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Paint them how you want, they are your models. I personally have purple deathguard, chrome thousand sons and I'm working on a judge dredd themed custodes army.

I prefer to play against armies painted in their "proper" color as it's better for immersion. I won't refuse a game against your neon pink space marines, but I would rather play against an army painted as an actual chapter if given the option.

 Punisher Gatling Cannon wrote:
and I'm working on a judge dredd themed custodes army.

So you're painting them in the correct colors.

Toofast wrote:
I prefer to play against armies painted in their "proper" color as it's better for immersion. I won't refuse a game against your neon pink space marines, but I would rather play against an army painted as an actual chapter if given the option.

When it comes to things like chapters and the like, there are supposed to be massive numbers of them so you would expect to see almost every possible colour scheme existing in the setting. That also is why I have no issues whatsoever with how someone paints their models (although I would prefer to not tie rules to colour schemes).

Just do custom colors without specific iconography. For instance, if you just have blue space marines they could literally be any fighting style of chapter just don't toss the ultra marine symbol on everything.

The thousand sons example is going to depend on what setting you playing in as they are technically a different model range. Most casual people won't care as long as it's explained before the game... but in a tournament WYSIWYG you probably wanna talk to the tournament organizer to make sure that's ok

I don't think the people won't care in a casual setting is true. If someone puts down a DG army, and then has to explain what every model actualy is, and then you have to remember if his not-apothecary is an exalted sorc on a disc or ahriman, it gets very tires some. One or two things, modeling a gigantic chain sword or ax to be a chain fist, is one thing. getting in to 1ksons flamer range, because you didn't notice that a guy in the DG unit carry heavy weapons is another.

And it gets even worse when next week the same dudes are EC and you have to relearn on the spot your opponents entier army.

Karol wrote:
I don't think the people won't care in a casual setting is true. If someone puts down a DG army, and then has to explain what every model actualy is, and then you have to remember if his not-apothecary is an exalted sorc on a disc or ahriman, it gets very tires some. One or two things, modeling a gigantic chain sword or ax to be a chain fist, is one thing. getting in to 1ksons flamer range, because you didn't notice that a guy in the DG unit carry heavy weapons is another.

And it gets even worse when next week the same dudes are EC and you have to relearn on the spot your opponents entier army.

I actually agree and didn't explain my post well enough. I'm looking at it kind of like a proxy for trying armies. I'm not going to care if someone wants to test deathguard or a friend wants a change of pace for a game or 2 so he uses his CSM at thousand sons. But if every game im getting a 45 minute explanation of what everything is that's going to get very old very quick and it's never going to go over well with anyone that's not a friend and understands that he's just trying something out. But painting his guys yellow and using them for the various chapters shouldn't be an issue and is actually less of an issue than painting them like iron warriors but using them as emperor's children. Just use custom colors and symbols

There's a difference between models and paint.

"These pink-painted Marines are Black Legion," is simple and easy to remember.
"This squad of ordinary CSM is actually a Plague Marine squad, and this other identical squad is a squad of TSons, and this Helbrute is a Contemptor, but this Helbrute is a Helbrute..." is a much bigger deal. While I'm cool with proxies, I would expect to not use the same models for different types of units.

I used to be in the camp: you built Salamanders, you painted Salamanders, why would you use any other rules than Salamanders?
Then my DG got Subfactions that don't even have an official paint scheme, let alone heraldry or anything to mark them. So now I'm a little more laid back. My Snakebites will always be played using Snakebites rules and my DG will never be Black Legion, but it would be unfair to say: SM, CSM, IG, Eldar and Orks need to be played with fixed subfactions because every player knows their subfactions, but all the other factions can do what they want because their subfactions have been made up during the last 4 years and not the last 30 years . So the logical consequence is to say: yeah, if these Mephrit-guys can be Novokh and these Da'lyth can be Vi'orla, then these Salamanders can be rainbow Warriors as well. But I personally will stick to the rules my paint scheme got.

Karol wrote:
I don't think the people won't care in a casual setting is true. If someone puts down a DG army, and then has to explain what every model actualy is, and then you have to remember if his not-apothecary is an exalted sorc on a disc or ahriman, it gets very tires some. One or two things, modeling a gigantic chain sword or ax to be a chain fist, is one thing. getting in to 1ksons flamer range, because you didn't notice that a guy in the DG unit carry heavy weapons is another.

And it gets even worse when next week the same dudes are EC and you have to relearn on the spot your opponents entier army.

That would be more like proxying than what's being talked about here. I think people are talking more about a standard SM or CSM army, from those Codices, using a custom colour scheme but the rules for one of the "known" Legions/Chapters. In this case there's no confusion since a Tactical marine is the same in any Chapter.

To clarify what i meant in my original post regarding 1000 sons:

CSM can run Rubric Marines as well as other special "Elite" Units.
I didnt mean the whole Kodex

But thanks for the feedback so far, i really appreicate it.

I think I will go with the following:

Special Elite Slots (Noise Marines, Rubrics etc.) will be painted as their color schemes (i.e. Emperors Children etc) as well as Abaddon in Black etc.

My standards like Terminator etc. will be a wide array of colors as I see fit and like ^^

Therefore I can swap between legions and the specialized Units (Noise etc) will keep their schemes

Thank you guys

A good way around this for CSM is to paint your own warband. Custom colors (the exact way you want), give them a warband name (whatever you like in reason) and maybe some background lore.

Then you are able to pick any legion and be pretty accurate. CSM are a rag tag band of off and on again ex-girlfriends. So a rag tag warband made up of many diverse elements is fluffy and the rules support it.

The advantages of doing things this way is obvious.

 VladimirHerzog wrote:

 Ghaz wrote:

a_typical_hero wrote:
The official stance on it by GW changed over time, but not so long ago (hey, only 5th edition) they even wrote it into the Space Marine codex:
"This is Pedro Kantor, he is a Crimson Fists hero. If you don't play CF but still want to use the model, just come up with your own name and use his rules."

That last bit doesn't work nowadays. Pedro Kantor's rules define him as a Crimson Fist via Keywords and would be handicapping yourself unnecessarily. You would need to use him as a 'counts as' model for a unit that works with your chosen army.

he's basically just a chapter master with powerfist and mastercrafted combibolter, right?

You're not far off the mark. The Combi-Bolter would also have AP-1 and is Assault 4, which has SOME distinction. So basically the main draw to Kantor is the +1A aura which is pretty cool to be fair.


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a_typical_hero wrote:
Back then special characters for SM were the way how you customise your army.

Pedro for example unlocked Sternguard Veterans as troops iirc. So only CF could do it back then. Or you came up with your own character for your chapter and used the rules.

There is nothing preventing you from using your Marines of any color as count as and make use of that chapter's special units and rules. The keyword system does not block it in any way. You only can't 'count as' a character like Mephiston while using the rules for Ultramarines for example. At least not officially.

He made them count as Troops for scoring, so definitely not the same.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

a_typical_hero wrote:
The official stance on it by GW changed over time, but not so long ago (hey, only 5th edition) they even wrote it into the Space Marine codex:
"This is Pedro Kantor, he is a Crimson Fists hero. If you don't play CF but still want to use the model, just come up with your own name and use his rules."

This is the only sensible approach imho. Use your colors, use your own background and possibly own model conversion, use the official rules.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Lord Damocles wrote:
Why not just use your Pink Spikey Marines as Pink Spikey Marines if it's Pink Spikey Marines that you like, and not worry about maybe not being able to optimise them as Black Spikey Marines or Blue Spikey Marines?

It may not have anything to do with optimising at all. Am I supposed to believe that Blood Angels (and successors) are the only Marines in the whole galaxy that put their Scriptors into Dreadnoughts? Space Wolves the only chapter who uses beast cavalry?

The only logical conclusion to your approach is to collect the same army several times over because I'd like to play with a chapter specific unit every now and then. It is more clear with units, but the same applies to the different legions with their different Warlord traits, equipment, psychic powers and so on.

And this is why I'm for making many units generic entries. For example, Carcharodons are supposed to have dudes that fall into a rage fit that's not far off from what you'd think Death Company to be. Why not just have an entry for "Marine that needs mental help"?

ccs wrote:

 Punisher Gatling Cannon wrote:
and I'm working on a judge dredd themed custodes army.

So you're painting them in the correct colors.

You're thinking Arbites.

I hold myself to playing the subfaction I painted my models in pretty strictly. My Black Legion are always played as Black Legion. Even my custom Primaris chapter use Bolter Fusillades and Whirlwind of Rage and no chapter supplement rules as they are an Unknown successor. My only army (and kill teams from KT18 for that matter) I switch up subfaction rules is my Genestealer Cult, which are mostly closely painted to Rusted Claw (lots of orange). However, GSC subfactions (IMO) are way too tied to one element (unit, wargear, etc.). And I don't like bikers nearly enough to field Rusted Claw all the time.

I'd prefer my opponent do the same. But it's their army, and their choice. What I will say is that I find the excuse, "Other than space marines, no one knows subfaction colors." as backwards. The reason people know how various space marine chapters/legions play is due to exposure. The more players are exposed to non-space marine subfactions painted and played with correctly matched colors, the more they are going to learn them. I live in an area with well over 100 40k players that I can possibly encounter. Which I believe is probably a couple standard deviations from the average. And yet, it doesn't take long before I get to know my opponent's army and their favored subfaction. Especially if they are more like-minded when it comes to narrative/lore as myself. I have learned a fair amount about non-space marine subfaction from these games.

That already said, I am not going to hold my opponent to fielding their army in the color scheme they painted them in. Sometimes the subfaction rules are wildly incompatible with the particular army being played. Or they just don't match how the player believes they should work for their subfaction. Heck, some players have a limited collection of models and can't afford to get multiple factions, but they play almost every week; so boredom of playing the same old, same old gets to them. I get that and think it's perfectly fine to switch up subfactions to spice things back up. Though, I am less keen on players just picking the most optimal subfaction just to have the most optimal army list. However, this is hard to detect unless the player states it outright, as well as; being less of an issue now that army lists can't ally different subfaction detachments of the same faction to match best subfaction to best unit.

So I think painting your army how you want to paint them is the best way to go about. What I can offer as a suggestion to the OP is if you really only plan to ever play just Black Legion and Emperor's Children, you could paint your army as Black Legion, but paint one or both pauldrons in Emperor's Children colors. That way, your warband's lore could be that they are Black Legion, but they are recent converts from the Emperor's Children. So they haven't fully adopted the Warmaster's customs and ways of war and fall back on their Emperor's Children combat doctrines.

Because honestly, more so than most subfactions in 40k, the Black Legion is the mostly likely to play like one chapter/legion/warband but be painted in black and gold. It's a mongrel legion, likely made up of a few scions of every primarch at this point. I'd be shocked if more than 50% of the Black Legion is from the Sons of Horus at this point. The majority might still be descended from the Son of Horus, but given there are 20 (18 to cull from) space marine legions, I'd imagine that the Sons of Horus stock could be as low as 10% of the total legion in modern 40k. This leaves the gate wide open to paint an army in Black Legion colors, but play as any sort of CSM Legion and most loyalists' chapters and still be lore accurate.

 Platuan4th wrote:

ccs wrote:

 Punisher Gatling Cannon wrote:
and I'm working on a judge dredd themed custodes army.

So you're painting them in the correct colors.

You're thinking Arbites.

I could've sworn I'd read Arbites....

But Custodes? I hope they turn out better looking than what I'm imagining they will....

I see no problem with MLP Marines.

People can paint their models in whatever scheme they want.

 Blndmage wrote:
I see no problem with MLP Marines.

People can paint their models in whatever scheme they want.

You don't see why, in a game with an emphasis on the fluff and aesthetics, people would object to stupid meme armies that don't take either of those seriously?

Aecus Decimus wrote:

 Blndmage wrote:
I see no problem with MLP Marines.

People can paint their models in whatever scheme they want.

You don't see why, in a game with an emphasis on the fluff and aesthetics, people would object to stupid meme armies that don't take either of those seriously?

If you don't like it, don't play them.

But if that's how they enjoy the hobby, let them enjoy it.

Aecus Decimus wrote:

 Blndmage wrote:
I see no problem with MLP Marines.

People can paint their models in whatever scheme they want.

You don't see why, in a game with an emphasis on the fluff and aesthetics, people would object to stupid meme armies that don't take either of those seriously?

I've got a kid that wants pride coloured Necrons, warriors are trans, Scarabs are rainbow, the warden is non binary. Should I tell them they can't do it because the lore says so, or should I let them paint the army they want?

If the reason for there to be rules about painting is the lore. Then saying someone should ignore it would make no sense.

Why would the necron even do something like that, their transformation in to robots predates humanity. Painting them that way would be like finding a stone curving done by neanderthals and one have someone run around with a Switch.

 Blndmage wrote:
I've got a kid that wants pride coloured Necrons, warriors are trans, Scarabs are rainbow, the warden is non binary. Should I tell them they can't do it because the lore says so, or should I let them paint the army they want?

You're the parent, do what you want with your kid. But a lot of people are going to eyeroll at it and may or may not want to play with them, especially since it's a political statement.

Aecus Decimus wrote:

 Blndmage wrote:
I've got a kid that wants pride coloured Necrons, warriors are trans, Scarabs are rainbow, the warden is non binary. Should I tell them they can't do it because the lore says so, or should I let them paint the army they want?

You're the parent, do what you want with your kid. But a lot of people are going to eyeroll at it and may or may not want to play with them, especially since it's a political statement.

"especially since it's a political statement" means you get to be thrown in a dumpster. Just sayin'.

Aecus Decimus wrote:

 Blndmage wrote:
I see no problem with MLP Marines.

People can paint their models in whatever scheme they want.

You don't see why, in a game with an emphasis on the fluff and aesthetics, people would object to stupid meme armies that don't take either of those seriously?

Sure, I can see why.
But their opinions on how I paint my stuff isnt important to me. So if someday I'm inclined to paint a MLP force....
If they don't like it? They can pretend its painted differently. Or simply not play.

 solkan wrote:

Aecus Decimus wrote:

 Blndmage wrote:
I've got a kid that wants pride coloured Necrons, warriors are trans, Scarabs are rainbow, the warden is non binary. Should I tell them they can't do it because the lore says so, or should I let them paint the army they want?

You're the parent, do what you want with your kid. But a lot of people are going to eyeroll at it and may or may not want to play with them, especially since it's a political statement.

"especially since it's a political statement" means you get to be thrown in a dumpster. Just sayin'.

Do you dispute the fact that it is a political statement? Maybe you should look more into the history of pride, where its origin is in a riot against anti-gay laws and police brutality? And where pride flags of various colors have been used as rallying points in political debates? Amazon and Walmart putting up rainbow logos on social media once a year is not what pride is about.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

ccs wrote:
Sure, I can see why.
But their opinions on how I paint my stuff isnt important to me. So if someday I'm inclined to paint a MLP force....
If they don't like it? They can pretend its painted differently. Or simply not play.

"People can't force me to paint the way they want me to" doesn't mean there isn't a problem with something.

“I support people loving who they love and living as their authentic selves,” shouldn’t be political.

 JNAProductions wrote:
“I support people loving who they love and living as their authentic selves,” shouldn’t be political.

You're right, it shouldn't be. There should be no need for pride because that statement should be about as controversial as "water is wet". But unfortunately in the real world that isn't the case, and pride exists as a direct attack on anti-LGBT politics. It is very much a political statement and even if it's a political statement I agree with I'm not really interested in bringing it into 40k, especially in places where it doesn't even come close to aligning with the background fiction.

Aecus Decimus wrote:


Automatically Appended Next Post:

ccs wrote:
Sure, I can see why.
But their opinions on how I paint my stuff isnt important to me. So if someday I'm inclined to paint a MLP force....
If they don't like it? They can pretend its painted differently. Or simply not play.

"People can't force me to paint the way they want me to" doesn't mean there isn't a problem with something.

{Shrugs} it's not MY problem. And like I said, I don't care if it's yours.

The barely sentient genocidal kill-bots saying gay rights matter as they slaughter everyone is pretty cringy to be honest.

Correct painting scheme is a must have unless you strive for a successor chapter.
Individual characters can be painted differently.