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So, This is just something I was thinking about when looking through the current Space Marine Codex.. Why are all librarians blue? no matter what chapter they are from, They have ultramarine blue armor.. Are all librarians on loan from the Ultramarines or something..?

It's their color of office. Exactly like the black armor for the chaplains.

No its the specific color of the Librarium. Auxiliary marines have specific colors. Chaplains are black, tech marines are red, librarians blue. Apothecary are usually white but not always.

Couldent you just paint them in the chapters color with the helmet/hood thingie blue? Like how the Ultramarines TechMarine on page 115 is blue with red helmet, And like how the Crimson Fists Apothecary on page 111 is blue with red hands, White helmet, knee pad, shoulder pad, and apothecary tool? That way it wouldent look like you got a ultrasmurf hiding in your army..=P

You can paint them however you want, its your army. I like to go with traditional colors then change one of the pauldrons to match my army colors, it helps them stand out while still retaining your scheme.

Merellin wrote:
Couldent you just paint them in the chapters color with the helmet/hood thingie blue? Like how the Ultramarines TechMarine on page 115 is blue with red helmet, And like how the Crimson Fists Apothecary on page 111 is blue with red hands, White helmet, knee pad, shoulder pad, and apothecary tool? That way it wouldent look like you got a ultrasmurf hiding in your army..=P

good idea. i hate the blue too.

Librarians are blue so you can see they are librarians, that's pretty much it

You can go the deathwatch approach - paint him blue, except for a shoulder pad that shows his chapter.

Or the other way around; paint him in chapter colors except for a shoulder pad.

It's your army, the FLUFF POLICE isn't going to apprehend you when you field a Librarian painted with your chapter's colors instead of the "Codex Astartes" way

Because they're sad that no one checks out books from libraries anymore!

(Sorry.. I couldn't resist.)

Librarians have always been blue, as have medics/apothecaries white and techmarines red. The main reason has been easy identification on the field/table.

Fluff wise it was the emperors decree that said librarians must be blue.

For orky luck because no one likes perils.

It's obvious. They're bright blue so they're easier to see to shoot when they inevitably go rouge due to random powers.

So they're blue until they inevitably go 'red'?
What are they, primary coloured tzeentch horrors?
Unless you meant 'rogue'?

Misspelling one word changes the meaning entirely

My autocorrect betrayed me.

I have an army of Librarians, and they are all painted silver ... for fluff reasons. : )

SJ

Gitsmasher wrote:Fluff wise it was the emperors decree that said librarians must be dead.
Fluff wise it was the Codex Astartes that said librarians must be blue.

Double-fixed that for you.

jeffersonian000 wrote:I have an army of Librarians, and they are all painted silver ... for fluff reasons. : )

No you don't, you have an army of psykers, with perhaps a handful of Librarians. Unless you're talking Apocalypse...

The blue armour is very much a Codex Astartes thing, as is the red Techmarine, white Apothecary and black Chaplain. So they'll always be that colour in, say, the Ultramarines or Imperial Fists. As has been mentioned in another thread, they have their own organisation within the Chapter so not only do they get their own colour scheme, they typically don't have Company or squad markings either.

The further you get from the Codex, the more these rules get changed. So for instance, Blood Angels have some white on their Sanguinary Priests but they still have a lot of red (because, y'know, the blood is blood and blood colour is blood. Blood blood blood). Space Wolves have grey Rune Priests. And I doubt the Silver Skulls keep their Librarians (sorry, Prognosticars) blue because they are even more highly valued and respected in that Chapter.

Blood Angels don't have Apothecaries, we have Priests!
And now you reminded me of the terrible part where they don't even have a chalice modelled on them :(

Its ur army paint it how you want if you want ur libs purple with pink pokadots and ur army is orange and red who cares as lomg as ur model is built to rep what he is carrieing who gives about the colors. Paint it how you want and dont worry bout what everyone else thinks...

I looked and looked for the section in the SM codex and BRB that said they were blue, but couldn't find it.
My first Librarian was painted red, like my chapter, with a green shoulderpad.
My 2nd (my avatar) is blue 'cos the pictures are.

But, Heraldry in this http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Librarian#.UgorvhgpjAM says they are all blue with chapter colours added.

I refuse to paint my Librarians blue - The only concession I make to that convention is painting glowing blue effects around the eyes, force weapons and so-on.

But then, I don't consider my marines to be followers of the Codex Astartes, so YMMV.
I would imagine that more Codex-adherent Chapters might follow the fashion more closely.

@Super Ready: My reference was to the fact that Grey Knights all wear Aegis armor, use force weapons, and are Psykers, e.c. they are all Librarians yet are silver rather than blue.

SJ

Blue Librarians is a Codex Astartes thing, and the Grey Knights aren't known for being big on that particular document

 jeffersonian000 wrote:
@Super Ready: My reference was to the fact that Grey Knights all wear Aegis armor, use force weapons, and are Psykers, e.c. they are all Librarians yet are silver rather than blue.

SJ

Yeah, I know, I know... was just being facetious because your Codex has, y'know, *ACTUAL LIBRARIANS* as well. No biggie!

Librarians are blue because they want to look like Ultramarines.