Recently, there was a discussion thread on TMP (The Miniatures Page) regarding Space Marine armor in the 40k universe. "Back in the day" (as we old-timers are known to say), GW had much more of a stylistic variety in how they depicted SM armor - even supporting the idea that the armor suits had the ability to change between mulitple color schemes.
While I think that the overly colorful style of painting featured by the GW 'Eavy Metal team is too pretty for anything less than a recruiter's dress uniform (or Napoleonics), I will admit that they are eye catching, show off great painting techniques, and probably help to sell models. Still, I think that the "dark future" should be more "gritty and grimy" than "bright and shiny".
Over the years, I have gone back and forth on color schemes for armor, but prefer those that are more subdued, and certainly grimy and worn looking.
Camouflage can be difficult to paint if you try to make the pattern on each figure match perfectly - my painting skills are not up to that level. Here I have a group of miniatures, from a variety of manufacturers , and a variety of GW styles, with similar camo patterns. You can judge for yourself how well they fit in with each other.
 |
| Metal Magic, Steel Legions, a variety of GW Space Marines, and a few RAFM Reaction Marines. |
More recently, I have experimented with a more grimy color scheme, with some "colorful" accents that are more in keeping with "normal"/"popular" space marine painting schemes. Even with the dark and dirty gray/black body armor, I went with "colorful" - if subdued - red pauldrons and greaves and added a gold accent trim to the pauldrons. To add more touches of color, I painted the purity seals in blue and yellow (which is also easier to paint than the parchement look I started with).
 |
| Here is my compromise between a realistic combat uniform look, and a showy dress uniform look. |
No comments:
Post a Comment