Thinking of a color scheme, suggestions welcome

[Wayniac]

I am considering making a DIY chapter based in theme/feel as World of Warcraft's Scarlet Crusade (see topic posted in DIY forum). For reference here is the Scarlet Crusade heraldry and tabard from WoW:

http://static4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20070328144243/wowwiki/images/3/3f/Scarlet_Tabard.jpg

The in-game models tend to wear armor that is red in color with varying style depending on the actual texture used. With that in mind, I've come up with two potential color schemes:

#1:

#2:

As of right now the tentative idea is to follow the standard Codex Astartes color schemes (although that would technically mean that 3rd company has no visible shoulder trim, but it's not like I'm building an entire chapter so I can skip that detail). I'm kind of leaning towards the second one since I want to avoid looking like Blood Angels or Exorcists and since the WoW tabard has white in it it seems like the armor itself should have white in a solid place to draw attention. I'm not sure about having the eagle/skull in white as well but I tried experimenting with bone and that didn't look right either.

I haven't picked out any actual colors yet (or indeed even purchased any models yet) but using some paint references the base color used here was Vallejo Game Color Gory Red (converted to hexidecimal so likely not exact), as even though the name is "Scarlet" the colors are more of a deep crimson in-game, and I would like to avoid going too much orange; I think that a deep crimson (somewhere in between Blood Angels and say Word Bearers) would be good.

Any thoughts or ideas on the color scheme? My main concern is not looking like Blood Angels or a similar chapter since red armor is pretty common, but anything else would deviate too much from my concept/theme.

[Kaedes Nex]

I would not do the bottom one just because if you look at the Scarlet Monastery bosses in WoW, they all have solid red pauldrons. If you want to have a bit of white in your army, use lots of tabards. You can even paint the tabards to look like the Scarlet Crusade tabard.

 

Also be sure to take an Inquisitor that looks like Whitemane.

[Wayniac]

I would not do the bottom one just because if you look at the Scarlet Monastery bosses in WoW, they all have solid red pauldrons. If you want to have a bit of white in your army, use lots of tabards. You can even paint the tabards to look like the Scarlet Crusade tabard.

 

Also be sure to take an Inquisitor that looks like Whitemane.

 

Interestingly enough I think I would avoid having obvious references to avoid going the route of a parody army instead of an inspiration/themed army.  I'd like to avoid ending up with a silly/joke army in the vein of a Stormtrooper army with Darth Vader as the captain.

[RazorDaemon]

If you want them to be as close as possible, I would go with the top one and put white with red/gold trim tabards on everyone. Perhaps adding more bits and trim of gold if you don't like the white eagle, or would you be reserving that to indicate as rank increases, the amount of gold does?

Having the tabards would also help set apart from Blood Angels and other Red chapters, at least the official ones.

[Kaedes Nex]

 

I'd like to avoid ending up with a silly/joke army in the vein of a Stormtrooper army with Darth Vader as the captain.

 

I find your lack of faith

heretical.

 

[Wayniac]

Heh.  Well, I have another idea that I'm mulling around and will likely go with instead, mostly because I recalled that I don't like painting red; I have been thinking of the normal Chapter information as well and I think this other idea would be more original and look better overall.  I just cannot figure out a good (preferably Vallejo) color that matches the blue on this tabard, which I really like the color of:

 

http://static.mmo-champion.com/mmoc/images/news/2010/february/tabardofthelightbringer.jpg

 

basically something that's more grey than Ultramarines, and more blue than Space Wolves.  I've been looking at the different Vallejo Game Color, Model Color, etc. lines to see what matches but a few of the swatches look similar: For example blue-grey could be Prussian Blue, French Mirage Blue, Pastel Blue, Grey Blue, Field Blue, etc. and I'm not sure how light/dark the paint themselves will actually be.

[Kaedes Nex]

I think these are fairly close matches. It should look nearly identical if you do blended layers like that screenshot. It's probably not a perfect match if you examine the hex code with an eye dropper, but to the naked eye it should look the same.

 

http://i.cubeupload.com/qvi0Sk.png

 

I've purchased the "Sky Blue" to do a light blue lightning claw and the match to the image is perfect, at least for my monitor settings. If you look at photos of the dropper bottle, it looks lighter because the containers aren't completely clear, and the paint will dry a little darker, but on the model/palette the dry paint matches the image really well. This is Vallejo's Model Colour range of blues.

[RazorDaemon]

GW's Hoeth Blue would work well. That as a base, then use an ink like Drakenhof Nightshade, touch up with more Hoeth Blue, then highlight with either Lothern Blue or a mix of white and Hoeth.