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.

Hiya Dakkites!

I can't believe I finally found my Password and managed to log on once more! This is my first post in this section in about a year!

Now then, down to business, I have recently managed to save up enough money to buy a couple of Space Marine Sets (Just to paint as I have some armies already) and before I buy them, I was wondering what chapter I should go with, or whether I should make my own. I had narrowed the list of chapters down to the following:

Imperial fists
Salamanders
White Scars
Black Templars
Other
My Own


So please, tell me what you think!

Grey Knights

Always liked the look to the white scars and salamanders personally. Other than that I would say crimson fists look nice with the darker blue and dabs of red.

Yeah I agree with you there.

Although I do like Grey Knights, I find that painting them is a little... Well, bland considering they are basically mostly metallics...

It depends a bitt of what you think about as best to paint. Easiest to paint, moast funn to paint, or that looks best after little effort. Or one that is just a challenge.

Many of the space marine chapters have colours that where pupular in the early 80s. You can see this on the blood angels for instance. A strong red and yellow on the details. Little subtelty about them. Also you need to keep in mind that some of your models might stand out like centerpiced (big terminators coming to mind) but moast of the other models will be looked upon en mass along with the rest. So you need to think colourschemes on a macro level, that being the army, as well as a micro level, the singel modell.

From a colour theory perspective yellow is a bit hard to work with, since it is a quite dominant colour. Yellow paint also acts very diferently then other colours, it needs more of it. This is even true with the foundations, and it tend to cloth more then the regular colours. The same is true for orange since it has a lott of yellow in it. It is also very hard to shade yellow. One shure way to do it is to blend in purple until it becomes brown and then add black. If you just add black you make green.

The salamanders I do think would make a nice army to paint. The lush green and the orange flames really are good but it does not leave much room for other colours since you are already pretty comitted.

White scars and black templars both look great, but if you are going for the templars then you really need templar parts to make them "crusading". I would recomend both of them. Mind you, white is a hard colour to do right since it requers many layers. However, both the black and the white is quite easy to combine with other colours, leaving you easy to add details. I would recomen "dirtying" both of them up a bitt, deluding them. When painting white the problem is that you cannot go "brighter" so shading needs to be done in reverse (by shading the rest of the modle instead of highlighting the figure) and the same with the black one since you can't just add black to the recesses. However, I do belive both will be a dream to work with.

Edit: If you really wanne look on the whole thing as an exersice then go for grey knights and learn to paint non-metalic metal. It looks really great even when you are starting to learn it. Also, the grey knights codex is good with a low model count. Perfect for the experimentating. I would advice you to do some research intro impresionism. It is a painting mind sett that makes for fats models that looks great once you actualy play. (The level of detail is not that great close up,m but seen from 2 feet away it is amasing.)

Wow! Thanks for the tips!

I did have a Black Teplar Bitz pack and made some Black Templars that came out Ok-ish, but not the best, I also did Imperial Fists a long time ago who I could probably do better with my skills now...

If I where vyou I would wiat and see if there are some goddies in the new paint range. Perhaps they can give some insipiration.

Niiai wrote:If I where vyou I would wiat and see if there are some goddies in the new paint range. Perhaps they can give some insipiration.

Yeah good idea.

So... I'm usually all about creating your own chapter. I'm a sucker for "not looking like everybody else." But...

I think the Imperial Fists is one of the best color schemes for marines out there. I want to paint a unit of them someday just to do it. Part of it is the "pop" they have, and a big part of it is the challenge. Yellow is just SUCH a pain to paint.

So I dunno if it's enough reason to make the decision, but I feel like having a completed army of I-Fists would grant the painter a feeling of pride.

I just found my I-Fists and I must say, I remember them being rather easy to paint, but I never finished them...

I-Fists are really fun to paint, and look really good when you have a full squad of them.

I have tried my own chapters before, but they all end up looking like real chapters...

I painted my space wolves purple and orange. And the wolf guards in white, red and sea green. Absurd I know, but I think they look amasing and it was funn to do. Making up your own colour sceme is funn. But since you have no coltural anchoring you might find it harder to bring the *umph* of the other chapters. If you see ultra marines you know a lott of theyr history. If you see some new colour you do not know mutch about them.

Be shure to check out the "how to paint space marines" and the two forge world badab war books for insipiration. (The last page of how to paint space marines features some samurai inspiered SM. They look really good. A SM borrows heavaly from knighly colour schemes, so using samurais is not sutch a half assed idea.)

Thanks for the info! I will try my own colours on Space Marine Painter and find something that looks good and will post it here, and see what you guys think.

indiana1000 wrote:Although I do like Grey Knights, I find that painting them is a little... Well, bland considering they are basically mostly metallics...

So paint them many different metallic colors, instead of just two. PROBLEM SOLVED.

B&C Space Marine Painter doesn't work on my laptop... I can get an image of one of my older designs...


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Here is one of my older designs, The Emperor's Templars:

It's simpel and elegant but a bit bland do you not think? I do not wnat to disrespect you here, but if you where seing it from 5-6 meters away from the other side of the room on another game table it does not really do the space marines justice. It needs more inpact in my opinion. A nice touch is that that simple colour scheme can easaly be combined with another colour.

Perhaps just some details on the helmets or something?

I find this person usualy know what he is talking about, and makes for an insipirational read. http://theback40k.blogspot.com/p/color-theory-archive.html

For isntance (and I know you will not like this since you strike me as a conservative person from the sugestions you have posted) you could -REALLY- mix things up if you did the trims of the shouldpads in a bright magenta on the model you sugested. You have some very conservative and natural like greys on the model. Magenta literarly screams all the time and it is not found in nature. To do something like that would make people notice your marines a lott more.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
His 3rd articel is a very good example of what I am talking about. Here a terminator has been painted with what looks like your colourscheme, but red has been added. Look how he stands out. http://theback40k.blogspot.com/2010/05/little-color-theory-part-iii.html

Personally, I have always enjoyed the white scars I love their looks their fluff and the khan with command squad is beast on the table. It's also kind of a you don't see much of them factor. I know I don't have a single white scars chapter in my area...

From the pic you posted you like a simple paint sceme, so why not try Carcharodons Astra? I really cannot reccomend this chapter enough.

Thanks for the tips guys! I would have made a better colour scheme, but the painter won't work for some reason...

I quite like the look of the Carcharodons, maybe I will go with them...

Oh yes, Charcharodos and Minotaurs are very good chapters in the idea that moast people have not seem them so often and the fluff is really good. Also they have realy cool (but not so good pehraps) special characters:

http://www.forgeworld.co.uk/Warhammer-40000/Space_Marines/Space_Marine-Infantry-Accessories/TYBEROS-THE-RED-WAKE.html

http://www.forgeworld.co.uk/New_Stuff/ASTERION_MOLOC_AND_IVANUS_ENKOMI_OF_THE_MINOTAURS.html

The last one is my favoret. Yellus spartan marines. The one in terminator armour is so scary that the unit he is in count as having frag greandes because of his grim posture. (Yes, even tyranids recodnise him as so bad ass they he gets to strike in a normal inisiative order. They are jaws open.)

I like the crimson fists, very forgiving to paint too

Niiai wrote:Oh yes, Charcharodos and Minotaurs are very good chapters in the idea that moast people have not seem them so often and the fluff is really good. Also they have realy cool (but not so good pehraps) special characters:

http://www.forgeworld.co.uk/Warhammer-40000/Space_Marines/Space_Marine-Infantry-Accessories/TYBEROS-THE-RED-WAKE.html

http://www.forgeworld.co.uk/New_Stuff/ASTERION_MOLOC_AND_IVANUS_ENKOMI_OF_THE_MINOTAURS.html

The last one is my favoret. Yellus spartan marines. The one in terminator armour is so scary that the unit he is in count as having frag greandes because of his grim posture. (Yes, even tyranids recodnise him as so bad ass they he gets to strike in a normal inisiative order. They are jaws open.)

Wow! Those last ones look great! To me that is how Space Marines should look!

If you where to get your hand on a pdf of the badab war books you could look at the two chapters. However, I would -REALLY- advice you to buy them if you can afford. They are a greta red before one starts playing space marines. You do not want to get them afterwards. And they are worth bying.

I will keep that in mind.

I really like some of those chapters but a very cool sceam to do is White and gold a bit old but very cool and never seems to get lost in a crowd

Original 90's spacewolves, non of this really dull grey rubbish, lovely bright blue/grey with bright yellow facings.
hmmm shiney.

failing that i've always been partial to blood angels, again the bright colours just stand out well.

I'd always taken a shine to the Aurora Chapter or the checkered patterns of the Howling Griffons or Brazen Claws. They seem like a decent challenge for shading and highlights. The small Space Marine Chapter I had owned were a deep Royal Purple with marbled trim on their shoulder pads and gauntlets.

I like Imperial Fists, the old BRIGHT yellow Fists you used to see, not the brownish color scheme that's been popularized in 5th edition. Looks to me like they're dragged through poo. I don't think I could do it justice myself though, my codex marines are getting painted up as Crimson Fists because it's also a strikingly good looking color scheme and girlpainting has a tutorial for them on dakka here that makes it look almost easy

Check this out for ideas

http://philipsibbering.com/blog/1000-chapters/

SickSix wrote:Check this out for ideas

http://philipsibbering.com/blog/1000-chapters/

Thanks for the link! That is a really useful website!

Heeey I don't think grey knights are dull painting metallics can be pretty fun, Here's mine at the almost finished stage.