonet doesn't look quite right; I'd do the blade, and possibly also the lasgun's magazine, in gunmetal or chainmail instead - it helps make a distinction between decorative items which might quite plausibly be anodised (or, if you like gold-plated) and more functional ones.

Also, all of the cutting I was doing was with the blade on a Leatherman Wave, nothing like an Xacto knife or anything. A fairly dull multi-purpose flip-out knife isn't suited well for taking off burrs and sprue lines or cutting plastic for that matter. My next models will be better cleaned up, once I get the scheme down like I said.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Oooooh actually I just had an idea... The inside of the bayonet on the top picture seems a bit darker because it had a bit of a ridge. I think I'll paint the inside of the bayonet gunmetal grey or something silver-grey looking but leave the edge gold. Maybe the metal being used, Gold (Au) or not, has some purpose like cutting better into certain things. I did something similar to this in D&D, the DM gave my swashbuckler a cold iron rapier and I already had one so I melted down the cold iron and made an edge overlay to make it so it will actually cut through undead... Same basic principle, maybe this metal is harmful to 'Nids or 'Crons?

I think it needs maybe one more colour. The gold is pulling dual service as decorative and utilitarian, so one more accent would bring it together nicely I think. I would suggest small amounts of white, in key areas. Maybe the trim on the tunic, if you've a steady hand and lots of patience.

O could see a white trim, yes... I just get so bored of seeing the same camo scheme copied and pasted with variations on green, tan, and brown that I wanted to do something different. I really do like some of the custom Astartes paint jobs and wanted to do something like that so a small amount of extra trimming could work. White does seem like a good option, and that would actually go perfect for a leg stripe. I tried a red leg stripe but it seemed to overbalance the red and I couldn't quite figure it out with the ruffles. And now that I think about it having the pale-to-tan white for the face and hands would make the other colors stand out pretty good too.

As for the helmet, I actually don't really like the stripe. Nothing against your idea, but no matter what color I try it turns out looking odd against the aquila. The shoulders might look good filled in with white and have the gold rank on top of that, but the black with the gold really is a nice contrast...

Anyways, I'm ranting now and this is supposed to be me asking for advice, so is there anything else you guys can think of? Already this is immensely helpful to be able to bounce off ideas.

Oo, white leg stripe, yes, I can see that looking really nice. I reckon that if you paint the white leg stripe and add white to the shoulder pads then the helmet will look a lot better to you once the flesh tone is added in. Perhaps white rank insignia on gold shoulder pads with red trim? Might be a bit much, it's hard to say without trying it out myself.

White on gold, I actually like that Idea much better than gold on white. It'll make it turn out looking kinda like a Space Marine shoulder but smaller, I always did like the Space Wolves shoulder insignia. I'll do it on one shoulder pad and if it looks good I'll try the other. As for the leg stripe, the problem I had was I couldn't figure out how to make the stripe look right with the ruffled pants because of the stance the Guardsman is in. Any tips?

I've never tried any advanced painting besides putting black undercoat paint on and straight up painting, so anything like antiquing or dry-brushing or anything like that will probably be over my head unless someone explains it to me, the "How to paint citadel miniatures" book didn't help much, I don't really like learning from books when I can't have someone to show me unless it's something abstract like math.

Paint em what ever color you want. It's your army.

Fluff problems are the only legitimate complaint someone can have.