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Hi everybody,

I'm new to the forums, made my introduction in the newbies area and headed straight for the questions

I'm just starting the game and to the shock of everyone I'm going with Space Marines. However I didn't want to go for Ultramarines and at least have some originality with my chapter's color scheme. I'm collecting a small army (around 1000pt, 2 tac squads, 1 librarian, 6-7 sternguard, 2 dreadnaughts. I already have a strategy in mind for this list) and probably it doesn't matter at this point but I'm not sure how the general consensus is among more experienced players about army colors and chapters..

I really like the grey color scheme (from light to dark) with gold trims and I've figured there are both Black Consuls and Red Scorpions having similar colors. But there's just too much fluff and back stories and chapter organization details, armor styles that I'm not aware of and I'm not sure if I'd be making mistakes when painting for any of these chapters since there are not many guides for beginners about these specific chapters. Also I've seen Red Scorpions armies with all sorts of modifications and different helmets etc. How OK is it to just go ahead and paint your army (for a known chapter like the ones I listed) according to my own modifications?

There is this beautifully painted Apothecary (http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/content/blogPost.jsp?aId=6700024a) with light grey and gold colors with a white shoulder pad. I'm thinking I could use these colors but give my Sternguard white shoulder pads like the Apothecary instead of the usual black Red Scorpions have.. Is army colors and painting such freeform in the game or should I be learning more about the chapters before attempting modifications not to be ridiculed?

Thanks!

It's your army, buddy. You're free to paint it how you like, modify it how you want, and play it your way.

Also, I'm not 100% on the ability to field 7 sternguard squads, and you need more tactical marines, Troops win games.

Any colour you like go for it.... Just rem that yellows, reds and other lighter colours are a paint choice for a decent painter.... I find dark colours more forgiving, greys, blues,blacks etc are easier to start with it.....

I painted my whole Tau army using base coat Citadel colours as they are flatter.... I love it =]

DeadlySquirrel wrote:Also, I'm not 100% on the ability to field 7 sternguard squads

Well he did just say "6-7 sternguard" He probably means 6 or 7 models, as opposed to 6-7 squads.

There is so much options for Space Marines. Well, welcome to Dakka!

-Ogryn

A super quick way to paint that army would be to base coat in whatever gray you want to use, then wash them all in black ink, then drybrush them all in that same gray. Do all of your details later. That way you can get a cool looking standing army tournament ready quickly and do the details at your leasure.

For Marines, I found one of the fastest paint schemes is to spraypaint white, then just apply multiple layers of a thinned down dark color. Dark Angels Green has worked especially well, and the shading kind of takes care of itself with thin layers. Then I just drybrush with lighter shade of the same color and use a wash.

As far as fluff goes, just paint the army whatever color you want, and claim it as a successor chapter. I don't feel the need to match something exactly. I bought some transfers from http://armorcast.com/ that I thought were cool and picked a scheme that worked for me.

This might help,

http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/smp.php

it is an interactive painter, may help try out different paint schemes.