Black Legion Traitor Livery

[KaosRaptor]

A question for you, fellow followers of Chaos Ascendant, regarding the livery of those that join the Black Legion.

I understand that some members of those from the other Traitor Legions who swear themselves to the cause of the Warmaster alter their colour schemes in some way - perhaps a changing a shoulder pad or other parts of the armour to wear the Black - but what about loyalists who choose to join our grand crusade?

 

I've just been thinking that I was going to add an ex-Knight of Blood (BA successor) to one of my squads, but as a recent inductee I'm not sure whether he'd wear his own colours, perhaps with Imperial symbols defiled and wearing the Eye of Horus, or whether he'd don the Black to match his new brothers.

 

Thoughts?

 

 

[Warsmith Aznable]

Mixed colours suggests mixed loyalties, IMO. Were I Abaddon it would not please me.

[Vesper]

Agreed. Taking the Black, fine sir.

[Chronotonic]

take the black leave a shoulder pad with your chapter with a black X over the symbol then start to slaughter the imperium...

[Xenith]

If you join the black legion, you take the black.

If you only work alongside the black legion, you don't have to.

 

A single KoB would proably repaint the armour. A squad of KoB would probably keep their original colours, deface imperial insignia, or may re-invent themselves and change their scheme appropriately.

[KaosRaptor]

Thanks for the replies brothers. Thinking about it, I reckon Abaddon would want a show of complete loyalty from his forces - you either do things his way, or you are crushed under foot. I guess he'll be donning the Black!

 

Thanks again

[Sception]

There is some variety allowed in the scheme.  The icon is rendered in different ways, trim is sometimes gold, sometimes brass, sometimes silver, sometimes just black.  Sometimes the old livery is carefuly removed, and the new colors applied fresh with a lustrous black lacquer, sometimes the armor is just dipped in black bile or oil, or simply scorched black with flame.  The wires, cables, eye lenses, and soft armor (the bits between the armor plates) may appear in a variety of colors, as might adornments such as tassels, topknots, daemonic runes, cloaks, capes, shrouds, furs, skins, scabbards,  or the like.  Daemonic flesh, eyes, maws, horns, and visages pressing forth from beneath the surface of the most blessed warriors can of course appear in any color imaginable, or even a few outside of mortal comprehension.  According to the supplement, Abaddon does tolerate minor markings and color applications displaying membership to particular warbands within the legion, as well as squad markings within warbands.

 

As long as the armor is predominantly black, some kind of eye or chaos star motif is present, and iconography proclaiming past loyalties is removed entirely or at least sufficiently defaced, you should be fine.  It's the overall message that counts, more then the fine details.

[KaosRaptor]

Thanks for your input malisteen, certainly looks like there's a lot of ways to interpret the colours of the Legion. Generally my forces follow the basic scheme of black trimmed by gold or brass, sometimes silver, with healthy doses of red and bone thrown in. Looking at your post though, I may need to get more creative

The main reason I ask is because I have used some parts I was given from the Death Company box (enough to assemble 1 marine), and I decided that I wanted him to represent an ex-Knight of Blood -who are renowned for their lack of restraint anyway- who murdered his own squad after coming into contact with a Chaos relic. He has a shoulder pad with the winged tear-drop of the 9th Legion sculpted on it, and I'm not certain a paint job is a sufficient way to deal with that. Maybe some ritualistic desecration?

Thanks for everyone's input!

[Sception]

I would look into either defacing it with a saw or dremmel (or just cut out v shaped gouges with a knife if it's in plastic or resin), or dremmel the pad away entirely & replace it with a chaos one, or dremmel it smooth and paint on a black legion icon (generally a yellow rune depicting stylized eye within a chaos star, but any sort of eye or chaos star sort of symbol should be fine), or putty on some mutated flesh/daemonic faces.

 

Also - while there's certainly room to get creative with black legion, it's best not to go overboard.  Have a coherent look for the black armor in your warband - whether painted or scorched or drenched in bile or whatever - and for the metal trim, and figure out whether you're using the plain BL icon or a variant, and then apply that equally to everyone.  Then pick out a spot color or two for eyes, tassles, and similar details.  In general one or two bright colors for small details like eyes and plasma coils will go a long long way with a predominantly black scheme.  Other colors - for furs, cloths, tassles, etc - are probably better off being a bit more subdued.  The results can get garish, otherwise.

 

If you're going for a typical black painted or black lacquered armor look (as opposed to something fancy like a scorched look), and aren't a master of fancier highlighting effects (light source shading or the like), practice edge highlight lining, as it makes a big difference, particularly around the face, when compared to simply flat black looks.

 

http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z142/Malisteen/Black%20Legion/csm05_zps41c03270.jpg

 

http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z142/Malisteen/Black%20Legion/csm07_zps4e0bed83.jpg

 

These show the difference between my old (left) and my current (right) black legion color schemes.  Not the best pictures, but you can see how I added edge highlighting, went for a dramatically less saturated purple in the soft armor, and then used that same desaturated purple color instead of bright red for the wires, and the result, I think, is a much more coherent model overall.  The problems of going overboard with spot colors on a black armor scheme are even more pronounced on my old terminators, with their lightning blue power weapons and bright green plasma coils.  They look alright, I'm not any better at painting now than I was then, but the many conflicting bits of color overwhelmed the foreboding, menacing effect that you want from an army in black.  Taking a more reserved approach to the colors just works better, particularly in group shots.

 

[KaosRaptor]

Thanks for the advice, Mal. I've only gotten confident enough (shaky hands) to do edge highlights recently, but I agree it makes a big difference. My warband - at least, what I've recently painted or have started touching up - is largely traditional, and I use the red I mentioned as the spot colour on eye lenses, plasma coils, some cloth, that sort of thing. Definitely like the look of your guys though - purple isn't generally a colour I personally associate with the Legion, but it looks good!

Thanks also for your thoughts regarding the shoulder pad; unfortunately I don't have access to a dremmel or anything like that, but I think I'll give the desecration a go. Worst-case scenario I just replace the pad with something else.

I'm going to be moving in a couple of days so I can't throw up any pictures just now, and it's going to wait until I've at least finished this Forgefiend, but I'll have to update my WIP thread at some point!

[Sception]

Yeah, I know how those modeling projects get backed up.

 

If you don't have a dremel, then another option for removing the pad completely if it comes to that is a modeling saw.  Just saw down flat with the inside edge of the pad, then again with the bottom edge, leaving a big honking square cut out of the model.  Putty an arm back in - don't need much in the way of detail since it's going to be covered by the new pad, basically just a surface to stick to the new pad that meets up with the arm beneath it, and when that's set just glue the pad on.

 

Had to do that for a couple of my dark vengeance chosen bolter buddies to break up the chorus line effect.

 

If you do a lot of modeling, a rechargable, hand held dremel tool is really an invaluable asset, which you should still strongly consider saving up for at some point.