After finishing up my squad of Tactical Marines in my own Chapters, Order of Navaar, blue and red colour scheme I had to take a break, due to real life taking up all my hobby time, for about two months. When I re opened my box containing said Marines and took them out I realized just how similar they were to Crimson Fists. Now I knew the scheme was similar before I started painting them but I thought over the whole squad and army it would be more differentiated. WRONG the bigger the squad/army the more similar they looked.
So what to do now? quite frankly I was a bit annoyed that I spent all that time painting up my squad of Marines for nothing (At least I got some much needed painting experience). I broke out my spare test Marine and thought about the next step. I liked the background I came up with, the red arms coming from the blood in the river etc. Well I could change the blue armour for another colour, how about black to symbolize the heavy losses of the battle? I started to look through the internet to see what other chapters were out there and found this. Marines Exemplar. The exact scheme!!
Very annoying!! this creating your own chapter stuff is more difficult than I thought by far!
I decided to go green, Sons of Medusa style, had a look on the web and didn't come up with anything so I quickly grabbed my spare Marine, just in case anybody got any ideas before me and painted him up in the new scheme to see what it would look like.
Here it is.
I used snot green with a heavy wash of thraka green for the body and the arms were done in scab red and washed with a mix of baal red and devlan mud. I didn't do anything else, I just wanted to see if the look was going to work.
I think it might have promise, maybe a Dark Angels green would be better?
What do you guys think?
Vitor
PS : Next up my entry for the Miniature Wargames Contest
I think you could have kept the red and blue as there was more than enough of a difference to crimson fists.
ReplyDeleteAs to the new colour scheme I like the contrast between the red and green works well.
Snot green is good, you may want the red to become brighter possibly.
ReplyDeleteGood luck with this scheme then! :)
I know your pain... when I thought I had my scheme down, I noticed that it was basically a blue marine with red legs and a red backpack. Taking a step back, I too noticed it looked just like the Crimson Fists (or at least close enough that people would go "hey Crimson Fists!"). Best thing I can say is do a few models and see what floats your boat. Not sure on the Green/Red combo, but like your red arms... What about trying a lighter blue instead?
ReplyDeleteThis new one does look more unique, but I kinda liked the 'Captain America' scheme better
ReplyDeleteThanks guys for all your comments, much appreciated.
ReplyDeleteI like the new scheme, but I didn't see the problem with the old scheme either. I've got three homebrew chapters, one is basically Smurfs with black shoulder trim and different symbols, one is (I'm told) incredibly similar to the Marines Malevolent (who? exactly) and the last colour scheme is basically Black Templar with red shoulder trim. There are so, so many different official chapters and colour schemes out there by now, I wouldn't try *too* hard in making yours completely different and unique, because with all the existing Chapters, it's gonna be tough. Concentrate on making your Chapter what you want your Chapter to be (hint: awesome).
ReplyDeleteThe old scheme worked quite well. The thing to think about is that some chapters are very to each other, but are very different in history, tactics and emblems.
ReplyDeleteFor instance, your scheme works very well and is quite original. The thing with the crimson fists, is that the red is quite literally the left hand, and characters/sergeants, get both fists. You're scheme had the red going right up to the pauldrons. In fact, you don't see many schemes with that concept.
With the new scheme, I think a quartered or halved scheme would look/work the best, but would be a little...chirstmasy.
The green and red is interesting, but I have to say I really liked the blue with the red arms and shoulder pads. It was rather different from the Crimson Fists, in my eyes. If you do go with the green my suggestion would be to go with either a much lighter (as in paler, rather than electric green), or much darker shade (dark angels green/black mix) than you've used so far, which may make the red arms 'pop' a bit more and avoid the 'Christmas look' (which I struggle with on any Evil Sunz Orks I've painted - green skin, red overalls, ho, ho, ho)... In the end though, pick out a paint scheme that YOU like, and run with it - it's a big galaxy! Keep up the great work!
ReplyDeleteI personally prefer your original blue and red scheme over the green and red. You could try a dark bluey green to see if that gives you more what you more a unique look. If you stay with green a more palid green may look a little too nurgley but worth a try to see how you like it.
ReplyDeleteAt the end of the day it is your army and whatever colour you decide on only needs to make you happy.
I also like the blue/red scheme. Green and red is different, but not bad, I just prefer the original. Even if it looks (like) Crimson Fists, they aren't.
ReplyDeleteYou could always spice up your guys with more colors, like gold or silver, to differentiate even more. Just my two cents.
http://tommysmachine.blogspot.com/2012/04/my-own-custom-space-marines-chapter.html
ReplyDeleteThis is a link to my chapter, using the same colours as you, but, throne, slightly different:D