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Hello all, I'm a pretty new player to this game and while I love it and love painting I have a hard time sticking to one color, painting 20 or so marines one color can be very boring.

So what I wanted to try out was a new idea based on a old and create a army of space marines were everyone had their own personal colors, coat of arms and what not. Basically I wanted a space marine that looked more like this:



What do you guys think of this idea? Good idea or bad?

Also I'd love to get some space marine on horses and make a cavalry chapter but am unsure of what models to use for conversions

Thanks in advance.

I'd suggest keeping some sort of continuity between them (although distinctive basing would help with that); they're not moving in tight units like in Fantasy, so it's more important to tie them together visually.

That said, I love the idea of going all out with Marines-as-knights and giving them individualized heraldry, and I also like the idea of giving them mounts. Run it with the vanilla Marine Codex and give 'em a biker Captain and you could do a whole cavalry army. 'fraid I don't have a solid suggestion for what to mount them on, though. I'll only remind that if you're using them as counts-as bikes you'll want to stick a couple bolters on their mounts one way or another for the built-in twin-linked bolter. Could mount them directly on the horse if you were going for a cyber-horse look (which would probably be for the best, considering what the weight of a Space Marine would do to an unmodified horse), or try to model some sort of bolter harness on the neck, saddle, or hindquarters.

Alternatively, go Space Wolves and use these guys as counts-as Thunderwolf cavalry.

I agree with Ilkhan. It's an outstanding idea, but you will need to link the troops together visually. I suggest doing some sort of Death-watch chapter or something. you can have a range of different colours, but also have a distinguishing feature which shows that they're part of that organisation. You could also get some good fluff out of that

I think having the left shoulder pad always the same could do it, or maybe both.

If I went with horses I could put the bolters underneath the horse's neck or on its forelegs.

Thanks for the positive response

Yeah, that sounds like a good idea. Just some defining feature

I like your idea, the thought of personal colors and heraldry really seems cool on space marines thanks to their "warrior monk" and "space knights" status.

as suggested, you should do something to keep them all in uniform. may I suggest that you paint their armor the same, but you can always add personal colors to weapons, shoulder pads, and occasionally just paint one piece of armor differently (such as a greave or an arm)

(remember, even though medieval era knights had personal heraldry, they all still had the same silver armor)

Another option that I have seen is to create a 'crusade' army of space marines. A crusade army basically is a number of different chapters who are fighting under common leadership against the same foe.

So, you could paint one squad of Crimson Fists, another of Imperial Fists, Dark Angels, etc.

The common link for these crusades tends to be a crusade badge which can be added to a shoulder pad, a leg pad, a knee pad, etc.

I think its great but have one consistent color that appears subtly everywhere to give distinction and keep everything tied together

I think this is a pretty neat idea; the space marines are the knights of space. Just think, a company of space marines charging at you...on horses. Just paint all the helmets or shoulders the same to tell the squad from others.

I think you could write up some nice fluff for a group like this, too; feudal homeworld, would-be neophytes jousting for the chance to be recruited, marines' heraldry being modified over time to reflect their accomplishments, that sort of thing.

You could just stick to the fluff, and make a massive Deathwatch kill-team... I'm just putting it out there.

Positive feedback rocks

I think should pad all the same it greatest idea so far and maybe helmet for different ranks (idea red for sternguard, blue for tactical, gold for captain ect)