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I love a black colour scheme. My problem is that its over done and I dont know how to make it unique. So I'm asking you guys...what colour scheme should I run my marines without having them look like a another chapter. What combination of colour with black would make them look unique?

A blue could work, maybe a middle tone one.

I've got mine with black and macragge blue. It looks nice and I haven't seen it in too many other places.

I thought of blue... but where on the marine? I tried doing one on the shoulderpads...

 -v10mega wrote:
I thought of blue... but where on the marine? I tried doing one on the shoulderpads...

Well you can always halve the scheme, quarter it. Or you can do one arm/shoulder pad blue with silver trim and then the opposite knee pad as blue.

Have you thought about the necron green-ish black with its stark highlights? You could even go dark green marble on larger flat parts if you are up to the task.
Same style with a deep dark red looks great as well.

Just keep in mind that you profit greatly by base coating the armor with a black-[color of your choice] mix. Pure black is extremely hard to be made look great.


Another way to solve your dilemma would be to write your chapter's lore first. Especially your progenitor chapter could have a lot of influence on the color scheme if you want it to. But doesn't have to either.

Last time I did marines, I went with this scheme:



Here's a Captain I did in it


A Sergeant


A Tactical


Mind, these are really old pictures, from when I actually was painting them actively. You can find some better ones here, mixed in with some other mini's I've done.

M.

EDIT: Dang it, I read the OP as being colors other than black, not "Schemes including black" that makes them stand out. Ah well...should I delete this?

I'd actually say a big negative on the blue. Unless it's a vague accent colour don't mix your blues and blacks. Rarely attractive.

The easiest thing to do on basic Space Marines is either helmets, shoulder pads or both (often including backpacks in this).

That's the simplest way, particularly since they're separate model components and can be easily sprayed. Everything else would involve a bit more work. At the risk of sounding sarcastic - what colours do you actually like? Have you seen a scheme which attracted you? Everyone has stuff which is pleasing to their eyes.

Do you like football? Do you love the Steeler's uniform, etc? Then go with yellow. What - aesthetically - do you find pleasing in say, race cars, team jerseys, etc.

 Elbows wrote:
I'd actually say a big negative on the blue. Unless it's a vague accent colour don't mix your blues and blacks. Rarely attractive.

The easiest thing to do on basic Space Marines is either helmets, shoulder pads or both (often including backpacks in this).

That's the simplest way, particularly since they're separate model components and can be easily sprayed. Everything else would involve a bit more work. At the risk of sounding sarcastic - what colours do you actually like? Have you seen a scheme which attracted you? Everyone has stuff which is pleasing to their eyes.

Do you like football? Do you love the Steeler's uniform, etc? Then go with yellow. What - aesthetically - do you find pleasing in say, race cars, team jerseys, etc.

Well for me Ive always like the idea of having white and black, the problem is that they are on opposite sides of the spectrum, and if I do white shoulder pads in black armour then I get templars....so..... But other colours include any metallic colour. Im trying to stay away from the classic blue,red,green and purple schemes

Black and orange look fierce together. I rarely see orange used at all. It will be the scheme for my next knight.

I'll second the orange. Especially if you use a blue as a tertiary colour, maybe with bone white or turquoise/teal accents instead of the usual gold and silvers.

forget the green/white for a minute, but something like this with black and a Royal Blue, Imperial Purple or a deep rich red could be interesting



just pick a decent tertiary colour and could look nice as a dark but "clean" look

Possibly use a very dark grey in place of black (like VGC "black Grey" or German Panzer Grey)

Does any1 here have pics of what black and orange marines actually look like? I have scepticism but a lot of people have been telling me to go that route

Orange goes extremely well with black. Don't have marines but maybe these may help a little.

Another vote for Orange

its the rarest of color on a space marine.

Here's a demo of Orange and Black on a Marine-style body...

http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Pyre,_The

Slowly convinced here... but I still am a bit off on orange

Here's some orange-using marines:




















(that one has the Brotherhood of Nod sigil for some reason)



Way back in 3e times, I definitely remember seeing someone run a 40k painting website where he showcased (among other things) an entire old-style Marine force done up in tiger stripe - not the US Marines green-and-black "tiger stripe", but the orange and black stripes like actual tigers. I think it was this guy.

M.