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So I have my Deathwatch Overkill Space Marines and I am planning what I am going to do with them. I am definitely giving all of the Marines without helmets helmeted heads (besides Cassius, the Librarian, the White Scar-maybe, and the Space Wolve-maybe). But I am debating if I want to give them the official Deathwatch color scheme. I have three issues with the DW color scheme. One, it is pretty boring, to be honest. Space Marines are awesome because, for the most part, they wear bright armor in vibrant colors. Plain black is just kinda boring. Two, black armor means something significant for several of the Chapters (Black Armored Blood Angels are Death Company, Black Armored Dark Angels are Ravenwing). Three, two of the Chapters already have black armor (though the Raven Guard Marine would have a white helmet and arms by virtue of being a Vanguard Veteran Sergeant).

So I have a few different ideas. One is to give them their normal Chapter colors on the majority of their armor, but make the left arm and helmet black, and the left shoulder pauldron and fist silver. The other is to keep them basically like normal Deathwatch, but paint their helmets the normal Chapter color just to give a little more color to them (Raven Guard and Iron Hand would likely get something else to make them a little different). They wouldn't have the Sergeant or Veteran helmet colors, just regular Chapter colors.

One other thing I have considered is to rim the black armor in their normal Chapter color. So the highlights on the black armor of Donatus would be blue, almost like the blue armor was shining through the black paint in the right light. The normally black colored marines would have normal highlights for black armor.

Does anyone have any good ideas for someone who doesn't want just plain black armor?

I don't agree with you that black is a boring colour - neither to paint nor to look at.
The Overkill Deatchwatch have so much bling on them, I don't think you need more highlights like chapter coloured helmets.

Your idea with edge-highlighting in the chapter colour actually sounds really good, would be interesting to see it executed.

Your could paint each of them in their chapter colour, and paint only the pauldron silver. Many marines continue wearing the silver DW pauldron after returning to their chapter - that could be your fluff explanation. Minor point: DW pauldron would be on the right shoulder after returning, so either lots of conversion, or live with the flipped pauldrons.

Not only do the Deathwatch models have lots (I would argue, too much) Chapter bling to break up the black, there's so much you can do with them.

Instead of seeing the black as a boring armor color, consider it as a neutral base for a lot of painting options. These guys are supposedly on a mission on a mining colony over-run by a genestealer cult. You can paint all sorts of battle damage, from laser-kissed paint to scrapes from blades and claws (as well as burns from mining lasers!). You could certainly add grime from the mines they are fighting in, too. Then, they are fighting hordes of cultists and alien abominations. Blood and ichor on the armor, too!

Between Chapter trappings, dirt and battle damage, and gore a-plenty, you could have the most colorful 'black-armored space marines' ever!

I like the original-colour edge highlighting plan.

 Furyou Miko wrote:
I like the original-colour edge highlighting plan.

I am leaning toward it more and more. I have most of the colors I would need to do it (oddly, not the Ultramarine Blue, but that is easy enough to get), so that makes it even more of an option. It would be my own spin on the DW armor. I haven't decided if Sergeants and Veterans would get to have their special colored helmets, though. Probably not. The Raven Guard and Iron Hand are different enough visually that it isn't really necessary.

Even while typing this post I have pretty well solidified my plan to do the edge highlights in the chapter colors. The left arm and shoulder pauldron will be silver like the usual Deathwatch (no highlights in the normal armor color), but the rest will be black with edge highlights in the regular armor color for that chapter. The Cassius, the Iron Hands Marine, and the Raven Guard Marine will have edge highlights for normal black armor. The Blood Raven will have edge highlights for the Librarian Blue armor (which GW appears to have done on theirs).

Thanks for your help, everyone. I will post pictures when they are all done.

Beat me to it XD
I think Branatar would be the best, since he has 'scales' on his armour, so it would make sense.

Well, I tried the edge highlights in red on the Blood Angel. The results were not that great. The contrast was too great. I used Mephiston Red, but I may try it again with Khorne Red or another darker red. I am going to try it out on the Dark Angel to see if I can get better results. The colors won't contrast nearly as much, but I don't have high hopes.