50 replies to this topic

[Ironworker]

Ok we all know how "Codex Colors" got their name but even armies by other companies tend to end up with "Codex" style color themes. Personally I hate the idea of official color themes and I usually try to do my own thing while staying true to the armies background material. Only historics get an official treatment and even there I look for some varriation whenever I can. But when it comes to fantasy or sci-fi I've never been one to take the studio painters approach. I knew one guy, not very well though, who was obsessed with "Codex" colors. He would get so flustered if someone painted their army the "wrong" way. I remember he yelled at his son one day for painting his chaos space marines a different color from the book because you know chaos troops do everything by the book. I just find it a little odd that some folks can't accept varriation in Sci-Fi and Fantasy armies. How do you guys feel?

[Joe Kutz]

With stuff like 40K - I can understand the official scheme to a point. They try to treat official armies like they were historical figures. If you want to field Ultramarines - make em Blue and White. If you want another color scheme, just call them something different than Ultramarines. With almost all of them, I look at what is official - then I change it to what I like (including historicals). I'm not making museum display pieces. If I want to paint up a Roman legion with blue as opposed to red because it looks neat...I will. I actually have a couple sets of Identical armies which have different color schemes in order to make things easier when gaming one against the other.

However, I do feel it is ridiculous to get wound up when anything is painted in any manner. If I know someone is really prone to being excessively picky about color - I will grab one of my wrongly painted armies to play against him. Overall...I find it odd anyone takes toy soldier colors that seriously.

[Sergeant_Crunch]

I have no grudge with "official" or "codex" color scheme. I tend to think of them more as "fluffy" color schemes. If you have a backstory there's probably going to be some colors involved, whether it be the color of the hero's gear or what colors the rank and file wear. What I do have a grudge with is people telling me (or anyone else for that matter) I have to paint my orcs green or my Ultramarines blue. Way I see it is that I paid for the minis, I'll paint them however I darned well please.

Now, what I think "Codex" color schemes are good for are new painters who are just learning, they pick a scheme that speaks to them and run with it. Also good for those armies for a game that maybe you aren't going to play often or just don't want to spend a lot of time planning on how you're going to paint or are just having a dickens of a time decided on a scheme. Finally, sometimes it's just cool to see [insert faction] beating the crap out of their sworn enemy faction, all in their "official" colors.

What I find interesting is that despite Reaper constantly stating there is no official color scheme for either of their games that especially new players tend to gravitate towards the colors they see in the books. How many Templars have you seen in blue? How many Rach CAVs do you see in red (guilty as charged, but the Dictator just begs to be painted red)? How many green orcs? Is this maybe a Pavlovian reaction to having been told for so long that "thou shalt paint this faction this color" in other games? Some deeper human psychosis? Or maybe just Templars look best in blue?

[ixminis]

Heh heh, I can't say that I tend towards "official" colors.... except sort of maybe Reven and Orcs... but that's because I think that Dingy Red and Olive work well together... and with my Warlord army because if I keep the Reven and Crusaders the same colors, it makes more sense when I field them all together as a Merc army...

The dark angels I've got all ended up in black... and maybe they'll end up on the auction block someday soon, but I think the scheme is worthwhile... Ah yes, these figures were originally painted up as Crash Test Dummies and that was my chapter's name... The small amount of fluff I wrote for them involved them being the crossing guards of the Space Marine chapters.

As an aside, a friends kid wanted me to paint an Space Marine for him with a Rainbow as it's chapter symbol and a "rainbow colored gun" so I think these guys got named the "rainbow warriors". I never did a chapter, but the fluff would have been that they were all sent on a "no way out" mission, got sucked into warpstorms and came back as a chaos chapter with pink, white & rainbow emblazoned power armor...

The Lizard armies I've painted ended up in Aztec colors inspired by Spatula's figures many years ago....

The Romans I've got are Red, Green, Blue, but not purple (except for legate cloaks)... So, that's a "depends on who you think is right" thing... The celts I'll paint will have a few patterns that were debated...

[Ironworker]

I had a friend who called his chapter "The Triangle Men". He went out and bought some of that floressant road marking paint in hot pink to paint his army. They were quite loud.

[Sergeant_Crunch]

That is hilarious

[Angorak]

I think that if you were to choose one of the " Codex" chapters then it should be painted to the prescribed colors. If that confines your creativity too much then nothing prevents you from creating your own chapter and devising a color scheme. The original history put forth by GW back in the distant past did mention that there were over 1000 chapters of Space Marines.

[ixminis]

I didn't know that there was a real Space Marine history

[Angorak]

I didn't know that there was a real Space Marine history

I guess there's as much as perhaps one of Edgar Rice Burroughs' Barsoom or Pellucidar, E. E. "Doc" Smiths Lensmen or Skylark, Phillip Jose Farmer's Riverworld. One of the things that appeals to me most in any game, be it Roleplaying or TTG, is the "Fluff". If the rules set is nothing but tables and charts with army lists that has no "history" to describe the unit then it has ZERO appeal to me.

[ixminis]

I agree, just playing with words thar...

[haldir]

I've never been one for "offical" colors, heck even color schemes for Warlord I like "ehh, those are nice, but I'd rather do this...." but I don't mind them. I for one do like dark angel green, heck it's one of my favorite colors (even used up a old flip cap style bottle of it back when I was first painting, & not because I was learning, well maybe that was a bit).

paint them the way you want to!!! is what I say

RM

[Mad Jack]

For me, the level of organization of the folks I'm painting has a lot to do with the chances of them ending up the "official" colors - an army of Crusaders is a strict military force, and very much likely to have uniform uniforms (lol). If I was gaming with them, I'd most likely paint them in "official" colors, although I might reverse them (switch the trim color with the armor color, for example...). At the very least, I probably wouldn't paint them the "official" colors of one of the other factions. (This all assumes, of course, that I don't feel the "official" color scheme sucks, lol.)

Something like the Reven (and particularly the Mercs), however, I wouldn't think twice about freely mixing color schemes based on what I thought looked better on them. If I do decide to paint them in "official" colors they're probably going to end up closer to wearing gang colors, with some shade of the "official" color on some part of them, but a "red" army might be wearing anything from a scarlet head rag to a purple-ish kilt... Even when painting an army of clones, it's just not really in my nature to paint each one exactly the same way every single time.

[Ironworker]

I think that if you were to choose one of the " Codex" chapters then it should be painted to the prescribed colors. If that confines your creativity too much then nothing prevents you from creating your own chapter and devising a color scheme. The original history put forth by GW back in the distant past did mention that there were over 1000 chapters of Space Marines.

I'm not just talking about 40k here. I've seen warmachine players who thought all Khador should be red and all Menoth white. It spills over into other games.

[Brushmaster]

I'm not one to stick with "official" colour schemes , just look at my Chaos Space Marines . Not one the same colour , they're totally chaotic .
But for my son's Ultramarines , well ...... they're gotta be be blue dad . Other stuff I'll paint whatever takes the fancy but I fell it must be kept unifrom . Give the army a cohesive feel .

[PurityThruFire]

I think that if you were to choose one of the " Codex" chapters then it should be painted to the prescribed colors. If that confines your creativity too much then nothing prevents you from creating your own chapter and devising a color scheme. The original history put forth by GW back in the distant past did mention that there were over 1000 chapters of Space Marines.

I'm not just talking about 40k here. I've seen warmachine players who thought all Khador should be red and all Menoth white. It spills over into other games.

I'm guilty I really like the "official" colour scheme of the Protectorate of Menoth and so I decided to paint my army using those colors.
However, I don't believe anyone needs to stick with any "official" colour schemes with any sci-fi or fantasy game, it's all about being creative and having fun!