Horizontal Troop Marking Color

[FarFromSam]

Hey guys, I have painted up 30-40 Greenwing Infantry and have yet to decide on a company. I also chose not to paint any squad markings for the right shoulder. As of right now I have painted all of my Dark Angels to traditional standards other than black bolters in place of red. I have started on the tactical squad from DV and can no longer put off painting squad denominators... I digress, What I'm wondering is since I'm not using red (aside from purity seals) in my color scheme I'm contemplating making the horizontal arrows on the right shoulder White or another color instead of red.

 

http://i1249.photobucket.com/albums/hh501/farfromsam7/IMAG0247.jpg

example of base marines now.

 

Here is where I need y'alls help. I'm would like some input on alternative color suggestions, or examples of others who have strayed from red. Also how much would it bug you looking at an otherwise tradition adhering force. If it's too much I was thinking about making the red dark enough that it could be mistaken for black. but who knows. You won't hurt my feeling either way. Thanks, :cuss

[Grand Master Belial]

White is fine by me. Your dark red would look good too.

 

I don't have the photo but in ye olden days there was a Dark Angels painting with the marines black with the arrow shown only as the white outline and not filled in. You can use that idea and free hand them onto the rest of the force.

 

On some of mine, I have used bone for markings. It is close to white and yet helps link elements together. Gold would be another option or borrow Arkley's yellow recipe.

[Bryan Blaire]

Do you not want to use red at all?

 

I think you have a pretty wide set of choices: black, boltgun metal, bone, white. It looks like you still have red eye lenses, so the red squad designator probably wouldn't look too out of place.

[Captain Semper]

Horizontal arrow in white will look fine - actually I'd prefer them to the red. A good proxy of how that works would be to look at the DoCs scheme.

 

Actually I faced a similar dilema with my DoCs: red (not a big fan) double sided arrow (in true DA style) OR white (the DoC color) upwards pointing arrow (the generic marine style). since I had made my mind to use transfers instead of going free hand, I opted for the red double headed arrow - a choice that I regretted.

 

So if you can pull the white two headed arrow off I strongly suggest you go for it! :lol:

[Brother Immolator]

Well it really doesn't matter what colour it is does it? I do the chest eagles silver instead of bone.

 

BTW love how you painted those.

[ellis_esquire]

Reds a tough one at the best of times. Im at a similar point as brfore now have kept Very limited pallette. Anyhow im torn now between red and bone.

 

Red is vibrant, but hard to shade and highlight.

Bone is easier but can be hard to make smooth.

White to me is too light and takes away from ur greens highlights.

 

So i say red or bone or metal as others say. Looking forward to Seeing ur troską.

[Xyon]

IMO red only belongs on deathwing models, white goes much better for tactical marines, and the black bolters is what I think their true bolter color should be anyways, so you're on the right track!

[Grimdarkness]

The 3rd ed DA codex cover has the tac marines with the outlined arrow in white iirc.

[AngelVeto]

I stuck with the red, making it a nice deep red. Not black-red, but not bright red either. But I have all my weapon configurations with black casings. I think it looks so much better than that garish red I see in 'Eavy metal nowadays.

 

So good on you! And I think the bone would look rather cool IMHO.

[lhg033]

only thing i would say against white is what colour would you (if you use them) make the squad numbers?

[Isiah]

only thing i would say against white is what colour would you (if you use them) make the squad numbers?

 

red

[FarFromSam]

Alright, I painted up one of each, personal thoughts I like the black, and the gun metal.

The red even looks usable. But the white is too... white no way to highlight it.

 

 

http://i1249.photobucket.com/albums/hh501/farfromsam7/IMAG0397.jpg

http://i1249.photobucket.com/albums/hh501/farfromsam7/IMAG0395.jpg

http://i1249.photobucket.com/albums/hh501/farfromsam7/IMAG0396.jpg

 

Yall's thoughts?

[Raven of the Wing]

I did some with the white markings, but it just didnt feel right to me, kept looking as though there was a bit of the model id forgotten to paint, lol.

 

tried a couple as red, compared and tbh, i think the dark green and red are so contransting it works a charm. but thats just me.

[Bryan Blaire]

I'm still wondering how bone might look, but if you aren't headed in that direction, I really like the black and the boltgun. For the white, it probably would have been much better to start with a darker grey/off-white, such as Dheneb Stone (Rakarth Flesh)/Astronomican Grey (Celesta Grey), then use a mid-time off-white as the main color, such as 1:1 Fortress Grey/Skull White or pure Ulthuan Grey, and then highlight with pure Skull White (White Scar). That way you get some depth to it while still showing that it highlights to pure white.

[Tamwulf]

I understand that red is a contrasting color for green, but red and green are always associated with Christmas, and too much red gives you Christmas Marines. It's why I went for black weapons, and use red very, very sparingly.

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v58/Tamwulf/Sqaud1.jpg

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v58/Tamwulf/Sq2.jpg

 

Using white is a bit too contrasting. Black is too much of a complementary color to the dark green typically found on Dark Angels. I think a tint of red, like a darker shade, maybe a terracotta or deep, red wine color would be better. Again though, use it sparingly.

[Chaplain Haladriel]

Personally I used two coats of Red Gore (or whatever its called these days). I watered them down a little first the outlined the arrows, then I went over it with a bit of Blood Red, then gave it a wash with 50:50 Baal Red wash and Badab Black. Looks decent enough and its a muted tone so its not as noticable. I like what you did with black bolters, my preference as well. I painted two of my Tac squads with red bolters and the ones with scopes on them black. They are Stalker pattern and stalking doesnt justify red IMO. As for Company selectoin, I chose 3rd Company. It is easy to paint the Company symbol (horizontal red stripe) on the knee pads. I use the same technique as the arrows but minus the wash after. I do my drybrushing and highlighting first though, then add the stripe. After having to do an entire company ( ENTIRE 3rd Company 100+ marines) I couldnt imagine doing the 5th Co symbol! It would have take me another year of painting to get it done! Good job though, keep it up! :D