One tank, many armies?

[dreadmad]

I'm wanting to find a way of using all my vehicles between all my armies, while still keeping a tie to the army I'm feilding.

 

My current thought is to paint all my tanks one colour then make and magnetize doors doors from plasticard in the chapter colours with relevant markings. However I'm not sure what base colour to go with, grey maybe? Any thoughts?

[Rev. Tiberius Jackhammer]

Grey sounds good, I actually kinda like vehicles not being painted with all the heraldry of their Chapter. There's a pic of a grey Ultramarines Rhino/Razorback in the 5th ed space marines 'dex, so there's precedent.

[Subtle Discord]

Not to be rude, but I think you're pushing it a bit to try and make one (or a selection of) vehicle chassis work across several chapters. Now, I understand why you'd want to do this, considering the cost of setting up a robust mechanized army; it's just more difficult than trying to magnetize to swap gubbins and weapons.

 

An idea does come to mind however; inspired by stories from World War 2 of tank factories that were in the middle of the fighting but still producing. The stories go that the armour would literally roll off the assembly line and almost directly into combat; no time to paint or 'finish' the tank, they were in combat that quickly. Consider painting the tank in mostly bare metal, like it was fresh off the assembly line. Then paint just the doors in the chapter colours as you planned, and maybe one or two other strategic items on the tank that can be swapped. From a fluff perspective, I see these parts being quickly painted to provide chapter and unit markings necessary for battlefield identification; the rest is unpainted to save time. You might even be able to extend the idea to troop armour as well; mostly a 'fresh built' colour, with just a shoulder pad in chapter colours. The armour could be randomly painted more and less complete, adding to the idea that some are older fully painted suits, with fresh replacements being added during the campaign.

[Veteran Sergeant]

How many armies do you have? And what colors/schemes?

[dreadmad]

At the moment 4 or 5 marine armies.

 

However I like the idea of the fresh off the line tanks, I wasn't entirely happy with the idea of grey but I couldn't think of a better way too do it. With a little weathering and mud I think that could look pretty good thanks.

[Major_Gilbear]

Well, you could try camo?

As long as the camo fits in well visually with the various armies, it might look better than just bare metal. This used to be common back in the days of Rogue Trader too; marines and their equipment were often painted in camo for specific campaigns, and sometimes left vehicles or part of their armour in those colours after the campaign was done a a badge of honour.

Taken from elsewhere on B&C:

As you can see: camo with chapter markings. You could do the same, and just magnetise the icons or such.

[Bannus]

Referring the Rogue Trader illustration above, ALL tanks were painted "Codex Grey" (like the LR in the upper left corner) unless repainted in a cammo pattern back then.

 

So a Blood Drinkers Rhino would either be Codex Greay or painted cammo - but not red (I know, shocking). The only way to identify it as a BR Rhino was the Chapter badge painted on the front and sides.

 

So your idea has canon support - go for it!

[skawolf]

I have 5 different space marine forces, I do have a lot of vehicles that get shared between them. I just paint them black, no chapter markings. It looks good regardless if i take it in my blood angels or salamanders or whoever. This really works well with drop pods.

[Surrender_Monkey]

I am going to have a Sternguard squad, a drop pod and maybe a Stormtalon painted up as Death Watch. This would allow me to field them in any codex army and the sternguard would fit as Dark Angels company veterans too.

 

You could push this further with vehicles too I guess, the Death Watch would work alongside any chapter, as long as they're not excommunicated. Even the likes of Space Wolves or Dark Angels who generally don't like the inquisition have been known to supply marines for the Death Watch.

[bluepillredpill]

I recently painted a drop pod in a gun metal colour, fresh from production line idea.

 

Used the Tamiya Spray paint gun metal as an all over base then detailed it, very universal looking and will be able to swap between forces