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I recently thought that it would be pretty funny to make a space marine chapter based on the older Rogue-Trader-Era space marines, but set in the current universe.
From that particular era, i collected enough details to make a pretty unique chapter:

Good amount of corvus pattern power armor, but it's not the only one used;

scouts wear a more complete set of carapace armor, covering most of their bodies, and wear a corvus-shaped helmet (this way i can have marines similar to those of old artworks, which either didn't wear completely armor or didn't have their power packs, justifying the fact with it being just carapace scout armor);

the marines are drug-filled maniacs, with writings such as "kill"or "purge" on their armour, a certain taste for the use of power mauls in battle and purists to the point that they'll dislike even the most human-like of abhumans;

the chapter's chaplains are more numerous and also work as a field-police force, ensuring that their violent brothers don't cause any trouble (in Rogue Trader the field police is completely different from the chaplains, but i thought about merging them together for their similar roles, let me know if you think that they should be separated);

Now i have just one problem:
To mantain as real as possible the Rogue Trader vibe of the chapter, i decided to choose between the original chapters listed in the book for name, colour and iconography, avoiding the ones that are still important in the current lore. For this reason i have two options for the chapter:

the Rainbow Warriors, chapter of ultramarine gene-seed which is hardly mentioned in Rogue Trader itself, disappearing in later editions;

the Flesh Eaters, violent chapter of blood angels gene-seed which also didn't last long before being killed off;

Now, if you know these two chapters (if you don't there are articles on Lexicanum that tell you all there is to know about them), i think you can understand my problem here:
the blue-coloured rainbow warriors are more standard, descending from the ultramarines, and their lack of info and genetic flaws make them like a white book for me to fill, but their rainbow-based decorations may seem silly, when described as violent drug-filled warriors;
on the other side, the red-coloured flesh eaters were described as violent in their official lore,with the nice detail of having jaws painted on their helmets' beak, and the black rage affliction open an interesting evolution for the chapter, but their genetic predisposition for violence and rage may ruin their style, making it kinda logic (although still greater than usual) and belonging to such a mutated gene-seed makes them less standard;

So i ask you guys which one do you think i should work on? And what suggestions can you give me to make them the best and most faithful Rogue-Trader-era-based chapter?

Well my first "army" was Flesh Eaters from the Rogue Trader book, as much as you had armies then. I still think they are super cool and wish I never switched to proper Blood Angels as far as painting goes.

B&C is painfully slow right now for some reason but there are some really nice looking FE armies in the showcase there.

So yeah, my vote is Flesh Eaters.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Search for "Midnight Runner" on B&C when it stops behaving badly, his Flesh Eaters are really cool.

I'd go for Rainbow Warriors.

Yes, they look a lot like ultramarines, but out of the original marine chapters they're the most closely associated with RT, as they both feel quite silly and were later scrapped.

The silliness of the rainbow motif stands in stark contrast to the KILL MAIM BURN slogans you're going to add to them. That dissonance only adds to the hilarity.

Not that there'd be anything wrong with the Flesh Eaters either.

Thank you for your help, you have given me some good points. I'm gonna wait and see if someone else has something to say in the next days, then i'll call it done and start working on the lore for the chapter.

Yea the space marines have got far too heroic in the last few editions, they are supposed to be harsh and unforgiving killing machines!

I don't think the Flesh Eaters are dead, they are just fatally undone by the flaws in their gene seed.
Some bloke on here did some great models with them being vampires (think blue flesh and widows peaks Count Duckula style) to represent this. (I can't find them now )
To me that is more inspiring than the Rainbow Warriors, maybe copy that?

 Missionary Lumen Laus wrote:
but their rainbow-based decorations may seem silly, when described as violent drug-filled warriors;

Have you seen the kind of art that's done by people under drugs?


Seems pretty colorful to me.

Have you seen the kind of art that's done by people under drugs?

You know what that's actually a really good point.

Yea the space marines have got far too heroic in the last few editions, they are supposed to be harsh and unforgiving killing machines!

I don't think the Flesh Eaters are dead, they are just fatally undone by the flaws in their gene seed.

I personally feel like modern space marine are still better than the old ones all things considered, wouldn't say they are too heroic, considering the stuff that happens from time to time. Also without them a rogue trader era space marine chapter would not be so hilariously over the top.
Also again i'm sorry but i'm not really sure how "fatally undone" is not synonym of "dead".

I play blood angels and my mate (I am not joking) plays Rainbow marines. Having played with flesh tearer rules, they feel to lean towards weight of hits over strength of hits, If this helps in anyway (May be saying this as I can only imagine Rainbow marines with 20 lascannons as my friend fields them).

I feel that flesh teares with tyranid armour strapped to them would look dope and fit the lore for the surviving marines (all six of them).

If we knew when the blood angels codex will come out (please tell me if we do) I would say wait and see what it has in regards to flesh tearers before deciding.

Rainbow warriors.
Peace through war, man.

Rainbow Warriors! Save the whales!

If you want the Rogue Trader aesthetic you gotta go with Rainbow Warriors.

Rainbow Warriors all the way. Beating people up with an army that has a frilly name as the Rainbow Warriors is too good to pass up.

 NH Gunsmith wrote:
Rainbow Warriors all the way. Beating people up with an army that has a frilly name as the Rainbow Warriors is too good to pass up.

Given that Rogue Trader released just a couple of years after the controversial sinking of the REAL Rainbow Warrior, it probably was more of a protest statement than a 'frilly name' at the time!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainbow_Warrior_(1955)

 ArbitorIan wrote:

 NH Gunsmith wrote:
Rainbow Warriors all the way. Beating people up with an army that has a frilly name as the Rainbow Warriors is too good to pass up.

Given that Rogue Trader released just a couple of years after the controversial sinking of the REAL Rainbow Warrior, it probably was more of a protest statement than a 'frilly name' at the time!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainbow_Warrior_(1955)

Oh, it's obviously a reference to that. The sinking of the Rainbow Warrior was major news, and I often heard about it when I was a kid even though it happened the year I was born. In fact, I'd say it's a very well known event even today.

Rogue Trader contained multitudes of references to more or less well-known things, many of which likely fly over the heads of most people today. It was very much a product of its time.

Sunbane wrote:
I play blood angels and my mate (I am not joking) plays Rainbow marines. Having played with flesh tearer rules, they feel to lean towards weight of hits over strength of hits, If this helps in anyway (May be saying this as I can only imagine Rainbow marines with 20 lascannons as my friend fields them).

I feel that flesh teares with tyranid armour strapped to them would look dope and fit the lore for the surviving marines (all six of them).

If we knew when the blood angels codex will come out (please tell me if we do) I would say wait and see what it has in regards to flesh tearers before deciding.

OP was talking about Flesh Eaters not Flesh Tearers.
Way better than Flesh Tearers!

Rainbow Warriors are THE Rogue Trader era marines to me.

 ArbitorIan wrote:

 NH Gunsmith wrote:
Rainbow Warriors all the way. Beating people up with an army that has a frilly name as the Rainbow Warriors is too good to pass up.

Given that Rogue Trader released just a couple of years after the controversial sinking of the REAL Rainbow Warrior, it probably was more of a protest statement than a 'frilly name' at the time!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainbow_Warrior_(1955)

Still doesn't change the fact you'd be beating people up with an army called the Rainbow Warriors though haha. I see whag you mean though, I wasn't around for the RT days, it is a neat reference.

 Hybrid Son Of Oxayotl wrote:

Sunbane wrote:
I play blood angels and my mate (I am not joking) plays Rainbow marines. Having played with flesh tearer rules, they feel to lean towards weight of hits over strength of hits, If this helps in anyway (May be saying this as I can only imagine Rainbow marines with 20 lascannons as my friend fields them).

I feel that flesh teares with tyranid armour strapped to them would look dope and fit the lore for the surviving marines (all six of them).

If we knew when the blood angels codex will come out (please tell me if we do) I would say wait and see what it has in regards to flesh tearers before deciding.

OP was talking about Flesh Eaters not Flesh Tearers.
Way better than Flesh Tearers!

Oh my bad. Though I do think some of my points do transfer across because as far as I can tell there relatively similar.
Though I do think the original black and yellow for Flesh Tearers look pretty mint.

I can see rainbow warriors being psychedelic LSD-fuelled maniacs.

Basically Emperors Children, but in blue instead of pink.

I'm voting for Rainbow Warriors too because of the simple reason that they're more iconically RT than Flesh Eaters. The latter sounds like something that would still be used today whereas Rainbow Warriors are much too pulpy, punky 80's to fit.

Dark blue armour and different colours and combinations of stripes to denote rank and function would look pretty good, too. Since this is going to be an RT army I would also recommend throwing in some camo marines and some campaign schemes. It would make your army more varied, more truthful to the source and more fun to paint.


If I did an RT army it would be Ultramarines for maximum contrast with modern-day 40K. Squads with blue armour with black camo stripes and metallic boltguns for a city/night-fighting look, other squads with sunbleached blue armour for a campaign veteran look, devastators with sandy brown weapons and armour but dark blue legs for desert camo, assault squads with bright red weapons and monstrous faces painted on their helmets and shoulderpads, all that sort of thing. Rogue Trader marines encourage you to have a lot of fun designing individual squads.

Bonus points if you tie coloured ribbons to all their arms!