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So I killed my first Titan on the tabletop this past Sunday, and I wanted to add the appropriate kill marking to the hull of my lucky shadowsword, but for the life of me I can't come across any background information specifiying the details of Imperial or Legio Titanicus kill markings. Please help! I know if could just make something up, but I'd like to be close as I can to something in the fluff as possible!

If I recall correctly, in an oldish WD there was an article about one Major Korren and his shadowsword (might have been a baneblade). It had kill markings in the form of skulls, with the two very largest being titan/gargant class kills.

Skulls, silhouettes, tally marks, rings on the gun barrel, generally anything will work.



Especially if its the tanks of the IG, they can use just about any method you want. using WW2 as a good example for many different kinds. The only one that might not work is flags or symbols... as your commissar wouldn't want dozens of Chaos Symbols all over your tank, even if it meant you killed a lot of chaos tanks.

Large skull prints would be appropriate for an IG tank.

For the reverse, kill markings on titans have been very well detailed.

https://vignette4.wikia.nocookie.net/warhammer40k/images/6/62/Legio_Titanicus_Banners.png/revision/latest?cb=20150323073055

Each symbol in the various checker board patterns is likely an indicator of type of titan kill or species of titan killed. Every titan legio is likely to have a different system.

jareddm wrote:
Large skull prints would be appropriate for an IG tank.

For the reverse, kill markings on titans have been very well detailed.

https://vignette4.wikia.nocookie.net/warhammer40k/images/6/62/Legio_Titanicus_Banners.png/revision/latest?cb=20150323073055

Each symbol in the various checker board patterns is likely an indicator of type of titan kill or species of titan killed. Every titan legio is likely to have a different system.

Yeah likely they represent various kills, assists, and each one represents them somehow, maybe a pair of axes os chaos to one, a skill xeno, etc.
Other markings represent there history, campaigns or famous battles etc.

These titans are old... Some 10,000 so likely to have seen a good few.some rather notable.

Tank wise. Skulls, barrle lines. Some had a thin line as one, thick as 10 in WW2, tank aces had a good few thick lines in there barrels.
Maybe others use own local symbols like a sword or such to show it.

Skulls seem thr best bet if I'm honest.

One of the thr gulf wars they had silhouettes of tanks, trucks. Artillary, a helicopter one one A10 with lines to mark number.
They tried to work out which type thr a10 killed with its gattling but it was kind of broken to say the least.

As the others have said, any symbol would work. Since Shadowswords are Titan Killers, maybe only have markings for big things, such as engine kills, super heavies, fortresses, etc. If you go this route, different markings for different categories and threat levels might be appropriate: a warhound kill is less impressive than a confirmed warlord. Take a look at the flag of the USS barb from WW2, they distinguished kills with flags, symbols, and silhouettes. They even have a confirmed kill on a train, if you look at the bottom.

I'd reccomend using a skull maybe use this


it'll get a chuckle from anyone who reckongizes it

Common part of the decal sheets by GW are kill-markings like Skulls ( formed in orderly ranks or as line from smallest to biggest ) and Lines ( for barrels ).
and you never go wrong with moar skulls...

Make it a skull in the colours/livery of the titan it killed

In Imperial Armour 1, a shadow sword got "kill rings" on the barrel for engine-class targets.

 Engine of War wrote:
The only one that might not work is flags or symbols... as your commissar wouldn't want dozens of Chaos Symbols all over your tank, even if it meant you killed a lot of chaos tanks.

Is there a symbol that identifies something as heretical, without actually being a heretical symbol itself?

I can imagine tanks that take down extremely heretical opponents like Greater Daemons or Chaos Warmachines might denote their good work with an inquisitorial rosette (assuming they weren't silenced by the very same organisation).