DIY Color Scheme Question

[Maelix]

Hi everyone,

 

When creating a color scheme for a DIY chapter is it OK to use an already established chapter's colors? I'm loving the Blood Ravens look, for example. I would use a different chapter badge of course. I know they're my minis and at the end of the day I can do whatever, but I feel I've lost my objectivity here and I could use some advice.

 

It would be a BA successor and if it would be too cheesy to use, what if I only did a bone color on the left shoulder? Am I just reaching now? :)

 

Thanks :)

[Lysimachus]

I know they're my minis and at the end of the day I can do whatever

 

well, this is what it boils down to, really.

 

For me personally, I don't like to use schemes that are too close to an established Chapter simply because the thought of people looking at my carefully created blue/red/green DIY Chapter and saying 'Hey nice Ultras/BAngels/Sallies!' is too irritating!

 

That being said, I've still had my Emperor's Blade Marines (dark blue, black right arms, white sword badges) mistaken for Ultras, so even if your scheme is unique, it won't necessarily save you from being taken for someone else!

 

Perhaps you should have a play with the SM Painter using the same colours as the Blood Ravens, but try moving where they are on the Marine?

[soddinnutter]

Use the colour brown. No official chapter has used it yet.

 

But in all seriousness if it's yours do what you will with it and ignore what others say.

[Maelix]

I think I let the one scheme blunt any further creativity. I like the bone color on that left shoulder, but I think I can tweak it enough to look inspired by and not copied. It looks good on paper anyway, but the proof will be in the painting.

 

Thanks guys :huh:

[Lysimachus]

Well, working from the BR scheme:

Here are a few ideas

Bone arms:

Bone top bits (quite like this one!):

Or even something more unusual:

Really, the possibilities are endless, even with only 2 main colours!

[soddinnutter]

I think the last one looked best.

[Maelix]

Captain Lysimachus,

 

Thank you for your time in using and posting some schemes from the SM Painter. I greatly appreciate it. The third one down, the "bone top bits", is actually very close to what I had in mind for my veterans and/or specialty/elite squads. I'm afraid I may have put the cart before the horse here as I'm having trouble getting my color red right :( It's either too dark or too orange and with that, I'm off to seek out more tutorials and experiment a bit. Thanks again for the help.

[I_Heart_69]

Fluffwise? Go for it - there are 1000 Chapters out there, it seems perfectly reasonable that two of them have the same color scheme. As much as you like the Blood Ravens color scheme, however, you'll probably like it more if you design it yourself.

[Captain Hwarang]

Hey there, you mentioned having trouble getting your red right.

 

I've found a very good recipe: mechrite red, washed with either devlan mud or badab black; highlight with mechrite red, then highlight with blood red. The redder you want the red, the more you take the second layer of mechrite and blood red toward the shadows created by the wash. I've had some good successes with this recipe, with added layers of blasing orange and vomit brown. There are some great tips on GW's site in the blood angels section. Without the proper touch though, it can get patchy.

 

Another alternative that could be easier (that I have not tried) could be mechrite red base, blood red all around, mud or black wash.

 

Red is one of my favorite colors to paint. If you stop at the blood red level, I've found that a black wash looks quite sharp, but when building up to vomit brown, mud is very nice.

 

Another positive would be that you can base coat the bone parts with deneb stone. So from your mechrite red and deneb stone base colors, you can shade the whole model with devlan mud. Then add a layer of deneb stone over the washed deneb stone, and then finish off with some bleached bone (and maybe some skull white if you want) and you're done.

 

Hope that helps; regarding your original question, however, I think you can use whatever colors you want. But as others pointed out, be aware of other mistaking your DIY chapter for an existing one.