Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

I think my biggest weakness is indecisiveness...maybe? I think... I'm not sure...

I just can not decide on a color scheme for a space marine army. I want to make my own chapter and i am torn between 3 ideas.
1) White/Silver with black shoulders and gold trim
2) Black with blue trim
3) Black with red shoulders and gold trim

I love all of these color schemes equally and feel like if I panted an entire army one color I would wish I had painted it another no matter which one I picked. So I am thinking of maybe painting one squad one scheme and another squad another and so on. Would this bother you; facing a single army with vastly different colors?

I also want to start a necron army and am not familiar with their fluff. As I understand it each dynasty has different colors but I face the same issue. I was thinking of painting the basic or lower class troops the standard silver/grey. Then the elites would be white. The highest rank units would be gold and blue like egyptian inspired. Would this be okay to do?

I understand that in a part as a hobby you are free to do whatever you want but at the same time I would like to hear your opnion. I feel like even having an army with multiple colors would help create diversity.

Is it WYSIWYG? Go for it. At least your army will be painted, which is more than most people can say.

I think it's fine, and it has been done before. As long as you don't use it to some tactical advantage, it shouldn't be an issue for most, since really you can say it's an army of infiltrators and sleeper agents that's become active, or just mercenaries.

Heck, Starcraft often used different colours in their armies during the campaign that really gave it some amazing flavour that has stuck with me to this day.

Seems black is in all your preferences. Maybe make the main color of the Chapter black and do each type of squad with different shoulders/trim/details. Just make sure your symbol looks good against all your choices.

 Peregrine wrote:
Is it WYSIWYG? Go for it. At least your army will be painted, which is more than most people can say.

Yes I would try my best even if my army was painted one color to make it WYSIWYG

Multi-color is fine, as long as I can tell which units are which, and what each model is armed with.

Thanks for the quick replies everyone. This wouldn't be discouraged in a tournament if i ever decided to play in one would it?

If you have units in multiple colors and you have multiple detachments with different benefits, try to sort them together. So Detachment X is Sautekh and Detachment Y is Mephrit or whatever. And if there are squads of different colors all mixed up, make sure there is another way to differentiate the squads. Different base colors or something like that, so your opponent has something to focus on instead of body color.

I personally use a few squads of all different colors. My Red Corsair army is friggin colorful. My Chosen include a Salamander, Space Wolf, Son of Orar and some home brew Chapters. Eventually I'll even get my Tactical squads to be full of a bunch of weird colors too. But of course the squads are WYSIWYG.

 Suspicious Pancake wrote:
Thanks for the quick replies everyone. This wouldn't be discouraged in a tournament if i ever decided to play in one would it?

Tournaments have a common rule, which is "The Rule of Cool" if you put the effort into it, and it looks good, then it shouldn't really be a problem. Just try to be mindful that it doesn't give you some advantage in terms of tactics or strategy.

They are your models man go for it... My World Eaters are a diverse set of colours, some are white and blue, some red and gold, others blue, some black... Why do the same thing all the time? They are still World Eaters to me...

As mentioned above, atleast it will be painted

How about a crusade army? Lots of chapters that have sent a squad or two along to a big fight, with only a common badge (perhaps a kneepad) to join them together?

 Suspicious Pancake wrote:
This wouldn't be discouraged in a tournament if i ever decided to play in one would it?

Depends on the tournament. An individual TO is free to impose any rules they like on what models you can use, including "any models with green paint on them are banned". The only way to know if your army is legal is to ask the people running the specific event you are interested in.

Ok thanks. And I would keep squad A one color and then squad B another. I wouldn't have one squad with multiple schemes in it that would be too much lol


EDIT: Oh my goodness imagine an army with every unit is different color and every unit is either a proxy or has a different weapon. I think that would give both players a headache rofl

Use all three schemes, and do a Dark Angels with them - one scheme represents Tacticals, another Assault, the third Devastators, Or maybe one represents Tacs/Assault/Devs, a second for Terminators, and the third Scouts or Veterans.

Whoa, steady on there.

An army with squads painted different colours? I'm feeling twitchy just imagining it - I bet you like odd numbers and shun the metric system as well. In fact, I'll even go as far as to assume you are responsible for doing the following the incorrect way:




This should probably be moved to tactics for psychological unnerving of the opponent pre-match.


On a serious note - they're your plastic soldiers, you paint them how you like. No one should tell you otherwise and if they try, tell them in no uncertain terms to sod off.

Why not?

Do the white armor for your elites/command group.

Main forces are black armor, and do different shoulders/trim for the different squads.

Why not? Even the codex allows company commanders wide latitude in how they designate their unit and squads.

As long as it's not done to obscure the units on the tabletop, I don't see why anyone else would have an issue, either.

no one would whine about it, unless they were being punks. As for different paint schemes for different ranks: Dark Angels have a 1st company who are white not green, blood angels helmets depend on rank, and your necrons will be colored based on class, fits fluff, would look nice, and no one would whine,

I have no issue with it, in fact a good chunck of my guard army is painted differently. I buy a lot of models used online especially tanks. If they show up and are well painted I'm not gonna paint over it just so it matches the rest of my army.

I like to say that my army is what's left of all the other armies that have been wiped out in this sector, thus the varying colours.

I have no problem with the principle. Oftentimes the implementation can leave something to be desired though.

Of the schemes you mentioned, I really like idea 1. Like white scars with silver markings instead of the red ones would be rather neat. I feel like the other two contrast too hard with it though. That's just my opinion.

Rather than split the colors along unit functions, what if it was split across some other distinction?

Maybe like, the chapter's colours were primarily black and some hero performed some valorous act that redeemed them somehow, and in his honour the subsequent recruits have white armour instead? So you'd have white armored scouts and assault marines lead by black armored sergeants, with the ratio of black to white changing the more senior or long lived the unit members are?

End of the day, as long as you're happy with the result that's all that matters. I would recommend you do a few test cases though, as you may end up wanting your guys to have a uniform color after all, and it's best to realize that sooner.