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What would be the colour of a space marine power armour if it was not painted? I was thinking of painting my space marines that so I wanted to know. Thanks guys

The phrase that always gets thrown about in the books is "ceramite grey"

Grey knights are bare ceramite..

And there silvery grey..

ok thx

 jhe90 wrote:
Grey knights are bare ceramite..

And there silvery grey..

GK are painted and more silver than grey. Knights Exemplar are unpainted do to the harsh conditions of there Chapter World that strips paint off everything. I want to say it is burnished metal grey

Don't pre-Heresy Death Guard wear uncolored ceramite? That's what a Death Guard player told me, but he could have been lying (dirty traitor...).

The lore is that the Grey Knights armor is what Ceramite looks like unpainted, hence the name Grey Knights. It's done so in a representation of the purity of the chapter. It's probably nicknamed "grey" because Ceramite doesn't look like polished silver (which can be pure white in color), but darker and a bit worn.

Word Bearers Ashen Circle assault troops (and the Word Bearers in general, before the Serated Suns entered the Eye) used bare ceramite as their colours, and that's always represented as a dull medium grey with maybe a bit of brown. Basically concrete.

That said, there would likely have been variations in tone due to local manufacture.

So far I have heard 3 different groups using "bare ceramite" and each have different colours.

1: Pre-Heresy Death Guard, which are a white/pale grey colour, and painted as such by Forge World

2: Word Bearers Ashen Circle, which are depicted as slate grey and again painted as such

3: Grey Knights, which are silver and painted as such


Of these 3, the only one with external support (ie, not the models or the description that says bare ceramite) is Death Guard, and only due to the paint colour "Ceramite White."

 Deadshot wrote:
So far I have heard 3 different groups using "bare ceramite" and each have different colours.

1: Pre-Heresy Death Guard, which are a white/pale grey colour, and painted as such by Forge World

2: Word Bearers Ashen Circle, which are depicted as slate grey and again painted as such

3: Grey Knights, which are silver and painted as such


Of these 3, the only one with external support (ie, not the models or the description that says bare ceramite) is Death Guard, and only due to the paint colour "Ceramite White."

I'd say they are all correct. Like someone said up thread, there would likely be local variations due to different forge worlds and materials etc.

I think Omegon has a suite of unpainted armour, I think that there are suits on unpainted armour mentioned in "The Harrowing" by Rob Sanders as well.

I haven't got the books to hand so can't comment on the actual colour, but I think it is Grey.

Garro would be a good place to check to see the colour of unpainted armour as his was stripped of paint and livery when he became the Knight Errant.

whatever colour the local varient of the cermite "ingredients" cause it to be?

Grey Knight terminators should possibly even be a different colour from the power armoured ones as power armour is made of ceramite while terminator armour also has plasteel plates with it. Either way it's a ceramic material so colour will vary greatly planet by planet where they get the materials, a lot more that metals would.

 n0t_u wrote:
Grey Knight terminators should possibly even be a different colour from the power armoured ones as power armour is made of ceramite while terminator armour also has plasteel plates with it. Either way it's a ceramic material so colour will vary greatly planet by planet where they get the materials, a lot more that metals would.

Well this is my argument that GK are not unpainted, in fact the only time I've seen people quote them as unpainted armour is here on forums. In fact, wouldn't it more sense if they were painted armour, as paint can be mixed with holy oils and other stuff (blood of martyrs or something) to give EXTRA EXTRA EXTRA anti-daemonic layers.

From a fluff perspective, the Knights Errant use unpainted ceramite power armour. The grey/silver parts of the armour in the below link represent how Forge World paints "unpainted" power armour.

https://www.forgeworld.co.uk/en-DE/The-Knights-Errant

It's just sort of a dark grey. It's definitely NOT the bright silver of the Grey Knights.

I imagined since it is some kind of laced ceramic any typical ceramic color would do.
The cement color according to lore is serviceable.
For an "elevated" marine to daemon prince I like a "bone" color: a cream white.

I believe it's ceramite white is the colour, with grey onights being so shiny because they polish it would make sense. Another is that different forge worlds have different processes that create different variations.

The variables on it are many so whatever you feel is right out of the options presented to you.

 Deadshot wrote:
So far I have heard 3 different groups using "bare ceramite" and each have different colours.

1: Pre-Heresy Death Guard, which are a white/pale grey colour, and painted as such by Forge World

2: Word Bearers Ashen Circle, which are depicted as slate grey and again painted as such

3: Grey Knights, which are silver and painted as such


Of these 3, the only one with external support (ie, not the models or the description that says bare ceramite) is Death Guard, and only due to the paint colour "Ceramite White."

The correct answer is of course Sprue Grey.

Pre-Heresy Word Bearers, from back when they were known as the Imperial Heralds, are described as wearing un-painted armour which is depicted as that slate-grey colour. Also, the Citadel Grey Base paint is called "Mechanicus Standard Grey" which might indicate the standard colour stuff manufactured in a forgeworld would come out as.

 GoonBandito wrote:

 Deadshot wrote:
So far I have heard 3 different groups using "bare ceramite" and each have different colours.

1: Pre-Heresy Death Guard, which are a white/pale grey colour, and painted as such by Forge World

2: Word Bearers Ashen Circle, which are depicted as slate grey and again painted as such

3: Grey Knights, which are silver and painted as such


Of these 3, the only one with external support (ie, not the models or the description that says bare ceramite) is Death Guard, and only due to the paint colour "Ceramite White."

The correct answer is of course Sprue Grey.

Pre-Heresy Word Bearers, from back when they were known as the Imperial Heralds, are described as wearing un-painted armour which is depicted as that slate-grey colour. Also, the Citadel Grey Base paint is called "Mechanicus Standard Grey" which might indicate the standard colour stuff manufactured in a forgeworld would come out as.

that or mechanicus standard grey might mean that's the standard primer the admech uses.

Think Brotherhood of Steel T-45D and you've got what I imagine the generic version color is.

Edit
Someone posted the 40k in lore version of it and I was pretty spot on.

[

 Deadshot wrote:
So far I have heard 3 different groups using "bare ceramite" and each have different colours.

1: Pre-Heresy Death Guard, which are a white/pale grey colour, and painted as such by Forge World

2: Word Bearers Ashen Circle, which are depicted as slate grey and again painted as such

3: Grey Knights, which are silver and painted as such


Of these 3, the only one with external support (ie, not the models or the description that says bare ceramite) is Death Guard, and only due to the paint colour "Ceramite White."

Based on that and some art of an Ashen Circle marine I think I'm of the opinion that ceremite has a very dull metallic finish that tarnishes very easily. The differences in these different units' appearances are due to how the respective parties deal with that whether through frequent acid washing, polishing, etc.

 Captain Joystick wrote:

 Deadshot wrote:
So far I have heard 3 different groups using "bare ceramite" and each have different colours.

1: Pre-Heresy Death Guard, which are a white/pale grey colour, and painted as such by Forge World

2: Word Bearers Ashen Circle, which are depicted as slate grey and again painted as such

3: Grey Knights, which are silver and painted as such


Of these 3, the only one with external support (ie, not the models or the description that says bare ceramite) is Death Guard, and only due to the paint colour "Ceramite White."

Based on that and some art of an Ashen Circle marine I think I'm of the opinion that ceremite has a very light metallic finish that tarnishes very easily. The differences in these different units' appearances are due to how the respective parties deal with that whether through frequent acid washing, polishing, etc.

Well again, the different accounts say different. The Death Guard were renowned for being unadorned, they didn't even have honour markings, so their colours are in my opinion are the most accurate representation of unpainted ceramite. Slate grey like the Ashen circle or Knights Errant may be as you say, acid washing, which is still colouration of a sort, so its not exactly pure, unaltered colour. And again I haven't seen anything in recent fluff, from either Codex nor any Lexicanum source to suggest that GK are unpainted, but it does make more sense they would use silver paint (silver being a holy colour, ie, vs Vampires and Werewolves), as that gives them the knightly image, which is symbolic protection, and can be mixed with holy oils and the like to add protection.

I thought it was white? But honestly, that's just based off of the GW paint "ceramite white"

Well since ceramics can be pretty much any variation of colors, id say its up to you.

but some flavor of grey and chipping that looks of some kinda silver would probably do well.

 Deadshot wrote:
Well again, the different accounts say different. The Death Guard were renowned for being unadorned, they didn't even have honour markings, so their colours are in my opinion are the most accurate representation of unpainted ceramite. Slate grey like the Ashen circle or Knights Errant may be as you say, acid washing, which is still colouration of a sort, so its not exactly pure, unaltered colour. And again I haven't seen anything in recent fluff, from either Codex nor any Lexicanum source to suggest that GK are unpainted, but it does make more sense they would use silver paint (silver being a holy colour, ie, vs Vampires and Werewolves), as that gives them the knightly image, which is symbolic protection, and can be mixed with holy oils and the like to add protection.

Don't get me wrong, I'm just playing devil's advocate here (and evidently tripping over the edit button in the process! ) and while I definitely haven't read the GK codex, I do recall the Garro book describing the Knights Errant armour (and by extension the Grey Knights') as unpainted bare ceremite as well. While it is just a BL source it is fairly recent.

It gets further complicated if you take the art or forgeworld's paint jobs into account, where you can see chips and wearing with what appears to be a darker colour under the 'unpainted' armour plates.

Their Mortarion model illustrates what I'm trying to say, though. It looks like if you start with pristine white ceremite and don't paint or treat it somehow it ends up looking like a neglected bathtub after a while.

Then again, it's hard to tell if that's supposed to be a mid-heresy nurgle slime thing...

Edit: Apparently the Fists Exemplar are another chapter that don't paint their armour, apparently in that book it's described as looking bronze.

 Deadshot wrote:

 n0t_u wrote:
Grey Knight terminators should possibly even be a different colour from the power armoured ones as power armour is made of ceramite while terminator armour also has plasteel plates with it. Either way it's a ceramic material so colour will vary greatly planet by planet where they get the materials, a lot more that metals would.

Well this is my argument that GK are not unpainted, in fact the only time I've seen people quote them as unpainted armour is here on forums. In fact, wouldn't it more sense if they were painted armour, as paint can be mixed with holy oils and other stuff (blood of martyrs or something) to give EXTRA EXTRA EXTRA anti-daemonic layers.

For what it's worth.

Their armour is left unpainted, leaving the silver-grey of the ceramite exposed. This tradition is thought to have originated from their desire to lead lives of absolute purity. Acid-etched into their left gauntlet, as well as tattooed upon the flesh beneath, is the sigil of Malcador the Sigilite[22a]. Upon achieving the rank of Justicar one may display their personal heraldry on a shield on their shoulder. In contrast to this their armour is highly decorated, encrusted with protective symbols and engraved litanies[6].

http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Grey_Knights

I remenber to have read that the Iron Warriors grey colour comes from the unpainted ceramite, because the didn´t adorn their armours and didn´t take care of them.

Death Guard wore unpainted ceramite. Dull grey is more their style than the shiny silver of the Grey Knights.

It's probably something close to the plastic marines are made of. At least that's what the local DG player who refuses to paint his models says.

You mean I could leave my Scion unpainted and pretend they're wearing non painted carapace armor? Neat :O

 n0t_u wrote:

 Deadshot wrote:

 n0t_u wrote:
Grey Knight terminators should possibly even be a different colour from the power armoured ones as power armour is made of ceramite while terminator armour also has plasteel plates with it. Either way it's a ceramic material so colour will vary greatly planet by planet where they get the materials, a lot more that metals would.

Well this is my argument that GK are not unpainted, in fact the only time I've seen people quote them as unpainted armour is here on forums. In fact, wouldn't it more sense if they were painted armour, as paint can be mixed with holy oils and other stuff (blood of martyrs or something) to give EXTRA EXTRA EXTRA anti-daemonic layers.

For what it's worth.

Their armour is left unpainted, leaving the silver-grey of the ceramite exposed. This tradition is thought to have originated from their desire to lead lives of absolute purity. Acid-etched into their left gauntlet, as well as tattooed upon the flesh beneath, is the sigil of Malcador the Sigilite[22a]. Upon achieving the rank of Justicar one may display their personal heraldry on a shield on their shoulder. In contrast to this their armour is highly decorated, encrusted with protective symbols and engraved litanies[6].

http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Grey_Knights

From a work of fiction however, which was based on the now outdated Daemonhunters codex.