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So, I really like my Ork color scheme. they are mostly paunted, I use alot of gunmetal greay, a flat black base with a reddish bronzecolor accents. I really liek the color scheme, looks good on vehicles and troops alike. I keep trying to decide on colors for my space marines and I've tried a few test marines in other colors but I finally just painted them in the combo of my orks and liked it alot... but would it be tacky to spread a color theme across multiple armies... i actually already did the same type of theme on my eldar vehicles as well (though troops were already painted so they dont' match until i repaint em.

so please answer what you think... color theme across armies good idea or bad idea. i plan on getting necrons later as well and I think this would be a pattern I could make work in any army to be honest... but still unsure if its a good idea or not

Do what you want, it's your stuff after all! If you like the look of something and you like how it turns out, then why not? I personally prefer changing schemes per army as it just helps break the monotony of painting up a bit and keeps them unique (my Krieg are painted differently to my Cadians, and my Tau are painted differently to my Space Marines).

There's nothing wrong with reusing schemes if you like it though!

I'm planning on doing a yellow/orange scheme on my Nids, and I'm going to carry that theme over to my Space Marines whether anyone likes it or not :p

No reason it should be. Think Blood Angels, Saim Hann, Speed Kult, I'm sure there's a tau that similar. So if the studio does it why shouldn't you?

I personally prefer to have lots of different colours for my different armys. They look better on the shelf that way, less boring.

E.g my yellow marines, red chaos, green wood elves and blue kroot

I have a think for the Deathwatch style of guns, mostly dark red with silver parts. I did them like that on my Deathwatch, then Black Templars, Imperial Guard, Orks, Squats...

my only comment would be this:

sometimes color schemes just don't look good when you cross armies.

like space marine colors won't look as good on nids ya know?

by all means please paint as you like, you bought them!

Your minis, your rules. If anyone doesn't like it, tough.

I did some Roman minis a while back, and developed some very nice color techniques - red, bronze/gold, and browns - that have since turned up quite a bit across the armies I've painted since then.

Yeah... I did this with my Space Wolves and Nids too. Didn't realize it was so common, but I just love how red, black and grey go together.

hmm I'll add a few minis to see I'll throw up a few vehicles. tonight showing the colors to see what peopel think on if it works. I just did the inteior work on 3 drop pords and they are primed inside and out so I'll do a few details on the utside and set by a BW

If you like a certain color scheme......hey, it's your army and your the one paying for it. Paint it however you like.

ok, here's come of the mock up drop pods with one of my work in progress battlewagons... I'll have to add more detail later but you get the gist

Awful photo but I really like the colour! I always have something blue on all my troops, whether its the helments, bandana's or strips of clothing so it all synchs in with my Ultramarines. Plus, it makes Apocalpyse a bite more coherent!

I think its perfectly acceptable.

If, and i say IF, you want to justify the multi army scheme for whatever reason you could come up with something like this.
The Marine chapter are specialists in hunting these particular Eldar and as such have addapted their colour scheme to throw them off in battle. Then one day an Ork warband saw the marines, liked the colours too and painted themselves up to match and are now determined to steal all the Marine and Eldar gubbinz... But thats only if you feel the need.

Well it doesn't really matter. You can use whatever colors you wish. If you like the IG color scheme you have you are free to use it with your tau if you wish. I like to use different ones in my armies but I've seen people use the same one and do it well. I actually have three different color schemes just for my Dark Eldar...

If you like the scheme go for it I choose a diferent scheme so that i am painting a different colour hehe.

It's your damn armies, you do what you damn well please. If you're going to spend untold amount of money and man power buying models, clipping/sanding, posing, priming, painting, and learning the ins and outs of playing the game, shouldn't you be doing it for your personal enjoyment?

Critics are often the ones who have a problem with how they do something. Don't let them keep you from having a good time.

More than accepteable!



I am painting my Eldar & DarkEldar in matching (albeit in the DEs case a little bit darker) colour schemes.
Why not paint them like they belong together? Comes in handy for tagteamtournaments, or if you play apocalypse

Every one of my armies as green- Green armour on my FOW russian tankovy, Green skin on my ogers, green seals and lenses on my marines and green sept markings on my tau

Beyond the general rule of "your models, your choice," I can see a number of reasons to use a scheme across armies. As with almost any decision regarding models that might give a prospective painter/modeler pause, the Rule of Cool is in effect. Garish, mismatched colors splodged haphazardly over two different armies reveal some rather unpleasant truths about the painter (not only do they have terrible color sense and an infant's coordination, they lack the sense to stop doing things that way), but a coherent set of colors applied tastefully to two different armies results in - you guessed it - two lovely armies, which, as an added bonus, compliment each other quite nicely when placed side by side on a shelf, display board, or Apocalypse game table.

As for the other poll options, requiring fewer paints is a nice side-effect of a shared scheme, but as a deciding factor in choosing to use a common scheme, it's not an assumption I would ever have made about a painter who used one. Considering how many players have DIY klans, craftworlds, chapters, etc. beyond the already expansive canon, I can't say I'd call a duplicate color scheme preposterous, either (most schemes have been duplicated across armies, already - you usually don't notice because that other army could be anywhere in the world, not simply sitting in your opponent's other army case). As for tacky or boring... well, reread that whole "rule of cool" bit.

I like doing different colors for my own sake. I've painted a red/white empire, so I went green/khaki for imperial guard. It mixes it up for me.

Then purple for space marines. Now I'm back to red with the Orks. Variety, it's the spice of life!

So long as the scheme is done appropriately/varied to match the fluff/theme/feel of the various armies and models, I have nothing against it.

In fact, my plan is to inverse the colors on my Eldar color scheme for a future dark eldar army.

And for Fantasy, I'm going for a nautical theme across all armies, not necessarily the same exact scheme, but similar.

Had a Teacher in High school that played 40k.

He had, Grey Knights, Tyranids, Eldar, Orkz, and Necrons.

All of the armies were painted the same way, but each squad was painted different, Each squad in each army Shared a color scheme with an NFL team.

He liked it and that's all that mattered.