Jump to content

Cog and Skull Symbol


Captain General

Recommended Posts

I paint mine black on the left side of the skull, white on the right. The cog gets the opposite treatment. That's how I've seen it in most of the official artwork.

That being said, there are very few hard rules for iconography in 40K. Using the reversed color scheme, or an entirely different one, is still perfectly acceptable.

Yeah, I also say the skull should be black on the left (mechanical side, even if it's just a plain skull) and white on the right. The cog is white on left, black on right. I did notice a disturbing amount of 'reversed' ones, but the Skitarii and Cult Mech codexes seem to have corrected the trend as far as I can tell. I'm 90% sure at least some of the official Imperial Knight painting and art has it the other way around. I'm sure it's pretty much up to you. It's fully recognizable either way, IMO

Just don't paint them gold! furious.gif

It's my Forgeworlds primary symbol. The gold represents the enlightenment brought by the omnissiah especially in the prophetic dream experienced by the head of the House Cydonia of the coming of the Binaric Apostle Saint Hoagland to the Knight world of New Ares

Knight House: white skull with gold cog halo

Skitarii: gold/yellow skull with white cog halo, though traditional black and white cog on their chests

Taghmata: gold cog with white skull and/or cyborg skull with a black/white halved background inside the cog

Mechanicus i've not fully decided on, there aren't a lot of yellow cogs on the big decal sheets so i may reverse the symbol for decal markings on servitors and robots, certainly sculpted ones like on the techpriest's s generator etc are gold cogs

Also the cog represents the sun in several pieces of Mechanicus iconography, particularly the sun cresting the pyramid design from the emblem of House Raven and several other mechanicus decals. As such it's totally appropriate to have some cogs yellow or gold.

Also this may be a colour people want to use for veterans of the War of the Golden Cog when the Mechanicus of Mars captured and held the Culexus Temple and almost tipped the solar system into civil war (Skitarii Codex Timeline!)

Yeah, I also say the skull should be black on the left (mechanical side, even if it's just a plain skull) and white on the right. The cog is white on left, black on right. I did notice a disturbing amount of 'reversed' ones, but the Skitarii and Cult Mech codexes seem to have corrected the trend as far as I can tell. I'm 90% sure at least some of the official Imperial Knight painting and art has it the other way around. I'm sure it's pretty much up to you. It's fully recognizable either way, IMO.

One of the things that started this was the Manufactorum terrain piece, it swaps which half of the skull is cyborged! I'm not sure if this was a mistake or a cool reference to the popular left-brain/right-brain notions so where most mechanicus would be replacing their creative side with hardware the ones working in the manufactorum might keep (some of) that creativity in order to decorate machines they build from instructions.

I did notice the original Knight codex and knight companion book went with the reversed colours too, but i ignored that and kept it standard on my knights dedication badge. If you look closely the knights in those aren't even the final plastic kit but a prototype (look for the lack of studs on the shoulder stubber for the most obvious giveaway of this but there are others including a rather sagged looking ankle on one that suggests heat-warped resin)

Just don't paint them gold! furious.gif

It's my Forgeworlds primary symbol. The gold represents the enlightenment brought by the omnissiah especially in the prophetic dream experienced by the head of the House Cydonia of the coming of the Binaric Apostle Saint Hoagland to the Knight world of New Ares

Knight House: white skull with gold cog halo

Skitarii: gold/yellow skull with white cog halo, though traditional black and white cog on their chests

Taghmata: gold skull with white and/or cyborg skull with a black/white halved background inside the cog

Mechanicus i've not fully decided on, there aren't a lot of yellow cogs on the big decal sheets so i may reverse the symbol for decal markings on servitors and robots, certainly sculpted ones like on the techpriest's s generator etc are gold cogs

Also the cog represents the sun in several pieces of Mechanicus iconography, particularly the sun cresting the pyramid design from the emblem of House Raven and several other mechanicus decals. As such it's totally appropriate to have some cogs yellow or gold.

Also this may be a colour people want to use for veterans of the War of the Golden Cog when the Mechanicus of Mars captured and held the Culexus Temple and almost tipped the solar system into civil war (Skitarii Codex Timeline!)

I stand corrected. You backed up your choice with well-reinforced background material. Bravo, sir! happy.png

Yeah, Bats, that was fun to read. As for the models not being final, I think the Knights were some of the first I noticed that were clearly 3D printed, or at least mastered from a 3D printed prototype. I suspected it before but it was obvious in that book. 

 

And I had no idea the manufactorum had a reversed symbol. That's fascinating. I love your explanation but I feel convinced it was just a mistake. 

My forgeworld is largely outcast by Mars, so I have just been doing brass or lead icons. I might end up mirroring the official one but with those two metals instead of black and white.

I like it. Make the brighter tone the skull side, and the darker/duller tone the mechanical side - keep the scheme, but with metallics rather than black/white.

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use.