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Why red?

Because gw stole the tech cult idea and Asimov made his ones wear red robes (in 1951). Since then they wear red robes.

If you don't believe me just read the book you will like it.

Red is because the ones you see in all the pictures are from Mars, the Red planet. Red is a sacred color to them. If you look through the skitarii codex, you'll find other colors from different forgeworlds. Essentially, the Mars Admech forces are the Ultramarines of their faction, aka the posterchild.

Metalica for example is white with red accents, and I believe Ryza is orange, to match the rust of their homeworld.

Most usually incorporate red in some way as tribute to mars, as it's essentially the ultimate holy place for the Cult Mechanicus.

Prior to having a codex and thus permitting players to paint their dudes whatever colour they want, it was pretty strongly inferred that red was the colour they all w- wait.

Stop.

Hold the vox-

There's a planet Metallica?

Old school gw loved it's metal. The Dark Angels home asteroid the Rock was named after Rock City here in Notts.

 Captain Joystick wrote:
Prior to having a codex and thus permitting players to paint their dudes whatever colour they want, it was pretty strongly inferred that red was the colour they all w- wait.

Stop.

Hold the vox-

There's a planet Metallica?

http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Legio_Metalica

That's amazing to me. Thank you.

I feel completely vindicated in wanting to imagine the Rainbow Warriors as Dio Marines.

Actually, there are a few (excellent) John Blanche drawings of the Priests of Mars in white. I rather like the idea of different colours for different ceremonies, official or not, as it reminds me of the different colours of vestments in the Church I've also read that red tends to be reserved for the initiated priests and adepts of the Machine Cult and the Skitarii, who are not, sometimes wear a different colour. Tech-thralls wouldn't wear red. [according to this source which I've forgotten! -- I think it has to do with 54mm inquisitor)

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/fd/6b/d8/fd6bd8ccad8d2e39c22a59d027894522.jpg

Its to make them go faster, see necron for comparison of red vs non-red robots

Brilliant

 Furyou Miko wrote:

 AndrewGPaul wrote:

 dusara217 wrote:
Originally, The Empire of the Adeptus Mechanicus kept red as its color in order to honor the red planet (Mars), honour their ancestors (red was the original color of the Martian societies), honour their biological machines (red is the color of human blood), and honor iron (red for rusty iron, which is something that is seen in virtually every book featuring the AdMech). Then, they decided to make it so that you can make your own special snowflake Forge Worlds, so they added in some crap about differently colored Skitarii from different Forge Worlds in the Codex.

Originally, the Adeptus Mechanicus' colour whas white. The red, I think, comes from a John Blanche painting:

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-l_YFFY_QysI/UWawXilZD5I/AAAAAAAABBM/sdpykVGu6Wc/s1600/tumblr_miv1nhH9Bq1qhslato1_1280.jpg

The only place I've ever seen the AdMech described as having white robes was in a Cain novel, and I've been around since second edition.

I invite you to consider the meaning of "original", as contrasted with "been around since second edition". To be fair, it was a single picture in the 1st edition rulebook that gave robe colours for various departments of the Adeptus Terra, including the Mechanicus, Custodes, Arbites, Adeptus Astra Telepathica and others. The only other one I can remember is that Astropaths wore green.

Presumably Sandy Mitchell has also read the RT rulebook. The white gets a mention in one of Forge World's Horus Heresy books; it says that members of the Mechanicum used to wear white, and that some more traditionalist magi still choose to do so.

I invite you to point out where I said it was impossible, rather than that I hadn't seen it personally. :p