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So I've been painting my IG and slowly going numb from the same basic color palette used over and over. And I'm thinking about jumping onto painting my Space Marines for a bit.

The basic scheme is Blue Torso and arms, White Legs, Black and White Bolter, Yellow Eyes on the helmets and a gold left shoulder pad.

My question is, within each chapter I know there are color deviations between each Company and that there can be individual markings on each squad to depict specialty and perhaps honors. Do you think it would be much if each marine had a different pattern as long as it stayed within that color group and maintained a shoulder pad? Or just stick with each squad having a different paint scheme. I'm basically just trying to break my brain out of monotony and I'm looking for input as to what might look nice. I'm worried that each marine having a subtle difference might be a bit much.

I feel its nice to have slight color deviations between Marines. They are each individual heroes. If you look at units like command squads, you very often see deviations so I don't see why they can't be the same for other Astartes. The rule of cool.

As long as a basic theme is maintained it shouldn't be a problem. Its when you have a squad of green marines and another squad of blue and a third of red players wil get confused...especially if the new codex Chapter Allies rule is correct. Is that green squad a Salamanders ally or just some dudes painted green?

Something simple like a different color of Shoulder pad to denote Tac vs Elites (instead of using the decal symbols) or different helmet colors.

dkellyj wrote:
As long as a basic theme is maintained it shouldn't be a problem. Its when you have a squad of green marines and another squad of blue and a third of red players wil get confused...especially if the new codex Chapter Allies rule is correct. Is that green squad a Salamanders ally or just some dudes painted green?

Something simple like a different color of Shoulder pad to denote Tac vs Elites (instead of using the decal symbols) or different helmet colors.

On the other hand the background has a perfectly allowable concept for very mixed forces in the form of mixed crusade forces. You could even do a mixture of chapters in a single squad if you are doing an emergency force pulled together from whatever troops are available.

All three are excellent points! I've got some extra thinking to do! And probably some digging through lexicanum to find some non-rulebook chapters with color schemes I like if I opt for a crusade force.

Or maybe use identical shoulder pads for all models and individualise the hell out of everything else?

What about using the codex standard (assuming you are going totally codex) and having different colours to represent squads being from different companies - each company has a different colour to represent it.

Going for a slightly non-codex variant - BA/DA have individual squads marked out with a kneepad icon, then you have DA Deathwing and Ravenwing, BA (and successor) Death Company (black or white) and Sanguinary Guard (gold or white).

Then of course there is the Space Wolves who have a lot of individual colouration and the Grey Knights where each one displays his own heraldry.

I'm definitely going with just a standard codex force. I need to pick up a new copy though so I can make sure I do it righ.