Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

This question is mostly paint related so I figured I'd post it here. If it doesn't belong, feel free to move it.

I'm just getting back into 40k after a 5 year leave of absence. Back in the day, I was building a black templar force because I liked their units, their lore, and the fact that I was 17 and lazy and they were easy to paint. Fast forward to today: I'd still love to build up a space marine army but I'm not certain I want to go with BT. I still love their lore and the fact that they are ferocious in hand to hand combat but I'm not so sold on painting an entire army of predominantly black units. To me, the fun of this hobby is 75% painting and assembling and 25% playing. So my question to you is: Is there a space marine chapter that plays similarly to the black templars, but has a more exciting color scheme? Space wolves perhaps?

I realize that I could simply paint them any color I want and create my own chapter but I really do enjoy the existing chapters and fluff.

Follow your heart with Templars. Not all Templars have to be black mix the colours up like white,gold and black or red,sliver, gold and black. But if you start a total new chapter you need to give them rules and some great colours.

If you don't feel like aking exactly Black templars, i suggest you check out what other chapters are also IF-successors and/or close combat-specialized. Some examples could be Sons of Dorn, Executioners or Iron Knights (don't have that of an exciting scheme perhaps). Of course, you could always take one of those chapters that has been given a name but not much else, and make up a scheme and fluff for them.

I'm going to give you an answer completely contrary to what you wanted: Black Templars. Painting them is easy; making them look good is hard as hell. Black is a colour that is way more interesting to paint than you'd think at first, and it definitely is harder to paint than most other colours. Add in white to the scheme and you've got a miniature nightmare, but one that rewards you when you pull through.

Any other imperial fist successor chapter would work.

Have you thought of crimson fists? They have pretty awesome fluff (much better than BT for me). And a nice colour scheme.

AlmightyWalrus wrote:I'm going to give you an answer completely contrary to what you wanted: Black Templars. Painting them is easy; making them look good is hard as hell. Black is a colour that is way more interesting to paint than you'd think at first, and it definitely is harder to paint than most other colours. Add in white to the scheme and you've got a miniature nightmare, but one that rewards you when you pull through.

I've definitely given that school of thought some... thought. The challenge is appealing but I think it's simply the black more than anything that's a turn off now. Maybe it's just me secretly wanting a fresh start or something. I do really enjoy black templars that have a lot of gold and red thrown into the mix.

Cultiststeve wrote:Any other imperial fist successor chapter would work.

Have you thought of crimson fists? They have pretty awesome fluff (much better than BT for me). And a nice colour scheme.

I completely forgot about the crimson fists even though they're staring right back at me from the front of my codex. If I'm not being decieved by the printed colors, they're a dark blue and dark red correct? I think that with a little bit of white flair for contrast could look really good.

Red Templars, Storm Wardens, soul Drinkers, for color. Maybe do a royal blue or navy templar army with yellow cloth.

Oh, I'm making what I would like to call.... White Templars (name still in process). They're not just Black Templars (only white). They are so much more than that.

Main colors of the squads are white with red markings/crosses (much like the traditional knights templar). Scout squads have yellow ochre with white and red markings (for camouflage in the desert, but still ties them up with the rest of the army). Sergeants and veteran marines have red with white marking colors (still knights templar.... English knights version). Terminator marines have black colors with white and red markings (not unlike Knights Hospitaller and... Black Templars) and librarians have blue colors with white and red markings (again, Knights Hospitaller). There's a wide range of color choices you can use for templar-inspired armies, is all I'm saying. You don't need to stay with black with white markings.

PICTURES PICTURES PICTURES for reference:

Go Knights Errant colors.

fistbeard wrote:

AlmightyWalrus wrote:I'm going to give you an answer completely contrary to what you wanted: Black Templars. Painting them is easy; making them look good is hard as hell. Black is a colour that is way more interesting to paint than you'd think at first, and it definitely is harder to paint than most other colours. Add in white to the scheme and you've got a miniature nightmare, but one that rewards you when you pull through.

I've definitely given that school of thought some... thought. The challenge is appealing but I think it's simply the black more than anything that's a turn off now. Maybe it's just me secretly wanting a fresh start or something. I do really enjoy black templars that have a lot of gold and red thrown into the mix.

Cultiststeve wrote:Any other imperial fist successor chapter would work.

Have you thought of crimson fists? They have pretty awesome fluff (much better than BT for me). And a nice colour scheme.

I completely forgot about the crimson fists even though they're staring right back at me from the front of my codex. If I'm not being decieved by the printed colors, they're a dark blue and dark red correct? I think that with a little bit of white flair for contrast could look really good.

Yep. A nice deep dark blue coating with red trim. You see a fair bit of bronze on them but I guess white would work really well as well. Im sure you know how to google image crimson fists

Rhyns's World is a good read, one of the "Space marine battle" series.

Cultiststeve wrote:Yep. A nice deep dark blue coating with red trim. You see a fair bit of bronze on them but I guess white would work really well as well. Im sure you know how to google image crimson fists

Rhyns's World is a good read, one of the "Space marine battle" series.

Goo... gle? What is this black magic you speak of? SWEET LORD IT CAN FIND ANYTHING.

Do the crimson fists have any special rules or do they play pretty vanilla?

You could always change things up with the Black templars. Make up your own crusade with some added color changes to signify something about that crusade. I recall Black Templars working closely with another chapter and including some of their colors on the BT power armor. For an example I am contemplating a BT force with the right arms being white to signify a sacrifice by their Marshall in the current campaign. Stuff like this would add more flavor to your force and differenciate you from the other chapters.

$pider wrote:You could always change things up with the Black templars. Make up your own crusade with some added color changes to signify something about that crusade. I recall Black Templars working closely with another chapter and including some of their colors on the BT power armor. For an example I am contemplating a BT force with the right arms being white to signify a sacrifice by their Marshall in the current campaign. Stuff like this would add more flavor to your force and differenciate you from the other chapters.

This is most likely what I'm going to end up doing. I'm brainstorming how to inject a little flavor into my BT paint scheme right now. One idea I'm toying around with is painting their white pauldrons a more parchment-like color. This would match the color of their robes and look quite nice I believe. Any idea on where to toss in a little red for accents?

Flesh Tearers.

fistbeard wrote:This is most likely what I'm going to end up doing. I'm brainstorming how to inject a little flavor into my BT paint scheme right now. One idea I'm toying around with is painting their white pauldrons a more parchment-like color. This would match the color of their robes and look quite nice I believe. Any idea on where to toss in a little red for accents?

Bump for assistance. I've been looking around for black templar/parchment tips and tutorials but I can't find anything. I'm assuming I'll want to use some sort of badab black/delvan mud for the recesses and shadows on the cloth robes but I'm not sure how I should accent the highlights.

i think black is the hardest colour to pull off, i still cant do it well

fistbeard wrote:

Cultiststeve wrote:Yep. A nice deep dark blue coating with red trim. You see a fair bit of bronze on them but I guess white would work really well as well. Im sure you know how to google image crimson fists

Rhyns's World is a good read, one of the "Space marine battle" series.

Goo... gle? What is this black magic you speak of? SWEET LORD IT CAN FIND ANYTHING.

Do the crimson fists have any special rules or do they play pretty vanilla?

Well Pedro gives all the troops stubborn, and stern guard vets are scoring troops in the codex , but they are just as codex as other chapters.

(I also think the BT fluff is too boring, and rage-at-eveything-ey)