Starting a DIY Chapter

[Lone Scout]

I have just started this today and have nailed down a scheme. I really want to do a Good job on this and so I will ask you all for comments and advise. As I paint up each unit I will post it here and on my newly formed blog (I'm new to blogging too). So I have decieded on the colour scheme below...what do you think and any ideas on names. (name is personal I know but with the colours I thought someone might have inspiration POP into their head(mine blank B) ). Thanks

[DAwarrior43]

I just got a really crazy page of symbols and crap, you may want to check your link

[Octavulg]

You have to put the image in image tags.

Like this:

http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/sm/bpe=828282&bpj=828282&bp=828282&bpc=828282&hdt=828282&hdm=828282&hdl=828282&ey=6A20B0&er=828282&pi=828282&nk=828282&ch=828282&eg=6A20B0&sk=6A20B0&abs=828282&bt=828282&cod=828282&ull=828282&lk=828282&lll=828282&lft=828282&url=828282&rk=828282&lrl=828282&rft=828282&slt=828282&sli=6A20B0&srt=828282&sri=6A20B0&ula=828282&lel=828282&lla=828282&lw=828282&lh=828282&ura=828282&rel=828282&rla=828282&rw=828282&rh=828282&bg=FFFFFF&rb=050505&gr=080707&/spacemarine.jpg

[Lone Scout]

Thanks Octavulg.

[Rymeer]

Greetings Brother,

 

For myself and my own DIY chapter, I started with the theme of the army, and came up with the paint scheme and name later. I noted there were no 'lion' themed chapters in the Space Marines, so that was my theme... this led to the use of Bubonic Brown and Bestial Brown for colors ( a tawny tan, and chocolate brown ), and once I got to thinking about it, I thought that all that 'boltmetal' silver on them would clash too much with the softer colors I had decided upon... so, that led me to replace most uses of boltmetal with dwarf bronze. The exceptions to this 'rule' being the barrels of bolters and bolt pistols, etc. Gold of course, for officers, and I had a paint scheme.

 

I thought about the use of bronze on my figures, and came up with the idea that the use of bronze had 'crept' into the chapter, due to the recruits. The Chapter thus recruiting from a bronze-age culture, upon a world with little axial tilt, where the whole planet... or at least most of it, resembled the african savanah lands where lions are found on earth today. This in turn let me to think about what kind of lions existed there, and how they were viewed by the humans living on the planet. many more such thoughts popped into my head the more I thought about it, and before I knew it, I had a chapter history and background.

 

Constructing my marines, I clipped about sprues of figure parts off their sprues and sorted the parts into one of the large multi-compartment boxes. legs with knee pads in one large compartment, legs without knee pads in another, heads with antenna in one, bare heads in another, etc... you get the idea.... as I was sorting out the various parts, I noticed that there were several styles of back packs and chest plates, which I dutifully sorted into their own compartments. When done, I looked at what I had ( nearly 200 marines worth of parts ), and found that I could make up several squads with the SAME equipment. So, by doing this, the chapter's equipment isn't as randomly scattered as the older chapters. each squad still having the issued equipment with no odd parts swapped in so far... this led me to the idea that the Chapter was very new, and probably less than 1,000 years old.

 

As I thought on that, it occured to me that occasionally, the adeptus Terra.. the High Lords of Terra and the Mechanicum, create chapters specifically to go upon crusades with crusade fleets. This thought led to my chapters name.... The Crusade Lions, or as they are now known, after the crusade was finished, The Crusading Lions.

 

In keeping with the newness of the chapter, all but ONE of the chapter's rhinos are newer types. ONE old style rhino from 2nd or 3rd editon exists for the 'Veteran Squad', who are the ONLY marines in the chapter to have the 'studded' shoulder pads. First, this makes them 'special', and second... because I fought tooth and nail to find 10 studded shoulder pads in the first place.

 

The more I though on aspects of my chapter, the more I made decisions like: all regular tactical squads to have legs without knee pads. only veteran units and assault marines to have knee pads. a bit more thought, and officers to have knee pads as well. This made sense to me, since the basic use of tactical units is to stand and deliver... 'gun line' firepower, where mobility is a lesser factor.

 

I won't go into ALL the details, but the Chapter evolves as I build more and more units for it. I am thinking of breaking the 'no knee pad' rule for the 2nd company's tacticals, just to make them look different.

 

From the above you can get a glimpse of my thoughts and how they changed my basic idea into an army that now totals well over 5,000 points worth... and will probably get up into the 25,000 pt range by the time I'm done adding stuff.

 

DIY is just that... Do-It-Yourself. you've come up with a paint scheme.. now concider WHY they have those colors. Why not other colors? What about the coloring reflects what part of the chapter's basics... for instance... why are the eagles purple? why not the standard silver or gold? what made the chapter do such a thing? Once you've answered that one, it may lead you to think about the chapter as a living, breathing, unit... a band of brothers with some common belief or chapter specific myth, legend, or motto that is reflected by the coloration of their armor. Why GREY armor?

 

Note: Grey armor blends better with shadows, and purple, if dark enough, also tends to get 'lost' in the darkness of low light environments. Thus you might have a chapter of 'ghosts', or shadow angels, or some such. If so, think upon WHY the chapter's colors are this way, and how that affects their thought processes and tactics. Such a chapter would favor 'nautical twilight' raids ( just before dawn, and just after sunset).

 

Just a few thoughts,

 

Rymeer

Chapter Master,

Crusading Lions,

Adeptus Astartes.

[Lone Scout]

Rymeer thank you very much for your very helpful and detailed reply. At this stage I have been looking through different schemes (wasn't happy with the test figure because as you say it blends into nothingness on the table). I was feeling very disappointed when I stumbled upon Skyrar's Dark Wolves . Nice colour scheme, not space puppies but could easily use the SW codex without ridicule (almost without)....and they're chaos which I have wanted to dable with. NOW my problem is finding what (if any) fluff is official and what is fan based (if there is nothing official then I'm like a mutated kid in a candy store!)

Regards

LS