Sunday, May 2, 2010

A Devious Scheme

Alright, maybe not so devious, but I have finally decided on a paint scheme for my Blood Angels successor (although now I'm re-thinking the name). I hemmed and hawed over what I should do as my scheme was ruthlessly stolen by the guys who designed the Blood Ravens. Perhaps I should explain that thought. My original idea was to have a predominantly red scheme, as a proper Blood Angels successor, but with progressive amounts of white to tie in to the whole purity concept. The basic marine was red with white shoulder pads, but I was okay with the similarity to Blood Ravens, because the sergeants, veterans and characters would have more and more white depending on their status. Unfortunately, after playing Chaos Rising, I realized that the Blood Ravens honor guard is almost all white. Well shucks. . .there goes that idea! And it was back to the drawing board.

I went through several ideas, including going for the "split" paint scheme (think the Angels Sanguine or Storm Lords), but as that would be very difficult and didn't quite fit with the fluff, I had another idea. This idea ties into the whole Graeco-Roman theme behind the army. While in temperament they would be somewhat closer to Athenians (interest in philosophy, art, and leading the population), Space Marines are, by nature, very Spartan. Not to mention the fact that the color worn by Spartan hoplites was a good, deep red, and Blood Angels are red. . .well, it just makes sense. Anyway, the predominant scheme for the army would be this:

I use Mechrite Red as the primary color, as it's darker than Blood Red and also goes on more easily. The lower half of the leg and also the helmet are Dwarf Bronze. The thought here is that the bronze legs and helmet represent the bronze greaves an helmet of a spartan hoplite. As poorer hoplites could not even afford armor and simply went into battle with a shield, the scouts will be all red. Then we have your basic marine with the above scheme, to represent a slightly wealthier hoplite who could at least afford basic armor. Next we have the sergeant/veteran scheme. . .

The added bronze on the shoulder pads and chest plate are to represent the wealthier (and perhaps more successful) hoplites who could afford a bronze breastplate. Also, for the sergeants, I plan on using a transverse (sideways) crest. Believe it or not, that kind of crest is a pain in the butt to track down. The only one I've found so far is the one on the Cato Sicarius model, and that will involve filing off the Ultramarines "U", which will be fun. Obviously, Sanguinary Guard, as they have the fully molded armor (which is very Graeco-Roman!) would be entirely bronze, as well as most of the characters. I've also found the perfect shields for terminators and veterans or characters, at Scibor Monstrous Miniatures. Check 'em out! One even has a very Imperial-looking purity seal-ish thing.

The one debate currently raging in my head is this -- should I paint the left shoulder pad bronze to represent the typical hoplite shield? It would be very fluffy, I'm just not sure if it fits entirely. Here's what it would look like. . .


As I said, it would definitely fit the army theme very well, I'm just not 100% sure it looks good from a painting perspective. Anyway, I'm pretty stoked about figuring out a unique paint scheme. While many chapters have the lower leg/helmet areas in a different color, I haven't seen an army mix a metallic and non-metallic in quite this fashion. In fact, outside of Grey Knights, you don't see many metallic marine armies at all.

Oh, and lastly, all of the images were provided by the great Space Marine Painter Tool you can use from Bolter & Chainsword.

2 comments:

  1. WOW! Dude I like the colors and I am digging your theme idea! Here are my thoughts on the shoulder pad debate, mind you this is strictly from watching way to much Spartan: Blood N Sand. In the show the the starting gladiators never really had much in the way of armor, and it was not till they were full gladiators that they got some.

    so that in mind I would keep the red top and bronze bottom for your basic line troops and do more bronze as you progress in rank.

    Now a suggestion for the shield, this could be a bit pricey but you could always grab a bunch of the small terminator shoulder shields http://www.the-war-lord.com/images/G/GW48-34-02D.jpg <--- and add them to the models some where. Not so much to protect them but more of honor or theme. Like the Bond knife that Tau carry.

    If that makes sense? You could either mount them on an forearm or add them to chest or something.

    A second idea would be to create (greenstuff) a small shield ICON to place on the shoulder. or maybe find a bit from the fantasy line that would fit on the shoulder pad...

    Either way thanks for the Space Marine creator link...I have been looking all over for it..>.<

    Cheers!

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  2. I'm glad you like the theme, and thanks for the advice! I'm not sure exactly what I'll do, but I believe I have a bunch of those termie shields lying around.

    Oh, and there're more advanced painters over at B&C. Apparently the main link is the streamlined version, but they have the old beta to change up the wargear:

    http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/smpbeta.php

    And another to do terminators:

    http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/tsmp.php

    Unfortunately, those two don't have the nifty feature where you choose a GW paint and it automatically gets the color coordinates. So I just kept the new one open in one tab, clicked on a paint name, and copy/pasted the code number into the other program. A bit tedious, but it works.

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