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hey everyone, sorry to make so many posts about painting and armies and stuff

but i have one more question.... originally i was going to collect CSM but i think i will hold off on those guys for a little bit because i already have ultramarines from AoBR and want to add on to those guys to make a larger force.

my question is this: i like the ultramarines paint scheme, but i think i might get bored if i had to paint all my guys with the same colors. would it be allowed to have your marines painted in many different paint schemes, both fluff-wise and gameplay wise? i dont know much about playing the game or about the fluff but what i want is to just somehow get variety or a personal touch into my marines. i like ultramarines but i also like some of the other paint schemes of marine chapters. i don't want to strip my ultramarines of their paint because i worked hard on that but i want to get a less generic army!

any advice? and once again sorry for the super nooby question, this is my last one i swear

I've heard of people who've made armies which are supposed to be elite groups of elite fighters from various chapter. Like Deathwatch but different.

As for whether it matters, if it has a good reason it should be accepted.

You don't even need a good reason, you can paint any colour you want.

That said, it's much more difficult to make an army like that look good. With an army (as opposed to a single miniature) choosing a simple, consistent colour scheme will make the whole look good, however poor the individuals are.

Scott-S6 wrote:You don't even need a good reason, you can paint any colour you want.

That said, it's much more difficult to make an army like that look good. With an army (as opposed to a single miniature) choosing a simple, consistent colour scheme will make the whole look good, however poor the individuals are.

I would have to say that I agree with Scott. The army as a whole may not look as good with different color schemes.

Having said that, you can do whatever you want. It is easy to come up with a little bit of fluff about your army being a battle force from any war on a planet where more than one Marine chapter contributed to the combined war effort. This sort of thing is not uncommon in the fluff.

I knew a guy who did just this thing. He was playing out of the Vanilla Marine Codex. He used a Special Character from the Ultramarines and one from another Chapter (I don't remember which at the moment) in that same Codex. So he painted half his army as Ultramarines and the other half as the other Chapter. His army was a combined task force from the two chapters.

It just looked a little odd whenever you first saw it, because it was unique.

You could have a consistent basic colour, then give each squad it's own personal shoulder pad colours or trims.

Paint em' how you like!

I mean people get away with this.




I always fancied the idea that if I ever got a marine force with sternguard in it I would paint them as Deathwatch. Hmm.

If you want a multi-colored theme....

Power Ranger Marines. With Megazord dreads, or tanks that volt in.

Fluffwise people usually call that kind of army a "crusading army", e.g. several groups of marines involved in a single crusade.

I feel for you, it is tough being tied down to a single color scheme when there are so many cool ones out there. Running a crusading army allows you to do whatever paint schemes you want and just have fun with it.

That being said the finished product is going to look rather hodge podge. It will never look as good as a force with a single scheme.

And the flip side to being able to do lots of different schemes is you likely wont achieve mastery in any ONE scheme any time soon. I have consistently improved and discovered new techniques over 5 years with a single army. Just something to consider. Depth vs breadth.

Personally I would reccomend that if you really want to have a good looking army buckle down and focus on a single chapter and paint scheme. It will be more rewarding. It is less fun, but probably more rewarding. It wont be to long before you have a basic force and can try building up something different.

Crusade armies can look good if you do them right. You need to have one color or chapter per squad all transports should be the same color as the squad they go with. It is best to stay with the codex chapters and only use one codex to represent the army.

So for a trial list something like this

H.Q.
Captain use the chapter you like most for this one all the big tanks like preds should be the same as him

Elites
A dred or two different chapters is cool here
a tec marine same as the captain

Troops
3 to 4 Squads all different one the same as the cap

Fast
Your choice here bikes jump marines ect all dif

Heavy one big tank same color as the cap two dev squads all diff

the decal sheet gives you loads of different crusade badges pick one and use it on all the models in the army.