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I know it's difficult with some armour having studded pads, etc but is there a general convention on what goes on the shoulder pads, when available? Legion badge on the left pad seems generally accepted, but the right side? Squad type? Squad number? Something else?

Thanks

Pretty much whatever you want as companies would vary that iconography.

While the real answer is "your dudes, do as you like", the general trend in illustrations is legion icon on the left, battlefield role and squad markings on the right. Various campaign honours, badges and such get scattered over the rest of the armour, especially on kneepads and greaves.

Thank you. I am doing Iron Warriors so I am trying to sort out potentially busy shoulder pads with the Legion badge, squad badge, squad number and hazard yellow and black stripes!

Are there any 'standard' squad badges? For example, Tactical with an upward arrow, Assault with crossed arrows, etc? And then, how about squads like Breachers?

 CyberShadow wrote:
Thank you. I am doing Iron Warriors so I am trying to sort out potentially busy shoulder pads with the Legion badge, squad badge, squad number and hazard yellow and black stripes!

Are there any 'standard' squad badges? For example, Tactical with an upward arrow, Assault with crossed arrows, etc? And then, how about squads like Breachers?

Have you looked at the black books, even the new ones have full page illustrations for every legion on this topic?

Thank you. I had seen these, but it seems that every Legion has a different method and way of doing this.....

Yeah, every legion has their own idiosynchracies and ways of doing things. For the most part, the traditional arrows, triangles and such familiar squad markings are alright.

In 40K the chapter symbol is depicted on the left shoulder pad. In 30K the left shoulder pad is the studded one devoid of markings. Other troop types such as terminators may differ in that regard. With the majority of my force being Mark VI Tacticals (legion symbol on right pad) my other infantry units will concur to have a unifying theme going on.

Left is where the chapter symbol is.

For Corvus though, the left is a studded pad, so it has to be on the right if you want a chapter symbol on a shoulder.

Its literally not codified at this point in time (HH, 30k).

Even the color schemes aren't (though modern 40k ignores the fact that the Codex Astartes allows for alternate color schemes depending on environment, climate and camouflage).

The 'traditional' arrows, triangles and whatever didn't actually happen right away in 40k. They're later additions, as is the switch of the chapter symbol to the left shoulder (which makes for an annoying inconsistency in the look of a chapter with mixed armor marks, which is really weird for post-codification).

Voss wrote:
Its literally not codified at this point in time (HH, 30k).

Even the color schemes aren't (though modern 40k ignores the fact that the Codex Astartes allows for alternate color schemes depending on environment, climate and camouflage).

The 'traditional' arrows, triangles and whatever didn't actually happen right away in 40k. They're later additions, as is the switch of the chapter symbol to the left shoulder (which makes for an annoying inconsistency in the look of a chapter with mixed armor marks, which is really weird for post-codification).

You even have inconsistencies in 40K with Terminators who have the crux on the left shoulder pad while every other unit type has the chapter symbol on that spot. Just aim to be consistent in a squad and you will be fine.

Having painted over 11k of Heresy Iron Warriors, I'd highly recommend only doing hazard stripes on the pauldrons of characters and special units. Trying to create the appearance of straight lines on a spherical surface takes a lot of time moving the lines around until you are happy. Tartaros terminator pads were the worst. I'd stick with a plain colour, or plain with a single vertical stripe in the middle for the majority, if you value your time and sanity.

 JamesY wrote:
Having painted over 11k of Heresy Iron Warriors, I'd highly recommend only doing hazard stripes on the pauldrons of characters and special units. Trying to create the appearance of straight lines on a spherical surface takes a lot of time moving the lines around until you are happy. Tartaros terminator pads were the worst. I'd stick with a plain colour, or plain with a single vertical stripe in the middle for the majority, if you value your time and sanity.

Thank you. At this point, I am favouring a simple, single chevron in black over a red (?.... maybe yellow.....) field for the right shoulder pad. But I also wanted the squad type there.

I have a ton of the old FW etched brass IW sheets and so I was going to use these on the left should pad (silver for regular guys, gold for commanders and characters) over a black field with a silver edge, and then I picked up a load of tiny brass roman numerals from GSW, so I was thinking of either a black chevron over a red/yellow field with a squad number bottom center, or somehow cutting plasticard to make simple squad symbols with a squad number added over a plain field..... I dont feel brave enough to put a squad symbol over a hazard striped field on the right shoulder pads! But yeah, I need to keep these as simple as possible as they will need to applied to everything!